What We Lost In The Winter

Chapter 14

The next morning, my alarm goes off again. I half-expect to see the morning sun beam into my bedroom, but it doesn’t. My room is in the basement. I don’t have windows. I kick my feet off the bed. I’m surprisingly awake. I’m never this awake. Waking up is the bane of my existence. It usually sucks. For whatever reason though, today I’m excited to jump out of bed.

I open my dresser to decide what to wear. I may have already made my first impression at Redo, but now I have to keep it up. I settle on a blue sweater and skinny jeans. My typical style. I run upstairs without brushing my teeth. Lily’s door is still shut, I’ll always have to walk past her sleeping. That’s going to end up incredibly annoying once I get to the stage where waking up for school is the worst possible thing in the universe.

Mom and Alaina sit in the kitchen eating Eggo toaster waffles. It feels like yesterday morning again. Like my life is a television show and this is a “last time, on Becca Kingser’s Highly Uninteresting Life,” introduction to the episode.

“Good morning, Becca! Ready for school?” Mom asks. I think that’s the exact sentence she said yesterday.

I laugh. “School! Who would have thought the three Kingser girls would be going to school?”

“You know we didn’t want to pull you out of school— we just didn’t think it was safe anymore. Now that we’re far away from your old district, it’s okay to try again,” Mom sighs, placing a plate of toaster waffles in front of me.

“I’m glad we’re trying again. I think it’s good for all of us.” I reluctantly pick up a waffle and take a bite. I seriously hate toaster waffles.

“I agree. I’m glad you and Lily think it’s so great,” Mom smiles.

I turn towards Alaina. It’s worth a shot. “How was your first day?”

“What?” she looks up, surprised. A shock slides down my spine. “It was good.”

“How were the people?” I ask awkwardly. What if this actually turns into a conversation? My first real conversation with Alaina. Wow. That would be amazing.

“They were okay,” she shrugs.

I take a deep breath before giving another question. “Make any friends?” I quickly add, “I’m sure Mom asked you this stuff already. I’m just curious.”

“Actually, she didn’t. And yes. I did make friends. Sort of. I met Skye Maciel’s friends,” she responds. Omigod. Alaina made friends. This is incredible. A million thoughts fly through my head. What if this makes her social? What if this makes her step up and be a big sister? What if this makes her more than a person behind a door? What if this makes her different? But beneath it all lies a thought I can’t just shake off. Mom didn’t ask her about the people she met. Mom didn’t feel the need to ask her eldest daughter what happened at school. The reason was grimly obvious— she expected a certain answer, and didn’t want to prove herself right. She’d assumed Alaina would be just as anti-social at school as she was at home. How could a mother think that about their child? Except I was expecting the same answer. How could I? How could I make that assumption?

At least I had the guts to prove to myself I was wrong. I had the guts to hope.

A/N

First off, if you haven't commented on my last chapter, you should. It would really mean a lot to me. It's only one paragraph long and wouldn't take you more than a minute but I would really appreciate it.

Okay, now for the Question of the Chapter: Is it wrong that Becca's mom didn't ask Alaina how her day was, or was it understandable that she didn't?