Move On When I woke up it took me a few seconds to realize I was in a police car. I looked around and realized it was only me and my littler sister Kiki. She was crying with her face in her bear. I soon realized what had happened, it is what my parents had feared for weeks, they had been killed. I looked out the window of the car to look at my house, but it was gone. I turned to my sister and asked her what she knew, but she wouldn't speak. My happy, smiling, bubbly little sister seemed to be gone. But before I could try to get her to speak a police officer had opened the door. "I'm sorry about what happened girls." He bowed his head. "What happened!" All my emotions were expressed with these two words. "Your parents parished in the fire." "What fire!" I was as confused as ever. "Your lucky to have survived." He look as though he was shocked. I looked in the mirror an saw my soot cover face. It really did happen, I wasn't going to wake up and realize it was a bad dream. It's was real and this was going to be the single event that would change my #life. I guess I realized that something like this would happen earlier this month, we all had. Everything was so peaceful, our family was happy to be a whole. We didn't even have minor fights, well besides a few minor spats between my mom and I. My mom was a very successful lawyer and my dad was a computer hard ware engineer, my sister and I were considered geniuses! We seemed to be a perfect family, but earlier this month everything changed. My father was working on a new hardware that would revolutionize the way the world thought, but not everyone was happy. Of course the rivial company would do anything to get their hands on it and that was where all the problems started. "Hey dad, how's the design going?" I said into the phone, my father's busy so most of the time he's in his office. "You know I can't say much about it, but it's getting close to be able to be tested." "That's so sweet!" Knowing my father was so close to success made me happy. "Niall, Sophia, get off the phone," Mom had gotten on the line," Sophia, it's time for super. Niall, get back to work." The phone clicked. "Bye dad." "Bye Lin." The line was dead now. Only in these moments do I ever think, not because I want to, but because the silence encourages me. What if the competition got a little too fierce? What if they seriously hurt my father because of his brilliant mind? Only time could unfold these events. "Sophia." My mom called pulling me out of my thoughts. I sulked down the stairs, every footstep seeming heavier because my thoughts still lingered. I sat down next to my sister, who was brushing her bear's fur. She's had there bear for so long that I can't even remember where she got it from, it's almost impossible to separate them. "So how was your day Sophia." Her mom asked her once everyone had their food. "It was amazing, I've almost fixed the cell phone I, um, broke." "Sophia dear, how did you break this one?" She asked. Ever since I got my first phone I had the tendency to, um, break them. "Well, I wanted to enhance my memory without having to buy a new chip. You know the rest." "Sophia how many times do I have to tell you to wait till your father can do it?" "Never! I can do it myself! I will not ever live in the shadow of my father!" "I'm not asking you to. But this is the fourth phone in two months. And don't yell at the table." She said keeping that lawyer like composer. I dropped my spoon when I realized how tight I was griping it. "So my day was lovely too, my ant colony has gain over one-hundred new members." Kiki acted like nothing had happened. "That's wonderful dear." Mom said forgetting that we were arguing. "I hope your father gets home before dinner gets cold." I finished my meal silently while mom and Kiki talked more about her ants. I love insects and all it it's not exactly dinner worthy. I went up to my room and let the silence take me. Why was it this way? Why did I feel like I had to compete with my father? Why do I keep asking myself all these questions? And with that final question I fell asleep. I woke up to the smell of chocolate pancakes, my favorite. I knew dad had gotten home, mom never cooks pancakes. Some would say that I have an addiction to chocolate. I dashed down the stairs to reach my reward. I was happy to see only my dad was down there. "Hey dad, happy to see you made it home." I sat down in my chair and started putting the pancakes on my plate. They had the perfect amount of chocolate chips, just enough to ooze out of the pancake. "Good morning Sophia." He said before sitting down and putting pancakes on his plate. "So what time did you get home." I bit into my pancake, it was so soft and warm. "About an hour ago. Didn't want to leave till I finished the part of the program that I was working on." "That's nice, well I have to go finish fixing my phone." I rinsed and dropped my plate in the sink. "Bring it here and I'll have a look at it." This started to bring up memories of the fight last night. "No I can fix it." "You also said that about the last phone. How well did that turn out?" "I almost finished it and it exploded, but I promise this will be different." "And you set your blanket on fire." "I promise! Just give me one more chance!" "If this one