Don't Wander

Consequences

A flashlight shined on us as a voice said, “Well, well. Lookie what I found. What are you two young ladies doing snooping around here in the middle of the night, hm?” Neither of us could say anything, so he continued, “Alright, come on out here and give me your names.” We did as he said, and once we were outside, the moon and stars illuminated the man. He was a police officer.

“Fantastic,” I muttered. The police officer took down our names and addresses, and then followed us to my house. I had explained to him that my mom was working, so he had me call her. She got home shortly after we did, and she looked pissed. The police officer talked briefly with her, and then left with Britt to go to her house.

“Inside now. I have to get back to work. I’ll talk to you about this when I get home. Don’t even think about going anywhere else, or so help me, you’ll wish I hadn’t given birth to you,” Mom told me angrily. Then she left. I was so dead. Despite my fear, I was exhausted. I went to bed, but I tossed and turned for a long while. I pondered the things I had learned about Eden. What happened to his parents? Why was he here, of all places, now? And why couldn't I stop thinking about him? Eventually I fell asleep and dreamt of familiar green eyes.

I awoke the next morning hoping everything had been a dream. After getting dressed, I trudged downstairs to eat breakfast. My mom had already made something and was eating. It wasn’t a dream. She was never awake when I got up for school. I made myself a plate and sat down across from her, and waited for her to speak. It didn’t take long. “I cannot believe you Rebekah Elise.” The dreaded use of my middle name. I was in big trouble. “I am so ashamed of you right now. Do you have any idea what it’s like to get called by a police officer in the middle of the night and hear that your child has broken into her school?" She didn't wait for a response. "No, of course you don’t, because you’re not a mother. However I never even considered you’d misbehave like that. My bosses do not look highly upon me leaving work to handle my criminal for a daughter.”

“I’m not a criminal, Mom.”

She paused, holding her mug of coffee halfway to her lips, “So what do you call what happened last night? Being on vacation?”

“No of course not, but we didn’t steal anything, and we didn’t technically break and enter.”

She brought the mug down onto the table firmly, demanding, “Oh so that makes everything okay?”

“No!" I shook my head vehemently. "I know it was wrong, but we just got caught up in it. I’ve never done anything like that and I won’t do anything like it again.”

“You’d better not. The principal is going to meet with you sometime during school today. I don’t know what his punishment for you will be, but I know what mine is." Her mouth formed into a grim line. "You’re grounded until further notice. You will not leave this house except to go to school and other absolutely necessary places. I will expect you home no later than four every day. If you’re not back by that time, I’ll call you, and you better have a really good excuse. None of your friends can come over and you can’t go see them. During school you can have your phone for safety reasons, but as soon as you get home, it’s mine until you leave for school the next morning. Got it?” I nodded my head, getting up from the table.

After cleaning up my dishes I left the house. The bus was late, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to Britt before classes started. We were barely halfway through with English class when both Britt and I were called to the office. We got the usual looks from our classmates as we left the room. “So how’d your parents take the news last night?” I asked Britt as we walked.

She replied, “They screamed at me for, like, an hour. I’m grounded this entire semester. It sucks. You?”

“I didn’t get the talk until this morning since my mom had to get back to work, but I’m grounded too. She didn’t tell me for how long though. I guess it’s ‘til she feels like un-grounding me. Who knows how long that will be?”

“Maybe you’ll get lucky and it won’t be for very long. She should go easy on you cuz you’re, like, the good girl. You never do bad stuff. You’re totally a goodie two shoes.”

“Hey! Am not," I elbowed her playfully. "I hope my mom feels the same way though.” We entered the office and the secretary eyed us like we were roaches invading her kitchen.

“Rebekah, you may go on into Mr. Greene’s office. Brittany, take a seat,” she told us in a clipped tone. Britt and I exchanged looks.

"Good luck," I murmured to Britt.

