It’s been almost a week since I came home from the hospital. All I’ve been doing it sitting on the couch watching TV and eating at meal times. It was time for me to start doing something again.
It was about six o’clock in that Friday morning when I went into the kitchen to talk to Sam. I’ve known that he gets up really early to start his work. (I had no idea what he did) He was sitting in one of the bar stood by the island eating cereal. When he saw me come into the room, he smiled.
“Good morning! What are you doing up so early?” He shoveled another spoon full into his mouth.
“Well, um, I was kind of wondering if…well…”
“Spit it out,” his mouth was full when he said that.
“I kind of want to go back to school…if that’s okay with you and Emily I mean,” My fingers were twitching in my lap. I was so afraid he’d say no.
“I guess you can. As long as you’re up to it,” he took his last bit before getting up to clean out the bowl. I ran over to him and hugged him.
“Thank you!” I let go and took a step back, biting my lip. “Um, can I go back today possibly?”
He looked at me, kind of shocked. “Don’t you think you should wait until tomorrow?”
“I really want to go back today though.” I said, sitting down in the chair Sam was sitting in before he got up.
Sam looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. “Okay, yeah I guess you can,”
I smiled and went back to my room. My stuff was now in a bureau across from my bed. I only had enough clothes for two more days, but that was fine with me. It’s not like they couldn’t get washed.
My paramore t-shirt was my first choice, followed with a pair of gray jeans and purple high-tops. I was too much in a hurry to empty my backpack of all my school shit, so I had everything ready to go. It was about seven when I went out into the kitchen to make myself something for breakfast. Sam was watching the local news channel, waiting for me to finish up.
After I cleaned up my dishes, I slipped on a sweatshirt and Sam took me out to the truck.
“Remind me, where do you go to school?” He asked after starting up car.
“Forks High,” I replied, throwing my backpack onto the floor.
“Okay,” He put the truck in gear and started driving back to Forks. The car ride seemed to go by slower this time compared to the last time I was in his truck. I guess that was because Seth wasn’t along.
“I probably won’t see Seth at all will I,”
“No, he goes to school in La Push with the rest of the pa- I mean the rest of his friend,” Sam stuttered, clutching the wheel tighter.
“Oh,” I said aloud, thinking, ‘well that sucks,’
The rest of the ride was almost dead silence. I will admit I was kind of freaked out by it, but we were there before I could do anything serious. I jumped out, grabbed my backpack and slinging it over my shoulder. My right arm, the one with the cast on it, was hidden by my sweatshirt sleeve, but there was no way to hide my bulky white bandage on my neck.
Everyone I passed gave me a different look. There was the ‘oh, what happened?!’ look, and the ‘ha, serves you right frosh.” Bet you can’t guess who those looks came from.
By the time I got to my locker, my face was beat red. I seriously considered not coming back to school again. Once my locker was open, a note fell out, landing by my feet. It was from Alice.
‘Hey Mirabelle,
Hope you’re doing okay with your grandma. I didn’t think you’d have to switch schools on us, but it seems like you did. Just in case I don’t see you before you see this, I sure hope you call me or something because if you leave without saying good bye, I’m going to come to you house and kick you ass. Love, Alice.’
I was laughing so hard after I read it. I got some funny looks from people, but I didn’t care anymore. Grabbing my books, I headed off to English Lit. The five minute bell rang, so I wasn’t crunched for time or anything so I took my time getting there. I was sitting down in my seat, notebook on the tabletop when the minute bell rang.
That’s when a vast majority of the class walked in, sneering at me. My head hung down, looking at my paper, shielding the junior’s view of the bandage. My abusing would be way worse if they knew right off hand.
“Okay class, today we’re finishing off our unit on Maya Angelo. If you would, please take out the packet and pass it forward. Remember, this baby if worth 100 points,”
I raised my hand and Mr. Volt never called on me, but he answered my question. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you the packet and you can work on it and finish it up by next Monday,” He grabbed the nearest one and threw it to me. I caught it, slipping it into my folder. I nodded, shrinking down into my turtle shell.
My luck seemed to be on the good side today, or so I thought. When the ending bell rang, Mr. Volt asked me to stay after for a second, so I did. A few juniors lingered after too, but I didn’t notice at the time.
“Are you doing okay Mirabelle?” He asked, folding his hands together on the desktop.
“Yeah, I’m doing fine,” I said with a weak smile. He wasn’t convinced.
“What happened?” he asked, pointing to my neck.
“Oh this?” my hand flew up to touch it, my face flushed. “Um, well…” the minute bell rang and made me jump. “Mr. Volt, I really should go to class…”
He let out a huge sigh. “Fine, here let me write you a pass,” He picked up a pen and wrote the time on my passbook, along with the class I was heading off to. With a flick of his wrist, he scrawled his signature onto the page and handed it back to me.
“Here you go,” the final bell rang as soon as he stood up to let me out the door.
“Thanks Mr. V,” I said, walking out and shutting the door behind me. As soon as I turned to go to my next class, two guys were blocking my way.
