WHERE WE ARE ; COLE WALTER

008

VERONICA WAS WALKING THROUGH THE HALL, on the way to her next class. While she was listening to the music blasting through her headphones, she watched the people moving around her and just to her luck she spotted Cole walking alongside Jackie, the girl looking not all too pleased as she tried to ignore him.

The Summerhill girl smiled, she hadn't seen Cole in a while and planned on coming by today to help Katherine with dinner since she knew how busy the woman was at work right now.

Taking her headphones off, Veronica went over to the pair, smiling as she greeted both enthusiastically, not showing the least bit how confused she was by Jackie's rather strange choice of clothing. "Hi guys! How are you?"

However, before either of the two could respond, Ms. Jacobs ran up to them rambling on to Jackie about some clubs and extracurriculars, to be honest, Veronica tuned out, not really caring about it as she watched over to Cole, who tried to sneak away.

Before the blond boy could get away completely though, Ms. Jacobs turned to him, the happy smile leaving her face entirely. "Cole, you need to come see me. It's not a request, Cole. Make an appointment. Soon." With those words she left, leaving Cole to stand between two confused girls as they watched him, waiting for an explanation.

The boy smirked as he shrugged his shoulders, continuing to tease Jackie, while Veronica was caught up in her own thoughts. She stayed in the hall, thinking about Cole and how she could help him (if he would let her), not even noticing how her boyfriend had gone off with Jackie, shaking her head Veronica went on to her class, knowing exactly what she would be doing that afternoon.

Veronica had been sitting on the front porch of the Walter's house for at least half an hour now, trying to reach Cole, who apparently hadn't returned from work. The sun was shining down on her as she groaned, throwing her head down on her knees.

Usually, Cole would've answered her call at the latest after she rang him for the third time, but today there was nothing. It seemed like he didn't even have any reception seeing as she was directly forwarded to his mailbox.

It was strange, really, Danny told her that Cole was just stopping by at Katherine's work and then would probably come back home since he had promised to help repair something on the tractor.

Losing hope, Veronica stood up and went inside, deciding that if she was already there she could at least do something useful. So she went into the living room, gathered Parker and Benny and did the little homework they had with them and then forced Isaac to go outside and play with them, so they wouldn't sit in front of the TV the whole day.

While they were outside, Nathan came downstairs and together the two of them cooked dinner, talking about what has been going on in their lives as of recently, since they hadn't talked with one another in a long time. 

And as Veronica stood in the kitchen, chatting away, laughing at silly jokes and singing along to random songs on the radio, she was once again reminded why she loved the Walters so much.

With them one could always have fun, there was never a minute of boredom and most of all, everything here felt like home. It was not the sad gray tones that adorned her house or the forced interest her father expressed in her life from time to time. Here everything was genuine, be it the good things or the bad things that happened around the farm.

Time for dinner came around and as all of the Walters piled into the dinning room, greeting Veronica enthusiastically and as they all sat and looked at the two empty seats that belonged to Cole and Jackie, Veronica couldn't help but grow a bit uneasy. Why did nobody know where they are?