"You too," she replied, biting her nails. I took a deep breath and opened the door to the principal’s office. I immediately saw the wiry middle-aged principal sitting at his desk.

“Hello—Bek? That’s what you like to be called, correct?” Mr. Greene asked as he pushed is glasses up on the bridge of his nose.

“Yes sir,” I said as I sat in one of the two old chairs in front of his desk. I had never actually been in the principal’s office, so I looked around. I noticed the shelves behind Mr. Greene’s desk were mostly decorated with hummingbird knick knacks. I thought that hummingbirds were an odd choice for a man to be collecting, but to each their own I supposed.

“Now Bek, I’d like for you to describe the events of last night to me, beginning with when you decided to go through student files.” I related the entire story to him, minus the details about Eden. He sat there contemplating for what seemed like an eternity before he finally said, “Since, according to you, this was not your idea, and before this incident, your record is clean, I will let you off easy. I will have to notify every student whose records were found out of order about the possible invasion of privacy, and you will be suspended for five days, starting tomorrow.”

“Yes sir. Thank you.” An entire week? My grades were going to suffer for this. What would people think? What would Eden think?

“You may go back to class,” Mr. Greene said, dismissing me.

I mouthed, “Suspended” to Britt and held up five fingers. She bit her lip nervously and then went into the principal’s office.

When I returned to class, I got some more curious looks. I dared to glance at Eden before sitting at my desk, but he wasn’t paying any attention to me. I knew that wouldn’t last long, but I sighed with relief. Britt returned shortly before the bell. Throughout algebra class I kept sneaking glances at Eden. Eventually he caught me, and I turned red with embarrassment.

At lunch, I sat with Britt and we told our friends what had happened. “Holy crap you guys,” Ben said.

“I could never have done that,” Kerry whispered.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal. We didn’t break in or anything, and we didn’t damage anything. The police guy didn’t even care that much. It was mostly just school and our parents that freaked out,” Britt explained.

“Speaking of that, Britt, what’s your punishment?” I asked.

“Seven days suspension starting tomorrow,” she replied.

“Why did they give you seven and me only five?” My forehead creased with concern.

“Cuz it was ‘my idea’ and my record is a little longer than yours.”

“Oh,” was all I could say.

“Whose files did you look at?” Morgan wondered aloud.

“Our own, my ex, Jeff’s, and that new guy Eden’s,” Britt said. At that Ben's eyes snapped to meet my own.

“Why did you look at his file?” Ben asked.

Before I could answer, Britt said, with a wave of her hand, “We just wanted to know a little bit about him.”

“Find out anything interesting?” Jordan inquired.

“Not really,” I said hastily. Britt gave me a questioning look, but didn’t call me out on it. I then changed the subject.

. ***

When I returned home after school, my mom was waiting for me. I gave her my phone and went straight to my room. She didn’t seem to mind. I did my homework, even though I wouldn’t be at school to turn it in the next day. I needed something to do. I took a shower after I finished my homework, and then turned on my computer. My mom hadn’t forbidden me to use the internet, but I locked my door just in case. I typed the name of one of the foster cares from Eden’s file into the search bar. Nothing related came up. Puzzled, I tried a different foster care. That one couldn’t be found either. I shrugged and gave up. I turned the computer off and after an unusually quiet dinner with my mom, I went to bed.

The next morning, I got up and went down stairs. My mom was in bed, so I called the public library on my phone that was laying on the kitchen table. I asked the woman who answered if they had any information on the foster cares I had searched the night before. “One moment please,” she said politely. I waited several minutes, and kept peeking at my mom’s bedroom door nervously. When the woman returned, she said, “I’m sorry, but there are no such foster cares on record here. Can I help you with anything else?” I declined and thanked her for her help.

After I hung up, I started pacing. The foster cares in Eden’s file didn’t exist. What did that mean? Why would someone make that up? I was beginning to wonder if Eden was who he claimed to be, or rather, who his school file claimed he was.