Finding My Normal

Ch 11: Meeting Betsy

Registration day was exhausting. Mentally speaking. I was at school all of one hour and my brain is now on overload with whatever is going on between the guys, what problem Nathan seems to have with me and my encounter with Mr. Perfection.

After getting my final schedule and my mom signing off on it. I told Kota I was feeling sick and couldn't make it over to his house. I'm sure he knew I was lying. I couldn't exactly look him in the eyes as I said it, but he wished me well anyways. As did Victor and surprisingly Nathan.

Now I'm sitting crossed legged on my bed staring at the small attic space where my assignment file is. I want to read that last page, but at the same time I don't. Okay Sang! Get up on three. One...Two....Three!! 

 I don't get up.

What am I afraid of? The sinking feeling in my stomach that my sightings of him at the mall were no coincidence is what I'm afraid of. If they weren't coincidence that means he was following me.

"We will be back to get you soon..." Runs through my head over and over. If this man is related to what happened to my family it is my duty to take him down. The only way to do that is to get close to him.

At this I get up off the bed, march over to the attic space and swing open the small door with a bang. I crawl in and retrieve the folder and sit just inside the door so I still have light from my room to read the file.

I flip to the last page and find nothing but a picture and a few lines of text. Steel gray eyes, the same gray suit, red tie and black rimmed glasses. Pure perfection, but that's it. His name, job title at Ashley Waters, his faculty picture and a line stating his mother is deceased.

He's even more of a mystery now. Nothing in this file can help me understand who Mr. Blackbourne is. No prior jobs, nothing about education, degrees, childhood, where he lives.

Nothing.

Is that a good sign? I don't think so Sang. He's a ghost and the only reason someone would need to be so undocumented is if they are hiding something. I need to find out what it is.

After dinner I prepare for my first day of school tomorrow. I pack my new backpack with the supplies I purchased at the mall with Kota and Victor. I put my cell phone in the front pocket along with the extra emergency money Dad gave me. I also pull out the clothes I will be wearing so I don't have to rush in the morning. I open my closet and go through and find a bunch of new clothing that I have never seen before. I pull the first one out and notice a note from my parents.

A new wardrobe for a new start

I grab a new pink skater skirt and a black and white stripe tee. I set them on my dresser so they are ready for me in the morning. Then I get ready for bed.

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I wake up at exactly 5:45 a.m. from the nightmare I was having. It was the last day I was in foster care except this time the man who broke into our house wasn't wearing black pants and hoodie. He was wearing a gray suit and red tie.

I spend the next few hours before I have to get ready for school convincing myself that the dream was just my anxieties about my assignment, starting school and not knowing anything about Mr. Blackbourne.

Finally my alarm goes off at seven and I get up to get ready. I bathe, put on the clothes I laid out the night before, twist my hair up in my handy dandy clip and have breakfast. As I head outside and wave goodbye to my parents I see that Nathan is waiting for the bus too along with a boy and girl further down the road. That must be Derrick and his sister. I should be friendly to him for my assignment. Kota comes outside and runs over to me.