I had woken up long before my alarm clock went off and was just finishing up breakfast when my dad walked into the kitchen “You’re up early.” He yawned
I shrugged “Couldn’t sleep.”
I stood up from my chair and walked over to the sink and washed my dishes as he grabbed a plate of the cheesy scrambled eggs I made. Seeing my dad now he looked like he was exhausted, he usually came home late a lot of the time, but this morning he truly seemed exhausted. I guess I would be to if I worked as a construction worker all day. I always used to ask why he was always coming home so late but he always replied that he had to stay behind and finish up some blueprints or other things that everyone else didn’t want to do.
“How’s work been?” I asked him
“Long….not too busy lately, but don’t worry about me. Just worry about school alright?”
A few moments of silence passed between us and I looked down before saying this “I’m thinking about going to go see mom after school today….you want to come?” “No.”
“No, I have a busy schedule today.”
“I thought you said work was slow?”
“Last night it was, but I have a lot to do now today so-”
“Another late night?” I interrupted him
He sighed “Yes….it’s never bothered you before…”
I shrugged “It doesn’t.”
“Anika…” he said and I knew he could tell I was lying to him
“It doesn’t,” I repeated “I get it; you need to focus on work right now and I’m ok with that…I need to go. I’ll be late for school.”
He nodded “I’ll try to get off work early ok? We’ll go do something together….whatever you want to do alright?”
I managed a small smile as I looked back at him “Thanks dad…feed Melvin for me would yah?”
He smirked but I could see the nervousness in his eyes for later “Will do.”
I pulled on my coat and grabbed my backpack and walked out the door and into the sunny day. Not even a cloud was in sight as I looked up at the clear blue sky. As I walked down the street I saw my dad’s car drive past and I waved in goodbye and good luck to him, he waved in reply and honked.
See you soon dad I thought.Ñ
Slam!
I bent down to grab my books as the cheerleaders walked by. I had been late for first period and so I just had to walk into the building right after cheerleading practice was done. “Oops clumsy you.” Savannah grinned “I guess your books are attracted to the floor.”
“Yah…guess so.” I replied as I stood up with my books in my arms
“What are you doing here anyways?” she asked as all her puppets smiled
“What do you mean?”
“I mean high school is for people, the obedience school is a few blocks away.”
“You would know.” I replied and shut my mouth hoping I hadn’t said that out loud
Savannah took a step closer to me “What did you say to me freak?” She growled. I backed up against the lockers and looked down staying quiet “Huh?” she yelled
“Nothing….” I muttered
“That’s what I thought nothing. Now why don’t you go along and go find your master Frankenstein?”
I pushed past her and walked down the hall when the bell ran and everyone burst out of the class room doors and created the usual stampede down the halls. I heard Savannah and her puppets laugh behind me as I tripped on the floor like the clutz I was and I watched as they all walked past me and grinned or gave me puppy dog faces as they wiped their eyes with their fists and turned back around laughing their stupid laugh. I made a face at them when they weren’t looking but picked up my books again for the second time and continued on towards my second class which of course was my least favorite class Calculus. As I walked into the classroom I felt my mood go down when I saw that Mrs. Everly was still here (she never has a sub and she is evil! She hates me I swear!). I took my seat in the middle of the classroom as the last few students poured into the classroom.
“Good evening class.” Mrs. Everly smiled at everyone (but me)
“Good evening Mrs. Everly.” We all said in mono tone
It was a little bit past ten. To me it seemed like it was more fit to say good morning but that’s just me. I sighed and slumped resting my chin on my hand as I waited for her to give us notes and assign us a worksheet or a page out of the book. I closed my eyes and could hear everyone whispering to each other but what they were whispering about I didn’t care. Some kids passed each other notes while others threw pencils at each other and paper balls into the garbage. I started to think about Melvin back at home swimming in his little bowl and started doodling pictures of him. I felt myself relax as light lines of lead formed into the shape of Melvin. All of I sudden I jolted up at the sound of a ruler hitting my desk.
“Pay attention Ms. Lang.” Mrs. Everly snapped and I realized we had started taking notes
Like I said she hates me, I’m always the one who gets in trouble for doing something. I yawned and looked back down and quickly flipped through my note book to a clean sheet of paper. I could hear a couple of the guys snickering and heard one of them comment “Someone’s a little out of it.”
“She’s always out of it, what would you expect?” a girl replied
I really hate it when people talk about you right in front of you so you can hear. I mean come on at least they could have the decency to save it for later when I’m not around to hear it. I popped my wrist as my hand started to hurt from jotting down so many notes in so little time. Mrs. Everly wasn’t much help either as she kept zipping through them or ignoring me when asking her if she could slow down. This all went on for about a half an hour and I felt as if I was going to explode or die or boredom. A few minutes before class would let out the office lady’s voice spoke from the intercom in the room.
