Promises Are Made To Keep (On Hold)

Promise to Text You Later

I was sitting at my desk trying not to fall asleep listening to Mrs.Daisy attempt to go over the Pythagorean theorem. Anthony was right, she was horrible at teaching. My eyelids started to get heavy and I couldn't keep them open anymore. I rested my head on my arms and closed my eyes. Just two minutes, I told myself.

"Mommy, can we go to Aunt Lizzie house?" I asked. "I miss Elilah and Elijah and Ethan and Manny." I called Emmanuel Manny because I could never say his name.

She came to pick me up and sit me on top of the kitchen counter. "Jamie, we've been over this already. You can't go over Aunt Lizzie's house for a while. I can't tell you why because you're too young." She said playing with my hair.

"But mommy, I five." I said holding up four fingers. "I old enough."

She laughed and said, "When you're older." She started braiding my hair.

"Like when I six?" I asked getting excited, "I almost six."

Mom sighed, "No, older than that. Do you want a snack?" She asked taking the braid out of my hair and getting me off the counter.

"Yes please," I said, "Can I have that?" I pointed to a Sneakers bar that was on the counter.

Mom grabbed it and put it up in the cabinet. "Honey, you know you can't have that. It has peanuts in it and you're allergic to peanuts."

"Oh." I said disappointed. "I want chocolate."

"We might have some chocolate in here somewhere." Mom said looking through the cabinets. "Here, I found this." She handed me a Hershey bar. "Jamie, Jamie, Ms.Jamie Valentine."

My head snapped up when I realized it was the teacher calling my name and not my mother. "Were you sleeping in the middle of my lesson?" Mrs.Daisy asked straightening her glasses on her face.

"No," I said rubbing my eyes, "It was just a really long blink." Some people found that funny.

"Don't let it happen again." She said then went back to discussing stuff about the hypotenuse and legs of a right triangle, stuff we learned in eighth grade.

I looked at the clock behind Mrs.Daisy and above the white board. Note to self: Bring something to distract you in Mrs.Daisy's class so you won't fall sleep for forty minutes.

But I had to admit that it felt good to finally not have a nightmare about my parents. Ever since they died I've either had nightmares about them or had nightmares about them. But it's mostly nightmares about them.

This was the one dream I've had that wasn't a nightmare. It was simply just a memory. A memory of me talking to my mom when I was five years old. I really miss her and Dad.

"Jamie," Anthony tapped me on my shoulder. "That was a nice first impression."

"I didn't mean to sleep for half the class. It was only supposed to be a couple minutes." I said playing with my hair. It's so curly, I never wear my hair like this. Elilah did it, she's good with all this hair and makeup stuff.

I smiled. "Plus, I think why I slept so long is because I didn't have a nightmare."

"A nightmare?" He asked confused. "What nightmare?"

"It's just that ever since my parents..." I trailed off. I can't talk about this right now. I almost started crying last period when I was telling Ashleigh. I might actually start crying this time. It's just too soon to talk about it.

"Ever since your parents what? Did they get divorced or something?" He asked innocently.

"No, they were still happily married." I said looking down at my desk.