Sandcastles

Chapter Thirty-Three

"Wake up." A groggy voice snaps at me. I roll over in the seat and nearly fall on the floor of the car, quickly grabbing the side of the seat before I do. When I open my eyes, the sunlight pouring in through the windshield blinds me. Ben, who is currently driving, has his window down, allowing the air from outside to directly hit me. Who would have ever thought that the smell of dirt and fish could make someone so happy?

I sit straight up in the backseat. For some reason, my stomach forms a pit of nervousness when we pass over the bridge. It won't be much longer until we're home.

Home. Even the word makes all three of us happy. It's been a three day drive, and now we're finally home. Of course, Dad called us about an hour after we left. He was absolutely furious. It must have been a surprise to come home and see his three kids' rooms cleaned out. But after hours of talking to him on the phone, he finally realized that attempting to make us stay in San Francisco was futile. We would just leave again.

Mom is expecting us, but she's the only one. Helen and John Tyler's graduation is this evening, so we made perfect timing to surprise them at the graduation. It has been very difficult to hide from Alexander that we were on the way here, but I never gave it away. Hopefully nobody passes by our house and sees Madeline's car there.

I want to scream in happiness as we pull into the driveway of the old house. The old, worn-down house. When Madeline parks, Mom immediately rushes out the door and almost chokes us all with hugs. She keeps repeatedly saying how much she has missed us and how glad she is that we are back. She is also extremely eager to assure that we are staying and already starts unloading our stuff for us.

I never thought I would say this, but I actually miss having to share a room with Madeline. It's relieving to unpack my stuff all over the twin bed in the room. Even though she will never admit it, she missed it too.

Ben doesn't take long to unpack all of his stuff and immediately comes into our room to aggravate us. I don't mind, though. It's nice to have my brother back and be able to hold normal conversations again.

After I unpack most of my stuff, I am the first one in the shower. After three days of driving and sleeping in a car, none of us had a chance to shower. Plus, we need to look nice for the graduation tonight.

After I get out, Madeline follows. I sit in the kitchen with Mom for a while and catch up on things. I missed her, too. More than I thought I did, anyways. When it gets around 5 o'clock, I start getting ready for the graduation. I change into a nice enough dress and try everything else to make myself presentable. I wait out in the living room for Madeline and Ben. As usual, Madeline is going very slow and is not even ready yet. Ben, however, is ready except for his terribly crooked tie.

When Madeline is finally ready, the three of us walk out the door and to the car. It's the same old drive to Collins Creek High School. We park in the crowded parking lot and file out, just as we used to do when we would go to school. The school building is the same dull stone, and the yellow lights shine on the stone and the graduation banner hung above. We follow the crowd of people to the gym where the graduation will be held.

I recognize a few of the seniors hanging around in the courtyard. None of them have on the cap and gown yet. The girls have on white dresses, and the boys have on white button-ups with ugly green ties. Madeline obviously sees a few people she knows and splits away from us to talk to them.

Ben and I walk into the gym and find seats in the bleachers. A stage has been set up in the gym for the graduation and the principal stands at a podium testing the microphone. I take out the small graduation program to look at when someone calls my name.

As soon as I turn my head up, Troy is already bouncing up the steps to see me. I completely forgot about him. When he gets here, he literally pulls me up into a hug, which is just as awkward as it would seem. I don't even remember the last time I talked to him, but I'm sure it ended on awkward terms.