Scarlett White (11 page)

When she did see her mother, at first she just thought it was some dead animal's body lying in her front yard; it wasn't until the 'dead animal' stirred, and Scarlett saw an empty beer bottle clasped in its hand that she realized her mother was passed out on the front lawn. Scarlett had to do a double take as she made out the human features of her mother. She couldn't believe that she had mistaken her own flesh and blood with that of a decaying animal. Her mother's hair was a mess of red tangles and had grass stuck in all sorts of different places. And Scarlett was disgusted to see bits of puke on her mother's chin and a few splashes of beer and vodka on her mother's outfit. And then Scarlett could smell the smoke that Rosa had probably been smoking at the bar while drinking. Scarlett only hoped that she had smoked all of the weed at the bar and didn't bring any home because Scarlett didn't want to be held in contempt for holding illegal drugs in her house.

"Holy crap, mom," Scarlett whispered under her breath as she hurriedly went to aid her completely passed out mother. She couldn't believe how her mother acted. Sometimes Scarlett felt like her mother acted as if she was still in college.

With little to no help from her mother, Scarlett managed to half-drag, half-carry her mother into the front living room and plop her down on the couch. Scarlett came back to reality as she looked at her mother's sleeping form on the couch in front of her. She had been on something that could probably be considered a sugar high and now she needed to get down off cloud nine and take care of her helpless mother, just like the good, old days.

"Okay, this does it." Scarlett spoke to the walls since her mother was dead out. "No more alcohol for a year. You can normally make it into the house." Scarlett took the empty bottle from her mother's hand and threw it away along with the other thirty or so full bottles from the fridge in the kitchen and the fridge in the basement.

Scarlett climbed up the creaky staircase to her room. Since nobody had been home since this morning and it wasn't quite night yet, all the lights were off. Scarlett's mother did this to save money—for drinks and cigarettes. To Scarlett, it felt like an old, creepy horror film. The house was dead quiet except for the noise of the creaking staircase beneath her tingling feet and her own breathing.

Paranoid, Scarlett stopped climbing the steps to listen to the rest of the house. Dead silence. Even though it scared the crap out of her to not even hear the snores of her mother, it was better than hearing the long, usual rant about good grades and saving money and
yaddi yaddi ya
. She was really happy that her mother was passed out cold and unable to open her mouth to tell her only daughter to study. Suddenly Scarlett thought she heard a noise outside her front yard. She stopped abruptly on the staircase again and strained her ears to hear the noise again and confirm her suspicious mind. Nothing. She continued up to her room and quickly shut her door.

Okay, Scar, calm down,
Scarlett told herself,
you are safe in your own home. Why are you so damn scared?

Scarlett looked around her room to make sure that there was nothing out of the ordinary there. Nope. It was all clear and fine here. So, Scarlett felt a little bit better now that she knew there was nothing bad in here. She didn't know why she was so scared all of a sudden. She could feel her heart pumping louder than usual, which wasn't normal for her. Usually Scarlett was the logical, headstrong girl who didn't think about anything irrational, so why was she so nervous that something was here in her house with her? She shook off the aching feeling and looked around her room again.

Scarlett went over to her desk and pulled out her homework. And then suddenly her thoughts wandered back to this morning when Tristan had tried to talk to her. Why had he been so insistent on getting through to her? Why did he even care? She knew that he really only cared about himself and his popularity. He didn't even let his 'friends' know that he was actually smart. He kept his intelligence a secret from everyone. That was so stupid. She felt like she was on an episode of 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager' where that brunette slut kept her good grades a complete secret from everyone to keep her reputation in check. How much dumber could teenagers get these days?

Scarlett turned her attention back on her neglected homework and tried to concentrate on the words in front of her, but they continued to keep getting hazy as her mind determinedly returned to a certain blonde-haired, brown-eyed boy who had never crossed her mind in the four years of high school. Damn him. Scarlett cursed him as she threw her homework aside and stomped over to her bed where she threw herself on it and found the remote. She huffed as she turned the TV on and flipped through the countless channels.

Channel 6: Nothing. Channel 17: Nada. Channel 23: Nope. Channel 38: Ain't gonna happen. Channel 54: Pssh, you wish. Channel 66: I don't think so. Channel 98: Soap Opera? Ha, in your dreams. Channel 132: Hmm...What is this?

Scarlett dropped the remote on her bed and watched the TV's illuminated screen. There was some quiet music in the background trying to build up some suspense for the eerie scene that was playing on her television. There were two girls sitting on a couch talking about some nightmare they had had. Scarlett felt as if she had seen this movie somewhere, but she just couldn't remember why it was so familiar, so she continued to watch it.

"Nancy, you dreamed about the same creep I did," whispered the short-haired blonde.

Then a dog began to bark in the background, and both of the girls' attentions were caught by it. Scarlett wondered why this was so attention worthy. Seriously? Dogs' natural instincts were to bark when anything moved. The dog could have been barking at some squirrel, or even worse, a leaf! Gasp.

