Avery
Life is like a simple percentage question in sixth grade math. “If one half of the Earth’s population is awed by how the world works, what percentage of the other half thinks it’s just a big load of nothing?” This would mean that fifty percent of the world have experienced one of those moments like no other. A family member has survived a deadly disease, after years and years of trying; you’re finally holding your little baby in your arms, etcetera.
And then there is the other fifty percent, the answer to our question, who have been basically shying away from the wonderful things the world can offer. It’s as if they’re living in a little hole, which keeps them from seeing the sunlight of the world. They never experience the glorious way you feel when you have your first kiss, or when you win first place in a cross-country race.
However, I bet if they at least just tried to reach out and grasp to the amazing things the Earth has to offer; the fifty percent of people who love the world, could slowly become one hundred.
“Popcorn?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are you serious?”
“Of course; it just adds to the effect,” Ray, Ronnie’s friend, said to me as she walked into her living room with a big bowl of popcorn on her hands. She flopped down on her couch next Ronnie and shoved some of the popcorn in her mouth.
Asher, who was setting up the “proof” with Ray’s VCR machine that had had to be hooked up to the TV, looked at the two girls. “Honestly, I think we have enough “effect” for a lifetime at the moment.”
Even as Ronnie wiped away a few stray tears, she managed to chuckle. Seeing Ronnie cry had, truthfully, made me feel quite odd. I guess you could say crying girls were my weakness in a way.
She nodded her head. “Let’s get this over with though.”
Asher spent a few more minutes fiddling with the VCR, and then, once it finally began to work, he came to join us at the seats. The short little video went on, and we were greeted by the familiar face of young Ronnie once again.
Ray and Ronnie awed at young Ronnie, laughed at Ronnie when she corrected Janet, literally went insane when little Asher bombarded her (this just made the man himself blush like mad), and awed once more when they saw the infant version of myself and how Ronnie said she loved me.
I looked at the two females, Ronnie mostly, only to see that Ray had tears in her eyes and that Ronnie looked shocked.
“Thoughts?” I asked her, leaning forward and leaning my arms onto my legs.
Ronnie opened her mouth to answer, when I felt my phone in my back pocket vibrate slightly. I reached into my pocket and pulled it out. It said that I had one new text message and I pressed the ‘View’ button. In big bold, white letters, the font I had chosen, I saw:
“Did you take dad’s car?”
I looked at who had sent it, and my eyes went wide when I saw that it was my mother. I gulped and stood up immediately. “We need to leave,” I told Asher and Ronnie. “Now.”
“What’s wrong?” Asher asked curiously.
I threw my phone to him, and as he caught it I explained, “My parents just got home… to find no car in the driveway. We have to get home and fast.”
“She doesn’t seem mad though,” Asher noticed as he eyed the text. “She just asked if you took the car.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you think she’ll say when she finds out that you can’t drive, and neither can Ronnie?!”
The color drained from his face, and Ronnie stood up. “Yeah, we really need to go,” She stated. “I’ll come. They’ll probably believe that I can drive if I tell them.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “We better leave now. Let’s go.”
We retrieved the VRC, thanked Ray and then were off. We all piled into the car, me being in the shotgun, Ronnie in the back and Asher driving. He put the keys, which he had had with him, in the ignition and we were then off.
As we drove, I could see that Asher would glance at the signs that marked what the speed limit was. I almost felt like urging him on to go just a little faster. I could just imagine my father’s face when he came home to see that his car wasn’t there… However, as I thought about the situation, I think I’d probably be in less trouble if I didn’t make Asher get a ticket for speeding.
We arrived home in a matter time. Asher pulled into the driveway, only for me to see that on the front porch of the house, was my mother. My breath caught in my throat when I saw the angered expression on her face. I opened my door, and so did Asher and Ronnie. The minute we stepped out onto the ground, she marched right u to us.
“Where do you think you were?!” She screeched. I was almost tempted to turn away from her. Her eyes were ablaze and her fists were clenched in anger. “What made you think you could just go ahead and drive away with your father’s car?!”
“Mom, Mom! Calm down!” I cried out, holding up my hands. “Ronnie has her license.” I looked at Ronnie from the corner of my eye and she nodded her head. It didn’t feel good lying, yet it was all that we had right now.
My mother placed her hands on her hips. “Well, does Asher?” She turned towards him and raised an eyebrow. “Do you happen to have a drivers license?”
His eyes grew wide, and he was quite for a moment. After what felt like total eternity, he looked at the ground and shook his head. “No… no I don’t.”
“Then why were you driving the car when Ronnie is the one with the license, hmm?”