“Mrs. Everly?” the secretary asked in a high pitched voice
“Yes?” the old crone asked
“Could you send Anika Lang to the office?”
“My pleasure.” She replied and I gathered up my stuff (somehow losing my pencil in the process) and quickly left the room. I hurried down the empty halls and passed the gym where I could hear Mr. Moore bark at the students to keep running. I couldn’t believe…well I guess I could believe that Principal Anderson allowed him to come back. Luckily I didn’t have gym though (I already had my credits for it). Not that I minded gym it’s just that I enjoy art more. If I could (and probably should have) I would trade it for Calc any day. I’m horrible at math I just don’t get it! Some things I do but most of it I’m usually completely lost.
I walked into the office and saw Mrs. Yale talking to the secretary as she held stakes of people’s art projects (from last week) in her arms. She looked over and smiled as I entered “There you are,” she smiled “Anna could you be a dear and help me hang these in the hall?”
“Yah, sure.” I replied taking some of the stack
“I’m not interrupting anything important in class am I?” she asked after we said goodbye to the secretary and walked out back into the hall.
“Class was almost over so not really.” I said to her
“That’s good.” She replied as we stopped and she gave me the art work as she got out pins to hang them up. As I handed her the papers I came across Tavin’s and smiled. It was his landscape, I really couldn’t see why he hated it so much I thought it was actually decent. You just have to approach it at a different angel that’s all. I handed her his picture and she sighed and looked down at it for a moment “Now how did this one get in here?”
“Oh come on Nancy it isn’t that bad.” I joked
I’ve known Mrs. Yale (Nancy) since I was in the fourth grade. We used to get our families together at reunions because we both had such small families.
She shook her head “I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be a mountain rang or whatever that it is.” She said pointing to one of the corners
“That is a tree I believe.” I replied
“Boy really should give up on drawing trees.”
I laughed and shook my head. Poor Tavin, Mrs. Yale is always going to be hard on him “What makes it worse is that I have to have everyone pair up for the next project.”
“Oh?” I asked “what are we doing?”
“We’ll be writing a paper on a famous artist and then create a painting using the same style they used.”
“Sounds fun to me.” I replied
“Yes but the thing is I don’t have an even number of students. We both know that Tavin will end up alone….unless…”
“Unless what?”
“You be his partner.”
“Uh….sure I guess I could find the time to do that.”
“That would be so helpful if you could, thank you Anna.” She smiled a crinkled smile
“Yah no problem.”
I heard the bell ring and Mrs. Yale jumped and she laughed “God I’ll never get used to that dang bell. Thank you again for helping me.” She said as I handed her the last paper
“It was no trouble at all Nancy.” I smiled and gathered my stuff and headed towards the lunch room.
I could hear the voices of everyone laughing and talking as I walked into the lunchroom. Even in a short amount of time the line was huge. I walked up to the line and felt people push past me as they cut in line. I know I should tell them off but it wasn’t worth it. It happened everyday so I’m used to it now. At least the line was moving at least kind of quickly. Today looked like it was between the salad bar , Pizza, Mac and Cheese, or Mr. Rib. I just took an empty tray and made my way up the line not in the mood for any of the hot lunches. Typed in my lunch number that made a cha-ching sound letting the lunch ladies know that I didn’t owe them any money, I quickly went to the salad bar and grabbed a fruit bowl, some chocolate pudding, and some noodle salad. I had a bottle of water in my backpack so I didn’t need to buy anything to drink. I started walking over to my usual empty table when I saw a guy with light blonde hair sit down in one of the seats. I stopped in my tracks. I hadn’t seen him around here before. He must be another new kid. As I sat down I noticed him shuffling a stack of cards. He glanced up at me for a second but then quickly looked back down. I took a bite of a pineapple as I watched as he spread out the cards and quickly pulled them back in a deck and started shuffling again.
I hesitated before talking but it was neat how fast he could do that “How’d you learn to do that so quickly?”
His hands stopped and I looked up at his pale blue eyes. Instead of saying something though he just looked down and started shuffling again. I looked down, I guess it was normal for people not wanting to talk to me…I looked up and saw he had pushed the deck towards me. I looked up and saw him looking back at me. I gave him a confused look and a small smiled formed across his lips and he said so softly that I almost couldn’t hear “Pick one.”
