I mean I was planning on going to school anyways, so it wasn't that bad of a punishment right?
Wrong
It was awful. I tried so hard not to sleep through Mr. Evan's class. But I mean it's History, who wouldn't doze off? Probably everyone else. Ever girl is always saying he's a hot teacher, and i'm like what? He's like 52 (24) years old! The girls at my school are weird.
And then there was Architectual Design, which wouldn't have been that bad if I had friends there. It was full of the nerdiest nerds and people that wanted to be in "The Groups" (that's what everyone outside of them calls us).
Finally, lunch was here. Today, everyone sat together, both Minors and Majors, and the jocks. There were about 7 jocks with us, including Jax, Chaz, and Ryan, hottest guys at school in that order. The other four were just boyfriends of the girls, like Christian was Cora's, Jeff was Char's, and Braxton was Marjorie's. For some reason they didn't come yesterday, but Char told me they didn' know what was going on.
"Okay," Jax spoke up, getting right into it and everyone's attention.
"Tonight, me, Savannah, Marjorie, and Cora plan for tomorrow."
"What's tomorrow?" Braxton asked, looking at Marjorie, and gave Jax this face that I guess meant the 'if you weren't the strongest guy or couldn't whoop my butt i'd glare at you' look.
"Tomorrow...ahh..." Jax stuttered, not quite knowing a good lie.
"Tomorrow there's a party!" Cora spoke for him.
She continued, looking at me while she spoke. "And the party's gonna be at Sa-"
"CORA'S HOUSE!!!!!" I jumped and squealed.
Nice try Corral, but you've gotta be quicker than that. Everyone who was there last night was laughing, except her, she looked upset. But I couldn't have cared less.
"Yeah, it's at Corral's house, 7 p.m," Chaz added, his mouth making that click-click sound.
"Tell everyone about the party to spread the news," Jessica added, amused.
Cora put her head down and groaned.
The remainder of lunch was just everbody talking about stuff, Chaz making jokes and me laughing with everybody else. Though i'm not apart of them, I had to keep reminding myself. But then again, I hadn't been doing anything to get back at them. I decided to start by getting on all their good sides so I could use it against them, but with Cora, it wasn't that easy.
Out of all the ways of communication, we used Skype. Not even Oovoo. I'm team Android so we couldn't use Facetime, much to the dislike of Cora (what are the odds) because she was team Apple. No one had Oovoo except for me and Jax, so we Skyped it out.
We didn't have much to discuss, all of us agreeing on Walkie Talkie's, flashlights, batteries, and Hostess desserts (they were soft and chewy and not that loud). Excluding Cora, of course she had to prepare her house for the party so she pretty much just listened and agreed.
Surprisingly, by the time we finished it was around 1 a.m. My mom came in to talk so I left the conversation.
"Hey mom. What's up?"
She sat at the foot of my bed. "Just making sure you're here," she sighed.
I realized I didn't tell her about Saturday.
"Mom, is it okay if I go out tomorrow?"
She thought about it. "I guess you can, it's the weekend and you have all A's. But don't forget you therapy session got moved to 6:30."
Crap!
"Oh nooo," I moaned. "Can we make it Sunday? I can call and ask. Please?" I pleaded.
"Oh all right, but no more going out for this month, that includes Halloween."
"Kay, thanks fam!" I didn't really give for Halloween any way. My mom kissed my forehead, said goodnight, and left. When I checked my phone it was 5 missed Skype calls, and Jax was calling me now. I picked up to see a worried Jax, shaken Marjorie, and upset Cora. "What?" I asked as soon as I saw them.
No one said anything. "What?!" I repeated, clearly frustrated. If I had a dollar for everytime I said What i'd be on a yacht already.
"Jess texted me," Jax pierced through the silence. "Ryan went to the warehouse to check it out. No one has heard from him yet."
"You've got to be kidding me." I complained, tossing my phone on the bed.
"Exactly what I thought," Cora agreed.
I picked up my phone up again. "Let's just wait for some hope." Honestly, I thought we were screwed. If he was there that meant she's dead, and us going tomorrow - er well today, meant we'd just show up for the body. But I couldn't give up now.
"If he calls me, or if Jess tells me anything, i'll let you guys know," Jax promised.
