Leave What Was Found

8: Pieces of the Puzzle

Avery's schoolwork now took priority which was not by choice. The social worker had practically yelled at her when she found out about Avery's new schedule and the fact that she had lied about high school. Uncle Mark had calmed her down and insisted everything would be fine. Considering how much everyone was sacrificing for Avery, she decided the least she could do was work on her schoolwork and try as hard as she could. Which was easier said than done. Merriwether, who had agreed to tutor her on Saturdays, was strict but fair. After hearing so many rumors about how the old lady was a tight ass and constantly busting girls in the dormitory, Avery thought she would be more like the social worker. However, she was surprisingly kind to Avery.

Not once did Merriwether lose her patience with her or try to make her feel dumb. She took her time and helped Avery play catch up. Which was no easy task.

It was not like Avery was stupid, but she was always tired. No matter how early she went to sleep or tried to sleep in, it always felt like there was a fog in her head that made learning hard and her motivation little to nothing. It got so bad even smoking weed before bed stopped working. Now, Avery just laid in bed for hours, drifting in and out of sleep unable to really get better or worse.

It was like her own personal form of limbo. She was constantly teetering on a line.

Did she work hard and make her father proud? Or did she let the work consume her? It was not like her father was around to be proud anyway. Her mom was God only knows where and her and Uncle Mark's relationship was strained. It seemed like Avery made him nervous. Maybe he was scared Avery would start asking the questions he did not want to answer about her parents.

To his credit, he did try to have a relationship with her. He made Avery come over to his cabin and play chess with him every Saturday evening after tutoring, which Avery thought was strange, but somewhat sweet of him to try. It was where she currently was. She knew that if she tried to bring her parents up, he would just change the subject. Avery hoped it would come up naturally though. She still had so many questions.

"Check."

Avery looked down at the board and groaned. She hadn't even realized she fell into his trap. She moved her pawn so her king was out of trouble and then motioned for him to take his turn.

"How is school going?" he asked.

Avery knew he was trying, he really wanted to be there for his niece, the least she could do was make an effort as well.

"Okay, I mean the classes are really hard, and I am kind of disappointed I can't take a math class, but I'm passing the rest of the classes so I guess it's fine," she said as she took her turn.

Uncle Mark took a sip of his tea. "If it makes you feel better, you probably know more math than the other teachers here," he pointed out. "What did Keith last teach you?"

Avery smiled. "We were working on ordinary differential equations."

"Above and beyond the high school curriculum," he said proudly.

Avery's smile grew. "Yeah, it was pretty interesting."

"What was it like on the road?" he asked. "Keith and I had always talked about taking a road trip across the states ourselves, but we never got to it."

Avery's smile fell a bit. She looked out at the window and stared at the sun that was starting to set.

"It was nice," she said finally. "There was no destination, we just had this map of all the national parks in the country. We drove from state to state and we took a picture at each one. I have this whole folder of them on my computer."

"I would love to see them sometime," he said kindly.

Avery just nodded as words failed her. She didn't want to look through them, she didn't want to see the memories of when life had been so good.