Kid At Heart

Chapter Four

Chase is such a idiot. A stupid, dumb kissing idiot.

I don't get somebody who goes out and kisses some girl who he hasn't even met before. If I haven't suddenly become eighteen years old, this mess wouldn't have ever happened.

I knock on the front door once I get home and Mum answers soon after. 'Where have you been, Patricia?' She asks with a concerned look. 'You've been out for quite a long time now.'

'It's such a long story.' I walk into the house and spin on my heel to look at her. 'Thanks for letting me stay at your home, by the way.' Her matching brown eyes gleam.

I walk into the kitchen to get something to eat. 'You are very welcome, I love having people stay at my house.' Mum replies. 'In fact, this happens quite often anyway.'

I knew that, and she has guests smiling every time they leave. Mum has a heart of gold and is one of the sweetest people in my life who I know. Alongside Cassandra, of course.

I grab a chocolate muffin from the pantry and turn to face her again. 'I'm going to hang out in the backyard.' She nods understandably. 'Need some time for myself to chill.'

"You go do that, dear.' Mum smiles and I walk out into the backyard, sitting on the fresh green grass. It's quite a big back garden with lots of trees sprinkled with flowers, the same shade of blue as the ones at the park. Our street is rarely busy, so it is very peaceful and quiet which I very much prefer. I bite into my chocolate muffin, moaning in satisfaction at the taste.

Once doing so, I thought about the events of this morning. Why can't I just remember that I'm temporary eighteen and not have gone into my regular class? This time it felt like Timmy Findall calling me stupid meant he was right about my decision and I decided to enter a class at the high school that the work was way too difficult for me. Worst of all, I got kissed by a stupid boy!

I must've sat outside for ages because I hear footsteps coming from inside. Shifting my body, I saw both my mum and my best friend's mum walk toward the back garden. When the door slides open and they walk out, they both smile at me brightly.

'Patricia, I would like you to meet somebody.' Mum says. 'This woman right here is a close friend of mine and Cassandra's mum! I told her all about you and she was very interested.'

'Hello Patricia, it's very nice to meet you!' Mrs White greets while walking over to me. She observes my face for a moment. 'You look so much like her daughter, Penelope.'

Yeah, no kidding.

'How are you liking the neighbourhood?' She asks with genuine interest. 'It's a very nice place, ma'am. Very peaceful and relaxing.' I smile with a quick nod. Mum then looks at her.

'I still don't know where she came from. She turned up out of the blue on Sunday.' She comments as both women looks at me. 'Not even a single reason why.' I part my lips to speak on this conversation. 'To be honest, I don't even really know myself.' I shrug my shoulders.

'Must be magic.' Mrs White mutters as she looks at me. She then looks at mum. 'Do you know where she came from?' Mum shrugs. 'I heard her footsteps from upstairs and eventually found her in the kitchen. She told me all these random facts about my own daughter.'

I feel my breath hitch in my throat as she dismissed my mum and walked towards me. Does she believe who I am? 'Which facts did you tell her about Penelope?' Mrs White asks me.

'I told her that my birthday was March 12th, I'm eight years old, my best friend is Cassandra and that we all went to the park together.' I decide to leave out information about the bright light in the sky which made me like this. 'And yet she thinks I'm a crazy person who's lost with herself.'

She smiles brightly and I know that she knows. 'And what happened to cause this rapid ageing thing?' She asks. I explained everything to her that happened that night.

'That's a bit strange, some sort of bright light in the sky.' She wonders out loud before looking at me again. 'Well, Penelope, I'm sure we can figure this out in the end, you hear me?'

'Thank you.' I smile as she returns it and walks back into the house, leaving me in the same spot among the flowered trees. I then smile even brighter, knowing she believes me too.