"Yeah well hopefully it's before tomorrow night. I'm gonna crash now, i'm throwing a party that i'm not even going to in what, 14 hours? Deuces people." Cora left the conversation. Marjorie looked shaken still.
"Marj? What's on your mind?" I asked, worry in my voice.
"Nothing, just. What happens if he doesn't call, or if he goes missing? Do we go look for him? And if we go missing then -"
"We're not going to go missing Marj," Jax interrupted, and even with the crappy Skype connection, you could see that his eyes changed to amber-hazelish. "Everything is going to be okay. You should get some rest." Marjorie nodded, and left the conversation.
I admit, it's pretty weird being alone with Jax again. The last time that happened it was yesterday when he pulled me aside to "warn me". Then before that, when he left me by myself. I had stood there in confusion for about four minutes, then I just left and went on.
"I still have your jacket, the one you attacked me with when you guys pulled me out." I had rewashed it and dried it, so it smelled more like a nice ocean breeze instead of polluted cold Florida water.
"It's for Chaz, not mine," he corrected. Of course it's his.
"Not going to bed?" He didn't look tired, or make a move to end the call.
"Waiting on you, I've gotta be the last one."
"Because it makes you feel better?" I teased.
"Because I want you all to be safe. After Armoni, none of you guys are safe."
"You don't have to do that to yourself, you don't have to make yourself everyone's protector. You know that, right?"
Jax rubbed his temple. "Well then who's gonna do it?"
"I don't know, but it isn't up to us. I've tried that too, but..." I couldn't finish. I couldn't - no, I shouldn't - trust him that much to tell him. About Penelope, about how I thought I had everything in life under control, that I was as strong as she was. But then that night happened, I realized I was weaker than she was. I'd hurt people, Tria, my parents, I had let everyone down.
"You remind me of someone Savannah, someone I knew. A really close friend of mine."
"Who?" I asked, trying to take the subject off of me.
Jax didn't answer. I decided changing the whole subject in general.
"Get some rest Jax, you seem pretty tuckered out." Without waiting for his answer, I left the conversation.
I couldn't sleep. At all. Like I tried, but I failed. Tossing and turning, until I raised my white flag around 4 in the morning, deciding to just re watch Anslo Garrick, my favorite episode of my favorite show, The Blacklist.
Halfway in, I got an Oovoo call- JaxHavens04
I picked up the second time it rung, turning on my lamp. "What's on your mind?"
Jax blinked. "You- you're still awake?"
"Can't sleep, I'm guessing neither could you."
"Oh no I slept- for like only an hour. Ryan called."
My eyes widened with shock, and happiness. "Yay! Well what did he say?"
He frowned. "He said it was normal. Just a warehouse. He looked everywhere and it was empty. She wasn't there, no one was. He thinks we shouldn't go tomorrow, but I told him we should, just in case."
I looked away, and started tracing squares on my lap. "Yeah, you're right. I can get the walkie talkies first thing tomorrow, after I-" I cut off. after I reschedule my appointment, I almost said.
"After what?" From the movement his microphone made, I could tell Jax squirmed in his bed.
"After I pack the ho-ho's and Twinkies," I joked, looking back to the screen. He chuckled. "Yeah well i'll pack the sno balls and ding-dongs. And flashlights."
"Oooh let's not forget the batteries. We don't wanna end up like some horror movie cliche now don't we?" He actually laughed this time.
"The only thing more stupid then that are the fact the every girl runs in a horror movie, falls, and just screams on the floor like the journey's over. Seriously the bad guy is always like 50 feet away!"
"RIGHT! And don't even get me started on how every black guy dies first for no apparent reason!"
We spent majority of the conversation laughing and joking and saying really sucky cliches got- awful puns.
'The sun's out" Jax pointed out. I tilted my head to the side and leaned to look at the opening on the curtain.
"Holy crap, it's morning?"
"What is it that makes you find crap so holy?"
"Shut it Jax, it's a weird habit."
"Whatever you say," Jax smiled.
I yawned.
"You're gonna regret not sleeping Savannah," Jax informed me, smile faded.
"And you're gonna regret one hour of sleep Jax," I put emphasis on his name.
"Whatever," he said playfully. "I'll talk to you in a few, okay?"
"Okay."
This time he hung up. Since it was 6:46-time flew that fast- I decided to get up and make breakfast.
