Turmoil | Spruceworth 5.1 (#Wattys2018)

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Holden

       I was glad I was out of the hospital because I had spent way too many days in there, and it was starting to get boring.

       The only downside about being out of the hospital was having to go back to school. I had to do a lot of work to catch up before the semester ended and it did take a lot of work but in the end, I was all caught up.

       And I surprisingly didn't fail any of my classes.

       I may have gotten exactly fifty percent in my biology class and I should have actually failed that class, but Julian and Noah were a complete pain to him albeit not being in his class, so he probably passed me to get rid of any Eaton in his class.

       Now it was time for the second semester and I was looking forward to it only because I was so much closer to being done with school. However, I wasn't looking forward to going to school at all.

       At least I would finally have a friend at school with Jane being there.

       Since it was Jane's first day of school, I went over to her house to pick her up so we could walk there together. Shortly after I knocked on her door, an elderly woman, her grandmother, answered the door. "Hi," I said. "Is Jane here? I promised I'd walk her to school."

       "She is," Jane's grandmother said. "I'll get her."

       And by getting her, she meant slightly closing the door before yelling for Jane to come to the door. 

       She then opened the door again to look at me. "I don't believe I've seen you around the village before," she said. "I'm Avril."

       "I'm Holden," I said. "Holden Eaton."

       "Eaton," Avril repeated. "Are you by chance related to Calvin?"

       "Yeah, I'm his cousin," I said, finding it quite amusing that every single person in the village knew who my cousin was. He definitely knew how to make himself known around here. Then again, it helped that he was married to the mayor's grandson.

       "Are you new to the village?" Avril asked.

       "Kind of," I said. "My family moved here about five years ago, but I was in boarding school until a few months ago. That's how I know Jane. We went to the same boarding school."

       "Oh, interesting," Avril said as Jane walked over to the front door. "Jane, you never told me you were friends with this fine, young gentleman. Such a thoughtful person to pick you up and walk you to school. Tell me, is he single?"

       "No, he's not, Grandma," Jane said. "And I already dated Holden. I'm not going back there."

       "Ouch," I said, though I couldn't help but have a smile on my face since I knew exactly what Jane meant by that.

       "Now Jane, don't be rude to him," Avril said.

       Jane rolled her eyes and walked outside. "Bye, Grandma."

       "Have fun at school!" Avril said before closing the door.

       "I like her," I said. "And I was very insulted you said you would never date me again."

       "Yes, be insulted that I would not want to date my gay ex-boyfriend," Jane said. "Makes a lot of sense."

       I just shrugged and we started walking to the school. When we got there, Jane pulled her schedule out so I could show her where her classes were.