Caroline Butler was just 6 years old when her parents were killed in an automobile accident. She is friendly, a bookworm and a bit of a mooch. Caroline's parents, like a lot of young parents thought they'd live forever and had not yet gotten around to making a will. This meant that in the event of their untimely death, care of Caroline went to their closest family members. Her mothers parents had both died years ago and her only brother was incarcerated for tax fraud. Her father was an only child and his only surviving relative was his mother.
Dorothy Butler. Dorothy was well known in her small town of Sunset Valley but not for flattering reasons, Dorothy was perfectionist but she was also mean spirited, inappropriate and insane and most importantly she dislikes children. Dorothy was not happy that she got saddled with her only granddaughter but she had little choice in the matter.
Dorothy lived in a small, 2 bedroom shack which she rarely ever left. The bank had set it up so bills were automatically withdrawn from her dwindling bank account. At the time of Caroline moving in she was down to just $1320.
One of her neighbours had come over to help her set up a bedroom for Caroline in the office. It wasn't much but it would do the child quite nicely.
Just after they arrived her grandmother gossiped to her about one of her neighbours. Caroline thought it was inappropriate, not realizing that it was probably the nicest interaction she would have with her grandmother.
She asked her grandmother if she could go to the library. Dorothy agreed but cursed about books as she knocked over the garbage can.
"This is a very bad sign"Caroline thought as she peddled down the hill to the town centre.
The library was beautiful though. She hoped she would be spending a lot of her spare time here. She hoped she would have spare time.
Caroline had seen a notice for a bookclub and popped online to check it out. Unfortunately she found it was less of "Your thoughts on Bella's untimely demise" and more of a "Book of the month club". She loved books but knew that she didn't have the $250 yearly membership fee.
Since she was on the computer already she decided to start writing what she hoped would be her first of many published works. She started on a fiction novel entitled "Battle Gnomes".
She hadn't written very much however when she saw a young boy, around her age, enter the library with his family. She quickly introduced herself. Mortimer Goth, she had learned, was rich, ambitious, grumpy and artistic.
They became fast friends as they played tag on the library lawn.
By nightfall they were good friends and Caroline was glad that when she started school tomorrow she would already have a friend.
Caroline had lost track of time and quickly rode home, worried that her grandmother would be very cross with her.
On the way in she righted the garbage can and recycled the newspaper.
She found her grandmother in her swimming suit reading a book. She didn't even look up or acknowledge Caroline's presence in any way.
Since her grandmother had not made any sort of dinner, Caroline made a piece of toast and jam.
She washed up all the dirty dishes.
And went to sleep, she wanted to be fully rested for her first day of school.
At 1 in the morning Dorothy burnt some waffles for dinner and was disappointed that Caroline never showed up for dinner.
Caroline woke up fully rested and grabbed a quick bath.
As soon as the bus honked Caroline ran for the bus. She really didn't want to spend longer than she had to at home.
Once on the bush she found out that hers was the first stop in the morning and the last in the afternoon.
As the bus pulled away Caroline saw her grandmother digging through their own garbage bin. In her formal dress no less.
Caroline was impressed at the size of her school. Sunset Valley might be a small town now, but it's population was booming. She was happy to discover that Mortimer was in her class. It turned out that he didn't really have any other friends and they quickly became each others best friend.
When she arrived home from school Caroline was saddened to see her grandmother still digging through the trash bin. She decided to go play at the park, and didn't bother asking permission since her grandmother barely knew she existed anyhow.
At the park Caroline saw a girl from her school. Renee Dickinson. Renee was a year younger than her and as she learned quickly in the conversation, rich. Caroline wondered if hers was the only family who was not rich.
She raced home once the sun set, careful not to upset her grandma.
She found her grandma exactly where she had left her, digging in the rubbish bin.
She made herself a quick dinner of canned soup and then decided to distract grandma by asking for homework help.
Caroline didn't really need (or trust) help from her grandma but she didn't want to find out how long her grandma would dig in the garbage can. It was midnight by the time her homework was done.
Her grandma made Autumn Salad for dinner, again around 1 am.
Since Caroline was still awake she decided to put away the leftovers so the food was not wasted tonight.
She was beyond ready for bed by the time she dragged herself into it.
The next morning Caroline was so tired she had to force herself out of bed.
Her usual run to the bus was replaced with a slow walk while dragging her feet. She resolved to get her homework done earlier from now on.
After school she sat down and did her homework immediately. She finished most of it before she became too tired to read it anymore.
After her homework was finished she had a quick bath and tucked herself in early without dinner.
She was so tired that not even her grandmothers screaming matches with herself woke her up.
Since she had skipped supper the night before she was starving when she woke up. Usually she didn't have time for breakfast, but since she had gone to bed early she had woken up early as well.
She quickly finished up the last of her homework before she heard the school bus.
When she left her grandmother was still complaining about something or other she did.
She didn't want to be late for school today. She had a good feeling about today.
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