Wild Ambition

Chapter 14

The next morning after I had arrived at school and had parked my car in the student parking lot, I headed into the school and towards the cafeteria to find the people I had met yesterday where Nathan had told me to meet them when we had been texting last night. I was going to put Charlotte out of my mind as much as I could since I didn't need to worry about her and any problems she decided that she wanted to cause.

My focus was going to be on making sure I made friends out of the people I had met yesterday as well making sure my grades stayed good as I had always kept them. Charlotte probably wasn't thrilled with how things had gone last night so she was bound to do something that would bring the attention towards her. But I was going to focus on school and the people I had met so I couldn't pay attention to her.

Charlotte was someone who craved and needed attention all the time. And the best way to deprive her of the attention she craved and needed was by ignoring her. That's exactly what I was going to do, ignore her. She knew where I lived, but I knew my grandparents weren't going to let her back inside until Charlotte had showed that she was changing her ways. I didn't believe that would ever happen though. Living with Charlotte for as long as I had, made me believe that.

And Charlotte didn't have my number so she was going to have a hard time trying to contact me. I just hoped she had no idea which high school my grandparents had been enrolled at. That was the only option unless she somehow got my number, but only four people had it right now.

"How many high schools are in this area?" I asked after I had sat down and said hello to the people I had met yesterday, who I hoped were going to be my friends. Cameron looked over at me and gave me the first of his making winks today before saying, "You're not thinking of leaving us already, are you Rhiannon?"

I rolled my eyes but smiled at him and shook my head. I turned my head from Cameron to Jennifer as she said while looking over at me, "I think five or six. Not sure."

She was sitting across from me and Kelly was sitting next to her across from Nathan who I had sat down next to. Cameron was sitting across from Nathan and next to Kelly. Kimberly was nowhere in sight, but maybe she just hadn't arrived at school yet. I hope that when she did arrive, she would choose to come sit with us. And if she had already arrived at school before I had, then maybe she was waiting for me to arrive before joining us. She might not yet be that comfortable with sitting with Nathan and his friends alone.

"Why do you want to know?" Nathan asked me. I looked over at him and then said, "I was just wondering because I don't want Charlotte to find me."

"Wait, who's Charlotte? And why do you not want her to find you?" Cameron asked me. He was probably the only one who didn't know about my situation. Wait, scratch that. I think Kelly didn't know that I called my mother by her first name and that I didn't know who my father was. That wasn't a topic we talked about at lunch yesterday and they weren't in the classes I did briefly talk about it so I think Cameron and Kelly were the only ones who didn't know.

"Charlotte is supposed to be my mother, but she doesn't really act like one so I don't call her mom. She's a very long story," I replied as Kimberly sat down next to me. I looked over in her direction, smiling at her as I greeted her. She smiled back and then said hello. Everybody else said hello to her as well as she quietly said hello back.

"Is she here in California?" Nathan asked me, bringing the topic back to Charlotte. I nodded my head after looking at him again and then said, "She was at my grandparents' house when I got home from school yesterday."

"Why don't you want your mom to find you?" Kelly asked me. I looked over at her before saying, "It's a really long story, but the short version is we don't get along for many reasons, mostly because of things she's done in the past and the present to me. One of them, and the most important reason, being that she won't tell me who my father is."