Sarah Stories

>Be Sarah
>Meet up with Cloudkicker once she's done with soccer practice
"How was it today?"
>"I'm kinda glad it's over, to be honest. Coach today was telling me that we'll never make it to state if keep getting distracted. Being goalie is hard, though! The action is always on the other side of the field, and there's this ladybug that wouldn't leave Norman alone!"
"You sure that's the position you wanna do?"
>"Speaking of! What do you want to do today?"
"Uhhh... psshhhhhh... get icecream and see who can get a brain freeze first?"
>"You know what? I've never been to your house before!"
>Crap.
>No no no.
>Please don't imply what I think you're implying.
>"What if we went over to your place?"
>Quick! Think of something to distract her!
>Or an excuse!
>Anything!
"Weeeellll, I don't think you'd like my house. I have a cat that hates everyone. OH! I know! Let's go to the pet store and play with the sassy kitties!"
>"Why go to the pet store when you have a cat at home waiting for you?"
>Seriously? How did that not work?!
"I dunno..."
>She gives you a quizzical look
>"You don't know about your own cat?"
>You sigh defeatedly
>You don't want to hurt her feelings... but you're also scared of... well, your house!
>She's your friend, though, so might as well...
"OK. Just promise we can be quiet. My step-dad works at night, so he's asleep whenever the sun's out."
>"Sure! The sun is going down pretty soon anyway. We can yell and scream all we want then, right?"
>You know she's kidding, but at the same time, you're not sure whether or not she'll be able to keep that promise...

>The two of you get to your house
>Or rather, [spoiler]your mansion.[/spoiler]
>It's 3 stories tall, made with solid black bricks and barely protected by a metal gate entrance
>There area trees surrounding the house, but they're all leafless and withered
>Cloudkicker gawks at your home
>"Woooow. Who do you think lives here?"
"I do. Welcome to my home."
>You're a little bit embarrassed by how gaudy it is compared to every other single house on the street
>"You live in a castle?! What does your dad do for a living?!"
"He's a surgeon. Works on hearts."
>"Oh, wow. I could never do that. Too much blood."
"Well, it's his calling, I guess."
>"...Have you ever noticed that there's a storm cloud that only covers your house?"
"Let's just go inside."
>The two of you walk into your house and are immediately greeted by a hissing black cat
"Whiskers! Go be a scaredy cat somewhere else!"
>"Awwww! How cute! Is it scared of me? Come here, Whiskers!"
>As Cloudkicker approaches your cat, its back begins to rise, its fur sticking out in all directions
"Hey! Uhhh, ummm, race you to the kitchen?"
>"I don't know where your kitchen is, Sarah."
"Then I'm probably gonna win! Heh heh."
>You quickly grab Cloudkicker by the hand and run away from your stupid cat before she can swat at your friend
>Maybe the two of you can just watch TV till the sun's about to set then get out of there

>As you enter the kitchen, though, the fridge is already being rummaged by your brother Harley
>He's still pretty young, but he's tall enough to be about your height with a blonde hair that matches your skin tone
>He's one of the twins, but he's not as close to his brother Dante as most twins are with each other
"Hey, Harley. Move it. We're gonna eat icecream and watch sports."
>"Come on!" he says, moving out of the way for you to grab your icecream. "Can't I have a turn?"
"You can have a turn when it's time for Cloudkicker to go home."
>"But--"
"No buts!"
>You bump him to the side with your butt and start pulling out spoons for you and your friend
"I have a guest, now show some manners and let us have the TV."
>"Plus that means you can play with me."
>You all turn your heads to see Dante suddenly appear in the entrance to the kitchen
>His hair is a long, deep black which shadow his eyes, which were already dark with bags to begin with
>"NO!" Harley exclaims. "OK, I'll watch sports with you. I'll watch anything you want."
"No, go play with your brother."
>"PLEASE! I'll do anything! Just don't make me go back there! I promise to be good!"
"Dante, can you take Harley away for us?"
>Harley begins shaking hysterically
>Dante grabs him by the collar of his shirt and Harley completely breaks down into tears
>As Dante drags him away, Harley continues to beg and cry
>"NO! STOP! I'LL DO ANYTHING! DON'T MAKE ME GO! DON'T MAKE ME GOOOOO!!!!"
"Harley! Quit it! You're gonna wake up dad!"
>"Cloudkicker waves at your brothers
>"Bye! It was nice meeting you! OH! Cookies and cream! How did you know?!"

