Chapter Three "Reality Hits Hard"

     Her bedroom was now her sanctuary. Isabella tossed her bag on her bed and stripped off her coat, shirt, and shoes. She put on a t-shirt and thought about changing her skirt, but she liked the look of the skirt and tights now. She emptied two boxes of books onto her bookshelf before collapsing on her bed in a head storm of thoughts and emotions. She had heard so much over the last two days she began to question the truth of it all wondering if it was all some sick joke being played on her.

     “I’m showered. Dinner plans? A…”

     Isabella thought a moment. She got up and went to find Linda who was in her office at the back of the house. She leaned in to see if she was busy. Her aunt’s shoes were off with her stocking feet resting on an ottoman. She was reading some realtor sheets and calculating some numbers. “Hey, Linda? Can Amber come over and stay for dinner?”

     Linda looked up. “It’s a school night. Is that okay with her mom?”

     “I’ll ask.”

     “If it’s okay with her mom, then sure.”

     “What’s on the menu?”

     Linda looked up at her calendar. “I was planning on making vegetable soup, but I can change that.”

     “That’s fine.”

     “She’s still a vegetarian, right?”

     “Yes. How’d you know?”

     Linda smiled. “I know what I need to know.” She winked at her niece.

     Isabella went back to her bed and sat on the edge with her phone. “Linda says it’s okay.” She waited. Three dots popped up.

“I’ll be there in five…see ya.” She sent a cute sticker too.

     Isabella got off the edge of her bed and went to sit by the door and waited. She was feeling the day a bit. She had hardly moved when she heard the doorbell. “Quick girl.” She thought. She went and opened it. Her jaw hit the floor looking up at Amber who was in a nice fall dress in an earthen gray and heels to match.

     “I see you approve.”

     Isabella looked at herself. “I’m a mess.”

     “For now.” She picked up a bag and carried it into the house. “I got this.”

     Isabella followed her to her room and sat down again. Amber looked around. “I see you’ve been busy.”

     “Yeah, a few books and some other things are now put away. I’m down to two boxes.”

     “Good.” She smiled. “I hope today wasn’t too intense for you...”

     “No, I just didn’t expect dance to be so…well…smelly.”

     Amber emptied out the bag and handed her two clear bags with the nude hose in them. “These are for you from Katie. She said you’d like them.”

     Isabella took them and opened one. She pulled out two pieces of an outfit that made up one entire outfit. It was obvious which was the top and bottom. It was complete with the gloves. She giggled. “She’s a trip.”

     Amber looked at her. “Those are for you to sleep in.”

     “Really? How can you sleep when your whole body is being bombarded with all of this at once?”

     “You pass out in sheer comfort.” She winked.

     “Funny…sheer comfort. I get it.”

     “Do you own a nightgown?”

     Isabella laughed. “I own some old ratty shirts.”

     “Then this is from me. Enjoy it.” She handed her another bag with a beige nightgown in it. It was long with lace straps and a satin skirt. It was almost sheer too.

     “Do I wear both?”

     “Yes, and enjoy it. I do.”

     “You dress like that too?”

     Amber turned around and smiled. “I would dress like Katie every day if I could get away with it just like she does.”

     “Interesting.” She thought a moment. “What’s Kelly doing?”

     Amber giggled.

     “Oh, well I guess I didn’t have to ask.”

     “You’ll learn. After dance class, those two love birds go shower at his place, then they get very busy with each other. She wears these at night too.”

     Amber sat down and looked at Isabella. “That room is for…well…just what they were doing back there. It’s Kelly’s secret with all of us. We understand that when a couple goes back there, they want to be alone. You didn’t know that yet, so you got an eye full, and I assume from your face that it’s true.”

     Isabella smiled. “Jessica is a gifted girl.”

     “That she is.” Amber patted the bed next to her.

     Isabella moved and sat down. “Now what?”

     Amber leaned over and gave Isabella a big kiss. Isabella did not stop her. She welcomed it.

They both heard her mother drive up just as Linda called them to dinner. Amber finally met Mrs. Dean and was not surprised that she was every bit as beautiful as her daughter. Isabella’s mom relaxed with a glass of wine and admitted that she liked being back in Asheville with her sister. Then she admitted under the influence of two glasses of wine that she actually liked dressing up again.

