Swell (Complete)

Chapter Thirty-Nine (Part Two)

"'Cause I just don't feel welcome in this house anymore
And it just doesn't feel as safe as it did only just two days before.
Why do we come this way, I'm not sure."

....

Marti looked up at the black dome now attached to the front porch as her Mum drove out of the car park and down the gravel driveway.
She pushed open the door and looked around the foyer. "Hello?"
"In the kitchen, Marti." Anne's voice called and Marti followed the sound.
Adora was sitting at the window, leaning back against one of the bench chairs and staring outside.
Marti put her school bag down beside the table and slid into the chair opposite her. "Thanks for still letting me come over." She smiled at Anne.
Anne pursed her lips and looked between the two girls. "Exams are important, Adora convinced me not to cancel the study sessions she had planned. Her attendance at the dance is still being questioned."
Marti looked from Anne to her friend and bit her bottom lip. "But you spent money on that new dress..." She muttered.
"Yes, but I've spent the last seventeen years on my daughter." Anne's voice was stern and Marti recognised it from one similar to her own mother's when speaking to Tom about the Lancer and his drunken night.
"I understand, I guess." Marti nodded and looked down to the table. "Are we studying here?"
"Yea." Adora finally looked away from the window and gave Marti a pitiful smile. "Dodge is upstairs doing something at the moment, he's giving us a couple of hours and then he's going to take us out to lunch."
"We're still allowed to go out for lunch?" Marti felt relief washing over her.
"Only because Dodge is guarding. Come on, let's get into the Scottish moors." Adora sighed and opened up her copy of Macbeth.
Marti cringed at the unhappiness in Adora's face and moved to pull her own book out of her bag.

Marti was struggling to focus, even an hour later. She could feel the depression radiating off Adora and she knew it was more than just her being caught out in the morning.
"Adora, what's wrong?" She put her hands over the notes on the other side of the table.
Adora looked up from her notes and sucked her bottom lip. "I really screwed up this morning. I just needed to be alone, for a little while, and now I'm not even sure I'll be allowed to go to the dance. I was really hoping to go with Will, once we got the dresses."
"Well, Dodge will be at the dance, so it should still be OK, and a lot of people will be around too..." Marti put her hands on Adora's. "You could still go with Will."
"I doubt my Mum will even let me go with you, let alone Will." Adora scoffed.
"Wait, what? She won't let us go together?" Marti straightened up.
"If I'm allowed to go at all, I'll probably be glued to Iain or Dodge."
Marti looked down at their hands. "Maybe we could all go together, and that would be OK?"
"Here's hoping." Adora gave her a small smile. "Will's kind of been avoiding me though, I think."
Marti frowned. "Since when?"
"Since you guys got back. I don't know whether to ask him still."
"Why not?"
"I don't want to interrupt him if he's upset and grieving, I mean, it's one thing to be there for you." She smiled gently up at Marti. "Another to want to go out with Will on dates and stuff."
Marti tilted her head after a few moments silence. Had Will been ignoring Adora because of the stalker or because of Liss? "Do you think we could convince them to let us have an earlier lunch? My head is reeling from this old language."
"We can ask. I'll run upstairs and see." Adora's hands slid out from underneath hers and Marti watched as Adora left the kitchen.
Once alone she looked down at their notes and Shakespeare's play and traced one of the rough images of a scene with her finger.
Would Anne let them all go to the dance together as a big group?
The sound of pounding footsteps made Marti look up a few minutes later and she smiled as Adora re-entered the kitchen, with Dodge a few steps behind.
"Adora said you needed some fresh air, and food." The principal smiled. "I could use some lunch too." He picked some keys up from the bench and Marti felt herself returning the smile.
"I'm starving, and Adora is suffocating." The smile became tight and Dodge raised an eyebrow.
Marti knew he got her subtle hint about letting Adora have some space, but she was sure it wasn't going to change anything for her friend.
"Let's go then." His smile straightened and for the first time since she'd met him, Marti was taken aback by his seriousness.
Adora barely noticed the exchange between them. She'd been taking food from the fridge and putting it into a picnic bag. "Packed!" She announced as she lifted the bag onto the bench and smiled.

Adora drove Dodge's car carefully up the dirt road towards the falls. It felt strange to have someone in the backseat as she drove, but she was trying to focus on her driving.
She put the blinker on and turned carefully into the flat car park.
The weather was cool, so they hadn't expected many other people at the waterfalls, there were two small cars parked near the public toilet block and one family van parked closer to the trail entrance.
She aimed her park and pulled in between the wooden barriers outlining the spaces on the ground.
"You drive well." Marti leaned forward and grinned.
"I get a lot of practise." Adora looked at Dodge and shrugged sheepishly. "Upper or lower falls today?"
"Upper! I've seen the lower." Marti bounced out of the backseat and Dodge picked the picnic bag out from behind his seat.
Adora closed the driver's side door and pushed the button on the key to lock the car, before she had even stepped away from the car Marti's arm locked around her's.
"Lead the way!" Marti pointed towards the woods and Adora chuckled as they stepped out of the car park and into the woods.

"I think I like the lower falls better." Marti stated as she looked over the running water towards its edge.
"I do." Adora nodded. The picnic bag was on the ground beside the table, full of their empty rubbish. There were less tables at the picnic area at the upper falls compared to the lower ones.
"How close can we get to the edge?" Marti looked at her curiously.
"Well, pretty close... Not in the water of course, that's a death wish."
"Be careful." Dodge warned as Marti pulled Adora up from the wooden bench and towards the river.
"Show me?" Marti stopped a few feet from the bank of the river and pointed towards its drop.
"We have to go slow, it's been a while since I was up here, I'm not sure how steady the ground and rocks will still be."
"You're in charge." Marti nodded and Adora started to lead the way along the river.
The closer to the fall's edge they got, the slower Adora walked.
"You're really worried about the edge aren't you?" Marti asked.
Adora could feel the grass and the damp ground underfoot and she nodded. "It's different to a cliff. Cliffs have sand that falls and moves whenever a rock does, ground up here doesn't necessarily drop when a rock underneath it does."
"Right." Marti nodded and reached out to take Adora's hand. "I won't let you fall, I promise."
Adora laughed a little. "Thanks." She started to test the ground before them as they walked, pushing it a few times with her foot before placing her weight down.
She could hear the rush from the falls below and she wanted nothing more than to sit on a rock with her legs hanging over the edge.
She could feel Dodge's eyes on them from the table. "I think we're getting close enough." She said as the ground became rockier.
Marti stepped up beside her and peered over the edge. "Lower view is definitely more artistic."
"It used to be fun to just sit here and think. Bad weather for it today though. I think it's meant to rain." Adora stopped and looked down into the small lake below.
"The water looks so deep from here."
"It is pretty deep right under the falls, it shallows out further along before it turns into the little creek." Adora moved her eyes from the white mist outwards. There was a couple sitting at a table below, cuddling and holding each other close.
"Do you think falling from here would kill someone?" Marti asked, leaning in beside her.
"I don't think I want to know that right now." Adora felt a shiver run through her spine and Marti's finger's gave her a gentle squeeze.
"I won't let you..."
"What's that?" Adora pulled her hand from Marti's and pointed to the lake's edge opposite the picnic area.
"What?"
"Is there something in the water over there? It looks like..." Adora felt her stomach churning as fast as the water beside them. "Is that a car?" She whispered.