My Little Girl

Chapter 43

"Why do we have to do this?" Skylar asks her dad at breakfast. 

"Because in order to solve the case, we need to be at ground zero." He tells her for the millionth time. 

"Right, I get why you and Uncle Sam are doing this, but why do Grayson and I need to be there, too?" She asks. 

"Because I said so." He says. Skylar rolls her eyes, rubbing them when her vision blurs again. It's been happening more and more. Lately, her vision's been blurry more than it has been clear. "Sky?" Skylar raises a brow, lowering her hand and looking at Dean, his figure extremely blurry. 

"Yeah?" She asks, digging the heel of her palm into her eye again. 

"You okay?" She nods. 

"Yeah." She says, opening her eyes again to see that her vision has cleared. "My eyes just itch." Dean nods slowly, clearly not believing her. 

"Go ahead and get dressed. We have to leave in thirty." Skylar nods and stands, dumping her empty cereal bowl in the sink before moving to the bed, grabbing her outfit for the day. 

Skylar pulls her shirt over her head carefully, wincing as the action pulls at the stitches in her side. She pulls on the Metallica t-shirt she stole from Dean and turned into a crop top before stepping into the overalls. She brushes through her hair a few times before pulling it into a french braid, two braids on each side of her head weaving through the big braid. She steps out of the bathroom and tosses her pajamas on the bed before slipping into a pair of brown boots. 

"Ready." She announces. 

"Book bag." Sam reminds her as she walks to the door. She curses silently before backtracking and slinging her messenger bag across her body. 

"Now I'm ready." She says, walking out the door. 

Skylar walks through the halls of Truman High, ignoring the curious gazes of the other students, holding her stack of books to her chest. She comes to a stop in front of her locker and squints at the numbers on her lock, trying to get her vision to focus. She jumps when someone slams their hand into the locker beside her and turns to the person, seeing a blurry figure. 

"Sky?" Grayson asks. "You okay?" Skylar relaxes a bit and nods. 

"Yeah." She says, her brow furrowing in confusion as she tries to remember what she was doing before. "What was I doing?" Grayson studies her for a moment. 

"I think you were trying to open your locker." Skylar nods before turning back to the locker and squinting at the numbers. "Need help?" After a moment, Skylar nods, telling him her combination, the boy opening the locker in no time. 

"Thanks." She says quietly, sliding the books she doesn't need until after lunch into the locker. 

"Let me walk you to class." He says. Skylar shakes her head. 

"It's okay. I can get there on my own." 

"Sky, my class is right next door. I don't mind." Skylar nods after a minute and allows Grayson to take her books from her, walking her to the classroom before going to his own. 

During her free period, Skylar wanders into the gym and sits on the bleachers. The students shuffle in and stand in a straight line in the middle of the room, waiting for the substitute teacher to get there. Dean walks in wearing a white polo with the school logo on the left side of the chest and tight red shorts. He has a red headband on and white socks that go up to his knees, two red bands at the top of each one. Skylar's jaw drops when she sees him, suddenly wishing she wasn't related to him. Dean blows the whistle hanging around his neck before addressing the class.