40 Oakvale Road

Chapter 4

The next morning, I woke up with dreary eyes and the memory of what had happened the previous night. I didn't tell Cory Gabby or Courtney about what had happened, but I was anxious to get to Leah and confide in her. I wasn't sure if she had made her decision yet, and I owed it to Will to tell her how committed he was. As my friends packed up their stuff and prepared to go home, I tried to get a look into Leah's house and see if she was up yet. But for some reason, she had drawn the curtains in her room so I couldn't tell. Instead, I sent her a text: "Need to talk to you, it's about Will. Text me back when u get this!" She didn't reply quickly as she usually did, so I went back to jittery waiting.

At around 12, I walked my friends out to Courtney's car, and we all exchanged hugs and goodbyes. Courtney climbed into the driver's seat and Gabby climbed into the passenger's, while Cory sat in the back. They rolled down their windows and waved as they drove away. I waved back, watching the car disappear down the road. Then, I took a deep breath and turned back to my house. Leah still hadn't replied to my text, so I decided to try her front door. I walked over and rang the doorbell once. I could hear the old-fashioned sounding bell ring throughout the house, and then the sound of heels clacking which indicated Leah's mother, Catherine, was coming to the door. Leah's parents always dressed up very formally, especially on Sunday when they went to church. Today, her mother greeted me at the door with a floral dress, a pale green cardigan, and a string of pearls around her neck. She pulled open the door and offered me a small smile.
"Avery, dear, what a surprise. How are you?" she said.
"I'm doing well, Catherine, thanks. I was wondering if Leah was around."
Upon hearing my words, she frowned a little and pursed her lips. Not a good sign.
"Well, Avery, I'm going to be honest with you since I know you and my daughter are close. Leah is grounded."
I let out a soft sigh. I should've know this would happened, I should've talked her out of skipping school that day.
"I guess that means no phone, right?" I said.
"Yes, we have taken away her phone for the moment," Catherine replied.
"And there's no chance I could just talk to her for a while?" I tried.
"Avery, please don't think I'm trying to punish you," she began. "I know you're a good girl, and quite frankly, I appreciate the time you spend with Leah. But she needs to learn her lesson. It won't go undisciplined for her to skip school, especially this close to exams."
"I understand, Catherine. Please just tell her I need to talk to her, as soon as her punishment is over," I said hopefully.
"I'll tell her. You have a good day now," Catherine said, indicating our conversation was over. I nodded, and made my way back to my house.

•••

The sleepover had left me feeling drained, and I stumbled through the school week like a zombie. Catherine was right that it was close to exams, and that just meant teachers were piling on the homework. I barely had time to eat between studying and finishing assignments, and I wasn't able to catch up on sleep. Even if Leah hadn't been grounded, I wouldn't have had anytime for our daily afterschool hang outs.

When Friday came, I was so grateful that the week was almost over. But still, as I sat in my last period class, it felt as though the day would never end. I asked the teacher for a bathroom pass to kill some time, even though I didn't really need to go. I was walking down the hallway slowly, looking at the murals on the wall painted by art students, when someone suddenly bumped into me. I stumbled a little, mostly shocked by the sudden movement, as I tried to regain my balance.
"Avery! I'm so sorry!"
I looked up to see myself face to face with a guy named Oliver. He was in a few of my classes, but I hadn't talked to him much before. He was a bit of a nerd, as far as I was concerned.
"It's ok," I assured him, glancing at the door he had burst out of. It was to the boys bathroom. I look curiously at Oliver, wondering why he was in such a hurry to leave.
"What happened?" I asked.
"There's smoke in the boys bathroom. We need to pull the fire alarm immediately!" he squeaked.
Just then, someone else emerged from the bathroom. It was Jack, another guy I hadn't talked to much, although I was considerably more friendly with him than I was with Oliver. He immediately turned to Oliver, and said "Dude, there's no smoke, you don't need to pull the alarm." Oliver seemed outraged by this.
"There was smoke, I smelled it. Don't try to lie to me, Jack!"
Jack turned to me, pleading. I wasn't quite sure why I was still standing there.
"Please help me out here, Avery. I promise there's no fire, me and my buddies were just playing around with a lighter," he said. I took "playing with a lighter" to mean something else, but I decided to help him out anyway.
"Oliver, don't worry about it. If he says there's no fire, you can believe him. Just let it go. You wouldn't want to get in trouble for a false alarm, right?" I asked him.
"Well...no, I certainly don't," he mumbled.
"Exactly. Just go back to class and pretend this never happened," I told him. With that, he scurried back to class, leaving Jack and I standing in the middle of the hallway.
"You're a live saver Avery. Thanks." Jack said.
"No problem," I replied.
"Hey, you're coming to my bonfire tonight, right? I think we could all probably use a break from all this work," he chuckled. Right, the bonfire. Melanie and Kat had told me about it last week.
"Sure, I'll be there," I said. He grinned.
"Awesome. See you there," he said.