My Life In Pieces (Book #1)

Chapter 16

September passed and my first month of school went by without further incident. The Munroes started picking me up and taking me home with them after school. Elle and I would do homework at her kitchen table, something her mother loved the thought of and made me feel like a small part of my normal routine from Dallas had followed me here.

Ari would go up to his room and play video games mostly. I wondered how he found the time to actually do his homework. Once Jake took me home for the evening, I would do chores around the house between texting Ari and Elle. Some of our messages were in a group chat with the two of them and Aaron while others stayed private. Mostly the ones where Ari would say something sweet that he didn't want the rest of the world to see or ones where I would text Elle about what to wear for school the next day.

Jordan, Elyse, Patrick, and I had weekly Zoom meetings where I would catch them up on my life here and they would tell me about the stuff I was missing in Dallas. Elyse and I were already planning on me coming back to Dallas for my Christmas Break. Tim had agreed to it as long as I was staying with Elyse and not Jordan. I had no clue why that mattered other than it gave him a sick sense of power. He and I were on thin speaking terms at best. I found it easier to find reasons not to be home on the days he didn't work late; which weren't many. Aunt Claire still insisted on inviting us over for Sunday lunch after they went to Mass. Every week she would invite us to come with them for that too but Tim found an excuse every time as to why he wasn't available until after noon. That part I didn't mind. Not that I was against going to a service but I was not about to go and sit through a Catholic Mass.

I started watching a podcast with Elyse and Jordan from a place over in Rockwall, Texas that had a satellite campus. It was more of a way for me to have something to talk to them about but I did find it comforting to hear a sermon on Sundays. I wasn't sure how much I believed in it past the basics but I liked the lessons the preacher was going through so I kept tuning in with them for now.

The second week in October I found out that we had a three day weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving. First of all, who has Thanksgiving on a Monday? In October? And then makes the kids go back to school on Tuesday? Canada.

I had an all-out argument about this with my cousins because I thought it was unnatural to have Thanksgiving before Halloween. It was just so Un-American. Then I had to remember that in fact, they were all not American.

'Canadians, they said, celebrated it in October'. 

I wanted to refuse to participate in fake Thanksgiving but Tim said we still had to go over to my aunt and uncle's. They were having a huge dinner with all five of the families over.

With all twenty-one of the kids, their parents and even some of their parents over, over thirty people were going to be in one house.

Luckily all the families brought over enough food for their respective family plus some so my Aunt Claire didn't die cooking for everyone.

When I looked at table options I saw that there was the kitchen table, the dining room table, and then a kid's area set up down stairs in the basement. All of the kids were basically having their own night down there once dinner started. I watched as Reese and then Ryan headed down to the basement. I hoped they could find a spot far enough away from Ryan's father to be safe. Aaron was already down there watching a movie with Elle. I knew and there was no hope in finding Miri without Danny so I was pretty much on my own until Ari decided to show up.

My eyes lit up when I finally saw him coming through the door. I looked down at myself. I was wearing a long sleeved, deep blue dress that came down to my mid-thigh. My hair was curled and I was also wearing a pair of Laura's high heeled boots. I was sure that it was an improvement from the usual jeans and converse look I wore to school.