The First Month of September

Thursday Sept. 27th: This World Is Just an Idiots Parade

"Oh, hey John what's up?"

"Can I ask you something?" He asked, coming up to my side.

"Yeah, sure."

"You haven't seen Penner have you?" He blurted, causing my head to snap to the left to look at his face.

"He's in New York all week," I explained, clutching my hand around the strap of my book bag. "I would've thought you knew about that." I thought out loud.

"Hmm, I guess that's why he hasn't been at school." His voice came out as a whisper.

"Listen, I'm sorry you had no clue."

"It's not a big deal I just found it strange that I hadn't seen him all week," He gave me a weak smile. "Anyways thanks for letting me know."

"Sure, no problem-."

"Isaac!" Morgan bellowed from across campus. "Let's go, we don't want to be late for English!"

"It's cool I've got to head to gym anyways." John mumbled, patting me on the arm.

"Alright, see ya later."

I was still getting asked from Carly and Lucas if I'd heard anything from Penner since he left. Morgan and Jai didn't seem to care if he was gone, but I doubt they even noticed at all because of the past between the three of them. I still didn't know the full truth to the story. I heard Jai's side in Chemistry class and then Penner gave me his side, saying that Jai lied about everything.

I would simply tell Lucas and Carly that Penner was doing great and he was having fun in New York. Of course they wanted more details than that because of what they saw in the paper about his band. The comments about being drunk and Tyson, who I found out was Penner's ex-boyfriend through his dad.

I didn't even think about telling my friends about what was going on in Penner's life because that was his private world-although everyone knows what's going on even if they try to kept it hidden.

But as I stood in line to get lunch with Jai and Morgan, my phone began to ring with the 'Camden Care" name on the screen.

"Hello?" I answered, holding my hand over my exposed ear to block out the loud voices in the cafeteria.

"Hi, it's Rebekah."

"Hey, what's up?"

"Do you think you can come down here?" She asked, suddenly causing me to stop in the line and grabbing Jai's attention away from Morgan. My thoughts automatically going to Katherine, hoping that my sister was calm and under control.

"Why, what's wrong?" I panicked.

"Nothing's wrong, there's just have a little situation with Katherine down here," She started. "I think you should come to the school."

"Come there now?" I gasped, chewing on my thumbnail. "It's a little difficult to leave, I mean I'm in school right now."

"Go, we have plenty of time," Jai muttered, grasping my shoulder. "I know how it is, I have a three-year-old, too."

"Okay, okay I'll be there soon." I hung up the phone quickly, bringing a hand to my forehead.

"What if you're not back in time for class?" Morgan asked before I could take off.

"Then I'll be yelled at in Spanish by Mr. Wesley," I joked, shrugging my shoulders. "I gotta go."

Getting out of the building wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I just walked right out the front door without anyone stopping me or saying anything to me. I had under 30 minutes to get to Camden Care and back before lunch ended and my next class started, so I wasn't going to speed limit throughout town.