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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Best Of Both Worlds
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FOR THE SECOND TIME in two weeks, Cecelia's parents tried to convince her to stay home from school. She was still technically on vocal rest—something the doctor had recommended over the weekend for her bruised throat and Cecelia had proceeded to ignore—and her shoulder was hurting her enough to make writing a chore. Plus, Mom was even clingier than she'd been after the supposed mugging, even though every time she looked into her daughter's eyes, she seemed one second away from bursting into tears.
Just like last time, though, Cecelia tried to argue her way into going. She'd spent the weekend and all day yesterday lying in bed, watching YouTube on her laptop. Funnily enough, most of the videos she'd found herself clicking on were gaming videos. Games like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing were distant enough from reality that she could nearly forget not only that Richard was in jail, awaiting trial, but that most of the people in her school now knew a modification of what had happened. She'd already received several messages on Instagram about it. Even though a lot of them were trying to be friendly, she'd deleted them all.
Of course, her ten hours of YouTube eventually led her down the rabbit hole of her suggestions, and she actually ended up being recommended a video by Jules Playz Games. For an eight-year-old, her brother's videos were surprisingly high quality.
She'd also eventually stumbled across a grainy cellphone video of the warehouse collapsing, but she'd only been able to get three seconds in before her stomach began to churn. She went back to playthroughs of a new Super Mario Brothers game after that.
Anyway, it had only taken a day of that before Cecelia had been so jittery that she would do anything to leave the apartment. Then she'd gotten a text from Liz that told her she was moving to Oregon, and she begged her parents to at least be able to say goodbye.
They settled for a compromise. Cecelia missed her first two classes and went in halfway through lunch, when the fewest number of students possible roamed the hallways. She'd been tempted to blend, blend, blend, all bulky sweaters and gray sweatpants, but Alex advised her to walk around like nothing had happened. That was certainly a challenge for a girl suffering from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, but Cecelia tried, anyway. She did keep her hair down, covering most of the damage on her neck, but she dressed to impress—leather jacket, blue T-shirt, jeans.
Regardless, a few students still whispered as she passed them. And Cecelia may not have had Peter's freaky super-hearing, but she could still guess the gist of what they said. It was difficult to ignore, no matter how hard she tried.
Fortunately, sitting at her usual table in the cafeteria proved to be a blessing. It was just Alex and Christine there, like it always was, and both of them were considerate enough not to bring up the elephant in the room. Christine had packed three thermoses of macaroni and cheese, and Cecelia ate her share while listening to her complain about Ned.
