Chapter Two
Coping
Two weeks! For two weeks I had been studying my butt off to try and pass my finals in school. I thought it was going pretty well. School was almost over and that meant summer vacation. The test was tomorrow. I was so nervous, but I couldn't wait. I felt pretty good about my tests. I had always been fairly smart, but missing almost everyday of school, and having to learn from a book, while traveling, was rather hard to do. I was kind of glad that I could focus on school now, though I still miss my family terribly, I could live with the knowledge that they were alive when I left them. And hopefully they lived their lives to the fullest. Sigh, I was going to stop thinking about this now. It only made my heart hurt worse.
My family went on a small trip yesterday to Okinawa to visit some family members, they were supposed to be back in three days. I couldn't go because of my tests. Lucky Souta, he was finished with his tests two days ago. Not like I was really complaining, I was not that fond of those particular family members anyway. They were annoying, stupid nosy cousins and stupid nagging aunt. I mean seriously, who cared if I was "too skinny"? I was not anorexic, I just had a well toned body from running around and fighting in the feudal era. Did she know that? No, we couldn't tell anyone about my travels. They would think we were nuts, or try themselves. Hmm. Interesting idea, my aunt in the feudal era? Ha ha That's a laugh. But anyway back to school. It had been going fairly well, considering I spent most of my high school year in the past. If I finished these tests and got a good grade, I would be able to pass high school! At least for freshman year.
Oh well, I would be done with my tests tomorrow, I couldn't wait, didn't I already say that? Oh well. These past two weeks had been very tiring, I kept trying to act happy in front of my family because I didn't want to worry them. But the truth was I still cried myself to sleep at night. Losing my best friends and my son was just too much. Even my friends from the future couldn't help. I couldn't exactly tell them what happened. My family knew the truth so they were there to support and help me, but I didn't know if I could keep this façade up. I tried really I did, but the thought of being happy without my other family here, just didn't seem right. At least I got a small break from pretending while my family was away. They'd be back on the day I got my test results back. I kept getting this feeling that something bad was going to happen, but what else could happen to make my life even worse? Wait! Don't answer that, because I knew that many things could go wrong. I was just hoping that this feeling was wrong.
I got my tests scores back! I couldn't wait to show my family. They should be home from their trip by now. I hadn't been this excited since...Well you know. But enough about that, I was almost to the top of the stairs. Man! Were they always this long? I guessed I just never thought about it much. Finally! Now all I had to do was make it to the front door. Wait, where's mom's car? It should be here. Oh well, maybe they went shopping? I didn't know, but that foreboding feeling I had been having these past few days was starting to come back. But I was NOT going to come to any conclusions just yet, everything could be just fine and I could be just overreacting. Right?
But as I made it into the house and there still wasn't any sign of them being home or any clue as to if they had been home or not, I really started to worry. I would have tried my mom's cell phone, but it had just broken and she still hadn't gotten a new one. There was no other way I could contact them to make sure that they were alright. So I just went inside to wait for any news. During that time I decided to make a special dinner for my family. I knew how much Souta loved Soba noodles. But after two hours of waiting, and I still hadn't heard anything, my gut started to twist. It wasn't until I got a call that I finally knew what was wrong. But now I wished I had never found out.
