what if...?

Part 8/?

Months after the incident, my Mom finally had us signed up each for seperate therapy sessions, she said that we needed it because of what happened at dinner that day and that her and my Dad were going to couples therapy and got Dad to join a rehab group.

When I was asked about what happened, I lied and said that I was cornered in an alley and was beat until I gave them my wallet. Mom asked us to lie because if we told the truth, Dad would be in prison right now.

The whole dinner incident was over 5 months ago, Dad still hasn't come back to live with us yet, Mom said that he doesn't trust himself enough and that he doesn't want another incident to happen again, he's getting better, though.

Dad called me for the first time in a while three weeks after the incident to apologize, he said that he didn't know what came over him and that I did the right thing and that none of this is my fault, which I knew already, but it was nice to know he was sorry.

My first therapy session was a month ago, during our sessions Dr. Shaw said that he might see some signs of depression, but it's too early to tell. If he's right, I guess it'd explain a lot of things.
I told Dr. Shaw about my frequent nightmares and me constantly flinching at hugs, or even just someone wanting a high five. He said that that's common in people who experienced a traumatic event in their lives.

Ever since Dad called to apologize, we've been texting more often, telling each other about our days. It makes me miss him more every day even though I know I shouldn't. But I still can't help feeling love for him, even if he did almost kill me.

Every grade  in PDH has its own tradition, for the Juniors, it's tradition to go on a 3 day - 2 night camping trip. My Mom signed me and Vylad up as soon as we got in the car for our ride home, asking to see our permission slips.

Today was the deadline for permission slips, and tomorrow is the day the school buses drop us off at the camp. The teachers had given us each a piece of paper, and told us to write down names of people we want in our cabin. Luckily, boys and girls aren't seperated, so me and Aph both wrote eachother's names.

Aphmau managed to convince me to write down her friend's names down as well, she said that this was the perfect chance to get to really know them.

We're being told our groups tomorrow morning, there's a maximum of six people in every group. Me and Aph stayed up all night texting eachother about what to bring and how fun the trip will be.

The morning of the trip, I shut off my alarm as soon as it started to ring and got dressed. We aren't required to wear our uniforms on the trip, since we'll be off school grounds, so I put on dark blue jeans and a simple black t-shirt.

The buses left at 6:30, and it was already 6:00, I heard my mom running down the stairs, her hair still a mess and still in her pajamas.
"Ok, let's get going! Got everything?"

I lifted up my suit case to show her I had everything

"Ok, good, good. Pillow and sleeping bag?"
"In my backpack."
"Ok, good. we're already running late so we have to go quickly before the buses leave."

Soon afterwards i'm being dropped off at school, I checked the time on my phone and saw it was 6:20, panicking, I quickly ran up the stairs, my suitcase repeatedly hitting my leg after it hit the steps.

With five minutes to spare, I made it to the gym, which is where everyone was gathered. I found the principal and gave her my name, she gave me a green circle sticker and said to go look for group number 2.

My group honestly wasn't that hard to find, since half of the members had ears and tails, and one of them had bright pink hair. Not to mention, there was a sign with a large number 2 on it