“So, where’ve you been frosh?” one of the guys, a blonde with dark green eyes, said, taking a step closer to me. I stepped back, and the other one, a brunette with brown eyes, laughed.
“Still won’t talk to us huh?” Blonde glanced over at brown eyes and they snickered. “Well, if you won’t talk, then maybe you’ll scream,” Blonde stepped forward and grabbed my right arm, making me wince. He looked down and let out a single ‘ha’ before letting go and grabbing the other arm.
I yanked my hand away and narrowed my eyes at them. “Leave me alone you idiots,”
“She does talk,” He grabbed my wrist again and squeezed tight. It didn’t hurt that much, so I didn’t do anything. When he noticed I wasn’t fazed, he pulled on it, making me wince a bit. Before I knew what was going on, I was being dragged down the hallway.
“Awe come on! I really need to get to class!” I jerked my arm, but he didn’t give. “Let me GO!” I yelled. That got me a lovely slap to the face. Great.
“Shut it girly, you’re not going anywhere,” brown eyes snickered. Blonde laughed hard before there was the distinct sound of hard skin on skin contact. I looked over at Blonde; the guy’s head was turned to the left. A red mark was appearing on his cheek. Standing there in front of his was Alice, my savior.
“Leave her alone, or I will kick your ass,” She turned and looked at brown eyes, who was slowly stepping backwards. He wasn’t looking at Alice though, he was looking past her. I cocked my head to the side where I saw Jasper, Alice’s boyfriend, standing, looking ready to kill someone.
“We were just leaving, weren’t we Zack,” Brown eyes said, grabbing Zack and pulling him down the hallway. Zack had let go of my wrist when Brown eyes grabbed his own. I was happy to see that they were gone.
“Thanks Alice. I don’t know what I would’ve do-“ I started before I felt Alice wrapped her arms tightly around me. There was something wet on my shoulder that was seeping through my shirt. “Alice?”
She let go and grabbed my shoulders looking me in the eyes. I never saw the light slap coming. My head was facing the place where Jasper was standing. He looked slightly shocked by Alice’s performance.
I looked back at her, eyes wide and confused. “…Alice?”
“You ever leave without an explanation again, I swear I’ll kill you,” She whispered, smiling, laughter bubbling up from somewhere inside her, bursting out like a popped balloon. I smiled back, relieved that she was okay.
“I missed seeing you Alice,”
“I missed you too. Let’s get to class,” She grabbed my hand and started pulling me in the direction of our class. Jasper followed, but he stayed a few feet behind us.
Lucky for us, we didn’t waste all that much time in the halls because the teacher accepted my pass as ‘still valid’ and continued on with her lecture.
Once lunchtime came around, Alice decided to stay with me today. We jumped in line and got our food before sitting down next to a window at a table right behind where her siblings happened to be sitting. “So,” Alice said, putting down the only article of food she had picked up; and apple. “Please explain to me what that lovely bandage is for,” She seemed awfully calm compared to anyone else who saw it.
“Well, um, I kinda got scratched by a vicious dog,” her eyes went wide and, for a moment, pure red hot anger flashed in her eyes before it went away, showing concern.
“You’re doing okay though, right? Nothing’s infected,”
“Right, everything’s good,” as I said that, I slipped my sleeve further over my arm. No one’s noticed besides that idiot Zack, but that was okay because I didn’t plan on seeing him again.
“Good,” The bell rang and she got up and threw her apple in the garbage. I never knew why she didn’t eat. ‘If she doesn’t want me to know, then I won’t ask,’
I followed right behind, dumping a majority of the contents on my tray away. We stayed together for the rest of the day, seeing as the rest of the classes we had were the same.
By the end of the day I was totally beat. Sam was waiting outside in the truck while I got all of my things together. Alice said her good-byes and left with jasper and the others, leaving me all alone in the hallway with a few other kids.
I slammed my locker shut, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. Sam waved when he saw me walk out of the building. When I got to the truck, I threw my bag in the back, stunned to hear an ‘oof,’ when the bag landed. I jumped, looking over the side into the cab.
Lying flat at the bottom with my backpack resting on top of him was Seth. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t know you were back here!!!”
He sat up, throwing my bag into the corner, far away from him. “Yeah, I kinda figured,” he held out his hand and said, “Ride back here with me,”
Not knowing what to do, I climbed in and sat down by him. “So, what are you doing here?”
Sam had started the truck and was now pulling out of the parking lot, “Well, I was wondering if you’d like to go out on a date with me,”
I blinked. ‘wait, what?’ I turned to face him and replied, “Dude, I don’t know you that well,”
“That’s why I’m asking you out on a date, so we can get to know each other better,” His grin was intoxicating, pulling my in. ‘This feeling…it’s familiar'
“Um…sure, I guess we can, if you really want to,” cheeks flushed, I smiled up at him. He smiled back, “Tomorrow it is,”
He pulled me into a hug and muttered, “Thank you Mirabelle, thank you for giving me a chance.” What was that supposed to mean?