[fiction] Chapter One
by Sofia Perez
The spring breeze wafted through a window, flowing through the mostly quiet house. Cheers and laughter could be heard coming from the backyard, but Jessica preferred her own company. She turned on the TV and flopped onto the couch, using the magazine in her right hand to fan herself. Of course on the one hot day at the end of spring, the AC was broken, so everyone else was in the backyard attempting to cool off in the pool. She flipped through the channels but there was nothing to watch that was of interest to her. Out of boredom, she got up and walked over to the fridge and stood there with it open because of the cold air that came out of it. She hoped the AC would be fixed soon. As she turned and closed the fridge, Jess heard the front door open and close and the sound of footsteps on the stairs. It was her younger sister Cassie, owner of the worn high-top black Converse sneakers that lay abandoned by the front door. She wore them almost every day. Cassie seemed kind of in a rush and Jess had nothing else better to do, so she went upstairs to see what she was up to. Cassie’s bedroom door was decorated with pictures of her favorite singers, beaches, cities, and a sign that said “keep out.” But as her big sister, Jess never paid attention to that sign and walked in anyway. Cassie was frantically rummaging through her backpack on her bed. The dark purple bag had pins for bands and quotes all over it.
“Hey Cassie, what are you doing?” Jess said, as she sat down at Cassie’s desk.
“I can’t talk right now,” she blurted. “I have a history project due this Friday that I completely forgot about!
“Relax. You’ll be fine,” Jess assured her. “It’s only Sunday, so you have time. How did you forget it though?”
“I was so busy with my other classes and final exams that the project skipped my mind. I was over at Lily’s this afternoon when she started talking about her own project, which reminded me it was due this week," Cassie said.
“What is it even supposed to be about?”
“It’s a project about our family trees, and we need to make a large poster about it. They want us to include our ancestors and also do research on our family. How am I supposed to get this done in time?!” she exclaimed.
Jess shrugged. “Let’s go check the attic. It might be helpful because it has all of mom and dad’s old stuff up there, and probably some of grandma and grandpa things.”
“Oh you’re right, I totally forgot about that. I never go up there anymore,” Cassie said. She tossed her bag to the side and went to the middle of the hallway, reaching for the cord that would pull the attic stairs down. She jumped up to try and reach it.
“I hate being short.”
“Relax. Let me grab it,” Jess said, reaching up to pul the cord. The stairs opened up and descended into the hallway. They were wooden and old, but could still hold weight. Because there were no windows up there, the attic was so dark that they couldn’t see anything. Jess began to climb the steps and disappeared in the attic. A second later, Cassie saw the light blink on and Jess’s head appeared above the steps.
“Come on slow poke, we don’t have all day,” she joked.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Cassie said sarcastically. As she made her way up the steps, she could hear Jess rustling through the boxes, then heard something shatter.
“Sorry Cass, I knocked over an old lamp,” Jess said. “When you come up be careful of the glass.”
“Okay.” Cassie crawled up the ladder and immediately felt the humid and stuffy air. The lack of windows made the place insufferably hot. She stood up, stepping carefully over the blue shards of glass that were spread across the floor. Cardboard boxes were stacked on top of one another all over the place. There wasn’t a lot of room to move, so they started stacking boxes to create more space.
“I haven’t been up here since we moved into this place,” Jess said. She grabbed another box and as she lifted it up, and old brown trunk was revealed beneath. “Hey, come look at this.”
“What is it?” Cass asked, trying to see over Jess’ shoulder.
“I think it’s grandma’s old trunk. Mom mentioned it was up here a while ago, but I haven’t looked through it.”
“Cool, open it!”
“I can’t; it’s locked.” Jess bent down and examined the rusted lock. “Maybe the key is around here somewhere. Let’s keep looking.”
As Jess started to stack more boxes, Cassie moved further into the attic. Old baseball mitts, holiday decorations, baby clothes, and collections of school projects from their younger years were just some of the things in the mountains of forgotten items that lined the small room. However, a cardboard box taped shut caught Cassie’s eye. Someone had written “donations” on it in black marker that was starting to fade. Guess they never got around to donating it. Cassie peeled off the tape and peered into the box. There were some clothes; worn t-shirts, hats, blouses, and a couple of pairs of jeans. She assumed they once belonged in her mother’s closet. However, underneath the clothes there was a little silver jewelry box covered in floral designs. When she picked it up and opened it, she saw a small key sitting atop the emerald green velvet lining of the inside. It looked like it could be big enough to fit in the lock to their grandma’s trunk.
“Hey Jess,” Cassie said. “I think I might have found the key.”
“Really? Where?” Jess had opened the boxes out of curiosity and was playing with an old wooden paddle ball. She had a pair of sunglasses on her head that Cassie hadn’t noticed before.
“Would you stop playing around? Let’s see if this is the right key.” Cassie walked over to Jess and handed her the box. “Look at this.”
“Woah this looks so vintage.” Jess held up the box and examined it. “Maybe it was grandmas?”
“I don’t know, but the key was the only thing inside it.”
“Seriously? Where’d you find it?”
“One of the boxes caught my eye. It said donations, but it’s been sitting up here collecting dust instead.”
“Good thing it wasn’t donated. The key might be able to actually open this thing. Go ahead let’s try it.”
Cassie knelt down, placed the key in the hole, and turned it. They both heard the lock unclick.