Changing Harper

Chapter Ten

The night before had been blissful. Riley had expressed herself mildly to Harper and they had been closer than either girl would have imagined. She woke on her mattress in the clothing she had been in last night and sat up with a sneeze. She stood up and found herself in a puddle of water, a cold puddle. It was a rarity to have water seep into her bedroom, but after the first time the bath overflowed, she didn't put it against her mother to leave it going while plugged. The sound of the bathtub was running loudly. Riley panicked and ran towards the bathroom, where the water was flooding from. The door was locked and the handle didn't budge.

"Goddammit!" Riley yelled out splashing back in the water, raising her leg and slamming it into the door. It did not kick open, instead just hurt her left foot really badly. She cursed before recalling the wise words of her good friends.

"Damn, you really do suck at this shit Ri," Jacob commented as Riley nursed her sprained foot, it was one of the days the gang didn't meet up, one that Jacob usually took to work out at the shack. Out of sheer boredom, Riley tagged along.

"Well, normal people don't practice kicking open doors, Jacob." Riley retorted, mocking the boy's tone.

"Exactly, normal people don't kick open doors, it's a good thing to know how to do, in case of emergency," Jacob noted, eyeing Riley and the door that she had kicked and attempted to open.

"Normal people aren't put in situations where they have to kick down doors. Here, just watch me. You'll want to lean back and make sure you prepare yourself for the quick movement, then you want to bring your foot up and out. You did pretty well, but you always want to kick by the handle so you can take out the lock." Jacob explained before demonstrating on a door. It ended up leading into a room with a beehive that the pair had to get rid of.

Riley still felt the phantom pains. She backed up just as her friend had, and leaned into the kick, the lock folded in and the door swung open. Riley's mother sat in the bathtub passed out as the water ran. The girl ran towards the faucet and shut it off, pulling her mother's hand to check for a pulse, it was there thankfully but with every beat it was getting slower. Riley was relieved and scanned over her body and discovered a needle sticking out of her arm. Riley quickly took it out and held a towel over the area until she grabbed a band-aid to put over it. She coudn't let her mom die. She just couldn't She suddenly felt lightheaded and slowly began her way to her room.

"You sure you can do this?" Ken's voice rang through her head.

The gun in Riley's hand stopped shaking as she aimed for her target.

Riley gasped out as her vision shifted as if it was happening all over again, she tripped and fell to the floor in the flood of cold water.

"Rosieeee." Leah's voice rang out with a giggle. Riley gasped, it felt as if she couldn't breathe and she curled up in a corner. She pulled out her phone and shakily scrolled through her contacts.

"It was me! I did it!" Riley recalled the memory as her finger pressed a button.

"Ri?" The voice on the other end of the phone asked, concerned.

"Help." Riley pleaded, " I can't breathe."

The person on the other end sat on the phone for a minute before the sound of keys jingling alerted Riley as her mind kept flooding.

"Stay on the line for me Ri, I'll be there in thirty."

___________________

Harper thought it was odd that the day after her and Riley really connected, she hadn't shown up at school, but oh it had been the talk of the school that Harper White showed up with purple hair in Riley Knockers's leather jacket. She had been nursing her rather aggressive headache in her third-period math class when she had been called to guidance. The small woman awaited Harper, her file sitting in front of her, all of her copies of A papers and report cards were out in the open. Harper smoothly took a seat in front of the lady, they had never had a strong bond, Harper never had any problems so she never had to see her, and it was rare the guidance councilor left her office being the only one in such a large school. The office was familiar as most rooms had glass walls for security purposes and Harper had been in there under multiple circumstances for reasons such as filing the secretary's messy piles of papers.