Braxton Academy

Chapter 1

"Mr. Patry?" I knocked on the door before opening it with his approval. "I'm here to leave." I was grinning from ear to ear.

"Naomi, why don't you take a seat?" He offered the chair in front of me.

"I won't be staying, thank you. My parents will be here soon and my bags are upstairs." I glanced in the corner and saw Mr. Davis standing there.

"Please, I insist." He leaned forward, indicating that it wasn't really an offer.

I sunk into the chair and noticed how concerned everyone in the room looked. Mr. Patry ran his hands through his blonde hair and then rubbed the back of his neck. Mr. Davis had his cell phone in his hand, casually tapping it against his leg while using the other hand to pick at his tie.

"When are my parents coming?" I asked, trying to break the silence of the awkward situation.

"Naomi, we're not entirely sure how to explain this to you but..." He looked up at my confused face and just stared at me for a minute. "your parents won't be coming back."

"W-what? What happened to them?" I turned to Mr. Davis.

"We're not quite sure. We've been trying for weeks to contact them but we've been unsuccessful." He closed his eyes and shook his head.

My parents were pretty ordinary people, dad was a lawyer and mom was a teacher so there was nothing dangerous about their lives. We weren't those people; the kind that bad things happen to and we were all very close. There has to be something wrong here.

"No...no, I don't believe it. They wouldn't just leave me! There must be an explanation."

"Trust me honey we've been looking for one for weeks now, we've even called the local hospital to see if there were any presence of them." Mr. Patry chimed in.

I buried my face in my hands. This was supposed to be a good day. We were supposed to be reunited. A big, happy family just like we were before "How could they do this?"

"Trust me Naomi, I'd do anything within my power to take away the pain." Mr. Davis came to me once I started crying and wrapped me in his arms.

"What's gonna happen to me?" I whispered into his comforting chest.

"We'll file to keep you here so you don't have to go to an orphanage." Mr. Patry assured me, even though it wasn't as comforting as he meant it to be.

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"Naomi!"

I jumped off my bed and tried to pull focus of my vision on who was screaming my name this early in the morning. It had to have been before eight since I was still asleep and my alarm never went off, I started panicking as I remembered last night but I definitely was not lying to Mr. Davis. There was no way I could be in any trouble.  I finally woke from my sleepy daze and saw him standing just before my door.

"Young lady, do you have any idea what time it is?"

Standing there like a mute, I glanced at my alarm clock behind me. It was 10:30 a.m. I slept through breakfast and I missed the chores I was supposed to do for this morning. Here at the Academy, wake-up is at 8:30 a.m. everyday, except on weekends, breakfast is at 9 sharp and two random chores are assigned to you in the morning. Then you have until lunch to get your individual responsibilities done such as cleaning the room, laundry, and so on.  He  took a step towards me and placed his hands on his hips.

"I asked you a question and I expect an answer." He took another step.

"I'm sorry, I slept in sir."