The Mysteries That Follow You

Chapter 9

The next day after school the girls are all hanging out in the study room doing their homework. One of the older girls at the orphanage comes up to their table. Marie has seen her around but hasn't interacted with her before.

"Hey, Marie can I ask you a favor?" she looks at Marie with desperation in her eyes. Marie looks up from her homework. The other girls give a quick hello or wave then get back to their work.

"Sure Melissa what can I help you with?" Marie puts her pencil down and focuses her attention on Melissa.

"I hate to bother you with this but I could really use your help." She sits in the chair in front of Marie. "I am meeting a family this week that wants to potentially adopt me. Originally my friend was going to do my hair but she is caught up with a family emergency and she might not have time to do it. So I wanted to ask if you could braid my hair?" Melissa explains in nearly one breath. "I saw what you did with Cleo's hair," Melissa looks over to Cleo. "You look great by the way"Cleo looks up and says thank you with a wink. "So I was hoping you could help me out."

"I don't mind doing your hair," Marie responds with a smile. She is always happy to help someone in need. "When do you need it done by?" Marie asks.

"I need it done by Thursday if you can?" Melissa feels relieved Marie agreed to help.

"That is no problem. Is it okay if we do it tomorrow after I get back from school and finish my homework?" Marie doesn't have chores to do, so she'll have plenty of time to do Melissa's hair.

"That's fine with me. It will give me enough time to do my chores." Melissa grabs both of Marie's hands. "You are a lifesaver Marie thank you so much." Melissa starts to leave but sharply sits back down and faces Marie. "Oh, with the hairstyle I want I need to add on hair. Can you do that?"

"Yes, I can do that no problem. Just show me a picture of what you want tonight at dinner so I can get an idea of what to do tomorrow." Marie tells her.

"Will do. Thank you again, Marie." Melissa walks out of the study room and Marie gets back to her homework.

~

The next morning Marie and Millie are sitting in history class. Mr. Philips is giving a lecture on war and its effects on societies. When he finishes he informs the class they will be doing a two-person group presentation on a specific war in history. The chosen war is up to the group but he is assigning the groups himself. The class groans in response to that. He shakes his head at the verbal protest and begins listing off the names of partners.

"Marie Hendricks and Kaden Johnson will be a group." Marie is shocked by this and almost doesn't hear Mr. Philips say "Millie Chopra and Darius William will be a group." Marie and Millie share a look.

'Now is your chance to talk with him.' Marie signs to Millie as Mr. Philips continues to list groups.

'But how am I supposed to talk with him when I don't talk.' Millie signs back exasperated.

'You will figure it out.' Marie pats Millie's shoulder. An idea pops into her head. 'Plus he and Kaden are best friends, right?' Millie nods her head. 'We can all work together and I can be there to translate for you if you like.' Marie signs.

'You make a good point' Millie replies.

"Lastly Dennis Rudy and Malcolm Rudy will be a group." The two boys loudly high-fived each other in the back. Mr. Phillips shakes his head and puts down the paper with the list of groups. He tells the class they can have the rest of the period to chat with their partners and discuss the project.

Feeling nervous suddenly the girls slowly gather their belongings to meet their partners at their table in the back. Their partners had other ideas and bought their chairs to sit at the girl's table.

"Hello Ladies," Kaden says to both of them. He sits down in front of Marie and opens his notebook. Darius waves at Marie and then sits in front of Millie. He taps the table to get her attention and signs to her.

'Hello, Millie it is nice to officially meet you.' Both Millie and Marie share a shocked expression. 'You know ASL?' Millie signs back.

'Yes, my sister is deaf so my family decided to learn ASL when we first found out.' Darius signs with a smile on his face.

'I know a little ASL myself but I am not as fluent as Darius is.' Kaden signs.

Millie still in shock signs 'Nice to meet you both'. Turning to only face Darius she signs 'Let's get started'.

Marie and Kaden get started with brainstorming their topic. It didn't take long and they settled on doing the Gulf War since the topic could be any war after the 19th century.

"So would you like to meet in the library after school to get started on the project?" Kaden asks Marie after they agree on a topic.

"Yes, that sounds great. But can we meet up tomorrow after school? I have something to do today." Marie replies.

"Yeah, that is fine with me. It will give us a chance to come up with some ideas before we meet." Kaden answers glad that Marie agreed.

"That's a good point," Marie replied. The bell rings ending their time together and everyone files out of class to lunch.

~

School is over and everyone is back at the orphanage doing either homework or chores. Marie managed to finish the majority of her homework during her free time at school. She spends most of her time back at the orphanage brainstorming ideas for her history project. After about an hour and a half, she gathers her supplies and heads to the rec room to wait for Melissa to finish her chores. She doesn't wait for long and Melissa is now sitting in a chair showing Marie the hairstyle she wanted again as well as the hair she bought. Marie gets started and in a couple of hours, she is putting the final touches on Melissa's hair. Melissa takes a look at her hair in the mirror and is in love.

Another happy customer Marie thinks to herself. Melissa looks great with this hairstyle. Her hair in the front half is crisscross stitched cornrowed to the middle of her head and the back is in box braids. Marie curled the ends of the braids to give the hair extra dimension. After some touch-ups, Marie wishes Melissa good luck with her meeting with the adoptive family. It's dinner time so they make their way to the mess hall after cleaning up. Marie spends the rest of the night with her friends watching The Princess Diaries Two.