Come Back to Me[Sequel to YME and Crossing Paths]

Chapter Twenty-Six: For Now, I'm Not Ready

Chapter Twenty-Six: For Now, I'm Not Ready

Rosie

I clutched my backpack tightly to my chest as I stood outside the door of room 404. Mrs. Johansen's Third Grade Class. Nineteen, soon to be twenty students. I'd drilled as much information as I could about this classroom into my head as I could in a few hours. I'd memorized all the names of my classmates and what they looked like, as well.

"It will be alright, Rosalie. You and Annalise will be together all day." Mrs. Blanchard said to me.

"I know, it's just I don't remember most of these people very well. What if they ask me questions that I can't answer?"

"I have made sure that won't happen. Are you ready to go in there?" I nodded hesitantly. She opened the door and I stepped in slowly. I could feel the student's gazes burning my skin.

"Good morning, students. As you can see, we have a returning student, Rosalie Chase. I ask you not to pester her with questions, she will talk if she wants to. Remember, be polite and have a lovely day." After the principal's little speech, I scanned the room for Annie, found the empty seat next to her, and sat there.

"Welcome back, Rosalie! I'm sure you remember me from your second grade class?" Mrs. Johansen said, smiling. I thought back to then, but I couldn't remember who I'd had as a teacher. I shrugged. "Okay, then. It's fine if you don't remember. You can follow along with Annalise for now, we can get you your books later."

"Okay..." I looked down at my hands. I hated this. The whispers, the sympathetic looks of teachers, the fingers pointed at me.

"Make sure to tell me if I need to beat up anyone, alright?" Annie whispered.

"At least let me get a few punches in," I smiled.

 •••

Recess wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Annie and I were sitting by the apple tree, talking, when a couple of people I didn't recognize walked up to us.

"Hey, Annie," said the boy. "New friend join?"

"No?" She said,

"Then who is this?" Asked the girl.

I kept my head down.

"Do you want to talk to them? The boy is Nathan and the girl is Gloria. We were all friends a few years ago." Annie whispered.

"I guess I'll talk to them..."

"Okay." She looked at Nathan and Gloria. "Sit."

I looked up at them and brushed the hair out of my face.

"You faked your death?!" Nathan said, looking shocked.

"No," I said.

"Girl, what happened to you? You've got all these bruises on your arms and stuff."

"A lot of stuff happened." I looked away. I remembered when I got those bruises. It had been months, but they never faded. He'd done things to me I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to talk about. My mom, though, she knew. She knew without me even telling her.

"Last year a rumour went around that you got run over by a car in Boston. Is that true?" she asked.

"No. I never got hit by a car, but I'm pretty sure I was in Boston that night."

"And your mom?" Nathan asked. He looked worried.

"She's okay. I don't know what she did for the past year-ish, but I'm pretty sure she lived in Greece for a little while."

"Woah! My parents used to live there. I've never been, but it sounds cool." Gloria smiled.

"It's pretty nice," I said. My Grandma lives there."

"Dad was going to take me, but then he and mom got divorced and a lot of stuff happened and we never got to go." Annie said.

"Wait, your parents are divorced?"

"Yeah?"

"Oh. Er...never mind." Nathan scratched the back of his head.

"What happened to you, anyway? Everybody thought you were dead for ages, then you just turned up out of the blue." Gloria said, waving her hands around.

I started to get extremely uncomfortable. "Um, it's..."

Annie glared at the two, "She already said enough. It is none of your business what happened to Rosie, and you need to respect that boundary. Otherwise, we have full permission to get you a detention from Mrs. Blanchard."

"Okay, girl, chill." Nathan said as Annie sat down. I shot her a grateful look. "We are just worried about Rosalie."

I smiled slightly. "I guess if it's anything you really need to know, I'll talk about it, but for now, I'm not ready."

Chapter in Rosie's perspective? I don't think I've written in the kids' perspective since the first book, so I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. TBH this was just a filler since I've been focusing more on art than writing lately.

Anyways, I'm sort of sad because we are nearing the end, but also relieved because I'm ready to put this series away and have a fresh start at something I can focus on. Expect another 5-10 chapters from this series.

Okay I promise this is the last thing but periods suck okay love y'all bye!