Red Pool To Overcome

Chapter 4

After I ate a little bit of toast I begin to feel a little bit better. I felt satisfied and tired.  I finally went to sleep with the pain of my side stabbing at my thoughts. As an effect of it, I had horrifying dreams replaying the awful scene of me cutting my side open. I could feel the grip of panic as I shook myself out of the dreams. They were absolutely awful and I was shaking for hours after. Mom tried to talk to me, but I was shut off to the world. When I finally summoned the courage to lay in my bed again, the dreams were much more pleasant. I dreamt of the time that Mom and Dad were together, happy and safe. I wished I could go back and live to that time. When I woke up, Mom said that the new neighbors, The Williamsons, had come for a visit. I came out to the living room and sitting on our couch were a young woman with straight brown hair and soft blue eyes, and a boy my age with blond hair like me and a sweet, kind face. He introduced himself as Dustin and said that he came to apologize for what happened to me. I told him he did not do it so there was no need for him to apologize. He just smiled sweetly. We looked at each other for a moment longer before I broke the silence and said, "How are you today?"

He smiled his sweet smile and waved. "I'm fine. You need to worry about yourself. You look pretty hurt." He pointed to my left hip.

"As long as I can move, I'm fine," I replied. As I said so I took a look at his ring. It was simple, like all of them, his had three sparkling red stones. Mine had two small sapphire blue stones. His mom had four larger purple stones on her ring. I asked Dustin if he would like to hang out in the backyard. He accepted and we went out to the backyard. He asked me if I knew how to play soccer.

"Are you nuts? Of course I do!" I laughed. He laughed with me. 

We played soccer until Dustin's mom came to get him so they could go home. In case you are wondering, we do not go to school. The government called school a "breeding ground" for bullying and kids being hurt both physically and mentally. So every week they send home little booklets with entire lessons complete with practice work. After we are done, our parents mail it back, and at the beginning of summer, where we get a break from our studies, they send a report card to tell parents how we are doing. We all try and get good scores because it goes toward a better income when we decide to get a job. We all stop after twelve years of school, and they send home a letter asking us if we want to take an extra year, which most do. I am taking my extra year because I want to be a scientist, which requires a lot of credits which requires good scores. I am very into language and art, and I might want to write books as a side-job aside from being a scientist. I have not decided what category of science I will study yet, But being only 11 and having 7 years of school to go, I have lots of time to think.

My mom asked me how I was feeling after the  Williamsons left. "Is your hip okay? Do you need anything?"

"I'm fine right now, Mom. I'll tell you if I need anything, okay?"

"Alright. Now get to bed. You need as much sleep as you can get. Off you go."

She escorted me to bed with a hug and a kiss. She flicked off the light and crept out as to not disturb the sleep slowly settling in on me. I finally slept in peace without a care.