I brushed my teeth and took a long hot shower, enjoying it as much as I could, since it might be my last. By the time I got down it was already 7 and my mom and dad were making coffee.
"Morning fam," I greeted.
""Heyy carebear. Your mom told me you were going out today, just wanted to know when."
"I leave at 4, and I don't know when i'll be back. It depends. But i'm going to the store today to pick up some things. I'll use my own money, so you won't have to pay."
"What things?" This time my mom asked.
"Oh just snacks. Marjorie's really sad and I plan on fattening her up while we cry about being single," I lied with a smile. My parents laughed.
Am I really that funny?
"Well okay. Don't forget to call your therapist."
After I got the walkies I called my therapist to reschedule. Life pretty much sucked from there. Turns out on Sundays, she works at Pasadena Villa, the crazy place I went to last weekend. Even though it seemed so far away, it was just last weekend. So now yours truly has to spend one more day at Freak Hotel Central. By then, it was already 5:30, so I got back to the shower, and chose out my clothes for today.
I figured I needed something I could move great in, so I went with the black leather stretchy leggings and a regular black shirt, along with my leather jacket (i'm a leather fanatic, sue me). I added track shoes so I be faster in case something happened.
I had gotten to Cora's house around the time her "party" started. It had already 100 people, and the music was so loud I had to just wait outside. Honestly how does her mom let her do this?
The first person there was Marj. Then Jax, then Cora, who was inside giving the "group" instructions on her house or whatever. Finally, we reached the warehouse at 6:58.
"Guys," Jax started. "Whatever happens, we'll be okay. We have the walkie talkies and-"
"Skip the sap talk and lets just go inside. I gotta hurry home to make sure everything's okay."
Cora interrupted him.
I got annoyed with her.
"The possibly of our friend and maybe us being killed in that warehouse is about 97.999% and all you care about is a stupid party?"
"Well if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have to be worried about this stupid party," Cora snapped back, putting emphasis on stupid party. She opened the door to the warehouse and went inside.
Inside it was really dark. If we didn't have flashlights we'd be screwed. From what I saw, there were lots of these tall racks everywhere, some had boxes which I guesed were empty. It was a big room, and there were many sections. We were standing in the front, so we could pretty much see everything but inside of them. The front was clear, but there were big black metal boxes
"Okay everybody, we got the walkie talkies. Every man for themselves." Cora started to walk away, but Jax called back. "Cora! We need to stick together, it's four of us so two and two.
"You just want to spend more time cheating on Jessica with her," Cora pointing a finger to me.
Now, i'd like to tell you that I was calm about it, that I smiled and said something like "You're hilarious Cora," and we all laughed together, found Armoni, and went home skipping and frolicing, and holding each other's hands. Yeah, that did NOT happen.
I nearly bit her head off. I jumped at her and started clawing at her scalp, face, arms, anything, while Jax tried breaking it up. I'll admit she got one face hit, but other than that, it actually felt good with me being 15, being able to beat up a 16 year old. When Jax finally pried me off of her, she was about to attack again but Marj pulled her back. Out of nowehere I started laughing, hysterically actually. "I guess now we know what groups of two we're in," I said before walking away.
"Savannah, don't do that anymore," Jax warned as soon as we got in the first aisle of the first of twelve sections. Marj and what's her face started all the way at the other end , and we'd meet in the middle. "It's not like I meant to," I argued. "Did you hear what she said? If Jessica heard that she'd cut off my-"
"That doesn't mean you can attack anyone for trash talk. Remember what I said about staying low?"
I sighed, then nodded.
"Good."
Everything went downhill in the fourth section, towards the end. It was already 10 o'clock, and my legs were sore. Me and Jax had eaten about several Hostess desserts. We were chatting with Marj via walkie talkie.
"Nothing?" I asked.
"Nothing but boxes and broken legs," she replied with a chuckle. Then, our walkies made a weird static sound. The warehouse lights turned on, then off. The lights still worked?
Then it started. One by one, then many of them. Paper airplanes starting flying towards us, all around us. They kept on coming, more and more of them. "What the.." Jax trailed off. I picked up an airplane and looked to see what it was. It was a photo. They were all photo's. Horror written all over my face, I turned to Jax, who was staring at the photo with the same look I had.
