disturbed [book three] ✔️

[chapter one - conquered]

- September 8th, 2018

~CORA'S POV:~

"Can I be home schooled? Please?" I begged as I dug my spoon into the bowl of cereal, "We're rich. Isn't that what rich people do?"

Nick was sitting on top of the black counter in the middle of the kitchen with his guitar in his lap. Seeing a kitchen set up like this was weird but Nick claimed that he has always wanted a house with a island in the middle of the kitchen, "Getting out of the house would be good for you Cora. You're starting high school today, it'll be a whole different ballgame and you'll enjoy it."

Ballgame.

"Take me out to the ballgame!" She sang as she pounded Kelsey's stomach with the metal bat, I'll never forget the screams that escaped Kelsey's mouth. 

I could feel my entire body tense up as that flashback hit me.
"What word did I say?" Nick asked with concern, "I could see that I triggered you somehow, what word was it?"

"The game one.." I replied as I focused on my cereal again.
I've been in therapy for the past couple of months dealing with those types of triggers and flashbacks and eventually ended up getting diagnosed with PTSD.

Nick shook his head looking disappointed, I knew he wasn't disappointed with me, he was upset with the fact that Demi was able to traumatize me that much.
"How about this, let's see how the first two days of school go and if you really don't feel comfortable with it... we'll look into homeschooling." Nick spoke gently, "I want you to feel safe and if being homeschooled does that then we'll go through with it."

Nick has been the kindest human being ever since he became my guardian, he explained to me that he wanted to try his best to give me the life that he could after everything that has happened. He's been focused on me this entire time I don't think he's had the chance to digest the fact that he lost his unborn baby, or maybe he was focusing all of his attention towards me so he didn't have to.

"Thanks Uncle Nick." I smiled before placing a mouth full of frosted flakes in my mouth.
He hopped off of the counter and walked towards the living room to set his guitar down onto the couch, "You ready to go?"

My phone vibrated as I set the spoon back down into the bowl of cereal, I picked it up to see who texted me - it was Maia.
"SEE YOU SOON!!!!!!" The text said, Maia was able to get her cast off two days ago and ever since that happened she's been ready to go.

I stood up from the chair with my phone in my hand and grabbed my backpack off of the table, "Yeah let's go."

-

Once we pulled up to the parking lot of the gigantic high school, Nick started to look more nervous than I was. He stared at the school then turned to face me, then looked at the school once more, "You know what? That home school plan sounds solid, let's go with that." He stammered as he was about to put the car back into drive.

I rested my hand on Nick's shoulder and laughed, "I'll be okay, I can do this."
"Text me every hour alright? I'll even leave the studio to come to pick you up early if I need to."
"I will" I promised as I picked up my backpack from between my legs, "Have a good day."

"You too bug, love you." He smiled.
"I love you too."

I slowly opened the door to step out of the car, I turned around and waved at Nick as I closed it. He waved back, still looking nervous as ever. Nick has been overprotective of me ever since.. everything has happened, and I honestly didn't blame him. It made me feel safe in a way.

I walked towards the front of the school searching through the crowd, Maia texted me and said she would wait outside so we could walk to our homeroom together. Being surrounded by this so many people was starting to make me nervous but the moment I saw Maia standing by the flagpole, focused on her phone, my anxiety vanished.

I walked up to Maia without her being aware and placed my hand over her phone screen to cover it, "Hey! Who do you think you-" She stopped once she looked up and saw that it was me, "I almost fought you on our first day of High School. I hate you."

I laughed and removed my hand from her phone, "How's your leg?"
"It still feels a bit weird and hurts if I jerk it but it's alright." Maia replied, "How's therapy?"
"Thanks for making me feel crazy."
"I'm not I swear! It was a genuine question." She testified.

I sighed, "It's okay..."
Maia nodded, "Okay great. Let's go ahead and conquer our first day of High School, after dealing with everything this year I'm starting to think that we're invincible ."

"Don't jinx it," I joked, "I hope we'll be okay."

"Like I said, we can conquer anything. We will be."

---

~RANDOM POV:~

I paced around the front door, walking back and forth with my hands in my pockets. She was coming today and I was obviously freaking out. The more I thought about this, the more it seemed to be a terrible idea. Yet I didn't know what to do, I would've felt terrible if I denied her and if I would have the backlash on me could've been drastic in the end.

I shook out my wrists and pulled my phone out of my pocket to see the time, it was quarter to twelve which meant she had to be on her way. I set my phone back into my pocket and exhaled loudly, trying to shake off the wave of nerves that continued to flow my way. I haven't seen her in almost two years and had no idea what to expect.

Suddenly the doorbell rang which caused my heart to feel like it was about to jump out of my chest. Instead of answering the door my entire body froze, I ended up just staring at it instead. The doorbell rang again followed along with a knock coming from the other side.

I shook my wrists once more as I walked towards the door and turned the knob, I slowly swung the door open to see her standing there dressed in all black. A black hat covered her face and hid her hair as she was looking down with a bag in one hand and other arm wrapped around her stomach.

Once she looked up with a smile I became confused, I was able to recognize her eyes but not the rest of her face. She noticed that I was looking at her in a weird way, she suddenly closed her eyes and brought her hands up to her face and began to peel off her skin. Then I realized, she was wearing a face mask.

She peeled the rest of the mask off and scraped some of it away from her cheek with her nail, "Hey honey.. it's me, I promise." She smiled once again, "Can I come in?"

I nodded slowly and forced a weak smile onto my face, "Of course."

She turned around to wave back at the grey car she came in that was still in the driveway, some guy that I didn't recognize nodded in the front seat and began to back out of my driveway. She turned back around to face me with the same smile on her face, "Well you're looking as handsome as ever. Thanks for letting me come in, Wilmer." She replied as she stepped inside of my house and walked past me.

A nervous laughed escaped my mouth as I closed the door behind us, "No problem, Demi."

Demi quickly turned around on her heel which caused me to stop right away, "You seem nervous."
"We haven't seen each other in so long, I can't help it." I acknowledged, "Plus you know... the entire world has announced you to be dead."

"Nothing to be nervous about Wilmer, we're friends." Demi shrugged with a smile, "We have to have a chat and decide how we're going to follow through with this." Right as she was about to turn around, Demi decided to face me once again, "I forgot! I have to show you something."

Demi set the bag that she was carrying down in front of her feet and unzipped her jacket which revealed a tiny, yet noticeable, baby bump.
"Oh wow." I grinned, "That defiantly wasn't there the last time I saw you."

Demi smiled as she zipped up her jacket, "Let's catch up then!" She pointed down at the bag that was still sitting by her feet, "Can you get that too, please? And where do you want to sit at? Kitchen or living room? We have a lot to discuss."

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We're back for round three! Sorry that this chapter is pretty short, I feel like all of my first chapters are because it's sort of a brief introduction so you can see where all of the characters are at! I hope you guys are just as excited as I am, welcome back!

xo