"What's going on? Who is this?" I ask.
"Autumn, I am your birth father, Daniel Knight." The news hits me like a tidal wave and a million questions begin to form in my brain, there are so many that I don't think my mind can handle it. I stand there dumbfounded looking between McKinley and this man I don't know. Why come here after fourteen years of absence? What's the point, four more years and I'm eighteen, grown! I don't understand. I don't understand! It takes me a minute to realize that I've spent nearly five minutes in silence looking like a lost puppy. I shake my head and look up at him.
"What do you want?" When I say this he looks a little hurt and a little shocked. If this wasn't my life if I was McKinley I would feel bad for him. But he doesn't deserve it! All these years living a super crappy life with foster parents that really are awful people and he couldn't even bother to send me a letter? Find me when I still had my childish dream? Why wait so late to find me? After a moment he replies.
"I came to get you back because I have spent so much time not knowing you it drove me crazy. I couldn't live with myself knowing that I had a daughter out there somewhere and I didn't know her." At that moment I look deep into his eyes and I see that he is telling the truth. Behind those brown eyes I see hurt, loss, pain, feelings that I've had all my life. But that isn't enough to woo me over to team dad quite yet. I still have many questions that I will get answers to.
"That is so sweet! I love seeing touching family moments like this!" We turn and look at her, nearly forgetting that she was sitting there the whole time.
"Oh! Don't mind me! Mr. Knight here are the papers you need to sign. I look as she passes him some forms.
"Wait, papers for what?" As I ask I see Daniel wince. Then realization kicks in. He must not live in Kansas City.
"Where do you live, Daniel?" He turn from the papers on McKinley's desk and steps towards me. I take a step back, I don't like personal space invasions.
"I live in Hawaii, we fly back tomorrow." He says fly back as if we have done that a million times, as if we have known each other before this point. Hawaii? Sure, I've always wanted to go there but not if it meant leaving Scar! We're thick as thieves, sisters! We always have each other's back, we fight together, do stuff together, we tell each other everything. This is a major change that I'm not ready for. But if Daniel came all this way just to get me back I have believe that we can make this work. But it's really about whether I want a relationship with my birth parents, I do but this is highly unexpected. At least I can say that my best friend and I started high school in the eighth grade. Not many can say that. I close my eyes take a deep breath and try to stay cool. My thoughts are extra jumbled and all over the place, I can't think straight!
"Okay, I'm going to try. I'm super mad at you," I say pointing at Daniel, "and whoever mom is, but I'm willing to try. There are just some things I need to know from the both of you. I'm hoping that I can get to know you." Daniel looked at me, not quite sure what to say, a small smile on his face. I may appear as a tough, hard rock, but deep down somewhere inside me is that child who dreamt of my birth parents coming to rescue me from my bad situation. I feel as if that child is waking up and slowly surfacing, trying to break through those hard cracks.
I send Scar a quick text going over the basics. Something like, 'Hey I just met my birth father and I'm moving to Hawaii, ttyl.' She's going to be ecstatic that I found my birth father but heartbroken that I'm pretty much moving away forever. I sigh and shut my blue locker shut for the last time. I make my way to the front exit where Daniel waits and we take our taxi to my house so I can pack. I smile inside so bright that a small ghost of a smile appears on my face. I want to throw everything away, my mixed emotions and thoughts about my birth parents, everything just so I can savor this fresh start. But I know I can't do that, not until I have the truth.
When the taxi pulls up Daniel offers to help me pack but I turn him down. I don't think he could handle knowing what my home life is- was like right now. It's probably better if we cross that bridge another day. I walk up to my house. When I get through the door I notice just how clean it is. There's no mess on the floor, the dust by the old television set straight out of the sixties is dusted to a shine, and an attempt was even made to vacuum the rug. I look around taking in the always house that looked totally different when decently cleaned. I hear voices coming from the kitchen Lilith and Jared, speaking civilly. Suddenly they step through the kitchen entrance and Lilith hugs me. This is weird since I haven't gotten a hug from her since I was eight.
"We got the news about your father, Autumn." Lilith looks sad that I'm leaving. Even though she rarely shows it, she always liked me to an extent. Jared stands in the background looking about as sober as he'll ever be and he scoops me up into a bear hug that pulls me from the ground.
"Bye, Autumn." With those last two words he turns and walks back into the kitchen. That was the last time I saw Jared Moore. Lilith glanced at him as he left and she handed me a package of Wonka Kazoozles, my favorite candy.
"Thanks." I say, surprised that they got their act together and even left work early to see me off.
"Don't mention it. Do you want me to help you pack?" I look at her not sure if the eagerness is because she's ready for me to leave or if it's just genuine kindness. With Lilith you could never tell I peel the last fourteen years of my life off of the walls. Pictures of Scar and I, fandom posters and fan art, even my little locker mirror. Then I put the stack of the only three books that I'd ever owned into the suitcase beside my socks so if the bag got tossed around they wouldn't get damaged. Together we dragged the suitcase down the steps and onto the porch where she hugged me goodbye for the final time. As Daniel loaded my suitcase into the trunk of the taxi I heard a loud yell.
"Wait!" I look up the street as a girl with short hair races down the sidewalk, like if she doesn't sprint then she'll miss something. As the girl gets closer in my line of vision I recognize her as Scarlet, sweating and breathing laborious breaths as get stops in front of me, bent over trying to catch her breath.
