Forest City Book 1

Chapter 9

It was around 3:52 when I arrived back at the apartment. I made my way up to my room remembering to not hit my head on the ceiling. I gazed out the window, hoping that Cobalt would be waiting, his lights were off and I didn't get to see his handsome blue eyes. My phone buzzed.

Cobalt: 3:53 "Expect to see me with no fur lol."

-Cobalt sent a GIF-

-Mac joined the conversation-

Mac: 3:53 "Lol how's detention going."

Cobalt: 3:53 "Dad was furious, Tora got away with it. D:<"

Mac: 3:54 "Sorry to hear about that, any other stupid consequences."

Cobalt: 3:54 "Lunch detention..."

Mac: 3:55 "What about Bonnie, she's going to drive Monty up the walls with her constant staring and gossiping."

Cobalt: 3:55 "Bonnie's been glaring at you two during lunch? I would have never guessed :/"

Mac: 3:55 "Not just during lunch, I see her during passing period, she and Midge laugh when I go to the bathroom."

Cobalt: 3:56 "Oh... like the ladies :/ they don't let you use the family restroom."

Mac: 3:56 "It's clear across the school, I can't, so I just use the ladies..."

"Mac! I want you to help with setting up and you will be joining us today!" Hazel called.

I let out a sigh.

-Mac had left the conversation-

I felt bad walking down the stairs, Aunt Hazel wanted me to wear something "nice" and all that was in my closet was a dress, a frilly pink dress covered in bows. Clove would have "loved" this dress... I made my way into the kitchen, the bright yellow kitchen, that clashed horribly with the pastel pink of this dress.

"Oh you look just like your mother did when she went to the Spring Fling," Hazel said, I could hear a hint of nostalgia in her voice, "your father was 18 and I was 20, I just remember the look on his face when your mother came into the doorway of this house." She sighed in relief and whispered in my ear, "Keep a secret, but you look a lot like your mother, no matter how much your father denies it," she snorted out in laughter.

I nervously laughed, this dress is killing me!!! I want to scream at my aunt how much I hate this dress, but I don't want to offend her... maybe a little. I mean, she hasn't made me do much yet, but I'm sure if dad makes me stay during the summer, I'm going to be dead by August and I have four years of college to go through, who knows how long I will be staying with Aunt Hazel. The clock on the stove read 4:00 and every step Aunt Hazel and I took to the front door to greet her friends filled me with dread.

I sat down in the living room while Hazel chatted at the doorway, every single friend my parents brought over, even if they were my friend's parents, they chatted for hours and hours on end and never stopped, while I usually sat down and waited for them to leave. Luckily this dress had pockets, not very good pockets, and I hid my phone in one of those pockets. I checked my phone hoping that I had gotten a text. Surprisingly, I did and this time from Monty to the whole group chat he made for Cobalt, him, and I.

Monty: 3:59 "IDK if anyone saw the video of the fight."

-Monty sent a video-

Mac: 4:00 "Saw it earlier today, it looks pretty bad. Tora got away with it..."

Monty: 4:02 "Of course he did."

I slumped over in my chair trying to entertain myself by rearranging the cookies and biscuits laying them down neatly on the tray. There was a decent array of cookies and biscuits, some had jam in the middle, some had nuts, and some had chocolate. I made sure not to drop any in case they were brittle, Aunt Hazel would kill me if I dropped a cookie and got chocolate and crumbs on her recently washed throw rug. She would make me haul the rug all the way to the dry cleaners and I'd have to wash it myself, even though it's quite easy to vacuum a rug.

The ladies started to make their way into the living room, I choked at the smell of perfume that wafted towards me. Aunt Hazel had invited over a bunny, a cat, and an eagle. The bunny wore a black dress that had been hemmed many times, the cat had brought her son, and the eagle was wearing a navy blue pantsuit. I assumed that these ladies most likely had boring office jobs-

"Oh who's this?" The cat spoke, she had cute little tabby stripes and she was kind of chubby, like most cats and beagles that I have ever met. Her son looked almost the same as his mom, except he had two different colored eyes, one yellow and the other green, like his mom.

"I'm... um... Mac," I said quietly.

"Wow you look uncomfortable in that dress," the eagle pointed out, "did Hazel make you wear that?"

I giggled, "How did you know?"

"Oh she did the same thing to Clove," the eagle snorted, then burst out into laughter, "My name is Mrs. Aguila, I own one of the most popular construction companies in Forest City."

"Wow! Are you responsible for making those huge skyscrapers!?" I gawked.

Mrs. Aguila winked and spoke, "I own most of those buildings, you see, Mrs. O'Hare and her husband own many stocks in many businesses, they practically own the city, and Mrs. Delwyn works for my company," except Mrs. Aguila whispered that last bit about the city so that Mrs. O'Hare couldn't hear.

"Do you go to Forest City High School?" Mrs. O'Hare questioned, she had familiar green eyes, just her's were more of an Emerald green rather than a sharp green.

"Well, yeah, I do go to Forest City High School," I answered, "today was my first day."

"Do you know my daughter, Bonnie?" she asked.

"I... uh," I paused, Bonnie's mother... what do I say, her daughter has been harassing my friends, "Yeah I know Bonnie!" I impulsively shouted, why did I do that!?

"Oh that's wonderful to know after she had her fling with Cobalt, I didn't ever think she would make that many friends," Mrs. O'Hare said, sounding reassured.

I wanted to scream, but I continued lying. I felt bad for Bonnie. I'm not sure what she did to Cobalt, but I can't ruin her life or embarrass her and her mom. It would go like this for the rest of the afternoon until 5:30, that's when the ladies left.

"I think that it is nice that you were able to befriend Bonnie, she's a bit of a turtle when it comes to friendship," Aunt Hazel said while putting away the clean dishes from the dish strainer. I was put on dishwashing duty after the ladies left, it's not a chore I appreciate, but I can manage.

"Yeah, Bonnie sits in my homeroom class and... we... uuh," I stumbled for words before I changed the subject, "I don't have any homework tonight."

"Well, I was hoping you wouldn't, I wanted to ask if you wanted to go somewhere to eat tonight, Forest City has some of the best restaurants," Aunt Hazel replied.

"That's great, Hazel, I'm not sure if I want to go anywhere fancy to eat. I don't want to get dressed up and all fancy."

"Oh, we don't have to go anywhere fancy tonight, I have a place in mind, your father loved this place when we were little," Aunt Hazel replied.

That reminded me, my dad had lived in this apartment when he was younger, Aunt Hazel used to sleep in my room and dad used to sleep in the study back when their parents owned this house. Clove mentioned in her diary about how our grandparents owned this place for a while, then sold it off when dad moved out to college, of course, Aunt Hazel also went to college as well, but she was furious when she found out that her childhood home was sold off, so she dropped out of college and fought for the house and the rest is history. I remember my grandparents, but not a lot. They died when I was really little. All I do remember is going to their house almost every weekend and watching cartoons, but those memories are in the past now.

"Ready to go?" Hazel asked.

My phone buzzed, I wanted to check what it was, but decided against it, whatever it is, it can wait.