Chapter Forty-Three

Caliegh's POV

Two months went right by like nothing, bringing my first year at World Academy to a close. Our birthday had passed in April, so now we were seventeen and nearing our senior year in high school. So here I was, trudging down the stairs dragging my bags down the stairs for the summer.

"Going back to Canada, Matthew?" I asked as he trotted down the stairs after me, carrying a few extra books in his hands.

"Hm? Oh, yes…back to live with my mother." He gave a soft smile, adjusting his glasses slightly.

"Good thing Canada is close."

"I live in Quebec, yes." I sighed to myself.

"I live in Texas…" I honestly couldn't wait to kick back in my room, curl up on my soft familiar bed. Although I was not looking forward to the heat, I admit. We both dragged our bags out the front doors, only to find that the whole front lawn was filled with students. "Eesh." I muttered. At the bottom of the steps, I dropped my bags and pulled Matthew to me, enveloping him in a deep hug. Ah, yes. I could still smell the maple. He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly.

"I'll miss you for the summer." He leaned down and kissed my head, proceeding to ruffle my hair. "I have to go now, or I'll miss my flight." I waved with my fingers as he smiled to me, waving back and getting into one of the school cars being driven to the airport. It wasn't even awkward, interacting with him. We were best friends, then a couple, then back to being friends.

I glanced around, looking for more people to give hugs. I briefly saw Lukas, but decided it'd be better to not speak with him. I slowly sat at the last stair, propping my chin in my hands, just gazing around searching for my mother. "See you next year for Magic Club, Caliegh!" Vasilica's familiar Romanian accent rang out, and I noticed he was a distance away with Arthur, waving energetically to me. I smiled a little, waving back.

"Have a good summer, you!" He grinned, dragging Arthur into the car after him. I chuckled under my breath. I was going to miss that crazy guy. Just then my phone vibrated in my pocket, so I slid it out to see who the message was from. A smile twitched on my face.

"Where r u? –the awesome gilbert", the text had read. I rolled my eyes, quickly texting that I was at the bottom of the stairs at the front entrance. No later than five minutes later, I saw him run towards me from the other direction. I slowly stood, a smile etching on my face. Gilbert practically threw himself at me, wrapping his arms tightly around my small body.

"Texas is too far away!" I hesitated for a moment, then buried my face in his chest.

"I'm sorry…I'll call every day if you want." I said, half-jokingly.

"Will you call to say 'Good night, Gil! Ich liebe dich!'?" Not breaking the hug, I kicked him in the ankles playfully.

"Moron," I murmured, feeling the tears brimming in the back of my eyes. Flashbacks of moments throughout the year immediately tore through my mind. I remembered when we first met. He was strangely attractive, yet still a total ass. I couldn't even count how many times he had tried to snake his hand around my waist or under my skirt, or how many bruises I had left because of him doing so. I acted like I wasn't very fond of him, yet I admit, I did harbor slight affection for him. And over time that affection grew stronger. Strong enough to lead up to me kissing him that one fateful night, when I realized that this guy wasn't just some annoying pervert. And eventually it got strong enough for me to be standing in his arms on the last day of school, about to sob my eyes out because I wouldn't be able to see him for three months. Our relationship really had advanced over the course of the year…

I'm not sure how much time had passed with us standing in each other's arms, but the only reason I had pulled away was because I heard my sister calling out to me. She waved me over, setting her bags down so that she could hug me. "I love you," I heard her mutter as I hugged her back gently. I paused, whispering so quietly that I'm not sure she heard me.

"I love you, too." She kissed me on the head (which honestly, made me a little uncomfortable, but I didn't say anything because it would probably cause her to freak out with a rant about how she was sorry or maybe even cry, and I didn't want to hear it). Dad was standing close by, monitoring us while speaking with Francis. I slowly shuffled my way over to him. Gabby had thrown her bags into the trunk of Dad's pickup truck, telling him that Francis was her boyfriend. She left to go chat with everyone else for a bit, leaving me and Francis alone with Dad.

Shit.

"Um….hey. Dad." I attempted to start some small talk, but I knew he wasn't ever one to talk.

"Got tall." He mumbled.

"Tall? Non, you must be mistaking her for someone else." Francis said back, smiling. I gave him a glare that clearly said, "I will murder you in your sleep". Dad never gave me eye contact, instead doing everything he could to look away. I slid my hands in my pocket, not really listening as Francis was doing the typical "If I tell you all about myself will I be able to make you accept me being your daughter's boyfriend?" bit. I watched as Gilbert cheerfully embraced Gabby in a bone-crushing hug. Something stirred in my heart; was it jealousy, or just an overwhelming feeling of sadness that I was going to leave them both?

