Ch. 5: Home

CHAPTER FIVE:

The bus arrived about ten minutes after the strange encounter with the redhead who had never given his name. I got on and sat next to Ally, receiving plenty of glares from ‘friends’ who still attended Piso High on our way to the back. Well, not all of the eyes had given me glares. I couldn’t name the look Jake gave me. We had been part of the same little group of ‘friends’ who had tried to stick together at lunch time at Piso. We were the six people from the same middle school who didn’t immediately ditch to join drama club or cheer or whatever. 

The bus took us all first to Melbourne, where most of us unloaded, including me. It would then drop kids off at the border of Drurer City, before at last dropping off Ally and eight other kids in the Northern Hills area of Druer City. I got off the bus in Melbourne, at the one stop the bus made there, at the bottom of the city, at the one and only park. Being in the back of the bus, it took about four minutes of standing behind P.H. people before I was able to exit the bus. 

My first goal was to rush away without being interrogated by Piso High people. They’d been harassing me about this switch for a few days. It was annoying as all hell. 

I took my last step, onto the concrete of the park’s sidewalk and cut left before someone could stop me. I pulled my iPod out as fast as I could, cursing myself for not plugging everything in before I exited the bus. I shoved the earbuds in as I crossed the first crosswalk toward my house. I could distantly hear someone call my name but charged ahead, hoping they would think I was busy and couldn’t hear them. I walked about three blocks before I lost my stamina. Huffing and puffing, I took out one earbud, carefully, making sure it looked like I could be tucking hair behind my ear. 

No clear footsteps. Awesome. Thank you lord, or whoever.

I never liked leaving both earbuds in. As a girl, you know - of the female kind - the world is a dangerous place full of scary guys thinking they have rights to my body. Watching joggers run in the late night with both earbuds in always made me uneasy. Not that if something happened it would be their fault, but it just seemed dangerous to be an easier victim. I think it had something to do with the talk my mom gave me immediately following ‘the sex talk’. She had opened up to me about a time when she had just come to the U.S. and a friend of a friend had put something in her drink. She had woken up in a strange bed, blood on the sheets. The image terrifies me still, to no end.

Pushing those thoughts away, I continued my regular pace up the hill to the small apartment on the other end of town. On the way, I passed the houses of several people I knew, the church I had had my First Communion in, and the elementary school I had gone to. Even though I was fortunate enough to keep clear of the students of P.H., I did have waves from Sue’s mom, and from the crossing guard at the elementary school. She had been there forever - she was the school’s one and only bus driver too.

Passing the swarm of tiny children getting picked up from the after-school program and their smiling parents, I continued up the hill. A block after the elementary school the hill became about three times as steep. I stopped, pulled my water from my bag, took a big swig, and started up this steep piece of hill, screwing the water’s cap back on and sticking it back into my tote. After a few minutes, I started walking backwards. I’m not sure if it is actually easier to walk up a hill that way, but it certainly felt that way.

At last, at the top of the hill, I saw the wooden, winding steps leading through a mini-forest of trees towards our apartment complex. The stairs really creeped me out, being so far from the street, and with so many trees you couldn’t see clearly to the other side. I pulled my cell from my pocket and called Ally. She didn’t pick up. I didn’t need her to. We always called each other in these uneasy situations. I’m not sure when we made this agreement, but it was just part of our friendship. She would call me when it was dark, and there were weird noises, and her mom wouldn’t be home for a few more hours. I would call her when I was walking through these stairs. I began talking as soon as I heard the beep. I pretended to talk with her about how I was almost there and asked her to have patience. I pretended she was down there at my house, waiting for me. I rambled on, reacting to her not-voice, like she was angry with me for taking so long. She would know to delete this later.

At the bottom of the stairs the trees cleared, and just as I was about to step out to the clear, I stopped. Feeling like someone was right behind me. Goosebumps shot up my spine as I tried to control my breathing and not freak out. I made myself step down, out into the open and pretended to flip my hair casually with my left hand, while my right held on to my cellphone. While flipping my hair I looked back up the stairs - and didn’t see anything. I let out a shaky breath. Looking around more obviously, I chuckled to myself, my imagination was clearly getting to me. Turning back to face our apartment, I saw different neighbors walking around the complex. The old racist lady that lived downstairs was walking down to the laundry room, the young couple that moved in next door to us was walking up from the parking lot with a few bags of groceries. At the sight of people, people I knew, I hung up the phone. 

