Kayla

And She Goes Home

Kayla went home. She flew open the front door, and ran straight to her room.

She laid on her bed, and held her pillow tight. She felt exhausted, mentally drained.

Just then, her mom walked in.

"Kayla?" She asked.

"Ugghhmm..." She mumbled back.

"What are you doing home?" Her mother asked, looking at her watch. "It's just a little after 12:30. You should be at school!"

"Didn't the nurse call you?" Kayla asked, only moving her face up from her pillow an inch, just enough to speak.

"No? Why would she need to call me?" Her mother asked.

"Pria tripped me right into my mashed potatoes." Kayla said, sitting upright. "Hailey Nicholson helped me to the nurse, and the nurse asked for your name and number. I assumed that she was going to call you."

"Well she didn't. Did they give you permission to come home?" Her mom asked.

"No. They just let me walk out. Of course they did!" Kayla yelled sarcastically.

"Hey! Don't talk to me like that!" Her mom yelled back.

"Whatever. Just, leave. I need to be alone." She replied rudely.

"KAYLA! How dare you order me out of a room in MY house!" Her mother yelled. "You're grounded for the rest of the month here!"

"Yeah. Like I was going to leave the house anyways." Kayla said sourly.

Her mother walked slowly over to the bed where Kayla was laying. She sat down and looked at her.

"Mom...I just can't do it anymore. I can't be happy when there's no reason for me to be. " Kayla said.

"Baby, that's when you have to just go for it. It's not all that bad! Think. All that happened was Caiden and you broke up, and we're moving." Her mother said.

She'd forgotten one thing.

"Lindsay." Kayla said, scrunching up her face in disgust at the name.

"Oh yeah, that jerk. I cannot believe she did that to you!" Her mother yelled.

There was a knock at the door, and her mother sat upright.

"I'll be right back." She said, walking out the door.

"Okay." Kayla answered, although no one heard her.

She could barely hear the conversation her mother was having with the person at the door. All she heard was, "Hello." and, "Okay, then, here she is." before the door to her bedroom was wide open.

"Oh, Kayla! Look at you!" Hailey Nicholson exclaimed, staring sympathetically at the lump of a Kayla, all balled up on a bed with a pillow.

"Hi." Kayla tried to answer, but it sounded more like, "Ughm."

"Kayla, why don't you go freshen up and change into something more comfortable." Her mother suggested. "It will make you feel better."

"Okay." Kayla said, pulling sweatpants and a sweatshirt out of a cardboard box. She'd already packed them.

"Hailey, are you hungry?" Kayla's mother offered.

"Well, we just had lunch...but maybe a little." Hailey answered.

Kayla's mother laughed. "Well then it's settled. Kayla will shower and get to feeling better while Hailey and I eat."

Hailey and Kayla's mother laughed into the kitchen. Kayla went to the bathroom and turned on the water to the shower.

Then she remembered she forgot her slippers for after her shower, and returned to her room.

"I don't know, Mrs. Patterson. I have no idea." Kayla overheard Hailey say to her mother. "Lindsay was fine to other day. But now....it's like she's someone else."

Kayla realized she didn't need to shower. It wouldn't make her feel better. Her mother just needed her out of the room so she could talk to Hailey.

"Well, Kayla needs to just forget about them--" Her mother started to say.

"But that's the thing, Mrs. Patterson!" Hailey yelled. "She tried today! But look what happened to her!"

"I am absolutely, one-hundred percent a-okay." Kayla said, walking into the room. "So you can stop talking about me behind my back."

"Kayla--" Hailey said.

"No, no Hailey. I understand. I'm too..too unable. Too unable to defend myself, or to unable to ignore people. Maybe I don't make sense...but you still don't need to tell my mother all my problems, m'kay?" Kayla said harshly.

"Sorry." Hailey said, standing up.

Hailey walked right out the door, not making eye contact with either of them, not saying another word.

Kayla ran to her room and locked the door. She changed her clothes. She flew to the bathroom and kneeled down and put her hair in the shower. She washed her hair quickly, and then dried it. She threw it up in her favorite style; a high, fluffy pony tail.

She returned to her bedroom long enough to grab her UGG Australia boots, that went perfectly with what she was wearing; her pink and blue American Eagle quarter length sleeved shirt and her jeans.

Her mother tried to stop her as she ran out the door to her car. She failed at her attempt.

It had felt like forever since she'd driven. She grasped the wheel of her green slug-bug.

"Where do I go?" She said to herself.

Her mother flew out of the house at one-hundred miles per hour. Kayla locked the doors right before her mother could open the door.

Then she decided to just drive. Drive till no one could possible decide to look that far for her.

"Okay, here I go." She said, putting the car in reverse. She backed out of the driveway. She started off towards the main part of town, then to the highway.