when you're strange

What would Ian do if he found out what a nut job her family was? Amy really didn't want him spending time at her house.

It wasn't so much what her father thought or even her mother. It was her sisters that worried her. And one was away, but there was still Violet to put up with. Not that she did anything much since they brought her back from the cult she was in. Her sister had vowed to silence now and swore she'd only been a Latter Day Saint. Nothing else. Not the fact that she thought of herself as one of some old man's wives.

She had one sister severely religious and the other off her rocker. Why couldn't they just be ordinary? Of course, it gave Amy the worry that she might go insane when she turned 18. Was that the dreadful number?

She'd tried her best to have a popular life in high school. She'd managed to date all the right guys even if she wasn't truly happy. It was all a show. And when her sister Tori slugged it out with boyfriend at Amy's birthday party, well...she knew she was something she was not. Tony figured it out, who she'd been dating. She would always be just the youngest preacher's daughter, branded as trouble. Her father thought they had already defied him. He was now working as a professor in religious studies instead of preaching.

They'd stopped going to church long before. She couldn't remember the last time she'd even been to church. She remembered when she was little and how happy her father was. Preaching was kind of like a drug to him, she thought. Or maybe he had more faith then, than he did now.

"We don't really have to stay." Amy decided once Ian arrived.

"But I thought you invited me over to dinner?" Ian looked puzzled.

Dinner simmered in the kitchen. She'd made it herself since her Mom was off visiting Tori.

"It'll be just us." She thought. She hoped. Violet usually didn't make her presence known. Unless it was in the middle of the night as she'd decide, from time to time, to come into Amy's room and stare at her. Amy had a lock on her door now and it was better.

Ian nodded and was ready to eat.

"Great." He smiled and stood in the dining-room for the longest time before he took a seat.

"Its just pot-roast." She went to get it.

"Do need some help?" He was willing to eat in the kitchen if she wanted. Really, she didn't want him to see the mess she'd made. The mashed potatoes went a little wild on her and had splattered almost to the ceiling.

"No. No." She wanted to hurry through this. Maybe he'd want to do something after-wards. Like maybe take her back to his place.

Of course, all he could talk about was how big the old house was. There was a real parlor too. Glassed door with lace curtains her grandmother had made way before Amy was born.

Finally dinner was served. Ian ate as if he hadn't had food ever this good. Amy was happy he liked everything. It was really a quaint time. If only they were allowed candles in the house, it might have been a romantic evening. Ian smiled and reached out and held her hand. It was quiet. So quiet that you could hear the rocker squeaking in the parlor.

"What's that?' Ian asked.

"What?" Amy didn't want to believe they could hear her sister.

"That noise?" Ian glared at Amy then.

"Its my sister." Amy finally told him.

"Tori?" Ian winced.

"No, my other sister, Violet." It wasn't like she could introduce her to Ian. Violet would run probably to her room, or just give them harsh looks. "She's." Any shrugged. "Strange. Stranger than Tori."