April's Justice

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN part one

When April was a little girl, she loved the freedom that came along with summer. She could stay up late at night and read her favorite books. She loved that anything could happen, people could have special powers that made them invisible or super fast! But, of course, she knew that was impossible in real life. Though she was a fan of the fantasy, she liked the world the way it was, with its set rules and ways of working, without the uncertainty of magic.

As far as April was concerned, she had as happy of a life as she possibly could. April was adopted. It wasn't a secret and she never tried to make it one. She would always tell her friends about how lucky she was to have such loving and caring adoptive parents. And she was, lucky to have them, but the reason she came into their life always was a sore spot in the back of her mind. She would always ask herself why. Why did it happen the way it did?

When her adoptive parents, David and Mallory were in their mid twenties, they decided they wanted a child. Mallory had always wanted to foster or adopt and David, wanting nothing more than to please his love, went along with it. As far as they were concerned, adopting April was the best decision they ever made, well worth Mallory's parents refusing to have anything to do with them anymore. April was well behaved, calm even during her worst phases and smart for her age.

It was long kept secret from her how she ended up in the orphanage. When she was ten, her parents decided she was old enough for the truth. Her birthmother didn't want her. When she was a little over three years old, a group of police found her sitting on the station's front steps with nothing more than a teddy bear and a note. The piece of paper said her name, 'April Justice' and her birthday, 'Tuesday April 18, 1995,' nothing more. No explanation, no apologies.

April used to sleep with the teddy bear every night. It was the only thing that could comfort her after a bad day and the one things that knew all of her secrets. But she eventually stopped relying on it so. She felt almost as if she were cheating on her parents, holding so religiously onto something from someone who obviously didn't give a crud about her. So the teddy bear sat on a shelf above her bed in the dorm room she shared with her two close friends, Heather and Jacqueline. Late at night, after unusually cruel run-ins with Carter, April would reach up for that beat up, brown teddy bear and hold onto the last piece of her childhood.

When April woke up that next morning, she felt better than she had in a while. For once she got a full night's sleep without being woken up by nightmares that just didn't seem to belong in her mind. For once she didn't have a cloud of confusion hanging over her heard. For once she knew she wouldn't be seeing Carter at all for the next two days.

April practically skipped down the stairs to the living room of the dorm house where she found Mira waiting for her, smiling.

"What's going on?" April asked, narrowing her eyes in mock unhappiness.

"We are going out," Mira stated, getting up from her spot on the couch and linking arms with her best friend.

"Where?" April questioned, wondering where on earth they could be going with Mira dressed in a high waisted, mid-thigh length floral skirt and white tank top and herself in a pair of dark green khaki pants and  a coral pink racer-back tank. Standing next to Mira, April couldn't help but feel underdressed, while April was dressed for comfort, Mira dressed to impress. Her floral ensemble highlighted her perfectly tanned skin and beautiful blonde hair. April felt a twinge of jealousy at her best friend's natural beauty. "Should I go change?" she added as an afterthought.

"No, silly!" Mira teased, leading them out the door and across campus. "Your parents called me last night since you wouldn't answer your phone and asked if you, Daniel, Sean and I wanted to meet them for the weekend. I said yes, of course! It's been forever since I've last seen them," she trailed off wistfully.

"So... Where are the boys?" April looked around once they got to the front of campus while Mira signed the sign-out sheet, Sean and Daniel where nowhere in sight. Mira tapped her on the shoulder, indicating that it was April's turn to sign out, while she got out her phone from her pink-gold leather purse. Mira fiddled with it before answering.

"They're on their way; Daniel overslept."

"Of course," April laughed. She should have known.