Run Away

Chapter 29

The months have flown by. It's now December, and within a week Zack and I will be going to school. The tutor has been working out great, and I feel confident that I will do well in school. My only concern is making friends.  Will they question me about my family, or my life, or even personal things? Will they not ask, and be a true friend? Will I even make friends, or will everyone ignore me, and pretend I don't exist? These are the kind of questions I've been asking myself lately. I just can't seem to shake the thought away, and not worry. I get out of bed, and head downstairs for breakfast. I'm sure I've been called down at least a dozen times, but I was so lost in thought, I can't quite remember. When I reach the dinning room, Mrs. Cook is clearing the table.
"There you are." She says when she notices me. "We've been calling you down, but you never came. I was just about to send Zack up to see if you were okay."
"Sorry," I reply. "I must've fallen a sleep."
"No worries. You just sit down, and I'll go fetch you some waffles, okay?"
"Uh, thanks." I say, a small smile appears on my face as I sat down.
A few moments later Mrs. Cook appeared with a plate full of waffles, warm maple syrup, and a glass of my favourite milkshake -banana strawberry. I thank her once again while she apologizes for having to go help Lily get ready for school. I watch her rush upstairs until I can't see her no more. I sigh as I dig into my breakfast. Even though I've been here for about 3 months, I still can't get over how well they take care of me here. They didn't have to adopt me. They could've just left me at Mr. Feltons', and taken Zack. But that's not how Mr. and Mrs. Cook are. They both, are selfless people. People who really care about not only me, but everyone around them.
Once I finish eating, I clear my dishes, and head upstairs.
"Kendall!" I was at the top of the stairs when I heard Lily call my name. "I was looking for you!" She gave me a big hug.
"Is everything okay?" I ask.
She tilts her head back so she's looking up at me. "Everything's perfect. I just wanted to say good bye before I leave for school." At last, she let's go of me and runs down the stairs saying good bye.
I laugh a little by how happy she was that she got to see me. Inside is a warm, fuzzy feeling. One that makes me smile. I continue back to my room, shower and dress before the tutor comes.
Just as I finished brushing my hair, I hear a knock at my door.
"Come in."
"Hey." I look over to see Zack leaning against the doorway.
"Hey," I reply back. "What's up?"
"Ah, not much. Just wanted to make sure you were okay I guess."
"Well I'm doing just fine." I place my brush on my dresser, turning my body to face him. "How are you?"
"Okay I guess." There was a moment of silence. Zack opened his mouth, and began talking again. "So we start school next Monday."
"I'm aware."
"You nervous?" He puts his hands in his pockets, staring at me.
"No." He gives me a look, a look that tells me he knows I'm lying. "Fine. I'm a bit nervous."
"Ah don't worry, I'll be there to protect you."
I laugh a bit. "Oh, so you aren't nervous at all?"
"What's there to be nervous about? It's just school."
"Right the place most kids hate."
"Hate is a very strong word. I prefer to say..." He pauses for a moment to think. "Extremely dislikes."
"Right, like that's much better?" I say laughing.
"Oh yeah loads."
"Okay, come on. Let's go downstairs. The tutor should be here any minute."
***
It's now 4pm, and our tutor had just left. Our tutor thinks that we'll know enough for next week, so she's going to give us Friday off. The thought of going back to school still lingers in my mind. Not matter what I do, I can't stop thinking about it, even when I'm a sleep.
I'm standing at my dresser, looking myself in the mirror. I run my fingers through my hair getting rid of any tangles that had formed during the day. I sighed. Life was going to be different. I'm actually going to be attending school regularly, and coming home to do homework. I'll probably dread having to be up early, as I'm not used to it. I'll be like an average kid for once. I won't be locked up in a room with nothing, nor will I be cleaning and cooking for a rude man all day. I'll be outside, meeting new people, doing new things. The thought of it scares me a bit. I've never done anything like this before. It will be a new experience.
Before I could continue thinking what my new life could be like, I heard a thud followed by, "Kendall meet me in the Secret Room in 10 minutes. It's important." I looked to my left to see Zack, but only for a few seconds as he ran back down the hall.
My heart starts racing. What's so important for him to run down the hall, causing attraction to himself? I thought. Well, there's only one way to find out.
I back away from my dresser, and kneel down to the spot where the Secret Door is. But before I can open it, there's a knock at my door. I jump back from the spot, and say, "Come in."
"Hi Kendall," It was Lily. "I was wondering if you wanted to play cards with me?"
I bit my lip, and looked over at the wall where the door should be. Zack is expecting me to be down soon, but how do I say no to Lily? Apparently I'd been staring at the wall for too long. Lily seemed to have noticed.
"Kendall?" She looks at the wall, then back at me. "What is it?"
"Hmm?" I jerk my head to look at her. "Oh nothing. Everything's fine."
"Okay well do you wanna play cards?"