"Bye, Francis." I said, turning to him and giving a quick hug around the waist.

"Au revoir, cher." He hugged me back lightly.

"Be good to my sister, or I'll make it my personal goal to come after you and cut all your hair off." He gave a nervous smile, nodding slowly. However, his expression melted into love whenever Gabby came back to give him the biggest hug, kissing him full on the mouth for a few seconds. Dad cleared his throat, climbing into the truck. When Gabby pulled away, her face was flushed red, and she hesitantly stepped into the truck, rolling the window down so that she could wave to us as the truck faded into the distance, disappearing down the road.

By this point, the majority of the crowd had disappeared. "Don't worry," Gilbert said, draping an arm around my shoulders, "I won't leave until your parents get here." A smile tugged at the corners of my lips as he prodded my cheek. "I won't get to see you all summer; I want to see you as long as possible." Unfortunately, that time together didn't last long. My mother pulled up in her car, rolling the window down.

"Kay! Come on!" I paused. Not because I was so upset that I was leaving, but because Mother was in her car. How had she managed to get her car here? Didn't she fly up here-? Nonetheless, I snapped myself out of it and threw all of my bags in the back seat. "And who is this?" She was waving her perfectly manicured hand towards Gilbert, who was swaggering his way to the driver's side of the car, tapping on the window to roll it down. She did so, gazing over her sunglasses to judge him.

"Hallo, miss, and are you this lovely girl's mother?" Mother raised her eyebrows.

"Are you her boyfriend?" She grilled.

"Nein, but I will be one day!" Oh my goodness, Gilbert, shut the hell up.

Mother was silent for a few seconds. "So you're after her? I don't want my daughter going out with hooligans like you." My god Mother, please stop talking to him.

"Hooligan? I assure you, I am not a hoo-"

"Mother, this is Gilbert!" I interjected, laughing nervously. "He's just my best friend, trust me…" I waved my hands frantically as I spoke, hoping to get my point across that this conversation was not going a good direction.

"The hell are you doing with your hands, child?" Mother snidely remarked. Gilbert's expression was an utterly confused one.

"Have you never noticed she speaks with her hands a lot, miss?" My shoulders fell, shaking my head hopelessly.

"So you notice little things about her?" She narrowed her eyes at him, finger sliding on the button to roll the window up.

"Ja, of course. Like when she's really concentrating, she'll furrow her eyebrows and purse her little lips. It's cute when she's tired, because she blinks a lot to try and st-" I groaned, smacking his arm. "And she gets abusive when she's pissed off." Mother's finger clicked the button, rolling the window up. Gilbert pouted, and the unexpectedly, he had embraced me fully again. This time I stood on my tip-toes and wrapped my arms around his neck. He pulled me up off my feet, cradling me in his arms.

"…I'm going to miss you." I muttered, smiling sadly.

"Hey, I'm gonna see you over the summer. I promise." He tapped my nose. I could feel myself wanting to cry, but I couldn't. So I settled with kissing his forehead, then sliding out of his arms.

"I should go now…bye." I waved to him one last time. Ugh, I was being emotional and stupid. I knew it wasn't like I was moving; it was only for a few months. I could handle this. I slipped into the passenger seat of the car, sliding down and propping my feet on the dash.

"Put your feet down, young lady." I groaned, slowly pulling my feet down. "So he wasn't your boyfriend? You sure seemed close to him." She was already driving away.

"I told you, Gilbert's simply my best friend. I don't have a boyfriend." The car was silent except the faint sound of the classical music radio station playing. "You don't seem too fond of him."

"His eyes were red, were those contacts?"

"He's albino." She cast a glare from the corner of her eyes.

"You're hanging out with a permanently diseased boy, getting close enough to kiss his forehead?" Something snapped in my head.

"You talk like he's a disease himself!" I sat upright, looking directly at her.

"He is."

"You're a disease." I muttered bitterly. Wow, I really did not remember her being such a cold-hearted person. Maybe I had just changed…"So Gabby goes to this school, too."

"That brat?" She sneered. Okay, I wasn't going to speak at all if she was going to treat me like this. I plugged my headphones in my ears, crossing my arms as I turned up my music as loudly as it could go without it hurting my ears too much. However, I noticed we weren't going in the direction of the airport.

"Where are we going? This isn't the right way."

