Maple Ridge

Chapter 2

Fiona Anderson

A few days later...

I sit down at the breakfast table, thinking about all that has recently happened as my cornflakes get soggy.

We are on better terms now. The past week, we have talked and he told me how he had gotten out of rehab a month back and was just booking his flight back home, when he heard about what happened. It had been all over the news.

'A mentally ill, 34 year old women found dead by her 15 years old daughter'

I still hated him, but I guess I was learning to put up with him. I was almost ok staying with him until he told what he was planning to do.

Flashback

I leave my room to get some water from the kitchen when I hear my dad call me. Confused as to why he was calling me, I asked, "What happened? Where are you?"

He tells me he is in his bedroom, mom's former bedroom. I slowly walk into the room to find him sitting on the bed.

"Come sit. I have to talk to you about something." I quickly go over as his voice sounds serious. When I give him a questioning glance he says, "Just listen to me before you start over reacting, ok?"

"Ok, just tell me what's up" I say, getting impatient.

He takes a small break and says, "I have decided to send you to boarding school-"

"NO! I WILL NOT GO!" I shout in his face. Not believing he had the audacity to say that to me.

His face falls a little as he says, "It will be good for you to be away from this place."

Tears form in my eyes as I realise that he is trying to leave me again. In a shaking voice I say, "You promised me that you wouldn't leave me again" and I look away. Not wanting him to see my tears.

"Bubba, I know you don't want to go. But it's the best thing to do right now." He says softly.

"How? How is that the best thing to do?"

"Look Fiona, I don't have a job, I am not financially stable, I have just gotten out of rehab after more than a year now and my wife was just found dead" He sighs as he takes a pause. "You have got to give me a break. Just go there for one year. If you don't like it, then you can come back here for your graduation. OK?'

I look him in the eyes for a moment and then get up and leave. I can't believe he was sending me away.

-------------------

I am supposed to leave the day after tomorrow. And I haven't even started to pack.

I am going to the 'Maple Ridge School for Girls' which is supposedly located deep in the Appalachian Mountains.

I can't believe that I am going away. I haven't even told Olivia yet. She has been my friend for so long. I don't want to leave her.

But when I really think about it, I don't have anything else to leave behind.

How does it matter though, all I bring is sadness and destruction.

It will be good for me to start new. To stay away from the people I care about and love. A new tear starts to leak out of my eyes but I hastily wipe it away. I will not cry anymore.

I don't know what to think! I don't want to go. But I have to get away from all this.

My mind is a big mess right now. With all these things messing with my head, and thoughts scattered all over. I leave the house and get out my bicycle from the garage.

Cycling always clears my mind. I ride my bike all the way across my neighbourhood and down the street towards my school. I see the big building loom before me. The place that I have attended for that last two years.

I stand my cycle against a pole and sit down on the sidewalk. Feeling a little better now.

I think about all these years I have spent in this town. This town where nobody really knew me. Or wanted to know me. I was a nobody.

That's when I decide what I want to do. I decide that I want to leave this useless town behind. I want to start new. Maybe that would help.

I slowly cycle back home. Taking my time, looking around in a way that I had never before in my whole life.

It felt kind of good, in a weird way.

I reached home, parked my cycle in the garage, and went inside.

"Hey Fi, want anything to eat?" dad calls from the kitchen. "I am making some pasta" he continues in a sing song voice.

I reply back with a, "I will have some with you" and go to freshen up a little.

I enter the kitchen a few minutes later to smell the cheesy smell of hot pasta. But somehow it doesn't really appeal to me as it would have a few weeks back.

Still, I take a seat at the table and say, "Dad, I have decided that I want to try this new school. I have decided that I want to go"

Dad turns around to look at me as I say this. I can see the happiness gleaming in his eyes.

He rushes towards me and wraps me in a huge hug.

"You are getting pasta sauce on my clothes dad!" I say. He quickly takes the spoon away from me and stands back.

"I am so glad that you have decided to go. I guess I have got something to give you now though"

I give him a questioning glance as he walks over to the living room cabinet. From the top drawer he takes out a white plastic bag.

He hands me the bag and sits down in front of me.

Inside the bag I find 2 brand new pairs of school uniform.

White shirt, Emerald green tie and skirt, and a jet black blazer. This uniform is way better than my current one. I look up at my dad and give him a huge smile. At least something good came out of this school.

"Do you like it?" Dad asks me. "Yes! I love it. It is much better than my current uniform"

I pause for a second before saying, "Not that I forgive you already" giving him a glare. His face falls for a second before I assure him, "I am joking. I am joking" with a small laugh.

I forget for a moment all that was going wrong with my life. This tiny moment of happiness makes me forget all the sorrows.

That night, we have one of our last meals before I go miles away from him again.

***

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-S