One Autumn Morning

Chapter Fifteen

Sarah woke up and stretched. Then, the events of the previous day came flooding back like a tsunami, remembering the family they had killed the previous day. She got up and took a cold shower, trying to get their faces out of her head, pulling on a white tshirt and black sports leggings, her black vans, and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. She sat down on her bed and turned on a FRIENDS, one of her favorite tv shows, it always cheered her up. She was about halfway through when she heard a knocking on the door. 

"Come in!" She said, pausing the movie. Richard walked in, a sad smile on his face. 

"Hey, how are you doing, Sarah?"

"Fine, I guess."

"Can I sit down?" Richard asked, and Sarah waves him over. He walks over and sits down next to her on the bed. "Look, about yesterday. I usually only let the adults do that, but we were so understaffed we had to use you guys. I'm so sorry. Come here," he said, pulling Sarah in and she started sobbing into his shoulder. "I know, I should never have put you in that position. I just wanted to let you know, we have an update on the girls. Their twins, both 5 years old. Their names are Lily and Rose, and they're being situated. Based on their parents living will, they're going to go live with their grandparents on their mom's side, who seem like very nice people. I hope you know that I didn't mean to upset you, it's just so different with this shortage of staff and I just was so used to having adults who are used to this I didn't think about how you guys were just kids. I'm so sorry."

Sarah pulled away and sniffled, wiping her eyes with the back of her arm. "It's ok, but I'm just confused. I thought you said that 'being taken care of' was getting Willow spayed? And that you guys didn't kill?" 

Richard gulped, "That's what it means for the animals, and we don't kill any of out people from our place or animals, either, ok?" 

Sarah nodded, "Ok."

Richard stood up and glanced at the tv and smiled, "Enjoy FRIENDS, I'll bring you up a grilled cheese, ok?" 

Sarah nods, "Ok." Richard leaves and Sarah curls up in her bed and pushes play, enjoying a few more episodes of FRIENDS, and eating her grilled cheese and tomato soup, which Richard had brought up a few minutes after he had gone downstairs. When she finished up she washed her hands and headed downstairs to the training area. She walked over to the treadmills and hopped on, running as fast a she could, her arms in legs moving in unison, pumping back and forth, running until her legs were jelly and she was covered in sweat. 

She turned the treadmill down for a cooling lap, pulled off her shirt so she was just in her grey sports bra, and then jumped in the pool to cool off further, back floating. Then she got out and grabbed onto the bar, doing pull ups. Her hands gripped the bars and straining her arms, pulling herself up into casting position and then letting go, repeating this over and over and over again. Then, when she got up to casting position, she flipped herself over so her legs were hooked over the bar. Then she crossed her arms over her chest and started doing sit ups, her nose almost touching her knees. Her abs were burning but she didn't care, she had to keep going. 

She was halfway through when she heard a voice behind her, "Hey, Sarah." She pulled herself all the way up and flipped to her hands, dropping to the ground. She saw Maggie standing there in a pink sports bra with navy blue sports leggings, barefoot. "Looking good, even I can't do that."

Sarah smiled sheepishly, "Thanks."

"How're you doing?"

"I'm good, I guess."

"Richard come to talk to you yet?"

"Yeah."

"Ok. So, that's good."

"Yeah, how are you and Anthony?"

"We're good. He's just having some trouble knowing that he killed that old man. He's doing better than he did yesterday, though so that's good. Thanks for asking."

"Of course."

"So, do you know how Luke is?"

"Richard still won't let me see him cause he's contagious, but I'm assuming that if something bad happened to him he would let me know," Sarah lied, knowing that he was in jail.

"Well, it sucks that you can't see him but it's good that he's fine. Ok, I'm going to head back up to my room. You can finish up here and grab dinner, it's pizza."

"Ok," Sarah said, "Thank you." Maggie smiles and leaves the training room. Sarah walks over to a ladder with one bar. She jumps up and grabs the bar, then pulls her knees up and throws them down, knocking the bar up a ring. She does this over and over till she reaches the top, then she grabs the bar and hops down to the floor, jumping up to hook the bar to the bottom ring again, and then grabs her waterbottle, phone, and shirt and heads over to the kitchen, where she grabs a few slices of pizza and some ice cream and heads up to her room. She eats the pizza and then hops in the bath, she fills the tub with bubble bath solution, then she washes herself and rinses off in the shower. She then dries off and changes into another sweatshirt and pajama shorts. She eats some ice cream, and then curls up in bed and watches Brave, another one of her favorite Disney movies. 

She looks in the closet and sees on the side a bookshelf, full of hundreds of different books. She grabs Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer. She unmakes her bed and slides inside the silky sheets, their softness soothing her. She sits up against the pillows and bends her legs, resting the book on them. She opens her book and reads a few chapters, then sets it on the nightstand. She has some water and then turns off the light, falling asleep with no interruptions, the deepest sleep she's had in days.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it was sort of boring but the next one should be better. Comment any suggestions!

-Megan

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