The First: EVO Uprising (35 page)

She exhaled, glancing up at her house, which she had been away from for almost twenty-four hours.

 
The honey-varnished cherry oak two-floor hut-styled house was the first constructed home on the island. Built by herself with her own two hands, it fit the climate while providing all of the amenities of the modern world down to satellite television. Unlike the other residential huts, she added a one-car garage and a paved driveway.

“
You have a car?” the child behind her asked innocently.

In her daze she forgot the garage door was up.

Sitting halfway out of it was a fully restored 1969 ZL1 Camaro with a metallic sea blue paint finish.

It stopped Sophia in her tracks. She slowly turned to the classic relic sitting in her driveway.

“
Yes, I do,” she calmly responded.

“
Why?” the child asked.

A justified question considering Sophia employed flight to move about.

“
It belonged to your father,” she blurted out.

The silence was long and awkward. Sophia did not know why she quickly divulged that bit of information or if she should say something else. She did know that she was fearful to turn around and look into the face that had her late husband’s eyes. The hairs stood higher on the back on her neck feeling her daughter’s eyes on her. This was not how she imagined motherhood to be. It was clear that they were both afraid of each other.

She took a breath and continued to walk, the sound of flip-flops following her meant she did not have to stop again. She walked up the steps to the porch and turned the unlocked door walking in first. Quickly flicking on the lights she held the door open while fighting to keep from trembling, as Kimberly slowly walked through the doorway looking around.

The outside was exceptionally deceiving as she scanned around at the modern open floor plan. To her left she spied a large sunken living room with a full-size light tan sofa couch.  In front of the couch, Sophia built a stone fireplace. Hanging over the fireplace was a sixty-four inch plasma screen television. Also within the living room was a Mason & Hamlin upright piano acting as a separator between it and the dining room.

The dining room was simple with a large black table with seating for eight. Next to it was an open kitchen with a granite island, a chef style oven, and large stainless steel refrigerator freezer matching the other appliances around it. The cabinets which adorned the kitchen was a rich-cherry Oakwood with silver flower styled knobs.

Steps lead up to the second floor with an open view of what appeared to be four other rooms. To her right where double frosted bay doors and what appeared to be an office.

“
Uh… welcome to… my… home,” Sophia stammered as she began her introduction. “As you can see, living room, dining room, kitchen, small half bathroom, and my office.”

Kimberly, along with Sir George, gave the place another look around. The monkey appeared to be more excited to be there than she was.

“
Uh… upstairs are the bedrooms and bathrooms,” she continued. “Three bedrooms, and two full baths… one is an on-suite in my room, but the other bathroom is just as nice, and yours. Would you like to see your room?”

“
Yes please…” the child meekly said, still looking around.

Sophia took another swallow of air into her lungs nodding before leading her daughter up the stairs to the second floor. They passed one room and a bathroom stopping at the second room. She fought to control her hand from shaking as she opened the door flicking on the light.

Kimberly slowly walked into the room as if she was heading to the gallows. Once inside, her face changed to one of bewilderment.

From the bed, to the desk to the walk in closet and dresser, everything was styled and updated for a young girl. Even the Mac computer sitting on the tan wood desk had a pink custom back attached to it. It was as if the room had been readied for years waiting for her to arrive.

Sir George leaped off her shoulder running up to the desk where he climbed up making himself at home. Kimberly walked over and sat down on the bed. It felt comfortable but was meant size wise for the body of a normal ten-year-old.

“
I will have a new bed in here tomorrow morning,” Sophia promised.” If you want I can switch out the bed in the other room…”

“
No… this is fine,” Kimberly answered with her face still buried in her pony.

“
I will also get you some clothes that will fit you tomorrow,” she added. “I have some bed clothes you can wear tonight that should fit you.”

“
Can I just sleep in this, please?” she asked, referring to the sweatsuit she had on.

“
Sure,” she nodded. “It’s not a problem. Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”

“
I’m tired,” the child responded. “I’d like to lay down, please.”

“
Sure.” She lowered her head. “It was a long flight. I’ll be outside if you need anything.”

Kimberly said nothing more as she rolled onto the bed turning her back to her. She grasped her teddy bear tightly while wrapping her legs around it. Sir George leapt from the desk to the bed stroking her hair for comfort.

Sophia backed out of the room leaving the light on. She closed the door leaving it slightly cracked so she would not feel as if she was imprisoned. It began anyway, though faint she could hear slight sniffling and whimpering coming from her.

Instead of going to her room she walked down the stairs. Her body shook violently with each step as her heart and stomach became tightly wrenched with knots. It was too overwhelming. She walked out the front door to her porch as her tears started to fall, hurrying down the steps, she ran around the side of the hut where one could see her clutching her mouth. Collapsing in the sand, she wetted bitterly, praying no one heard her.

A flood of emotions and memories bombarded her weakened state. Joy, sorrow, fear, and anxiety assaulted her at once. In her mind she begged for them to stop, but they continued to have their way with her.

“
I’m not ready for this… I’m not ready,” she sobbed. “What do I do? What do I do?”

She knelt in the sand, leaned against her home clutching her chest to keep her heart from popping out of it, while muffling her cries as she endured the ordeal throughout the rest of the ending night into the early morning.

