castaways

~5~

The next morning hazel didn't feel as bad, she still had a lot replaying in her mind but she was slowly accepting what she had done, or what she'd been forced into. She strolled into class the next morning a little late, she wanted to socialise today, make herself not as boring, so she smiled and waved at the class before sitting down, "I take it you slept last night" Emily laughed. Hazel smiled, "mmhmm" she nodded weakly before the teacher walked in to start the lesson.  Jay was stood at the back of the class, it was nice to see her smiling and laughing during class again, but he could still see right through her act, he knows she's hiding something and he knows it's killing her inside.

At around 11:35pm the kids had a break before their next lesson, they were still being made to stay in the same classroom all day which sucked. Jay wasn't really paying attention to what the kids were chatting about when some of the teenagers got a bit loud, "at least my dad wants me" one of the girls from the front of the class called over to hazel who was sat in the back with Emily and the boys. Everyone looked over in her direction, hazel was sat on the desk, "if you don't like me that's fine, but you know... watch your mouth. No need to be so harsh" she shrugged and laughed, whispering the last part to her friends. The girl at the front of the class shot hazel a dirty look as hazel stared at her, hazel was not going to care about her pettiness.

Jay was impressed at how well she took that comment, the girl was out of order by bringing up hazels dad and her relationship with him, "I hate her so much" hazel huffed and turned around to look at josh. Josh nodded, "I can tell" he laughed, hazel just smiled and shrugged, not really bothered about the comment, the firm just winds her up.  The English teacher walked in creating chaos, "did you guys remember that we have the class discussions today?" She sighed.  They all looked around, "ugh yeah..." they lied, they all forgot.  The teacher nodded, "right, we'll get into groups of 5, you're gonna talk about the topics I gave you" she pointed to them all. 

                    Once they were in the groups of five they began discussing whatever topic they had been given, jay had included himself in hazels circle just to listen in, typical, their topic was family.  Hazel sighed at one of the questions, "what the hell is this? You can have it" she shook her head and passed the sheet over to Emily to answer the first question.  Emily nodded and took it before answering her question.  They passed it around until they got back to hazel, "how do your parents show compassion and teamwork?" She narrowed her eyes at the question but everyone was waiting for her to answer it.  She sighed, "Not today Satan" she smiled falsely then passed the paper away.  The group she was working with knew about her dad and her mom, but jay didn't, he just watched as her face turned serious again, maybe this wasn't the best topic to discuss when she's in the circle.

"Haz, you are coming to that party tonight huh? We need you on the speaker, your playlists better than ours" josh nodded. Hazel looked up from her phone and nodded, "yeah I can come, my dad gave me $100 after we had an argument yesterday so I can buy the stuff" she shrugged. Jamie laughed, "sheesh, god if I were you I'd be arguing with your dad all the time if you get money after it" he smiled a little. Hazel shook her head, "I'd rather have a real apology off him, but sure" she looked down again, not really wanting to go into details since it wasn't an argument, it was murder. Jay heard the whole thing, that poor kid, she's so tough...

At the end of the day the kids left the school, jay went back to the district to work on the case, they were nearly done, they just hoped there was no other curve balls that would throw them off. Tomorrow jay wouldn't be at the school since he would need to sit up in a stake out with hailey to watch Norman do some kind of drug deal, but he had just told the school that he was going on some training course and they gave him the day off without second guessing him, how crazy...

                     Hazel was changing into her dress when her dad barged into her room, good job she was decent, "where you going?" He nodded since she was all dolled up.  Hazel shrugged, "to a party" she grabbed her phone.  He nodded, "be careful and don't get into any trouble, we still have to be cautious remember?" He sighed.  Hazel shuddered at the traumatic memories, "I know" she shrugged and grabbed her puffer jacket.  It's crazy what drug money can do... She left the house and walked to Josh's house where they had their party, she was the only one who doesn't vape and if she did, it'd only be the nic-free juul pods since her dad smokes and drinks, she doesn't want to end up like him. 

                  The party ended at around 1:35am so she walked home, she wasn't drunk, not even tipsy, she was just on edge since it was dark and eerie outside on her own.  She was just around the corner from her house when she saw a van pull up by her side, she picked up her pace since it was following her but it made no difference, it was clearly out for her and her only.  She became trapped when a man jumped in front of her, "well your dads gonna have a big shock isn't he?" He laughed and snatched her off the street before the flinging her into the back of his van.  There was another man in the back of the van who grabbed her squirming body and placed a cloth over her mouth, it took no longer than 5 seconds for whatever was on that cloth to knock her out.

She woke up in some random room, she had one ankle chained to a wall and her wrists tied together, she scanned her surroundings thoroughly; a large empty room with no one else in it, many many windows at the top of the walls which let in direct sunlight, only indicating to her that she'd been asleep the whole night and it was now the next morning, not to forget the strong smell of damp and coldness, her stomach was also in agony, she had a funny feeling she was drugged and it wouldn't have been the first time either. She had no clue who had taken her, where she was, or what her dad had to do with this, but she knew he's the reason she's here, it's his fault, it always is.

                    She wanted to yell, to beg for help, but as she tried to scream for her life nothing came out of her throat, it was just silence, great, just great.  After a while of straining her voice she gave up, she was stumped for ideas and she couldn't bear the thought of dying alone, stop it, don't think like that.  She napped out of it and sat up, trying to ignore the pain in the process, looks like it's going to be a scary ride... Maybe this would end soon, today her friends should realise she's not in school, she's not replying to messages and they'll tell someone that somethings wrong, or at least that's all she could hope for...