"There's something out there," said the short-haired blonde.
Yeah, the mailman, dummy. Oh, come on, please don't go out there. That's the dumbest thing to do in a horror movie, idiot.

"I didn't hear anything."
Oh, of course you didn't. But here's a bright idea: let's all go outside and check it out. That will be fun and smart.

Wait a second!
Scarlett's brain was beginning to work again,
Nancy, nightmare, being stupid and going outside...it all meant one thing: A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Oh, fabulous, the one day I am actually scared of being by myself,
this
has to come on.

Hey, you're not by yourself. Your mother is just downstairs.

Yeah, and if some creep with knives for fingers decides to chop me up, what help will she be passed out on the couch?

Do you know what horror movies do to you? They pull you, suck you, drag you in and make you not want to change the channel or eject the stupid DVD—or tape, depending how old the movie was. They make you want watch it and hide behind the covers like the coward you are. And that was exactly what Scarlett was doing.

So, the two girls and some guy who was with them stupidly decided to wander outside to see what the noise was...suspense, music, dog barking, BOOM! Some other guy jumps on them and scares the hell out of them and Scarlett as she watched the old horror movie from between her fingers.

Ooh, goody: suspenseful music, burned creep with knives as fingers, nightmares, poor doggy barking in the back ground, and do you wanna know what ties it all together? Some couple making out upstairs, so loud that Johnny Deep can hear it on the floor below. Whoop, Whoop, what a movie.

The short-haired blonde tried to wake up her mate, but he's so dead tired from the hard-core climax he just had that he's just going to ignore her poor, worried voice when she heard something knocking on her window. So, being ignored by her "one and only", the blonde, Tina, goes to investigate the scary noise herself.
How, smart can you be? Apparently she's Einstein Smart.

Scarlett couldn't think of one good reason why someone would just up and open a window in the middle of the night when there is supposed to be no one else in the house or in the yard. The smartest thing that the person should do is call the police for some creep who is making noises outside your window.

"Tina," a very scratchy, invisible voice whispered.

Oh, well, at least Nancy is smart. She's carrying around a crucifix. Smart, chick.
Scarlett thought as she hugged the pillow tighter to her chest.
So, while Nancy is actually being smart, Tina is running around outside trying to get away from Freddy after she walked outside willingly trying to either be: A.) brave or B.) stupid.

Could she run any slower? It's a dream, honey, just wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP!

"WAKE UP!" Scarlett shouted aloud.

Scarlett bolted upright in her bed under her covers fully dressed. When had she fallen asleep? It was completely dark outside. There was no light in the room except that of the television screen. Scarlett looked over at the TV and saw the ending credits of '
A Nightmare on Elm Street'
scrolling up the screen while some little girls were singing the creepy theme son.

Finally Scarlett conjured up the sense to turn the television that was beginning to scare her off. Her heart was pounding. She had fallen asleep while watching 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and had a nightmare about 'A Nightmare on Elm Street.'
Ooh, the irony!

She still couldn't get that feeling of suspense out of her system whenever she thought about Tina's death and how she had heard something tapping on her window while she was asleep...

Ha-ha, that's funny, I thought
I
just heard something tapping on
my
window—no, wait there it was again.

With her heart beating hard against her chest, Scarlett turned her attention to her window. There it was again: a small tapping at the window just like in the horror film she had just watched. Scarlett closed her eyes, hoping without such luck, that the noise would stop. It must be the wind blowing the tree branch over to tap on her window. That was it. But the tree in her yard was too far away for it to be touching her window.

WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP NOW! YOU WAKE UP NOW, OR I'M GOING TO KILL YOU BEFORE FREDDY GETS THE CHANCE!
Scarlett screamed at herself in her mind.

Ooh, now I know why Tina went over to the window in the dead of night to find out who was knocking on it in her dream before she was murdered by Freddy. Because the damn suspense kills you.

Scarlett slowly crawled out from underneath her covers and looked at the clock: 12:03 a.m.

Shit, and I didn't even finish all of my homework! Now, my mother's going to give me that damned lecture about finishing work earlier and getting a good night's sleep to get that stupid scholarship.

How can you think of homework at a time like this?

Scarlett heard another knock at her window. She soon realized it was small rocks beating up against her window.
Who the hell was throwing rocks at her window at twelve in the morning?

Her mind instantly thought of Francis. But why would he do this? Why would he come all the way back to her house just to throw rocks at her window? That was stupid. And Francis had to work after school, so he was probably at home getting some shut eye. Then her mind flashed to Ginny. She would be the type to throw rocks at Scarlett's window just to give her a good scare before she said, 'Let's catch a movie'. But would Ginny really do that at this time in the morning? Ginny knew that Scarlett didn't stay up very late when it was a school night. And she also knew that Scarlett wasn't the type to go and see a movie this early in the morning. So, that thought wasn't logical. Scarlett couldn't really think of anyone else. Well, there was someone else that was tugging at the back of her mind, but she kept that certain person just there—in the back of her mind. And she didn't allow herself to even think of the name of the blonde, Golden Boy who lived to annoy the shit out of her.