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Chapter 01: I'm Surprised The Girl Wasn't Keeping a Dead Body In There
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Avery/file.1/21-07-18/i'm-surprised-the-girl-wasn't-keeping-a-dead-body-in-there
Person ID: Avery K. Wilson
"Sandra Torres is out of office. Please leave a message after the tone."
"Hey mom... when you get this..." I paused and looked around the airport. It was midnight yet the airport was buzzing with energy as families checked out for holidays for summer. Children were crying, dogs were barking and the sound of hundreds of trolleys and suitcases gliding across the airport floor could be heard as I stood alone at the centre of it all.
"I have something I have to explain. Not something...it's it's a lot of som...something - I mean I have a lot to explain." I rambled on the phone, my nervous energy making it hard for me to string the basic of sentences together. I took a deep breath in as I prepared myself for what I was about to say next,
"I'm coming home Mom."
And with that I headed to the airport terminal handing over my suitcase and tickets and preparing myself for a long flight back home where a furious momster awaited for me.
*
My mother and I looked alot alike: the same straight silky brunette hair, emerald coloured eyes,and tanned skin. But now as I looked at her,in her state of anger, in the middle of JFK airport - I could hardly recognised her: She was livid.
"Excluded. Am I reading this email correctly?" Her tone was calm and she maintained her professional composure but I could see the hot boiling water inside of her like clusters and bubbles of anger and rage threatening to spill.
"Avery Kennedy Wilson you better explain yourself before I -" She stopped and smiled at the elderly couple who watched the mother-daughter encounter take place. "- ahem Avery I'll see you at the car."
"Well then, I missed you too" I gave her half-hearted grin as she avoided glancing back at me, taking her attention away to the incoming call on her mobile phone. I walked past her and towards the silver Bentley that was parked outside the airport; the staff collected my baggage and placed them at the trunk of the car.
We headed home in complete silence. I sat calmly, watching the scenery out of the tinted windows of the car while my mother tapped away on her phone and laptop rescheduling the hundreds of appointments and meetings that I had made her miss.
As the streets we drove past became more and more familiar, the pace of my heart quickened as my stomach churned in discomfort and fear. Sandra Torres was a busy woman, but when it came to asking the hard questions she could wait all of eternity till she got her answers. After all, she has the determination students in exam season could only dream of possessing.
*
"We are here Miss Torres." Announced the driver at the front seat of the car as the car had reached a holt.
As we got out of the car I could barely take in the changes that were made to the house while I was gone, as I followed my mother who made a beeline towards the dining room.
The sound of her keys and phone hitting the glass table echoed in the large dining room as the atmosphere grew tense. As if the staff could sense the change in my mother's mood they scurried out of the kitchen leaving the door shut behind them.
"Well?" She cut through the silence staying composed even though knowing my mother for the last sixteen years I have been alive my mother was raging inside. It was almost as if I could see the forest fire in her dark green eyes.
"It wasn't my fault." I blurted, instantly regretting my childish choice of words.
"Then whose fault was it Avery?"
I stayed quiet; My mouth too dry to let out the words that I have been dying to say. I had replayed the words I was going to tell her a million times in my head but it was at this moment standing in front of her that I realised that she would never believe me.
The silence enveloped us leaving room for regret, disappointment and remorse to fill the room. We both stood side by side examining each other waiting for the the other to shout, scream or to start one of the usual regular fights that we have. But no voices were heard except for the sounds of our inner dialogue.
"What happened to you?" I flinched my hand away from her; a look of hurt flashed in her eyes but was quickly masked away by her professional demeanour.
I stayed silent afraid that I would burst into tears and reveal everything.
"You're not going to tell me are you?" She spoke with an air of finality in her tone, "That leaves me no choice but to ground you until you do."
I turn on my heel ready to escape the cage of the dining room.
"And Avery?" I turned around to face her again. "Monday I've penciled in a meeting with your headmaster so I expect you to be ready to explain everything by then."
*
A soft knock was heard from my bedroom door.
"Miss Avery?"
"I'm not very hungry Velma"
"But darling you haven't eaten all day."
Velma came in through my door despite my protests against anyone coming into my room. She gasped in shock to what she had found behind the door causing the plate of cookies to fall from her hands.
"Avery, my dear - what is this?" She asked as her hand waved around the piles of folders and files that I have accumulated strewn across my marble floors. Then she came to face me, my eyes red from sleep deprivation and my hair a fretted mess. Velma then moved towards me pushing away the files so that they no longer surrounded me. She embraced me in her arms as I wept away.
I could hear the other housekeeping staff creep closer to my room as they all came to see if I was feeling okay.
"She's been cooped up in that room for way too long I'm surprised the girl wasn't keeping a dead body in there." I heard one say and for the first time in days I finally laughed.