The photo was of Ryan, it was taken with a night vision camera. It showed him entering the warehouse. I picked up another one, it was him walking around. Me and Jax were going crazy, picking each one of them up, looking at them to see all pictures of Ryan, walking around the warehouse. He was wrong. Someone was there. I picked another, and turned it to the back side.
"J-J-Jax?" I croaked out.
"Yeah," his voice breathy. I showed him the back of the picture, the note the was written.
Your little Romeo drank the poison, but he's not the one that's dying. Said goodbye's to your families yet?
Holy crap.
Just then, we heard a scream.
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!"
Jax and I broke into a full out sprint. While running Jax -obviously in front of me- got hit in his sides with something big. I crashed into him, due to his abrupt stop.
"Ow," Jax grunted in pain. I looked to see what he ran into. A printer. Suddenly, it whirred with life, then it started shooting out pictures. Of us. Us at the bridge, me in the water. Them carrying me to the park. Us at the park. One of the pictures caught my eye. Us at the mall, the night they killed Rhea. We were all in it, it was the part when Armoni had looked back and told me I was 'missing out on all the fun'. I grabbed it and stashed it in my pocket, then turned to Jax, who no longer seemed to be in pain. "We've gotta get out of here," Jax warned.
"What about Marjorie and Cora?" I pulled out the walkie talkie. "Marj? Cora? Where are you guys?" I whispered into the device. We were now almost to the end of the long aisle in section four.
"Savannah? SAVANNAH!" Marj yelled, and I could hear the echo.
"Shhhh," Me and Jax both shushed her.
"Right. Sorry. Cora? She's...I-I don't know. Me and Cora got split up. Cora, where are you?" Marjorie whimpered.
"We're coming your way, but just lay low for now." Jax responded to her.
"Guys, I think he took her. I think he's gonna take all of us."
We didn't answer, we just started running again. We had made it to the fifth section and had gone up an aisle, my flashlight in my hand but flashing the floor. Jax was behind me, making sure I was okay. Apparently he must've caught up, because I was running and rammed into him. I tripped, and fell on the floor. "Ouch, jeez sorry Jax." He was on the floor too. I started getting up but he yanked me back down.
"You never bumped into me."
His voice was very, very still, yet very much filled with fear. If I didn't bump into him then...
I looked up at the dark figure across from us. I was about to shine my light on it when my flashlight went out.
Freaking great timing.
Trembling in fear I reached into my purse and pulled out the spare batteries. Jax did the same, since we turned ours on around the same time. After I changed the batteries, I slowly turned on the light. Me and Jax looked at each other, he gave me a silent nod, then we lifted the light to the figure.
It was her. It was Armoni. It was a dead Armoni West.
It was just like the dummy depicted and more. She was hanging from something, her throat was slit, arms covered in blood from deep wounds, like someone has stabbed her and continued moving down in a straight line. There was a huge gash on her head, and she was looking up, like her attacker was above her. There were bruises on her cheeks, arms, and feet. I almost threw up, but Jax snapped me out of it.
"Savannah we gotta go. Now!" We were back up and running, Jax on my heels and me in the front, flashlight viewing what was in front of me, leaving Armoni behind. Jax was talking to Marjorie.
"New plan," he told her.
"What? What happened?" She asked him eagerly.
"Nevermind that just listen: I need you to run towards the front, as fast as you can. Someone is coming after us, and we don't know who. Just run to the front and never stop even after you're there."
"What about you guys? What about Cora?"
"Leave us."
"I Will not! Where are you i'll come meet up to-"
"No! Marj we will be okay. If Cora hears this then she knows what to do. We can't go back, just forward. Leave us."
Marj started crying, but then it was cut off. I assumed she was running. My eyes stinged but I wouldn't cry. Not now.
By the time we reached the front my lungs just about bursted and I was breathing so much I couldn't breathe. We were in the middle, surrounded by nothing but each other. Something rolled to our side near Jax's feet.
All in a fraction of a second, I thought back to these moments of my childhood I could never forget. Mainly because of my photographic memory.
*****Flashback*****
I was only six, and Nela was seven. We had went to this career fair, because my cousin Ronnie was looking for a job, and we just wanted to get out the house. There were many people there, people in yellow suits carrying these long things (hoses), people in boring outfits (buisness clothing). I honestly didn't see why jobs were important. I thought people got free money from the government.
