Down the road the sun is shining
In every cloud there's a silver lining
Just keep holding on (just keep holding on)
And every heartache makes you stronger
But it won't be much longer
You'll find love, you'll find peace
And the you you're meant to be
I know right now that's not the way you feel
But one day you will
(Lyrics from One Day You Will)
April 4th, 2017
John bent down picking Destiny up and slung her onto his back. She squealed happily and wrapped her arms around his neck. Laughing to himself, he made sure she was securely in place and made a mad dash down the tunnel. After 200 feet, John turned a corner and stopped. An unknown resistance fighter stood in the center of the tunnel. The man was nearly 6 foot tall and looked down of John. Slowly, John pulled Destiny from his back and cradled her to his chest. "John Connor?" The man asked with a blank expression. John shielded Destiny the best he could and ran back the way he came. The machine raised the gun in right hand and fired at John, hitting the back of his leg. The noise of the gun made Destiny scream. John winced and turned the corner and raced down the hall, checking the various doors aligning it. All were locked. He turned around to see the machine advancing on them. Suddenly the ground began to shake violently and Destiny fell out of bed.
March 14th, 2010
Stunned, Destiny looked up at Cameron from the floor. "What the hell?" she asked.
"Sarah asked me to wake you."
"Gee thanks for the wake up call." Destiny said annoyed.
"You're welcome." Cameron replied and left the room.
Destiny scowled and reluctantly untwisted the comforter that was wrapped around her and got up. After she went downstairs, Destiny entered the kitchen and drug herself to the table where John was sitting, doing his homework. She sat down and put her down on the table a little too quickly. "oww." She muttered. John cracked a smile and went back to his homework. After a moment, she raised her head and looked at the window at Amy and Derek practicing combat training. Destiny sighed.
A faint pattern of heels on a tiled floor grew louder till it was nearly on top of her. "Mom?" John asked confused and Destiny perked up. Sarah rattled around in her bag, pulling out her cell phone. A normal thing to do but what wasn't normal was that she was in a dress instead of her usual tank and pants combo. Destiny turned confused to John who sent her a confused look of his own. "Um, Mom? What's with the getup?" He asked.
"Parent- Teacher Conference." She smirked. Destiny frowned and John returned to his homework. Taking her keys into her hand, Sarah gave the kids one last look before she left. "Derek and Amy are in charge while I'm gone."
"I hate babysitters." Both John and Destiny muttered simultaneously.
After a brief look between them, John went back to his homework and Destiny pulled her sketchpad to her and began coloring. "Do you have a lot of babysitters in the future?" John asked
Not looking up, she answered. "35."
John looked up stunned. "What?"
Destiny rolled her eyes. "Over 16 years. Not all at once."
John frowned. "They quit?"
Destiny grinned. "No one lasted more than a few weeks. I was an evil little kid." She laughed.
Sarah filtered through the John and Destiny's schedules. Luckily they shared most classes so she didn't need to repeat. Out of the seven, only two were apart. John had gym which Sarah listed to be the last class to visit before she went home. She moved on down to Destiny's last class, art.
The teacher was already speaking to the crowd of parents that surrounding her, pointing out several pieces of work and naming the students whom created them. Sarah stood in the second row of surrounding parents and pretended to listen to the welcoming speech while checking out the many faces of the crowd. A woman in her 40s' kept asking questions and the teacher sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mrs. Sanders?"
Sarah turned to look at her. The woman with faint red hair smiled. "I would like to know who won the creativity contest for this month."
"Oh, yes." The teacher mumbled and flipped to the last page of her speech. "The winner for this week is um, Destiny Sanders." Mrs. Sanders' smile faded and Sarah snapped her head up.
"Your daughter has won 30 extra credit points for the week, Ms. Sanders." The teacher nodded bored to Sarah and went back to consulting the questioning parents. Sarah nodded back. Mrs. Sanders pursed her lips for a moment and went back to smiling. She extended her hand. "Hi, I'm Adalyn Sanders. Racheal's my daughter." She said to Sarah, nodding at the painting to her left.
Sarah smiled and shook her hand. "I'm Sarah Sanders, Destiny's mine."
"Oh, congrats. Racheal's been the top of her class since she was about 8. It's nice to see a new face. Perhaps she'll give Racheal a run for her money, teach her a few tricks."
Sarah smiled. "Well, we'll see. I didn't even know she could paint. She didn't get that from me." She mused. Adalyn smiled.
Destiny drew circles on her paper aimlessly before looking over her shoulder towards the living room. John was done with his homework and was watching tv, rolling his eyes every few minutes at Amy who was trying like hell to annoy Tyler but settled for John instead. Tyler was trying to take a nap in one of the chairs while Amy sat on the floor and tried to badger Tyler into drinking a beer. Destiny turned around to look for Derek and found him sitting in the other chair. Cameron was nowhere to be seen but that was usual. Destiny quietly got up and went around to the back of the house and quietly slipped out the door. Taking a deep breath, she scanned the street for observers. Finding no one, she moved to the trees. Checking over her shoulder, she found a maple tree touching the side of the house and climbed into it.
Sarah drove home slowly. A glance at the clock and picked up her phone and dialed. "John, I'm going to be late. Can you handle dinner? Just order pizza or something, I'm following something." Sarah snapped the phone shut and concentrated on the car in front of her. Slowly, the little black car turned its signal on and turned left onto a driveway. Sarah drove by but stopped at the neighbors' house and observed. Adalyn Sanders got out of the car and walked to the front door. As she reached to open it, it opened by itself and a young girl came outside. Adalyn took a look at the girl's appearance and frowned. "Racheal, I thought I told you to not come outside with no shoes on. That's why your socks are impossible to get clean." The girl grinned and rolled her eyes. Sarah stared for a moment till they went in and sighed as she pulled out of the neighbor's drive.
John closed his phone and frowned before returning his eyes to the tv.
"Who was that?" Derek mumbled .
"Mom. She wanted me to take care of dinner. She won't be back till late."
Derek nodded then rolled his eyes as Amy clamped Tyler's nose with her thumb and index finger. Tyler startled awake and began grumbling inaudibly. Annoyed, John left the living room to go into the kitchen. Frowning, he noticed the table was empty as he placed the order. A moment later, he returned to the living room which was now empty. John frowned confused. Destiny yawned and climbed down from the tree and went inside. John perked up and went to the backdoor. Raising her hands, Destiny laughed. "Just me." John relaxed and smirked. Destiny rolled her eyes and walked off into the kitchen. A flash of light from outside alerted them that Sarah was home. A moment later, she opened the door a came inside. Destiny sat down and went back to coloring. Sarah set her purse on the counter and began shuffling though papers from today's event when someone knocked on the door. Instinctively, Sarah clutched her gun as John hid off to the side.
Destiny smirked. "It's just the pizza guy."
"Get over here." Sarah seethed.
Destiny sighed and went to stand behind Sarah. Amy came out from the living room and strolled up to the front door. With a quick move, she opened it. Amy turned to Sarah and smirked as she handed a $20 bill to the boy in exchange for a pizza box. Shutting the door with her foot, she set the box on the table and walked. " Saving the day from the pizza boy. How uncliché."