Chapter II

It had been almost a week and by now, Hazel knew her way around the large house. It was a very strange and old looking house: very long and narrow. It was a two-story house and the second story was one long hall full of rooms on either side; almost like a hotel thought hazel. At the end of the hall, there was a ladder leading up into the attic. It was a very mysterious attic because none of the three servants Judith, Abigail, and Melanie. Would tell her what was up there. She had been very strictly told not to go find out. Now with that warning, you or I might just sneak up there sometime while no one was looking; but Hazel was a very sweet and obedient little girl and so, though she pondered, she never did go up to the mysterious attic.

                

The whole five days she had been there were filled of endless uncomfortable silence among Hazel, her Aunt and the strange girl, Alex. All she knew now was that Aunt Franny was extremely irritable and really disliked young children. She mainly just tolerated the two girls. One day, Hazel got a letter from her father. She read it and immediately headed for the kitchen to show it to Melanie, who had now become a very good friend. Excitedly, she was rushing from her room down the stairs heading for the kitchen when... WHAM! She bumped into a very cross, very stunned Aunt Franny. The old lady crossed her arms and exclaimed, "You know better than to run like a chicken on Friday while not watching where you are going. You need to slow down and look up so you don't keep running into poor old women like me! You nearly knocked me over! Now I insist upon hearing an apology before you go on with your racing around!"

"I - I'm sorry!" Hazel apologized, very stunned and sorry.

"Well, you just make sure you watch where you are going from now on."

That night there was the usual dinner of canned chicken noodle soup. She and Alex ate in silence, as they had done for the past week, then afterwards they did their (very few) chores. Sometimes while doing this, Hazel thought she saw Alex glaring at her, almost as if trying to see straight through her skin. In these moments, Hazel became uncomfortable, and usually went into the next room, but sometimes she’d make eye contact. Those were the strangest of times. She felt almost that when she looked at Alex, Alex could read every thought that raced through her mind. She’d usually shake it off though, and just continue going about doing her chores.

That night Hazel lay in the bed, thinking. The drone of rain on the roof was very loud and sounded like it might leak through the roof at any minute. She knew Alex was fast asleep beside her... (In the same bed...) this got very uncomfortable usually. Hazel pondered: how long would she have to stay here and what would happen when school started. She thought about her home, peaceful and pretty and about her dad wondering what ocean he was flying over right now... Suddenly, she heard a small cracking noise and the sound of rushing water. In a split second, the sound of rain got suddenly louder.

 And......CRACK!!!!! The roof began to drip violently. Both girls were instantly drenched with the falling rain. They both shouted in surprise and they rolled out of the bed. They looked at each other and rushed down to the kitchen to get large bowls to catch the water. They practically flew back up the stairs each carrying 3 or 4 large bowls or pots. Carefully, they placed the bowls underneath the drips hoping no more would leak. As they sat on the floor, they looked at each other. Slowly, a smile grew on both of the girl's faces; they began to chuckle at their situation. Soon their chuckles turned to laughter and soon they were rolling on the floor with amusement.

"Sorry, I think we got off on the wrong foot," gasped Alex through fits of laughter. "Let’s start over. I'm Alex."

"I'm Hazel." She replied still laughing. "I'm sorry too! Maybe we can be friends."

"Okay, lets." Alex said with a smile.

By the time they were done getting acquainted they had talked the whole night through and became very good friends. They were very different from each other as most good friends are. You may think that staying up all night may not have been the best of ideas but they probably wouldn't have gotten very much sleep that night anyway because of the perpetual dripping. So they stayed up and made up for lost time which proved quite productive. With the exception of the next morning when they were both dead tired, Aunt Franny wasn't too happy about that.

The next night was better however because they requested a new room and although this was not favorable to Aunt Franny, she gave in and they now had room 11. It was identical to their previous room with the exception it was larger and had two twin beds instead of one double. The girls were both very glad to get into the slightly larger room. Life went a lot smoother from there and the girls got along better. though occasionally they had a few arguments but that was mostly from the different opinion on certain subjects like Alex’s craving to find out what was in the attic, and Hazel’s wanting to stay away from trouble as much as possible.

Alex wouldn't give in though despite Hazel’s reasonable protests; soon Hazel found herself climbing the much dreaded attic stairway.