Chapter 3 A New Plan

Jean got up slowly, she suddenly she felt scared, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Jean stood at the edge of the stairs waiting, waiting for her sister to come home. As soon as she heard the door open Jean ran as fast as she could down all three flights of stairs, tripping on the last one she finally reached Anne.
"Anne, Anne, um, is there, a, a, er, door in the the atttticc," Jean said stumbling on her words as she was out of breath. Anne look puzzled,
"What?"
Jean didn't like having to say things twice, usually she would have sighed and walked away, but this, this was important.
"Anne is there a door in the attic?"
Anne sighed, "Don't ask stupid questions like that, we don't have an attic, the highest room in this house is your room." Anne pushed passed Jean and started to walk up stairs. Jean thought about it, this was true, her room was the highest room in the house, their house was kind of wonky, from the outside it looked like it would fall over any minute.

When Jean was little her dad would make little jokes about it, she remembered his voice, "Jean, remember don't get up at night or the house might fall over." Then she heard his little chuckle as he left the room. Jean remembered the day her dad died, five years ago, Jean tried not to cry, then she remembered her dad's favourite words, "If your plan doesn't work make a new one." Jean ran upstairs with great excitement, she ran up to her room, if her room was the highest room, so maybe, it was the attic! Jean ran into her room, she had the best idea, her head was swimming. She would paint the door on her wall, she looked at her room, the walls were painted light blue and at the bottom of the walls there was grass painted on. Jean remembered the day she and her father painted the grass, Jean laughed just thinking about it. She looked around the room, the only spot without grass was where her mirror used to be, there wasn't even any light blue there, it was just a patch of white wall, also the perfect size for a small door. Jean ran down stairs to fetch the paint but was stopped by her sister, "You better not make a mess today, or mum will hate you," she said. Jean wasn't fooled she knew Anne was just saying that to make her behave. Jean pushed past her sister and ran outside towards the barn. Jean pulled at the doors of the barn, they were heavy doors, Jean always thought of them as big heavy castle doors, and they barn was her father's castle. Jean pulled and pulled, after a huge tug she fell flat on her bottom. She knew the doors were unlocked, because they had lost the keys and it was always unlocked. Jean went round to the back of the barn and climbed through the window, a piece of broken glass cut her knee. Inside the barn Jean sat on the floor licked her finger and wiped the blood from her leg, "Ow!" Jean looked around the barn, up on the highest shelf to the left were the jars of paint, which colours to use? Jean got down a yellow jar and a light purple jar. She saw her old mirror in the corner of the room, it was cracked. Jean looked at her reflection in the mirror,

her curly brown pigtails were  very messy from climbing through the window, one was undone, Jean quickly tied it up again. Her fringe was cut messily just above her eyes, her eyes were a bright blue, the colour of a clean pool, maybe a little brighter. Her rosy cheeks were full of mud and her thin body shaking from cold, her pale skin was covered in goose bumps. Jean quickly picked up the paint again and climbed out the window, it was very cold, there was a strong wind outside, where did this come from? wandered Jean, her head went wild, what if this wind meant something bad was about to happen, Jean dropped the thought and she quickly ran inside to paint...