Questions for Answers

Chapter Nine

I peeked my head over everyone walking around in the hallway during passing period because I was looking for someone; Emily. Emily was the girl who now lived in my childhood home. I felt bad, constantly bugging her about the same thing, but I felt like I was running out of time. Once I spotted her, I called out, "Emily, wait up!"

When she saw me, it looked like she tried to ignore me, but I made my way over to her anyway. She sighed, "Hi...River."

"Have you thought about what I said?" I asked.

She shook her head, "Look, I'm sorry, but I can't help you anymore. I tried doing what you asked, but my mom got suspicious of why I was trying to get everyone away from the house. So, I told her the truth, and she said no. She said if you tried to set foot on our property, she'd press charges."

"Wait, you told your mom!? Why would you do that? That was supposed to be a secret, Emily", I snapped.

She took a step back, "Yes, I told my mom the truth. It's our house, now. You've been pestering me for a month now about letting you come over and dig up something from our backyard. At first, I was willing to help, in any way that I could. But this is becoming ridiculous now. You're acting crazy. I'm starting to regret even finding that box for you all those months ago."

I knew I couldn't be mad at her. She did everything that she could to try to help and I had asked for a crazy request. It had been a month and some days since I had asked her to help me with going over there. But school and life got in the way. Any time I saw her, I would ask her if she knew when her family would be away from the house so that I could just get whatever my parents had buried behind the shed. I knew she was annoyed, I could see it on her face every time. But I just needed to do that one thing, and she'd never hear from me again.

I sighed, "Emily, I'm sorry. I know I'm asking for the impossible, here. But if you can do this for me, if you could get them to take you and your siblings out for a couple of hours, I promise I'll be in and out and I'll never bother you again about anything. Please, just try again."

She gave me a serious look before rolling her eyes at me, "You're unbelievable; I'll do it. I'll dig it up for you and bring it to you when I can. But I don't know how long that's gonna take and I don't want you bothering me every day about it either. Once I get it, you'll get it. Until then, lay off; seriously."

I nodded, "Thank you." I looked around me and quickly realized that our conversation had made me late for physics. I took off running and made my way inside and everyone's attention fell on me. I tried putting my head down, but Ms. Kentri did not let that slide.

She cleared her throat, "River, can you explain to me why you're late to my class?"

I sighed, "Sorry, I had to go to the bathroom after I got out of history."

She looked like she didn't believe me, but didn't press the issue further. So I took my seat and paid attention to the lesson. We didn't do much in class except watch a couple of videos and work on any homework we hadn't completed yet. Once class was dismissed, me and Kat met up with each other and she began driving me home.

She looked over at me, concerned, "Hey, you okay?"

I gave her a confused look, "Yeah, why?"

"Because you look like you've seen a ghost or something. Did anything happen in class today?" She probed.

I sighed, "No, it happened before class. But I know you won't want to hear it, so it's okay."

She smacked her lips, "What do you mean, I won't want to hear it? You're my best friend, you can talk to me about anything."