Chapter 8

The next day was rather boring and sluggish. It seemed to go on forever, each minute crawling away into eternity. For my "mental health" Ailidh made me stay in bed all day, only allowing small periods of time where I could go to the bathroom. I shuddered deeply every time I went into it, the whole room a nightmare that wouldn't get out of my head. It was almost as if I was sleeping and I couldn't wake up, coming back again and again, never leaving, and driving me slowly insane. I took to closing my eyes before going or holding it in until I would almost wet myself. I drew circles in the sealing with my eyes, waiting for something to happen. Anything to happen, anything at all. But nothing did. I could faintly hear people talking outside in the hall as the walked by my room. I sat up, and listened hard, hoping to make them stay. The silence was lonely and I longed to see people. It was like I had been imprisoned in my room for millions of years with no human interaction with the exception of my forgetful father. I found my breakfast, lunch and dinner in the living room, although I heard no one come in. I waited after breakfast to see who would come to pick it up, but I fell asleep. When I awoke, the tray that had carried my toast and orange juice, was gone and replaced with a tray covered with chicken strips, fries and a milkshake. I was getting special treatment but I couldn't bring myself to eat it. My appetite was simply gone. So I left the tray in the living room and waited. I heard the door open and then suddenly, it closed. There was a bang on the window, I went to see who it was, but there was no one there. When I returned to my place beside the door, the tray was gone. I was beginning to think that someone didn't want me to see them, but I was to tired to find out who it was so I simply grabbed my supper of rice, peas, corn and pork from the table and flopped down onto my bed. I put the tray onto my bedside table and was barely in between the covers when my eyes closed into submissive unconscious.

When I woke my bed was surrounded by people, and I felt how I imagined Snow White must have felt when she awoke to find the seven dwarves standing around her. Only, my dwarves were regular sized people and they were all wearing orange… Hmm… My brain went into over drive as I thought of all the reasons that they would be dressed like that, finally deciding to choose between them being sent of to jail because they nearly scared me to death, or the boarding school had insinuated a uniform while I was asleep. Somehow, the first one seemed a little more likely, since I doubt that anyone would be LEFT at the school after they insinuated that rule. I looked each person in the eye, trying to reason out why they would be in my room, surrounding my bed at… I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. 12:37 pm. No one spoke up, they just continued to stare at me disbelievingly until I sat straight up in bed and yelled, 'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?!' at the top of my lungs. They seemed to come out of their trance, if only for a moment, then there was a snicker and finally, everyone around me broke down laughing.

'Nice makeup, Kara!' Mocked a girl from the end of my bed, I didn't know her name, or even her face but the words stung as I got out of bed and walked as calmly as I could into the bathroom. My face was a mess of reds, whites, blacks and purples. It looked like someone had slammed a door on my head repeatedly while I slept.

Quickly, I washed off the ridiculous makeup and walked back into my room, a glare fixed onto my face. I deliberately singled out the people with the loudest laughs and the mocking smiles as the culprits, but instead of making a fuss I simply asked, 'What's with the orange clothing? Don't tell me, the fashion police finally caught up with you. ', it wasn't the best burn, but at least it got them to shut up about my makeup for a second.

A small quiet girl who had been standing at the far back stepped up a bit and began to speak, her voice barely audible and hard to understand because of her accent, which I couldn't seem to place. 'I'm really sorry Kara, they said that they just needed to clean out your garbage, I didn't realize that they'd do that.' Her big brown eyes looked so sad and sorry that I simply nodded. She sucked on the end of her shoulder length black hair, and continued, ' Every Friday night at 5 pm one side of the house cleans up the dorms, all the dorms. Actually, really all we do is take out the garbage, but they call it cleaning up. This weekend its our turn. We spilt up, some of us went to the guys dorms and we came her to the girls dorm. Galena is with the other girls. I went ahead to get some more bags… I'm REALLY sorry! ' She finished; her hair was almost completely gone into her mouth. All I could do was say it was okay, and you know what? I really felt like it was. I really didn't care that they thought I was a clown. I'm a newbie; I guess it was just tradition, like Devon said. The kids stopped laughing. I laughed and jokingly told them to get out. This school wasn't half bad if you didn't let the kids get to you.

