The Rise of the Fourteen Read Online Free PDF Page B

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inspection, Arden notices that her dark hair is pinned into a messy bun, her
shirt creases in numerous unflattering places, and smears of eyeliner dot her
face.
    “Oh, Arden dear, you’ve grown so much! Now, is your bag
ready? We better get going,” the woman says in a rush. Her voice is high and
thin, and she speaks with a strange accent.
    She could either use a coffee or has had too many
already, Arden thinks. “Are you ... taking me somewhere?” Arden twists his
lip in confusion. “I’d love to come along, I just — don't
know who you are." Arden's dad lets out a weak laugh, but Arden can tell
the emotions behind it are strained. “Dad, what's going on?”
    “Arden, meet your mother,” his father says, his eyes solemn.
“She’s come to take you to live with her.”
    Arden becomes even more confused and begins spouting
questions. “I have a mother? Why do I have to go with her? Why has no one told
me?” His eyes burn, first with bewilderment, then with anger.
    “James,” Arden’s mother says, “we agreed. You knew that you
would have to let him go.”
    “I was hoping you would forget, my dear.”
    “You wanted me to forget my own child? Oh, that is low,
James, even for you.” The woman turns to Arden and says, “When your father and
I got divorced, we agreed that you should be raised separately from your
sister. Then, on your fifteenth birthday, you would start living with me and
Luna.”
    “Is that really the best custody plan you could come up
with?” Arden asks in disbelief. “You really should have fired your divorce
lawyer.” He laughs half-heartedly at his own quip, but it dies in his chest
before it properly begins.
    Arden paces in circles for a few moments. “I have a sister,”
he remarks, his eyes beginning to water. “I’ve had a sister all this time? Is there
anything else you’re not telling me?” His voice begins to reach a fever pitch.
“Where do you guys all live? The moon? Is that why I’ve never heard you exist?”
Arden charges out of the room as his last furious words die in the air, leaving
the door open behind him.
    “Only England, actually,” his father mutters.
    “Our flight is in two hours so you best get a move on!” his
mother calls after him. She winces after the words leave her mouth. “That
wasn’t very tactful, was it?”
    Arden’s father sighs. “It’s a bit late for that.”
    Arden manages to stumble into his room and shuts the door
behind him. After his outburst in the living room, he finds himself breathing
heavily. The torrent of emotion in his mind is so strong that his thoughts are
barely coherent. He discovers he is sitting on the floor after a few minutes
and doesn't quite remember how he got there. I’m panicking, Arden thinks
miserably, fantastic. To make matters worse, there is a knock on his
door.
    “Arden , sweetie, may I
come in?” his mom’s voice trembles as she asks the question. Her voice cracks
mid-sentence. She’s just as unsure of this as I am. Why should I pack up my
life, everything that I have, to go off with my supposed mother? And a sister?
That is just too weird to think about. And where are they even going? “Mom’s”
strange accent is obviously not Hawaiian, so that rules out Oahu, and any of
the other islands. But, it’s certainly not American. I can’t quite place it,
but it seems … familiar.
    He snorts in disgust. “Well if you're going to uproot my
entire life and take away everything that I love, I don't think you have to ask
to come into my room, as you've already invaded my privacy!” He bites his lip
as if it will stem the flow of his tears. As they make shining ridges on his
cheeks, they sting, like the seawater he so loves. He quickly wipes his face.
    His mother takes a micro step into the room, and then a few
more after Arden doesn’t start screaming again. “Arden,” she says, her hands
raised in a placating gesture, “I understand that this is very difficult for
you to process all at