Caving In

25. I Made It

Song: Hey Look Ma, I Made It

Artist: Panic! At The Disco

Wednesday, June 15

"Chael, stop wriggling around! Do you want me to burn your hair or something?" I shifted uncomfortably in Kaitlyn's hold as she straightened my semi-curled hair. I decided to put my hair in a braid last night after washing it and forgot to take it out before going to bed, so it ended up being a tangled, curly mess.

"Sorry... You're holding it really close, it's making me a little agitated." I apologize to her. She continues, a little more cautious with where the straightener is ending up on my head now.

Now, normally I'd be in school, but because today was our graduation and Ms Venn wouldn't be around to teach us anything, we got the day off. And to spend the day off, Margaret and I convened at Kaitlyn's house to prepare for the big ceremony happening in the afternoon. We sat in the living room, just the three of us. Kaitlyn's brother had exams that day, and wouldn't be back until noon. Her mother and father were out at work, and would be back around 4.

"Margaret, pay up. You landed on my property." I held my hand out as she placed two $10 bills of monopoly money in my palm. My greedy hands curled around the paper currency and quickly withdrew, counting how much money I held in my possession now.

"Chael, I swear to god," Kaitlyn whacked my shoulder with the hand holding the straightener. "Stop moving around or I'm going to burn you!" Margaret's phone buzzes on the glass table we were playing on. The caller ID has Ms Venn written in big white letters, her phone number just below that.

"Hello? Yeah. Yeah we're all at Kaitlyn's house right now, why?" Kaitlyn stop straightening my hair out for a moment to look at each other, then back at Margaret's concerned face.

"Oh, okay. Alright, I'll ask them later. Okay. Bye." Margaret hangs up, and looks at the both of us. We blink at her, who blinks at us in confusion in return.

"Anyways, Ms Venn just asked if we could help her set up some stuff before the ceremony this afternoon. Apparently the brochures never got printed, and they need some help setting up chairs." She informs us, fumbling with the phone and monopoly money in the same hand. She takes the die and rolls it, landing on a four.

"Aw, dammit. I've been sent to jail." Margaret pouts, and I giggle, rolling the die as well. It lands on 6. My character piece moves onto one of my own properties, narrowly missing the others that are owned my Margaret.

"Well thank god I don't have to pay you back. I'm going to upgrade this one." I place a couple of hundred bills into the "bank" that was controlled by Kaitlyn, before snatching a tiny plastic house and placing it onto the board. Margaret picks up the die and rolls again. She doesn't land on 6. 

We play for another couple of minutes, before I go bankrupt after landing on Margaret's properties 3 times in a row. The knob of front door rattles a couple of times. We slowly stop what we were doing and creep over to the door as quietly as humanly possible. The person outside starts banging on the doors, which frightens all of us.

"Kaitlyn, open the door! I'm dying out here, and it's hot!" A boy's muffled voice travels through the door, which makes Kaitlyn walk towards the door to unlock it. Standing there is a moderately tall boy, with his arms crossed and a mildly annoyed look. She lets him in, and we go back to what we were doing.

"Wow, playing on my monopoly set, I see. Who won?" He asks, flopping onto the floor with a big sigh. Margaret raised her hand, and we began to clean the table.

"Have you guys eaten lunch yet? It's almost 1." We glanced at a clock hanging on the wall nearby, the seconds ticking by softly. It was indeed almost 1, so we threw some pizza into the mini oven and cranked the timer to 20 minutes. While that was cooking, Kaitlyn told us to go change into our dresses, so that by the time the pizza was done, we could go. I changed first, with a little help from Margaret who helped me close the zipper on the back of the dress. Kaitlyn went to go fetch her own outfit while her brother, Edison, watched our pizza.