Chapter 4: A Flashback, A Comeback, and Ethan Hawke
"Mail's here, Mom!" yelled Noah from the front door.
"Put it on the counter Honey, thanks."
He walked into the kitchen and set the stack of the mail on the counter when a particular envelope caught his attention.
"Mom, Ashlyn's letter is here! The one from the publishing company!"
Mrs. Reeves came out of her office with a huge smile on her face. "I wonder if she won?"
"Of course she won! Why else would they send a letter?" Noah handed her the envelope.
"I wonder if she'd mind if we opened it for her?" Mrs. Reeves asked Noah. He shrugged.
"When is she coming home from Breeya's?"
"Tomorrow, she's sleeping over." Mrs. Reeves answered. She looked up and saw Mr. Reeves enter the kitchen.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"It's Ashlyn's letter from the publishing company, she might have won the young author's contest." she informed.
"Well, why don't we just drive it over to Breeya's and surprise her there?" Noah suggested.
"That's a good idea. That way we can see her reaction when she opens it." Mr. Reeves added. "Wanna come with us Adrianna?"
"Oh, I can't. I'm waiting for Murphy to phone me back with the financial updates for the new school opening up in September. But tell Ash I'm so proud of her, okay?" Mrs. Reeves said sympathetically.
"Alright, come on Noah, let's go." He took the letter and they headed for the foyer. "We'll phone from Breeya's when she opens it."
"Thanks, Nathan." she said giving her husband a kiss as he grabbed his keys and left the house.
"You what?" exclaimed Juliette, her eyes bugging out of her head.
Ashlyn's heart was pounding so hard she thought it was going to burst out from her chest. Everyone in the room was silent, trying to decide whether or not what they just heard was what they thought they heard.
"Now hold on a minute, you know--" started Peter, but he was cut off by Ashlyn.
"I….I can't talk about this right now." she declared. Waves of anxiety were pouring over her. Her head was throbbing and the room was flashing in her eyes. The other Cliffhangers looked very uncomfortable and Ashlyn felt tears welling up in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away.
"May I be excused?" she asked, avoiding any eye contact.
"Yeah, go ahead," said Peter.
Once she was out of earshot from the room, Auggie was the first to speak.
"Peter, are you telling us that the pretty little chica on my left is a…a murderer?" His voice dropped to a whisper on those last 3 syllables. "Cuz if she's some sort of psycho-"
"That's enough Auggie!" Peter said firmly. "She's not…a murderer." He found himself even having some difficulty saying that word.
"Well then what is she?" Auggie demanded. Peter shot him the look and he immediately backed off.
"Alright guys listen up, and listen up good. I can assure you that you have nothing to worry about when it comes to Ashlyn. You know I'd never intentionally put any of you in danger. I don't want to find out that any of you are saying things like that, you understand? There will be consequences, got that?" He looked directly at each of the Cliffhangers to get some signal of agreement.
"She obviously wasn't as ready to open up as she might have thought she was. We can't force her to and you know I can't tell you because of the confidentiality, so you guys have to respect her choice and treat her normally."Peter instructed, stressing the word normally.
"Normally? Does that word even exist around this place?" mumbled Daisy.
"Well, personally, I couldn't care less if she was a mu-" Ezra stopped himself when he saw Peter glaring at him. "Hehe….I mean…cuz you know….she's just what I wanted." he spitted out.
Shelby rolled her eyes. "Spare us, Freakin."
"Oh Shelby, am I sensing some jealousy now that you're not the centre of Ezra's attention?" retorted Juliette.
Shelby looked ready to pounce. The laughter was interrupted by Peter.
"Girls, this isn't the time or place for you to start insulting each other. If I hear it again, both of you will be chopping wood for the rest of the week. Got it?"
"Yes, Peter." both said in unison.
"Good, because now you've given us a reason to play 'One Thing I Like About…' and the two of you will start."
Shelby and Juliette both groaned. Jules went first.
"One thing I like about Shelby is…." Juliette paused and smiled. "The way she can kick the guys' butts at foosball." Juliette finished, looking pleased with her response. As did Peter.
Shelby thought for a minute about what she could possibly say about Juliette. She grinned when she knew.
"One thing I like about Juliette is that she's lucky enough to be able to eat anything she wants and never gain a pound." Shelby paused and looked in Juliette's eyes, which lost their twinkle when she realized Shelby wasn't done. "Oh, I forgot it's because you just throw it all up once you're finished!"
