Tight-Knit Family

Something Bad Is Happening

Dylan

And so, just like that, Em and I were back at school. Life fell into some sort of a routine, and it felt good. The same type of good I felt back when I was first adopted. It felt like I was the king of the world, like nothing could stand in my way.

"It's funny. Our school feels brand new to me, yet at the same time, it doesn't." I said to Emma, who was walking down the hall next to me on the way to our first period class.

Emma nodded and squeezed my hand. "No, Pickle, I get it, that's a normal feeling. But let me ask you this, are you happy to be back here?"

I thought about it for a second and then slowly nodded. "Yeah. It's going to be good seeing our friends and teachers again. And I'll get to see Caleb. I haven't talked to him since everything went to shit a few weeks back."

"You mean- your friendship-wise or our family-wise?"

"A little of both. But anyway, that's all in the past now. Our family's not completely broken anymore, Caleb probably forgot about everything that happened, and life is good! I just need to catch up on the crapload of schoolwork I missed and then everything will be just fine and dandy!"

Emma nodded and then smiled as she reached her classroom. "Well, I'll see you at lunch! I have my next class with Niki, I'll see if they want to sit with us. I love you, Pickle!"

"Love you too, Em! I'll see you once my hellhole of a Spanish class is over."

_______

The first half of school, for the most part, went well. I got a lot of "Dylan?" and "Where were you?" from the people at school, but I didn't mind. I didn't go into detail about what went down and why I wasn't at school for so long, I just gave them the simple "family issues" and they seemed to understand.

"Pickle!" Emma called from across the cafeteria, waving frantically from a table in the corner. Emma's partner Niki was picking at their food, and to my surprise, Caleb was sitting at the table with them.

"Hey guys! Niki! Caleb! I haven't seen you two in forever, how are you?"

"Good!" Niki said with a grin. "I missed seeing you guys in person, it feels like forever since I've heard from Dylan. How's life?"

"Life." I said. "But in all seriousness, things are way better at home than they were a few weeks ago." 

"That's good. Hey, I'm sorry about all that happened, that must've been awful. You guys didn't deserve to go through that, I mean, weren't you two just adopted a couple of months ago?" Caleb interjected.

Em and I nodded at the same time. "Yeah. I'm just happy I have a family, we both are."

Caleb and Niki both smiled, then Caleb pulled me aside.

"Dyl, once lunch is over I need to talk to you about something." Caleb said with a smile. 

Holy. Shit.

This could only mean one thing. Caleb loves me. Caleb loves me and he wants to date me and we're going to get married and live in a tiny house and-

Woah. I just went totally overboard, didn't I?

"Yeah, I'll talk with you before cla-" I started to say, and then was cut off by my phone ringing. "Caleb, it's my dad. I need to take this." I said, stepping out of the cafeteria to take the call.

"Papa, what's going on? Is everything okay?" I asked, feeling my breath grow shallower with the panic.

"Dylan.. get your sister. Auntie Charlotte is coming to pick you two up from school in about five minutes, make sure you guys are all packed up and ready to go once she comes."

"Papa, what? Why are we getting picked up? I'm so confused-"

"It's your dad, kiddo. He's in the hospital."