I looked at him for a second and then slowly took the deck and picked the Queen of Spades. I then put the card back on top of the deck and he had me cut the deck and then handed it back to him. He smiled and looked down as he spread out the deck and took out two red Jacks. He then reshuffled the deck without them and put one on top of the deck then one on the bottom. After that he glanced up at me and tossed the cards into his left hand. I looked back at him and he was holding up a card towards me that had been caught between the two Jacks….
“That is cool!” I smiled when I saw that it was the Queen of Spades “Can you teach me?”
“I’m not that great of a teacher.” He whispered
“Sure you are,” I replied “Also if you don’t mind me asking do you go to school here?”
He shook his head and I gave him a confused look. If he didn’t go to school here then why was he here? “I’m just visiting.” He replied looking around like he was being watched
“Who?” I asked
Before he could reply though his seat was pulled back from the table and Savannah pulled up a chair and sat down as her puppets stood around her “Am I interrupting your guys’ freak show?” She pouted
I glared at her “What do you want Savannah?”
She let out a sigh “I haven’t had the time to work on my English assignment and I need to borrow yours.”
“Borrow? Don’t you mean take?”
“Well…yah pretty much. It should be easy for you to do it again though, come on help a girl out.”
“No, do it yourself.” I replied. I wasn’t going to let her take credit for another poem that I wrote.
She laughed “Well isn’t someone being a bad dog….” She started to say until John called out her name
“Yo Savannah!” he yelled “Get over here!”
She rolled her eyes “You got lucky this time bitch…but just so you know…” I gasped as she poured my water bottle over my head “I’m the one in charge. Not you.”
I looked down At least it was just water this time I thought. I looked up to see where magic boy and gone but his chair was empty. I looked around and saw that he was nowhere to be seen. I guess Savannah scared him off…I couldn’t blame him. She scares a lot of people who know the real her.
I didn’t even catch his name though…I thought
I walked out of the lunchroom, into the hall, and went into the bathroom where I wringed out my hair and pulled it up so it wouldn’t be in my face. I walked back to the lunchroom and grabbed my stuff and then went straight to my locker where I put everything away except for my text book for AP Biology. I put on my jacket as well to at least help me warm up and started walking to class without waiting for the bell.Ñ
By the time I walked into the class room, the first bell had only rang a few minutes before (then again my last class was only a few doors down). I took a seat in the middle of the class room next to one of the windows. I opened my notebook and went through it to make sure I had all my notes (I did). I opened to a new page and started sketching random figures of knights and dragons. Melvin ended up being the wizard. I then switched to drawing the castle and while I did I was thinking of Alice in Wonderland and ended up making the castle look like it was built out of giant chess pieces. I heard someone take a seat next to me and looked over to see it was Tavin.
“Hey.” I smiled
“Hey.” he said getting his stuff out
I could hear the jocks behind us snickering and I saw John look back as one of them spit a spit ball at him from behind.
“How’s your nose John?” I heard Tavin ask and I could see a small smile start to form across his face
“Ha ha ha, very funny, but you should wonder how your face is going to be after I’m done with you.”
I then turned around “Will you guys just shut up and leave him alone?” I snapped at them
“Oooo,” John smirked “So the little freak is fighting your battles now Tavin?”
“Shut up John.” Tavin snapped
“Shut up John.” John mocked him
“That’s enough you two…” Mr. Hawthorn said as he walked into the room
I looked back down at my notes. I shouldn’t have said anything but I hated having to hear them tease and bully Tavin every single class we had in here. Mr. Hawthorn started talking about what we went over last time about Genetics and stuff related to that. I looked over at Tavin but he seemed to be trying to ignore me at the moment.
I wish he would know that I was just trying to help…I thought but he probably already knows that.
A hour had gone by when Mr. Hawthorn finally got done with his small speech. It was always funny how he would go off topic sometimes but I didn’t mind when he did.
“So today I’m going to assign all of you all an assignment having to do with finding out about your family heritage. I want all of you to pair up in twos and create a five minuet PowerPoint explaining both your families; who your ancestors were, what traits you gained from them and your parents, a little bit of the history of your families, and what your partner’s family might have in common with yours. If it’s over then five that is fine but no less alright? I’ll give you a few minutes to get with your partners.
I never bothered going to find a partner since I didn’t have any friends in here. I just doodled in my book when someone called Tavin over and he got up and left his seat.
“Everyone got their partners?” Mr. Hawthorn asked
“Can we have a group of three?” The guy who asked Tavin to join his group asked (I think his name was Jake)
“No, we have an even number today.” He replied and then wrote down the pairs on a piece of paper as he asked everyone else. I heard him walk over and stop by me and I looked up “Ms. Lang do you have a partner?”
