It was well past the night check time. When the nurse came in to check if I had taken my pills, I hid them in the corner divot next to my molars. Bethany taught me that trick. It fooled the nurses each time. I mean, the nurses there were crap anyways. Bethany and I finally made it onto the roof.
"Is that what was in the package from your mom?" Bethany asks.
I effortlessly threw the end of my scarf around my neck and swirled around in my new dress. "Yes, yes it is!" I said.
"You look stunning," she exclaims.
Bethany was the only one who accepted me for who I am. She called me Cece just as I asked her to do. Like the imbeciles the nurses and doctors are, they refused to call me by my name.
"Oh no! The dumb Mrs. Cavanaugh is here!" Bethany says.
"She can't see me like this. I have to hide!" I said. I leaped over to the darkest part of the roof as the misguided figure made her way over to Bethany by the edge of the building. They were arguing over something. It looked very heated. In one swift motion, down went Mrs. Cavanaugh right off the top of the building.
"Bethany, what did you do?"
"What do you mean?" she screamed, with true conviction in her eyes, "you pushed her, you freak!"
Those last words shared with Bethany had replayed in my head for the last few weeks. It had become harder and harder to suppress them. Especially since the trial was now in full swing. The last day was today. Bethany was supposed to testify. How did she think she was going to get away with blaming this whole thing on me? She's basically insane, but did she not know who my mother was. It was hard enough as it was to reunite with my brother and sister. Seeing little Ali again filled my heart with so much joy. Over the past few weeks, I didn't get to see her much though. Daddy always wanted us to be a part. I needed to develop a relationship with my siblings before I was possibly sent away again.
"Mommy, why is Ce wearing my dress?" asks Allison.
"Cece, if you think you can wear that to the trial, you are just asking to be taken away from us again," mom says reassuringly.
"Mom, you said I should wear something that represents me," I said.
The backbone of the prosecutor's argument was that I was a confused, misguided kid who wanted to be a girl so bad and that Mrs. Cavanaugh was somehow setting me back from achieving my goal. Yeah, because that makes so much sense considering the fact that Bethany is actually insane and should definitely not be trusted. Did they not check the medical records to see why she was admitted to Radley in the first place?
"Yes, honey! But you can't wear that!" Mom exclaimed as she frantically inspected the closet for a more appropriate outfit.
As discombobulated as my family was, we had finally managed to leave the house. I slumped down the front porch steps. A car came to an abrupt halt in front.
"Charles, you are not a girl. You are going to rot in hell for killing my mother!" a voice inside the car yelled.
The car screeched away. My jaw still hung open many moments later. I didn't know how to feel.
"You better not get sent away again. If you do, the black eye I got from defending you at school would be for nothing," says Jason smirking.
Whatever I was feeling was immediately gone. So I guessed this is what it felt like to have a person who genuinely cares. I thought that person was Bethany but she truly only cared about herself.
"So, you were on the roof with Charles when the incident occurred," the prosecutor asked Bethany who had taken the stand.
"Yes, I was there!" she said.
"In your written testimony, you had said that Charles and Mrs. Cavanaugh were arguing before she pushed her off, correct?"
"Yes, they were!" Bethany said.
"What were they arguing about?" asked the prosecutor.
"I couldn't really hear all of it. I think she was confronting Mrs. Cavanaugh about how she would always lurk around when Cece and I were having private conversations," said Bethany, "the conversations were really about anything. Cece was my best friend. We told each other everything. One particular time, we were talking about Allison and how bad Cece wanted to be with her again. She even said she would marry her if it meant that they would be together forever. Then, a book had hit the floor in one of the corners of the room. I saw Mrs. Cavanaugh's face and then it vanished. I guess Cece pushed her off of the roof because she didn't want people to know she was that weirdly obsessed with her family. She knew if word got back to her doctors and then to her family she would never be back in Rosewood ever again. With that confession and the reason why Cece's dad had her admitted to Radley, Cece was going to away from them for a while. All she ever wanted to do was go home."
"So there you have it, jury. Are you going to let that confused, incest boy run amuck throughout your neighborhood? He was willing to do anything to conceal his true motives. Will you allow your children to be his next target?" the prosecutor asked.