Nonetheless we had reached this booth looking room-thing. We went inside and sat down in the front.
"Good evening," some man spoke into a microphone. I stopped listening to him then so I couldn't hear what he was saying. Then he asked for a volunteer.
"OOOh Ronnie, you should go up there!!" I shouted. When everyone turned to look at me, I put my head down in embarrassment. "Sorry," I apologized. The audience were all 'aww'ing. "Well," the guy at the front began. "Come on up here Ronnie!" He made his way through the crowd, me and Nela followed him. He ruffled my hair when we got to the front. Apparently, he was supposed do some cutting. They told him to cut a red, or blue or green wire before time. I didn't hear much, I just watched him frowning in frustration. Then the thing blew up in his face. It was just gray smoke, and me and Nela tried not to laugh. He did it again and it didn't blow up.
Everyday when he'd visit, he'd tell us these facts that he learned from his job. He worked in the bomb squad, saved lives everyday on the job.
"Did you know, that there are millions of chemical bombs lying in our oceans after being dumped there after thr first and second world war, because authorities didn't have a way to dispose of them properly?"
He even knew facts on grenades.
"Did you know that at first, the grenade was fitted with a seven-second fuse, but during combat in the battle of France in 1940, this delay proved too long so the fuse was reduced to four seconds?"
***Flashback over***
My cousin Ronnie, God rest his soul, has helped so much.
"Grenade!" I yelled and while pushing Jax out of the way, I picked it up and threw it into the sections as far as I could throw. We ran but the grenade went off. If it was close we would have been dead, but it was far enough in, that only the impact slung us into the air. Only. I hit a black box and crumbled to the floor. Jax was a few feet nearby. Shock kicked in once again.
"HELP!!" I began shouting, out of nowhere.
"SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP US!!! OH MY GOSH PLEASE SOMEONE!!!!!"
Jax slid to my side, covering my hand with his mouth.
"Savannah, look at me," he whispered. " You need to be calm, please just follow my lead okay? Breathe in with me on the count of three. One..."
This was too messed up. First my sister, then Rhea, now this. If anyone finds out about this, we all go down. And none of this has anything to do with me.
"Two..."
This was a fight or flight situation, and I had nothing to do with it. I was just called to the scene. I didn't mean for this, I hadn't said one word when this happened. I didn't even want to come, but I was pulled into this.
Will I make it out alive?
"Three..."
I slowly inhaled and exhaled with him. Then he held a finger up to his lips, and pointed towards the door, very near to us. He signaled with his fingers to three again, then we made a break for the door.
We hit outside, and kept on running. We didn't stop.
*************
I really didn't want to be back here. Not after the world's most crappiest weekend. Not after I had escaped from my death. Not after seeing Armoni like that. I hadn't slept an inch since probably Thursday. I don't care enough to remember. I couldn't believe any of this. I had to get my mind off of this weekend somehow, anyway possible. So I actually felt somewhat better when the girl in front of me spoke up.
"So what's your sentence?"
It took me some time to comprehend the question she asked me. Even then I was confused.
"What?' I asked back in response. Or at least what I would have said, but I didn't speak. She looked like a normal girl, nothing crazy about her or anything. Maybe she was just like me.
"If you are in here, you are either crazy, socially isolated, depressed, or all of the above. Or they think you are. So which one are you?"
Yeah, she was definitely just like me.
" I mean you don't strike me as crazy. The other two...maybe." Well then. That's kind of offensive.
Part of me wanted to answer all of the above, but I didn't want her to walk away from me. Not that I was desperate, but small talk could make a huge difference. So instead I held my tongue, not saying anything at all, even though that lessened my chance of small talk anyway.
"It was a joke. So what's your name anyways."
SAVANNAH! SAVANNAH!!
The screams of the night before were still loud and clear, just like my sister's voice. My lips literally felt sealed. I couldn't bring up the courage to even whisper.
I felt kinda sorry for the girl, she was trying to feel better from this looney heaven and I wasn't doing much to help.
"Okay, so it seems I am having a one sided convo here so..."
She trailed off.
"Okay, i'll take that as a 'leave me the **** alone, if I need to talk to someone I would have already.' So yeah i'll just leave you to your food. If I could even call it that. This is pathetic."
She pushed her plate aside and stared past me.
This was awkward. I should say something.
