Even before I opened and unlocked the door I could hear my parents arguing. Lizzie and Alison looked at each other with raised eyebrows. I put my key in the lock and unlocked and opened the big wooden front door of my house. We stepped inside where a few feet in front of us were my parents arguing about I don't know what. I had learned to tune out their arguments long ago.

Alison opened her mouth to say something.

"Don't bother saying hi they probably won't respond," I said, locking the door behind me.

"Oh."

We headed upstairs to my room, all the while Alison and Lizzie looking around at my house and the things in it in awe.

"Wow you have a really nice house," Alison commented.

Lizzie had been to my house a few times but Alison hadn't.

"Thanks," I replied.

We headed up the large sweeping mahogany staircase, past the bare white wall and up to the second floor. On the second floor we walked down the thickly carpeted hallway, past the many closed doors leading to the many rooms. One of the doors was open however and from that room we heard laughter and smelled smoke.

"That's Amy, my cousin," I explained.

"She smokes and occasionally baby sits me every now and then not that I need it. Don't bother talking to her, either, it's highly doubtful that shell respond. Why she lives here and not with her own parents I don't know."

We had come to the end of the hall where a large woo den door stood locked and shut. I put my iron key into the keyhole twisted the knob and opened the door letting the girls in before I locked and shut it again.

"Paranoid?" Lizzie asked me

"You never know when Amy might want something," I answered, dropping my stuff on the floor and going over to light some of the candles on my windowsill.

"Your house is so loud," Alison commented.

"Yeah I know."

"At home its just Belinda and I and sometimes Mom."

I couldn't imagine what living in a quiet house would be like. The arguments of my parents and the laughter of Amy was all I had ever known. I had been to Lizzie's house a few times and it was eerily quiet. And smaller than mine.

My room was gray, or at least the lighting was, which made the bedding, bedspread and about the 10 pillows on the bedding look gray, along with the sheer purple curtains which I never opened. I never opened the windows either which Alison had gone to look at.

"Kate?" she asked.

"Hmm?"

"Why are there bars on the windows?"

"Wha oh I don't know."

"Oh."

A pause.

"Why don't your parents just get a divorce?" Lizzie asked me.

I sighed; "I don't know."

Another pause.

"When was this house built?" Alison wanted to know

"Around the beginning of the 19th century," I replied

"1800," Lizzie spoke up.

"Hmmm?" I murmured.

"It was built in 1800," she repeated

I had told her this on one of her many visits to my house

"Oh yeah. Yeah this had been in our family for centuries'

Alison was wide eyed; "Woooooow."

I giggled.

"So then your family's been living here since 1800?" Lizzie asked.

She already knew the answer but she wanted to inform Alison.

"Yeah."

"Why are there so many rooms and doors?" Alison asked

"Because there used to be more of us way back when."

"Woooow."

Another pause.

Lizzie was sitting on my bed while Alison looked around the room.

"Hey how come you don't have any mirrors?" she asked

"I don't like mirrors."

"Oh."

She continued looking. She wandered over to my bookshelf, which was across from the bed.

"Wow you have a lot of books," she commented.

"Yeah I know."

The wooden bookshelf was filled with books. She stood by the bookshelf and looked up at the white ceiling.

"Hey what's that?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh that's the door to the attic."

"Oh. Can I see it sometime?"

"What, the attic or the door?"

"You've already seen the door," Lizzie said.

"Yeah. So I guess the attic," Alison answered.

"Oh. Yeah sure I guess. You guys want something to eat?"

"Ok."

"Yeah."

We went down to the kitchen.