Chapter 1: Storm

Jade Park sat at her desk trying to think of anything but the biology book in front of her. The rain was hitting the roof hard, which offered her somewhat of a distraction. They were studying genes in class and were using pennant squares to look at genetic results, something Jade had been interested considering her family’s genetics. Their genes were a very weird thing since the children were mostly genetic anomalies. Jade’s father, Daniel, was Korean and her mother Eva was Caucasian.  Daniel had dark hair and dark brown eyes and Eva had blonde hair and blue eyes. Jade had her father’s hair color, but a completely different eye color than her parents. Her once steel blue eyes changed to jade green at the age of six months. Her younger sister had dark brown hair and blue eyes, and the twins had light brown hair with dark brown eyes. Even Hannah had dark hair and light eyes. Eva and Daniel decided since the family was using his surname, Park, to give the kids English names so that they could embrace both sides of their heritage.  Jade was the eldest at 18. Her younger sister Kaitlin, followed in a year and a half behind her.

The twins, Noah and Aiden, where born two years after Kaitlin. They were in middle school and were currently in their bedroom arguing over who got to watch what on the T.V.  in their room.  The latest addition to the family was the youngest at 8 months old. Little Hannah had been abandoned at birth and Jades’ parents, Eva and Daniel, had become foster parents for her. After taking care of her for many months they decided to adopt her. Jade had been excited to have Hannah in the house. She was able to have a little sister to dote on and play with. She was actually the one who took care of Hannah most of the time when she got home from school. She practically took care of the other kids since her parents had to work long hours at the hospital.

Jade looked down at her book, trying as hard as she could to study. She sighed as she was quickly getting frustrated trying to understand genetics. She huffed as she slammed the book closed. “What is the point in learning this stuff? I’m not good with science.” She got up from her desk and jumped onto her bed. She rubbed her temples, trying to relieve the headache that was starting. She placed her hands over her ears as her twin brothers started to fight again. She sighed as she thought about her sister Kaitlin. She was the over achiever who succeed in school and was obsessed with maintaining her 4.0 GPA. Jade got up and walked into her brother’s room, hoping to settle the argument.

“Nicholas, Aiden, who’s day is it?”  She asked, trying to be patient. Aiden let got go of the remote and groaned. Nicholas did a victory dance as it was his day to choose what they were going to watch. Aiden sat down and decided to pout. Jade sighed. “Nicholas I’m glad it’s your day, but is it really necessary to do that? Aiden is already upset and doing that is just going to make it worse.” Nicholas grinned sheepishly at his big sister.

“Thanks sis and I guess I didn’t have to do it.” She hugged both of them, warning them to keep it down since Hannah was taking her nap.  She walked to Kaitlin’s room and knocked on the door.  A muffled “come in” greeted her. She opened the door and looked at her sister and then at the room.

“Kaitlin, you need to tidy up your room after you get done with homework. I’m going to start dinner after I look in on Hannah.” Kaitlin nodded and closed her book before she started to clean her room. Jade closed the door and walked to the nursery. She opened the door quietly and peek into the Winnie-the-Pooh themed nursery.  Hannah was giggling and kicking her feet in the air causing Jade to smile. 

“Hey there little one,” She cooed as she walked over to the crib. Hannah looked up at her and smiled as she kicked her feet even more.  She picked up the little girl and quickly changed her diaper before bringing her into the kitchen. She placed her into the high chair and pulled out some baby food to give to Hannah.  She fed her and quickly cleaned her face before working on dinner. She decided to make stir fry since it was easy and didn’t take much time. Thirty minutes later and there was hot food on the table. “GUYS! DINNER IS READY!!” She yelled.

 Everyone stopped what they were doing and rushed to get dinner. As everyone rushed into the kitchen, Jade put some food aside for her parents. They all grabbed their food and ate. Jade started to eat, but stopped when she noticed that Hannah had gotten food all over her. The weather outside was getting worse and was causing Hannah to get upset. The wind was blowing ferociously and Jade was getting worried. She put aside her food, cleaned up the high chair and picked up Hannah. “Hey guys, I’m going to give Hannah a bath and put her down for the night. When mom and dad come home let them know where their food is and then get back to doing what you were doing before I called you.” The group nodded and continued to eat their food. Jade carried Hannah into the bathroom and started to get everything ready for her bath. They kept anything extra that they would need, in the bathroom, so that Hannah wouldn’t be left unattended. When the water was ready, Jade undressed Hannah and put her into the tub. She let the little girl splash around as she gently put some baby shampoo in her hair. She was careful to not get any suds into the baby’s eyes as she carefully rinsed her hair. She played around a bit with the infant and finished bathing her. The wind howled louder and louder scaring Jade and Hannah. Jade quickly pulled the plug of the tub, letting the water out and placed Hannah on her cotton hooded towel. She put Hannah’s hood on and wrapped her up in the towel, carrying the baby to her room. Jade’s parents called out, saying that they were home. Jade quickly dressed Hannah and was heading out of the nursery when a loud creak stopped her in her tracks. She turned and looked out the window in time to see a huge tornado coming straight for the house.

“EVERYONE, THERE’S A TORNADO HEADING THIS WAY! FIND A SAFE PLACE QUICKLY!!” She screamed clutching the baby to her chest as she ran into the nursery closet.  The last thing she remembered was the piercing screams all coming from around her house and the creaking of the house walls as they were torn apart from the tornado and then a terrifying blackness took her as she clutched onto the infant the best she could.