Love, War, and Flight

Chapter 16 - Physcos and True Love

I was being home-schooled for about a week before I was fed up with it. My parents hired a personal tutor, who, unlike my parents, actually knew the subjects. Drake stopped by often as well, sometimes to see me, sometimes to see if I was still there. I also didn’t think that much about Tanyela; they could survive, right?

After Ms. Apprat, the tutor, left, Drake stopped by. He also brought some familiar faces.

“Nicole! Austin!” I exclaimed, bringing them into a hug.

“Hey Calia!” Nicole exclaimed happily.

“You’re here to stay now, right? No more disappearing?” Austin asked worriedly.

“For now.” I replied evenly.

“That’s good, but I heard you’re now home-schooled. That sucks!” Austin said angrily.

“Yeah, I wish I was back at Ridgeland.” I said, feeling the sadness. “But I’m back, and that’s all that matters.”

“Yeah.” Drake said, wrapping his arms around my waist.

“I heard you found a twin brother, too. That’s pretty exciting.” Nicole said.

“Yeah! When do we get to meet him?” Austin prodded.

“I don’t know. I actually haven’t met him yet. I don’t know where he is.”

“Oh…” Nicole trailed, looking suspicious.

Drake let go of me and pulled thin pieces of paper out of his pocket. “I got tickets to go see the new action movie. You want to come?” Drake asked.

“You mean the one with the alien and the AK-47!?” Austin asked ecstatically, going all nerd. I burst out laughing as my other friends stared at him.

“Um, sure.” Drake said, trying to keep his cool.

“Sure, just let me go tell my parents.” I said as I ran upstairs, finding Mom unloading laundry.

“Hey Mom, my friends and I are going to go catch a movie.” I informed, turning around and heading back to the stairs.

“Sure, just let me go grab my shoes.” Mom said, going into her room.

I showed a confused expression on her face. “Mom, it’s just me and my fri-”

“No, it’s not.” Mom said, cutting me off and going ahead of me. “You don’t go anywhere unless me or your father are with you.”

“Mom, that’s bull.” I said sass-like, crossing my arms. “It’s me and three friends. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“Is your blonde friend going with you?”

“Who, Nicole? Of course, she’s my best friend.”

“No, the blonde guy.”

“Oh, no, I haven’t seen him in over a week. He probably headed somewhere else.”

“I don’t care. I’m going with you.”

“Can’t you trust me?” I said loudly, louder then I wanted to. My friends were probably listening in on the conversation.

“No.” Mom said evenly, heading downstairs. She didn’t say another word.

I stood there blankly. My parents didn’t trust me? I couldn’t even leave the house without one parent stalking me. If I couldn’t even go to the movies with my three best, most trusted friends without a parent, how the hell was I going to go back to Tanyela by myself, or when someone came to get me? I walked downstairs to where my friends, and now Mom, were. My friends gave me the what-the-hell-is-she-doing-here look. I sighed and rolled her eyes.