I let out a sigh as I lay stretched across my bed, utterly bored. My mom was out of town, my dad was at work, and my friends were all busy. So, there I was with absolutely nothing to do. Even my online friends seemed to have more active lives than I did, for they were all offline. I had spent the morning reading Twilight fics on my laptop, but even that grew old after a while. Hmm, even as bored as I am right now though, I’d still rather have more time left of summer vacation… I thought as I stared up at the ceiling. I had only just graduated high school a few months back, and now the start of college life drew ever nearer. Fun. I still have no idea how I’m going to manage those twenty page papers. It kills me just to write two. My lazy streak is going to end up killing me.

I rolled my eyes when I heard the birds flapping around in their cages from the living room. The dogs followed suite with a lot of barking. I suppose you could say that we were a bit of animal lovers. We have two miniature pinchers, two cockatiels, and eight finches. People always seemed shocked whenever I mentioned that we owned ten birds, but it honestly wasn’t as bad as it sounded. After all, the finches were really tiny and all shared their own cage, so they didn’t really count that much. The only mildly annoying part was just how much seed they went through in a weak. You wouldn’t expect such tiny little creatures to be able to eat so much. I guess dad’s home, I thought to myself, hearing the alarm chirp twice as the front door opened and closed. Oops, I forgot to turn the alarm back on after letting the dogs out this morning. Crap, I’m going to be in trouble for that.

I sat up on my bed and checked myself over briefly in the mirror before leaving my room. I wasn’t exactly what one might consider attractive. At least, I didn’t see myself that way. My hair was ok, shoulder-length, wavy, thick, and dark brown. I have a light olive complexion that was in dire need of a tan, and my eyes were such a dark brown that they almost looked black. What annoyed me about myself the most however was that I was never exactly thin. Hadn’t been that way since I was like seven, but that was my own fault. I was too lazy to get into any exercise routines and I didn’t have enough will to resist eating non-healthy foods. Well, at least I wasn’t obese. I quickly drew my hair into a low looped bun before opening my door and heading towards the living room.

“Hey, dad! Sorry about the alarm!” I called out as I walked. “I had forced the dogs out into the yard earlier before it rained and I forgot to turn it back on.” When I came to the living room, I saw that he wasn’t there. Hmm, he must already be in his room. I wonder if he heard me. He hasn’t said anything back. I glanced over at the bird cages and noticed that they looked a lot more freaked out than usual. I also noticed that the dogs had gone back out through the dog door and into the garage already. That’s odd. Usually they are still running around right after he comes home. As I walked up to the cockatiel cage, I happened to glance out of the window. My heart nearly stopped. His car was not there. That meant that there was someone else in the house.

I immediately ran to my parent’s room. They had a gun hidden behind their bed, and I might just be needing it. I stopped short when I saw that there was someone else already there.