The City of the Unexpected

Chapter 2

Faith:

The next day, Rose and I woke up much earlier than usual to get all the housework done as we did not want to come to such a close call again. Once we were done we immediately left the house and rushed to the bus stop, trying to get away from the house as fast and as far as possible before my parents woke up.

Once again on the bus, we received rude remarks and horrible looks from everyone on the bus (if looks could kill we would be 6 feet under a long time ago), and once again, Jethro waved us over to the two free seats next to him. "Thank you," I mumbled softly, I then focused my gaze on the seat in front of me, obviously trying to avoid a conversation.

"Hey, how's your eye?" Jethro asked, sounding concerned. But I know. I can see right through that act. He doesn't care, he never did, he wants something, I can sense it. I unknowingly touched my left eye, the one that landed on the book the previous day after being tripped. It still slightly burned and was still slightly swollen but as I said, he doesn't care. "It's better now, thank you," was my curt response.

As the bus slowed to a stop, I immediately stood up from my spot and rushed Rose and I off the bus before Jethro could catch up and try to strike up another conversation, but alas, my efforts were in vain. "So, where do you guys go in the first period?" Jethro asked. I silently heaved a breath and carried on walking trying to avoid conversation again.

I could feel Rose's eye roll from behind me as she replied, "The rude one over there goes to Chemistry first and I go to English, how about you?" I turned my head slightly to the right, just enough to sneak a glance at her and said, " I'm not rude, I am simply not in the mood for conversation and we are late as it is so it makes no sense to strike up a conversation now when i am practically going straight to home room now is there?"

Rose gave me a look that is similar to one that someone would give a person who grew a second head. "Aren't we in the same home room?" Jethro asked, scratching his forehead in thought. "Oh..." I trailed off and looked at the ground embarrassed. How did I forget?

"Okay, well in that case, I need to go to my locker anyways, I will see you guys in my home room, bye. Don't follow me, or I will stab you," I said while giving them a tight lipped smile. As I walked away, I heard Rose sigh and say, "Don't mind her, if you have gone through what we are going through, you would understand her better."

As I was walking towards my locker, I could not stop all these thoughts from flowing through my mind. The same thought kept on showing up... What will happen if Rose keeps Jethro around? What will mom and dad do? I came back to reality when I started unlocking my locker, I was surprised how fast I got there. I took out my first 4 lessons books, put the other books in as well as my lunch box, closed my locker and went straight to my home room.

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School was uneventful, it was just a normal day of being pushed and shoved and a few new bruises, which my parents won't be happy about since they didn't inflict them themselves. Rose and I were seated on the bus waiting to leave and go home. I was staring out the window, unaware of what's happening around me and deep in thought. I came back into reality when Rose started shaking my shoulder. I thought we were home, but when I looked out the window we were still at school. I looked over at Rose and saw that she was scared but excited. I frowned but then I looked around and saw Jethro standing behind her and I already knew what was going on.

"No," I said, instantly glaring at Jethro and staring out the window again.

"Faith, please..." Rose started, but I interrupted her instantly.

"No, you know what mom and dad will do the moment he steps into the house, do you really want him to see that? Do you really want to lose your first 'friend' in years?" I put air quotations around the word friend because, quite frankly, I don't know who he is to her anymore.

Rose nodded and bowed her head.

"Goodbye Jethro," I said to him, glaring, making sure he understands that he cannot change my mind on this one.

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Once we got off the bus we immediately started speed walking home, too scared to be late when getting home because of the consequences. I started slowing down half way, I had this strange feeling like we were being watched, I stopped in my tracks and started to look around.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, looking in the direction I was looking at.

I did a final check around us with one final glare and started walking again.

"Faith?" Rose asked, worry evident in her voice.

"It's nothing, I'm probably being paranoid, but I feel like we are being followed," I said, still looking from side to side as we walk.

"Yeah, you are definitely being paranoid, I would have noticed if we were being followed, Faith," As she said that, we picked up the pace because the fear of being late came crashing down on us once again.

Once we reached the small fence surrounding our house that used to be white but is now a light brown from all the dust, bad weather and neglect, I opened the small gate in the middle of the fence and let Rose walk through first so I could close the gate behind me and do one final sweep of the area with my eyes to make sure that I was just paranoid and not being followed. We walked up to the porch together, too scared to go alone because we might receive more of a beating than usual, and rang the bell since even, we ourselves, aren't allowed to walk in straight away. If we did, we would get a bottle smashed over our heads.

As my parents opened the door, their usual harsh glare turned harsher when they looked at something that was behind us and I'm sure that we both thought, "Help," at that moment because we didn't know how bad it was going to be that night.