Mr. Cumberbatch

Chapter 8- The Note

"Hey Mom," Nicole says as she opens the front door and drags her feet on the hard wood floor with every step that she takes. She throws her energy depleted body onto the couch and sighs.

"There you are! I was worried sick about you! Why were you held up at the school for so long? Are they even allowed to do that?!" her mother shouts as she stomps down the hallway into the same room as her.

Nicole shrugs her shoulders wondering if she should tell her what happened. She decides she might as well before she later finds out from the principal who would more than likely accuse Nicole of starting fights. That news would surely cause her mom to freak out.

"Michael decided to visit me today after swim practice," Nicole says squinting her eyes expecting her mother to have a reaction to the name.

"By Michael you mean ex-boyfriend Michael?" She gasps in astonishment. "You know I don't want you talking to that boy any more. Not after all he's done to you," she says while shaking her head in disappointment. "That boy only reminds me of the type of guy your father was."

Nicole hasn't heard her mother mention her father in a long time. Whenever she does, it's always to complain about the way he used to be before they got a divorce. Nicole was at a young age when they split up. She only has one faint memory of him, and that was when he took her to the park to push her on the swings. She would always tell him to make her go higher and higher so she could touch the sky. He would smile at her and tell her that one day when she was older, she would grow tall enough to reach the sky without the help of him pushing the swing.

"It's not like I wanted him to visit," Nicole says starting to get annoyed. She crosses her arms and gives her mother a presumptuous look. "I'm not quite sure why he wanted to see me-" she pauses and thinks about the note that fell out of her locker. "He didn't get to say much because a teacher came in to the locker room interrupting him. He was scared so he quickly grabbed ahold of me and threatened to hurt me." Nicole waits a minute before continuing. "The teacher tried to get him off of me, but the lights went off and he was able to escape."

Nicole's mom walks over to Nicole and rests her hand under her chin before kissing her on the cheek. "I'm glad you are okay. You must have some pretty special teachers at that school who would care enough to help you out in times of trouble," she says before smiling and exiting to the kitchen to start dinner. Nicole softly smiles and says to herself, "Yeah, I really do."

A few moments later, Nicole's mother shouts from the other side of the house, "Oh, and Nicole, your friend Amanda called asking why you weren't answering her text messages. Why don't you invite her over for dinner so you girls can hang out?"

Nicole hesitates before thinking that it wouldn't be a bad idea. It might be time to explain to her what's been going on during the past week. She pulls out her phone and begins texting:

*Hey, wanna come over for dinner so we can talk? -N

Amanda responds back within seconds,

*That sounds good. I do think we should talk. You seem so distant lately. Be over in a few! -A

Nicole puts her phone on sleep mode and goes up to her bedroom to plan how she should mention everything to her.

She throws her book bag and purse on her floor and falls onto her well-made bed. She looks over to where her bags lay and notices a piece of ripped notebook paper lying next to them that must have fallen out. Oh, great, she thinks, another hate note. Wonder what it says this time, she rolls her eyes. She walks over and picks it up , but notices that it isn't in fact a hate note. She looks it over again and again making sure her eyes were not deceiving her.