101Two weeks later, 101511 Keith Street, Los Angeles, California
"What the hell…" muttered Amber. She poked her key into the lock again and jiggled it around a bit. Nope. The door just wasn't going to open. She slumped against her doorway and tiredly dropped her bag to the floor before crumpling down next to it. This definitely had to be the biggest problem with being an only child and living with two workaholic parents. She sighed. Now what? She wondered. Frowning, she dug out her cell phone and dialed her boyfriend.
"Hello?" His voice crackled over the line.
"Jayden?"
"Oh. Hey Amber," he replied. She could hear loud music playing in the background and assumed he was currently rehearsing with his band, Oxygen.
"Are you busy right now?" Damn. She cursed silently to herself as she leaned her head back and got her bun caught in a piece of wood that was sticking out from the wall. Wincing, she pulled her hair out, loosening several strands.
"Umm…kinda…hold on a minute." She heard him yelling to his friends to shut up for a minute.
When he came back, the music was playing much softer and she could hear him better.
"What did you want?" he asked.
She paused for a moment and let her beautiful amber-coloured hair flow down her back like a waterfall. "Can you come pick me up?"
"Are you still at ballet?" A worried tone crept into his voice. Jayden was always worried about her, no matter where she was. A day didn't go by that he didn't call at least twenty times and as annoying as it was, picking up her phone while she was running late for dance class or a music lesson or something, she found it very sweet and loved it.
"No, I'm home now but I'm locked out." She rolled her eyes, unseen by him.
"Hold on tight, babe. I'll be there in fifteen minutes." He hung up.
Amber flipped her cell phone shut and gingerly leaned back again. Great. Just great. After a harrowing hour of barre work and an excruciatingly painful hour and a half of pointe work, she was completely worn out. Now, at sixteen years of age, each day seemed to be filled with something new or another. Ever since the age of four, she had been as busy as a worker bee, flitting from one lesson to another. These days, she barely found enough time to study but miraculously, still kept an 88 average.
"Where are those dratted pointe shoes now…" she muttered to herself, digging through her dance bag. Her shoes never seemed to want to cooperate, as she proved during her pointe lesson. For some reason, either they just didn't want to support her or she was feeling too tired to pull herself up. But whatever the reason was, her shoes were definitely feeling a bit mushy and she needed to dry them. Pulling them out of her bag, she carefully folded the ends in and wrapped her ribbons around them before placing them next to her to air out. Then, she pulled her knees up against her chest and wrapped her arms tightly around them, resting her head on her arms. Lightly napping, she waited for Jayden to arrive.
Vancouver, British Columbia
"Ally? Ally?" The voice was coming through a tunnel. Bright lights were shining in front of her eyes.
Groggily, she sat up. "Eugh..?"
Her parents sat in front of her, excited expressions upon their faces. She blinked rapidly, trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes. Allyson glanced at her watch and groaned. The hands clearly indicated that it was barely 10:30am. She had slept only a few hours after sneaking back from Austin's room.
"What?" she asked, feeling slightly more awake. She got up and padded over to her washroom so that she could splash some water over her face and hopefully wake herself up further.
"Amber Julianna Kennedy," her father called out from the room.
She froze. "What?" Forgetting her face, but feeling more energized anyway, she padded back out. "What?"
Her father grinned at her. "Remember that name. Steven found your sister."
She gaped at him. "WHAT?"
Her mother sat next to her father, tears streaming down her face but a joyful expression upon it as well. "It's true, Ally."
She sat down, right on the cold tile floor of the bathroom. Amber Julianna Kennedy. That was her sister. Her sister. She couldn't believe it. After all of this time…she had a sister!
"When do I get to meet her?" she blurted out, leaping to her feet.
Her father's face darkened slightly. "Not yet, sweetheart. Steven left this morning to Los Angeles to see if he can persuade her to come to Vancouver to see you."
Her heart fell. "But…but…I can convince her better. She'll come if she knows who I am," she argued.
Her father patted the bed and motioned for her to come over. "Steven knows what he's doing, honey. I'm sure Amber will understand."
"But you don't know that," she protested, sitting down.
Her mother interjected, "Honey, if she's anything like you, she'd be here on the next plane."
Satisfied, Allyson leaned back onto her bed and placed her hands behind her head. She couldn't help grinning. She had a sister!
Los Angeles, California
Beep beep! A horn honked from the street.
Startled from her reverie, Amber clumsily got up and gathered up her belongings before stumbling over to Jayden's car.
"Hey hon," he greeted her, leaning over to give her a kiss.
She flopped onto his car seat and shut the door. "Sorry I had to pull you away from your band practice. I think I grabbed the wrong key this morning." She exhaled loudly.
"No problem. So, where to?" He smiled at her, showing off his perfect white teeth, forced into place by years of braces.
"Can you take me to my dad's office?" she asked. Her father was a prestigious lawyer at Kennedy and Sons, a family business. Her mother worked there as well, also as a lawyer.
"No problem," he repeated and swung out onto the street.
Twenty minutes later, his car pulled up at the main entrance of Kennedy and Sons. Leaning over for a kiss, Amber gathered up her belongings once again and headed inside. Just beyond the door however, sitting inside, was this man. It wasn't his appearance that caught her attention; more, it was the way he was looking at her. It was almost as if he knew her.
She shook her head. She was just being paranoid. Smiling at him as she passed, she pushed the elevator button for the sixth floor and just as the elevator dinged, her mother ran in.
"What are you doing here, Amber?" she asked, surprised.
Amber rolled her eyes. "Locked out again."
Her mother sighed. "We have so got to get that lock fixed."
Reaching the sixth floor, they got out. Amber couldn't help but notice that same man staring at her from just beyond the elevator doors.
Strange… she thought to herself but quickly erased the thought. Smiling at him again, she walked briskly into her father's office with her mother.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Allyson's father's cell phone rang.
"Hello?"
A deep male voice filled the line. "I found her."
Author's Note: Short chapter this time. Just finished off with midterms a few weeks ago and have been super busy ever since. Eventually, I'll finish this but right now, I think I'm going to go catch up on all of those missed hours of sleep. ) R&R!