The Loved and Lost

Chapter 8 - A School Day

I arrived downstairs and entered the kitchen, awkwardly and silently. It was the next morning and I was being forced to go to school. I was uneasy, afraid the Marojas might show up again. I found the Thornes in the kitchen, Mrs. Thorne making breakfast and Mr. Thorne reading the paper.

“Morning.” Mr. Thorne greeted, glancing up from the paper.

“Morning…” I trailed slowly. “Any call?”

“No…” Mrs. Thorne trailed sadly.

“Oh…” I said, followed by an awkward silence.

Mr. Thorne put the paper down and grabbed his car keys. “Come on.”

I entered the school and the first thing that happened I was immediately hugged by Nicole. She looked sad, with mascara running down her face and her eyes all red.

“What? What happened?” I asked sympathetically.

“You know what happened! To Drake…” Nicole trailed sobbingly.

“He’s fine. Well, not fine, but not dead. He’s-”

“In a coma, I know. The whole school knows. It’s been on the news pretty much all day for the past two days. Everyone is sad, even the people who don’t know him.” Nicole explained as I dragged her off the restroom and wiped away all the crap from her face. “I thought you’d be sad.” Nicole said as I wiped some strayed mascara away from under her eyes.

“I cried enough already. I have no more tears left.” I explained as I played with her hair some and fixed it to its usual perfectly straight self.

“Oh…” Nicole said as the bell rang to go to Advisory. We said our goodbyes and headed off in separate directions.

When I arrived, my entire Advisory class stopped what they were doing and turned to face me in their chairs. I hid my face behind my hair as I silently walked to my desk. I looked over to where Drake sat and started sobbing quietly again. Nope, still some left.

I was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder, one I thought, was Vicky’s. I jerked my head up ready to yell, but saw it was Maddie.

“Hey, I guess we have the same Advisory.” Maddie said as she knelt down by my desk. “I guess it can be sort of fun.”

“Yeah.” I said, wiping the tears away.

“So, you’re okay?” Maddie asked, poking my arm.

“Yeah, I’m okay. He’ll be okay…” I trailed sadly. Maddie nodded and headed back to her desk.

A while later, around five minutes before the bell rang I felt another tap on my shoulder, this time slower and more forceful. I didn’t look up this time, I was sure it was Vicky. “What?” I asked rudely.

“Well, that’s not a very nice way to greet someone.” The voice said, laughing. I sat there for a second, processing the voice. It couldn’t be. It’s impossible. That voice… I jerked my head up, and I saw it was true.

“Aaron, what are you doing here?” I asked as he came behind me and wrapped an arm around my neck, swaying me back and forth.

“Why do you think I’m here?” Aaron asked as he let go and smoothed out his blue T-shirt and stuck his hands into his jeans pockets. He took the seat next to me and brought his voice down to a whisper. “I couldn’t let my sister go out on Earth alone.”

“Why not? You absolutely have to take care of me? I’m fine by myself.” I stated, offended by the comment.

“Not from what I saw. Sobbing uncontrollably can stand out to a brother.” Aaron laughed, and I punched him lightly in the arm.

“Oh, shut up.” I muttered as I turned away from him. He took out his schedule and handed it to me.

“I tried to get as many classes with you as I could, but I couldn’t get them all…” Aaron said as I examined his schedule. Theatre, Sign Language, Algebra II, Science, and World Geography were all the same as mine.

“Wow, Aaron,  you’d really do that?” I asked as the bell rang for first.

“Of course.” Aaron said as we stood up from our seats and hugged one more time before heading toward the door. We traveled through the hallway until we found our class. Algebra II, the first class on B-Day.

I was with Aaron the rest of the day until it got to English, where we didn’t have the class together. Aaron hugged me before traveling down the hallway.

I entered the classroom, and found everyone at the front. New seats? Crap.

“Okay, assigned seats, I’ll just go down the rows.” Mrs. Obing said as she called out the names. I ended up next to Nick Sixra, a nerd who had a crush on me way back in middle school, but when he asked me out, I turned him down. Ooh, awkward. 

“And Madeline.” Mrs. Obing started again. “You’ll sit next to Drake if he ever comes back, okay?”

Madeline nodded. “Okay.” And she took her seat towards the back.  

I sat there the whole period hiding my face from Nick. The seating charts usually lasted six weeks. I couldn’t spend six weeks next to Nick. It’d be too awkward, and what Drake would do… but I couldn’t switch spots. I already attempted.

When the last bell rang, I was out of there before most people were out of their seats. I exited the school and sat on a bench by the fountain. I was waiting for everyone to leave when Aaron caught up with me.

“You’re leaving so soon?” Aaron asked as he sat right next to me.

“Yeah. I don’t really want to be here at the moment, with the Marojas after me, Drake in a coma, and school drama. I doubt even Tanyela’s that bad.” I said as I buried my face in my hands.

“I’m sorry. If you go back, you’re going back to classes.” Aaron explained.

“Oh yeah. Crap.” I said as my hair fell over my hands.

“But Dad’s kinda worried. He heard about the attack at the emergency room. In fact, it was either him or I who would come here and watch over you.”

I looked up from my hands annoyed. “Really? Ugh, some people are just too protectively insane.”

Aaron nodded and laughed. “Agreed.”

We waited a little while until we were certain all the students left. Aaron and I opened the Entrance, and stepped through.

~~~~~~~~~~

I didn’t have the chance to blink before I was immediately hug-attacked by Ezami.

“Oh my God, you are so insane.” I said as I broke away.

“You were freaking attacked by your adopted parents!” Ezami exclaimed.

“You were shot by one of them!” I exclaimed, countering her statement.

“Yeah, but I recovered.” Ezami pointed out laughing.

“Oh, shut up.” I said as I waved to Aaron and followed Ezami. I didn’t know where I was going, but I'd like some best friend time. We haven’t done it in a while.