Many Mistakes, No Regrets

Chapter 2: School's Here

Chapter 2: School’s here

            Elle and I had spent the last few weeks of summer exploring our new home. She went to explore her new school while I went on trail rides with Trigger exploring the woods behind my aunt’s house. She owned all the property on this side of the street for a mile in each direction. Apparently she had once had a very successful singing career and was loaded.  

            But the freedom wouldn’t last and I knew that. I hadn’t told Elle about the instructions our aunt had given me. I was going to tell her when she got to the house but then our aunt was so nice to her that I couldn’t tell her. But I don’t want her to freak out before I know what is going on. Eventually, I’m going to have to tell her though. And soon. I figured tonight was as probably a good time to tell her. Especially considering the students at my aunt’s school were going to be arriving tomorrow.

            Our aunt was over at the school most nights. It was just us and I would make us a dinner. I was cooking, when Elle came in. She turned a chair around and sat on it. We were eating an early dinner tonight so we could move her stuff to her dorm room tonight. I turned around and looked at her.

            “Did you finish packing whatever you’re bringing over to your dorm room with you?”

            “Yup! I can’t wait! You’ll have to come by and meet the people I’m sharing a dorm with!”

            She was so excited. This was going to be harder than I had thought.

            “Actually Elle, I –”

            “Rikki, can you call me Isabelle when we are around anyone else? I want to sound a little older since I am a year younger than all the other students.”

            “Sure, Elle but I need to tell you something first. That first day I got here. Ms. Baker-”

            “Rikki, you really should call her Aunt Jane or something.”

            “Elle, can I just talk with you interrupting me all the time?”

            She pretended to zip up her lips and lock them. She tossed me the key. It was a joke we had come up with when we were like seven. She can't talk until I toss the key back to her.  

            “Alrighty, well I can’t come meet your roommates. The first day I got here, Ms. Baker told me I was not to be seen. She doesn’t want anyone to know I’m here”

            I could see my sister fighting our joke. She couldn’t talk until I threw her back the key. I gave in and tossed the imaginary key back to her. She took it and unlocked her lips and then unzipped them.

            “What?! How could she tell you that? Does she not understand that this is hard enough as it is? We were moved across the country after our family dies!”

            Elle kept ranting but I stopped listening. It hurt to think about the rest of our family. Our mom, dad, and older brother were killed in a car accident at the beginning of the summer. A drunk driver hit them when they were coming back from the airport after picking John, my older brother, up from some trip in Mexico. We stayed with our neighbor until all the arrangements were made for our move.

            I could feel my eyes getting watery. I had been closer to our parents than Elle was. I stayed home all day to go to school and I would spend time with our mom. Elle went to the closest school to us but it was over an hour away. We live, no lived, pretty far outside of town. I was fighting the tears but one silently slid down my face and into the pot of ziti.

            I turned off the burner and drained the pasta. I put some on a plate for Elle and walked away. She followed me asking what was going on. I said I wasn’t hungry and was going to go feed Trigger. I didn’t turn around so she couldn’t see my tear streaked face. I heard the kitchen door open and close and then I took off running to the barn.

            I climbed up into the hay loft and just sat there as tears fell. I don’t know how long I sat there but I finally managed to get up and grab a bale. I threw a couple flakes of hay [A/N flakes are sections of hay bales] into Trigger’s stall. He looked at me with his beautiful eyes. I gave him a quick kiss on his face and he went back to eating. I started sweeping up the barn. I looked up at the clock and it read 6 pm. I had been out here for and hour and a half. I said goodbye to Trigger and hopped on the tractor and drove back to the house.

            Elle was sitting in the living room. Her bags were by the door. She looked up at me as I walked in.

            “Hanging out in the hay loft again?”

            I looked down and realized I was covered in hay.

            “Can you clean up the hay while I go get changed? It would be a big help Elle.”

            She got up so I was taking that as a yes. I went upstairs to change into hay free clothes. My aunt hates when I bring hay into her house.

            I went back down and saw the bags weren’t in the living room anymore and Elle was no where to be found. I went outside and saw her putting the last of her bags into the trailer hitched to the tractor. It had been my idea to use the tractor to move her bags to her new room. it seems easier than walking back and forth.

            I climbed into the driver’s seat and waited for her to get into the trailer. I drove us across the street to the school. Elle directed me towards her dorm. Finally I pulled up to an old brick building. It was 4 stories. I was really hoping Elle didn’t have a top floor room.

            “Okay. I am in room 17. It’s on the top floor.”

            Of course, because life isn’t fair. We began our first trek up the 4 flights of stairs. After what seemed like a million trips everything was in the room that had been marked Isabelle. I helped her unpack her stuff.

            By the time we had unpacked everything. I was starving and it was already 10 pm. We went back down 48 stairs to the bottom. (Yes, I had counted.) I climbed back into the driver’s seat and Elle laid down in the trailer. I started back towards our Aunt’s house. I stopped in the driveway to let Elle off. I kept driving to the barn and grabbed my flashlight from under the seat. I started back across the field.

            I knew this would probably be the last time in a while I would be able to just be outside without worrying about being seen. I looked up at night sky. The full moon cast an eerie glow across the open field.

            I tried to be as quiet as possible as I went through the kitchen. Thankfully, Ms. Baker wasn’t there. I went upstairs and grabbed my pj’s. I hopped in the shower and took a nice hot shower. It felt so relaxing over my sore muscles. Elle is not a light packer.

             I climbed into my bed and was surprised to find someone already taking up half of my bed. Elle looked over to me.

            “I wanted to stay in here for tonight. Do you mind?” it was so soft I almost didn’t hear her say it. I climbed in the other half and said “Of course not.” We fell asleep like we used to when we were little.

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So I know this chapter was kind of boring. I promise the next chapter will be a whole lot better. I won’t say why. I don’t want to give anything away but I will say there will be a few new characters. (Finally)

            Any questions? Comments?

Oh and one last thing. If you are looking for another book to read, you should check out Can Life Have an Easy Button by bushie8795. It’s pretty good.

Thanks for reading!

-Siobhan