Life at the High

The Ride Home

The three of them were shaken by what happened. Charity knew she needed to speak to Toni and let him know that they could have been seen at the hotel through security cameras. She was in enough trouble as it was, but getting busted for sleeping with the assistant principal would have made the hotel incident look like a class field trip. She was especially nervous because she didn't know how much her mom may have already seen.

She dropped Travis and Miko off at school. When she pulled up to their cars, neither of them said anything or tried to get out. She cut the car off to see if they wanted to talk about any of it. She hoped they would lift the mood by trying to plan another way to find Janelle. She would have been proud but also drained at the thought.

"Why didn't you tell us your mom was working on the case?" Travis asked.

"I didn't know. I thought it was just local police myself." Charity turned to look at him in the back seat. "You don't think I knew that was gonna happen do you?"

"Nah. I know you're not the type." Travis threw his head back. "I just thought it would all be over now."

"Me too." Added Miko. "Riding to school now feels so empty. I miss her."

"I know. I'm sorry. I'm sure this must hurt you like hell too." Charity realized what an impact Janelle had on people. She wondered if she were to go missing, if it would be the same type of reaction, or if it would just be something to talk about because people just saw her as the fun girl who knew all the gossip. "Janelle is very special, and if my mom is on it too then, I'm sure they will figure it out."

"You're right," Travis added before he put his hand on the door handle. "Hey, you think there was something to what she was talking about on the phone? Like there was some guy she said she's got or whatever. Think that could be him?"

"I considered it for a moment, but no. She would have said something. I thought I would have been able to tell." For a moment she considered finding out where her mom went and going there to see if it was the guy, but she reconsidered when she thought about her mom whooping her like she stole something. "Yeah I doubt it's that or you would have gotten a call from your mom by now." She reassured Travis.

"Yeah, you're right about that. Later." Travis got out of the car.

"You okay Miko?" Charity asked it as if they needed to be alone for her to really say what she was feeling.

Miko thought they were both about to hate her if Charity's mom knew as much as she thought she did. "Yeah. Just sad we couldn't find her. Thanks for letting me in on the fun or" She felt weird about calling it fun. "Just the search for her is what I mean. I don't really think it's fun in any way."

"I got you." Charity smiled at her.

"See you later," Miko said as she got out of the car. She expected for Travis to stick around and talk to her, but he was pulling out of the parking lot already without even so much as a glance back at her.

Damn. She wondered. Does he still think I did this too?