     Amber left with the fading sun, and Isabella found herself in the whole-body outfit with the nightgown shortly after that while sitting in her bed reading her homework for the night. She was almost done when Linda knocked. She tried to hide, but Linda walked in and saw her in it. She smiled.       “That’s very interesting.”

     “It’s very comfortable.”

     Linda walked over and touched her face. “That must feel really good.”

     “You have no idea.”

     “Are you sure?”

     “Linda?”

     “Shh…I was not so innocent once.” She smiled. “So, how were school and your day?”

     Isabella sat up and took Linda’s hand and played with it knowing she liked the feeling of the nylon rubbing on her hand. “It was very interesting. I met more people, and I learned some things.”

     “I’ll let you have your secrets. I’m sure I shouldn’t know them.”

     “Probably not.”

     “I had a feeling after you met Katie that you’d try this. I could tell yesterday that you liked the pantyhose a lot, and now this…” She smiled and rubbed her face again. “Your mother will figure this out soon. You know when you were little, you used to like dressing up with me.”

     Isabella thought a moment. “Will she be mad?”

     “No, but she’ll want some answers.” She smiled. “Just be honest and tell her that you like to wear things like this now.”

     “Are you sure?”

     “Honesty is better than a lie…trust me.”

     Isabella hugged her and then set her books down. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

     “That you will.”

     The next morning, she was up early again feeling very refreshed and very rested. She was surprised that she slept like a baby all wrapped up head to toe. She ate breakfast and gave her aunt and mother hugs before meeting Amber and the others again on their usual route to St. Bart’s. She smiled knowing a few more things about the girls, but it was Sarah who surprised her the most. She caught up with Isabella and hugged her with a kiss on the cheek and a big smile.

     “I hate Lucy Upshaw!” She yelled. Then she lifted her skirt a little and showed Isabella what she had on along with her long socks. She giggled. “I’ll get the tights later.” Then she ran down the hall hooting and hollering how she hated Lucy now.

     “Wow! That worked.” Amber looked at Isabella.

     “I told you to trust me. I could see it on her face the other day that she hated Lucy, but she was scared. She should not live in fear of anyone.”

     “You’re my hero.” Amber giggled.

     “Stop it. I’m just me.”

     “And we love that,” Ashley said as she walked by and smiled at her. “My butterfly is flying high today.” She winked and skipped away.

     Amber laughed knowing exactly what that meant.

     They had their jog again after school and cleaned up. Amber met her once again on her porch for an evening of studying and sitting. They were laughing and having fun before they went inside. “So, what’s up there?” Amber asked looking at a locked door that was obviously at the head of a set of steps.

     “I don’t know. Let me ask Linda.”

     She came back a moment later with an old key. She looked at Amber who had a little smirk on her face. “What?”

     “This wall and door are not original to this house.”

     “How can you tell?”

     “The trim is not the same. Look here and here.” Amber pointed to the door trim and some other trim. “I learned a lot watching my dad and Mr. Simpson fixing up our houses. It’s one of those things you pick up on along the way.”

     “Interesting.” Isabella inserted the key and turned it with a click. “Scared?”

     “Nope.”

     Isabella opened the door where they were greeted with the smell of must and old house. Amber giggled. “That brings back some memories.”

     “Should I lead?”

     “Let me. You’re scared.”

     “Yep.” Isabella laughed with nervous curiosity. “Linda said it was just a big space that she’s not been in it for years. I don’t know why. She didn’t say, and I didn’t ask.”

     “You’re nervous.” She took Isabella’s hand and made her move. They went up into the space and were greeted with shadows and no real light source other than the sun as it hung lower in the sky.                “This would be perfect for a Halloween party.”

     Isabella stopped. “So, what should we be this year?”

     “Quit stalling.” She dragged Isabella the rest of the way up the steps and onto a wide landing that opened up to a great big space with a closet on the far side. There were a few dusty windows with some gables. It was wide open and unused except maybe a century ago. There was an old sofa covered in a sheet along with a single table and an old lamp in one of the gables, and that was about it. The walls were covered in peeling plaster with the old ribs of latticework visible in some spots where chunks of the plaster had given up and were now replaced with cobwebs and strange shadows.

