A Doll of Hope

Chapter 7

The next morning, Christie woke up on her own for once. She stretched her arms high over her head and yawned.

"Goodness gracious! I slept like a log. Usually my alarm wakes me up, but I guess I woke up on my own for once." Looking towards her bedside desk, she looked at the clock. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. After looking at it once, she rubbed her eyes and looked again. Nothing changed. Grabbing the clock, she held it in front of her face. Seeing that the second hand was moving at normal speed, she let out a scream.

"AH!!! Ten o'clock! It can't be! Look at how late I am!" She shouted as she jumped out of bed. Throwing her clothes on, she practically yanked her brush through her hair.

"I don't believe this! How could I have slept in so late?! I never oversleep!" As fast as she could, she brushed her teeth and gathered all of her schoolbooks together. She was just about to rush out the door when she realized she had forgotten to check on her father. Quickly but quietly, she opened the door and tiptoed up to his bedside. He was still in a deep sleep. Carefully, she lifted his eyelid to see that it wasn't so red anymore. So as not to wake him, she sneaked out of his room and headed out the door. As fast as she could, she ran down the sidewalk towards the school. By the time she got there, it was almost ten thirty. Not stopping for a minute, she rushed down the halls and barged into the classroom. Everyone looked up from their books completely surprised to see Christie standing in the doorway gasping for breath. Taking a deep breath, Christie managed to pull herself together.

"I am so sorry Mrs. Vapor! I completely missed my alarm this morning and overslept!" Pushing her glasses up over her face, the teacher just smiled.

"That's alright Christie. I'm just glad to see that you're alright. Although next time, try to be a little more discreet about how you enter a room so suddenly, alright?" Christie smiled as her face turned slightly red.

"Yes ma'am." With that said, Christie scurried to her seat next to Bethany.

"What happened to you? It's not like you to be this late for anything." Bethany whispered.

"Long story. I'll tell you later."

After getting through the rest of their morning classes, Bethany and Christie joined up with RJ at the cafeteria. As they sat down to enjoy their lunch, Christie told them why she was so late.

"What?! No way! Your dad got in a fight with someone at the bar?!" Bethany freaked. Christie calmly sipped her juice.

"Yeah, he went on one of his flirting sprees with this other guy's girl and made him loss his temper. Of course, I don't really blame the guy for doing anything. It was my dad who started the whole mess." Bethany sat back down.

"Good grief! I swear someone should put a leash on that guy. I mean honestly, talk about a smooth player." Christie let out a chuckle as she formed a goofy grin.

"I wouldn't really go that way as a way to describe my dad, but I guess something along that line would work."

"What I'm really impressed about is how you were able to jump in like that and stop the whole thing. If I were in your shoes, I would have been too frozen to do anything." RJ stated.

"I really didn't think about it at the time. I mean sure I was scared. But...what scared me more than anything, was that I would have seen Father get hurt and not be able to do anything about it." Bethany and RJ just stared at her for a minute.

"Well, I guess all you can do is say 'all's well that ends well.' Like you said, no one got hurt and everything's been settled. Still, I sure hope your dad learns from this, at least a little. He should know by now that that kind of behavior will only lead to black eyes." Bethany stated. Christie couldn't help but let out a laugh for that one.