The Girl Who Was Adopted

Chapter 16 - Hibernation Isn't For Another Six Months

Exams were four weeks of Hell, with my phone taken away and the only time I was allowed to be free was when I was on the school premises; and that was only during exams, Clare made sure to fetch Sarah and me from school as soon as our exams ended.

I hadn't had a chance to try and talk to either Ryder or Kit, and when there weren't any exams for Ryder to write, he hadn't shown up at school. The first day that Ryder had returned to school for his exams, he'd been very different; as though a switch inside him had been flicked.

Tyler hadn't made an effort to contact me, but I assumed that he was busy living his life, and I accepted that he didn't have time for me; besides, since Sarah and I were living – pretty much – like prisoners, we'd spent more time together in the house.

The only time I had been allowed out of the house, other than for exams, was to meet Sabrina for our usual Monday lunch at the Coffee House; she'd been constantly encouraging me to study and asking about how it had been going; I realised that having two mums wasn't the worst thing, and it was nice to have someone who only wanted to know about what was going on in my life.

I finished my exams a day before Sarah, and I proudly received my phone back after Clare had returned me to the house after my final exam. It was officially summer.

After watching Sarah leave to write her final exam, I waited for the clock to strike eleven before I dialled Ryder; I knew that Ryder had also finished his final exam the day before. I was proud of the fact that I'd finished my exams a day before Sarah, and we'd had a good laugh about the fact that I couldn't stay up and watch the next episode of 'Awkward' without her.

"Hello?" he yawned into the receiver after the second ring.

"Pick me up, we're going to celebrate summer," I said. I missed spending time with Ryder and I hoped that he felt the same; it's not that I didn't want to be at the house, but I knew that Clare would have been upset about the idea of Ryder and I being at the house together, alone.

"I'm sleeping," he deadpanned, and hung up. I redialled him and he answered straight away. "What?"

I rolled my eyes. "Hibernation isn't for another six months, and it's our first proper day of summer." When he didn't respond, I sighed, "I feel like I haven't seen you in months."

There was a silence before he sighed, "Give me twenty minutes."

"Nineteen," I answered playfully before hanging up. I climbed out of bed and slipped into a pair of shorts and sneakers, glad that the summer was looking positive. I grabbed a hoodie and my wallet before heading downstairs to the kitchen.

I sat on the counter while I waited for Ryder, and I thought about the last time that Alex and I had spoken. He'd told me about his current life – which included him living in the basement of our aunt Linda's house (who had apparently fought our uncle Henry for hours to let Alex stay), and he had told me about his current month old relationship with a very sweet girl. I tried not to let it bother me that he hadn't told me about the relationship at the first chance he had, but I assumed that if we'd been living together as family, he probably wouldn't have told me either.

I was very proud of Alex, nonetheless; he'd also told me about how he'd gone back to high school and he was successfully juggling studying and the night shifts he worked at a café down the road. He had completely changed from when I had first met him, and I wondered if I had had anything to do with the changes.

Ryder knocked on the front door and I walked over with a packet of biscuits in my hand. I pulled open the door and smiled before Ryder pulled me into a hug. It felt a little awkward, but I gave a tight squeeze, feeling as though the summer was definitely going to get better. "Let's go," he said as he pulled out of the hug. He grabbed a biscuit from the packet as I grabbed my keys.