breaks your not getting another one." "Okay." Happy with my mini victory I raced to my room. But of course right before I finish someone knocks on my door. I slowly crept to the door, making sure they wouldn't hear my footsteps. I opened the door and no one was there. I went to return to my phone and then my door sprang open! Kiki quickly ran into my room almost jumping on me and my phone. "Hey, what's happening kiddo." I messed up my sister's hair. "Dad wanted me to make sure you didn't blow yourself up." I rolled my eyes. "Nice, could you all stop worrying." I ran my fingers through her hair. "Nope. The moment we do you'll burn down the house." "Fine watch me fix it, I don't care. Watch I can do it." I sat down at my desk and started to work. "What ever you say sis." She said pulling up a chair beside me. We sat and worked for what seemed to be hours, but with our combined minds it only took minutes. Soon we were just laying on my bed talking about nothing in particular. "So, do you name your ants?" I was stroking her ponytail. "Not really. But there are a few that look different that have names." I was actually surprised at this. "What are they." I was trying to prove she was bluffing. "Well one of my favorites is Xaixver. But the queen's name is Lucianna." "What does Xaixver look like, what makes her different?" "She's missing two of her legs." "Handicap!!!!" I proclaimed while standing up on the bed. But I found myself being attacked from bellow and we both ended up on the floor. We started to giggle at our silliness, but then mom burst in. "What is the meaning of this." She almost yelled. "She was making fun of Xaixver." She said while laughing. "Yes I was because he's handicap. He lost two of his legs in the war of the hill. I should have never made fun of such a brave veteran." I was shocked that I could keep a strait face while saying this. But once Kiki and mom looked at me I couldn't keep it up. They both rolled their eyes at me and left my room. After laying on my bed staring at nothing I decided that I wanted a bar of chocolate. What time was it anyway? I was going down the stairs when I heard whispering. I turned to my parents room and saw that their door was barely open, so I peered in. "If you think it's to dangerous then tell them you want out." Mom said talking dad's hand. "I can't, this program will change the way the world thinks. It could help so many people." "But you said they might try to do something drastic if you guys don't turn over your research to them." "I won't give in to threats, that's to foolish." Dad pulled away from Mom,"You know I love you Ava, and the girls, so much but this research is so important. And I know the girls would be cross with me if I just gave up now. What kind of role model would I be if I just throw in the towel?" "But it's dangerous for all associated with you, that includes your family." "I’ll talk to the girls tonight and ask them what they think." He said pulling her in for a small kiss. I quickly ran away from their bedroom so they wouldn't know I had heard. I was dreading dinner. I quickly ran to the kitchen and grabbed a bar of chocolate and went to the living room to stare into space and think. What might they do? What was this thing that would change the world? Why was it so important? Why us and why now? I let the darkness surround me and I fell asleep. "Lin." Someone called my name, it must be dad,"Dinner time. Mom let you sleep though lunch. " I jolted out of the couch and into the kitchen, I was starving. I soon relized that what I had been dreading this morning was about to happen. "Sophia. Kiki." "Yes dad?" We both responded. "I have a question for you girls." "Yes." Kiki said not knowing anything. "Well as you two know I am working on a huge project." He said waiting for us to nod. "Well the project's competition has gotten rather, shall we say, compativtive. And your mom and I have discussed me pulling out of the project for safety reasons. And we have both decided to hear your guys opioin." He paused, we allowed him to. "So what do you girls think?" "No you can't! You've worked to hard to give up being this close!" I yelled "You always told us to follow your dreams. Please don't go back on that dad." Kiki said a lot quitter. "So it's settled, I'll go back." Dad put down our dinner plates full of spaghetti and we began to eat. "So where's mom?" I said while slurping a noodle. "She's working on a new case." "What about?" Kiki asked curiously. She was always more into moms line of work. "She can't say," this of course made her frown, "but I bet she'll be willing to share with you as soon as the case is done." "Okay." Mom's work wasn't the most investing. There's no such thing as an innocent client, but there is also no such thing as an innocent victim. We've all done something wrong. Just some more than others. "So are there any plans for the rest of the day." I was twirling noodles onto my fork. "Oh coarse not, it’s dinner." My father looked puzzled at me. Kiki giggled at me but was quickly silenced by a look from my father, "Are you feeling alright, dear?" "I forgot that I slept through a meal." I slurped another noodle and it slapped me in the face. "Maybe if you wouldn't have broke your phone." Kiki said in a singing like voice. I