     “That looks promising.” Amber smiled. “Why don’t we check out that sofa?”

     “You can move that sheet. If I do, I’ll be sneezing for the next decade.” Isabella took Amber’s hand and followed her across the floor that creaked and groaned a bit. The floor was made from heart-of-pine boards that were roughly three inches wide and were once quite beautiful, but they were now covered in blotches of old paint and dust.

     Amber moved the sheet a bit to look. “Well, I guess we shouldn’t sit on that with our clothes. Those old springs would probably poke holes in everything we’re wearing.”

     “Yeah, and who knows what’s peed on that thing up here?”

     Amber giggled. “Really?”

     “Yes, really. In my old house in Atlanta, we had to get someone to remove a raccoon from the attic, and that house was new.”

     “Okay…you made your point. I can’t say that dad didn’t remove a ton of old rats’ nests from our house too.”

     “See.”

     They turned and looked around a bit before going to the closet and standing there. Amber reached for the handle when Isabella stopped her. “You know this is exactly how almost every scary movie ends up getting worse.”

     “Shut up.” Amber’s voice had a little waver in it.

     “You’re nervous now.”

     “I might be. The image of a giant rat or raccoon is clouding my better judgment at this point. Let’s just leave that for someone else.” She smiled. “But you know this space would rival Kelly’s room. It’s quite a nice little apartment when you think about it. Isn’t there an old fire escape out the back of your house?”

     “Yeah.”

     “That has to be somewhere up here.”

     “You think this is it?”

     “Could be, but again, I’m not ready for that dressed like this.” She ran her hand along her dress.

     Isabella turned her around and kissed her. “But if it were my room, we’d have a lot more privacy.”

     “Now you’re talking my language.” She kissed her back, and they rubbed each other’s smooth backsides.

     They both turned to go as they had secretly agreed that they had had enough of that space, and they both giggled. Amber looked around once more before she froze absolutely still staring at one of the windows.

     “What’s wrong?” Isabella turned as well and thought she saw something dart back into the wall like a shadow.

     “What the hell was that?” Amber’s voice nearly cracked.

     Isabella stood there thinking. “It was probably a tree or something.”

     “That was not a tree.” Amber looked at her. “Trees don’t look like girls in Victorian dresses, and that was a girl wearing a dress staring at me.”

     “I didn’t see that. I only saw a shadow.”

     “But did that shadow have a head and arms too?”

     Isabella just nodded. “Let’s go.” She took Amber by the hand and led her down the steps back to the main floor and shut the door and locked it. She stood there a moment. “You know. We probably just freaked out from the dust and our own imaginations.”

     Amber just nodded her head and hugged her. “Distract me.”

     Isabella took her to her room and shut the door then began to kiss Amber while rubbing her back.         “We don’t have a lot of time.”

     “I don’t need a lot of time.” Amber smiled and kissed Isabella again.

     The rest of the week was Isabella’s real adjustment to normal life in her new home in Asheville. Lucy was suspended from school for the rest of the week, Sarah was now an official BTG, and the rest of the LSG clan was playing low-key as Isabella became the center of attention for what she did to Lucy. She was not proud of it and brushed it off, but it was still what they wanted to talk about. Her newfound happiness began to tarnish some as fatigue set in as well as some persistent headaches and occasional blurry vision. She was starting to have difficulty staying awake at school once a headache hit her. The excitement of the upcoming Halloween allowed her to have something to focus on, but she was having to say ‘no’ more to jogging and even the make-out sessions with Amber.

     Amber and the others were getting swamped with Nutcracker rehearsals, and they did not notice the physical changes in Isabella because they were distracted too. It took Isabella falling over in the hallway before they all put it together. She passed out going into history class like a leaf falling off a tree. Sister Elizabeth was the first adult there and put herself in between the others and Isabella and immediately recognized the signs of an undiagnosed concussion once she made a few quick looks into the young girl’s eyes. She ordered an ambulance and got all the girls out of the hallway and into the gym so that the medics could get Isabella out of the school without a crowd. She sent the teachers into the gym to talk to the girls who were shocked, crying, or dead silent. Amber was crying while Kelly tried to console her along with Jessica and Cindy. The other main BTGs sat with her as they heard the sirens approach. The waiting was excruciating for them. Then they heard it start again after about an hour and slowly fade away.

