So, I'm really sorry that between chapters 2 and 3, I'd left you since October (8 months without me updating this story?!). Anyways, now that summer is here, I'm going to try to update more often.
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.Groundings and Moving Day.
It was the first day of my sentence—the day right after a great night with friends at a local bar.
I'd gotten my books for the semester in the mail today, and I was reading through them, highlighting, and spending my time catching up to the rest of my classmates. I felt like Hermione Granger—but without the frizzy hair.
To be honest, I wasn't overly excited about joining the masses at Spencer. It was early January and the new semester was starting in a week and a half. I'd already missed a whole semester, and it wasn't like they were going to slow down for little 'ol me.
But that's okay. The classes were somewhat similar to the ones I'd been taking in Aspen, and really…it was my senior year and so long as I passed nobody really cared if I'd actually learned anything.
Colleges don't really even look at what you learned. They look at your grades and your entrance scores. I'd already done above average with the entrance exams—which I took in October—so really I just needed C's or above for my class scores. Easy.
I'd gotten offers already via the mail. Harvard, Yale, Columbia … all of them had offered me scholarships—some of them were even full ride. But really, I don't know if I want to go to college. Sure, it looks good on resume, but all I wanted to do was just buy a small house in a nowhere town, paint, write and play music, and maybe start a small, indie-style jewelry business.
You don't need a degree for all that. Just common sense.
But society doesn't value common sense. It values yes-men, guinea pigs, and grovelers.
Essentially, that means I'm screwed. I'm not dumb enough for society.
Ironic, right?
What was also ironic was that Reid was throwing pebbles at my window…while I was looking out it. Like, I didn't see him sneaking through the woods to the side of the house where my window was? The loon. And loon number two joined him.
Tyler, being slightly smarter than loon number uno, didn't pick up a stone to throw at my window, but waived instead.
Loon number threw the cigarette he was smoking to the ground and smashed it with his toe. He nodded to me.
As quietly as was possible, I opened my window and poked my head out. My long, untied brunette hair dangled below me out the window. "What?" I demanded in a whisper.
"Do you want to go do something?" Tyler asked. "We can sneak you out."
"They're listening outside of my room for signs of life every half hour or so. No luck. Sorry." And I really was sorry. I hated being in here.
"Well," Reid began in a tone that sounded both mischievous and suave, "how about we come up there? Keep ya company. We'll be quiet."
I considered this for a moment. It wasn't a horrible idea. Well, except for the fact that I really doubted they could remain quiet. My parental and Liam would figure something was up as soon as they'd hear noise from my usually silent room.
"I don't think it'll work. Sorry. But I'll be at Spencer in a week just before school starts. Once I'm there they can't really enforce the grounding. I'd be living with people—friends—who have internet, phones, and everything else I'm grounded from."
Tyler nodded, but looked disappointed all the same. "Yeah. That's true. Oh well, we thought we'd try. I'll see you in T minus 6 days."
"Bye," I said as they started walking away. Reid turned to wink at me before they'd completely disappeared into the woods.
Then I was alone. Just six more days.
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It was six, long, hellish days. I took my meals in my room—why would I want to eat with my 'family'?—and Lei, being the great sister she was, at with me. It was like a picnic three times a day on my quilt covered bed.
That was one of the many reasons why I adored my sister.
Soph joined us after every meal. Being the age she was, it was harder for her to escape my parents. I felt horrible that Lei and I would be leaving her alone in the house with our parents during the school year.
Lei and I made her a necklace she could palm when she missed us. It was a leather necklace with a Trinity pendant. We knew very well what the Trinity stands for religiously, but seeing as we were three very close sisters we thought the Trinity would be a good choice.
Every time Sophia saw our bags and boxes that were packed and ready to go to Spencer, she cried.
Right now, after eating our last lunch in this house until June, Sophia was curled up in my lap, teary eyed and clutching her arms around my waist for dear life.
I brushed her long blond hair with my ice cold fingers. She didn't mind the cold though. She would take my cold fingers touching her face for the rest of her life if it meant I wouldn't leave her. But I was leaving her.
I needed to be away from the house so I could concentrate on my last semester of high school. After that, I was taking what money I had and moving away.
Lei would take care of her after I left. When Lei graduates, she plans on moving in with me. Then, Sophia would really be alone. Unless something were to happen to our parents, she'd be stuck without us for a good fifteen years. But Lei and I already decided that we'd make sure she wouldn't feel alone—daily phone calls, letters, gifts, frequent outings, etc.