“No, but it’s alright.” I replied to him
“Blair, come and be Ms. Lang partner since you don’t have one either.”
“No really Mr. Hawthorn it’s ok.”
“No buts Ms. Lang. Everyone has to have a partner.”
I sighed as Tavin came back over and sat in his seat. I knew he didn’t want to be partners and again I couldn’t blame him. He sighed and took the piece of paper from Mr. Hawthorn as he handed it out re-explaining what we had to do. Throughout the rest of class Tavin and I worked pretty much on our own searching up our own families without talking to each other. On the plus side I found out I was related to Hannah Glasse who was the first person to publish a recipe for Yorkshire Pudding in 1745. Thinking about pudding made me wish I still had some.
“I wonder how long it takes for pudding to rot?” I wondered out loud. I saw Tavin look over at me weirdly in the corner of my eye and smiled “I’m gonna search it up….”
“Anna we should be working on our assignment.” He told me
“We are, I just want to search this up really quick. I wanna know,” I laughed and typed it into my computer on Google. I didn’t find the answer I wanted though and sighed getting back to work.
“Did you find out?”
“No…”
We ended up getting the first three slides (Covering some of my family) done when the bell rang. I looked over at Tavin after I sent him the PowerPoint and shut down my computer “Hey I don’t think I’ll have time to work on this tomorrow or during study hall. Do you think we can get together after school and work on it?”
“Uh sure...I guess.”
“Cool, so your house or mine?”
“Yours.” He said quickly
I smiled “Ok, I’ll let my dad know you’re coming over. Is six thirty alright with you?”
“Yah, sounds good but…can you give me your address?”
I laughed “Oh jeeze I’m not even thinking….here…” I said writing my address down on a piece of paper and handing it to him.
“Thanks.” He replied
“Well, see you later then.” I smiled and walked out of the class room and headed towards the library. I walked into the medium sized room and sat at one of the tables in the corner. I took out my Calculus homework and immediately got a headache.
“This is going to be a long period….” I muttered.Ñ
After the final bell rang I walked outside to find my dad’s car parked along the street.
“Hey.” He smiled as I got into the car
“Hey.” I replied
“How was school?”
“You know same old same old.” I said not wanting to lie or over exaggerate
He shifted the car into drive and we took off down the road.
“So what do you want to go do?” He asked me
I hesitated “Well…I planned on visiting mom today….”
“Oh…” was all he said
“Dad she really has been wanting to talk to you.”
“Has she?”
“Dad please? Just this once? You never have to go back but please…just come talk to her. I’ve been reading to her and it calms her down so maybe you can’t try that bu-”
“Nova…I..I just can’t.”
“Why not? Why can’t you go in and see her? Why do you keep on making excuses?”
He sighed “There’s so much you don’t understand….”
“Don’t understand what?”
“Exactly.”
“Dad…” I said getting a little annoyed
“Next time ok? I’ll see her next time I promise…just not now.”
I looked over at him. His eyes were on the road yet they seemed to be far away. I wish you would talk to me like you used to. I thought. Dad and I used to be so close. Sure we still are but I feel as though he’s hiding something important from me. He might act like everything is fine but the truth is that it wasn’t. I looked back out the window and about an hour later we stopped in front of the hospital.
“Changed your mind any?” I asked him
“I’ll be out here when you’re ready to go.” He said
I nodded and got out of the car and clutched my wooden heart necklace as I walked into the building. When the nurses saw me they nodded and smiled. I walked up to the front desk where a guy sat behind a computer.
“Can Mrs. Lang have visitors today?” I asked him and he looked up and smiled
“Hello Anna, yes your mother should be able to right now. Go ahead and I’ll get someone to come find you.”
“Thank you.” I replied and walked across the room and into the halls where I could hear crying, yelling, hysterical laughing, and talk of things I didn’t understand. Some people in here were like that and others I passed by would barely speak at all and just have glassy emotionless eyes. It used to scare me being in here but over the past few years I’ve grown used to it. I stopped at the room that read 213 and peeked into the room to find my mother sitting on top of her bed and looking outside the one small window she had in the room. The doctors said she had progressed throught the years as well but she was still unstable. I waited for someone to come and unlock the door for me and a big burly guy showed up “Nothing to be considered as a weapon right?”
“Right.” I replied showing him my pockets
He nodded and unlocked the door and I walked in “Hey mom…” I said as I took a seat a foot from her
She looked up at me “Who are you?” she asked
“It’s me Anna…your daughter…remember?” I asked in a calm voice. It still hurt that she couldn’t remember me even when I came to visit her all the time.
