Road Tripping with the Baseball Team

Pulling up into the driveway of my boyfriend's house for the millionth time, I hop out my legs catch the warm summer breeze. Carter's jersey tucked away in my bag since he let me wear it for the last baseball game. I tried to make him wear mine but it was kind of tight on him and he refused to wear it so I just decorated one of his white shirts with my number 22 on it.   Walking up to his door the gravel crunching under my flip-flops, I rang the doorbell and within seconds it opens revealing Carter, and Isaac. They have become so much closer since Carter revealed his secret and also our plan for the summer. But in all honesty, I was worried I might be getting replaced...   By Isaac, their bromance is so real at times it’s kind of scary. They flirt and fight like an old married couple. But it was cute and it was nice to know Carter had someone to rely on with any kind of secret instead of just me. Not saying that he can't rely on me, but it's like me not having Kelly and having to tell carter all the awkward and embarrassing things that I need to vent to someone of the same sex   "Ah the munchkin finally arrived," Isaac said.   "Shut up you're just really freakishly tall," I said walking past him into the living room, making myself at home. And getting a seat on their couch.   "Wow, I just love that my best friend and girlfriend get along so well," I heard Carter say before he sat down next to me. I turn to face him and kiss him, on the cheek smiling.   "So, how's your dad?" Isaac asks.   "He's been better I suppose. But he's hanging in there," I say looking down. Sadly, Papa T, as Kelly likes to call him got into a minor car accident but they still had to take him to the hospital to check and make sure he had no internal bleeding or brain damage. It turned out that he had a tumor, but thankfully it wasn't inoperable. They had recently just operated on it and he's making a great recovery so far. He's still in the hospital. I've been either sleeping at the hospital when Mary, a really nice nurse that's there and allows me to stay or at Kelly’s' and occasionally at Carters; cue the blush. But don't worry we haven’t. um, well... yeah, know... yet were taking things slowly like they should be.   It's nice.   "That's good," Isaac says awkwardly, yeah, I wouldn't know how to respond to that either.   "Yeah I mean I'm actually really glad he got into that accident or we would have never known about the tumor," I say not really expecting a reply.   Instead, I received a kiss to the top of my head, Carter of course.   "So, what are we doing first, where are we starting?" I ask   "Well, I know that my foster parents kept everything from my childhood down in the basement. They don't ever let me in there for some unknown reason so I suggest we start out there." He says in one breath.   "Ok, do you know anything else about your mom?" Isaac questions   "I made a list, it has the jail she was in and our old house, and a few of her old jobs on their also."   "Okay, that's good let's get down to the basement, before your parents get home," I say standing up.   We all followed carter down to the basement. The concrete steps cold beneath my sock-clad feet. The basement was a decent size. The floor was carpeted and there was a leather couch with a television hung up across the room from it. I'm going to go on a hunch here and say that this was somewhat of a man cave for carter's foster dad frank. Being that there was a bar and a pool table down here also. But to the left of the room, there was a door. And that's where we ended up.   "I hope this door isn't locked," I heard Carter say under his breath.   Taking a deep breath, he opened the door. The room wasn't anything like the rest of the house it was a pretty small square room, with a single light in the middle of the room. Creepy doesn't even start to define this place. There were shelves scattered on the wall filled up with old knick-knacks and a few dusty books and the occasional snow globe. To me, this looked like an antique room. But in the middle which made up most of the clutter were stuffed animals to soccer or football trophies and a few board games. The dark maroon walls complimented crème colored carpet the only normal thing about this room.   Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carter crouching down trying to grab something.   "What is it?" I asked him   "This was mine; I always went to sleep with it as a kid my mom got it for me. And when I came here, I would ask where it went and my foster parents would always say the same thing when I asked ' I'll tell you when you're older, or when you're older you'll understand." he says looking confused.   "Maybe it's a clue or something; does it have a zipper or Velcro in the back?" Isaac asked, dare I say this was the smartest thing that has come out of his mouth yet. Inwardly laughing.   "Yeah, there, is a zipper down its back."   Just as he was about to unzip the back, we heard someone coming down the steps into the basement.   "I thought your parents weren't coming home until later," I whisper-shout to Carter.   "Yeah well, I guess there was a change of plans." He hastily shoves the bear toward me.   "And what would you like me to do with this shove it down my shirt?" I whisper sarcastically. In return, he gives me a sheepish grin " Oh hell no, it’s way too obvious you take it." I said trying to make him grab it.   "Just put it in your shirt and keep your arms crossed no one will notice a thing and just stand behind Isaac I'll do the talking." Carter quickly says.   "Fine," I said feeling thankful I was wearing a loose shirt and easily slid the bear in my shirt, letting it rest right on my stomach and my arms instantly wrap around it. Hopefully disguising it.   "Happy?" I questioned.   "Yes, very now get your pretty little ass to the back of the line," Isaac says.   I purposely bumped into him while walking to the back of this makeshift line. And instantly feel a slap on my ass.   "d**k," I whisper to him what an asshole.   Nothing new.   "Will you children shut the hell up?" Carter says looking back at us making us instantly shut up; I give him an innocent smile. "Ok I'm going to open the door and we are going to just come straight out so their backs are to us so, be as quiet as possible,"   Putting his plan into action he opens the door slowly, and we tiptoe out of the room towards the stairs were halfway up the stairs when the worst possible scenario happens only to me.   