Author's note: the beginning of this chapter is a reference to The Virgin Suicides.
Jane opened her eyes and found herself lying on the ground in the middle of the football field. The sky had acquired a bright tone of blue, but there was still some time before the rise of the sun. Jane didn't see anyone or heard a sound. When she turned around she saw Charles lying next to her with his eyes closed. Jane looked at him, unsure of how did she want to feel and got up. She started to walk away, hoping that Trent had left the door open all night or that she could get in through one of the windows.
It was at that moment that her conscience kicked in.
You can't leave him alone there, what will happen if everyone gets here and he's still asleep?, Jane thought as she stopped her walking. She sighed and turned around.
"Charles" she called him ". Charles, wake up, we have to go".
Charles woke up after Jane touched his shoulder and he seemed astonished from the first moment he woke up.
"Uh... Jane" he hesitated ". Hi, I... we...".
"We'll have time for talking about that later, now I need to go home".
He hadn't really noticed anything but Jane. But as soon as she had brought up the going home situation he reacted. They had fallen asleep in the middle of the football field the night before and had spent the night there. In an hour or so there would be people walking around the same place where he had slept with Jane. If it had been up to him, he would had decided to stay sitting there with her and talk for the rest of the day, but she had to go home and so did he.
Without saying much more, they both left to their respective houses.
Jane kept her mind busy with figuring out how to get inside her house without a key, in order to avoid having an awkward conversation about the night before with herself. She tried her best option first: the doors. Sadly, they were closed. She didn't insist much with them, worried to make too much noise. After a few attempts, she managed to get in the house through the window in Penny's room. She walked through the hallway carefully, making sure nobody was awake, and the time it took her walking from one side of the hallway to the other felt too long.
When she reached her room, she closed the door and sighed, relieved. All she wanted to do was to go to bed and wake up several hours later, but she knew, after checking a clock, that she had only half an hour until the time she normally woke up. She couldn't really relax herself enough to sleep, that required a few minutes of mental silence she couldn't afford at the moment. She was thinking about many things: had her parents noticed her absence? Was Trent angry or worried about her not coming home the night before? Was she going to be able to bear with school that morning? With the questions rushing through her mind like lighting and screaming like thunders, Jane made it through those thirty minutes standing in the middle of her room with a thunderstorm in her head. It was the sound of the alarm what brought her back into reality. She stopped the alarm as quickly as she could, grateful for being back inside her quiet room but annoyed by the familiar noise that interrupted her sleep every morning, and took a shower. When she got downstairs she found the Lanes, Vincent, Amanda and Trent, having breakfast. Her parents were wearing their pajamas and Trent had already taken a shower. She, apparently, had taken more time than she had thought. Contrary to her perception of time in the hallway earlier that morning, the shower had felt like it hadn't last enough time.
"Hello, Darling" Amanda greeted with a smile and a plate with pancakes and maple syrup.
"Good morning, sweetheart" Vincent said putting down his newspaper for a moment to see his daughter.
They didn't seem to have noticed a thing, which meant Trent had kept his promise to keep the secret. He, however, was not looking at her and seemed to ignore the mere fact that she was even there.
"Morning, Trent" Jane said.
Trent kept his serious look while he was concentrated on his breakfast.
"Hey, Jane" Trent replied dryly without looking at her.
He had stressed the word Jane, but he didn't even have to for Jane to notice that her brother was upset. He was angry, probably about her breaking her part of the promise. Jane could feel the tension between her older brother and herself, which made the breakfast a little uncomfortable and rather quiet except for the moments when her parents talked to each other. When breakfast time was over and Jane went to her room to pick up her backpack, Trent approached her when she was going to leave her room.
Jane was expecting to be yelled at, to hear disapproving commentaries. She, instead, got a hug.
"I was worried" Trent whispered without getting his arms off his sister ". I was mad at you for leaving and... were you with...?".
"Trent" she interrupted him ". I'm okay, nothing happened" she lied ". Don't worry. Thanks for not telling mom and dad".
"No problem. We're good. I have to go get my stuff and go to class now, so I'll see you later. Bye, Janey".
Jane felt happy and released after hearing him call her by her nickname.
The first part was over, her family had been easily bearable, more than she had thought. She had the second and more stressful part of the day right in front of her: school.