did care because I was glaring at the noodles that had betrayed me. Mom didn't come home that night and we asked dad the next morning where she was all he had to say was that she came home late and left before he woke up. The next few weeks neither of them came home much so are moms' friend would bring us lunch and dinner and made sure we had cereal for the morning. Till one of the rare nights were dad made it home to make dinner. He made top ramen, nothing special really, we could have made it on our own. There was something comforting about having our father home, but as we were sitting there having a conversation about the possibility of a computer gaining self awareness, the light atmosphere stopped and got heavy and felt bad. No other word to describe it, just bad. We heard someone running though the house. Dad quickly stood up and went to the archway, mom ran into him in her rush into the room. "Quickly we all have to go, now." She urged him, pushing him closer to the garage door. "Sweetie what's wrong?" He asked holding her still. "I'll explain in the car. We just need to go now." "What's happening mommy?" Kiki said grabbing her bear. "I want to finish my noodles." This was a lie, I just didn't want to give up. "I'm sorry dear but we need to go now. If you're still hungry we'll eat latter." There was a banging at the front door. It grew louder and louder, and then the door swung off it's hinges. "Listen to your mother girls." Our father started pushing us out the door. "Please just go girls." "But what about you guys?" Kiki questioned worried. "Don't worry about us, just hide." Mom shut the door behind us, "Please just leave." We heard her said her voice shaking. "Where is it!" The voice sounded like it belonged to an older man. "What is he talking about Niall?" "It's not here!" Dad shouted ignoring Mom. "You're a liar!" We heard something hit the floor. "We'll just have to turn the place up side down looking for it." Another man said this one sounding older. "Tie them up." He ordered. I didn't want to heard anymore. I grabbed Kiki and ran outside, we had an old tree house out there where we could hide. We couldn't hear anything any more but we could see them running thought the house, Kiki almost had a panic attack when she saw them in her room. "My ants are still in there." She whimpered. "We'll get them once the guys are gone, okay?" I hugged her, who didn't need a hug at a time like this? We started to smell something, like gasoline. We quickly realized that the house was on fire and was quickly spreading and would soon reach us. "Come on Kiki, we have to go." I grabbed my sister's arm, but she wouldn't budge. "Why did they do this? Why?" She started crying. The fire grew closer and closer. "Please we have to go." I could feel the heat growing around me. "I don't want to, mommy and daddy didn't make it, so why should I?" She crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Because if you don't go then I'll have no one. If you don't leave me, then I won't leave you. Promise?" I held out my hand for my sister to take. But before she could do anything I fell over. I must've inhaled to much smoke, I smiled when I heard a sirin in the distance. "Get up, get up!" She started shouting but there was nothing I could do. The world grew blurry and slowly darker. All I could see was my sister, but it seemed as though she was at the end of a tunnel. That's that last thing I really remember. I keep hearing Mom over and over again in my head the entire way to the airport. We didn't have anything. We were heading to England, to an orphanage for intelligent people like ourselves. I really wished that it wasn't that much different from our little house in Ireland. But I didn't have much hope. Once we arrived at the airport Kiki finally spoke. "What happens now sissy?" She said quietly. "I don't know, but as long as we stick together we'll be okay." She slumped back in her chair. I hugged her and let her rest her head on me. We had another hour till are plane left. I started to sob, but I made sure Kiki didn't see me. If she thought I was happy and hopeful, then maybe she could cheer up. I wanted my bright happy little sister back, not this sad little girl. It was going to be hard for both of us, but I knew that somehow we'd get through it, somehow. After I stopped crying the officer that brought us here had come back with an older man. "Girls I will be leaving you in the care of Watson." He nodded towards the other man. "I will be your escort to the house." He bowed his. He was an older man, his hair was light grey, he had wrinkles started around his mouth, I guess this hinted that he was a happier man. "Hello Watson," I held out my hand for a handshake, "I wish we could have met under better circumstances." He took my hand and shook it. "I've brought you clothes from your cousins," he handed us both large and heavy bags, "now quickly go get cleaned up in changed in the restrooms before the flight takes off." He motioned his hand toward the restrooms. I pushed Kiki ahead of me. Her beautiful blonde double pigtail hair had dark, black spots through it, her green plaid dress was stained with all shades of brown, her knee length white socks were anything but white, and her shiny black shoes had lost their