Chapter Six: Welcome Home

Emily sat on the bus, waiting for the three hour ride to finally be over. She had been sitting there for more than two hours, and she was dying to move around. She was squished in her seat. On one side was the window, which was her only entertainment besides her thoughts on the long trip, and on the other side was an overweight mom with her child sitting beside her. It wouldn't have been too bad, except the little boy kept pushing his mom, which in turn kept pushing Emily into the window.

It seemed that finally the little boy had settled down and she could only hope he would be asleep for the rest of the trip. The mom was fast asleep, and she was starting to drool on Emily's shoulder. Emily readjusted herself so the woman's head was no longer on her shoulder and she once again gazed out the window.

The whole trip she was deep in thought. She was going to miss her friends at the Shiba house, no doubt about it. They had all grown rather close over the past year. She had found an older brother in Kevin and Jayden, a younger brother in Antonio, a big sister in Mia, and a best friend in Mike. She was going to miss them dearly, especially because she was going home to the town full of kids who despised her.

She could only hope that in a big highschool the other kids wouldn't recognize her. That would give her a chance to start over and even possibly make a friend or two. Unfortunately her town was small, and almost everyone would know and remember her. They would all remember her as the small, weak Emily though. This gave her hope that when they saw the new confident Emily maybe they would finally accept her. But she doubted it.

The kids had always picked on her, even in kindergarten. She was the kid who even the nerds made fun of. She was on the bottom of the food chain. Even in kindergarten the other kids had been brutal. Sure, brutal was different from kindergarten to highschool, but still. In kindergarten the other kids would break her crayons, kick sand in her face at recess, and push her off the swings for a laugh. It would only get worse in highschool.

She could only imagine the rumors that would go around the school as to why she was gone. When she left for the Shiba house, her parents had told the school it was a family emergency and she wouldn't be returning any time soon. But now that she was back the kids would make up crazy ideas as to where she had been for the past year. Undoubtedly a rumor would circulate that she was pregnant, or that her parents didn't want her and sent her to boarding school. Both would be hard to prove wrong. She couldn't prove she hadn't been pregnant, the kids would say she gave the baby up for adoption. She didn't have a school transcript to prove she hadn't been sent to a boarding school either. Things were definitely going to be tough.

Before she knew it, Emily's train was pulling to a stop outside the station. The woman beside her jolted awake, along with her son. The boy, energized from his nap, was talking wildly and was practically jumping in his seat. The woman was trying to shush him but was failing miserably.

Emily stood up from her seat and stretched out. It had been a long ride and her cramped position did nothing to make it more comfortable. Everyone slowly started filing of the train. Emily hopped off and looked around for her parents. Serena told her they planned on meeting her at the station but they were no where in sight.

"Emily! Over here sweetie!" Emily heard her mom call from somewhere in the sea of people.

She looked around and noticed her mom and dad standing by the gates with smiles on their faces. She walked over, lugging her yellow bag behind her. When she got to her parents she gave both her parents a hug.

"Welcome home baby." Emily's mom said as she held her daughter close.

***Going Home***

After Emily had left, almost everyone retreated to their rooms. Mike had been the first to leave, clearly upset the team had let Emily leave. He had hoped they would have put up a fight, claiming Antonio could simply make another morpher. But no, no such luck. Disappointed, Mike went back to his room with the laptop and got to work setting up a Skype account so he could be ready for Emily's call as soon as she got home.

Kevin had followed Mike and promised he would help him so he wouldn't break it. That had been partly true, but he also knew someone needed to talk to Mike. He seemed very upset Emily had left and while everyone had said hi to Serena, Mike seemed to be giving her the cold shoulder.

Jayden and Antonio had gone in the dojo to train, claiming that they couldn't miss a day of practice. In all honesty though, Jayden wanted to train. Antonio was just too afraid to talk to Mike fearing his temper would flare because of Emily. He did not want to be at the front of that attack.

That left Mia to give Serena the tour of the house and to show her to her new room.

"And this is your new room! Well, ours. Emily and I used to bunk together, so you can have her side of the room." Mia said as she finished the tour with their room.

Mia had shown Serena the kitchen, the dojo, the common room, and everywhere else she could think of. It was quite a big house so it took awhile before they had finally reached their room.

Serena set her stuff down on the empty bed. She sat down and looked around. The whole house seemed to be very samurai themed as far as decorating went. But her new room was clear of anything samurai besides the ape and turtle zords and the training uniform neatly placed on a chair in the corner of the room. She saw on Mia's side were a few band posters and a pink lamp, but that seemed to be the only decorating she had done.

Overall the room was quite simple. Besides the posters and the lamp, it was almost completely bare of colour. The walls were a sickly looking white, and the floors were wooden. The dressers were also wooden, and in the bathroom everything looked white.

"So what do you think?" Mia asked.

"They have a really nice house. It'll take a little getting used to, but I like it here." Serena said as she smiled at Mia.

"Good," Mia said as she looked at her wristwatch, "Oh goodness. I better get started on dinner. Well you can get settled in while I go cook you a welcome dinner. Be in the kitchen in an hour, okay?" Mia said as she made her way towards the door.

"Oh, okay. I'll be there." Serena said as Mia left the room.

Serena started unpacking, but her thoughts soon went from unpacking to Emily. She shared one of the same worries as Emily. Would high school really be safer for the young girl?