Red Discord

Chapter 2

The house was decorated with balloon and streamers as the day of Amie’s birthday party finally rolled in. Through the sheer exhaustion of both Kassie and Trevor, the party was started without a problem in sight. A glowing angel of hope, however, was Kassy’s best friend and companion, Madeline, who struggled with them for the whole two weeks worth of preparations.

As the guests filled in one by one, the house became crowded with my faces and sounds. The doorbell rang as Kassy peeled herself away from the group of the mothers of some of Amie’s friends, to answer the door, taking her time to greet the new faces that either Trevor or Madeline had greeted before her. The person who was standing the the doorway was James, with his somewhat combed back brown hair, tattered blue jeans, and plaid shirt, he looked far past his age. 

“Hey.” He moved his arm to shake Kassy’s hand. The present that was wedged in between his arm fell to the ground.

Kassy laughed as she picked it up. “I’ll just take this then and you can go see Amie.” 

“Actually, I wanted to talk with you first.”

She had already begun to turn around when she paused and snapped her head back to James. “What?”

“I know that we haven’t always gotten along and had our fair share of fights, but since we’re starting over, I want you to promise me that you won’t keep any secrets from me anymore. I promise you I won’t keep any secrets from you. Pinky promise.” James held out his pinky finger to the girl.

“I promise you, James, I won’t keep any secrets at all.” Kassy slide her free hand that she wasn’t using to pinky promise with James behind her back, crossing her finger with a smile. “I promise you that I won’t keep anymore secrets from you.”

“Thank you, Kass.” James brought her in for a hug, rubbing her back with his hands. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, come on in. Someone’s waiting for you.”  Kassie grabbed James hand and led him into the giant room down the hall where all the guests and kids were gathered. She introduced James to Amie who couldn’t be happier to finally met the uncle she had heard so much about in the recent years for some of his more famous paintings. 

Amie was beyond thrilled with her party. She didn’t think she could be happier as she was surrounded by people who praised her and paid so much attention to her; even her favorite people were there—all her favorite relatives and friends, and even some people she didn’t know, but it didn’t matter to her, since today was all about her anyways. Kassy grabbed Amie from behind, bringing the girl against her chest in an enormous bear hug. She spun Amie around and guided her to the table where the huge Amie-cake was placed. Trevor brought the lighter and just finished lighting the candles when the doorbell rang. Madeline and Kassy, who were on either side of the girl, ready to help her blow out her candles, exchanged glances. It was Madeline who stepped forward to answer the door. A guilt-stricken Kassy grabbed her arm to try to stop her.

She pulled her friend closer to her and whispered, “Are you sure?”

Madeline laughed. “It’s okay, it’s okay.” She motioned her head toward a man holding a camera in his hand. He waved. “Kevin’s recording all of this. Amie, dear, go ahead and blow out your candles, aunty Madeline will be right back.”

“Thank you.”

“I love you too, dear.” 

As Madeline left, Kassy convinced Amie to blow out her candles as James ran to the kitchen to get the kitchen knife to cut the cake. Kassy took the knife from James and cut the first four pieces, which she gave to Amie and her friends. Before they could sit down at one of the tables connected to the table the cake was placed on, Madeline walked into the room. Madeline drew all the attention of the room as she stopped. Behind her was a tall man with purple hair, a red nose, blue eye paint, a bright red nose, and a orange and green spotted suit—a clown. Amie jumped up and screamed, throwing her cake on the table without another care as she jolted for the clown. A small crowd gathered around the man as Kassy pulled Trevor to the side by the sleeve.