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The day was mostly like the day before except, Hayden and I had finished all our work, so we were assigned cleaning duty. Hayden was really upset about having to clean the school, but I, on the other hand—did not feel so bad about it. You could call me easy going. I do get upset over things, but I don’t really care too much.
Well anyway, back to cleaning. First, we started with the toilets, we were each given a scrubbing brush and some bleach. The janitors showed us what to do, then we were on our own. We are both quick learners. Hayden finished before me but did not brag too much because he was still furious, we were doing this in the first place.
After we finished, we were sent to the storage closet. We were to sort through old files. The old storage room had only one tiny light bulb in the middle of the ceiling which was flickering on and off. There was barely any light in the room, and we knew that we would not be able to see, let alone sort files. I mean this room was practically pitch black other than that little flickering light at the very top of the ceiling.
Soon, the bell rang loudly throughout the whole school, and the school had been dismissed. Hayden and I trudged back to the office tiredly. When we got there, Jackie had already signed us out. All we had to do was get our bags. I made Hayden grab both backpacks so that I did not have to go down into the basement. In my defense, I was tired.
The lady—the one at the front desk—was on the phone and could have cared less if we were signed out at all. Which is ironic, she usually is watching everything like a hawk. I thought that the lady was scared of Jackie because of how she treated her before.
Jackie and Summer tended to be rude to people when they did not get what they wanted. It had always been Summer’s habit, but Jackie caught on to it after spending so much time with Summer.
* * *
AS SLEEP CONSUMED ME, I opened the door to the car and slumped into the seat when I sat down. My eyes could hardly stay open. When Jackie began to drive, I put my head against the window. I closed my eyes for what felt like a second before I was suddenly awoken by the car instantly stopping.
I recognized the house to be Hayden’s and heard Jackie’s voice say, “I do not see Summer’s car. Is your house unlocked?”
“Yeah, we used to keep a key under the carpet, but it fell under the porch and we were locked out of the house. It was December and I sat on the porch till mom came home.”
“I’m surprised that I just heard about this,” Jackie replied laughing.
“You should have asked sooner,” he answered her in his joking tone.
“You’re hilarious,” Jackie said to Hayden as he walked up to his house. Jackie did not start to drive away until she saw that Hayden was in the house, then backed up the car and drove to her house. The car stopped once again and this time I got out. I put my bookbag on the kitchen table—I never do this but I had decided that I was too tired to put it away.
Then, I walked to my bedroom and laid on my bed. I cannot even recall kicking my shoes off. I also did not undo my sheets, instead, I slept without the sheets, on top of my bed.
Jackie knocked on my door and walked into my room, “Hey Lilian, we are going to go out to eat. So, let us go get in the car. Chop, chop!”
I tiredly opened my eyes and looked at Jackie, “Oh, ok.” I tried to wipe my tiredness from my eyes, but I cannot say I succeeded.
Anyway, I followed Jackie to the car. I finally started to wake up and notice what was happening.
“Hey Lilian, where do you want to eat?” Jackie asked.
“Uh, I don’t care. That downtown diner sounds good, I don’t remember the name of it though.”
“I don’t remember either let’s go, I at least remember where it’s at.”
I gave a little snicker while Jackie drove down our street, turning the way to go downtown.
“Grab my phone out of my purse and text Jason tell him that we are eating at that downtown dinner. He should know what I’m talking about.”
“Ok.”
I grabbed Jackie’s purse and found her phone. Then I texted Jason. I also plugged the phone into the car so that we could listen to music. I turned on the only songs that I knew from Jackie’s playlists. To be completely honest, her taste in music sucks.
Soon, Jackie parked the car and led me into the small diner. We sat down at a table near the front so that we could see Jason when he entered.
It was not too long before the waitress came over, “Hi, I am Leonor, and I am going to be your waitress can I start you off with your drinks?”
“I want water and Lilian would like a banana smoothie,” Jackie answered, “and we will have another person coming and he would like water as well.”
