Hope

Chapter 8

The Foundation Foundation. What a dumb name. I guess it makes sense for a man who didn't use his smarts all the time, as my PawPaw says. Or is it smart because nobody else would think of it or take it seriously enough to worry about it? I need to find out what his company's purpose was, clearly something The Street Men didn't like.

"Jess."

I jump, hitting my head on the shelf above my head.

"Ow." I say, rubbing my head.

Conner laughs, almost falling to the floor. "Sorry." He manages to get out between his hiccups of laughter.

"Gee thanks. What do you want?" I scold.

"What were you looking at?" He takes a couple deep breaths before standing up straight again.

"My dad's company. I'm trying to figure out what he wanted the purpose of it to be." I say, rolling my eyes.

"What if it was just a fake company that sparked into something that wasn't expected?" He asks.

I turn to look at him, confused.

"What do you mean?" I grab a pen from my cup of other writing supplies and I prepare to jot down whatever Conner tells me that could be interesting in my investigation for my parents.

"I don't know, like maybe he did it as a joke and then later on someone picked up on it and thought it was something with potential."

"But remember, the problem was that someone found out about it and didn't like it, not that they did and wanted to make it better."

He shrugs. "Well what if there were people who liked it too, but that person or people that didn't like it took charge to end it."

I bounce my leg, becoming anxious for the answers. "I don't know, maybe."

"Jess! Conner! Dinner's ready!" PawPaw shouts up to us from downstairs.

"Okay!" We both shout back.

"Should we make them wait? Or do this later?" Conner asks me.

I shrug and close my laptop. "Let's just go now, I'm pretty hungry." I say, making my way to the door. Conner agrees and we head down towards the kitchen to eat.

~~~~~

Grabbing my backpack and a few snacks, I head out the door to make my way to school. Conner said he was busy and couldn't meet up with me today, which seems pretty weird because he always makes time to meet with me. He can get a little paranoid about me getting abducted or something on my way to school. I think it's highly unlikely, but I guess it could happen.

Don't get me wrong, I know things that seem crazy can happen to anyone, this area just isn't known for anything like that to happen, but I guess what happened to my parents wasn't known to happen around here either.

I finally make it to my stop at the school, kicking up my board and putting it in my bag. I notice some people looking at me in a strange way as I'm going through the front doors of the school. Um, okay, whatever.

"Hey, Jess!" I hear a high pitch voice coming from down the hall.

I look towards the voice, stopping in my tracks. I see Mai speed walking her way towards me.

"Hey. What's up?" I ask, laughing at her heavy breathing.

"Don't laugh at me, okay? I haven't worked out in like, awhile."

I nod my head and roll my eyes. I can't remember her ever talking about working out.

We stand there in silence for awhile. I'm waiting for her to say something, since she's the one that approached me.

She stands there with her hands behind her back, swaying back and forth and looking down the hall.

"What?" I ask.

She jumps at the break of silence.

"What, what?"

"What do you need?"

"Oh! Nothing." She says, continuing her swaying and glances.

I laugh, confused.

"Then why did you come over to me in such a hurry to talk?"

She gives me a confused look and then shouts at me, "Oh! I was distracting you."

I give her an even more confused look than before as she giggles.

"Distracting me from what?"

"Conner." She says.

"Huh?" I say, looking down the hallway again.

I don't see anything. What is she talking about?

I feel a tap on my shoulder from behind me. I turn around and there stands Conner. In a suit. With a bouquet of flowers. And a crowd of people behind him holding up a large sign that spells something on it, 'Roses are red, violets aren't blue, they're purple. Anyways, Prom?'

I look over at Conner, smiling ear to ear.

"Of course." I say, chuckling at his promposal that's just like him.

-----

"WHAT?!"

I stop my track to the bathroom, startled. Leaning into the wall, closer towards the door.

"Conner asked her to Prom?!"

"Yeah and sh-"

"And she said yes?!"

Confused, I crack the door open, peaking my face slightly in to get a glance at who's causing such a scene.

There she stands, Sarah.

I roll my eyes. Should I walk away and not worry about it or walk right in a interrupt them with my silence? Oh, what the heck, why not?

I open the door wider, causing a screech to break out into the bathroom.

Strutting right in towards the sinks at the front, I take a glance at Sarah to see her reaction.

I wish I could take a picture because her face is classic. Eyes wide open, mouth fallen to the floor. She looks exactly like a deer in headlights.

I let out a small laugh.

"I heard you were wondering. Yes, Conner and I are going to Prom together. Thanks for your concern!" I say as I'm drying my hands with the brown paper towels.

I put a hand on her arm. "It really shows how much you care Sarah." I say, smiling.

As I walk out, confidence booming, I hear her stomp her heel on the ground and let out a loud, long scream like a five year old that got her Barbie Doll taken away.

Everyone in the hallway is staring at the bathroom, towards the noise. I smile, and strutt my way to the front of the building and all the way to my car.

Wow, showing up the popular bratt in school can really show you how you can stand up for yourself. Who would've known.