"Are you mute or something, because I know you understand me?" There was an irritated tone when she spoke.
"Or are you deaf?" She even did the sign language.
I wish I was deaf, so my pain would lessen. I wanted to talk, but I was scared. Scared I might say something I shouldn't have said.
She scoffed, then made the move to get up.
"Savannah," I whispered, not recognizing my voice at first, so I cleared my throat and tried again. "Savannah. My name is Savannah."
She stopped, kinda having the are-you-serious-you-can-freaking-talk face, then sat back down.
"She speaks!" The girl yelled, and everyone turned for a second, then turned away.
Everyone yells here, they must've thought.
I kinda felt embarrased. Though I shrugged it off eventually. I wasn't the one who screamed after all.
"Oh sorry, my name's Lavender, Lavi for short. You'll laugh when you hear my full name."
"Humor me." Seriously, you could slip on a banana peel five times, and I probably wouldn't even smile.
"Lavender Fleur. In case you didn't know, Fleur means -"
"Flower in French, I know. My mom's basically everything."
"Wow, you're just breaking records today. First you finally speak, now you're talking from all corners of the Earth."
"You're one to talk. Besides me, I'm guessing the only person you've spoken to is your therapist."
She, or Lavi, frowned before changing the subject.
"You got a nickname?" Lavi questioned.
"Not anymore."
"So Savvy it is then."
"I'd prefer Savannah. Savvy's six feet under."
"Friend of yours? Adorable." Lavi teased.
I couldn't decide if we were on each other's good side or bad side.
"Penelope Snow. My sister."
When her eyebrows creased, I knew to go on.
"She was the only one that could call me that, now she's gone. So to answer your question 'socially isolated', and you're not the only one with weird names. My name's Savannah Blanchard, derived from the French term blanc, which means white, Snow White."
"Why are you in here?" Lavender seemed to be more serious now.
I just shrugged "I already told you, socially isolated."
"No not that. The reason behind your seclusion. Why do you push people away? For me it comes natural, but you have a choice to try and move past. Me...well it's complicated."
Complicated doesn't begin to describe my situation.
"How?"
"Well how do you take that I blame myself for my sister's death? People always say it wasn't, but haven't you heard of the domino effect? I was the flicked finger, everything after that was a consequence."
I pondered that for a moment.
"Then I'd say you weren't the only one. Welcome to the family Lavender, population of only one other. You're not the only one who blames themselves. And you're preaching to the choir being secluded without a choice."
"Well your sister made her bed, now she must lie in it, Lili was just 7, a full life ahead of her. And I, my brother, and that truck driver took that away."
Made her bed? What is this the medival times? Play it cool Savannah
"I can see where you're coming from," I began, "but trust me, she hadn't even picked out the mattress. She was 16, and the smartest girl I knew. I grew up with her, she's been there my entire life. Lili may have had a full life ahead, but Penelope planned it, from start to finish. She had her own lover, and was to graduate a year early and be the best damn actress this world should've had. She committed suicide, yeah, but not because she was crazy, or wanted to be 40 deep, but because of bullying. Because high school put her through hell, and she didn't wanna even tell me about it because she herself was so secluded, and now she's caught in the exposure of fire. At least we know your precious Lili may be in heaven, she was so young, too young to make bad decisions. Nela... she's gone. And i'm gonna avenge her as best as I can."
"Avenge?"
Seriously? That's what she heard out of that beautiful speech?
"I'm afraid i've said more than I should've. Nevertheless I can't tell you what I mean by avenge."
She thought about it. "Umm ok. But one word of advice, stop whatever it is you are doing to 'avenge' your sister's death. Yes your sister's death may be a result of bullying, but don't stoop to their level. You are just as bad as them if you do. If you fight fire with fire, someone is bound to get burned, and that may be you."
Lavi had a point, but it wasn't that easy.
"I'll die knowing I tried. And it's too late now. I'm already in. From what i've been through, believe it or not, Pasadena Villa is the highlight of this weekend. I've gotta keep moving, gotta at least try. These people are freaking ticking time bombs, and someone's gotta detonate them."
"Be careful not to make a mistake, because one error, and you'll wish you never began this revenge scheme. I know I can't say anything to change your mind, you seem as stubborn as I, but just be careful. You seem like a nice girl, don't ruin your future for someone who chose to delete theirs." Lavi's advice was just about right, she was definetely on my good side, although we seemed to stay testing each other.
