Chapter 2: The unexpected

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My hand pushed against the cold glass door letting a cool breeze wrap around me as I entered the main entrance of Carter High School. My fingers tightened their grip on the straps of my backpack, who would send me something like that? My head shook in the direction of the word 'no' dismissing the thought. I wasn't going to let myself think about the email, it was probably just a prank and even if it wasn't, I was going to believe that it was.

Erik glanced up from scribbling something in his notebook and smiled, showing off his set of flawless white teeth. I felt the heat rising in my cheeks, but smiled back hoping he wouldn't notice. He was my best friend, well- my only friend.

Locks of his brown hair fell across his forehead as he retrieved a folder from his backpack. He briskly ran his fingers through his hair pushing it to the side revealing his grey blue eyes. The first time I saw him I counted how many times he pushed his hair to the side- 7.

-----

"Whoa sorry," He shot me a sympathetic smile, "The corner couldn't be any sharper," I smiled back and bent down to retrieve my notebook, "It's fine-"

"Let me get that, it's my fault you dropped it." He grabbed the rest of my papers and shuffled them into a neat stack.

"I don't think we've met before, you're new right?"  I'd heard that statement a thousand times before. My answer was always the same, "I'd like to pretend I'm not." He chuckled understandingly and handed me the stack of papers.

"Erik."  He held out his hand, insisting that I shake it.

"I didn't think people shook hands anymore?" I laughed at his expression, "Kidding, I'm Ava."

I sighed at the sound of the bell. Erik looked at me skeptically as I took the seat next to his.

"Everything ok?"  He questioned, a hint of uncertainty in his voice. He looked stressed himself. Bags were forming under his eyes, he hadn't been getting much sleep since his parents filed for a divorce.

"I... I'm tired. I just stayed up to late." I lied. I didn't plan on telling him about the strange email nor my parents sudden weird behavior. I didn't want to stress him out any more than he already was.

Mr. Collins cleared his throat and shot us both a warning look, immediately silencing our vague conversation. 

"Good morning class." Mr. Collins greeted as he began writing on the whiteboard.

"Good morning Mr. Collins," A few students greeted him back, but not many.

I retrieved my notebook from my backpack and flipped it open to the first blank page and titled it U.S drops Atomic bomb (1945). Erik slid a note on my desk earning my attention. I casually glanced up at him before looking back down to the note.

"In 1945, the United States was-" Distracted by the note, I tuned out Mr. Collins monotonic voice out by trying to decipher what the letters meant.

After several minutes I smiled, realizing he had written the message backwards. The note was simple, it read, I don't believe you.

"Ava," Mr. Collins snapped grimly, my body stiffened. 

"It seems that something is distracting you?" Instantly, all eyes were directed my way. I could feel the embarressment surfacing my face, but I silently thanked Erik's tactic; If Mr. Collins catches a student passing a note, he makes them read it aloud, but since it appears only as a jumble of letters, I didn't have anything to worry about. 

"No-" I finally said looking directly up at Mr. Collins. My muscles began to relax.

"You've got my full attention." I avoided all of the disappointed glares people were giving me. They wanted to hear what the note said. I hoped he'd just go back to teaching, but then I remembered he had already gave me his warning glare, I wasn't going to get away with something again. 

"Oh is that so?" He questioned as he walked over to my desk to retrieve the note. He tugged it from my hands and squinted his eyes at it just as I had, before glancing back at me, the note, and back at me again.

"Do not disrupt my class again. Final warning." He tucked the note in his shirt pocket and rubbed his hands together as he returned to the front of the room to continue his lecture. I was relieved as I felt all eyes leave me and return their attention to Mr Collins. 

Every few minutes I could see Erik glancing at me out of the corner of my eye. He knew something was up, after all, he knew me better than my own parents did. I rested my head on my palm and closed my eyes. I didn't want to move again. I didn't want to lose Erik, he was all I had. Compared to Erik, I felt like I didn't even know my parents. I was a stranger in my own house. In all 12 of twelve of them. 

Since I was 9 we have moved a dozen times or more. I'd lost count after I ran out of fingers to count the number of times on. Pretty bad huh? After about the third time moving, I stopped making an effort to make friends, there was no point. I never knew when we'd be packing our stuff up and loading it into the moving truck again.

"Ava, honey wake up." She turned the light switch on and pulled my covers off.

"5 more minutes, please." I pulled the covers back over my head to hide from the light.

"The moving truck is all packed, it's time to leave." I sat up and looked around my room frowning. I wasn't ready to move yet. It had only been two months.

"Grab the rest of your stuff and be downstairs in 5." She smiled and shut the door behind her.

I peeked out of the window seeing that it was the same two moving trucks we always used. Mom placed one last box in the back before tugging the door down. I sighed and started to turn away before a black unmarked car across the street caught my attention. 

"Who is that?" Two men sat in the front and one man and woman sat in the back, watching..... us.

"Ava," I blinked my eyes rapidly to find Erik nudging my arm. I jumped up realizing I had fallen asleep and class was now over.

"Don't forget your paper is due Wednesday and the test is Friday, make sure your studying." He called as everyone was filing out his door, not even caring what he had to say.

"I can't believe I-"

"Ava." Mr. Collins directed at me as he sat down at his desk, leaning back in his chair. I froze for a second and gave Erik a look that told him I'd talk to him later. I was thankful though because I didn't know exactly what I was going to say to him.

"Yes?" I said in a weary tone, walking over to his desk wondering what he could possibly want. He waited a moment until no one was left in the room.

"I've never seen you distracted about something in my class before, you seemed quite bothered about something today." I was startled by what he said, why would he even care if I was 'bothered by something.' 

After a moment of silence, he spoke again. "Well see, Ava," he ran his fingers through his hair, as if unsure of how to put what he was going to say, "I was putting the test grades up from last Friday onto the online grading system this morning when I was puzzled by finding that your name wasn't well isn't on the database anymore," he paused for a moment, "It's as if you never attended this school, there isn't one trace of you left besides the work I have from you, everything about you ever being here is well gone."

He began fiddling with a pencil on his desk as he leaned forward again in his chair. "I was just wondering, well, what's going on?"

I was stunned, I was speechless. I couldn't move, every limb in my body was as stiff as a statue. I could feel a knot forming in my stomach as if I were going to hurl. My eyes widened in terror and hurt took over my body. This isn't possible.

The word "No..." came out unwillingly as I spun around accidentally knocking over the trash can and carelessly walking out without picking anything up from it, I couldn't, I was about to explode. I could hear him calling my name but it didn't even really phase me.

"Why is this happening, Why!" I said aloud in such a bitter harsh voice that I almost didn't recognize it came from myself. I didn't care who heard, I didn't care that once again all eyes were glued on me thinking I had went crazy. I walked straight out of the school and to my car. I knew exactly what was going on, we were moving, again.

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