Elisabeth Marie

Chapter Twenty-Seven

When I got back to the Reid's house, no one was home except Jane and Ella. "Elisabeth!" exclaimed Ella, running over to hug my legs. I smiled at her, then turned to look at Jane.

"Elisabeth, where were you?" Jane asked.

"I was just at the therapy group," I lied. I knew what she would think if I said I had been out with Josh.

Jane didn't seem convinced. "Really? Because Carla Dale came over with her daughter Kiley about an hour ago and asked to see you."

"Oh."

"So what did you do after therapy?"

"I... went to the diner."

"Whose money did you spend?" Jane asked. I could tell she didn't want to seem accusatory, but it didn't work.

"Mine," I said. The food at the diner had been cheap. 50 cents for a milkshake cheap. I hadn't spent over two dollars total.

Jane let out a sigh of relief. "Oh. Good."

"Yeah. Listen, I'm going to go upstairs, I need to... check something," I said. It was Wednesday- early release day at the school back in California. It's almost two here, which means it's almost noon there, which means they'll be getting out of school soon. Which means I can talk to Veronica and Timothy. And I definitely needed to talk to them.

"Wait, Elisabeth, who did you go to the diner with?" Jane asked suddenly.

"Um... with Josh."

"Josh Ford?"

"Yeah."

"Interesting," Jane said to herself. "Alright, you can go Elisabeth, sorry," she said. "Ella, sweetie, let Elisabeth go," she told Ella, who reluctantly let go of me.

I smiled at the little girl and gave Jane a wave before going upstairs. I opened up my laptop and the 5% battery sign popped up. After fumbling around for the charging cord, I plugged it into the wall and opened up Skype.

School wouldn't even be dismissed yet, but I sent a call to Timothy Kress anyways. To my surprise, it was answered, and Krista popped up on the screen. "Elisabeth!" she exclaimed.

"Krista?"

"Who did you think you were, leaving me without saying goodbye? I got back from my auction this morning- several of your pictures sold, by the way- and I came over to talk to Lisa and she was all like, Elisabeth left, she told us to say goodbye to you, and I couldn't believe her! But then I did and then I texted Timothy and he gave me the password to his Skype so in case you called I could talk to you. But he told me I couldn't call you, because you would probably be off doing things with your family. And I was getting kind of sad, since school is almost out for them today and then I wouldn't get to talk to you one on one. But then you called! How are you, girlie?"

"I'm great. Just a sec," I said, going over to close the door. "I was just thinking about you today, actually."

"You were?" Krista asked.

"Yeah. I was sitting in therapy, and I suddenly remembered you and Mocha and-"

"Therapy? What are they doing to you over there?"

"Well it's not really therapy, it's... let me get the little handout... it's a trauma recovery group."

"Why would you get sent to that? You were just fine back here at home," Krista said.

"I know. But my... family doesn't think I'm just fine. And so I get to go to a little group twice a week with this teacher who actually kind of scares me."