Chapter 1: Late!

      “Susie! Hurry up or you're going to be late!”
         “Coming, Tina!” I started to rush down the stairs when I tripped and fell.
         “Ow! My back!” I yelled as Tina walked into the room.
         “Hurry up, slowpoke, and come eat your breakfast! Honestly! Sometimes I wonder why I put up with you. I mean, seriously! You do this every morning!”
         “You're the one who rushes me so much that I trip and fall!”
         “Well, that's because you wake up late, you're slow, and you're clumsy”. I was at a loss for words because 1.) She had a point and 2.) I was too hungry to fight. I got up and walked into the kitchen. One minute, I was staring at my breakfast, and the next minute, I was lying on the ground with two tongues in face that belonged to the cat and dog that had just jumped on me.
         “Ruby! Rose! Stop! Get off me! I’m going to be late for school! That tickles!” I cried in between giggles. I squirmed on the ground trying to get up when Tina picked them up off me.
         “And a good morning to you, too,” I giggled, trying to recover. As I sat down, Rose, my five year old cat (in human years), jumped on my lap, while Ruby, the same age as Rose (also in human years), sat next to my chair, hoping for scraps of food to fall.
         “Come on, Ruby! I’m not that messy!” I said in a whiny voice as Tina laughed. We then clasped our hands together as we did every morning.
         “May mom and dad come home safely from their trip,” we said in unison.
         “Jinx! You owe me a soda,” I yelled.
         “What type of soda?”
         “Sprite, of course!”
         “Okay! Eat your breakfast,” Tina annoyed. I stared at my breakfast drooling. There were pancakes with strawberries and wiped cream on top, waffles, hash browns, hard boiled eggs, biscuits & gravy, fruits(especially strawberries), omelets, cereal, cinnamon rolls, muffins, croissants, toast, bacon, breakfast sausage, coffee for me, a smoothie for Tina, and milk for Rose & Ruby(in their bowls, of course). I started drinking my coffee while Tina started yapping on about how yucky she thought it was.
    “I can’t understand why you like coffee so much! I mean it tastes awful and it stunts your growth! If mom and dad found out about this they'd ring my neck! Anyways, I’m gonna be coming home late for a few weeks starting tonight, and--”
    “--this is your apology slash request for me to do your chores. Am I right or am I right?” I finished. I always finished her sentences when it came to stuff like her part-time job at Courtney’s mom catering business. Courtney has been Tina’s best friend since kindergarten and let Tina join her family business to help with money problems. She always helps me with Tina’s surprise birthday parties and is really kind to me. Unlike a certain sister of mine.
    “What assignment did your client give you?”
    “We have to bring an ice sculpture replica for some museum artifact.”
    “What kind of artifact!?!” I was worried because I had a sinking feeling that something bad would happen if this was some sort of cursed jewel or something from past experiences.
    “Oh, some sort of jewel from ancient Egypt. I think it’s cursed or something.” That was just the opposite of what I wanted to hear.
    “Shouldn’t you be meeting Lucy soon.”
    “Huh?” I said looking at the clock. I only had ten minutes left to get ready for school and go meet Lucy at the corner to walk to school.
    “Fried Chicken!” I rushed all over the house getting ready worrying I'd be late. I was about to leave when I remembered something important I almost forgot.
    “Where are you going!?!”
    “Upstairs!” I ran upstairs and grabbed my favorite thing in the world.
    “Oh, yeah! Your detective kit!”
    “I’ll never leave home without it as long as I live! See ya!”
    “Kay! Love you!”
    “Love you, too, Sis!”
    “Remember, she shoots?”
    “She scores!” As the door closed behind me, I thought of whether Lucy would ask to go to the museum or not. Lucy had been my best friend since the first minute, no second, of preschool. She’s pretty shy most of the time.
