I could not help myself. I had to sneak out and go to the city. It made no sense that Cooper could go there, but not me. Therefore, I did not go to bed that night. Instead, I slipped on my boots and packed a small bag. I then slipped past Cooper, who was asleep on his dog bed, dreaming about bones dancing the hula.
He snuffed and kicked at the air.
Sorry, Cooper, but I need to get out of this house. My feet took me to my door. Lifting my hand, I rested it on the doorknob. When the door opened, I heard Mom and Bailey talking on their phones from the workshop. First, I checked to ensure Big Bertha wasn’t around. When I concluded she wasn’t, I stepped into the hallway.
Unfortunately, I did not get far. The second my foot touched the floor, boom!
The hallway exploded into a Code Red crisis. “Code Red! Code Red! Serena is in trouble!”
What the heck? Since when did Bailey install a new trap?
From out of nowhere, Big Bertha leaped out from behind a wall. What the—? Had she been spying on me the whole time?
She rushed to me and held her mop to my chest. “Stand back, Serena! For it is my duty to protect you!”
“Big Bertha?” I shouted. “Where did you come from?”
Big Bertha shushed me. With her mop, she knocked me back into my room and pushed me onto my bed.
From where he rested, Cooper snapped awake and leaped to his feet. He barked as the alarm continued to sound.
Big Bertha hopped before me and thrusted her mop forward like a sword when two figures appeared in my doorway.
“Serena!” Bailey shouted. For once, he was not on his phone. “Just what do you think you’re doing, lass?” he asked, but before I could answer, guess what? His phone rang, and he answered it instantly. “Yes, yes,” he spoke into it. “We’re leaving tomorrow.”
Leaving? What was he mumbling about? “Bailey!” I shouted, jumping up. Stomping my left foot, I clenched my fists. “I’m going to the city!”
Bailey started to have a double conversation. He talked to whoever was on the phone and then to me, “Sure, dear. Go ahead.”
Sure, dear? Wait a minute, did he actually say that I, his twelve-year-old stepdaughter, could go to the city all alone late at night? I assumed that was his message.
Mom, who also talked on her phone, approached me. Weakly ruffling my hair, she said, “Big Bertha is going with you.”
“Sam, heck, I am!” Big Bertha shouted.
What? Aw man, seriously? I didn’t want to have a seven-foot-tall woman following me around in the city! Did Mom and Bailey even know what they were doing? I’ve spent my whole life trying to escape the mansion, and now all of a sudden, they’re letting me? Why did I have a bad feeling? What if Mom and Bailey were getting rid of me, sending me off to an orphanage? Was that what Bailey meant when he said, “We’re leaving tomorrow?” What if, before I was put up for adoption, they wanted me to see the city one last time? Oh no, just thinking about that gave me goosebumps.
Before I could get too wound up in my negative thoughts, Big Bertha grabbed me and tossed me onto her shoulder. “Let’s go, Serena.”
“Big Bertha!” I shouted. “Put me down!” Yelling, I kicked my legs and slapped her shoulder, but she didn’t flinch.
As we left the room, I heard Bailey calling to me, “Make sure that you pack your bag when you get back.”
Pack my bag? Oh, gosh! Now I knew he and Mom were putting me up for adoption! I was petrified. I didn’t want to go to an orphanage. All my parents needed to do was show me a little more attention; they did not have to go so far as to get rid of me.
Many troubled thoughts haunted me, even when Big Bertha carried me outside and dropped me like a rag doll in the front yard. Right then, she pulled out her own phone.
Hers was a disgusting flip-phone, and she told me, “All right, Serena. I’m going to request an Uber.”
An Uber? Why? The city was a short bus ride away from my house—or, well, my former house.
I tried to protest, but Big Bertha shushed me and typed into her phone. Okay, how on Earth could she type with those huge, meaty fingers? It was all the reason to take the bus instead. I knew we were going to be there a while. How did I know? Well, Big Bertha constantly cursed to herself and frustratingly bumped her phone against her free hand, because she kept messing up when she tried typing in the location of the mansion. And this, people, is why you never give Big Bertha a flip-phone.
As she kept trying to type into the Uber app, I roamed around the front garden and thought about what Bailey told me.
“Pack your bag. We’re leaving tomorrow.”
I didn’t want to leave. I just didn’t want to live my whole life in neglect. I wanted to be a bird. Spread my wings and fly. I didn’t want a seven-foot-tall woman who beat a pro wrestler in arm wrestling three rounds straight watching me. I wanted a friend, a real friend. Not a dog. I felt like I was nothing but a mere machine that would forever stay on the store shelf.
The thoughts swarmed in my head like a smoothie blender, but then something strange happened. I heard something: a small chirp. It came from one of the front yard’s gardens.
Instantly, I stopped. “Who’s there?” I asked, but I received no answer.
Yet, when I started walking again, there came the chirp. “Chirp. Chirp.” By then, I had to check out the garden.
Falling to my knees, I pushed leaves aside and squinted my eyes.
“Chirp. Chirp.”
There it was again. My eyes roamed as I rapidly searched the area. It was like I was a cat searching for its prey. I kept that up for a good ten minutes, and then, I saw it.
Resting on its front, with one of its wings bent weirdly and staring pleadingly into my eyes, was a bird.
ns216.73.217.22da2
and then Add to home screen.