When Kimberly's family can't afford to send her to Miami with the rest of her friends, she is forced to spend her spring break at the house of her father's friend, Julian Carter.
Kimberly was not happy with the arrangement and prepared herself for a...
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The first few weeks back to school more than anything else were strange to Kimberly. She felt as though she was floating through the halls and not actually there. She had only spent two weeks at Julian's house and yet it had felt like months, and she had become so accustomed to her life there that returning back to school was more disorienting than it was calming.
Mr. Martinez and Melitta quickly seemed to fall back into their old routine despite what happened in Miami, but Kimberly didn't have it in herself to say anything about it this time. She found that even though the wounds in her chest were healing, the emotional scars seemed to be taking a much longer time.
All she wanted was to be back with Julian, back with the one person who really understood what she was going through.
Some nights, when everyone else was asleep, she would wake up screaming after having had nightmares about Freddy Slim. Occasionally, Melitta would wake up too and Kimberly would try and explain the dreams to her since Melitta already knew everything.
Telling Melitta about Freddy wasn't even a decision to be made, Kimberly knew that the isolation would have eaten at her otherwise. And being able to talk about it and be completely honest with somebody nearby really was great, but deep down she knew that Melitta didn't really understand. Melitta hadn't been down in the basement with her, the barrel of a gun hadn't been pressed against Melitta's head. It wasn't her fault. It wasn't any of their faults but Freddy's, but still, Kimberly couldn't help feeling alone the 250-acre campus she used to feel safe in.
When she had first arrived at school, all Kimberly would see in the hallway was sorry faces and sympathetic smiles from those who'd heard about her 'accident.' People she had never even talked to before seemed to suddenly care so much about her well-being. Much to her delight though, the fake sympathy seemed to wear off after a few days, and the people she didn't know went right back to not speaking to her.
Her name change also didn't seem to be as big of a deal as she had thought it would be. Everybody still called her Kimberly since no one actually knew about it, and so the only time it actually made a difference was when she received her progress reports that said 'Valerie Louise VanStromme' in the top left-hand corner.
During their graduation rehearsal, the principal had told the senior class that if anyone wanted anything other than their ID name on their diploma, they should send his office an email letting them know. So she just sent in an email telling them to use Kimberly and not Valerie, and then it was all settled. There really was no way for any of her classmates to ever find out about the change now. She had obviously told Melitta about it, but she didn't feel as comfortable around her other friends to disclose any of that to them.
