Ch. 64: Changes
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
Rachel~
At school the next day I met with Ms. Arnhem again, along with Mr. Chu, and my mom. Apparently after meeting with us they would be meeting with Vance and his mom. I tried to not let the thought of him in this space make me squirm.
My mom was crushed when she learned about everything. I had texted Ally about needing to talk with her but all I got back was a message that she was heading back from her family emergency trip and would talk to me soon.
“The school, everyone in it, is so incredibly struck by the horrible actions of this student and we want to assure you both that we are taking this very seriously,” Mr. Chu assured us several minutes into the meeting.
Ms. Arnhem added for him, “Unfortunately at this point all the school can do is suspend him until we have other proof. Now if you would like, you both can pursue other actions with a lawyer. In fact, off the record, I would advise that you do. Our district is tied up in policy at this time. Vance Strecker will be coming in for a meeting today then will be suspended for the remainder of the week. But at this point he will still be returning on Monday-”
“This is outrageous,” my mom began, her voice swelling louder, “This scumbag attacked my daughter! Repeatedly! On your campus! Under your charge!”
Ms. Arnhem and Mr. Chu nodded solemnly, agreeing without agreeing verbally.
“I just - I can’t-” she stuttered.
“We understand, Mrs. Hansen-” Ms. Arnhem started.
My mom held up her hand and corrected, “Ms. Blancos. And no you do not understand!”
“You’re right,” Mr. Chu cut in. “We can’t apologize enough. Nothing about this is okay. And we are working on it. I want to assure you, Rachel - assure you both - that when he comes back he will be here only on strict terms. Like a restraining order,” he pointed at me, “Rachel, we are counting on him to break it. And when he does, we need you to have witnesses. Then he can be right on his way out.”
I nodded. I was frustrated too, but so happy still to even be able to be having this conversation after so long. I knew he wouldn’t defeat me.
“How could you put all that on her?!” My mom started to yell.
I turned to her and put a hand on her shoulder, “It’s okay mom, really. I can do this. I am stronger than him.”
My mom turned to me, her eyes glistening, searching my gaze.
“We will talk about this. I’m taking her home for the rest of the day,” my mom said softly.
Everyone agreed, and I grabbed my things to walk to her car.
In the parking lot, I got in and buckled my seatbelt. I noticed my mom was still and looked over at her questioningly.
“I’m sorry mija. I should have known,” she breathed out in a whisper.
I squeezed her hand, “I couldn’t tell you. But I’m stronger now. I fought. He won’t take me down. Not anymore.” I was resolved.
She wiped a tear from her eyes and started the car.
“Did Jake help you? Give you strength?” she asked me, not making eye contact.
“Jake who?” I asked in confusion.
“That’s not funny,” she said exasperated.
I didn’t add anything else. I just sat there trying to figure out who she meant.
Evan~
Something is changing, Xavier told me Tuesday morning.
What? I asked him.
I’m not sure, he said back thoughtfully.
You know, that’s not exactly helpful. Ominous sentences - no context, I quipped back.
I think it’s good, he said after a moment.
He didn’t even reply to my sassy remark which was odd. It must be serious. But before I could dig further Nick rolled up.
Asher’s super anxious, he linked me.
“Yeah, Xavier is being weird too. He’s saying something is changing. He doesn’t know what it is but I think he thinks it’s something good?” I said with questions all in my tone. “I guess we could use any good news really.”
Nick just looked off into the forest and scrunched his face in concentration for a moment before turning back to me.
“Did your dad have any luck finding anything at your great aunt’s?” he asked me.
“No, not that I know of. She just passed away and was a bit of a hoarder, so there’s going to be a lot of stuff. It just means narrowing things down to anything useful,” I replied.
She considered herself the family historian. And while my family (as far as I knew) wasn’t involved in any interspecies mating or demon-wolves, this was another opportunity to look for any clues that could shed light on anything that was happening. The only reassuring thing was we had the Goddess on our side.
I looked up at the sky and held my hand up in a three-finger salute at the moon. It was very early and the sun was starting to rise. There would be a full moon tomorrow night, and on top of that it was a Blue Moon, which usually meant something good would happen.
I caught Nick looking at the moon and smiled at him. With all the craziness we were going through, I think the three of us felt encouraged that we were following the path of the Goddess.
“Guys, I mean I know why I couldn’t sleep, but why in the Goddess’ name are you both up so early?” Jake said from behind us, steps crunching on branches.
He was tired and clearly not walking with his usual stealth. While his nightmares (or should I say likely Rachel and his shared nightmares) had calmed down, he was still ancy and had trouble sleeping for long periods of time.
Nick raised his brow at Jake, then looked back at me, and I noted Jake’s eyes were swirling again.
Then our border alarm went off.
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