FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 38 ~~~~~

It didn't make sense, I always made sure that I didn't forget anything. I guess the whole thing with Mia, putting the audio together on the weekend and just keeping up with my school work was making me a little confused.

It still stuck around when I had finished dinner and Elain came to watch me for the night as I worked on my school work. I did plan to try and check all the audio one last time. But then I realized what it was that had been bothering me so much.

The USB key that I had attached to the laptop.

I left it still in the laptop inside my desk at school.

What the heck?!

How could I forget something so important??

It was because of Nick. I worried that he might have been snooping in my things I didn't think to grab the one thing I needed. I looked at the clock on the wall in my room that was in the shape of a sun and moon, as the big hand moved close to eight PM. The school would be closed, no one would be there. Yet, for whatever reason, my mind kept flashing to Kaya, thinking about what would have happened to her if I hadn't gotten her away from Nick.

No, I didn't need to be worried, I had the recording on my phone I would be—

I felt my heart sink as I looked at the file that should have had the audio file that I had on my phone that I had Mia listen to. It was gone!

GONE!

How? It couldn't have been gone, I wouldn't have deleted it, it should have been right here. so how could it...

My locker. The broken lock. That's what it was. He went into my locker and managed to delete the file from my phone and left the scratched CD to distract me. My heart sunk. Not after all that, it couldn't have been gone. No, no it's okay, I still had the USB key inside my desk. I was still fine. It would still work out, my plan was still in motion.

But is it really safe? My thoughts came through asking myself. Are you absolutely sure Nick doesn't have the USB?

Darn it!

I couldn't panic! I couldn't let myself fall down that rabbit hole like Alice. I couldn't let myself go mad thinking impossible things that I knew nothing about!

But it remained and grew. And grew. And grew. Until I could no longer take it.

"Elain!" I ran out of my room and down the stairs, where Elain had rushed out of the living room looking worried. "Elain, I need to get back to school!" I tell her. "It's really important! I have to get something from the classroom!"

Elain looked even more confused. "What? You forgot something? Amie, can't you wait until tomorrow?"

"No!" I said it in a way that was a little too loud. "I can't!" What if it's gone? "I need to get it now or else..." What if Nick took the USB? What do I do then? "I need to get back to school and get it back right now!"

Elain noticing my growing panic gently rested her hands on my shoulders. "Hey calm down Amie, it's not the end of the world, okay? I'll give your Dad a call, tell him you left something really important at school and you need to get it back." We headed down to the living room where she grabbed her phone and called my Dad, it rang a few times, about five, he must have been busy with something.

Then he picked up.

"Evening, Miss Ortiz, is something wrong?"

"Ah, no, nothing's wrong per se. It's just that... Amalie left something important at school and wants to see if we can get it back."

"Hmm, is that so? Is she there?"

Elain handed her phone to me. "Hi, Dad..."

"Is what you left at school so important you need to go back and get it right this instant?"