Circle Quartet: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I know I am not the only one who likes to pick my nose every time I wake up from sleep. Picking is not allowed in this big house but I’m in my room now where no one will ever know what I am doing right now. Anyway, picking is part of my morning habit.

I lazily walk to the mirror where I can see my ‘morning-wake-up’ face which is going to freak the others. My hair grows another two inches today and I can tell it even though my hair is worse than Medusa.

“Good morning, gorgeous,” I smiled as my voice croaked like a big green toad. Then I start to do the pinching activity; pinching the pimples. I hate pimples. They make my face looks rough and bumpy. There’s a new one today, right beside my nose and it’s quite big.

I pinch the pimple with my nail and yes, it really hurts. My eyes start to water but I still can bear with it. I accidentally pinch it hard as I am taken aback by a scream. I look at the clock at the wall. 7 o’clock; the perfect time for the wake-up call. The scream comes from the bath room of the east wing.

I yawn and take my towel and head to the east wing bathroom. It’s the bathroom for the girls while the west wing bathroom is for the boys. Our rooms are at the same level so it’s easy for us to do the wake-up call.

“Enough of the wake-up call scream, Raina. Everyone has already wakes up,” I say to my cousin, Raina who is still screaming in front of the mirror in the bathroom.

“Can you see I’m a little busy with this?” she yells while pointing to the big pink spot on her nose. “I can’t go to school like this! This is an aggravation! Why today?”

“Because it didn’t appear yesterday, Raina. That’s why it appears today. Now off to the shower room. I’m using the sink,” Raina’s sister, Beatrice shoves her away. Raina is still babbling about her new pimple.

“How about you do the pinching like I always did?” I glance at her, snickering. “See, I also has a new one right here,” I point to my new pimple.

“What? You want me to shake the whole house and make everybody turns deaf?” And of course, she nearly turns me deaf. I cover my ears with my hands, and so the others who are in the bathroom.

“I’m just giving you the advice, Raina,” I laugh with Beatrice.

“Hurry up, guys. We’re not going to let the boys dig up the breakfast first,” Raven appears from the shower room, ruffling her silky hair.

“Oh no, they won’t, Raven. Don’t worry. We’re not going to lose to them like last week,” says Beatrice and starts to brush her teeth.

After nearly an hour spending time in the bathroom, I quickly go to my room and wear my school uniform. We’re in the middle of autumn so the uniform is kind of thick. I grab my bag pack and run downstairs. I want to be the first one in the dining room today.

Great! No one is here yet. I trot to the dining room, humming my favourite song and suddenly I stop. Dad is there, sitting on the chair while reading the news in his laptop.

“Hey, good morning, little buddy. You’re early today,” Dad smiles and continues his reading. “Oh, he made it to the final round!”

I know he’s reading sport. And the ‘he’ he’s mentioned just now is Tiger Woods; his idol. My father loves golf very much and if he doesn’t have meeting in the weekend, he will play golf and drag me along.

“Good morning, Dad,” I take a seat next to him, “and where’s Mom?” I put the garlic bread on my plate.

“She’ll be here in a minute,” says Dad and takes a sip of his coffee.

Few minutes later, the dining is filled with chatters and laughter. My family is not the only one who is staying here. There are two more including my maternal Grandma. She usually eats breakfast earlier than the others and after that vanishes to her office. That’s why the kids like to create a ruckus during breakfast.

“Don’t forget to take your lunch boxes, children. I have prepared for you guys so better finish all the stuffs in there,” says Aunt Ada before we leave.

I take my lunch box in the kitchen where Aunt Ada arranges them nicely and grab my bag pack. “I’m going.”

“A moment, Alice.” says Dad. “There are special supplies for you which arrived yesterday. Perhaps you better drink your supply before you go to school.”

“I thought that they will arrive in the next two weeks. How come they arrived early?” I ask.

“I told you they are special. Come, to the basement. I know that you’ll like it,” Dad stands up and ushers me to the basement.

We usually store our supplies in the basement. And the best part of it, the supplies are for me and Dad. The others don’t drink our kind of drink. Dad switches on the lamp and I can see rows of supplies arrange neatly on the shelves. Each has name for the drinkers.

“Ah, here they are. Special delivery and double purify,” Dad takes the bottle and hands it to me.

The labels read:

Special for my sister, Alice. Hope you will like this. I purify it myself.

It’s from him, as I expected. Oh well, it doesn’t matter anyway. I open the cork and drink it.

“Wow, this is delicious!” I continue drinking the special supply. The taste is much better than the alcohol – according to Dad because I’m still underage. As the liquid flows down to my throat, I feel energetic. I gulp the whole bottle and lick my lip.

“This is the best blood I ever taste! Thanks, Dad,” I smile and wipe my mouth.

“Don’t thank me, little buddy. Say thanks to the one who deliver it. I’ll tell him later on. Now, off you go to school. You don’t want to be late, do you?” Dad winks and we leave the basement.

I hug my Dad before I go and run to the main door. I mount on my bicycle and off to school. Today is the most wonderful day because I have just taste the best blood in 17 years. As you can see, I’m a vampire.