Black Raven | Wattys 2018

Chapter Twelve

It's really scary feeling like something's wrong; feeling like your life's fading away slowly and you can't do anything about it. You know there is something wrong, but you don't know what exactly, so you just go on with your life pretending everything is okay, but feeling uncertain of what will happen next.

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School had started again. I stared at the white board with cosines, sines, and tangents written on it, but I wasn't really paying much attention to it, 'cause I was distracted thinking about the kids in the laundry room; thinking about the little kid in the hallway saying, "find us". I couldn't figure out what it all meant. I was going crazy. I got startled by a black raven that crashed into the window next to me. I jumped in my seat. I looked around, but it looked like no one had noticed the bird crashing on the window; they were all focused on the board. Silently, I stood up from my seat and approached the window. The black raven was face up on the window gutter. It had a broken wing. I really thought it was dead. I brought my face closer to the window and stared at it for seconds. Its cold glare sent chills through my body. It was a really ugly, hurt bird. Abruptly, I jumped back when the raven cawed sharply and flew away. The ringing of the bell startled me again. Unsettled, I grabbed my things and left the classroom. I jolt when Laura approached me in the hallway. "Hey, girl. How are you?"

"Hi. I'm fine."-I replied.

"Good. I missed you over the spring break."-Laura confessed making a sad face.

"Yeah! Me too."-I told her smiling.

"So... I've been meaning to ask you. Is there any way you can hook me up with your brother?"-Laura asked batting her eyelashes as in pleading me.

I laughed and asked, even though I knew the answer, "With Scott?"

"Yes."-She answered sweetly.

I laughed again and said, "I can try, but you know him. He is not an only-one-girl kind of guy. I don't know why you like him so much".

"Come on. He is hot and I've seen how sweet he is with you. I can make him be an only-one-girl type of guy. He is just waiting for the perfect girl, me."-She said grinning widely. We burst out laughing.

Ryan and his girlfriend walked by us. His girlfriend glared at me, but he didn't even glance at me. Scott had done a really big number on him. Even though I kind of felt bad for what Scott had done to him, I was grateful for it, 'cause after the incident, he never talked to me again or even dared to look at me at school; I didn't have to relieve every day what he had done to me.

Speaking of Scott, he was walking with some friends towards us. Suddenly, a horrible, painful headache hit me. It wasn't a normal headache; when I say horrible, I mean it. My head throbbed hard; it pounded really sharp and heavy. My ears buzzed. I let my things fall to the floor and just before falling to the floor too, fuzzily, I saw Scott running towards me. I fell to the floor; everything was spinning. I put my hands over my ears and started to scream really loudly. The pain was indescribable. I felt like throwing up, and I lost my sight; everything was pitch black. I felt Scott and Laura trying to help me, but I couldn't move or look at them. I felt like my head was being drilled. I crawled on the floor holding my head and screaming in pain for about ten minutes. Everyone stared; teachers and students surrounded me. Nick, who had gotten there too, tried to move me, but couldn't. Ms. Andersen cleared the hallway; she only let Logan, Ian, Nick, and Scott stay, everyone else had to leave. When the headache ceased, they helped me to stand up. Ms. Andersen and my siblings took me to the infirmary; the nurse just gave me acetaminophen for the headache and told me to go home.

"I'll ask Brooke for her car to take you home."-Nick said looking worriedly at me.

"I'm fine now. I can walk."-I told him.

"You are not walking."-Logan told me.

"I'll take her out front while you go ask Brooke for the car."-Scott said to Nick.

I looked at them angrily and said, "I don't need all of you taking care of me. I'm fine. It was just a headache."

"Just a headache?"-Ian snapped.

"You screamed in pain for about ten minutes."-Nick stated angrily.

"Just go get the car. Ignore her. We'll watch her."-Scott ordered Nick, and Nick obeyed; he left to go look for Brooke's car keys.

"I don't want all four of you to miss class. I'm fine."-I insisted.

"You're not fine, so quit saying you are. Now come on. Let's go!!"-Scott ordered angrily.

I stood up and followed him down the school's hallway; Logan and Ian were behind us. "Are you angry at me?"-I asked Scott with a confused face.

"No."-He answered deadpan.

"You sure look like it."-I stated.

"Well, I'm not."

"You are not even looking at me."-I said.

He stopped walking, looked at me; his gray eyes fixed on mine, and said, "I'm not mad at you, okay? I'm worried. You really scared me back there."

I stepped closer to him, hugged him, kissed him on the cheek, and said softly, "I'm okay now". I was lying 'cause I knew I wasn't okay. Something was wrong with me and I knew it.

At home, I fell asleep for a while; I needed to rest.  Nick woke me up to eat something. He had bought Chinese Food. I went downstairs to eat with them; I was ravenous; I hadn't eaten all day. Brooke was there too and she asked me how I was. I told her I was doing better. We talked and joked for a while. After eating, I locked myself inside my bedroom and turned on my laptop. I only let the little lamp on my bedside table on because the light bothered my eyes and it made my headache worse. Still thinking about the kids in the laundry room, I Google searched. I typed, "Missing kids in Southern California". I got an enormous list. I started scrolling down, passing the pictures of a lot of missing kids. I finally stopped at one of the pictures. It was an African-American kid. It said he was 13 years old when he disappeared in 2011. It was the same kid I had seen nights before in the laundry room, scolding the little girl. I kept scrolling; below, I found seven more pictures of kids I had seen in the laundry room. The dates were between 2011 and 2012. The teenage girl and the little boy with the bouncy ball were one of them. The little girl and the little boy from the school's hallway were not on the list. I reduced my search typing in, "Missing kids in Orange County, Southern California". I clicked on the first article that appeared. The headline read, "Three kids, six, nine, and eighteen, go missing in Huntington Beach". It was dated "May 25th, 2012". There was a picture of the three kids. My face went pale and my eyes widened when I saw it. There he was with his big, caramel-brown eyes, his messy, sandy-colored hair, and his perfect teeth smiling widely next to his two little siblings. The three kids stood together smiling happily in front of a house. Below the picture, there was a description that read, "Missing: Masie Coleman, 6, William Coleman, 9, Dylan Coleman, 18, were last seen leaving Huntington Beach in a Black Sedan on May 23rd, 2012 at 8:47 p.m.". I stared intensely at the screen, perplexed by what I was seeing.