>The two of you grab your icecream, sit down on the couch and turn on the tv
>Whoever was using it last left it on the horror channel
>You quickly change the channel to whatever sport was on; you don't care at this point
>Divegrass! Perfect! Cloudkicker's favorite!
>Finally, tensions die down and you're already shouting at the TV
"Oh, come on! How did you let them steal the ball that easily? Seriously, I could beat both these teams if I was playing right now."
>"I don't think you'd wanna do that. These guys probably don't even live in a house this nice. You'd be losing money by taking the job."
"He scored on that? Are you kidding me?! You know what? Hold on."
>You turn on your brother's gaming console and put in FIFA
>As soon as it loads up, you jack all the stats up for the computer players as high as they'll go
"Cloudkicker, you'r on my team."
>"I don't know if I'll be able to block shots if their level is that high. I've only played this game a couple of times."
"This is my first, but trust me, you won't have to."
>"O-OK."
>The minute the clock starts, you go into a mode where you cancel out everything that's going on except for the game itself
>You won't just keep them from scoring
>You'll keep them from even touching the ball
>You'll keep them from getting near the ball
>How many can you score on them, 5?
>Not enough. Let's make it 12. Yeah, that sounds good.
"Cloudkicker, I'm passing it to you!"
>You pass the ball over, but Cloudkicker's character doesn't move, and the computer player quickly gets the ball away
"Cloudkicker! What happened?"
>"Did that painting just blink?"

>Crap. Maybe it's time to get her outta here.
"Are you feeling alright? You're probably tired from all the work you did at soccer practice. Plus, icecream makes you sleepy."
>"But I haven't even seen your room yet!"
>You weigh the options out in your head
>On the one hand, your room is actually pretty cute
>On the other hand, you don't want something to pop out for real and legitimately scare her away
>"I'll race you up the stairs!"
>Did. She. Just. Say. RACE?!
>You're already out of your seat, but to your surprise, Cloudkicker is actually faster than you thought
>In fact, she gets to the stairs before you do
>...Oh no...
>She runs up further and further, but you stay in place as she descends away into the distance
>Finally, she looks back and sees that you're still a long, long ways away
>Then she looks back toward the top of the stairs, which still looks just as far away as when she started
"Hold on!"
>You run up he stairs after her, and to keep her from any suspicion, you put your hands over her eyes
"OK, so the upstairs is really dirty. I'll take my hands off when we get to my room, OK?"
>"If you say so."
>You take her the remainder of the way, which is really only a couple of steps, and lead her to your bedroom
>She doesn't need to see any more paintings
"OK! We're here!"
>You open up the door, and before you fully get your hands off of Cloudkicker's eyes, she moves forward and runs straight into your dresser, knocking something down onto the floor
>"Whoops! Sorry about--eewwww! Tampons! Oh. No. Wait. These are candles."
>You quickly snatch them up and put them back onto your dresser
"Yeah, my dad likes to uh... save energy sometimes. Anyway, this is my room!"

>Your room is decorated with trophies and ribbons that you've won over the years, along with your sports gear lying around
>"Whoa! How many competitions have you won?!"
>You blush
"34 so far, but anyway, we should probably g--"
>You turn around, and just as Cloudkicker was finally out of excuses, she's now face to face with your stepdad
>He's tall and pale, wearing a black silk robe
>"Sarah! You didn't tell me you were having a friend over!"
"Yes, daddy. This is my friend Cloudkicker."
>"Nice to meet you! I'm Vladimir Acula."
>The two of them shake hands, and you hope he doesn't say anything weird
>"Nice, firm handshake. I take it you're an athlete? Nothing better than getting that heart moving and pumping blood through your body!"
>"Oh, yeah! Sarah told me you're a heart surgeon!"
>"Well, it's just how I put food on the table."
>Suddenly, Cloudkicker's phone goes off
>"Oh, no! My mom is probably worried sick about me right now!"
"You didn't tell her you were coming over?"
>"Sorry! I got distracted. It was nice meeting you, Dr. Acula!"
>With that, you guide her down stairs and out the door
>Finally, the most terrifying part of your day is over
>"SOMEBODY! HELP MEEE!!!"
"SHUT UP, HARLEY!"