Abbie's Dance Club- Book 1 (preview)

CHAPTER 1

      Abbie Henley sighed. How was she supposed to write an entire report on England overnight? She took in a deep breath, then sighed again.

     “Well, I guess that's what I get for procrastinating.”Abbie flopped face first on her bed and then wondered, how did I get into this mess?

      It all started when her English teacher had assigned country reports to the class: Abbie had had her country all picked out and all the information at her fingertips. But, she should have guessed beforehand that France was a pretty popular country.
     
       Now she was stuck with England. Abbie planned out her whole schedule to get it finished before the last day of school. That was tomorrow. How would she ever make it into tenth grade?

      “Anyway, I'd probably better get researching!”Abbie hopped off her bed and hopped online.

*****

       


        Two hours later Abbie heard her mother's footsteps coming up the stairs and down the hall, stopping at her door. KNOCK! KNOCK!

        “Yeah Mom?”

        “Honey, it's dinner time. I need you to come downstairs and help your sisters and I set the table.”

        Abbie sighed reluctantly and trudged to the door.

        “Okay Mom. But after that can I please finish my research?”

        Mrs. Henley gasped.

        “WHAT?! It's been two hours! You mean you haven't even finished the rough draft yet?”

        “Well, er, um...”Abbie looked around the area for help. “I could do an all-night-er?”

         Abbie's mom let out an exasperated sigh.

        “Humph! We'll talk about it after dinner.”

        The two of them trudged downstairs and set the table with Abbie's three sisters, Henna, Mackenzie, and Riley. After they ate dinner, Abbie clomped upstairs and was able to finish the report part. When she was finished with that, she yawned and crawled into bed.

*****

        “Dang it! Today's tomorrow!!!”Abbie unsuccessfully leaped out of bed, and, due to her grogginess, flew through the air and landed with a bang on the floor.

        “Owww.”As Abbie rubbed her head in pain she glanced over at the digital alarm clock sitting on her nightside table.“CRAP! I am so late! Why did I forget to turn the alarm on?”She got up off the floor and started undressing. When she gathered her stuff to go take a shower she noticed that there were two pairs of pajamas laying atop her dresser. No, never mind, there was one pair of PJ's and one pair of...

        “Awww man, I slept in my clothes?!”Abbie exclaimed.

        When Abbie finished putting her clothes away, she headed to the bathroom. As soon as she got there, Mackenzie jumped in front of her to stop her from entering.

        “No! Don't go in there!”she cried.

        Abbie asked questionably,“Why?”

        Mackenzie answered,“Ummm, because Riley took a really big dump, and it stinks?”

        “And where's Henna?”Abbie demanded in her all-knowing big sister voice.

        “Uh... She's still eating breakfast!”Mackenzie said quickly.

        “Mom hasn't even made breakfast yet!”Abbie snapped.

        Mackenzie thought fast,“She had to eat breakfast early because she had drama practice so Mom's going to drop her off in, um... five minutes.”Mackenzie yelled down to the kitchen,“RIGHT, HENNA?”

        “Yeah!”Henna answered.

        “Mackenzie, why did Henna's voice come from the bathroom, not the kitchen? And when did she ever have drama in school? She's only in FOURTH GRADE!”

        “Uh, well, nothing's going on in the bathroom anyway.”Mackenzie nervously replied.

        Abbie heard Riley call from behind the bathroom door,“Yeah, there is something going on in here. We're just- mmmph!”Abbie smelled a rat. Hey, at least Riley was just five, so she could be relied on to blab the devious plans or secrets that Mackenzie and Henna were always coming up with. Abbie had had enough, so she went to the other bathroom to wash up.

        When she was done taking a shower, Abbie headed to the kitchen, prepared to be tempted by the delicious smells of her mother's cooking. Nothing. That's weird, Abbie thought.

 Escape

to

Japan!!!

Chapter 1 (…and Yei ran…)

    "Yei, what have I told you?" my mother's sharp Japanese voice called in my ear. "We can't rest until ALL of the flour is ground! You can't just slack off and do nothing."

     I started. "Mom! Why do you always have to wake me up?"

     I was fifteen. It was no surprise that I was constantly sleeping on the job.The reason that we were working in a terrible, North Korean mill is because my mom married a French man; and, even though she was rich, all families with a father from a poor generation, or from a different country had to be transported from Japan, to its almost neighboring country, North Korea. That's about one-sixth of our country, today, in our so-called magic year: 3210. Not very magical right now!

     Suddenly, and arrow whizzed past our heads, burying itself into one of the mill workers' legs. I didn't turn around. I didn't want to. I heard a crash. The worker didn't make a sound. 'Is he dead?' I thought. The worker groaned. I sighed. 'Good! It's not one of the women. But still...'
   
     I tried to force myself not to, but I instantly swiveled on my heel to face the poor man that everyone had gathered around. He was losing way too much blood! A young girl, named Emile, maybe around fourteen, rushed to his side with a wet rag, pliers, and the few bandages that were in the tiny storage closets the president gave us, to put what little belongings we had, in them. Luckily, Emile was able to get the wound patched up in time.

     "Hey, Emile! Fetch me a glass of water, sweetheart." the only overseer in the mill shouted, his voice lulled with sake. He winked at her. Emile cringed in disgust at the gnarly old man, but nodded. She pointed to her sister, Jo.

     "Jo, would you mind taking over for a bit?"

     Jo shuffled over to Emile and stared up at her with her huge brown eyes.

     "Sure, Emile. I'll take over." she said smoothly. With that, Emile walked over to the well in the center of the room, then stopped. A sly smile spread across her usually calm face; but when the overseer looked her way, her face went blank. Emile grabbed the crank on the side that lifts the bucket up and down. She seemed to be struggling with it.

     "Oh! I believe that the bucket is too heavy for my frail arms!" Emile wailed. She beckoned to the overseer. "If you care, please help." The overseer's face shone with pride.

     "No problem, miss!" He jumped up, and ran to the well. When he was near her, Emile reached out her arms as if meant for a hug, then pushed the overseer into the well. SPLASH!

     "Help! I can't swim!" He cried in despair.
 
     Emile smiled in triumph. "Ha! That'll teach HIM a lesson not to flirt with girls. So long, creepy old man!"

     Without making another sound, we all tiptoed out of the open doors into the moonlit courtyard of the mill. Two mill workers muttered a few words throughout the scattered group, then everyone ran into their cabins. The guards didn't even look our way!

*****
     "It's midnight! I's midnight!" I heard my parents calling from door-to-door. "Time to put the plan into action!"

     'What plan? Oh yeah! I forgot.' When the two mill workers were whispering among the group of the other workers, I leaned in as close as I could and then heard them say something about escaping back to Japan. Why couldn't they just hold it off till next week?! I rubbed my eyes, and forced myself to sit up. My arms felt numb. I couldn't move my feet. Maybe it was because I'd never gotten up this early before. I peeked out the window. Workers were gathering near the fountain in the mill square. Soon, the sun would be coming out, so we had to hurry. I sluggishly got dressed. Then, I walked over to my bed. I lifted the thin mattress and extracted small knife, just little enough to fit in the holster of my worker's vest. I emptied out the two small pockets of the tattered vest, then, I took out a cloth package about as big as my hand. When I unwrapped it, I jumped back. Chinese throwing stars clattered to the floor. I didn't want to get cut, so I strung them up on my pinkie finger, and quickly dropped them in the left pocket. In the right pocket went the black knife point-first, so that if I ever reached in to grab it, I wouldn't stab myself, I'd grab the round handle.