Chapter Two

I lay on my bed, staring up at my ceiling.

Expelled until senior year...

I was a Junior now, so it was the whole year... I would have to home school.

I would have to home school.

I took a deep breath.

I was also grounded for four months...

I rolled over onto my side and looked at my knuckles. They were red and had a small bruise, but no where near as bad as James' face. I smiled to myself, thinking about it. I knew that it was bad to do, and I never do that, but it served him right.

I sighed and stood up from my bed, walking to one of my windows (the one with the tree coincidentally big enough and close enough to climb onto and escape from my room). I stepped onto the window sill and clung to a limb of the tree, dangling for a second. I let go and landed on a branch below me, jumping to the ground from there. I walked next door to the back of Fiona's house and climbed the trellis (that was also coincidentally on the outside of Fiona's window). Grabbing onto the vines, I pulled myself up easily, having done it thousands of times. When I reached her window I peaked inside, making sure she was there. I saw her bopping her head to music, playing her Nintendo DS as usual.

Her and Fender are going to make the perfect couple when they finally admit they like each other... I thought.

I knew that tapping on the window wouldn't do anything, since she was blasting her music, so I just opened the window and climbed inside. Fiona looked up at me and gasped, clutching her chest with one hand and ripping her earphones out with the other.

"Cody, you scared the crap out of me!" she cried in a whisper. I smiled.

"Sorry." I said quietly back. "You wouldn't have heard me."

I sat down on her bed and we tucked our legs under us.

"How much trouble are you in?" she asked. "James' face will never look the same." she added with a laugh.

I laughed and nodded.

"No, it wont." I replied. "And I'm in a lot of trouble... I'm grounded for four months on top of being expelled... I have to be homeschooled my whole Junior year! And who knows about vacation?" Fiona frowned.

"I know, that blows." she said.

"What about you?"

"Grounded for a month." she answered. "But, I still have my music and my games, so it's no biggy." She smiled.

"I still have all my stuff, too, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mom took them away."

"I'm surprised she didn't already."

"Me too. It's usually the first thing she does. Honestly, it kind of worries me." I looked out the window. "Well, I should get back in case one of them realizes I'm gone. I'll call you later." Fiona nodded.

"Alright, see you later." she said. I stood off her bed and climbed back down the trellis and back up my tree into my room. Thankfully, just as I sat down was when Mom opened the door. I scowled.

"You could knock." I said. She took in a breath.

"Oh, right, sorry." she said. She seemed nervous. She kept fidgeting and looked around. "Um, could we talk to you down stairs for a second, sweety?" I frowned. She called me sweety while I was grounded. Not a good thing. She never called me any sort of pet name when I was in trouble. Usually just Dakotah, which really makes me mad.

I nodded, getting nervous myself. I got off my bed and followed her downstairs into the livingroom. Dad was sitting in the big recliner chair and Mom sat near him on the couch. Still feeling scared, I sat down in the other chair and took a deep breath.

"Cody," Dad started, pushing closer to the edge of his seat. "Me and your mother have been talking and we agreed that your acting out has to be a deeper problem. Nothing we can fix just by grounding you. We've been grounding you since you were five." He looked at Mom and she nodded. "And we can't afford counseling."

"We decided that-" Mom inhaled. "That you should go stay with Uncle Chris and Aunt Hailey in Tennessee." she said quickly.

My eyes widened and I stood straight out of my chair.

"What?!" I cried. Dad stood up, putting his hands up.

"Now, Cody, relax and hear us out." he tried, but I was not going to have it. They weren't going to ship me away like that! At least not without a fight.

"No, Dad, I hear you just fine!" I cried. "You don't want to deal with me so you want to send me away so someone else can handle me!"

"Cody, that's not it at all." Mom said, standing after Dad. I shook my head, smiling.

"No, it's fine." I said, more furious than I was at James earlier. I was actually upset at myself that I hit him in defense to Mom. "If you don't want me around, then fine. I don't want to be around. I know that Uncle Chris would love to have me. So, I'll go."

My eyes started to water, more from anger than actual sadness. "I don't want to be a burden anymore. I don't want to be around people who don't want to be around me." I turned and ran up the stairs, Mom and Dad calling up to me. I leapt out the open window and back onto the tree, climbing down as fast as I could. I ran back to Fiona's house, up the trellis and into her room.

As soon as she saw the look on my face she ripped out her earphones and stood. I told her about what Mom and Dad were going to do and she couldn't believe it. She was just as upset and angry as I was.

"Don't worry, Cody." she said firmly. "You can do it... It's only for-" she paused. "Almost two years." she frowned and I smiled at her failed attempt to cheer me up.

"Thanks, Fiona..." I muttered. "I don't know when I'm leaving, but I hope it's soon... I'll miss you so much, but I just want to get away from them." Fiona nodded.

"I understand." she said. "You'll call all the time?"

"If I can... Who knows what kind of technology they have in Tennessee?" I asked. "They're all... farm people."

We both laughed, hugged and I went back to my room.

Author's Note

All feedback is appreicated

Reviews

[craybeast]

This is amazing! I love it so much!
On the technical note, parentheses should be replaced with dashes or commas when you want to separate an unnecessary idea. Look back over the sentences with parentheses and see what you can do to remove them. Your story is very intriguing and makes me want more. It is exactly the form you should use for a teen fiction novel! You seem to have a great, long term slowly climaxing story. It actually feels like I am inside of Cody's life and that is exactly what you want to have your story do! I hope you continue taking people on her journey! You have a great lead character who is in touch with the reader and has a very interesting life. GREAT JOB!

[Elizabeth Reed]

Wow, thank you so much! That really means a lot!