On Our Own

Chapter 4

I woke up to screaming. I got up so fast from the top bunk that I hit my head on the ceiling. I groaned and jumped down to the floor and ran into the room next door. Nina and Anna were on the top bunk gripping each other tightly.

"What's wrong?" I asked immediately.

I looked to see what Anna was pointing to and saw a little mouse was sitting on top of a pile of clothes. It looked so tiny it couldn't have been that old, a baby perhaps. I sighed, a mouse trap wasn't going to solve this. I looked around the rest of the room and found a bowl of chips on the floor. Of course it attracted the mouse. I found a tissue box and put some chips in it and brought it towards the mouse. I set it down on the ground and then a couple minutes later the mouse went into the box. I was somewhat surprised that it even worked then I realized it was so little, it was in fact a baby.

"Well what do we do with it?" Nina asked.

I shrugged and gently picked up the box and brought it out of the room. I went downstairs and opened the back patio door and tried to let it out. I sighed, I guess comfort from the box was better than our backyard as the little guy refused to move. I left the box there and went into the kitchen and saw Monica and Jess.

"What was that about?" Jess asked as got stuff out for breakfast.

I explained what happened in between bites of a banana.

"I'll call an exterminator," Jess sighed.

"Wow. There is never really a calm day in the Sanders household is there?" Monica said, looking over at me.

I couldn't agree more. I went back upstairs and changed into some ripped jeans and a blue sweatshirt. I put my silver hair in two dutch braids and put some mascara on. When I came back down, everyone had already finished breakfast, so we left for school.

"You know you could've just killed the mouse," Jack said when I got in the car.

"Why?" I asked as I pulled out of the driveway.

"It was just a mouse," he said shrugging.

"Oh come on, Leah wouldn't even kill that spider in the shower that one time," James said shaking his head.

"Well excuse me for wanting to save any life I can," I chuckled lightly. "Besides was your solution any better?" I asked. "Would you want to be sprayed by a high pressure shower head and down down a pipe?"

The boys all laughed as I glanced at them in the backseat but I noticed Carter was the only one who didn't seem to find the humor in the situation. Or at least that's what I first thought. As we arrived at school, I began to notice the bags under his eyes and how on edge he seemed. I nudged James who was in the front seat next to me and I tilted my head towards Carter. James turned and looked at him and then gave me a worried look. So, I wasn't just seeing things. I pulled into the parking lot and Jack and Matt thankfully left immediately, so I quickly locked the doors after them. Carter pulled on one and glanced over at me, he caught on quite fast.

"What's bugging you?" I asked him.

He glared at me.

"We're not giving up, Carter," James warned.

"Either tell us what's wrong or else we'll just sit here all day and you'll miss your English class."

There was no way Carter was going to miss his favorite class. He angrily wrote something on the back of a receipt he found on the floor and then threw it at me. James grabbed it and smoothed it out.

Nightmares.

I looked up from the one word he had written and glanced back at him.

"Scale of one to ten, ten being never able to sleep again?" James asked.