“Anika?” She asked and then got up off the bed “Oh my god!”
I laughed when she hugged me. It had been so long but the difference was that she was ice cold and smelled of medicine instead of being warm like the sun and smelling like honey like I remembered her.
“We have to get out of here Anna they’re coming for us. They’re coming for all of us!”
“We’re not going anywhere,” I told her “Everything is alright. We’re safe…nothing is coming after you…”
I used to ask what was coming after her but she would just go into a fit and cause problems. This was the only way I could keep her calm was to reassure her like everyone else no matter how much I wanted to know.
“I brought another book for us to read.” I said taking out a different book that I bought a while back. It was The Chronicles of Narnia; my mom’s favorite. “Remember this book?” I asked her whiel handing her the book
She hesitated at first like it was some venomous snake but then slowly took it and flipped through the pages and looked at the front and back of it. She then handed it to me “It’s been so long…”
“Yes…it has. Do you remember when you used to read it to me?” I asked her and she shook her head “That’s alright…here Chapter 1: The wrong door….”Ñ
I put my book back into my bag as I said goodbye to my mother and everyone else. My father was nodding off in the car when I came out and got in. I laughed when he jumped “Sorry, did I scare you?”
He smiled “Not at all…just a little tired is all. Come on let’s get home.”
“Oh!” I said remembering that I had yet to tell him about Tavin coming over “I have a friend coming over in a hour. We’re working on a project for school.”
“That’s fine.” He said
“And please be nice to him.”
“Him?”
“Yes him.”
“Who’s this he then?”
I shook my head “He’s just a friend… acquaintance is more likely but we’re just working on school stuff that is all.”“Mmhm.” He replied thinking that I was lying
I laughed “Dad if I had a boyfriend which he isn’t. I would have told you.”
He sighed “Still cleaning this gun.” He sang and I laughed. He looked over “I’m just kidding. I’ll be good…as long as he is.”
“Promise?” I asked holding out my pinkie figure
“Promise.” He said taking my pinkie with his and shaking it.Ñ
“This is your room?” Tavin asked as I turned on the lights
Luckily dad and I had gotten home just a few minutes before Tavin showed up. Dad kept his promise about being nice but I don’t think he liked the idea of Tavin being in my room.
“Yep.” I said as I saw his eyes wonder from all the murals
“Did you do all of these?”
I shook my head and smiled “Yep.” I walked over to Melvin and smiled “Hi Melvin…oh this is Melvin my fish.” I said as Tavin came over to look
“Cool.” He said
“He’s a neat little fish, he’s good company. Do you have any pets?”
“No, my uncle and I don’t have the time for one.”
“Well that is understandable. If you do ever get one you should get a fish, they’re pretty easy to take care of.”
“I actually prefer cats.” He replied
“Cats would be fun have to,” I smiled “Anyways…Shall we get started then?” I asked him as I sat down on the floor
“Sure.” He replied getting out his laptop and notebook (we decided that it would be better to memorize some stuff for the history part). As we were working my dad barged in through the door “You two better be off that…oh…uh never mind…I’ll…just go then…”
I shook my head “Bye dad.”
When the door closed Tavin looked over at me “He’s worried about me having a guy in my room.” I told him “I told him not to worry though!” I said raising my voice so my father could hear
Tavin smiled in reply.
“Have you had dinner yet?” I asked him
“No not yet, but I’m ok.” He replied
“No, no, you should eat! I’ll go make us some cheese quesadillas. I’ll be right back.” I said and before he could object I was out the door and walking down the hall across the living room where my dad sat watching TV and then to the kitchen. I walked to the refrigerator and grabbed some shredded cheese and two tortillas (I hope Tavin’s ok with regular cheddar). I put them then into the microwave and put them on for a minute and a half. I looked out the window while I was waiting and saw an orange cat looking in. I smiled and grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and filed it with water and went to the front door and set it outside (I didn’t have any food that would be healthy to give it). I saw the cat come up and brush up against my legs.
“Are you lost?” I asked it and it meowed in reply. I stroked it along it’s back and then went back inside locking the door. I heard the cat scratch at the door but I knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to let it inside with dad being so allergic and all. I walked back into the kitchen and grabbed the pates out of the microwave when I heard something crash in the living room. I rolled my eyes (I’m not the only clutz in the family), my dad must have broke something. I set down the plates on the counter and walked back down the hall and towards the living room when I heard another crash.
What is going on? I thought as I quickened my pace. When I entered the living room the first thing I saw was the broken lamp and TV. My gaze then stopped and I froze….my dad was holding a knife over Tavin’s chest.Ñ
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