Maybe dad and Geraldine would let us convince them to allow Sophia to come live with us. They would get an early empty nest. They would see the benefit, but whether or not they'd go for it I wasn't sure.
Anyways, Tyler was coming to get our stuff. His Hummer was large enough to fit all of our bags in the trunk.
Geraldine gave us permission to take Sophie with us while Lei and I moved into the dorms. That would at least give her extra time with us.
A honk outside alerted me to the fact that Tyler had arrived.
Dad was out of town, so Geraldine thought that the whole 'no friends' rule could be disregarded so that Ty and his boys could help us move into the dorms.
Geraldine was not so horrible at times.
Liam, however, made up for it.
He kept saying that he could help us move, and that we didn't need Tyler's help. I told him where to stick his crap.
Picking Sophie up so I could carry her on my hip, I went down the two flights of stairs to let Tyler in the front door.
When I opened the large oak doors—imported from our family home in England—it wasn't just Tyler at the door. It was Reid. My understanding had been that Tyler would get us to the school with our stuff and that the other boys were just going to help us unpack.
Oh well, it just meant that the bags and boxes would be cramped even more into the trunk. Maybe we'd have to take two trips. That was okay though. I was beginning to like Reid a bit.
"Hey cutie!" Tyler grinned, poking Soph in the ribs. She squeeled, and told him to knock it off.
She was four and disliked being treated like she was three. I didn't blame her. I'm 18 and still get carded for rated R movies.
But she was cute. That fact couldn't be denied.
"Sophie isn't heavy enough to be in a car without a car seat yet. I hope you realize that, Ty." I was specifically referring to his having brought Reid.
"Yeh, I know. It'll be a tight squeeze. I wasn't sure how much stuff you had, so I thought it'd be better to have more muscle. Where's Liam?"
"Geraldine sent him grocery shopping. He was pissing her off." I grinned. He'd been pissing me off as well.
Tyler shrugged, "Oh well. I thought he might like to help."
"He's not in the helpful mood," I replied, my jaw clenching a bit.
"Okay," he smiled knowingly.
Reid was getting bored. "Okay, okay. Cut the chit-chat. Where's the crap we're moving?"
I laughed. "Upstairs. Tyler can show you while Lei and I figure out the car seat."
He and Reid headed upstairs, and I called for Lei. "Let's go figure out the seat thing!"
"Coming!" came her voice from the kitchen. She'd gotten a craving for Geraldine's brownies which had just come out of the oven.
Geraldine had a lot of faults, but poor cooking was not one of them.
With Sophie holding my right hand, I grabbed the large car seat with my left.
In Massachusetts, a child has to be in a car seat until they are five years old and 40 pounds. Sophie was four years old and 36 pounds. Four pounds short and a year too young. Big bummer.
Lei came out to help while I was heaving the seat into the Hummer. She opened the other door so she could pull it from her side. It took us a good ten minutes to figure out how to buckle the seat in, but we did it.
Reid and Tyler were bringing their second load of boxes down when we excitedly proclaimed that we'd figured it out.
"Congrats," said Reid as he shoved his load of boxes into the trunk.
"We've just got one more trip. Be back," Tyler winked. He and Reid ran back into the house.
Just one load? Really? I looked in the trunk.
Sure enough just two duffle bags were missing. I raised my eyebrows.
"Hm. That definitely takes talent," Lei stated when she saw that almost all of their stuff had fit into the trunk of the Hummer.
"Well, it's a definite bonus that we'll only have to come back to return Sophie," I said quietly to Lei. Sophia still wasn't happy that she had to come back.
"Yeah, just don't tell her that."
Reid and Tyler came hauling out of the house. Reid reached the Hummer first, stuff his load into the trunk and held his hand out. "Fifty bucks, white boy," he said to Tyler.
"White boy?" Tyler repeated. He was out of breath as he shoved the remainder of the stuff into the vehicle. He pulled a fifty dollar bill out and handed it to Reid. "I'm as white as you are."
Reid smirked. "Yeah, whatev. Let's roll."
Lei and I helped Soph into her seat before getting in ourselves. When everyone was in and buckled up, Tyler started the engine and we were off.
My mouth dropped half an hour later when we arrived at the school. The brochure pictures had made the school look about a quarter of the size that it actually was.
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