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Chapter 1
The Old File

The heat hung in the classroom like a thick, sluggish fog. My pencil was threatening to slip out from between my fingers as I wrote. I could hear the scratching of pencils and tapping of pens all around me as my fellow classmates feverishly pecked away at the remaining test questions. It was the last exam of not only the year but our entire lives, and quite frankly we were all perfectly ready to be rid of the place.
"Time's up, hand in your papers." I set down my pencil and trudged with my hot and grumpy classmates to the front of the classroom. "Good luck." My history teacher chimed as we stacked our papers into a lopsided pile. I was just leaving, so close to being free of school forever, when the teacher called me back into the classroom.
"I have something to show you." She momentarily turned her back on me, and sifted through the drawer of her filing cabinet until she pulled out a rather thick folder and handed it to me. I held the folder in my hand for a second wondering if she had given me my own file as a joke, or perhaps to prove a point. I definitely wouldn't have put it past her.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Go on, open it " I had no idea what could possibly make a history teacher of all people so excited, but she had the air of a person trying to suppress a fair amount of excitement. I flipped over the cover and had to repress my reflex to gasp out of shock.
A picture of my cousin stared up at me from the photo clipped to a yellowed piece of paper. It was Michelle or Chell as she liked to be called, exactly as I remembered her. That was her alright, with her strong cheekbones, slate grey eyes, black hair, and a withering look that reminded me how much she hated having her photo taken. My auntie and uncle owned a large company, never really had the time to take care of Chell. So they left her in the care of my father, when we were both too young to understand a thing. After that, they disappeared from our lives entirely. They never even came to visit their own daughter. We spent most of our lives together, and for as long as I could remember she had been there. Then fate took them away, both my father and Chell. And I never knew why.
There was another picture in the file, a newspaper clipping, the only photo I'd ever seen her smile in. The two of us stood side by side supporting the ten pound potato that won her first place at the science fair. My dad was there, crouched beside us holding the trophy, smiling. Under it was the caption "David Summerfield (Engineer and Technician at Aperture Science) and his two daughters Helen (10 years old) and Michelle (12 years old)."
"How did you find this?" I managed to speak finally.
"The staff and I were clearing the school's basement." My teacher said. "We stumbled upon a box of records from what must be hundreds of years ago. The rest were sent to the museum for study, but I thought you might want this"
"This means more to me than you could ever know"
"I figured as much." There was a short awkward pause. I spent so many years thinking she hated me, but everything I knew about her was wrong. We teetered for a moment, on the verge of never seeing each other again. Neither of us were quite sure what to say. I tried saying something meaningful but no words came out of my mouth.
"Well, you've got life to get along with, I'm sure." Her words spoke for me. "Be careful out there Lin, and good luck." For the first time ever she'd called me by my proper name. Lin short for Helen.
"Bye Ms. Higgins." I closed the door behind me with a creak and a click. I bolted through the hallway, the file still clutched in my arms. I knew where I needed to be.

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

Chapter 1
The Old File

The heat hung in the classroom like a thick, sluggish fog. My pencil was threatening to slip out from between my fingers as I wrote. I could hear the scratching of pencils and tapping of pens all around me as my fellow classmates feverishly pecked away at the remaining test questions. It was the last exam of not only the year but our entire lives, and quite frankly we were all perfectly ready to be rid of the place.
"Time's up, hand in your papers." I set down my pencil and trudged with my hot and grumpy classmates to the front of the classroom. "Good luck." My history teacher chimed as we stacked our papers into a lopsided pile. I was just leaving, so close to being free of school forever, when the teacher called me back into the classroom.
"I have something to show you." She momentarily turned her back on me, and sifted through the drawer of her filing cabinet until she pulled out a rather thick folder and handed it to me. I held the folder in my hand for a second wondering if she had given me my own file as a joke, or perhaps to prove a point. I definitely wouldn't have put it past her.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Go on, open it " I had no idea what could possibly make a history teacher of all people so excited, but she had the air of a person trying to suppress a fair amount of excitement. I flipped over the cover and had to repress my reflex to gasp out of shock.
A picture of my cousin stared up at me from the photo clipped to a yellowed piece of paper. It was Michelle or Chell as she liked to be called, exactly as I remembered her. That was her alright, with her strong cheekbones, slate grey eyes, black hair, and a withering look that reminded me how much she hated having her photo taken. My auntie and uncle owned a large company, never really had the time to take care of Chell. So they left her in the care of my father, when we were both too young to understand a thing. After that, they disappeared from our lives entirely. They never even came to visit their own daughter. We spent most of our lives together, and for as long as I could remember she had been there. Then fate took them away, both my father and Chell. And I never knew why.
There was another picture in the file, a newspaper clipping, the only photo I'd ever seen her smile in. The two of us stood side by side supporting the ten pound potato that won her first place at the science fair. My dad was there, crouched beside us holding the trophy, smiling. Under it was the caption "David Summerfield (Engineer and Technician at Aperture Science) and his two daughters Helen (10 years old) and Michelle (12 years old)."
"How did you find this?" I managed to speak finally.
"The staff and I were clearing the school's basement." My teacher said. "We stumbled upon a box of records from what must be hundreds of years ago. The rest were sent to the museum for study, but I thought you might want this"
"This means more to me than you could ever know"
"I figured as much." There was a short awkward pause. I spent so many years thinking she hated me, but everything I knew about her was wrong. We teetered for a moment, on the verge of never seeing each other again. Neither of us were quite sure what to say. I tried saying something meaningful but no words came out of my mouth.
"Well, you've got life to get along with, I'm sure." Her words spoke for me. "Be careful out there Lin, and good luck." For the first time ever she'd called me by my proper name. Lin short for Helen.
"Bye Ms. Higgins." I closed the door behind me with a creak and a click. I bolted through the hallway, the file still clutched in my arms. I knew where I needed to be.