Walking And Running

Chapter 1: Lucindy Dawns

Lucindy Dawns is a 17 year old girl. She has wavy, brown hair and astonishing, electric blue eyes. Everyone calls her "Red Riding Hood" or "Red," for short, because of the red bandana she wears wherever she goes. But in her home, she has no bandana on her head, so her family calls her Lulu.

Today, Lulu is wearing a red and black pladed, below the knee, short skirt. She wears a plain, white, v-neck shirt and a red, knitted jacket over the top. Today, she will be experimented on, with the permission of her parents, and she is excited.

Lulu looks around her room. Her room has scarlet red walls. She has a white bed covered with scarlet red sheets and black carpet on the floor.

"¡Mamá!" Lulu calls for her mom. They normally speak english, but both her and her mom practice spanish and are on the same level. "¿Dónde esta mi bandana?" Whenever Lulu or her mom don't remember a word in spanish, they say it in english instead.

"¡No te preocupes! Esta aquí." Her mom yells from downstairs.

Lulu hesitates. She replays what her mom said in her mind and tests it on her lips. Te preocupes means do not worry. Lulu almost forgot what that meant.

Lulu runs downstairs. She finds her mom in the kitchen cooking waffles and scrambled eggs for breakfast. But she sees no bandana.

Her mom's long brown hair, in a bun to keep it from the food. Her mom's dark eyes, darting to Lulu. Her mom's small and motherly smile for Lulu.

"Oh, hey, honey! I gave your bandana to your brother. I told him to give it to you, but he probably didn't, did he?" Lulu's mother winks at Lulu with a knowing smile.

Lulu giggles. "No, he did not."

Lulu's 6 year old brother is always a clown. His name is Jack. He tries to make everyone he meets smile. He jokes and teases them, but when he gets over the edge with his teasing, he stops smiling, says "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it," and he gives them an apologetic smile. He is a sweet little boy and he, sometimes, seemed a little more mature for his age.

Lulu gives a morning hug to her mom and turns to the doorway of the kitchen and calls for her little brother. "Jack! Where is my bandana?"

"Come find me and you'll get it!" Jack yells from somewhere upstairs.

"And once you find him, bring him down here so we can eat breakfast," her mom orders Lulu and goes back to her cooking.

Lulu smiles and nods her head. "I will."

Lulu runs up the steps and stops at the first door. This room is her brother's. The room has baseball posters covering the wall. A black bed is pushed up against the left wall, covered with blue sheets with baseballs and bats.

Lulu looks in the closet, shoes and toys scatters the closet floor. But no Jack.

Lulu takes a step forward, but stops and looks under her hovering foot. A baseball is under that foot. She picks up the baseball and puts it in the toy box. She then walks over to the bed where there is a lump under the covers. Lulu pulls the covers off to the foot of the bed. There lies their black hound, Matt.

Matt just looks at Lulu with his dark grey eyes and jumps off the bed. He then jogs to the doorway and barks at Lulu. Then jogs out.

Lulu, knowing that Matt wants her to follow, fast walks out of the room and follows the dog into their parents' room.

Matt looks around and sniffs the air. Matt keeps sniffing the air as he walks around the bedroom. He sniffs the wooden tiled floor and walks over to the bed. He looks under the bed and barks.

Lulu looks under the bed after Matt had barked. Small, plastic boxes covering the floor under the bed. Lulu skims around the boxes, looking for whatever Matt might be barking at. But nothing. Wait. Did she see red?

Lulu looks at a half empty plastic box. Behind it is something red. Lulu moves the box out and tries to get a better view of what is behind it.

Jack is behind the box. He is wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. His dark, brown hair lays flat on his head. He makes a hand motion to the dog and Jack points out while whispering, "Go! Matt, leave. You'll get me discovered by Lulu. Go!"

Lulu smirks as she thinks of startling her little brother. As she reaches over to Jack, she makes a soft, quite growl. Jack tenses up and as her hand gets closer to Jack's arm, Lulu's growls becomes louder. As Lulu lightly touches Jack's arm, Jack jumps and his head hits the bed.

Lulu laughs as Jack groans. Jack turns to Lulu and smiles despite his throbbing head. He crawls out from under the bed and gives Lulu her bandana.

Lulu giggles and starts to put her bandana on. But she stops and listens to her little brother.

"You scared me to death Lulu!" Jack says with wide eyes. "You actually sounded like one of those zombies from that movie we watched last night!"

Lulu chuckles. "The movie was called 'Warm Bodies', Jack." Lulu remembers the movie they watched. It was a perfect movie. It was mainly romance, but that's what Lulu likes. Lulu decides to mention that the movie was watched two nights ago, not last night. "And we watched that two nights ago."

"Oh," Jack says, then he gives her a smirk. "Now you have to hug me." He puts out his arms, closes his eyes and waits for the hug.

Lulu chuckles and runs to the doorway. She turns to see Jack and smirks as she sees his cunfused face. "You have to catch me to get a hug!" Lulu sing-songs. And as she turns away from him she sees him smirk back at her.

Lulu runs down the hall. She jumps four steps and is now close to the end of the stairs. Then she sees Jack slides past her on the railing. Once he gets to the end, he jumps in front of Lulu and giggles as Lulu squeals in surprise.

It is Jack's turn to become surprised as Lulu jumps over the railing. She runs into the kitchen and sees Jack run past her. She stops confused and watches Jack takes the plate of bacon from the delicate hands of their mother.

Lulu smiles as she realizes what Jack is doing.

"Here, mom, I've got it." Jack says. He walks to the table and sets the bacon down.

"Thank you, Jackie." Their mom kisses Jack's forehead.

"I'll grab the silver ware!" Lulu says as she walks to the drawer of eating utensils. She grabs three forks and a serving spoon for the jam that was out on the table. Lulu turns to the table and sees her mom is sad. "Mom? What's wrong?"

Their mom gives Lulu a sad smile. "Oh there's nothing wrong."

Jack frowns. "Mom! There is obviously something wrong. Now tell us."

"Ok," their mom sighs. "It's just that Lulu here is going to be experimented on. I mean, what if they got her crippled or... or what if they end up killing her-!"

"Mom!" Lulu interrupts her mom and starts to soothe her down. "I'm not going to get crippled or die. Besides, if something wrong happens I have faith in the professional scientists who will fix it. Nothing wrong will happen."

"Oh, your right. I guess I was just being paranoid." And their mom smiles thankfully at Lulu.