Untitled ~ Sneak Peek of Chapter 4 Added!

Chapter 1

I laughed as a pillow hit my face. I swung mine at my attacker, and it split in half. Feathers flew everywhere. All four of us fell down laughing. Wiping tears from my eyes and still giggling, I went into the spare room and grabbed another pillow.
"No more." I said, looking at my friends.
"Fine." Jessi said, annoyed. She hit me softly in the arm with her pillow.
"She said not to!" My brother called from my door.
Liz screamed and threw her toothbrush at him. It hit his chest and went down his shirt, which was loose.
"Eww!" Liz moaned. "Get it out!"
Brian reached up his shirt and grabbed the toothbrush. We all were repulsed by it. He left the room.
"Well, at least we don't have to brush out teeth now." Jen said brightly, making Jessi and me laugh. Liz was still disgusted at the sight of her toothbrush. I sighed.
"I'll let you borrow one of mine, Liz." I said, grabbing her old toothbrush and chucking it into the garbage.
"Thanks." She breathed, obviously relieved that she wouldn't have to stick a Brian-chest hair infected tooth brush in her mouth. There was a ding from Liz's bag. She had gotten a text. There was three more dings. Jessi, Jen, and Liz all had confused faces, which must have been the same look on mine.
I pulled out my iPhone, and checked my texts. There was one from Justin! I touched it excitedly.

hey

It read. I was a bit disappointed, but still excited. I sent a 'hi, sup' back to him, eager for a reply. There was a vibration as I got another text.

umm...nm. will u go w/me 2 the dance?

I squealed and sent back and eager 'yes.' I looked back up at my friends, a huge smile plastered onto my face. I noticed their smiles, too. Except for Jen, who's eyes were brimming with tears.
"Jonathan asked me out!" Liz exclaimed.
"Jimmy asked me out!" Jessi said, bouncing up and down on her sleeping bag.
"Justin asked me out to the dance!" I half-shouted, and hugged my two friends. I then turned to Jen. "What's wrong?" I asked concernedly.
"P-Pippy died." She said, breaking into sobs. Tears ran down her face.
"No!" Liz cried, and squeezed Jen's hand, which I noticed she was holding.
"You mean Pippy the pig?" Jessi asked, and Jen nodded. "No! I loved Pippy!" A tear rolled down her cheek.
"How did he die?" I asked Jen sympathetically. She took a breath and answered me.
"Mom and Dad went to a show tonight, and left Pippy tons of food so she wouldn't get hungry. But when they got home, all the food was gone!" I touched her arm, telling her I was sorry. She was pale and her skin was cold. "She died because she ate too much food!" Sobs erupted from Jen as she finished, no unable to speak.
"Oh my gosh!" Brian exclaimed, walking in. I guessed he had heard her crying and came to see what was wrong. "I'm so sorry. I understand how you feel. When Binky died, I cried for the whole week."
My eyes were watery at the mention of our old cay, Binky. He had died because my Dad had run over him while backing out of the driveway. He'd only died a few months ago.
Brian bent down beside Jen, and rubbed her back like Dad used to rub mine. She calmed down a bit, and stopped crying.
"Sorry, guys." She said, wiping her eyes. She let out a forced laugh. "This is supposed to be happy, not sad. I'm going to try and forget about Pippy." But I knew that was impossible for all of us. Her cute little snort echoed through my mind, and I frowned inside. Jen shouldn't have to go through this. Her grandma had just died, for goodness sake. Why was God frowning upon Jen?

Chapter 2

My thoughts were interrupted by another ding of my phone.

k. pick u up at 7?

I sent back a 'yeah.' I looked up, and Jen seemed to be clearing up, what with Brian's back-rubbing and Liz's hand-squeezing. Jessi was staring at her phone, still giddy. Apparently she had gotten another text from Jimmy. Jimmy Falcon, the stupidest(in my opinion) guy in our class. Oh well.
There was a quack from Jen's iPhone, which was like mine, but had a pink piggy cover. A smile appeared on her face, which made me happy.
"Tony asked me out." She said softly. All of us were giddy now. But I notice that Brian has stopped the back-rub and was frowning. I wondered why.
"Oh my gosh it's 2:00!" Liz exclaimed. I checked the clock. She was right. I yawned.
"Let's go to sleep." Jessi suggested. We agreed, and fell asleep.

~*~

I dreamed of kisses, mysteries, and pigs. Odd.

