I looked side to side frantically and tried to scramble up, but it was futile. The metal was slick and smooth. I started panicking. How could I do it? I looked down. Should I go down or should I try to go back up?

I took a deep breath in. I needed to stop panicking if I wanted to get out of here. I could easily just holler for dad and they would all hear me. But then everyone would know how I got here. They would figure out about the secret compartment. I could go down but then I would be locked out of my room.

I groaned. I shouldn’t have locked the door to my room. But I couldn’t exactly go up.

I looked back up to the slick metal. And I looked down. That looked like it was going to go on forever. There really wasn’t a choice. Maybe dad had a spare key to my room. I’d have to go down. Slowly, ever so slowly, I scooted my way down. The vent just got narrower and narrower, and I wasn’t exactly a small person. Finally, I stopped somewhere where it looked like I could jump off. Thankfully, the vent had no screws.

I slipped off and jumped to the middle of what looked like a living room. I had passed this way when I was running to get my room. I looked around, it had a huge mirror and there in the reflection was a girl with completely tangled brown hair. I gasped the girl was me. I was a mess.

Just then, of course, Dad came in. “What. Happened.” he said, looking up and down at me, shocked.

“Umm, I decided to explore some stuff, and it was pretty dusty…” I trailed off. It wasn’t exactly the the truth, but it would have to do, “Oh, and my door of my room accidentally locked behind me. Do you have spare keys?”

Dad smiled. “Sure, I do. I’ll have to check that lock later.” He said as he fished around in his pockets. “Ah, not this, not this,” he muttered. “Aha!” He pulled out a set of keys with a smile of satisfaction. “Wait, these are the sets to the barn.” He frowned as he checked his other pocket.

I groaned. How long was this going to take?

“Aha, here it is.” He said and finally gave me the key.

I ran upstairs as fast as I could and unlocked the door to my room. I would have to clean myself up. Mike would tease me for centuries if I appeared like this. I looked to the secret compartment, still opened. Then groaned when I remembered that I had left all the doors open.
I
slipped inside and pulled the lever and ran outside. I had enough of this secret compartment. Just the thought of it made me shudder.

I ruffled through my bags and found my comb and went to the half bathroom to the mirror. And prepared myself for what the day would bring. When I decided that I looked good enough and didn’t look like I had gone through a secret compartment, found a little library and went down the vents. I decided to finish unpacking my bags. But of course, luck was never on my side, even if Catherine thought so. A knock came to my door. I groaned. This day was full of groans. It was most definitely Lowella.

“Sunny?” She called.

Yep, it was her. I opened the door for the Energizer Bunny that was waiting outside. To my surprise, I found her jumping up and down.

“Guess what?” She practically shouted.

“What?” I asked. Exhaustion weighing me on every syllable.

“Daddy said we can go look at the animals if I go with you.”

I looked back at my bags. Then a thought formed to my mind. I knew it was evil, but I was going to do it.

“I’ll go only under one circumstance.” with a proud smile on my face of thinking of this scheme “Help me finish unpacking my bag.”

Her ego deflated just a bit, but she agreed.

I had my bags all unpacked in no time and soon enough Lowella was running down the stairs in front of me.

Until I called “Stop running down, you’ll fall and break your head open like a coconut!”

She froze. And then walked the little slower. I knew it was bad to scare her like that, but I wasn’t really afraid that she would get hurt.

We passed the living room I popped out of, and I saw the vent cover laying on the floor. I rolled my eyes and said, “Wait one second, Lowella.” And with that I ran into the living room, grabbed the cover and popped it back up before anyone could notice that it was open. I was surprised Dad didn’t notice.

When I was reaching for the door handle of the front door the doorbell rang.

I could tell it was not a grown up because it was rung several times over. And only kids do that. I opened the door cautiously to find a boy about Lowella’s age still ringing the doorbell and girl about my age and a girl about Sarah’s age outside holding trays. I opened the door a little wider.

“Hello…” I said cautiously.

The little boy piped up.” I’m Sam, but you can just call me Sammy. These are my sisters. You don’t need to learn their names. They made me do some cooking for you guys, but they didn’t let me snack a little bit. I hope you don’t mind.” He shoved the tray to my arms. And peeked around me and saw Lowella.