My dad called soon after they left, but I simply let the phone ring. I didn't want him to wreck my happiness. No matter what he had to say. Galena dropped in while the phone was ringing, raised one eyebrow and smiled. Like a telepath, girls always know when to let the phone ring.

She mentioned that Devon was outside and he'd been asking to talk to me.

"Actually, its more like, begging." She said with a wiggle of her eyebrows and a huge toothy grin. She raised her hands in front of herself and dropped down onto her knees in an imitation of him. I couldn't help but laugh with her and climb out of bed to see for myself.

I walked out of the room and to the door, Galena whistled and I turned to look at her. She jestured at my body and I looked down. My wrinkled Pj's met my vision. I shrugged and thought, if he doesn't like me when I look like crap in my favorite pj's then he isn't worth it.

I opened the door and stepped into the hall, closing it but keeping its handle in my hand just in case I wanted a quick escape.

"Um.. Uh… Hi…" Devon said, and scuffed the floor with his shoe. His hands were clasped behind his back and he wouldn't look me in the eye.

"Hi." I said, and then thought, Great conversation Kara, This is simply riveting. "What's up?"

"Uh… Not much… I'm… Well… I was just wondering…" He replied. It was so cute how he was stuttering but way out of character. Devon always seemed like the class clown, or the cool guy. Sometimes nice, sometimes not. Never shy.

I looked up and down the hallway and sighed. Ailidh large cushy looking body was coming towards us from the end of the hall. Her hair was in 2 messy buns on either side of her head and her plaid skirt seemed to be on sideways, her shirt half open at the bottom. One of her stockings had a run in it and she was missing a shoe. Ailidhs face was makeup free and sweat covered, a bruise forming on her cheek. She looked in short, like she had just been in a fight.

"Are you all right?!?" I called out to her and ran to her side. She wobbled on her feet a bit and I heard the scream of someone downstairs. Daman cursed and grabbed her arm, "Where is he?" He asked her urgently.

"He's downstairs, he couldn't find you. He is worse this time… I'm so sorry." She replied and touched Damans arm, trying to comfort him.

"Who's downstairs?? Who?" I found myself asking, completely confused by the happenings.

"Stay up here with Ailidh. Do not come down stairs until I come back and say its okay. " He said, ignoring my question and ran down the stairs quickly, whatever it was that he was going to ask me forgotten.

I opened the door to my room and sat Ailidh on the sofa in the living room, bringing her a cold compress, a glass of water and 2 Advil before I sat down opposite to her.

"So, what was that about?" I asked, after she downed the Advil and almost all of the water.

Gingerly, she placed the compress on her cheek, then began.

"Devon has a brother who is 3 years his senior. Devon's brother was extremely protective of him when he was younger, and they were very close. " She swallowed the last of her water and continued, " A few years ago Jamie, that's Devon's brother, began to have panic attacks and rush into Devon's school to see if he was alright. He soon became very aggressive and frankly unreachable by anyone but Devon. When Devon moved into the boarding school permanently the attacks became, more frequent, more aggressive. Usually, he's fine when he arrives but sometimes, like today, he can't find him and freaks out."

I nodded, amazed that his brother hadn't been taken to the hospital for help.

"Today, I was simply in his way and he lashed out." Ailidh sighed and finished, "He was such a nice boy when he came here…" Her voice wistful, her eyes focusing on the past.

I got up and filled her glass again.

"Will Devon be mad that you told me?" I asked, worry seeping in about how he was and needing an outlet, even if it was asking about him in a different manner.

"No child, of course not!" She replied, a small smile on her face.

I sat down heavily on the sofa then got up and paced the room. I simply couldn't keep still.

"I'll be right back." I said, and I left the room. My worry was getting the better of me. I went down the stairs and opened the door just in time to see Devon strap Jamie into a seat in a blue truck parked on the drive way then walk around to the other side, get in and drive off. From what I saw, Jamie and Devon looked a lot a like, but Jamie's hair was army style and he wore dark green sweats and a white men's tank top. I watched them leave, then turned my attention back to the drive way and the silver convertible sitting there. Someone coughed behind me and I turned around.

I looked up, straight into the eyes of my Father.