A Place I Call Home (A Cinderella Story)

Chapter 6

The next morning, I got up and got ready for school. We haven't gone for almost a week. Neither one of us wanted to go. Grandfather threatened to home school us if we didn't go back. That was out of the question for Jake. Not so much for me. Jake wouldn't listen to the thought of me being home schooled. How he ended the conversation was, "He's going to talk about each and every war like he was there. No cute boys to distract yourself with. And there will always be nap time every forty-five minutes." He had a point with boys. My mind went to Chad. Part of me was hoping I'd see him again. I went downstairs and headed into the kitchen. Jake was sitting at the table eating cereal. Shelly wasn't there. "Where's Shelly?" I asked. Jake looked at me and answered with his mouth full. "She left."

"When?" I asked confused.

Jake looked at me like I didn't understand what he just said. "She took the bus this morning." It was odd for her to suddenly leave. But then again, she really had no reason to stay here with a bunch of kids who weren't hers. So, I could believe that she left.

When our mom died, Jake refused to come out of his room. He wanted mom to walk through that door. It was hard for him to understand that she was never coming back. Jake always tells me the story of how he finally came out of his room. He went into my room and crawled into bed with me. The next morning, Dad found us fast asleep.

"Hurry up and finish breakfast. I want to leave." Jake said as he placed his bowl in the sink. Snapping out of my thoughts, Jake walked out the back door and started up the car. Searching for a quick breakfast, I grabbed a banana that was still good. The car honking echoed throughout the empty house. I've never heard it this quiet before. Things weren't the same without Dad here. I walked outside and locked the back door. Once I gotnin and put my seat belt on, Jake drove us to school. We were mostly quiet on the way there.

During school, it was nothing but pain for me. Some people teased me about my dad dying. They also said I killed him. Others actually said that they were sorry that he died. Which was very nice of them. The bullies had me close to tears. When did the teasing ever stop? Opening up my locker, a couple tears escaped. I couldn't cry now. These bullies wiuld use it to their advantage. Someone called out for me. I glanced around. Chad wad heading my way. My heart stopped. Was he actually coming this way? His smile never faded, along with his eyes looking at me. My hands quickly wiped my tears away before he saw them. "Hey." Chad said softly.

"Hi." I answered back, swallowing the rest of my tears.

Chad touched my arm. "Look, Wendy, I'm sorry about your father dying. And I'm sorry that everyone is picking on you over it as well."

I smiled at him. "Thank you." Looking around, something was missing. "Where are your friends at?"

Chad's smile got even bigger. "I didn't need them protecting me from girls anymore."

I gave him a puzzled look. "Why?"

Chad look around to see who was around us, then looked back at me. "They only did that to make sure I wouldn't run back to Rebecca. I wasnt thinking straight for awhile. Keeping the girls away also helped. I needed to focus on our games." Chad grabbed my hand and held it in his. My heart was going a mile a minute. "And, someone showed me that not every girl is only after me because of who I am." I smiled. He was talking about me! Me, the dorky girl in the whole school! Was this a dream? If it was, this would be a cruel joke. Slapping myself in front of him would only make me look like a weirdo.

"So that means you can be by yourself more?" I asked.

"Yes, but I wanted to ask you something." He grabbed both of my hands, and held them.

Out of the conner of my eye, Rebecca charge around the conner. She quickly stopped when she saw us together. She hid behind the trashcan. The worst part about it was, Rebecca wasnt sneaky about it. She was very loud. From her heels clicking down the hallway, to her diving behind the trashcan. Which she happened to crash into it. Chad noticed her as well. He sighed. "Rebecca, please, I know you're back there."