“Ok, I will be back,” Leonor smiled and hurried off.
She came back very quickly with two glasses of water and a banana smoothie ready and brought them to my aunt and me.
“Do you want any appetizers today?” Leonor asked in an extremely kind voice. I really liked this waitress.
“Yes, could we try the chicken nachos? They sound delicious.”
“I will put your order in.” She smiled a huge smile. I mean a huge smile; she must always be happy.
“Thanks,” Jackie said, “Wait could you wait here with Lilian I am going to go see if my husband is here, he usually doesn’t take this long.”
“Sure.” There was that smile again it was so beautiful.
“Thanks!” Jackie said as she left.
Leonor looked concerned for our little family, even though she just met us. I could see her worry for us in her eyes. Almost as if she had her share of worries before.
“So, your name is Lilian?” She was trying to keep me feeling well.
“Yes,” I answered.
“How old are you?”
“Eleven, you?”
“Older than you,” she gave a big smile. Not as big as the other one.
“Do you have kids?”
“Yes, five, two girls and three boys.”
“Yeah, I am the only child.”
“Oh, yeah that is sad. Looks like your mom is pregnant though,” She said.
“No, I am getting a little cousin, she is my aunt.”
“Oh, that’s cool.”
“Yeah, my mom died when I was a baby. I don’t usually mention it though because it hurts Jackie. They were close. And I don’t know who my dad is.”
“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. I hope I did not overwhelm her.
“Who are your kids? I might know them.”
“My kids are older than you the only one you might know is Hannah. She has cancer so, you might not. We, I mean I took her out of school because of her treatments.” She looked sad but still had that jolly feel about her.
“That is sad, I will pray for you.”
“Hi, guys he went to the wrong diner,” Jackie rolled her eyes, “I guess somebody told him the wrong place.”
I gave a guilty smile. Though I do not recall giving him the wrong place. I told him exactly what she told me to.
“I will get back to work,” Leonor said while jumping up and walking to another table asking for refills.
“Lilian, I don’t know if I should be mad at you for not being specific with your texts or if I should be mad at Jason for being an idiot.”
“How about Jason? Or nobody at all, that is good too.”
“Lilian your smart,” Jackie said, “there he is!” She said smiling.
Jason sauntered toward our table and sat down. “Am I early?” he asked with sarcasm.
“Oh, yeah very early.” Jackie replied while biting her lip, “Pick what you want to eat so we can put our order in.”
“Ok,” He answered grabbing one of the menus from behind the ketchup.
Leonor came back soon with the chicken nachos and took all of our orders. Jackie ordered a cheeseburger, Jason a steak, and I ordered chicken nuggets. Our order was put in and came out fast.
“Who is going to pray?” Jackie asked.
“I will,” Jason said. Then he said the cute little prayer I made up when I was younger. The prayer was one of those cute family traditions things that carry on forever.
Our small family ate our dinner like a normal family. Leonor came back to refill our drinks and ask us how our food was. Soon, we finished, and Leonor came with our bill, Jason paid, and we left.
* * *
FINALLY, MONDAY CAME, and Hayden and I went back to school. Everyone seemed to be scared of us, “Why do they seem to be scared of us we aren’t bad kids, do we act scared when kids come back from in-school?” I asked reflecting on myself.
“Lilian, gossip spreads very quickly especially when Natalie is around, and I punched the principal.”
I got all those dirty looks from the students and even a few teachers, they had already heard the gossip Natalie had started. I only had one question, what did she start?
At Lunch, I noticed that Samantha and Allie had ditched their usual lunch table for Natalie. I was a little disappointed and ended up sitting by Hayden who saved me a seat. We ate lunch and talked about all the gossip we were hearing about us.
“Hayden, Samantha, and Allie won’t talk to me, but now they are like best friends with Natalie.”
“I’m sorry, but now we have each other,” Hayden said.
“I’m so happy that I have you,” I said to him, “but I kind of feel betrayed that they ditched me for our worst enemy.”