Behind the Clouds

Chapter 5

 “Who’s that Ellie?” My mom asked when I got in the car.

            “That’s our new exchange student from Britain, Jericho Claybrooks,” I tried to say nonchalantly. Hopefully, it didn’t sound like I really cared. If it did then this would be her incentive to try to invade my personal life.

            “Well…he’s cute. How’d you meet him?” And here we go.

            “He’s in my first period. Mr. Goldman is forcing me to be his guide for the next four days since you made me late to class, and I needed participation points, so really I should blame you for my affiliation with him.”

            “Hey, you should be thanking me. It’s not every day you meet a guy like him.” She had a point. “What’s he like?”

            “Well that’s the hard part because this morning he was rude and annoying, and I really hate to admit it, but…I kinda yelled at the new guy.”

            “WHAT?! ELLIE, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!” My mom exclaimed.

            “He was pushing my buttons while I was actually trying to be social. Then he gave me the silent treatment, so…I got a little mad,” I confessed slightly ashamed of my earlier outburst.

            “Oh my god, Ellie. You have got to be kidding me.” She doesn’t know the half of it.

            “Hey! He was being rude and full of himself. Plus, he was getting really annoying. I mean he gets so hot and cold like one minute he’s giving me the silent treatment and the next he says he likes when I sing,” I admitted.

            “How would he have known that you sing?”

            “He just so happened to come on the day we had solos in Music. He’s in my class, so Mr. Schultz decided to torture me and go in alphabetical order. Basically, he and the rest of my class actually knows I sing now and...I guess he liked it.” There. I said it.

            She was quiet for a minute. Probably because I’ve only ever sung for her once. That was the day before it happened. The day of my mom’s birthday. Hesitantly, she said, “Ok. Well…I’m happy for you.” Then we were silent. I knew both of us were thinking back to it because it changed everything. We didn’t know how or even how long we would last in the future. We’ve cried through countless nights and neither of us were ever brave enough to admit it to each other. The trauma plagued us both, and we were clueless as to what more we could do about it.

            “So are you ready for today?” My mom asked finally changing the subject.

            “Yeah. My gear’s in the back right?”

            “Yeah. Just grab it,” Mom said as we pulled up to High Rock. High Rock is a rock climbing center here in Santa Monica. After it happened my mom thought it’d be healthy for me to be in a physical activity. One time before it, my Uncle Tom took me to a rock climbing gym when I used to live in Florida. He travels to different mountain ranges across the globe to climb up different rock formations and document his experiences. One evening when my parents were in the midst of a week long fight, he took me rock climbing to distract me. Needless to say, it worked. A few minutes later, my mom stopped the car in front of the entrance, and I grabbed my stuff from the back.

            “See ya mom!” I shouted as I closed my door.

            “Is Eric dropping you off?” She shouted back.