"Didn't I tell you? We have a summer home up in Pennsylvania that we got while you were at school." I huffed, shaking my head. Wait, Pennsylvania? My eyes widened, and I quickly whipped out my phone to confirm something. Yes…Pennsylvania was the northern state that Gilbert lived in, the neighboring state of the one that my sister and Francis lived in. Even though the United States was rather large, I couldn't help but get excited because we literally lived only states away.

O~O~O~O~O~O

When we pulled into the driveway, a slight sigh of awe left my lips. This was definitely a beautiful home to be using every summer. There was a large balcony above the doorway, where I could see my fourteen year old brother and four year older sister looking down at us, just waiting for us to get out of the car. I waved up at them.

"Hey, Josh, Ansley!" Josh's freckled face lit up and he grinned, waving, saying something to Ansley. Her eyes widened as she peered out the steel bars on the balcony, waving enthusiastically to me.

"KAY!" She yelled, sticking her head between the bars.

"Don't get stuck," I chuckled, slipping in the door. I heard her stomping down the stairs as she came running to greet me, throwing herself against my legs. "Well hey, there." I picked her up, kissing her cheek. "Have you been good for Mommy and Daddy?" She nodded quickly.

"Nuh uh, she's been evil." My brother yelled from the top of the stairs, trotting down to where I was. At fourteen, the boy was only slightly taller than me. And he was short for his age. And he was quite the looker, I admit as his sister. With his sandy blonde hair that he usually spent around thirty minutes on, blue eyes, and freckles covering his cheeks and nose, he usually had a lot of teenage girls ogling over him. Not to mention he was the star on the school baseball team, and played football for the town.

"How have you been?" I questioned, ruffling his hair and setting Ansley down to go run off to her dad. He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.

"Well I hooked up with this girl before school ended. Hot. Name's Selena." That's my brother, getting girls left and right without lifting a finger or messing up his hair. "Did you get any guys while at your prestigious school, Kay?" I shifted my weight, nodding. "Ooh, spill." Sometimes he was just like a girl, I swear. Though growing up with only girls, I understand.

"My first one, well. It wasn't a very good experience. Remember Gabby?"

"Yup, your twin, right? What does she have to do with it."

"Okay. Well my first boyfriend, Lukas…turns out he was gay for her boyfriend." He stood there, a smile twitching on his face.

"Dude…that sucks. Did you have more?"

"Yeah, one was my best friend. His name was Matthew. And because we were best friends, you know. It didn't work out. He lives in Canada, though…"

"A Canadian?" His eyes widened slightly.

"The first one was from Norway." Mother slipped around the corner, arms crossed and thin eyebrows arched. So she must've been eavesdropping…

"You dated a gay Norwegian?" You could practically feel her rage emanating from her.

"In my defense, he was just using me to make the other guy jealous. I didn't know." Joshua clicked his tongue, disappearing into the living room to avoid this argument that was starting up.

"Homosexuals go to hell, Kay. You probably will too, now." I had always known she was homophobic, but now I wanted to smack her. However, I knew that if I did I would probably be smacked right back, harder, and not given dinner for a week. So I shut up. I couldn't believe she was acting this way. Was this really how I was raised to be? I must've been an awfully prissy person at the beginning of the year.

"Sorry." I huffed. She shook her head as if she couldn't believe what I was saying, storming off to probably do something dirty with her husband like she was still a horny teenager. If this was how it was going to be all summer, then I couldn't wait for school to start up again.

O~O~O~O~O~O

A few boring days later, I was still locked in my room and cuddled into the blankets on my bed, staring on my phone just waiting for it to go off so I could talk to someone. I reached off the bed and grabbed my laptop, opening my email tiredly. Not like I was going to have anything…oh wait.

"Roderich Edelstein…" I breathed, clicking the unread email from my teacher.

Miss Higgins,

I just wanted to see if your summer was going alright. I recently found a choir you may want to look into for the summer, and I thought of you. If you are interested, please email me back as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Roderich Edelstein

My heart skipped a beat. As I read this, face heating up. He thought of me? Well…I clicked the link that was attached, reading through the website. It was definitely something to look into for the summer, yes…

Mr. Edelstein,

That seems very interesting, thank you! I will look into it, and have my mother email you with any additional information if you require any.

Caliegh Higgins

Josh poked his head in my room. "What're you doing? Your face is all red and stuff. Are you talking to a crush?" A flustered blush crossed my cheeks and I slammed the computer shut.

"No, leave me alone!" I snapped at him. He raised his hands in surrender, backing out of the room. I furrowed my eyebrows, biting my lip slightly. He was crazy…No. He was simply a teacher I strongly admired. Nothing more. Right? …Hopefully?