171 - Nicki
*My worst nightmare would be going back and living with anyone in that family. If they make me go back, I’ll be dead within the year. Either by their hands, or mine. - Nicki*
Celt had told everyone to go on about their day as if nothing was different. Nicki thought that was easy for everyone else. There was a huge rock in the pit of her stomach. Plus, her nerves made her feel like she was going to throw up.
She had made it through her morning classes without any issue. More like, minimal issues. Her teachers had all pulled her aside and let her know that they were aware of what was going on.
At least they knew. She was not exactly certain herself. Her mother’s mother had gone off the deep end and wanted custody of her. Only her.
Even if hell froze over, the Mississippi flowed the wrong way and the Hot Springs cooled off, she still would not want to live with that woman. God himself could not convince her to go back to that hell. She was always lacking, never good enough and not allowed to be herself. The gothic and emo vibes were considered evil and a gateway to satanism.
Now, with Darkness and Camille, they let her be her. She finally got the mini braids that she had always wanted. She was not told that they would look ghetto or trashy. Instead, Camille made sure that they both knew how to take care of the braids. They had regular appointments to get her braids freshened up. Typically, Camille stayed with her the entire time.
A few weeks ago, she had a high school competition to assist with, and Darkness and Mitch went with her. Her little brother was now growing his hair out so that he could have twists. That was something else that would never have been allowed.
Lunch came and she could not even sit in the lunchroom because the smell was making her nauseous. She took her bag of cut-up fruits and veggies, something that Camille insisted that she bring with her, to the library. For twenty-five minutes, she lost herself in a world of dragon riders.
By the time that the bell rang, she had eaten almost all of her carrots and celery sticks. Sitting down in math class, she pulled out her container of grapes. Mrs. Wilko had no problem with them eating in class as long as it did not disrupt class, bothered any fellow students and they shared if their pregnant teacher got a sudden craving.
As soon as her blue eyes spotted the grapes, Mrs. Wilko’s whole face lit up. With a little laugh, Nicki pulled the second container of grapes out of her bag. The teacher waddled over to the desk and collected the treat.
Mrs. Wilko went over what would be on the next test and what was missed on yesterday’s pop quiz. She loved her pop quizzes but very rarely used them as a grade. If the majority of the students failed a quiz, she knew that they needed to go back over the material.
She knew that for most people, calculus did not come easy. As she had explained from her own personal experience, once it finally clicked, it all made sense. Until then…. Smirking, Nicki looked over at her favorite poster on the wall.
If Dick had four pencils and Jane had seven apples, how many pancakes would fit on the roof? Purple, because aliens don’t wear hats. Her preferred way of students letting her know that they did not understand how to work a problem was to write the word purple.
As Mrs. Wilko stated that this last quiz had the least amount of ‘purple’ answers, her classroom phone rang. Rolling her chair over to the phone, taking her grapes with her, she answered the offending device. Turning her back to the class, she spoke softly before hanging up and facing her students again.
“Nicki, meet me at my desk, please.”
With the rock in the pit of her stomach doubling in size, she stood up and nervously walked to the desk where the teacher was frantically writing something. Mrs. Wilko motioned for Nicki to move close, and she knelt next to the rolling chair. The teacher signed the hall pass and handed it to her student.
Looking at the teen, she whispered her instructions, “I want you to go to the locker room in the big gym. You need to reach out to your mom. Those people that we were warned about?”
Nicki nodded as the rock in her stomach tripled in size. Fear and worry engulfed her. Anger quickly chased those feelings away.
“They are in the front office. I told them that you had just gone to the bathroom with an upset stomach. The time I put on there is from before the call. Reach out to your mom and find out what she wants you to do.”
Returning to her desk, Nicki grabbed her purse and then went to the athletics wing of the building. She passed a few teachers, but with her yellow hall pass, no one stopped her. Going past the two smaller practice gyms, she headed for the big gym and went behind the bleachers to get to the girls’ locker room.
Sitting on the bench in front of her locker, Nicki pulled out her phone and typed out a message to Camille. Halfway through it, she read the message and thought about how bad it would look in a court case. Why would she have to think about something like this? She should not have to be contemplating familial espionage just to ensure that she stayed where she wanted to live.
Mitch’s project about Oma popped into her head. Then she thought about how they had created their own coded language. For about two months, all their text messages were in this code. Every so often they still used the code. Up until this moment, it had all been fun but now it was serious.
*MommA C – wanT 2 try To make Oma’S StEw*
She then typed out what looked like a grocery list. Some letters were capitalized while others were lowercase. Numbers replaced letters or entire words. A few symbols were thrown in. They had more options than the Dutch Underground did nearly a century ago.
Content with the message, she sent it and then opened up her latest game. She leveled up three times before Camille responded. She translated the response and then looked at the time. Although she did not understand why she was going to go back to class, she trusted her adoptive mom. In fact, she trusted Camille and Darkness more than she trusted any of the adults in her mother’s family.
When the allotted time had passed, Nicki closed her game, tucked the phone away in her purse and then slowly, ever so slowly, she made her way back to class. She stopped in the cafeteria and got herself a soda and a package of chocolate candies. Arriving back just before the class ended, she assured Mrs. Wilko that everything would be okay.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