~*~

The next morning, I woke up first, as usual. I shook Jessi, waking her up. It was unusually warm in the room. She woke up, and I noticed beads of sweat on her forehead.
"Phew. It's hot, isn't it?" She said, and rested a hand on my bedroom door, which was closed. I heard a faint dinging, but thought it was just my mind. Suddenly Jessi pulled her hand away.
"Woah! What the heck? The door's blistering hot!" She said, shaking her hand. I rested a finger on the door. She was right. I looked under the crack of the door, and saw flickering flames.
"Fire!" I screamed. Jen and Liz woke up. The stood up, putting on socks and shoes. I followed suit. I tossed some of my most precious belongings out of the window, and stood on the roof. My friends followed, tossing their suitcases down. Liz jumped first, then Jessi. I let Jen jump next.
"Last chance..." A voice floated through my mind. I looked back at my room, where flames were eating through the door. I took a jump off the roof, and landed hard onto the grass in my front yard. Liz was dialing 9-1-1, while I hoped my family had gotten out.
"Holly!" A voice shouted. Brian!
"Over here!" I yelled, waving my arms. He ran out of the gate, covered in a bit of ashes. He pulled me into a hug, and didn't let go for a while.
"I thought I'd lost you." He whispered, and the fear showed in his eyes.
"Mom and Dad?" I asked.
"They're in the back. I'll go get them." He ran back through the gate before anyone could say a thing. I heard sirens in the distance. My parents ran through the gate after Brian, and my Dad picked me up, holding me tight. My Mom hugged me tightly, too.
The firefighters arrived, and doused the flame. Me and my family walked inside, discovering that the fire has been started from our computer, so none of our belongings downstairs had been harmed.
I walked into my room, and gasped. Nothing was harmed. Nothing at all. But I had seen the flames creeping in there! What the heck had happened?


Chapter 3

I ran around the room, touching my bed, closet, and dresser. They were all warm, but not harmed in any way. My breathing was fast as I felt a few more things. They were all warm, as if they had lay under the Sun, or in an oven for a little. But not burned. Not even the wood was scorched, like it should have been.
Jen, Jessi, and Liz chose that time to walk in.
"Hey!" Jen said, looking around with wonder in her eyes. "The fire didn't reach your room!" She was beaming. The other two were happy for me, too. I decided not to tell them about the flames in my room. Maybe I had been hallucinating. Who knows?
"Thanks gosh," Jen continued. "Because I forgot my stuffed piggy!" She pulled out a life-sized fat stuffie pig from under my desk.
"How do you forget that?" Jessi asked, laughing.
"It's like forgetting your legs!" Liz said, and I joined in with their laughter. Jen however, didn't laugh. I remembered Pippy and stopped laughing, too. Jessi and Liz's laughter died out, too.
I walked out of my room and into the hallway, which was mostly black from the fire. I walked into the other rooms, Brian's and my parents', and they were burned. But the spare room wasn't. This was a bit freaky.
"Holly?" A voice called from outside. I looked out of the window in the spare room, and there stood Justin, Jimmy, Jonathan and Tony. I heard two squeals as Jessi and Liz ran downstairs. But where was Jen's? I walked back into my room.
"Jen?" I asked. "Why aren't you excited? Tony's here."
"Why would I be? He's not my boyfriend or anything." She said, confused.
"Yeah, he asked you out last night, remember?" I was just as confused as her.
"Oh..." She trailed off. "I never said yes. I don't like Tony." Then she blushed. "I like Brian."
I gasped, and felt like slapping someone. Maybe even Jen. How could she like Brian? My no-sense stupid brother? And how could she betray me like that? I wanted her as a friend, not a sister!
"Well," I said, and stupid tears welled up in my eyes. "He's in his room. Get out." I pointed out towards his room. She left, flabbergasted. Tears spilled from my eyes.
"Holly!?" Justin called again, this time from the front door. I quickly wiped my eyes and came downstairs.
"Um, hi." I smiled half-heartedly. He sighed in relief.
"I was wondering where you were." Justin said, flashing his dazzling teeth at me. But my heart didn't melt. It didn't even warm up. Jen was still on my mind.
Tony came up. "Where's Jen?" He asked.
"She's........busy." I said, trying to keep the contempt out of my voice. Luckily, they didn't notice, and the other two couples skipped up.
"Jimmy was telling how scared he was when he heard that there was a fire!" Jessi chirped to me. "I feel so loved!"
"Great." I said, attempting to be excited.
"What's wrong?" Liz asked me, noticing the weak attempt. I looked upstairs, and pointed at Brian's room.
"Jen." I said.

Sneak Peek of Chapter 4

"What about Jen?" Tony asked, and fear crept into his facial expression.
"Nothing." I sighed, and knew that I couldn't tell Tony or the other guys. He would punch something. I felt Justin's arm reach around to rest on my shoulders, and comfort flooded through me.
A few minutes later the guys left for school, while we were excused. I told Liz and Jessi what Jen did to me and they didn't get it. I sighed, and realized there was yelling in the house. I crept upstairs and peeked into Brian's room. What I saw shocked me.