"Lavender Orchid Fleur, your guardians are here for your pick-up."
The intercom announced.
This girl should already be a flower, literally for her name's sake.
Did they really have to say my full name?" Lavender moaned. I gotta admit, that was pretty weird. Snow White though, Disney princesses beat pollen filled flowers any day though.
I laughed. "Orchid? I guess you beat me."
"Shut it. So yeah, duty calls. I'll see you around." She saluted and started walking away. Then she turned around and added, "Savvy, be careful. Please."
I winced at the name, but somehow I just shrugged it off. And, even though she had already turned away, I replied "I will," saying it mostly to myself. A big part of me hoped to see Lavender Orchid Fleur again one day.
"How was your week?" My therapist went with the same pattern. I didn't know whether or not I should mention that my friend is missing, or well now as I know it, dead. And if that wasn't enough, Cora was gone too.
I decided not to tell her. "Pretty good, some kid at my school who everyone knew came back, and he's really nice." I don't know why I brought him up, probably because he helped me so much yesterday.
"And at lunch today I talked to one of the paitents here, her name was Lavender." At least she had helped me feel better, sort of. It brought my mind off of this weekend. We spent the rest of our time finally talking about my sister. Mrs. Johnson, my therapist, told me she was happy I finally started improving. She didn't know I was just using it to bring my mind off of Armoni's death.
*****
Sunday I had finally gotten sleep. I woke up feeling better than I did before. Last night, when I got home, we explained what happened to Marjorie and the others. Ryan left the chat after we told them about Armoni, and so did Chaz. There was even more tension when we mentioned Cora was missing. Finally, we told them about the grenade, and how we took off running, and didn't stop until we reached the Walmart by the school, then Jax called his mom, I called mine, and he left before I did.
The conversation was silent.
"How are we gonna break it to Christian?" Hannah had asked.
"Don't know," was all Jax could say.
School today wasn't much either, there was a new girl in my history class.
Lunchtime, we all sat together again, Ryan and Christian were not at school. The new girl from Mr. Evans' class was talking to Jessica.
"Everyone, I have an announcement," Jessica spoke to us aloud. "This, is Bree. She's the new leader for the Minors." Murmurs filled the entire group, everyone-excluding me- wondering why she was so quick to find a new leader, and why it wasn't Char.
"I know, I know. It's supposed to be Char." Jessica continued. "But I made a promise to Bree, after Armoni came to the Majors. She ahh- she couldn't do that. But be grateful, now you have a new leader, stronger and braver than Armoni was."
I looked to Chaz, his face red and he was seething with rage. Did Jessica have something to do with this?
But I knew better than to ask. We all knew. Bree went around greeting everyone, clearly showing intrest in Chaz. I rolled my eyes. Since I was last at the table, she came to me last.
"Oh my. You're the famous Savannah Blanchard!" Bree exclaimed. Why was everyone talking about me?
"Yeah, I guess," was all I could say.
"Weren't you the one that fished out the dummy?" She asked, making me feel uncomfortable.
"Umm, yeah."
"And the one who discovered the body? What a coincidence." She smiled.
What.
"And if i'm not mistaken, you are the one who had an 'argument' with Cora right?"
"Right," I kinda chuckled, remembering.
"Mmm, and now she's missing."
I tensed as the table fell silent. Even Chaz stopped being mad and blinked in confusion. Jax's eye color turned sea- green.
Bree kept her smile, but I was frowning.
"Yeah... she is."
"And how did you get in again?"
Alright, I hated her. How did I get in? How does everyone get in? Aren't they supposed to be rude, or pretty, or something like that?
"I let her in," Miranda saved.
"Ohh, makes sense." Bree agreed. "I just wanted to know. Well, I know it all seems hard for you right now, but it's okay. You are strong, we'll get through this." The bell rang, lunch was done.
Before walking away, Bree said one last thing.
"After all, you seem like the kind of girl who makes all her problems, dissapear."
*****
A(N) I. Am. Done with this chapter!! I spent about two weeks on this one!
So... Bree... Ya likey or no? Leave it in the comments. I told you my chapters would get longer and better, so thanks to the ones that stayed. You guys are the best!
QFTC: Who is Your Favorite Character???
Til soon
~ohburdlee