*
I hadn't touched my phone since the moment I stepped on LA ground. It had been switched off for days so there was no surprise when my phone started buzzing with notifications as soon as it turned on.
45 whatsapp messages
34 Snapchat messages
54 Direct messages
62 missed calls
And... 32 emails?
Most of which were from none other than my best friend, Ellie Samantha Johnson. Taking a deep breathe in, I called her.
"Look who finally decided to call."
"Hey Ell. How are you?"
"I've forgiven you for not responding to me.I was actually on my way to you house today to make you pick up your damn phone. And I'm doing well thank you for asking."
"I'm sorry I haven't been feeling well for the past few days and mum has made me grounded aswell."
"Well update your sister now and then because you got me worried sick! I even went to the extent of emailing you."
I laughed when she cut me off getting straight to the point, "So you're not going to tell me the news?"
"What news?"
"Ummm that cats can fly. You tell me."
"Could you be more specific please?"
"Well you didn't just travel back to LA because you missed me now did you?"
"My mum told you about the expulsion right?" I say beating around the bush - she'd find out sooner rather than later.
"Duh — And your mother wasn't very informative either so spill girl. Tell me all the juicy details. Did you finally kick Veronica's ass?"
I hesitated on the phone line - what exactly was I supposed to tell her?
"YAS I KNEW YOU WOULD! YOU GO GIRL! We should have a party. NO. We NEED a party! Hallelujah! That girl got just what she deserved!"
"... I just knew the day I stepped into that dorm of yours that that girl was trouble."
" Ellie."
".. She had that evil look in her eyes you know. Like she was the devil disguised in rich grandma clothes. The grandma clothes is a trick you see - to portray the whole I'm innocent and weak image but her true colours show when she opens her mouth."
"El."
"... it's like she spews out all the sewage in the world through her mouth. Honestly cannot believe how you roomed in with her at that place for so long."
"El."
"...You, Avery, have my utmost respect for tolerating such a bitc-"
"ELLIE!"
"Sorry I know, I know, I know - language." I could almost feel her rolling her eyes from across the phone. "But you get my point right? What you did was good. Don't regret anything. You don't have to answer to no one and you do what you feel is right."
"I don't have anything to regret for."
"YES! You my dear have touched my heart. It's so heartwarming to see you grow and evolve into such a strong, independent woman. This must be how mothers feel like at the children's graduation."
"Earth to Ellie! I repeat - Earth to Ellie!"
"I'm listening.You got my ear"
"How about the other one?"
"What?"
"You're other ear! Oh my god this conversation has clearly gotten off tangent." I exasperated.
"Sorry. I'm just excited! My best friend is back home and The Indie Heroes of New York have just released their new album." She squealed.
"Save some of that excitement because things are going to go downhill from there."
So that night I told Ellie everything. Everything that was left locked up in my chest awaiting to be heard as Ellie listened carefully absorbing my words. I explained everything from the stolen priceless heirloom found in my locker, to the CCTV footage found of a girl with brown hair and emerald eyes stealing the heirloom to the fact the school were so close to pressing charges against me. They thought I was a thief. They believed I was a thief. I walked the school halls labeled as a criminal.
There was a quiet pause.
"You...you were framed?" Her voice was meek and quiet as if reflecting and evaluating on everything I spilled out to her ; a stark contrast to her usual boisterous and exuberant self.
I sighed. I was exhausted emotionally and mentally drained. If my best friend doesn't believe me, then who will?
"Yes." I utter tentatively.
"Are you sure it wasn't Veronica?" She chuckled lightly trying to lighten the mood.
"No, Veronica may be mean but she's not that cunning and vindictive to do such a thing."
"Have you told your mum?"
If only you knew what she would say if I did. It would break me.
"She doesn't know about what happened. She just knows that I've been excluded and sent back home. There's going to be a meeting about it tomorrow. She'll find out all about it and I -" I choked as tears were threatening to spill. My mum will find out all about it and she will never believe me.
"Avery. We will find out who did this to you and they will be buried six feet under before they even have the chance to see you again - I will make sure of that. I know you. I know you didn't do this.It's not you and it will never be you."
"CCTV footage is nothing it does not prove anything. Don't let this ruin you. Someone out there is waiting for your defeat. Don't let them win." She continued.
"I hope so."
A/N: hi thank you for reading the first chapter. would just like to point out as its been highlighted by some readers that you may or may not know what excluded means since alot of other people would use the term expelled.
where I live we say that if a student is excluded they are permanently removed from the school and if they are suspended they are temporarily removed from the school.
just wanted to point that out in case there was any confusion - excluded just means expelled :)
please don't forget to vote and comment and leave some criticism. thank you.
love, yellowhighlight