“Ugh,” I groaned and reached over and shut the alarm clock off. It was already 7:00 A.M. I was going to have to rush to get to school on time. Getting out of the bed, I walked immediately to my closet and found a pair of skinny jeans and a green blouse to wear. Then I applied my normal makeup including eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss. After I ran the brush through my hair, I looked around my room for my favorite sparkly flats. After I found the shoes and put them on, I grabbed my things for school and cheerleading practice and made my way down the stairs.
Down stairs I found warm coffee and a plate with a couple of strawberry pop tarts on it. There was also a note next to the plate:
Sweetie, I had to go in early. Hopefully I will see you tonight and don’t forget to have a good day at school.
Love, Mom
P.S. Be nice to everybody, even your new teammate.
I smiled at the note and then rolled my eyes at the last part. I briefly wondered who had been talking to my mother. After quickly discarding the note, I sat down and savored the goodness of my coffee and the sweet taste of the pop tarts before leaving for school.
The whole school day passed by in a blur, and while I was thankful it went by fast, I was quite surprised by Nick’s whole attitude toward my outburst the day before. Normally I would have expected attitude and maybe even revenge of some kind, but he was actually polite and acted like the incident had never happened. I actually kept waiting for him to do something like embarrass me or worse even, kill me. But nothing ever happened.
After cheerleading practice while the girls and I were walking out to our cars, all three of our phones simultaneously alerted that we had text messages. I pulled out my phone to see that the message was from headquarters.
Green Ridge Park 8:00 p.m.
I looked over at Taylor and Sam whose phones were now out as well and nodded. Luckily Hannah and some of the other cheerleaders had already walked off and weren’t there to see the three of us get the same message.
“I guess I will see you guys at 8:00 at Green Ridge Park,” I said to them, confirming what my message said and started to open my car.
“Yep,” Taylor replied, “which of us do you think will get the specifics?”
“Not me,” Sam said. I shook my head.
“Well see you guys later,” Taylor said as we all got into our cars to leave.
I pulled out of the school parking lot and drove toward home so that I could eat dinner and get ready to meet my teammates. It was only 5:20, so I had extra time that I could use to get ahead on my homework. My mind was not usually on homework, but I figured I better get ahead on my school work before the mission distracted me.
Pulling up to the dark house, I could see that my mom was not home yet. Well, I guessed that meant that I would get to pick dinner for the night. I parked and climbed out of the car with my bags from school and walked to the front porch. When I reached the front door, I took my time and checked the mailbox. After stuffing the mail under my arm, I placed my key into the lock and opened up the large red front door.
Because I knew about all kinds of things that go bump in the night, I automatically flipped on the hall light and the living room light as I walked past the switches. It is a habit that my mother and I both have. We leave most of the lights on in the house until we go to sleep. Only occasionally does either of us watch TV in the dark, and then it usually is a scary movie. We are just kind of odd like that.
I walked down the hallway past the stairs to the kitchen and left my school bags on the floor by the kitchen bar. And because dinner was my choice, I called to order a pizza. Since the guy was familiar with me, he just placed the order for my normal large pepperoni with breadsticks. If it were up to me, we would probably eat pizza every day. My mom disagrees and thinks that even if we eat out every day we still need some variety to our meals.
He told me that my pizza would be here in thirty minutes, so I decided I’d better get started on my homework. I hopped up onto one of the stools at the bar and reached down for my backpack to get out my Geometry work. With my text book out in front of me, I tried to start on my homework but my mind kept going other places. There were so many questions running through my mind, and because I had quiet time, they wouldn’t leave me alone.