Fates (On Hold, Rewriting)

Chapter 6-UPDATED

Chapter 6

I stay true to my word when I arrive home and report false information back to my parents. They fall for it hook, line and sinker. Why wouldn't they trust their daughter? They believed that simply talking to him at school wasn't revealing anything. I suggested that I try and talk to him outside of school. They didn't see anything strange about it.  

The morning goes by quickly at school the next day. At lunch, Jason and I sit next to Raine and Emma. They cannot believe what they are seeing.  

"What's up?" Emma asks casually. 

"Nothing," I reply evenly.  

"Why don't I believe that?" 

"Because you're not the kind of person that easily falls for lies." 

"Thanks. Do you want to go shopping in the cities tomorrow? It will be fun."  

Good, she's given up on interrogating me for the moment. "Uh... I don't know," I answer. "I'm not sure if my parents will let me go. I'll call you later and tell you if I can go or not."  

"Okay. Sounds good." We exchange phone numbers and punch them into our cell phones.  

The last three school hours go by in a blur. In world history, the counselor comes in to talk to us.  

"So, I came in to talk to you guys about courage, which is what I had planned to talk about back in February," the counselor says. "But then with what happened to Rebecca and all, it just didn't seem appropriate. 

"Earlier this week I asked a student who I have a lot of respect for if it would be too soon to talk to you guys about death and dying. And she said, 'No, I think it would help us immensely.'  

"When I think about what this school, what you all, have been through in the past year...It just blows me away how we go on with our lives after losing so many young people in such a short period of time." She pauses and I glance around the room, noting that most students are solemn and have their head down. "We don't understand why God has taken such fine young ladies away from us. It doesn't make sense why they were placed on this earth just to be taken away so quickly. And, as a mother, I cannot even fathom how the families go on with their lives after losing a child. Sometimes I think that there is a black cloud hanging over this town that has brought all this loss.... But throughout all this, there are lessons to be learned. We grow stronger. We learn to not take people for granted, because they might not be there the next day.  

"About a week after Rebecca's funeral, I was standing in the hall and I heard a girl-let's call her Susan-say 'I think that hat is ugly' to another girl, who we will call Joan. And Joan said, 'Really? Because I like it.' I stepped in and asked what was going on. 'Oh, I just think that hat is ugly,' Susan said. I was speechless. 'What? I'm just stating my opinion,' Susan said and they walked away. And as I watched them leave, I thought to myself: Lesson not learned. I don't understand how the atmosphere of the school could go from mourning to the same school before Rebecca's death. Now, I think that we all know that Nicole, Lauren, Abigail, Ella, and Rebecca wouldn't have wanted this to happen. After everything that has happened, don't you feel like you owe it to them to try and be a better person?" 

Everyone, including me, nods a little. 

"Now, I want your input. Because of the events that have happened, what lessons have you learned or do you think we should have learned?" 

No one moves for a moment, but then I raise my hand before I even know what I'm doing. "I know that it might seem like I have no right to say this, given that I didn't know any of the people you have lost in the past year, but...I think that one of the lessons that should have been learned is to let people slip away from you. Don't wait for things to come to you. Go out and bring them to yourself. If you wait, that good thing that you wanted may be gone forever."