“Oh nice, finally a neighbor my age!” he said, jumping up and down excitedly.

When I finally recovered from shock, I turned around and said “Lowella? Introductions?”

She looked at the boy and said “My name is Lowella, do you wanna see my room? My room, it’s so bigger than my old one!” I inwardly rolled my eyes. I didn’t like one Energizer Bunny, but somehow now I had two. And just like that, they all ran off. Lowella instantly forgetting about going seeing the animals.

Which left me with an uncomfortable situation of holding a pretty heavy tray and staring at two strangers.

“Umm, my name is Sunny. Please wait a second.” I turned “Sarah!” I hollered “Company!”

In 10 seconds, Sarah came running down the stairs and stopped midway when she saw that it wasn’t anyone we knew. She cautiously approached, just like me.

“Hello.” She also said slowly.

“We’re the neighbors.” The girl that looked Sarah’s age said. “I’m Bianca and she’s Jennifer pointing to the one around my aged. “As you can see, we baked you some food to welcome you into the neighborhood.”

I peered outside. It wasn’t exactly a neighborhood.

Sarah seemed to think the same thing. “Neighborhood?” She asked.

“Yeah,” the one they called Jennifer said, “It’s not exactly a neighborhood, but we call it a neighborhood.” I noticed they had a slightly southern accent.

“I would love to invite you inside.” Sarah said. “But we’re in the middle of unpacking.”

I decide to take advantage of this situation. “Do you know the animals? We don’t know exactly what to do with horses and farm animals, and we still haven’t figured out what type of feed they eat.” I asked.

“Oh, sure!” Jennifer said, with a lot more enthusiasm than I expected. “Which ones? The cow, The sheep, the dog or the horse?” she continued.

“All of them.” I said sheeply.

“Okay,” Jennifer said and started walking quickly towards the barn, then turned around when she realized she still had the tray in her hand and plopped it into Sarah’s arms and got her sisters and also shoved it into Sara’s arms and got mine and also shoved it in my sister’s arms.

I really did feel bad for Sarah. “Wait a second, I have to help my sister carry all these trays inside.”

As soon as I helped Sarah put everything in the fridge. We both walked to the front door where both girls were waiting.

Then Jennifer grabbed my hand and tugged me, practically dragged me toward the barn and started talking faster than I could process her words.

“So, are you going to school or are you home schooled like me? And where are you from and, how old are you? Oh, and what days are you free so we can come over? She said, finally catching her breath.

“Umm,” I said, contemplating which question to answer first “Well, yes, I am homeschooled. Then no, I’m not going to school. I’m 14. And I do not know what days we are free.” I did know what days we were free, but I did not like this hopping girl one bit.

We arrived to the barn and Jennifer swung the barn doors open and walked in like she owned the place. “Hello. Ash, Luna and Willow,” she said as she walked up to the horses.

“That’s their names? “I asked.

“Yup. Do you not know their names?” Jennifer said.

“No,” I said, my face turning red. “The owner didn’t leave us any names.”

“Okay, well then, I’ll tell them all to you. So, the horses are Ash, the boy, the two girls are Luna and Willow; the cats, both the boys, Millow and Jasper; the cow, Daisy; the sheep, Clover, Mazie and Firm; the ram, Thistle; and the herding dog. Scout. So anyways, Luna and Willow and Ash eat this feed. She walked up to several big bags of feed. How can I tell them apart? Well that horses feed is pink, the sheep and rams feed is purple, and the cats feed is the small white one, and the dog’s one is the small blue one. And Daisy, the cows feed is the one in the barrel.” she finished.

“Umm, I don’t know how I’m supposed to remember all that.” I said.

“Oh well,” she said, pulling out a pencil I hadn’t noticed was tucked in her hair, and pulled out a sheet of paper from her pocket. “I’ll write it all down.”

And she handed the paper to me. She tucked the pencil back in her bun. She noticed me looking at her and she laughed. “Yeah, it’s a pretty small pencil, so I use it as a hairpin.”

“So,” Jennifer said turning to me. “Your sister told me you have the bigger room.” Her eyes seemed to bore into me. “Have you explored it yet?”

To be continued.

I think you guys noticed the routine of the 10 comments. New chapter every 10 comments.