Oxygen

Chapter 24 - High School

I'm on the edge of my seat, waiting for Mum's response. Jordan sits stiffly next to me, crossing his fingers and hoping she doesn't know. To be honest, so am I. Mum takes in a deep breath, and sighs to herself.

"You two are in love, I get it. But you shouldn't have to go on holiday in the middle of the school year to prove it". I lean back into the sofa, sighing with relief. "What do you think we did?" Jordan asks cautiously, raising an eyebrow.

"You took her on holiday" she points a finger in his direction, "which is so sweet by the way, and did whatever romantic stuff you did there in Hawaii". Hawaii? Why would we be there? I'm just glad she thinks we were on holiday, rather than off starting a war.

"I'm so sorry Mum" I say, laughing to myself. I wonder who told her anyway. "It's fine, sweetheart, but I wish you had told me first".

I nod, promising never to do that to her again. Of course she didn't cry or get too emotional over it, since she was never really my mother. I may call her Mum, but in my heart my really family were my only family, not her. I guess she feels the same.

"Well you should probably get unpacked Fern, and get ready for school tomorrow" Mum, or Bonnie, suggests. I nod in response, and drag Jordan upstairs to my room.

I miss this room so much. The blue walls and my fuzzy yellow blanket make me feel right at home, so I opened the door and flopped onto the bed, much like a whale into the ocean.

Jordan flopped down beside me, and kissed by forehead. I smile under his gaze, and tucked my head under his chin. The way we fit together so perfectly makes my heart warm.

We lay together for a while before getting up to unpack the few things I had brought home. Once we finished unpacking I said goodbye to Jordan, and gave him a kiss before he drove home.

I sat in my room that night charging my laptop and thinking about the future ahead. To me it doesn't seem like everything is going to be perfect for long. In my life, something always gets in the way.

I spend a couple of hours watching The Vampire Diaries to try and catch up on what I've missed. I don't pay much attention to it, and in the end I give up and go to bed. It takes me a while to get to sleep, I'm not used to being away from Jordan, in different homes. Even though we only live twenty minutes from each other it feels like we are miles apart.

•••

Monday morning is the toughest one of all. "It must be tough for someone with a birthday on a Monday", I mutter to myself, as I get out of bed and greet the smell of toast as I enter the kitchen.

I sit down at the breakfast bar in my summer pyjamas, fanning my face because of the early morning heat.

The thing about New Zealand is that the summer time is in the Christmas time, so the entire idea of a white Christmas is crazy. I look at the huge glass window through the lounge to the bright sun shining in, leaving a reflection of a rainbow on the high ceiling.

By eight o'clock I was ready for school, wearing the best clothes I had. I looked in the mirror at my blue jeans, red crop top and my favourite black converse. I brushed through my long, brown hair, which now reached my waist. It's grown a lot since I last cut it, but I usually tie it up and hide it's length.

So today I decide to leave it down, and walk out the front door while swinging my bag onto my back. I wait for Jordan to pick me up, and when he arrives, I hop in the car and we drive away. I yawn, stretching my mouth to the other side of the world and back as Jordan greets me.

"Hey, cutie" he says, and I wave back, still yawning. "Hey" I reply, taking my time to sit back in the comfy leather seat.

"How are you?" I ask, since I haven't talked much to Jordan since he dropped me home. "I'm great. I hope we can finish our school year on a good note with everything" I nod, thinking about everything yet to come this senior year.

"What are we gonna do about our grades and everything? We can't catch up in only the few weeks we have left of this year!" I start to get frantic about it, I'm never going to be able to follow my dreams if I'm stuck at achievement standard.

"My parents have sorted it. They asked Uncle Carl to persuade the teachers into giving us a decent grade for the work we missed. Everything will be fine".

I sigh in relief, but I'm also a tiny bit annoyed that Jordan's family are cheating us into good marks. For the rest of the year, I'm definitely going to do my best to avoid any cheating. I'll also have to try and avoid getting angry or emotional at school, hoping that I can hide my supernatural abilities.

Once we arrive at school, we park Jordan's Jeep in our usual spot and head our seperate ways to class. It feels so weird to be back here, it's like time stopped for Jordan and I, but for everyone else it kept going.

I walked down the hall to find Evelyn, grabbing books from her locker and stuffing them in her bag. I slowly walk over to her.

"Hey" I say casually, as if I never left. She turns around and her eyes pop out of her head, and a high pitch shreek comes out of her mouth.

"Fern! Where the hell have you been for the past month? You know better than to leave with your boyfriend without telling me! And what's this about you having a boyfriend, what's going on?" she takes a huge breath once she finishes ranting, and by now everyone in the hall has stopped to listen to what's going on.

"Calm down. I'll tell you in our next class, come on". Ev nods and I follow her, after shutting her locker, to social studies. We sit down in a row of two and I start my long, complicated explanation. How I was going to explain that I ran off with a guy to somewhere in America to protect us from a family of supernatural people while the two of us started dating I don't know. Are we even dating? I suppose the story could go on for ever and ever.

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Hey peeps!

Thank you for reading this chapter. Let me know what you think and vote on the chapter.

What do you think of Fern's mum? I never really introduced her much at the beginning of the book, but now I want to include her a bit more.

There will be some good chapters coming up!

Thanks for reading and voting. Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Also, I'd love to read your stories if you leave a comment about it for me to see.

Alice xx