CHAPTER 16

The next morning, Kimberly woke to the scent of freshly cooked food. She sat up in a bed that was not hers, looking around a room that was not hers still clutching her teddy bear. The digital clock on the desk read 11 AM. On the dresser she spied a stack of neatly folded clothing. Her ears picked up the traitorous Sir George downstairs chirping away, no doubt being fed by the woman who brought her to the strange island last night.
 

Finally releasing her grip from the pink pony, she set it down on the bed and slowly rose to her feet. Taking a deep breath she crept over to the full body mirror to look at herself for the very first time since yesterday.  What she thought was a bad dream, was a living nightmare for about a split second.  
 

The initial shock of going from four-foot-five inches to five-foot-eleven inches startled her at first, until she began to examine the benefits of being a full grown teenager.
 

As she twisted and turned checking out her new physique, a devious little smile grew on her face.

She quickly looked around to make sure she was alone before peeking down the inside of her sweatshirt.

“
Ginger Fletcher is going to be so jealous,” she whispered under her grin.
 

She looked around again, pulling up the bottom of the sweater shirt to reveal her abdomen, and shuddered almost falling backwards.
 

She was a very active child. However, she had never done a sit up or crunch religiously in her entire ten years unless in physical education. She ran her hand across her well-defined and shredded abs. It did not end there as she felt up her newly toned arms and powerful legs.
 

“
I’m Peter Parker,” she swallowed addressing her reflection in the mirror.
 

She remembered the smell of food coming from downstairs. Sooner or later she would be coming upstairs to get her. Although she would prefer to spend the next few days locked inside her new foreign bedroom examining herself and away from the person downstairs, she knew that was not going to happen.
 

She glanced at the clothes on the dresser and decided to change.

Her outfit consisted of a sports bra, underwear, a loose white t-shirt, and a pair of jeans shorts that covered most of her thigh. All an all, a very simple and comfortable outfit for the tropical weather.
 

She scowled at her reflection in the mirror.

“
Total dorksville,” she sneered.
 

Closing the door to get some privacy, she looked around the room, pulling open the drawers to the desk, finding school pens, crayons, and notebooks. Eventually she found what she was looking for, a pair of scissors.
 

Taking the shorts off, she went to work cutting them a little shorter to the point of borderline Daisy Dukes. Putting them back on, she then tied the shirt she wore into a belly shirt. With one quick look in the mirror she ran her fingers through her curly hair, and then attempted strutting out of the room.
 

Her grand defiant entrance was railroaded when she grasped the brass door knob, crushing it in her bare hand.
 

“
Oh!” she yelled. “Oh no!”
 

Like clockwork she could hear her footsteps rushing upstairs.

“
Is everything okay?” Sophia nervously yelled from the
other side of the door.
 

“
I’m fine,” she stuttered.
 

Her mind raced trying to figure out how she would explain the door.

It was too late as the woman on the other side attempted to turn it.

“
What’s wrong with the door?” she asked.
 

“
Nothing!” Kimberly yelled back.
 

“
Then why won’t it open?” Sophia’s voice grew higher with concern. “Did you lock it?”
 

“
No! I… I think I broke it…” she finally admitted.
 

Without a word Sophia pulled the entire doorknob and locking mechanism from the door allowing it to open. She walked in first noticing  the doorknob that had been crushed to paste.
 

Next she noticed the changes her daughter made to the outfit she laid out for her.
 

Kimberly lowered her head, waiting for the stern lecture from her absentee parent on how inappropriate she looked.   
 

“
You’re wearing it wrong,” was all that came from Sophia’s lips.
 

As she raised her head to be sure that she heard correctly, her mother walked pass her placing the broken doorknob on the table. The next thing she felt was the knot she tied in the back positioning the shirt right under her newly develop chest like a bikini top loosen and brought down. Sophia then pulled the shirt up tying it in the back right over her belly button.
 

“
Nothing wrong with wearing a little belly shirt,” she nervously smiled, “especially in this weather, but I think
this is the look you were going for… cute.”
 

In was simple reverse psychology, especially in this extremely fragile glass-shattering stage of their relationship.
 

“
Thanks,” Kimberly dismissively said.
 

  “
Don’t worry about the door,” she reassured. “I’ll have it replaced by today. Now when you’re ready I have breakfast downstairs.”
 

She lightly patted her on the shoulder and quickly walked out of the room heading back downstairs. Kimberly narrowed her eyes at her as mixed emotions swelled up within her. She went to undo the knot she made, until she took another look in the mirror and decided to leave it.

She slipped on Michelle’s flip-flops heading for the door. She stopped turning around for one last thing. Walking back to the dresser, she picked up the mangled door knob placing it between her hands.

She pressed her hands together. The metal of the abused knob crunched and groaned as she flattened it to a near pancake. She looked at one hand and then the other. Not even a scratch or blister appeared on them.

A bright smile appeared on her face again as she examined the doorknob now rendered useless.

“
Forget Peter Parker,” she beamed. “I’m Clark Kent.”
 

She placed the knob, now transformed into a disk, back on the table heading out the door. She wanted to stomp down the steps just to annoy her, but feared being childish would bring the entire structure down. The bone she had to pick with her birth mother did not have to entail demolishing her temporary residence.

As she slowly walked down minding her steps, she looked over the inside of the home under the shine of natural sunlight.