Free Scattered Leaves by V. C. Andrews Page A

When I drew closer to the Marshall house. I heard another window being thrown open. The curtain parted and the girl I had seen in the basement leaned out. The music was turned down, too.
"Hey!" she called. I walked a little faster toward her. "Who are you? What are you doing snooping around here?"
The boy she was with appeared over her shoulder and looked out at me.
"I'm not snooping," I said. "Mr. Marshall told me to come over here. Are you Alanis?"
"Mr. Marshall told you?" She laughed, looked at the boy and then at me again. "So who are you?"
"I'm Jordan March." I said.
"March? You related to Miss Piggy?"
I glared back at her a moment. That was a nasty thing to say.
Maybe I should just return to the house,. I thought.
"You mean my great-aunt Frances?"
"Oh, she's your great-aunt? What's so great about her?" she asked and laughed again. The boy laughed. too.
"That means she's my grandmother's sister," I said.
"I know what it means. I'm just teasing you. girl." She continued to look at me a moment. "Okay, come on in. Chad and I are bored anyway, or at least I am."
She backed away from the window and the curtain fell together again. I hesitated, looked back at the house, then walked slowly toward the front of the Marshall house, I saw a dark-brown hound dog lying on the front porch. It lifted its head off its paws to look my way, then lowered it again. Before I got there. Alanis opened the door and stood there with her arms folded.
Like her mother, she was tall and slim, but her facial features were bigger. so I thought she must look more like her father. Where was her father? I wondered, No one had even mentioned him. Her hat was tilted back and I saw that her hair was slightly lighter than her mother's and longer. However, her jeans were just as tight-fitting. She wore nothing more than what looked like a man's undershirt. and I could see that just like me, she wore no bra.
"Did you get an eyeful in Miss Piggy's basement before?" she asked. Her boyfriend stepped up beside her and laughed.
"How much is an eyeful?" I asked.
"Depends how long you were watching us."
"I wasn't watching you. I heard you laughing and just looked in."
"Too bad. You'd get an education," her boyfriend said, and she laughed.
"Don't tease her. Chad. She doesn't look much more than fourteen. How old are you?"
She thought I was fourteen?
"I'm seven." I said.
"Get out. Seven?"
"Can't wait until she's eight," Chad said. "What you say your name was again?"
"Jordan."
"Okay. Jordan. You can come in. Just step over Bones," she said. The dog did not move when I approached it. so I stepped over it as she had said. She pushed Chad in the stomach. "Get out of the way, stupid."
He stepped back and I entered the house. There was a very short entryway, and the living room was very small. The hallway was narrow and not very long. I saw three doors and imagined one was the kitchen and the other two were bedrooms, but then I realized one of the three had to be the bathroom.
"Go on in," Alanis said.
When I stepped into the living room. I saw that the sofa was used as a bed. There was a bed pillow on it and a blanket folded on one side.
"I bet your house is ten times this cardboard box, huh?" she asked me.
"My grandmother's house is. It's probably twenty times, maybe thirty," I said.
"Thirty! You kidding?" Chad said.
I shook my head. "No. it's a famous mansion in Bethlehem. My grandfather was an executive at Bethlehem Steel during the golden age."
"Yeah. I heard something about that." Alanis said. "She ain't lying. They're a rich family, owning all sorts of buildings and such."
"Man," Chad said. "what you doing here then?"
"I came to live with my great-aunt Frances." I said. "My father and mother were in a bad car accident. My father's in a wheelchair now and my mother is still in a coma. My grandmother had a stroke."
"You full of good news," Chad said and laughed.
"Go on. Sit down, Don't mind him. He's practicing to be an idiot and he's almost perfect." Alanis