    “Hey, Susie! Right on time! Mind if we stop by the museum on the way to school? We have to go that direction to take Laura, anyways.” That is the one question I wish she wouldn’t ask. At that point, I was glaring at Lucy’s first grade little sister, Laura, thinking ‘Why me! This is all your fault!’. But, I said yes to Lucy just to get what I thought was the worst part of my day over with. The reason Lucy and I walk to school everyday was because it was two blocks away which was pretty convenient. As soon as we got to the museum, Lucy stood there with eyes full of amazement. Like I said, Lucy was shy most of the time, but there are times when she isn’t so shy.
    “Oh my goodness! It’s the jewel of the Mummy’s Curse! It’s said that whoever touches it, gets strangled by a mummy!” Yep. My best friend, Lucy Tran, is an occult fanatic. She knows every curse ever known on the Internet, and she just checked out some books on Egyptian curses last week at the library. When it comes to stuff like this, she gets this scary look in her eyes. I swear, it looks like she’s possessed or something!
    “But it’s not true, right? Mummies don’t exist, do they?” I was scared that she’d tell me that mummies did exist because she saw one before. I looked at Laura, but she was too busy seeing if she had everything in her bag. It was obvious she wasn’t paying any attention what so ever. I was all on my own.
    “That’s what Cornell Sanders said when he went to the jewel’s temple to prove it.” I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Okay.’ I thought ‘So there’s no such thing as mummies.’
    “He was still found as the curse’s fourth victim the next morning.” I froze. ‘Okay. There’s another super natural being I need to read up on so I can stay away from the 99th monster on my list of things I’m scared of.’   
“Tina probably should’ve told me about that this morning when she was talking about it.” I complained. She loved it when Lucy went all occult crazy on me.
    “What do you mean Tina was talking about it?” Lucy asked all hyper.
    “Oh, nothing! Just that Tina’s next catering assignment is for an ice sculpture replica of the jewel.” I then realized I had just let on way too much info. ‘Me and my big mouth! I’m just asking for it!’
    “You have to get me in there! I could get to see the Jewel of the Mummy’s Curse!”
    “But, won’t you get to see it when it’s on for display, anyways?”
    “No! I want to see it before anyone else. I’ll probably get occult princess of the month! My occult reputation is on the line! You have to help me! You have to!” As she yelled, she shook me to the point where I almost passed out.
    “Okay! Okay! I give! I give!” Lucy can be very persuasive.
    “Yay!” She exclaimed as she threw me into a wall. “Oh, no! Susie, are you alright!?!”
    “Yeah, I only broke my back for the second time today. Maybe third.”
    “Sorry to interrupt, but aren’t we late?” Laura pointed out. At that moment, we heard the middle school tardy bell ring.
    “ Only five minutes till Laura’s late!” Lucy panicked. She did that a lot.
    “Laura!?! What about us!?! We’re already late!” I did that even more often, though. So, I shouldn’t be talking.
    “We should at least make sure Laura is safe!”
    “Maybe we should stop talking and start running! We’ve been here panicking for, like, three minutes!” Laura reasoned. She can be annoying at times, and sometimes, that’s a good thing. Because, right now, she was rushing us by annoying us with the time every five seconds.
    “30 seconds left!”
    “How do you even know that, Laura!?!”
    “Run faster!”
    “Run now, questions later!”
    “We’re not gonna make it!”
    “Just keep running!”
    “You give up too easily, Lucy!” We like to yell a lot.
    “5..4..3..2..1!” The moment Laura said that, we reached the building right when the bell rang.
    “Bye sis! Bye Susie! See ya after school!” Laura yelled as she ran inside the school.
    “Bye! Gotta run!” Lucy called back.
    “See ya, Laura! Hurry up, Lucy, or we’re gonna be even more late then we already are!” I rushed. We really had to hurry, because we were 20 minutes late! This was, and always will be, one of the reasons why I hate my life. Little did I know that I would be in for one of the most busiest and hectic days of my life.