Home Life

A cottage in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by hedges and beautiful coloured flowers. The birds chirp in the apple tree out front and on the many stocked bird feeders, squirrels run along the cobblestone path leading up to the front door before dashing into the trees. What a place to live in....

The curtains blow in the gentle breeze coming through the slightly ajar window, the sun peeking through onto the bed of a sleeping beauty.

"Ughhhh", a tired groan escapes Penelope's naturally plump lips as her eyelashes flutter open.

She stretches wide in her double bed, accidently knocking the unoccupied pillow off of it from her left-hand side as she does so.

"For fucks sake", she mumbles grouchily.

Penelope was a single twenty-three year-old Palaeontologist who lives alone, and that made her grumpy sometimes, especially waking up in the morning when no one is lying next to her. However, it mostly made her sad, one of the biggest dreams of her life was not just to become a Palaeontologist, but to have a family of her own...

Her family, three years prior to this, when Penelope was just twenty years-old, passed away in a house fire when she was studying in university that day. She lived with her mum Rosaline, her dad Michael, and her six year-old little sister Ava in a lovely house just ten minutes away from where she lives now. She wanted to stay close, some part of her stayed in that house when she had to find somewhere else to live, sometimes wishing she was in that fire with them. She felt guilty she wasn't there to save them. She drives and stops outside sometimes of her burnt down family home, the feeling their spirits may still be in the ruins haunts her, but deep down she knew none of it was her fault, and that she needs to start living her own life.

Penelope glanced to the pillow that fell off her bed, she frowns but her expression quickily turns to sadness. 'Why can't I find my own happiness for once' she thought to herself. She wasn't a selfish person, she never wanted to feel like she was, knowing that her family was gone made her feel more guilt, so she shook her thoughts away and sat up slowly on her bed.

She rubs her bright blue eyes with both hands, cracking her neck as she lazily gets up, throwing the pillow that fell back onto the bed. Opening the curtains fully and closing the window gently, Penelope spots a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the peanut bird feeder (as you can tell hopefully by now Penelope loves animals, almost feeling a strange connection to them that she could not yet explain). She gazes at it for a while before making herself a cup of tea and getting ready for work.

Brushing her long blonde hair in the mirror, she saids to herself in the mirror...

"Get a grip Penelope".

She kisses her family photo in her porch and the forehead of her large black Newfoundland dog, named Hardy, who was sound asleep near the door, before she leaves her cottage for the day, closing and locking the heavy front door gently behind her. Taking her time walking to her brand new burgundy Ford Mustang, Penelope smirks to herself knowing she has finally got a proper well-paying job, recently becoming very successful in the Palaeontology field. She hopes she has done her family proud and will continue to do so.

Picking an apple from her massive apple tree, she crunches on it before finally getting into her car, amply named Beauty, before slowly driving off of her front drive to travel to work, working the radio as she does so. 'What a lovely day' Penelope found herself thinking, before finally relaxing into her drivers seat.