Anywhere But Here

Chapter Twenty-Eight, Zyra's POV,

Chapter Twenty-eight, My Night,

It's almost dinner now and Jori's trying to get me to go outside with her, but I just want to mope around. She keeps on telling me about how things will get better, I know they will because of her book, but things won't get better for me instantly. Nothing just instantly makes you happier when you are sad, it just takes time. We are sitting on my bed, Jori and me, she just keeps repeating how everything will be okay and patting my head. I hate it and I want her to stop. I want her to leave me alone and just let my day go by. I honestly just want to lay here and stare at the ceiling the whole day but someone knocks on the door. I jump and Jori throws the door open. I wish I could say it was Dawn there, that she came back for me, but no, it was my tutor. The woman who said she was my tutor and wanted to see if I was good at writing so she could take me to some crazy place in New York. She smiles at me and Jori. Then she walks into the room and plops her backpack down on my dresser.

"Jori I have a lot of stuff to test you on to see if you can come to this place in New York, if you get a lot wrong and are not able to come, we will find you something else" She says lightly, "We will need Jori to leave, though, sorry Jori"

"It's okay, I'll just go over and say hi to Austin," Jori says and walks out of the room.

I am now alone with the woman who is now my tutor. She has long straight blonde hair and big bulky glasses. She is now rummaging through her bag and pulls out a book with two faces on the cover. She makes me read the first few pages to her and I do without a single error. Then she wants to check my spelling and grammar. I get a lot of the grammar one's right but less of the spelling. She says everything to me calmly and smoothly like if she says one word like a normal person, I'll break out in hives. Next, she wants to check my writing, so she gets a laptop out of her bag and has me type on a document. She tells me to describe the wind blowing through the trees. I haven't ever been very fond of using a laptop so it was slow for me to type but when I was done, she told me I did a fabulous job. At least everything she is having me do distracts me from the reality of Dawn. My heart aches every time I think about her. I just want to hold her hand again, talk to hear, hear her voice again. I must be staring off into space because the tutor snaps her fingers in my face. She then tells me I have to take a super long test to see if I can join the place. I fail it on purpose and I can tell she knows that. I can't leave Telford. I can't leave my sister and this orphanage, I just can't. I can't leave the place where everything is familiar and feels like home. I won't go to a different state for a million dollars because this place is my only home.