'Squeak' goes the board I just stepped on   And 'poof' goes the chances we have on getting out here without being caught Chapter 2: My breath caught in my throat; I squeezed my eyes shut as if that would disguise me. Note to self; it turns out that's not the best method when you're trying to escape.   I locked eyes with Carter who was looking around frantically. I'm guessing no one has heard us yet since they haven't said anything yet.   "Carter, is that you?" I heard a deep voice say, gathering that it was his foster dad I got even more nervous. He sounds huge if that makes any sense.   Focusing on the task at hand, we all just decide the rush up the stairs.   "Yeah, it was me just wondering if you were home," Carter says making that up really fast might I add.   "Good thinking," Isaac says voicing my thoughts for me.   We quickly follow Carter to his room rushing in the door, I lock it behind me and come face to face with two not so happy looking boys.   This can't end well.   "Don't look at me like that," I said keeping my eyes downcast and walking over to his swivel chair that I absolutely love.   "You almost got us caught!" Isaac says with over-exaggerated hand motions.   "Sorry, how was I supposed to know the stairs would squeak and besides were fine now," I said trying to prove my point.   "As much as I love hearing your guy's constant bickering, we need to open that zipper." Carter interrupts our fight.   I grabbed the stuffed animal out of my shirt and unzip its back. At first, all I saw was stuffing but, I stuck my hand in and felt something hard, grabbing it I found out it was a flash drive.   Spinning around in the chair I face the computer that's on top of the desk. Turning on the computer I wait for it to load.   "What do you think is on it?" Isaac asks   "How the hell am I supposed to know I thought it was just a stuffed animal," Carter says bitterly since he had just found out he was lied to by his foster parents.   "Maybe they didn't know." I offer   "Bullshit, they knew and decided they couldn't tell me." He says plopping down on his bed, with his hands behind his head.   "Well you won't know until you ask them, you should at least confront them," Isaac says giving his opinion.   "As much as I hate, and I mean hate to say this but Isaac is right. Maybe it will give us more information." I say   "Hell has just frozen over, you guys actually agreed on something," Carter tries to make light of the situation, but his smile doesn't fully reach his eyes.   Looking back to the computer it's finally on, gripping the flash drive in my hands I plug it in. and look over my shoulder and Carter is sitting up in his bed stiff as a board. I don't know why he's so nervous right now. Anything could be on here, but hopefully, it helps.   A file pops up me immediately click on it and a slide show of pictures show up. First is a picture of at least 25-year-old she's gorgeous. Hazel brown hair in a short bob and those dark chocolate eyes I've seen before, on Carter of course. She was actually quite tall maybe 5'8 or so, she was stunning.   "That's my mom, before she um, got arrested." Carter choked out.   "There's a slideshow of pictures let's just go through them, pull up a chair or something guys," I say Isaac grabs chairs for both of them and they take a seat on either side of me. I look to my left notice Carters’ hands are clamped in a tight fist; I gently take his hand in mine I can feel him relax as I intertwined our fingers together. I look up at him and flash him a shy smile which he returns.   "Ok let's do this thing." I heard him say.   So that's what I did, the next picture was of his mom dressed in all black at a funeral, it showed her with a black dress that went below the knee, but the strangest part was that she had long wavy blonde hair.   We all looked at each other confused so we kept looking. The next picture really threw us off because it was a close up of her face and it showed she had green eyes when clearly her natural color was brown. They must have been contacts.   The next picture was like the icing on the cake, it was a picture simply of a gravestone, with what I'm guessing is her name on it, along with the year she was born and the year she died and the date which was around this time last year.   "What. The. Hell?" Isaac says.   "Agreed," I said looking over to Carter who seemed like he was in a trance.   "Just click the next one." He says emotionlessly.   I quickly do so and the next picture takes the air right out of my lungs. It's the exact same gravestone except theirs a mourner in front of it. It's not just any person it's the exact same person who is supposed to be six feet under.   Carter's mom wasn't dead, as far as we know she's alive and well still with the same disguise on but this time she had on a long winter coat, leggings, and boots to match.   "Okay, what the actual f**k is going on?" Carter says raking his hand through his hair.   "Well at least we know she's alive," I say rubbing his shoulders.   "Yeah but none of this adds up first she's attending a funeral and not just any normal one her own, did I mention she had a disguise on?" Isaac says.   "Maybe she's running from someone, or is being blackmailed." I offer.   Those are both good possibilities. Why would anyone fake their own death out of the blue there has to be some sort of motive behind it? We all sit there stumped.   "Wait how the hell did this flash drive even end up in the bear, these photos are recent?" I say looking at both of them frantically.   "Maybe someone broke in," Isaac says   "Someone could have done it when no one was home," Carter says.   "But why, that's the real question, what was the point of planting it in there, and how did they know we would find it let alone look in there?" I question.   None of this is adding up. First, we find a bear which Carter's foster parents claim to have lost, meaning they knew it was down there. Or maybe they were telling the truth and someone planted it in the room downstairs which meant someone broke into Carter's house.   Then we find out theirs a flash drive with evidence that Carter's mom faked her own death but why like I said who would fake their own death for fun there has to be a reason behind it.   The only thing I know for certain is that Carter's mom is alive and faked her own death. And that's not much.   "How could someone find out we were looking for her?" Isaac questions.   "Was that the last of the pictures?" Carter asks.   Looking back to the screen I notice there is, in fact, one picture left