He sighed in defeat and looked back up at her. “Ronnie doesn’t have a license. We took the car because we had to pick her up and we couldn’t get anyone to drive us.”
I had to hold myself back from yelling at him. Well, there goes are only way out of trouble. No way of going back to innocence ever again.
My mother turned towards Ronnie. “I need to call your foster parents, stat, tell them what you have done.” She pulled her cellphone from her back pocket. “Their number?”
It was now Ronnie’s turn to look at the ground. She fiddled with her thumbs as she murmured very quietly, “You can’t.”
“I’m sorry,” My mother told her angrily. “But I think the two of them should know what you have done. It’s unacceptable.”
“You can’t call them,” Ronnie began, and she then looked back at my mother quickly with firm eyes. “Because my foster parents got tired with me and have given me up. I have no foster parents for you to call and tell them about me.”
My mother’s face softened immediately. “Oh, well, I’m sorry to hear that. Where are you staying?”
“Well, I asked my best friend if I could stay with her, however I haven’t seen if it was okay with her parents yet,” She replied, seeming slightly uncomfortable. “I have nowhere exactly though to call my home though… I’ll probably have to report to the adoption agency soon though, if my ex-foster parents haven’t yet.” She looked at Asher and me with very sad eyes. “Soon I’ll be turning eighteen, and once that happens, I’m off by myself. No one will be able to help me.”
“You never told us that,” I told her sadly. I looked at my best guy friend with a worried expression. “When you turn eighteen, will you be all by yourself?”
“I don’t know, I was adopted when I was young,” He responded. “Yet, it sounds logical. I guess I’ll have to be put-up as an orphan now at agencies.” He shrugged his shoulders. “During your childhood, you can be considered orphaned, but if you have nowhere to go by eighteen, you’re probably marked-down as homeless…”
“The three of you, come inside,” My mother demanded. We all followed her up to the porch and through the door without any argument.
I looked around the house. It was quiet, very quiet. “Where’s Hartlyn?” I wondered. It was unnatural to not see her running around in the house after she had come home.
“I told her to go up to her room while we talked to you.”
I cringed. In other words, this meant that my mother didn’t want Hartlyn to have to see my father and mother yell at me. I bit the inside of my cheek as I thought of how much trouble I was going to get into.
I followed my mother into the living room, and this is where I found my father sitting anxiously on the couch. The moment I walked in, he jumped up and his eyebrows knit together. “Avery, what in the world were you thinking, taking the car?!”
My mother held up her hand to my father. “Hold on honey, we’ll get back to that later.” She motioned for the three of us to sit on the couch, and we obeyed easily. My father looked very confused with the fact that they weren’t going to yell at me pronto, yet he huffed and stood next to my mother.
“Ronnie, do you have any family that you can go to?” My mother asked her curiously. Her words caused my father to look quite serious as well, it seeming that he had noticed that we weren’t bothering with just a car right now.
Ronnie eyes met mine and Asher’s for a split-second. “You could say that, I guess.”
“What’s going on?” My father asked us all.
I looked at my two friends, and they both nodded. I then faced my parents and told them everything… from the start to the ending. How the three of us all met, our stories of how we were all adopted, our discussions. Soon came the links, and Deborah and Janet and how we all discovered who we were and what our pasts had been. Within a very long time of conversation, I finally got to the part where we all found out it was true: we were all siblings.
“You’re certain that you’re all siblings?” My mother asked curiously, blinking as if she didn’t believe what she was hearing.
Before I could respond, Ronnie nodded her head. “Definitely certain.”
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Hey everyone! Chapter thirty, wooh! We're getting far on this!
Now, I know that this story isn't the most exciting one in the world, and I don't update it much, but I'm hoping that all of my readers have come to enjoy it. I'm planning on wrapping this story up soon, maybe in the next three chapters, and then post an epilogue possibly. I also never really proofread this story... and I know that some parts are confusing because of that. I'll probably go ahead and edit it once I'm finished with the whole thing though.
Now, the song of this chapter is quite an odd one. It's not even English from what I'm hearing, but I find it so relaxing. I listened to this song over and over again while writing this chapter. It's Dauðalogn by Sigur Ros. I love it so much :) If we have any Vampire Diaries fans out there, they'll recognize it from the season 3 final. I loved it so much, but cried like a baby the whole time as well :'( two fifths of my favorite characters died :(
I also want to thank you guys for getting The Three Of Us to 2000 reads! It really means a lot to me when I get reads from all of you :) You're all amazing. Thanks so much for reading!
Keep calm and read on!
-830freckles