Bye, I Guess... (Sequel and Third Book Included!)

Five

All the girls woke up to the sound of the door creaking open. Two sleeves of ritz crackers were thrown into the room, along with a two liter bottle of water. They all crawled over to the food and we were about to dig in when Charlie thought of a logical way to make sure the portions were fair.

"Hey guys! Why don't we split the sleeve into sevenths so we each get the same amount?" She said.

"Good idea!" Skai said.

They each got six crackers, then they put four back so they would end up having two for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Once they were done with breakfast, Annie started to put the sling on Allie when Allie stopped her.

"Don't put the sling on me yet! Daddy usually comes a little bit after breakfast," She said.

"Oh. Well, let's play a game then," Annie said.

"Yeah. What do you usually do?" Ginger asked Allie.

"I try to remember my bedtime stories mommy used to tell me, or I make up my own stories," Allie said.

"That's an idea! Let's play the game where we sit in a circle and each say a sentence and create a story that way," Annie said.

"Yay!" Allie said.

The girls moved into a circle, Allie sitting on Annie's lap. Hayley started.

"Once upon a time, there was a cat named Bird."

"And bird loved to play with birds."

"He even acted like a bird."

"He ate worms, built a nest, and tried to fly."

"One day, the other cats in the forest talked to Bird."

"'You are not a bird! You must act like a cat.' They said."

"'But I want to be a bird!' Bird said."

"Then—"

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU TO STOP TALKING YESTERDAY, DO I HAVE TO SAY IT AGAIN?!" The man came into the room, interrupting the game.

He gave Madison a five star on her cheek, punched Skai in the neck, kicked Charlie in the shin, pulled Hayley's hair until she screamed, gave Annie an Indian burn, kicked Ginger's chest and shoved her into the wall, and sadly, stomped on Allie's hurt wrist multiple times. He left Allie and Ginger crying, the others wincing in pain.

After the incident happened, Annie took care of Allie and the others tended to Ginger, who was surprisingly crying more than Allie was. Annie put the sling around Allie again.

"Annie, when will daddy stop?" She asked, her little eyes filled with fear.

"I don't know. But I'm sure my mommy and daddy are looking for us," Annie said, hoping to calm Allie down with the last part.

"Oh my gosh! This is bad, this is bad, this is really bad!" Annie heard from the other side of the room.

She looked over to see a crowd around a crying Ginger-May, and Skai had a stressed look on her face.

"How bad is it?" Annie asked, crawling over with Allie following her.

"So, um, Ginger had a heart attack when we were younger, and she has a cardiac pacemaker to help make sure she doesn't get another one. The man kicked her right where it was, and, well, just look," Skai said.

Annie went closer, and saw the horror for herself. Ginger's chest near her heart was really red, swollen, and bruised. The worst part was that she could clearly see the gray pacemaker through Ginger's skin.

"Oh God. This is worse than I thought," Annie said, her eyes widening.

"Yeah. When I saw it, that definitely explained to me why she was in so much pain," Madison said.

"Can I see?" Allie asked.

"Nope. Sorry," Annie said.

"Aww," Allie said in disappointment.

"WHAT'S ALL THE CRYING FROM?!" The man yelled, peeking his head into the room.

Ginger started crying even harder, still sitting in a curled-up ball.

"Oh please. All I did was kick her, she shouldn't be crying that much. She was crying more than Allie ever does," He said, rolling his eyes.

"You broke her pacemaker! She could get a heart attack any second now because of you!" Skai said angrily.

"Watch your tone with me girl," The man scolded Skai, and gave her an Indian burn.

He left, and all the girls comforted Ginger.

"Guys, I don't know if I will be able to make it out of here," Ginger said. "It hurts too much."

"We'll help. Try laying down on your back. Does it hurt less?" Annie asked, easing ginger into her back.

"Yeah," she said.

"Good," Annie said.