     Sister Elizabeth finally stepped into the gym. She looked distraught and walked quickly to the center of the gym. She sighed. It was so quiet in there that she could just talk without shouting. “I’ll let you know anything as soon as I do.” She looked at Mrs. Strickland, the counselor, and waved her over. “Mrs. Strickland will be here to help those who need it. I’ll be here as well. I’ve decided to cancel classes for the rest of the day since you won’t be able to focus anyway.” She looked at the girls and held back a tear feeling their fear. “She’s in good hands.” She walked away and waved the teachers into a quick meeting near the doors.

     Isabella woke up in a white room with a curtain pulled around her. She had tubes in her arms, tubes up her nose, and a tube in her mouth. She tried to look around, but it hurt to move her head.

     A nurse walked up. “Don’t try to move. I know that’s hard, but we have your head and neck restrained for now.”

     Isabella’s eyes grew wide.

     “You fainted at school, and you hit your head pretty hard on the floor when you landed. This is all normal to make sure you didn’t hurt yourself any worse than normal.” She smiled at Isabella. “My name is Kathy. I’ll be here for the afternoon and will check on you.” She waved her hand. “Your aunt and mother are here. I’ll let them in one at a time. Just keep still and try to relax as much as possible.”

     Linda was frantic while her mother was in a state of shock. They were unnaturally quiet looking at her lying on the bed. She had been stripped down and put in a gown. She felt cold and lonely even though her aunt and mother were there. It was like there was a real barrier between them.

     She woke up again and had fewer tubes attached to her. She tried to sit up, but she felt weak. Her head ached and throbbed. She heard a commotion from outside of her room.

     “She’s awake.” It was Linda’s voice. Even from behind a door, Isabella recognized that Southern accent.

     She stared up at the ceiling suppressing the urge to scream, but her head hurt so much that would have made it worse. She tried to turn her head, but it was not moving. She felt cold, and then she realized that she was not moving much of anything.

     A young foreign doctor stepped in and looked over her from above. His dark skin and eyes were new to her. His face was covered in a mask, and his head was covered in something of the same material. “Isabella?”

     She blinked.

     “I need you to squeeze my finger with your right hand.”

     She thought about it, but she was not sure if she did.

     “Good. Did you feel it?”

     She looked at him.

     “Blink once for yes and twice for no.”

     She blinked twice.

     “Okay. You squeezed my hand. That is good.” He gave a little laugh. “Now let me try to explain what happened. A while ago you were in an automobile accident. Do you remember that?”

     She blinked once.

     “Okay, and during that accident, you hit your head against the window, but the medics did not realize that you had done that. We believe the window did not break so there was no reason to check. You also did not seem to show any type of external bruise on your head other than the ones that happened when the airbag hit your face. Well, it turns out that you did get a bruise and injury, but it was on the inside of your head.” He paused a moment. “When your head was tossed around in the accident, your brain moved inside your skull and got a bit beaten up, especially on your right side. That is why you were having headaches. It was trying to heal, but it was getting messed up with all of the physical activities you were doing. You should have been resting, but no one knew to tell you that.” He paused again. “I had to drill a small hole in the side of your head and drain out some liquid that was causing all that pain. I know it hurts now, but that will go away within a few days. Your feelings should also return to normal pretty soon as well. The brain is a tricky thing, and yours is quite a wonderful specimen I might add. It looks like it gets quite a workout from what your beautiful friends have told me. I have talked to all of them and even visited that school of yours to talk to them about your brain, so they know what to do when you go back.”

     She felt a tear roll down the side of her face. She wanted to yell, but her mouth was filled with a plastic tube.

     “I’m going to let you rest some more. You need as much rest as possible now to let this heal properly.” He went to the IV and shot something into it.

     She felt her eyes grow heavy once agai