~~~~~A/N~~~~~
Hey lovlies! I'm back! So sorry I haven't wrote anything in about two months. About a month back, I started on the swim team for my second year in a row and my grades dropped so I got my phone and internet usage taken away. ;( But I pulled all my D's and F up to C+'s and still going up so I am ungrounded! Whoo! Now, I'm gonna go write Chapter Four! #StayStrong
~~~~~
I stop running when I reach a park and I sit down on a bench. I actually had no idea if she'd followed me or not, but I'm pretty sure she hadn't. My throw my duffel bag down on the ground beside me and rest my head in my hands. What do I do now? There's been so much commotion today that I haven't had one moment to think of anything.
As I'm sitting, policemen drive by on their daily duties on the streets, families with children too young to be in school play on the playground not too far from where I am sitting, and owners play with their many pets of many different species. A bell sounds in the distance and soon teens my age are walking to the Mall, StarBucks, and any other popular local teen hangout you can think of.
Right then and there, a sudden feeling of despair runs through me. Everyone has somewhere to go or something to do, but me.
***
After sitting for over an hour, I decide that if I'm going to refuse to go home then I might as well make do on my own. I walk to the mall and go to Great Outdoors, the local outdoors supply store. (It's also the cheapest store in the whole mall, ironically.) I get in my duffel bag and fish out my wallet and count up my money. $51,100. That's reasonable. I've been saving up all my allowance, $20 a week, since I was about eight.
I walk around the store as the 18 year old cashier watches me and my duffel bag closely. "I hope she intends on paying for that," he says to the other similarly young cashier when I pick up a $5 water bottle.
I roll my eyes. "I wonder if the young cashier knows how insulting he is?" I mutter quite loudly so he hears. I find a decent looking $20 tent and hold on to it, the water bottle, and some plastic food containers with lids as I walk to the cashier that insulted me.
"See?" I say. "I'm a well-behaved citizen. Not a thrift-shopping delinquent." He looks expressionless as he rings up my total, $30. I hand him the money and he hands me back my items in a shopping basket.
"After taking your things to your vehicle, please return the basket inside," he says.
"I don't have a vehicle," I shrug. "But okay." I leave and once I reach the exit, I tuck the boxed tent under my arm, and the water bottle and food containers go into my duffel bag as I return the shopping basket to a little stack by the door.
After leaving the mall, I know exactly where to go.
***
By the time darkness falls, I've reached my destination. I'm on a hill top deep in the woods. A small stream with happy joyous fish swim in crystal clear water. The trees are all green with various fruits hanging from them. Apples, pears, even a few bananas and walnuts. Then there are blueberry and strawberry bushes, too. On the ground, beautiful flowers of every color sprout up with perfectly green grass.
I remember the very first day my family made this place. Yes, made.
YOU ARE READING
Staying Strong
Teen FictionCompleted. I remember that after all that happened, Mom and I came back to our Wood with the stream one last time. "At least we can still have peace here," Mom had said through tears, but we never came back. I believe it was because it brought back...