"Scar, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at school? How did you get pass the security guards?" She is still trying to catch her breath but she speaks anyway.
"You big dummy, I came to say bye! You could have bothered to tell me that you were moving in person. Who sends a text with all that important information!" She stands up straight now, too proud to acknowledge that she is really upset.
"It's not like I could burst into class just to tell you! Plus, I didn't expect to be moving today either."
"Next time you have a billion life changing events happen tell me don't text me, okay?"
"Oh come on now, you know me better than that! I never make the same mistake twice!" I dramatically splay a hand across my chest, "how dare you accuse me of such a monstrosity!" We both laugh so hard the taxi driver looks in the rearview to see what's going on. After our laughing dies down Daniel interjects.
"Is this one of your friends?" Scar looks at me and then at Daniel.
"Is this him? He looks a lot like you." Leave it to Scarlet to talk about someone as if they're not there.
"Daniel, this is my friend Scarlet, Scarlet this is my birth father Daniel." After their introduction, they shake hands and Scarlet grips Daniel's right before he's about to let go.
"If you dare become a major let down and hurt my friend I will annihilate you." She says this with a menacing glare and after her statement she lets go of his hand with a huge sweet smile and says, "Nice to meet you." She turns from him and digs into her pocket. She pulls out her favorite shell necklace and hands it to me.
"You know I can't take that Scar." She looks at me and rolls her eyes. Then she takes my hand and places the necklace in my palm.
"You can and you will. Just because you're moving to paradise doesn't mean that you get to forget about me." She smiles her confident smile. I smile back at her.
"As if I could ever forget you." I pull Scar into a hug it lasts forever, like how I know our friendship will. When we pull away we look at each other possibly on the verge of tears but with Scar being too proud to cry and me trying not to we part ways without a single shed tear.
"Bye, Autumn. Promise you'll stay in touch." She says this softly with just a bit of sadness in her voice. I look at her and smile.
"You know it." With a wave we drive off into the distance leaving behind Scar and my old life. I look at her waving figure through the glass until I can no longer see her.
Once we arrive at the hotel by the airport, we go straight to the elevator. Daniel doesn't even bother to stop by the front desk which means that he had to have made a reservation.
"So, you had this set up for a while, huh?" He looks at me and smiles.
"Yeah, I really did. I've been looking forward to this day longer than you could have imagined." At that yet another questions storms over me. If he's been looking forward to meeting me for so long then where has he been? He makes it as if he's waited multiple years for this. If so, why wait? That's a smaller question I'm going to slide something bigger across the table.
"Who is my mom and where is she?" I've thought a lot about why my mom wasn't here to come get me during the car ride to the hotel. Though that was in between random questions like what my favorite color is or places I've always wanted to go to. I thought it's possible she left him or maybe they were just boyfriend and girlfriend then broke up due to relationship problems or even death by terminal illness. I really hoped that the last one wasn't true, but it's a reality to be considered. He stands there stiff and obviously uncomfortable. I'm anxiously awaiting his answer hoping the truth isn't too bad.
"Your mom isn't in Hawaii at the moment. She'll be back not long after you arrive, she can't wait to see you." Suddenly I can breathe the mother I knew nothing about yesterday is waiting to meet me in this new place, this new life. But I have a feeling that there is something that I'm not being told, which makes me step out further into these uncharted waters.
"Where did she go?" I look closely at him waiting for a response.
"She went to visit family for a while. We'll talk more about that later though don't stress about it." The slow elevator finally stops at our floor and we walk down the hall to our room. Daniel takes the key out of his pocket and opens the door. I drag my luggage to the bed next to the far wall by the window which looks out onto a beautiful parking lot. What a view.
"Hey Daniel it's been a long day so I'm going to go to sleep." He looks up from rummaging through his bag.
"Of course, yeah, you have a lot to think about and process. If you need me or want to talk I'll be reading over here." He sits down at the desk by the door with some novel about marine life. I climb into bed after changing and my mind starts to race. Why was Daniel so vague about telling me about my mom's name? Wait, I don't even know her name or what she looks like. I quietly sigh and roll over.
"Daniel?" He turned in the chair and set down his book, giving me his full attention.
"What's my mom's name and what does she look like?" At this he looked a little caught off guard, but then he started to smile. I've noticed that this guy smiles a lot especially when it comes to talking about family.
"Your mother's name is Arya. She has hair like yours that comes down to the middle of her back, in your same dark brown color." As he speaks it's as if just mentioning mom makes him light up like a kid on Christmas. "She has these beautiful eyes that always sparkle when she's happy and get stormy when she's upset or mad. In plain terms you look just like her. I noticed that you also have some of her personality traits as well. I'll be happy when you finally get to meet each other since you're so alike. I feel the two of you will get along just fine." The way he just described Arya was so filled with love and compassion. I have personally never been in love before or even had a crush so seeing him talk about her like that and light up the way he did makes me wonder what love I like. I don't know their story but I can tell just from the way he talks about her that it's a really amazing one.
"Thanks Daniel, that helps some." He looks at me with a smile still on his face and as he picks up his book again, I feel myself falling into a deep cozy sleep.