Before You Say Goodbye

5

I was running late.

And it was only the first day of school.

I hadn't even spent my morning worrying about the clothes I was going to wear like I had done every first day of school the past few years. No. That wasn't what made me late for school. What made me late was an eight-legged hairy creature in my room. It was the first thing I saw the moment I woke up today, it had been huge, black, and with big eyes that could stare right into a person's soul and it was on my bathroom door. Obviously, I hadn't gotten out of my bed immediately; I had waited for it to leave my room, and go prey on someone else's life. Too bad, before the spider-thing could actually leave my room, I had closed my eyes for a few seconds and when I opened them back up, it was gone. And I mean, gone. That led to me spending another half an hour in my bed, shivering and scared, hiding myself under the safety of my blankets.

By the time I had convinced myself that the spider was gone – obviously, it had been scared of me and had left my room rather quickly – I was more than an hour behind my everyday schedule. I pulled on whatever clothes I could find and match out of my closet. When I was sure I looked decent enough in my white high-neck sweater and my blue jeans I breathed out a sigh of relief. Plain and simple – Just the way I liked. To look like I had put in at least a little thought behind what I wore to school today, I matched my outfit with a pair of white sneakers. Classy.

Running a brush through my hair a few times, I tried to tame the frizz and when that proved to be a task beyond what I was capable of, I gave up. My hair's a bird's nest today and there was nothing I could do about it. Giving up, I simply bunched my hair up, tying it into a sort of messy bun on top of my head. This will do for today; before I went to bed tonight, I'll sort out the mess that was my hair, I promised myself.

My phone that had been charging on the side table lit up with a text message and I quickly scrambled to it, lifting it in my hand. There was a message from Terry.

Since Terry doesn't like honking her car horn unless she absolutely has to – she thinks that's the main cause for noise pollution – she always resorts to texting or sometimes even calling when she has arrived outside my house to give us – Piper and me – a ride to school. Sending her a thumbs up as a reply, I quickly locked my phone and pushed it into my jean pocket. Terry was already here and she was waiting for me. Piper will kill me if I got them late on our first day of school.

Picking up the new bag that I had filled with all necessary school things last night – thank God – I ran out of my room, and down the stairs as fast as I could. Alan, my little brother was rushing out the front door just as I got to the bottom of the stairs. Since mom was mostly busy in the mornings and didn't have a lot of time in her hand to drop us at school, Margret Ritz, one of my mom's close friends and also the mother of Alan's best friend, Michael gave Alan a ride to school every day. I rushed out after him.

"Addie!"

Inhaling deeply, I stopped in my tracks. And here I thought I could run away to school without having to talk to her today. Hesitating only a little, I turned to face her. Lisbeth Kingsley, my mother. She really was a sight to see this morning. Her medium-length brown, wavy hair – though her hair was similar to mine, unlike mine, hers looked dull and damaged; like she hadn't taken care of it for a long time. Like she hadn't taken care of her – rested atop her head in a messy bun, dark bags lined under her eyes indicating the sleepless nights that she's had the past few days. Her chapped lips pulled up slightly into a tired smile and I tried to return one of my own.