Sleeping In A Graveyard

Saturday.

Saturday's for Marionette are her days to go travel to the bookstore that was about thirty minutes away from her house to find herself a nice book to read during class. It was her refuge from when there was nothing interesting the teacher spoke about or when she was at lunch. That morning however, was slightly different than her other Saturday mornings because of the wonderful date she had had the previous night. She couldn't stop thinking about how romantic the whole thing was, wondering how exactly Kaeden knew she wanted it. But instead she focused on her breakfast so that she could get on her journey.

"Leaving soon, honey?" Her mother asked as Marionette got up to wash her dishes.

"Yup, got anybody to make look pretty?" Her mother chuckled as she put the dishes away and then prepared breakfast for her husband.

"Yes, your father is embalming the body now," Marionette found the slightly odd, her father usually embalming the bodies at night so her mother could prepare them in the morning.

"That's odd." She mumbled to herself as she finished up the dishes and went upstairs to head out.

"Be safe." Her mother shouted out after her.

Marionette headed into the forest where there was a path that led out to a small shopping district that held her favorite bookstore. She would grab a small cup of coffee and immerse herself in the books that surrounded her. She also loved that the long walk, getting time to herself somewhere other than her own room. The walk took Marionette through a biking trail. behind a golf course, and under a bridge. As long as the walk was she loved it nonetheless, seeing all these different people along her path. Music flowed into her ears through her headphones as her boots made a soft clicking noise against the pavement. However, her normally solace walk was disturbed by the ringing of her cell phone. She found it weird since no one ever called her (she didn't even know why she had it) unless it was her parents.

When she looked at the ID on the screen she saw her sisters name flashing brightly in time with the ringing and buzzing it was making. She quickly took out an earphone and picked up the phone.

"Aurora?" Marionette asked, the excitement clear in her voice.

"Netty! Oh, how good it is to hear your voice. How are you?" Hearing her big sister's voice she could almost see Aurora standing in front of her, her long blonde hair flowing around her, Aurora being almost the opposite of Marionette.

"Good, good. I actually have a lot to tell you." Aurora was shocked, normally the only thing she would tell Aurora was about her midnight adventures in the cemetery. Aurora actually missed being scared while her baby sister kept telling her to brave as they ran around playing hide and go seek in the graveyard. On rare occasions it would be the place where they would take their naps in the summer, falling asleep by some large tombstone for some shade.

"Really? Well you can tell me all about it when I come back." Marionette was completely in shocked and squealed in happiness.

"Yay! Oh, wow, I can't wait! When are you coming back?"

"Next week. Well, I'm sorry Netty, I gotta go. I'll call you soon!" With that they both hung up the phone, leaving Marionette extremely happy knowing that her sister was coming.

Marionette did a small twirl only to land in someone's arms. She began to freak out until she saw who it was.

"Lance?" Lance stood there smiling awkwardly. Marionette looked up at him, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"Sorry if I spooked you. I wanted to ask you something." Marionette was a bit lost as to why Lance would even ask her that but nodded her head, continuing to walk while awaiting his question.

"Well after your trip to the bookstore-"

"Wait, how did you know that?" Lance bit his lip as Marionette stared at him sternly.

"I-I over heard...I'm sorry!" Marionette laughed but then thought about it. Was he spying on her all the time?

"We need to talk about boundaries." She stated as Lance nodded his head, knowing that he really shouldn't have been spying on her but he knew that today was going to be his day since Kaeden wouldn't stop boasting last night about his date with her.

"I know but, agree to meet me after you've done and we'll talk, okay?' Marionette was surprised but thought that it would be nice to spend some time with Lance.

Marionette knew she was still unsure about how she felt about both of them but she knew she liked them both and in the end she couldn't have both of them.

"Um...okay," Lance smiled and quickly kissed her cheek.

"Great!" With that Lance disappeared going off somewhere.

Marionette then continued on to the bookstore wondering about Lance and Kaeden. They were two different people who liked her. Then again, Lance was a ghost, he was someone who had been dead a long time and would never age. She knew it would be kind of hard for herself to get over that fact but she wouldn't think about that until her heart felt that she had to worry about it. The only problem was that she really didn't know what she was looking for, she really didn't understand what she was suppose to feel.

Marionette never liked someone before because she knew she would get rejected so she didn't know what love was. Love was a mystery, something that baffled her. The only thing of love she could related to was her parents. They were in love, she knew that much but what that meant she didn't know. Love to her was loving her family, no one else. She never even had friends to love.

Also, throughout the school Kaeden's reputation was that of a womanizer. Going though girls more often then underwear. What was Marionette to think? Was she to end up thrown away after Kaeden had charmed her off her feet and gotten whatever it was that he wanted from her? She shook her head not wanting to think like that after all they had divulged to each other the night before. Marionette began to convince herself that Kaeden wanted nothing more to do with her than to just actually get to know her but her head was telling her a different story.

Kaeden's reputation proceeded him while Lance seemed to have a clean slate. He probably hadn't kissed a girl since his death. But that brought her back to the other issue, Lance was a ghost while Marionette was still very much alive. Marionette shook her head once again wanting to get the thoughts out. Sadly, as much as Marionette loved the solitude, she couldn't help all the thoughts that came flooding into her mind. This was just another thing that had changed since her birthday. Marionette had other things to think about now other than cremation, death, tombstones, and Dracula movies. She wasn't thinking about what new Nightmare Before Christmas doll came out. She was finally thinking about what normal teenage girls thought about at this age.