Dear: Who Now?!

Chapter 14

"Oopheeeliaaa." Silence. Then again with gentle-ish cheek pats in between each word. "O-phe-li-a! GET UP!!!" Grumbling and still half asleep I roll away from the noise. Then a harsh whisper fills my head right by my ear. "Ophelia Hope! If you don't get up now I'm gonna dump ice water on you!" "Mmmm" I mumble sleepily and keep on sleeping. There's a few beats of silence and then the annoyance starts again. "Come on O! We're going on an adveeenture!!!" Suddenly there's tugs on my arms. Now thoroughly annoyed, I sit up in the bed and much to my despair, the room is PITCH BLACK! I can BARELY see the silhouette of the person in front of me. "What?!" I ask angrily. The shadow in front of me claps quietly. "Good! You're up!! Get dressed, be as quiet as you can and come to the living room." I watch the shadow disappear and I wonder if I'm dreaming. I go to lay back down and go back to sleep when I'm annoyed again. "Don't even think about it! GET UP!" And I'm submerged back into silence again. Aggravated, I unwillingly get out of the cozy bed and do as the shadow told me, staying as quiet as I can. I quickly grab my phone and stalk into the living room. There by the door, is Blade and my mom talking quietly. It's like they sense me and stop talking to look at me. My mom smiles and squeals excitedly. "Yay! Come on!" And with that the three of us head out the door with Blade locking it behind him. 

We're all getting in our respectable cars when Khayla comes running out and jumps in her dad's car. And we're off. I check the time on my phone and see it's THREE in THE MORNING! Mom must see me check my phone and laughs. "You're phone is still on Cali time. It's five." And with that she goes silent and follows the blue Mazda in front of us. 

Twenty minutes later, we're pulling into a lot full of cars. Blade and Khayla are nowhere to be seen. Mom drives around back and parks the car. She starts getting out and confused, I follow suit. "I'll be right back." She tells me. I nod and she heads into the building behind us. A few minutes later, she comes back out and a black chevy next to me beeps, making me jump. Mom smiles and points for me to get in, so I do. Once situated she looks at me. "Like our temporary new ride?" I nod my head. "But why?" I ask. She doesn't bother looking at me and starts the car, backing out of the space, gong the way we came and getting onto the main road where we get stuck at a stop light. Finally she answers. "They're gonna our car up for us since we've been traveling in it so long." She shrugs her shoulders and says. "Safety reasons." The lights turns green and we turn left up a small road. A school comes into view. Mom turns left again, then a quick right and parks in a spot right in front of the school. She lets out a happy sigh and we get out of the car and walk towards the front doors of the school. That's when I finally see it - A whole group of people standing around. Under a light. 

"Heyyyyy!" Mom says a dash of excitement. Everyone turns our way then four people come running at us. Letting out a small screech, I run a short distance away from them and stop and watch. Mom gets swarmed by these people and everyone's all excited. I groan inwardly and slowly step forward. When I'm next to mom she introduces me suddenly. She hugs me from behind. "And this is my daughter Ophelia!" I look at the people as they say hi and introduce themselves. It's all so overwhelming I don't bother remembering anyone's name. Then a new voice chimes in and I see there's still more people. "Jaaaade." It drawls out. Mom squeals and runs to the owner of the voice. "Mykal! Ohmygod - It's been SUCH a long time! How have you been?!" The two of them talk and I'm left standing by myself for what seems like ever but is probably a second when I'm nudged. I look to my left and see Khayla. She looks at the group of annoying adults then back to me and rolls her eyes. At least we can agree on one thing. Five minutes later we're all on the move towards where I now see everyone's car is parked. Mom and two others are talking but mom quickly shuts everyone up and looks at me. "This is where we all went to school, we made friendships here, enemies -"  At that everyone lets out a quiet chuckle and mom continues on. "Looking back on it, it was the best times of our lives but we didn't realize that at the time." Everyone chimes in with their own little yeah's or mhm's. At this mom looks kinda sad but keeps on. "I never imagined my life after this place. To me it was four years of hell that I thought I'd never escape." She stops and lets out a small, sad sounding sigh and finishes her tirade. "I didn't know what my life held. I didn't know anything that has happened; would. I miss this place and I wish I could relive it." She stops talking and looks at the ground. Everyone's silent and keeps walking. Suddenly, as if she forgot why we're all here she perks up again. "First off, we're going for breakfast but it's a walk there - so I hope you're all hungry." She laughs. "Marie, Nikki, Mykal sometimes Blade and I, would walk this - Ah the good old days." She sighs happily and half the group protests. "Uhm I was FORCED to walk this!" A brown headed woman who I learn is named Marie says. A blonde chimes in with "Yeah!" Then Mykal is next. "Yeah Jade! We didn't willingly walk this! This was HEEEELLLLL! " He says dramatically. Blade excitedly stutters his response but it's al cut off when we stop. Everyone turns and looks to the right. 

"That's the circle - or was before this stupid nursing home was put up" Mom says bitterly. Marie laughs at her. "The circle is still there ya dingus!" Mom shoots Marie a glare. The two of them laugh at each other and Marie asks a question. "Wasn't this whole street area considered the circle?" Everyone nods and Marie quietly says "Oh." We continue our journey across the street and past a bank where we all stops at a HUGE blue bridge. My mouth just about drops open. I hear mom laugh and see she's looking at me. "Come on gang, our destination is just on the other side! It's not as bad as it looks. And with that we all push forward. We go around a weird little obstacle and I quickly notice the bridge gets steep real quick. Letting out a sigh I stop. I'm not even halfway up. Everyone is at different paces as well as places on the bridge. The steepest part looms before me and I groan. Mom and her friends are nowhere to be seen. Blade is still at the bottom looking annoyed. Letting out another annoyed sigh, I make my way to the tippy top and stop. The view is AMAZING! I don't think I've ever been so high! The shy is still dark and a few cars drive by underneath. I see a restaurant and the car dealership that we went to on the other side of the bridge. I hear screeching and glance away from all the city lights as I head down the other side of the  bridge where mom, Mykal, Nikki, and Marie are all chatting with huge smiles on their faces. They don't acknowledge me as I come towards them. We wait another ten minutes and finally Blade and Khayla join us. Set, we head towards the restaurant and head in which I can't be more excited for - I'm STAR-VING!