luster. When we got in the restroom I looked at myself in the mirror. My black hair wasn't that much different, but my purple bangs were unevenly dark, and my blue eyes had grown dark. I looked down at my clothing, my purple spiderweb shirt was stained and a little torn, my skinny jeans were covered in soot, my Pac-Man belt was burn around the edges, my green and orange shoes were now yellow and brown, and the bow I wore in my hair that day was gone. I opened the bag Watson had given me, it reviled hundreds of my cousin Rosalinda's old clothing. She and I dressed the same at times, but she changed her style too often. But I'd just have to deal with it, it was this or be nude. I changed into a red plaid skirt, a black top with a smiley skull on it, and a pair of boots with buckles on them. I left my stall and knocked on Kiki's. "Are you okay in there kiddo?" I got no reply, "Kiki are you about done?" The door slowly opened. "I don't like it sissy." I looked down and tried not to laugh. Kiki had gotten our cousin Alison's cloths. Alison always wore grey because she believed that there was no reason to stand out. Kiki loved all colors because than was how she stood out. They were complete opposites! "I'm sorry Kiki, but it's this or nothing." She whimpered and I gave her a hug. "I want to go home!" She barred her head into my chest. "We're heading home here soon." I started to pet the back of her head. "I want mommy and daddy back!" She pushed me back and ran back into her stall. "Kiki all that matters is that we remember them." I leaned my head on the stall door. "I don't care!" She shouted. "Do you remember them?" I started to peak in the stall crack. "Why does it matter?" She said through her tears. "If you remember them well enough I'll draw you a picture of them." I wasn't the best at drawing, but I would do my best for my sister, "Let's start with Dad, what's his name and what does he look like?" "Dad's name is Niall, he has black hair and brown eyes. He dressed like any other dad, but could cook way better." She started to cry more at the memory of him. "Okay, that's really good, now what' Mom's name and what does she look like?" "She's Ava. She has pretty blonde hair and even prettier blue eyes. She would always dress like she was getting ready to go to work." The stall slowly opened as I stepped back, "Why are you asking such silly questions sissy?" "I'm proving that no matter what you'll remember them because they raised you to be a wonder young lady. Now come here so I can fix your hair." I took her hairbands out and finger combed her hair back into one ponytail. Her bangs came down into curls. "Thanks sissy." Kiki went to grab her stuff but I stopped her. "Come back here so I can wash your face too." I wanted to say because it looks you just walked out of a fire, but we kinda did. While washing her face I realized how relaxed it was, like if all the muscles were gone. I looked into her eyes and realized that her brown eyes were darker that usual. "Are you done yet, it feels like you're taking skin off." I came out of my deep thoughts. "Yeah, go back to Watson. I'll be out once I wash my face." She grabbed her clothes and her bear and left. I quickly cleaned my face and followed. "Good you're back, your plane was just called. Let's go to your new beginning." Me, Kiki, and Watson sat in a row of seats together. The flight was only six hours, and for that six hours I slept. I had a weird dream though, it was of a plane crashing into the ocean. I quickly jerk up out of my seat. I looked at my sister and she was asleep. I looked at Watson, he was reading the paper. The front page had an article about a detective that solved another great case, but that's unimportant. I went to tell Watson about my dream but the seat belt light came on. My dream, was it coming true, were we all going to be baddies in the ocean. "Please fasten you seat belts, we will be landing shortly." A voices said from within the speakers. I fastened my sister's belt and then mine. I woke my sister up and gathered my bags and left the plane. Watson showed us to the taxi he called for us and helped us pack our things into the back. "Your not coming Watson?" I said as he was about to shut the door. "Afraid not, I have to go visit someone. The taxi driver knows where to take you, it's the brick church looking building. I hope you get a good start on your new lives." Watson closed the door and waved us good-bye. The taxi drove through the country. The hills were bright green doted with white fluffy sheep. Next we went through a small town. It smelled like fresh bread, well until we past by a pub. Then it smelled like sweat, smoke, and alcohol. The ride seemed to short because before I knew it, we stopped. "Here we are girls." The driver popped the trunk. "Thank you." I opened the door an realized something, "I'm sorry, Watson didn't give us any money." "It's okay, he paid me in advance." "Oh, okay then." I climbed out of the cab and my sister fallowed. Kiki grabbed her bag with her bear still clinched tightly in her hands. I grabbed my bag and followed her to this tall brick building. This was how we were going to move on with our lives, we would start over. We'd forget our tragic past and create a brighter future. We would stick together, my...