Sour Seventeenth

The world is full of endless amounts of corruption and evil, but humanity still attempts to purify it.

But what if after centuries of watching over earth angels finally decide to offer a helping hand?

They come to earth claiming to be capable of making all of our troubles disappear, presenting world peace on a silver platter.

All they want in return is to be able to walk among us. But what if they have hidden motives and all is not what it seems..

**

The alarm blared, indicating the start of yet another day.

Wiping the sleep from her eyes she sat up and stretched her aching muscles. When her vision became clearer she sluggishly looked over to her alarm. Excitement flooded over her as she faught to get the blanket from off her.

Stumbling out of bed she nearly tripped, toppling over the mountains of sketch books scattered over her bedroom floor. Darting across the room towards her calendar she threw herself at the wall. Unable to contain her excitement, her unsteady finger skimmed along the dates till it landed on May 12th.

"IT'S MY BIRTHDAYYY" she squealed excitedly.

Not bothering to change from her grey shorts and dreadfully oversized ACDC top, she practically flew down the stairs and rocketed into the front room "Muuum? Daaaad?"

She checked each room of the house and even looked in the back garden. 'huh, where are they?' she thought to herself.

Reluctantly she went to check the last possible place in the house, the garage. Sticking her head through the door she confirmed her doubts. 'No car. Great, they're still not back'.

Instinctively she pulled out her phone and scrolled down to her mums number. Five tones later she finally picked up, followed by the deafening sound of music and chaos.

"Mum..?" Trying to block out the music she could faintly hear an inaudible voice. "Mum I can't hear you"

The music started to get slightly quieter, now becoming muffled echoing in the background "Hiya sweetie! What's up?"

"Where are you? I thought dad said you'd both be back by today"

"I know. I knoww" she said still needing to shout overtop of the ever growing noise "It's just.. me and your father were offered two free tickets to fly to Australia, first class! It's not something you can pass up hun. This could be crucial for the success of your fathers company. You're also a big girl now, I thought you'd be okay by yourself for a few more weeks" 'Typical. She didn't even sound the slightest bit apologetic that she wasn't here for her own daughter's eighteenth birthday'.

"But you promised.." she could feel the irritation crawl up her spine, "you said this year would be different. You and dad both promised me.."

"Come on now Willow, stop being so selfish. You should be happy for us honneyyy, we are finally living out our dream to travel. Besidess, you only live once!" she paused for a second, obviously preoccupied by something 'or better yet someone' "We'll be back before you know it! I promise."

*She couldn't decide whether she wanted to cry or scream. The only thing that left her mouth was a scoff 'I can't believe this*. They're always promising me things and expecting everything to turn out alright when they break it. They're hardly ever around. It's like they can't stand being around me.'

Ever since the angels came to earth sixteen years ago most of the worlds population have lived in harmony, this was mainly due to the fact the adults were granted their dream jobs and careers. As the saying goes "money makes the world go round" and money brings happiness and what does happiness create? Harmony.. at least that was their logic. However, there are those who distrust the angels. Dad would call them morons, delusional idiots 'who would pass up an opportunity to have their dream handed to them on a silver platter?' he'd say. Most of those people work the jobs no one else wants, some of them are rumoured to have gone underground and banded together in an attempt to overthrow the angels.

"And look on the brightside!" She carried on "You have the whole house to yourself, isn't that every teenagers dream?" 'Yeah for a weekend, not for their whole life..' "oh and before I forget, we left you're birthday present on the dining room table"

"Okay," she tried to sound happy and not like she was fighting the urge to cry "have fun in Australia! ..take some pictures for me?"

"Of course sweetie" she sounded distracted again, "love you, bye"

"By-" the phone hung up before she could finish. "And the parents of the year award goes tooo. Drum roll pleaase.. Mr and Mrs Woods! Woowho".

Throwing her phone onto the counter she huffed loudly, catching a glimspe of her reflection she turned to meet it. "Looks like it's just you and me again"

In the dinning room she wandered over to the table where a single unlit chocolate cupcake sat next to £50 and a leathered drawing pad. "Typical" she scoffed.

Picking at the cupcake she decided to pull herself together and not waste her birthday moping about. Instead she would take herself to Burger Bill's fast food and restaurant and treat herself to a birthday meal.

Bill's was the only place her parents would let her go out to by herself, meaning it was the only place she got to be around people. Not her stacks of artbooks or reflection.

Actual living people.

Willow has always been homeschooled.. if you count homeschooling as being left home alone week after week. Her parents rarely come home unless they need to repack, which is basically once every two ot three months if completely and utterly necessary.

Growing up, her teachers were anything she could watch on tv or find on her phone.

- Don't answer the door for strangers.

- Don't answer the phone unless it's us.

- Always lock up.

- Don't go out to anywhere but Bill's down the road.

These were their rules.

However, the last one never really stuck. She found she loved the forest, climbing the crisp autumn trees and building dens, playing with the wildlife, seeing firsthand the beauty of what the world had to offer and drawing it.

But mum and dad never had to find out, it was her little secret.

**

When she got to Bills she walked over to her usual seat lifting herself onto the black leathered bar stool, spinning herself around to the bar and pulling out a large sketchbook from her rucksack.

The rays of sun escaping from behind the trees on the opposite side of the road shined in through the restaurants windows. Every so often, a small gust of wind would push her wavy blonde hair into her face, temporarily blinding her view from her drawing. A couple minutes later, she frustratingly tied the long unruly hair into a messy ponytail.

She heard plates clanging from somewhere in the back room. The place was practically empty, only Bill would be up this early.

"Goodmorning Billyyy!" she chimmed happily.

From the kitchen came out a big, beefy man with an unruly beard covering any hint of a neck. He wore an apron that did no justice for his figure and on his shoulder he carried an unappealing dirty brown towel. However, what lacked in physical features was made up by with personality. Everytime Willow visited he'd wear a massive smile on his face, cracking jokes to customers and offering top notch advice. Coming around to the bar front, he stopped in front of her throwing the towel down onto the table. "What can I do for you today lil lady"

"hmm, how abo-"

"-wait wait, lemme guess. Pancakes topped with an immense amount of honey, berries and cream, french toast and a large hot chocolate?"

"with extra cream and marshmallows" she plead, ".. wait, have I become that predictable?"

"afraid so" he chuckled, walking back into the kitchen. "So, big seventeen huh?" he shouted through the door.

"yep, I'm practically an adult now. Next year I can even officially move out!"

"What, you don't enjoy living with your parents?" he teased.

She laughed. 'If only he knew..'

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