Invisible

Chapter 12

I studied the ring until 3:30 am. I didn't notice until midnight that on the inside of the ring it said "Matt and Kathryn forever." Every time I thought about it I started to cry. Not because I was sad but because I was touched that Matt would give me a promise ring at only fifteen. I knew that he would live up to his promise eventually, and that we would marry, but I hoped it wouldn't be too soon. I wanted to enjoy my highschool years knowing I had a solid relationship, but I didn't want to remember it as the girl being engaged in grade nine or ten.

I finally drifted off into sleep until my alarm came on at six. Two and a half hours was not enough sleep to get by during the day. I hit snooze and fell back asleep. I woke back up to Mom shaking me and telling me the bus was going to be there in twenty minutes. "What?!" was my reply. It was my fault for hitting snooze, but I didn't think I was going to sleep in that long. That meant had five minutes to shower and get dressed, five to do my chores, five to have breakfast and five to make my lunch and catch the bus. I instantly went to work. I hopped in the shower, and then ran back to my room to get dressed. I ran as fast as I could to the barn. When I got there, I checked my watch. I had three minutes to feed all the animals. Then I did the math and realized that I really had one minute because it takes two minutes to get back to the house if I sprinted. Quickly I grabbed four hay bales and dropped one in front of each horse. Then I got te feed for the sheep and chickens. I checked me watch again. Crap!I had a minute to get back to the house. I sprinted as fast as I could, and to my surprise made it there in a minute. I poured myself a cup of coffee, still exausted, and grabbed a bagel. I raced to make my lunch. All my lunch was was a granola bar and ten dollars.

I heard the bus honk outside and raced to put my coffee in a travel mug. It honked a second time, and I raced out the door and down the driveway. I got on the bus wth a minute to spare. As soon as I took my seat, the bus started to move and I just about spilled my coffee.

                                                                              * * *

I met Matt in the cafeteria at lunch. I told him to save me a seat and ran over to the line to get my lunch. The special was a grilled cheese with ham, just like the first day of school. I ordered and got in the pickup line after grabbing my number. I had mastered the art of getting there early to order and get my lunch quickly. I took my tray and met Matt and Addison at our table.

"Hey, so I'm guessing Matt told you about what happened yesterday?" I asked Addison.

"No, what?" she said.

"You guys aren't moving. We convinced your dad to let you stay."

Addison couldn't say anything. She hugged Matt and I so hard we could barely breathe. "Thank you," she finally managed to say. She let go, and I saw the tears streaming down her face. I had my suspicions that there was more to their dad than Matt and Addison would tell me. I thought that there was even more to his drinking problem than he told me. But it wasn't my problem.

I almost fell asleep in fourth period. Luckily Matt woke me before the teacher noticed. Obviously, the coffee I'd had that morning wore off. I was glad when detention came around at the end of the day. I fell asleep the entire time and got woken up by Josh when we were allowed to leave. I called Mom to come pick me up. It was the same old story on the ride home; what I did to get detention. Again. I told Mom that the vice principal gave it to me and another for "backtalk". She still hadn't talked to the vice principal. 

As soon as I got home I went to my room and climbed into bed. I knew my sleep pattern was going to be messed up for the next few days, but I didn't care. I needed sleep. It was my fault anyway for staying up so late, and I was paying for it. I fell asleep for what seemed like hours until Mom woke me up for dinner. I was tired of everyone waking me up all the time so I decided not to sleep anymore until I went to bed at my normal time.

I dreamed about Matt and Addison and about how they could've gone away that day had we not convinced their dad.  I dreamed about how my life would've changed without them. At one point, I dreamed about myself ending up turning bad and dating Ricky. That part I decided wasn't all that bad but then I realized that he was the one who had turned me bad. Then the dream changed drastically and I was in a land full of unicorns and rainbows. The clouds were made of cotton candy and the trees were made of lollipops.There were mountains made of marshmallows and the river was blue-raspberry soda. Even the grass was made of some kind of candy.

I didn't know where that came from, but it was funny. I woke up laughing my head off. It made me almost forget the dreams I had before that.

Then I remembered Matt's promise. The perfect promise. I liked the way my life was the way it was. I liked being the only person to Matt and Addison and being invisible to everybody else but them.