Beware of the Crow - beginning

“Mom, I’m packed!” I yelled across the hall. I had just finished stuffing my hairdryer into my traveling bag. I looked at my cases with pleasure. I was sure that I had packed everything.1

My mom came into the room.2

“Good lord, Caroline, you’ve outdone yourself. Mrs. Cornell's not going to be happy that you brought along all this junk. For example,” she said, diving into one of my seven suitcases,” you do not need to bring your entire CD Collection, or all these clothes! You’re only going for a week, not the whole summer!”3

I rolled my eyes.4

“Mom, I NEED these things. What if we go out to eat, or I get my clothes dirty, or-“5

“Or someone throws away two or three bags to make room to sleep in the tent. You, Kitty, Meghan and Mary Catherine all have to fit in the tent. With all this stuff, it’d be a tight squeeze just to get you and your stuff into it. Lighten up, hon.” She said, throwing my red, white and blue striped bag into my hands. Muttering something about teenage girls and their obsession with clothes and how she pitied Mrs. Cornell for taking me, she left the room. 6

I sighed, and started repacking. I narrowed my stash down to three suitcases, which I thought was not nearly enough for me to have on a trip to the beach.7

I was going to the beach with my best friend, Kitty, and her sister Meghan.  Meghan was eleven, and felt left out by Kitty and I whenever we went to do something. After much debating, Mrs. Cornell finally fell in and let Meghan bring her friend Mary Catherine  Eden along.  Mary was a very cool kid, she was a cheerleader, and was VERY preppy. She had a wonderful sense of humor, but she could get very hyper if she had too much sugar.8

My mom still wasn't’t happy about my bags, but she loaded them into the trunk into the trunk with me. 9

When we got to the Cornell's, we pulled up beside their huge minivan. It was already stuffed, and I saw Meghan bringing even more stuff out of their house.10

“Hi, Caroline,” she grunted, struggling with both a suitcase and a beach umbrella.11

“Hey, Meghan! Need some help with that?” I asked, pushing my sunglasses away from my eyes.12

“That would be nice.” she said, swaying back and forth with the effort of keeping everything together.13

I took the beach umbrella. It was very heavy, much more than I thought it would be. Somehow we managed to stuff it into the van. I got my stuff out of the car while my mom talked to Mrs. Cornell. 14

Kitty was already downstairs.15

“Hello, Caroline!” she looked at my suitcases. “Umm, maybe we can make them fit…”16

I laughed. 17

“Sure hope so!”18

Stuff packed, I ran around to the side of the car where my mom was still standing talking to Mrs. Cornell. 19

“Hon, be good.” She said, brushing a tendril of my hair away from my face. I brushed her hand away and said “I will.” 20

She smiled at me, kissed me on the cheek and then called back to Mrs. Cornell.21

“Make sure she’s good!”22

I rolled my eyes. 23