Hidden Secret

Chapter One: Manya

"Come now child we must go inside." I look up at my newly found grandma. She was taking me away from my family and I didn't like her already. "NO!" I screamed and kicked against her grip, it didn't loosen it though. "Bubby! Don’t let her take me!" I scream at my brother, the one who always stood up for me and protected me. He stopped walking, but wouldn’t turn around to look at me. He was 10 while I was 5. "Mikey!" I give a last ditch attempt, using his name I used when I really needed him. He turns around and looks at me. I almost didn’t catch the tears streaming down his face, but the frown gave him away. "PLEASE!" I scream one last time but, with this strange woman holding me back, I watch my mother, and brother leave. With me stuck here with her.

                      13 years later"Ready or not here I come!" I scream and take off running through the house checking every corner looking for my adopted sister. I run and run and run, until I see a tiny pink glittery shoe sticking out from behind the curtains. I slow down and whisper, "I’m gonna get you Ann-" Before I can snatch her up, she starts giggling and jumps and wiggles in my arms. We fall on the ground and I keep tickling her. Laughing she breaths out, "Stop it M." I keep on laughing and let her go. I stand up and brush myself off, the part of the house we are in isn't used anymore so it’s all dusty. I finish with myself then pull up Anna and dust her off too. She latches onto my leg, "You're the best sister ever M." I smile down at her. "I know I am kid. When Miss. Retol brought Anna home three years ago I swore that I would be the best big sister ever, and I have. I swore that I would never be like Mike, and I would never, ever leave her alone when she needed me. My phone vibrates and I pull it out of my pocket to check the time. "Oh man Anna, We are late for lunch!" I grab her and take off running back to where the kitchen is. Miss. Retol lives in a old mansion that had been in her family since forever, but sometimes I wonder how long forever is because I’m pretty sure Miss.Retol is like 90.

I set Anna down and dust her off some more, so that Miss.R doesn’t know where we have been. "Okay Anna, you know the drill know go!" I give her a little push and off she goes running. "You can’t catch me M! You can’t catch me!" she runs screaming down the hall, what a smart 6 year old. I laugh jogging after her. "You come back here now!" I keep on laughing. "Manya! Anna! Kitchen now!" We both stop at the sound of Miss.R's old crackly voice. Anna turns around and looks at me and I look at her. We both slowly walk into the kitchen. "Sit." She motions to the two chairs that have plates in front of them. We slowly walk over and sit. "Okay girls. I’m going on a trip to Russia, for business. Manya, you are in charge of both you and Anna." She looks pointedly at me. I do a short nod. "Anna you will be good for Manya, do you understand?" Anna does the short nod I had just done 6 seconds before. "Okay, now that that is understood. Manya I know you have been wanting a car for about three years now.." I sit up straight. Even though Miss. R can be mean she can be really awesome sometimes too. "Well I bought you one." I squeal and jump up and hug her. "Hold on now," she says laughing. "I know how you love those darn four-door jeeps." I freeze and look at her. "Well there may or may not be one out in the garage with your name on it." I grab Anna from where she sitting and take off running. I can hear Miss.R's laughter following me down the hall. I open the door and sitting right there in front of me is a brand new jeep! "Look Anna! Now we can go riding!" She smiles and I sit her down and she goes and climbs up into the passenger seat. Miss.R walks out behind us and hands me the keys, along with a piece of paper. "Go to the grocery store and pick up a few things for me." I look at her. I have never been outside of the property without Miss.R with me. I look at Anna. "I need to grab Anna's booster seat." "I already had it put in for you, you just have to get her into the back seat." "Oh Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" I run and jump into the front seat.

"Anna you need to get in the back and strap in, before we can go." She looks at me with big green eyes. "But M." "No buts Anna, This is your first time leaving the house we have to be safe so strap in." She reluctantly climbs in the back and straps in. "Okay", I say to myself as I start the car. I put her in reverse and away we went. Soon I find a radio station that me and Anna both agreed on and we rocked out. It is an hour drive to the store so we had a lot of fun. As we pulled into the town limits and all the houses came into view I hear Anna gasp. I look back at her in the rearview mirror and see her straining against the straps trying to look out the window. I pull into the parking lot. "Okay we are here." I unbuckle and turn around to see Anna trying to quickly remove the straps on her booster seat but failing. "Hold on crazy let me help." I get out of the car and walk around and open the door and unstrap her. Anna hops out the the car but freezes. I know just how she feels, I was there once. "Hey,” I look down at her and finally dust off the rest of the dust from our earlier game of hide and seek, "Its okay look, just hold my hand, you will love this." She slips her tiny hand in mine and we walk inside. I grab a buggy and pick her up and put her in it, she is grinning from ear to ear which makes me smile.

I feel someone looking at us so I look over and notice a really cute cashier looking at us smiling. I smile back but duck my head and quickly walk away. It’s now that I notice what I’m wearing. Old blue jeans, a dirty hoodie and boots, oh boy. Thank goodness Anna is in a nice sun dress.

We shop around and get everything that’s on the list. As I’m double checking the list and walking at the same time, (Which I knew I shouldn’t do) The cart suddenly stops. I quickly look up and the cute cashier is standing there. I just hit him with my cart, OMG! "I’m so sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going, I can’t believe I just did that! I’m so sorry!" I walk around the cart visually checking him out for any injuries and, just checking him out in general. "Hey it was my fault. Carts have the right away here." He laughs at his joke but me and Anna just look at each other. “Okay so not funny." He kinda says this to himself and this makes me laugh. He looks up and looks around. "I’m sorry, I just I don't get to talk to, too many people." He looks at me with big questionable eyes. Anna looks at me also. God Damn it Manya! "I, Uh, me and my little sister are home schooled so we don't get out much." "Oh, I was wondering why I only see you like once a month." "Yeah, we have strict schooling. Anyway we should be getting home Miss.R will be wondering where we are. Isn't that right Anna?" Anna looks at me with big eyes then looks back at the boy, and nods. "It was really nice meeting you." I start to turn the buggy around and walk around but he stops me. "My name is Ace." He smiles at me and I feel a place in me I hadn't know existed melt. He is just standing looking at me expectantly. "Oh, yeah , uh my name is Manya, or M for short." " Well it's nice to meet you Manya." Ace smiles at me and I smile back, and in the pit of my gut I can feel that this is going to be my very first friendship. Even if I only get to go to town once a month.

As Anna and I walk back to the jeep we go over what to tell Miss.R and what not to tell her. "Okay one more time Anna." "We went to the store got the food, it was very exciting." She looks at me smiling from the back seat. "Well you don't have to say it so blah." She giggles and we take off driving again.