Three Girls From The Valley

Keep It All From You

Moti and the girls enter the ICU and walk down to Danielle's room,

"Hey Mom I convinced the nurse to let us all visit together." Este says as she greets Donna.

Moti slowly walks over and kisses his daughter on the forehead, a single tear rolling down his cheek, both Este and Alana watch their father lost in their own thoughts,

Wow I'm not used to seeing Dad be so emotional Este thinks to herself,

Alana watches her father as his voice echoes in her head I can't go through this again, through this again, through this again. What are you hiding from us Dad Alana wonders to herself.

Moti eventually finds it too confronting staring at Danielle,

"Well I ah got an early start in the morning so I better head home love," He tells Donna, "Alana do you want to come home with me or stay a bit longer with Este?" 

"Um I'll come home with you Dad." Alana replies, "Good night D I love you."

"I'll see you tomorrow love." Moti says kissing Donna good bye. "Don't stay too late Este."

Este watches her father and Alana walk down the corridor before turning back to look at her Mom.

"So are you gonna tell me what's up with Dad?" Este asks her Mom, "I can tell he hates being here so what's the deal Mom?"

"Now's not the time honey," Donna replies and quickly changes the subject, "What are we going to do to celebrate Danielle's birthday next week?"

******

Alana headphones on blocking out the school's noise, keeps her head down, she tries to make herself invisible as she moves through the crowded hallway to her next class, a foot appears from out of nowhere causing her to lose her balance. Laughter breaks through the sound barrier as Alana crashes to the floor, she quickly picks herself up and starts putting loose papers back into a folder.

"Here." A voice says handing her one of her text books,

Alana looks up to see her ex best friend Jordan smiling sympathetically at her. She grabs the book and gathers the rest of her things so she can escape this humiliation. She rushes down the corridor, the laughter ringing in her ears, eventually taking solace in the ground floor toilets.

Sitting on top of the toilet seat Alana rests her head in her hands and looks down at the floor, she notices the sole of her left boot has come away near the heel.

"Perfect." Alana cries, "Another thing to add to my crappy life."

After school Alana heads out side to her father's tool shed, normally she would just go spend time in her favourite thrift shop Squaresville for new things but she doesn't even have the money to buy a used pair of boots right now. Alana instead tries to mend the sole of her own boot, she looks through her Dad's shed for any sort of glue and finds a small tube, once she has glued the sole back together she uses black tape to wrap around the boot, keeping it together whilst the glue dries. She leaves the boot on her Dad's workbench and heads back inside.

***************

Next morning Este drops Alana off out the front of the school,

"I'll see you tonight Lonz and we can start working on D's birthday decorations." Este says,

Alana  waits until Este's car disappears from view before quickly leaving the school grounds and walking back home. She doesn't have the energy or strength to face another day of torment and as it is a Friday she can forget about her school worries for three days at least.