Chapter 5

A Chapter by Melissa

“Hayley? It’s Katy… open the door.”

It’s been about twenty minutes since the fight, and I haven’t left the room. Everything finally hit me. My mom’s gone, and this is where I’m living now…

“Hayley…” there’s a long pause. “Please let me in.”

“Please go away. I don’t want to talk.”

“Then just listen.”

I sigh and unlock my door before walking back to my bed and burying my face in my pillow once again.

“Hayley… Jase… he didn’t know. He feels really bad.” I remain silent, and she sighs. “Look, he wants to talk to you.”

“No.”

“Listen, Hayley�"”

“If you’re my friend at all you won’t let him talk to me.”

“You’ll have to talk to him eventually.” My only response is a shake of my head. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll keep him away from a while, but only if you promise to talk to him within the month of May.”

It’s late April, so that gives me a whole month. I nod into my pillow.

“Say, ‘I promise’.”

“I promise.”

As the rest of vacation goes by, my mod is mostly the same. Katy’s good at cheering me up, but she can’t be there all the time. I spent a lot of time swimming alone, or drawing. Jason tried to talk to me a few times, but not many.

Now it’s Monday, the first day we go back to school. We were told we’d get our schedules and IDs as well as locker information when we arrived. Natalie had followed through on what she said and had taken me shopping. I made little input, so she just bough what she wanted. Today I chose jeans and a cute purple shirt with small white polka dots.

“Please bring your phone…” Natalie pleads. “Just in case.”

I give in and pick it up. “I don’t have a backpack or anything…”

“Yes you do, it’s downstairs and packed already. It’s the pink plaid one,” Natalie answers easily.

I nod as I head downstairs. I see Katy already wearing her purple plaid backpack and eating a banana.

“Ready to go?” Katy asks me.

“I suppose.”

“JASON! Come on!” Katy yells.

Jason quickly descends the staircase. He stops when he sees me and stares for a few moments.

“Are you ready?” Natalie asks.

“Yes,” Jason answers. All three of us follow Natalie to her car. I get in the left side, and Katy slides into the middle, while Jason sits on the right. Natalie remains silent the whole ride.

“We’re here,” she says, breaking her silence, as we pull up.

Katy and I climb out of the left, and Jason gets out on the right. Natalie watches until we walk into the large thick building before driving away.

“Hello,” Katy says to the man in the security office we enter, “we’re new…”

“Names please,” he responds, his voice much deeper than I expected.

“Katy Wood.”

“Jason Wood.”

“Hayley Barnes.”

“Here you are,” he says, handing us each three pieces of paper. Two of them are a welcome letter, and the last is our schedules. “Now, please sit in that chair one at a time so I can take your ID picture,” he says while motioning at the chair to the right of us.

Katy goes first, then me, then Jason. Each of us are handed our IDs, and then he allows us to leave.

“There are signs all around on which way to go to reach each wing. The first number is the floor, so for example, C212 is on the second floor of the C wing,” he explains to us.

We nod and leave the small office. Once outside, Katy takes my schedule.

“We have public speaking together. And intro to psychology,” she says. Then she takes Jason’s schedule. “You have intro to psych with us too. And I think you have Spanish with Hayley.”

I look at my schedule and notice that this means I’ll have Katy in two of the four classes in a day.

“The sign says D wing is that way,” I say, pointing to the left.

“B wing’s that way,” Katy tells Jason, pointing to the right. He waves as he heads in that direction, leaving Katy and I to go left.

“So, when are you going to talk to him?” Katy asks me as we walk to class.

“I don’t know,” I mutter.

“Soon. It’s May and you promised by the end of this month you would…” Katy trails of.

“I know.”

We head up the stairs to the second floor. The class is one of the first classrooms. Both of us take a deep breath before we open the door.

“Oh!” a man, the teacher, exclaims. “You must be the new students! Katy-Lynn and Hayley!”

“Yes,” I say before Katy corrects him.

“Well, for your first easy A in this class I want each of you to describe yourself in around one minute. Katy first.”

Katy swallows before opening her mouth. “I’m Katy Wood, my favorite color is orange, I play clarinet, and I dance. I’m a bit of a helpless romantic, and I’m always injured because of dance, although I’ve never broken a bone. My twin and I live with our brother, Hayley, and her sister as of Sunday.”

“Good Katy. Go take a seat next to Sam. Sam, raise your hand.” Katy smiles at me as she walks to her seat. “Your turn Hayley.”

“I’m Hayley Barnes, I’m sixteen. I’m a sophomore and the water is my home. I used to swim competitively and I’d won a few ribbons and trophies. My living situation was previously described to you by Katy, and I’m taking this class because I’m shy.”

“Good job,” the teacher says. “Please sit next to Katy.”

I nod and walk to the desk beside Katy. The class begins and I realize quickly that the public speaking class I was taking at my old school was slightly ahead of this class. I don’t learn the teacher’s name is Mr. Carter until the end of class.

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