Making my way down to the stairs, I fished for my keys, suddenly really, really needing to pee. I hadn’t realized how much water I had had today. I ran up to our floor, still frantically looking for keys. Well, shit. And out came all of my things. I poured my bag on the landing, time was of the utmost essence, and found the silvery bastards. I unlocked the door and ran to the bathroom. 

Afterwards, I embarrassingly opened the front door to collect the mess of things I had poured all over the landing, stuffing things back into their proper place. Just as I stood up, my cell began to ring. I walked into the kitchen, closed the front door, locking it, and picked up my cell. It was Ally.

“Hey girl, what’s up?” She asked, dead silence in the background. She must have just gotten home too. The bus dropped her off five houses away from her place, so usually by the time I got dropped off and climbed Mount Everest here, she would be arriving at home too after popping in to pick up volunteer work from her old elementary school.

“Nothing, just taking the stairs again.”

“Ah, well, now that I know you’re safe, I can delete that probably really strange voicemail.” She laughed.

“Yeah, like mine are so much stranger than yours.” I didn’t want to mention the weird feeling at the bottom of the stairs.

“I never said that! We’re both strange.” 

Laughter erupted on both sides. It never took much to get us laughing. Something that we brought out in each other. Even the most lame jokes or references were hysterical if either one of us was saying it to the other. I was totally put at ease, letting the freaky moment slip from my mind.

“Alright,” she transitioned. “Can we talk about that freaky guy who stalked you after school while we do math?”                         

Queens of multitasking, we are. 

A short two hours later my mom came back home. I was rinsing my plate in the sink, still on the phone with Ally, when I heard her jingling keys and high heel shoes clanging and banging up the steps. She came to the front door looking angry. Nothing new there. 

“Mija, I’ve been calling you - go down and help your sister with the groceries,” she abruptly demanded while coming through the front door with plenty of plastic bags in hand.

“Uh, Ally - I got to go. I’m bringing groceries up.”

“Hmm? Oh yeah, sure. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Ally responded, half distracted. She had been on the phone with me while giving her cat a lecture on why he shouldn’t jump on her black sweater, being that he had white fur and would be making a mess. Ally often gave her cat Tuxedo lectures. She will make a wonderful mother one day.

While my mom placed bags on the counter, I headed out the door and down the flights of stairs to the assigned parking spot for our home. My sister Meg was starting up the stairs with more bags than I thought possible for a small framed girl in the 6th grade.

“Want help?” 

“I can do it!” She snapped, glossy blond hair falling into her face. I backed off.

“Okay.”

“Okay? Really? Shut up,” she said, starting up the stairs with anger helping urge her on. I’m not sure when our relationship changed to snapping at each other’s neutral responses, but here we were. 

Discarding my irritation I went to the car and grabbed the two measly bags Meg left for me to carry up. I shut the car door and started up the steps after her. I learned recently that it was best to ignore Meg’s jabs, although this was something that wasn’t so easy for me to always follow.

A large black bird flew by overhead as I prepared to walk back up. Something made me turn my head to the stairway on the hill. Remembering the major creep vibe I felt earlier, I hastened my pace and nearly ran up to the apartment, glad to lock the door and not look back.

Once inside, I put the bags on the counter and fled the kitchen. When it comes to my mother, it’s best to just stay out of her way in the kitchen. I took the opportunity to put my binder back into my backpack, and made sure to grab the list of materials I needed for Levi’s class to give to my mom after she was done in the kitchen. After a quick glance at the list I grabbed a few things from our desk - green pen, post-its, highlighter. The notebook would need to wait until tomorrow.

This evening was coming to an end and all I wanted to do was spend some time in my bed watching some mindless TV. Tomorrow will be a new day. Now if only Meg would let me control the remote.