Free: Into The Woods

Chapter Three

     It had been at least three hours since I walked into the room and saw that Indigo was missing. She should be back from wherever she is by now. She would have told me if she'd be gone this long.

    "Seriously!!" Vanessa practically growled, "You have to stop pacing! It's ridiculous, Indigo is probably just somewhere else so she doesn't have to deal with you."

I rolled my eyes, Vanessa gives me a reason to do that a lot, "You don't know Indigo the way I do. She wouldn't have been gone this long without telling me what was going on. I need to talk to an administrator."

Before anyone could stop me, I walked out of the room, striding down the hall towards the main office. On the way there I ran into Ms. Jen. And I mean ran into her, literally.

"What is the meaning of this!?" She said, quickly lifting herself off the floor.

"I wanted to know where Indigo is, she always tells me where she is, and she's been gone for hours," I said quickly, in the most determined voice I can muster.

She pursed her lips, "How wonderful." It looked like she almost wanted to roll her eyes, "She is in a meeting with the headmistress."

Worry rushed into my brain, the headmistress was the most strict brutal person I've met. Was she in trouble? Was she being punished?

"She is fine." Ms. Jen said, guessing my thoughts, with that she walked away.

Confused, I slowly walked back to our room.

What felt like hours later Indigo finally walked into our room, looking... nervous?

"Indigo!" I cried out, "I was so worried, I didn't know what was happening. But then I ran into Ms. Jen and she told me you were in a meeting with the headmistress and then I got even more worried. I thought you might have got in trouble or maybe-"

"Nyla!!" Vanessa growled, "Let. Her. Talk." I glared at her but didn't refuse, staying quiet, but Indigo also stayed quiet.

"Indigo?" I said.

She turned her gaze up to look at me, her eyes displayed obvious worry, nervousness, and... was it, joy? Or excitement?

I furrowed my brows as she said terrifying words, "A family of four wants to adopt me."

My best friend is going to be adopted. My brain couldn't begin to process it. I was going to lose my best friend.

"I would visit as often as possible. I wish that we could still be together, but a family wants me. I never thought that would happen again." Her voice was etched with sadness, and I knew that she was thinking about her parents.

I was speechless, I didn't know what to say at all. So when it came time to go to bed, I jumped on the opportunity and fell asleep as fast as I could, surprisingly taking on a deep restful sleep.

. . .

The next few days I felt numb. I answered my friends' questions willingly, I didn't say anything that wasn't necessary, I worked through classes and chores. After Rowen's death, the administrators became even more strict, and it was getting very tiring. Even Mrs. Tri, my favorite administrator, was becoming more like Ms. Jen.

"Nyla..." a familiar voice said, "Nyla, you seriously need to stop this." It was Indigo.

"Stop what?" I said.

"You keep spacing out, and you're a mess. I think you haven't showered in like at least a couple of days." She said.

I sighed, "What do you expect?" I ran off before she could argue, not stopping until the bathroom door was shut behind me. I took a long shower, killing as much time as possible. At one point I thought I heard someone yell at me for using too much water but it didn't matter to me and the water drowned out their voice. Eventually, my fingers looked like raisins, and the air was growing thin so I got out to go to bed early.

The days went by quickly and soon enough it was time to say goodbye to Indigo.

Tears filled my eyes as I hugged her tight, "I'm sorry." I said. We stood there for as long as we could until her new dad told them that they had to go. I pulled away, regretting ignoring Indigo for so long, now I don't even know what her new family was like. But I studied her adopted father's face clutching onto it as her car drove away. He had light brown skin, light green eyes, and brown hair.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to find all of my friends standing there. I broke down, my knees collapsing as the days of numbness hit me in the gut. I lost all my senses, not knowing what was happening. But I knew that I cried as long as I could remember until I fell asleep. This time I was too numb to have nightmares, too numb to feel emotion.

. . .

"Wake up!!" Ms. Jen called.

I pulled myself up and out of bed, got ready as quickly as possible and then started down the hall to the cafeteria. When I got to the doors of the cafeteria, a woman in a brown dress-like thing, who I'd never seen before handed me a slip of paper. "These are your new seating arrangements." She said.

I turned my attention to the slip of paper, seating arrangements? That's ridiculous, why would we have seating arrangements? The slip of paper had a list of all the table numbers and the people sitting at each table. I saw that Kit was with Britney, Wren was with Clove, and I was with... Finley. That was equal parts reassuring and a disaster waiting to happen.

I grabbed my noticeably smaller than normal portion of bread and butter and walked to my assigned table. A few minutes later, a pale girl took a seat to the left of me.

"Oh, look who I get to sit with," Vanessa said in her snobby voice.

"Oh lucky you," I said, not bothering to hide the disgust in my voice.

Finley came and sat down on my right a moment later, "I can't believe they're doing seating arrangements now." He grumbled, "But at least I'm with you!"

I smiled, "Yeah."

He stared at me, and I couldn't seem to leave his eyes. Someone cleared their throat, "Will you stop the incredibly disgusting stare-fest going on right now." Vanessa said.

I rolled my eyes, "So this is how it's going to be from now on." I groaned but it sounded more like a growl.

The rest of the day was filled with lots of change; we had new class groups, new workgroups, and the curfews could never be more strict.

I'm sick of all of the stupid rules, so as of today I've made my decision. Without Indigo, I have no choice, I am going to leave this place, forever.