Take Back

Home!

I woke up to the smell of pancakes. Pancakes, that's weird, my mom hadn't cooked that in a very long time. Actually the last time she cooked that was the day. 5 years ago my dad was deployed to Iraq. I remember the day they came to get him clearly. We had just finished eating his favorite breakfast blueberry pancakes. A hard pounding came from the door and my father got up and walked over to look through the eye hole. He peeped through and turned around to face an anxious mom standing behind me with her hands on my shoulders. He nodded to her and opened the door. A man in a blue uniform stood there holding a salute. My father returned the salute and the man recited aloud. "Sargent John Francis, you have been recruited to join the war in Iraq" at that time I barely understood what was happening and all I knew was my dad would be going away for a very long time.

I jumped out of bed and went across the hall to take a quick shower. My bathroom was connected to an awesome walk in closet. I chose a white tang top that had "Death is my Friend" written across the front. I moved over to the part of my closet I had designated for pants. I chose a pair of black shots that stopped just above my thigh. I slipped on my favorite red converse and a beautiful leather jacket with my name "Aria" bejeweled in ruby's on the back.

I headed downstairs following the delicious smell. My mom was in the kitchen flipping cakes. My mom was a beautiful lady. She had long dark brown hair that fell in waves to her waist. She had beautiful facial features, number one being her hazel green eyes. She turned and said good morning. "Aria are you sure you want to wear that today?"  She asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, why?" I answered.

"No, reason" she turned and resumed cooking. I devoured my pancake. It was a shame mom didn't cook more often, she was an amazing chef.  I finished not leaving a crumb.  I got up to head out to the bus stop, when my mom put a brown lunch bag on the counter. I stared at her in confusion. I picked it up and stared at her some more. "What am I not allowed to make my daughter lunch?" She asked again, acting even more suspiciously. I wondered if she knew something I didn't. I walked around the kitchen counter and gave her a kiss. Then I walked out the front door locking it behind me.  I arrived at the bus stop as the bus was arriving. I never missed the bus once, simply because it was 2 blocks from my house. I walked to the back of the bus to my own private seat. No one on the bus ever took my seat, I couldn't tell if it was because they were scared of me  or if they felt sympathetic for what happened with my dad. Either way I got my seat all to my self and that made me happy. It was about a 10 minute ride to my school but I enjoyed it. It was like a calm before the storm.

When we arrived at school I was greeted by my best friend Alessandra. I was in love with Alessandra, in the friendly way. I felt like she had all the beauty in the world, while I simply had the wits. She was wearing red which was her favorite color in the world. She had light brown skin and eyes the color of dark chocolate. "Ari, hey!" Alessandra yelled from twenty meters away. We had made nicknames for each other the day we met. "Hey Ales" I yelled back I ran over to her mad we greeted each other with a hug.

Ales examined my clothing and smiled. "Your fashion choices never cease to amaze me" she said slyly, before changing the subject "What happened to you on Friday you missed the meet." Alessandra was the schools girl athlete. She made every team because of her athletic build. I teased her by telling her she'll never get a boyfriend because boys don't like girls with more abs than them.

"Sorry, My mom took me shopping" I said making her jump.

"Your Mom did what?!" she screamed,she began to twirl "For the first time in forever."

"Go away, Ana" I said mimicking Elsa. We both laughed as the bell rang. We had four out of our 7 classes together. ELA, Math, P.E., and Spanish. We frolicked off to our first period, ELA, together, arm in arm. We got into class only a minute before the bell rang. Our teacher, Mrs. Harrington, was the nicest and oldest teacher in the school. "Hello children, is everybody ready?" She said in her soft, melodic voice. I raised my hand confused, she nodded granting me permission to speak. Everyone was standing and now we're supposed to be ready for something. "Ready for what?" I asked nonchalantly.

The worse person on Earth answered. Emily Magnolia spoke up in her annoying voice "We're going on a field trip, stupid, and Mrs. Harrington refuses to tell us where."

Before I could speak Alessandra snapped at Emily "You watch who you're calling stupid, before you regret it." Emily simply smiled, knowing she had affected someone gave her pleasure. Mrs. Harrington ignored Ales's comment and went on. "It will be a two hour drive so choose your seat partners wisely."

We all sat with our closest friends and waited for the bus to start moving. Once it did everybody started cheering except for me. I didn't see the point in it especially now when we didn't even know where we're going. I put my head on Ales's shoulder and closed my eyes hoping to drift away from reality.

"Aria, if you don't get the hell up I will slap you!" I heard someone yell and groggily opened my eyes. I took my head off Ales's shoulder and stood up completely confused as to what was happening. Alessandra stood up next to me, purely beaming. It was the same kind of look my mom had given me earlier that morning. I followed her off the bus and was met immediately with the warmth of the Virginia sun over me. I looked down to find I was standing on clay ground. I walked to the front of the crowd to try and figure out where we were. As I stepped to the front of the crowd I saw the ship. A huge military vessel with soldiers pouring out of it. One soldier stood out from the rest of them. He was tall about 6,3 and he had messy black hair, the soldier took of his glasses revealing his stormy silver eyes. I felt the water rolling down my cheeks as I ran towards him, my hair flowing in the wind. I reached him and leaped into his open arms. "My little girl" My fathers choked. He put me down, his hands on my shoulders. " I-I thought I'd never see you again." He said through my and his own sobbing. I wanted to tell him how much I had missed him but the words weren't coming out. I wrapped him in a hug and held on tight. I heard  Emily's annoying voice and turned to hear what she was saying. She looked at me with disgust "Mrs. Harrington I don't understand why we came, to see this stupid girl reunite with her daddy" Venom was coursing through her veins into her words. I wanted to do something but I wouldn't let go of my father let go of my father. Before I knew it Alessandra was there an had knocked Emily to the ground. She hadn't slapped her, no, she had punched her right in the nose. Emily yelled, a river of blood spilling from her nose. Emily rose like she was going to retaliate when we heard 5 loud bangs. Everybody fell to the floor, gunshots. I turned my head towards the ocean to see another military ship moving towards us. I watched in horror as the main turret shifted it's aim, I traced the it back to the bus which kids were flooding towards. I ran to them and started to scream and yell for them to look. They turned and followed my hand to the ship and ran from the bus screaming. I ushered everyone I could out the bus when a huge boom happened. I was thrown forward and saw red and orange all around
me. I heard my dad scream "Aria!" Then everything faded into darkness.

Word Count:1458
Hey guys this is my first original chapter of my first original book. I'd like to thank Vixtella for making such a boss cover. Thx for reading, chao✌️.