The Amazing Chase

Chapter One: The Letter

When I was 11 , my mother always told me "Cove, if you're ever get nervous, just look up at the sky and count the stars."  She told me that right before my big acting debut in 5th grade. So I did. I counted the stars, and it worked, it calmed me down. Then when I was 12 almost a year later she told me , "we're moving to America!" So I ran outside to the dark starry night and I counted, I counted til I couldn't count anymore! "How could she do this?" I asked myself all night that very question. Leaving a place you know , just to move to a place you've never been before, why?

    5 days go by and now we are packing , Zachary ,my best friend , came over and started to help us. The only thing that helped me stay even a bit relaxed was knowing that Zac was moving to the states with us too. Now I'm not scared to go to the states because I don't know the language or anything , my mother Allison Mckeen , is American , and my dad, Nikolai is Russian , that makes me Russian-American. Needless to say I grew up speaking both languages so that part doesn't scare me. The part that scares me is when we get there and the only person I know is Zac and what if he doesn't want to be friends anymore because he met some American Girl? He promised me that , that would never happen but he can't see the future.

    sitting on a plan for 23h and 8m really stresses you out especially when you're working yourself up the ENTIRE way there  because you: 1. Don't like change and 2. What if...

    Life can throw curve balls at you. Living in the U.S. for 3 taught me that. Remember when I said I stress out because of the unknown? Well here is what that "Unknown" was , a year after we moved to Miami , my father got this weird job. He wasn't aloud to really talk about it , but people would just walk in and out of our apartment without even knocking. Now people did that in Russia but it was never both men and women. It was weird. I was never a loud to tell kids at school what he did for a living , which is fine because I didn't even know myself. My mother was a real estate agent , which is easy to remember , and easy to understand, she sells houses. After you tell people your mother sells houses they tend to not have anymore questions. The second year living in the U.S. I turned 14 , which is cool , because I get to go to American High school, which I've been told is NOTHING like the movies. Turning 14 and having an American birthday is weird because people make big deals about them here , when I lived in Krasnoyarsk my father always worked and my mother was always out with friends, so we never really did the whole birthday party thing; plus it's always been just me and Zac. So since Americans make a big deal about birthdays and Birthday parties , my mom wanted to throw me one. I invited all 3 girls in my homeroom class and Zac invite his guy friends . Me and Zac have the same birthday so we've always celebrated it on the same day to save time, effort , and money. What was the weird part was the presents, me and Zac never received presents on our birthday's before, but this year we did. The third year living in Florida was horrible, I wanted everything my Freshman year of High school to be Amazing. Needless to say it wasn't. My mom  and Zac's mom Nina went to run a job for my dad , apparently they were just supposed to deliver a package on a doorstep and leave, but that didn't happen. On the way home from this "delivery" Allison and Nina got into a car accident, they crashed into a poll on the side of the freeway. They died that day , alone , afraid , and without their children. I was at school when it happened. I didn't even get to say goodbye. Never got to tell her I loved her.  My father knew what had happened, and he didn't tell me until after dinner, he wanted the stars to be out. When those 3 words came out of his mouth , I ran so fast to the balcony , I almost flipped off. Would it have been so bad if I did though? I would be with my mother. I wouldn't feel this pain , this guilty , this hole. So I counted. When I counted I noticed this one star , it was bright  it looked like it was almost flashing , like calling out to me , so I stared at that star all night , until it eventually disappeared.

    The day after you loose your mother , you might think is the second most saddest day but in reality it isn't. The second most saddest day after loosing your mother is the funeral , because that's the day that you're expected to say  goodbye and move on with your life.  The day after my mother died , was sad yes but I managed. I was numb. At least that's how I felt. I never wanted to be the type of person to be sad over things I couldn't help , but this was so much harder to get over than I thought. A year later , after mom had passed was difficult but was easier to deal. My father asked me and Zac to go through our mothers' old office that they had. They were both real estate agents for the same company , but they  worked remote. So me and Zac went through and started to clean out their old office. I felt very intrusive to go through our mothers' things but it had to be done, our fathers need this space for a new comer ; new comers are what me and Zac called people who were being issued into the Mafia. Oh yeah boy the way I found out what my dad does for a living, he is a very successful Mafia leader and Zac's Dad Alexei is my father's partner or right-hand man , whatever you wanna call it . Anyways, new comers , they are the "trial runs" of people being added into the mafia , a long time ago the only way that you could be in our Mafia I  being born , married , or adopted in , and the adopted on was just added recently. Now my father and Zac's are trying to find new people to "recruit" as they call it in to the group. So they need the office space.  Zac and I found so many letters from our parents to each other before we were born. It's weird they was they spoke like they had to speak in a vague code type of way. "I found something interesting cove." Zac said in a whisper, "What? Another weird frustratingly vague letter ?" I asked annoyed. "No..well yes , but I found something interesting about the addresses on the letters." he said unsure of what he found "Well, don't just sit there with your mouth open like that! Tell me!" I grew impatient of his game. "You're not going to li-" Zac sounded worried but before he could get the sentence out I wrapped the paper out of his hand and read it, "FDC Miami, 33 NE 4th street, Miami ,FL 33132." I was confused and yet I knew then exactly what that address lead to, FDC Miami is a prison. "Covy come on , after finding out that our parents are in the mafia is that seriously something that surprises you?" Zac was the only person who called me Covy, and he only did it when he felt bad , but why did he feel bad for finding out that my dad when to pri-  "Did you know that my father went to prison?" I asked Zac as calmly as I could, "Yes, but to be far ,I wasn't supposed to know my father accidentally said something about it the night our mothers died, and I over heard him, so I kept it quiet because if they wanted us to know that , then they would have directly told us." Zac said those words and it infuriated me , I hated the fact that he knew that and didn't tell me. I hated the fact that he Calle me Covy knowing I would have put the pieces together.  " I can't believe you kept something like that from me! Who are you to keep that kind of stuff from me , we are supposed to be best friends, we are supposed to tell each other everything , and by everything I mean EVERYTHING!" I didn't care about being calm , cool , and collected anymore that shit pissed me off , ALL the way. "We are best friends Covy-" "STOP! Stop calling me Covy!" "Look , I'm sorry Co-" I gave him one of my "I swear if you call me covy one more time I'll grippe your head off " kinda look "Covelyn , I didn't know it would hurt you this much and I should have told you. I'm sorry." Zac seemed really sorry and really upset. "No , I'm sorry. I know you were just trying to protect the oath." I had the oath. The oath is this thing that legacies have to remember and study , because they have to know it by heart in order  to be sworn in to the group , since I'm a female I won't be able to be sworn in because women are already sworn in by birth. Women are the sayers of the group , whatever we say goes , my father is the leader  but my mother called all the shots. Since ,my mother passed away , It's been my god mother , just until I am Old enough to call the shot.  Me and Zac continued to go through the letters and read , and trash the non interesting ones.

    "Hey , look I found a letter in my moms box labeled Covlyen Morozov." Zac said confused "What? Why would your mom have a letter labeled Covelyn in her box?" "Look to see if there is one in your mom's box labeled Zachary Sokolov ." Zac sounded almost excited about these letters. " "There is!" I said in absolute shock and excitement. we opened the letters and began to read the , mine was confusing and hard to really understand, it was like it was one big riddle. I can't believe that I was reading this. "Zac" tears filled my eyes "Does this mean" he cut me off before I could finish "Yeah Cove , It does.".