"Hey, at least I tried to be nice about you!" shouted Juliette meekly.
"Yeah well, so did I." Shelby spat back.
"I'm disappointed with you Shelby," interjected Peter. "You've just earned a week of wood chopping before breakfast."
"What else is new?" she grumbled unpleasantly, slumping down in her chair.
Peter rubbed his eyes. "Well, let's continue. Um…. Kat and Ezra."
"One thing I like about Ezra is that he's not afraid to say what's on his mind, even if it gets him in trouble."
Everyone, including Peter, laughed at that one. "Can't disagree with that," he said.
"Alright now," said Ezra. "One thing I like about Kat is that she's like a big sister. You can always go to her."
"Aww, thanks. I'm glad you guys feel you can come to me when you need help." Kat smiled.
"Next, we'll have Daisy and….Auggie."
"One thing I like about Dais is she doesn't let people push her around. She's strong in her beliefs even if they're a little out there."
"I assume you're still referring to my tarot cards, but I'll let it slide…this time." Daisy said. Auggie smiled, a little bit embarrassed.
"One thing I happen to like about Auggie is that he can speak 2 languages. I'd love to learn another, but I don't have the patience for it."
"Very well put you two. See how easy it is to find something you like about someone else?" Peter said, directing the statement to Shelby and Juliette. The looked at each other and turned away.
"Hey Peter, what about me? Who am I gonna go with?" asked Scott.
"Um, you can go with me." offered Peter.
"Alright," Scott paused to think of what he was going to say when there was a knock at the door. It was Ashlyn.
"Sorry I left so abruptly," she said softly. "I needed some air." It was obvious she had been crying.
"It's okay." reassured Peter as she took her place between Scott and Auggie.
"Scott, why don't you continue with Ashlyn instead of me?"
"Continue what?" asked Ashlyn.
"Just follow along," said Scott. "One thing I like about Ashlyn is that she doesn't hate me for practically knocking her out earlier today." Scott said with a laugh. Ashlyn smiled too.
"What?" mused Peter.
"We ran into each other, no one got hurt though." said Scott. He noticed Peter still looked confused. "Don't worry about it, man."
"I think I get this," stated Ashlyn. "One thing I like about Scott, because i still don't know him well, is his eyes. They're so blue it's like floating in the sky or the ocean or something like that."
Scott could feel his cheeks heating up.
"That's so sweet!" grinned Juliette. Ashlyn started to blush as well.
"Oh, look, her face is the same colour as her hair." Kat pointed out. The entire group shared a laugh.
"Well, this seems like a good place to finish for today." Peter announced. "You all seem to be in a better mood now so keep it up."
They began to file out of the room when Peter stopped Ashlyn and Shelby. They looked at each other curiously.
"I noticed you guys talking earlier today, and it looked like you were okay with each other, so I was hoping Shelby, that you would be Ashlyn's first week buddy."
"How can I do that if you've got me on wood duty all week?" Shely reminded Peter, quite pointedly.
"Well, I guess I'll let it slide, if you do this. I'm sure you'll think being nice is enough of a punishment."
Shelby rolled her eyes. "I'd do anything to get out of chopping wood, so…I'll be her buddy."
She pulled Ashlyn beside her and put her arms around her. "We'll get along great and be best friends!" Shelby said with sarcastic excitement.
"Umm….can someone tell me what's going on?" Ashlyn said, a little put off from Shelby's sudden embrace.
"Shelby's going to show you around, keep you company while settling in, help you catch up in classes, stuff like that." Ashlyn nodded. "But if I see anything going on between you and Jules again, you will be back chopping wood." he directed to Shelby.
"Ay ay, oh captain my captain." she replied, giving a salute.
"Excuse me?" Peter said.
"What? We're watching Dead Poet's Society in English, you know?"
"Oh right…..well see ya later, girls." Peter said leaving the room. Ashlyn and Shelby followed a few moments later, walking without saying a word, not knowing what to say to each other.
"So, uh, don't you think Ethan Hawke is totally adorable in Dead Poet's?" Ashlyn offered, breaking the silence.
Shelby stopped dead and squinted her sharp blue eyes. "You know, I normally hate, and I mean hate, getting stuck with newbies..."
Ashlyn had no idea where this was going.
"Don't look so scared, I'm not gonna make your life here a living hell, unless you give me a good reason." Shelby started walking again. "But since we seem to have a mutual interest in Mr. Hawke," she smiled. "There could be hope for you and me."