Can't Go Home

Carpool

It was time for her and Kori to get packed up, inevitably return to their homes. It was finally time to take all their individual work and put it away or take the scraps home. Komand'r would be coming soon to pick them up in that rickety black and purple minivan and they would drive around for a good while, asking Raven if she wanted to go home or stay with them.

Raven knew how it went, how it always went and it was not always safe. Komand'r often got reckless with her driving and they'd gotten into an accident with her before on a rainy night like this one. If she went home with them though, it isn't much better than at her house since Komand'r is almost as much of a tyrant as Raven's own father. Usually she gives up and goes home, stays in her room and just tries to get some peace and quiet.

Earlier that day she had an incident with her parents and she left it behind as soon as she got to school. It had been on her mind but pushing it away seemed an easier way of coping.
Her dad was enraged, griping about her place and what she ought or ought not be like. It's never clear what sets him off, but occasionally when she says something it's like a flick of a light switch and he goes from this big oafish dope into a complete monster.

"This is why people don't want to be around you! You act as if you have all the problems and life is just sooo miserable! Everything is all about you isn't it? Do you even know how hard it is to raise someone like you?" He screamed it at her, slamming his fists on the table in a hellish rage.

She ran it through her head as her mother paced the floor. She'd been wandering the kitchen searching for who knows what until Raven finally spoke up.

"I am responsible, I have friends, I do good in school, I pay rent-"

He cut her off, rolling all four of his eyes back with a grunt. Her mom was watching, not saying anything just passively watching and it just cut Raven.

"Mom, aren't you even going to help me?" She winced out with anger and fear but Arella just stood statuesque with lowered eyelids as if she was ready to sleep.

"You can't turn her against me. You can't just bring people to your side just because YOU don't like something. The world doesn't work like that and I don't appreciate you trying to gang up on me with your mother!"

"Mom? MOM PLEASE!"

It was no use, she didn't even bat an eyelash before she walked away.

Thankfully afterwards, Kori had responded to her desperate texts and pulled up to the driveway with Komand'r and Raven dismissed herself fast with the excuse of lateness to school.

Komand'r pulled up to the driveway of Garfield's house and Raven's eyes went wide under her dark blue hood. She made an involuntary step back before she caught fender-bender.

"Hey, are you alright? Did you leave something upstairs?" A concerned Gar asked her, holding out his hand to say that he's not a threat. His eyes focused on the way she hid, how much like a startled finch she was, before Kori turned around.

"Dear friend, what ails you in the midst of leaving our studying? Do you have the fever or perhaps, did you forget something important?" Kori placed her lovely soft hands gingerly onto Raven's left shoulder and it felt soothing for a moment.

"I don't know if I can go with you tonight. You go ahead, I'll go get some medicine at the corner store and walk home." Her arms folded over each other as she prepared to go out the door.

"You don't have to do that, it is so late and we can drive you! It would be stupid to go out on your own."

"I just don't want to get sick in the car is all, I have very bad car-sickness."

Gar's eyes rolled from Kori to Raven before he really understood what was going on. Raven, for whatever reason, did NOT want to be in that car.

"Hey, my mom has some medicine. You can take it and stay here until you feel better, after that, we'll take you home." Looking back at Rita (who seemed to be observing the situation from the kitchen), he got an approving nod.

Shrugging her shoulders, Kori smiled and gave Raven a very warm hug before telling her to be safe and get well soon. Komand'r honked the horn and in what seemed like a flash, they were just gone.

"So, you weren't really feeling the carpooling, huh?" Gar looked her over again, anxiously scratching his hairy arms. Raven caught his gaze and turned around to go get her backpack.

He stormed after her, clenching her arm with his grip trying to get her to face him but she shook his hand off of her and fled.

"What's the problem?! Why didn't you want to go? You came here with them!"
Those shouts went on deaf ears aside from Rita who felt he could handle it and didn't get involved.

Upstairs, Raven collected her backpack, gripping it in her arms before collapsing to the ground. She wiped the bitter tears from her cheeks and cracked a lump from her throat with a low, muffled sob. The more she clenched her face and the tighter she held onto the backpack, the more she couldn't stop.

It wasn't as if he couldn't hear her though, he kept quiet by the door. Sitting, he tilted his head, resting it just below the knob with a thump.

"I'm coming out, just give me a minute, I'm searching for something." Raven's voice was hollow as she gave out the routine response for this situation.

"I know something's wrong, Rae. Could you just tell me what it is?"

"I can't. There's nothing wrong."

"Well, that's a lie. Come on, we're teammates in this project, you have to let me in sometime and besides, this is my room."

The soft patter of hesitant footsteps on the ground lead to the creaking click of the doorknob and Garfield's head landing unceremoniously onto Raven's foot.

"Ow." He heard her say that so many times with the same inflection (none) and yet now, it felt so...

"Sorry about that, I wasn't thinking you'd actually open the door."

"Well I can let you in if there's nothing wrong, can't I?"

Stunted. It felt stunted, kind of off. Not that he couldn't tell it was a lie- he could -just that it seemed so rehearsed, like she said it a million times.