i just want you to know who i am

Epilogue

Cheryl brushed her long red hair out, looking at her reflection in the vanity mirror, sighing as usual when she couldn't decide what to do with the red tresses. Getting up slowly, she opened the window, needing some fresh air in her stuffy bedroom. Thornhill never did have good air circulation. It was one of the very few things Cheryl hated about living in the old mansion. But it no matter how cold the winters were, or how stuffy the summers got, she counted her blessings every day that she was free of her former prison.

"I better not get arrested for being here," Toni whispered as she followed the redhead up the stairs of the home she'd been forbidden to return to. After what happened with Cheryl's parents yesterday on her doorstep, she was surprised she hadn't been arrested already. Not that she had done anything wrong, but the Blossoms seemed like they had the power to spin the story wildly enough to get her into trouble.

"You're so dramatic," Cheryl chuckled as they climbed up to the second floor, "They're at church for a few hours." She opened the door to her bedroom, immediately grabbing her suitcase from the closet. The first thing she grabbed was Jason's baseball cap, placing it on her head before she started to sift through her closet. She was surprisingly calm, considering everything that had happened in the past two days. Whether her parents were serious about disowning her or not, she took their demand that she never return home seriously. She never wanted to even see this house again.

"What can I get?" Toni asked, tightening her ponytail and looking around.

"Umm..." the younger girl pursed her lips and looked around. She didn't have a lot that she couldn't live without. Could you grab some of my books from the book shelf? Just the ones that have sticky notes in them?" She always placed a sticky note in books that had passages that moved her to tears. And some of them she read multiple times.

The brunette just nodded, going to the book shelf as Cheryl continued to pack up her closet. Even her clothes, she felt like she could live without most of them. They didn't feel like they suited her anymore. But she packed up the items she still enjoyed wearing and dumped her dresser drawers into the suitcase, not really worrying about organization right now.

"I know the trailer's small, but I can move some of my stuff around. I'm sure my uncle will understand..." Toni placed some books on the bed, her face sympathetic. They hadn't really discussed a plan for Cheryl yet. Planning to come here today while her parents were at church was the only thing they'd planned since yesterday.

"I couldn't impose on you like that, TT. I'll probably stay with my Nana."

"Are you gonna try to get emancipated like you mentioned...?"

"I doubt it would work with my parents being...well, my parents."

"It's worth a shot though, right?"

As much as Cheryl didn't believe it would happen, she was officially emancipated from her parents a few months later, only to be placed in the legal care of her Nana Rose for a few months until her eighteenth birthday. Her car had been returned to her by law (since it was in her grandfather's name and had been left to her in his will), and she never had to see her parents again.

Thornhill, as spooky as it could be sometimes, had warm, comfortable bed in the room she got to decorate any way she wanted. It had a pool that she and Toni spent most of their summer in. And it had no hidden prayer closet for anyone to lock her in for hours. The only thing she missed about her old house, besides the shorter drive to Toni's trailer, was Jason's room. Every day she thought and worried about what her parents would do with Jason's things after she'd left. But thankfully the memory of her beloved twin brother was alive and well here at Thornhill with plenty of pictures and stories of their childhood from her nana and the house staff.