Clary
I’m so hungry and I need a major nap. While Joe was having her pleasant nap in the car, I was panicking like hell figuring out how to drive this thing. For God’s sake I’m fourteen. I got the hang of turning the wheel and using the breaks but I didn’t drive straight too well and it was rather bumpy. I don’t think I know how to park this thing but at the moment I didn’t even care where we parked it.
I stopped by an empty field right next to a McDonalds. I may have seen plenty of food restaurants but after this messed up day I needed a damn happy meal. Joe and I jumped out the car and walked towards the McDonalds entrance while my eyes scan the area. Hmm… It’s so… peaceful here? I thought, Were we mistaken? Or had the news not spread?
‘’Clare?" Joey snapped me out of my small dilemma.
“Hmm?”
“How long did we drive for?”
“Four or more hours. I don’t know. Why?”
“Oh, because it’s so calm here so I had a feeling we were far from Perth.” I didn’t answer I just nodded. We ordered our food and waited in silence staring at everyone for any signs of panic or worry. Well there was worry but it could be anything.
I got bored and made my own entertainment by making fun of people and judging them in my mind and… HOLY SHIT. My eyes find a man in a top hat and fancy suit who was sitting in the corner. I think I just found my love.
“JOE!” she jumped back into reality falling out of her chair alarmed and awake, probably from being deep in thought with a series of conundrums.
“Ow! What!” Her eyebrows were raised and her were eyes wide opened. Obviously confused and shocked. Getting up and dusting herself off, her lips thinned and her jaw set in a straight line. Now obviously pissed off.
I pointed in the direction of the well-dressed fellow and said, “I must talk to that man.”
Joey
I looked at her as if she were the stupidest person on earth, but this is Clary we’re talking about so she probably is.
“We just witnessed murder, and probably won’t ever see our family or friends again and you want to go talk to a total stranger just because he’s dressed fancy! Has the reality of our situation not set in or something?” I wish for once she could be serious and right now it was pissing me off. Either because she’s that ridiculous or I’m extremely tired. Probably the latter quite frankly.
“Eh, family. I need to buy that bloke’s top hat.”
“Clare we need that money-.” Her chair screeches loudly as she gets up and skips towards the man who looked in his early twenties or late teens and might I add quite attractive––not that I’d admit it pshht. Dear god, I thought, please don’t be a pedophile. I follow Clare and stay about 3 steps away, waiting for this to be over.
She walks up to the man to sit down next to him and taking his hat off his head and tried it on. The man looks up with a confused expression and replied in a British accent ‘’Erm… Can I help you, miss?’’ God damn it, I thought as Clare’s mouth dropped to the floor. Why did he have to be freaking British, too?
“Marry me.” She said softly all starry eyed then.
This is when I stepped in. “Sorry, Mister… whatever, my friend here is quite mentally insane and is in need of medical attention as well as to learn how to take things seriously,” I say shooting her a look, “She also needs to refrain from being attracted to every British person she meets so she could avoid being a complete embarrassment to herself and to those around her!”
She shot me a glare and turned back to the man, “How much money can I give you for your hat?”
“CLARE! We are leaving! I’m going to need to slap some sense into you until you realize what just happened to Perth and our family!” I said at the same time as taking the hat off her head and back on the shocked man’s head.
“You’re beautiful,” she said, still gazing at the man, ignoring me.
“We’re leaving” I said in a tone that said the matter was closed.
I dragged Clary along as she huffed indignantly picking up my McValue meal and her Happy Meal on the way. As I pushed her out the door, I thought I heard the man mutter something along the lines of “I heard something bad happened in Perth?” or maybe he just said something like “weird kids with mental problems, they should go to a mental institute, we aren’t safe around them” I wouldn’t know, I was too far gone to notice or give a care.
Back in the car–– with me driving this time, with some difficulty–– my anger was still burning brightly so I started to scold Clary sounding all motherly, “Why, Clary! Why is it every time you see a guy with a top hat or a British accent, you have to go over and talk to them?” I yelled.
“Well, why must people take selfies, Joey, huh? Why don’t you tell me that?” she replied.
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” I said, “Firstly–” I started but then I looked over and saw that she was already deeply asleep.
I wanted to slap her and continue my ranting but instead I just sighed, my anger subsiding. I was out of it and I knew it, for all I knew she could’ve just been finding something to distract herself with or maybe I was right and she was being completely stupid,–– though either reason was equally likely––but I still felt guilty for being mad at her, I mean that’s just what she’s like and I should be used to it by now, not getting all pissed off and angry about it. I sighed and checked the time on the car’s digital watch. “7:46 PM,” I sighed. I wasn’t even remotely tired –gee, I don’t know, maybe because I slept through most of the car ride here–– but Clary was already fast asleep so I parked our car under a tree by a park ― doing my best to actually park under the tree and not crash in to it― and started eating my McValue meal, taking care not to get too greedy and eating Clary’s Happy meal as well.
After I finished, my mind wandered back to my family. Were they still alive? I thought, and if they were, wouldn’t they be worrying about me? Or maybe they thought I was dead, I realized that thinking about them only put me into a depressing mood and tried to stop thinking about it, it was difficult to not think about what happened completely and I found myself thinking about what happened at the school, about the fire drill, about the teacher, and… Jesus Christ! Ely and Parker! They totally saw me running off, followed me, called for me and all I did was just sit there and silently begged them to leave. What kind of person am I? I asked myself, they could be dead and it’s on my stupid hands. Everybody could be dead. I watched people run past me screaming and I just sat there.
I was still in a pool of guilt before I started to slip into unconsciousness and fell asleep.
