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Chapter twenty nine: eight
tw: suicide
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Watching the ambulance pick the unconscious John B up from underneath the Hawk's nest made Aspen shiver.
It hadn't come as a surprise to any of the teens when the paramedics informed them that only one person was allowed inside the ambulance with him, but that didn't mean they weren't upset about it. They were, in fact, furious. JJ had even pushed some of the doctors aside while trying to climb into the emergency vehicle, and Aspen needed to calm him down.
Seeing him so heartbroken wasn't a nice sight to see, which made it all even worse for the girl. The whole incident brought back memories she wished would never resurface. And no matter how hard she tried, her mind took her back to that day.
~flashback to 8 years ago~
Aspen slammed her tiny body into the classroom door in excitement, desperately trying to run out of the school building once the bell had rang. She wanted to go home to see what her father had gotten for her.
In the morning, three days after her 8th birthday, her father told Aspen he had left a gift for her on the kitchen counter, which she wasn't allowed to open until she got back home from school. He needed to wait until payday to buy it for her, but Aspen was good at handling her impatience.
Her day had gone pretty smoothly so far, the only exception being that she nearly landed in detention due to snapping a Kook girls' crayon in half. She had lied about it, and blamed it on a random blonde girl. Everything else, though, had gone perfectly normally. It was like any typical day, until it wasn't.
Her mother's mental health had taken a turn for the worst, which meant she hadn't been in the mood to listen to the girl ramble on and on about being eight years old. It was okay, though, because she had brushed and braided the girl's nearly untamable hair, making her feel extra special as she ran through the corridors, making sure everyone knew she had turned eight during the weekend.
"Hey, Aspen! What's the rush?" one of the Kook boys in the girl's class that she despised asked, watching the girl fly past him, her dirty green backpack swinging from side to side aggressively while she tried not to bump into any grownups.
"Oh, just you know...turned eight on Friday." The girl smugly smiled while slowing down her pace. "My dad got me a gift."
"Sweet! Make sure to tell me what he got for you tomorrow. I'm waiting until my birthday to get the newest Hypto-Krypto," the boy, who the islanders called Maxel, cockily informed.
His father was the owner of a big company that manufactured and sold high-quality big game trolling and deep water jigging reels since 2003. The company was named after the owner's son, Maxel.