"Uh," I quickly try to think of an excuse, and use the first one that comes to mind. "I'd love to, but Zack actually wants me for something. I don't know what, but I should probably go see." I start to leave the room in a rush as I add. "But maybe later?."
I ran to Zack's room, and opened his secret door, running down the steps.
"What took you so long?" Zack asked once I had reached the bottom of the steps.
"Sorry, Lily started talking to me, and I had troubles trying to get rid of her." I walked over to the middle of the floor where Zack was. "So what's so important?"
"Hm?"
"You know, the reason you brought me down here?"
"Oh right!" He messed up his hair, then put his hands back in his pockets. "I found these books."
"Wow books. So fascinating."
He looked me straight in the eyes seriously. "Not any kind of books, special ones that clearly you don't want to know about."
I rolled my eyes, and sighed. "I'm sorry."
"And?"
"And I do want to know about these special books you found."
"Good now follow me-"
"Kendall? Zack? You down here?" It was Lily.
"Kendall," Zack whispered. "Which door did you use to get down?"
"The one in your room." I whispered back.
"Did you close it?"
I closed my eyes trying to remember. I bit my lip, and slowly opened my eyes. "I think I forgot to."
Zack pulled on my arm, dragging me behind the nearest couch. We crouched down hoping we wouldn't be found.
"Come on guys, I know your in here!"
I heard footsteps walk closer to our hiding spot. I held my breath not even moving an inch, when I heard the footsteps stop. Why did I have to leave the door open? I thought. We can't be found. This was supposed to be our secret. If anyone finds out they could block off the entry doors. Then what will we do?
"Seriously guys? I know your down here, there's no point in hiding."
My legs were feeling numb, and by the look on Zack's face, so were his. I slowly started leaning back, trying to take off some weight from my legs. When I was almost all the way down, I lost my balance and bumped into Zack.
"Ow!"
"Sorry." I whispered, but there was no point. By the time I picked myself off of Zack, Lily had found us behind the couch.
"There you guys are! Here let me help you up." She extended her hand. I accepted it, and she helped pull me up. I turned back to Zack, but he had already managed to pull himself up.
We walked out from behind the couch, and moved to the front where there was more room to talk.
"What is this place?" Lily asked. Zack and I looked at eachother, unsure of what to say. "What? You can trust me. I won't tell anyone."
"Promise?" Zack asked.
"I promise."
Zack sighed. "Fine we'll tell you, but if you say a word to anyone-"
"Zack." Lily interrupted. "I won't ever tell a soul, I promise."
"Good. Now let's sit. We have a lot of explaining."
***
"That's so cool!" Lily said once we had finished telling her everything we knew about this room.
"Yeah, and I just discovered something new. Wait here." Zack got up, and walked over to a bookshelf on the other side of the room. When he came back, he brought a book with him.
"Is this the special book you wanted to tell me early?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Why is it so special?" Lily asked.
"Let me explain," He sat down in the middle of the couch, and placed the book on the coffee table. "In this book it shows every single room, and where it leads to."
"But how? It's so small, and this place is huge. There's no way it could fit every single room, in what, 200 pages?"
I nodded my head. "Lily has a point."
"Well if you two would stop interrupting me then maybe you would actually learn something." He paused for a moment before continuing. "All you have to do is think of what room you want. Then open it up and on that page it will show you the quickest way to get there."
"Cool." Lily said. I nodded my head in agreement.
For a few minutes there was awkward silence, until we heard someone yell.
"Kids there's someone here to see you!" It was Mr. Cook.
Zack jumped up, and ran over to the phone. He quickly dialled in a number, then yelled; "Okay, we'll be right down!" He hung up, and ran back over to us. "Come on, we better get going."
All three of us ran up the steps, and into Zacks' room. Zack closed the door behind us, and it instantly disappeared. We walked down the hall, and down the steps. When we reached the bottom I could hear voices. Familiar voices. It sounded like a man and a women talking to Mr. and Mrs. Cook. We followed the voices to the dining room. There sat Mr. and Mrs. Cook and across from them was two people I recongized. A man and a woman - just like I expected. But they weren't just anyone. When there faces turned towards us a memory flashed by. Back to the day when we were at the bowling alley. I held in a gasp, and smiled and waved instead.
"It's them." I whispered into Zacks' ear. "The man and the woman from the bowling alley." Zack nodded. This time I made sure my voice was as quiet as could be so no one else could hear but Zack. "We have no time to plan. We just need to run away again."
"When?" He whispered back.
"Tonight."

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Hey everyone, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it's been a while since I last updated, and I'm sorry. I know I usually only post on Saturdays, but since it's been a while I'm going to post this now. The next update will be next Saturday or Sunday so stay tuned for that!
Question: Who do you think is the man and women Kendall recognizes? Leave your ideas/opinions below, and don't forget to vote.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have an amazing week!