Dancing with Fire (John Pearce/Justice Crew Fanfic)

Chapter 30

“Where have you been?!?” Amy and Caitlin shouted the moment they saw Stacy and I stepping back in school, giving a fright to all the other students that were surrounding us. I swear, I think I’m deaf right now.

It turns out our “homeschooled stage” only lasted for a month, but Aunt Lisa has excused us and has shown the principal some of our recorded work while we were out hiding in Tasha’s apartment. Although, I still need to work on extra hours for extra credit since I would be graduating this year, unlike Stacy. Yay me! It has been a relief that now we’re free to see the sun, a.k.a go out of the house without any worries.

Stacy and I are still living with Tasha, albeit our Aunt winning our custody, but we all decided that it would be better if Rachel stayed with her since Stacy and I wanted to start looking for work to pay Tasha some cash for the accommodation, and other things.

We didn’t like the idea of going back to our house as memories were still fresh, I think we’re going to sell the house and divide the money amongst ourselves, plus a bit for dad if ever he gets out.

“Details, please!” Amy said, tugging on my arm like her life depended on it as Caitlyn agreed on everything she said, milking some information from me. Stacy left us alone as she also wanted to meet her friends.

The thing is, I didn’t want to go into detail of what happened since things have been better. “Let’s just say, we had a family emergency…” I said vaguely, hoping they would just shut up. Amy did, but Caitlyn whined at how unclear my statement was. Thank God for Amy for helping me deal with Caitlyn.

It was pretty clear that things haven’t changed. After meeting in front of the school, we headed to our lockers to retrieve whatever we needed for our first class, and then the boys, particularly Jason and Andrew came after a few minutes, and there goes my hearing again. Andrew’s squeal mimicked Caitlyn’s earlier shriek. Good to know I haven’t missed anything, except for lessons and time spent with them.

When the bell rang, I went ecstatic, feeling like I was a little girl having her first day in school. Andrew and Caitlyn went ahead; I rested my arm entwined with Amy, a happy school girl, while Jason was following us behind.

“I missed you so much!” Amy cried as we hopped our way to the room. Oh the feeling is mutual! I’m glad I was back because not talking to Amy felt like missing a whole part of my life, we used to be inseparable, and she’s the one who knows everything about me.

“Same, fill me in please?” She happily nodded, letting me borrow all her notes and helping me going over our lessons, even in the other subjects.

As we came to our class, we noticed that the teacher wasn’t inside yet, so we stayed outside and talk, until Jason said he wanted to talk to me alone, pushing our other friends to go inside the room. To be honest, I wasn’t quite ready to face him knowing it was his mum that got us into this whole thing, though I know it wasn’t her fault. It’s like me blaming her for all these, the same way my dad was blaming me for mum’s death. And that wasn’t fair.

“Why didn’t you answer all of my calls and messages?” He uttered as we were both leaning on the wall beside each other, staring straight to the wall on the opposite side.

Because I was scared, at that time, about my dad finding me. If I answered, then he could have gotten an idea where I was, and I don’t think I can forgive him for that if he chooses to connive with his parents and my dad.

I didn’t answer, but I sighed loudly. I’m not ready to disclose any information, unless it’s Amy, because I know I’ll have her back whatever happens. Even if you threaten her to speak up, she wouldn’t dare to.