Crystal Falls, Heather Lawhun [best management books of all time .TXT] 📗

were knocked over. I went straight to David and Adrian’s room. I’m more concerned about them than any expensive thing in this house. When I got in there, they were sitting on the floor playing cards. I sighed in relief. “Thank God you’re okay.”
“Why?” They asked.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t hear anyone come inside and knock stuff over.” I said in disbelief. They looked at me shocked. “Wow, you guys are deaf or something.” I said shaking my head.
“Emi!” Rori yelled. I ran to where I heard her and she was in the kitchen.
“What’s wrong?” She pointed to the wall. On the wall was a message in paint. It read, I spared those brats and just messed up the house, but next time I won’t be so merciful. I want my slut of a daughter back and I will do anything to get her back. If you call the police, I’ll do worse than what did to that whore who wouldn’t tell me where my daughter was. “Oh God.” I said shaking a little. David and Adrian ran in and saw the message. David saw me shaking and hugged me. I hugged him back and started crying.
“I’m sorry, this is all my fault.” Rori said sadly.
“Don’t say that.” Adrian said comfortingly. I can imagine him hugging her.
“What are we going to do?” David asked trying to calm me down. Adrian sighed.
“I don’t know, David. I don’t know.”
“Let’s call Isaac, he’ll know what to do.”
“No, please don’t. What if he calls the police? Then what will happen? My mother is unpredictable and she’s not kidding when she says she’ll do anything to get me back.” Rori said stressed out.
“He won’t tell anyone, I’ll make sure of it.” Adrian said. I calmed down and stopped crying. David let me go and I wiped my tears on my shirt. Adrian was hugging Rori. I got out my cell phone and dialed Isaac’s number.
“Hello? Isaac?”
“Emi, what’s wrong?” I sniffled.
“Can you please come home?”
“I’m on my way.” Then he hung up. I put my phone back in my pocket and sighed.
“We better start cleaning up.” They nodded. We left the message on the wall, but cleaned everything else up. When that was done, we went into the living room and sat on the couch and waited for Isaac to come home.

Chapter 14

I am so glad that I have a safe place to stay, but I can’t help but wonder what my mother has planned. I tell Adrian I am skipping school to go talk to the cops. Instead, I track my mother down. She had at least cleaned up enough to recognize me and looked to be happy to see me. At least until we left the restaurant. “That was quite a stunt you pulled, Aurora. I didn’t like it one bit. I forbid you to see that family ever again. We are moving to California and this time maybe you won’t ruin my life!” All the years of putting up with her abuse came rushing back to me. Now that I saw Adrian’s family, I knew that being a single parent wasn’t a good enough reason for it. Isaac was a good father, and he was their brother. Something in me had finally snapped.
“No” I told my mother, and it felt so good I decided to keep going. “I am NOT going to California with you. I AM going to see Adrian tonight and I WILL go teach tomorrow. My life has changed, but you haven’t.” she was in such shock, she froze. I started to walk away and she grabbed my wrist. I turned on her and she must have seen just how mad I was, because she let me go. I ran home and found Isaac in the kitchen with a woman. She was really pretty and I could tell I wasn’t supposed to be there.
“Rori!” he said, shocked and turning red.
“I’m sorry. I was just getting my stuff so I could go to school. I won’t tell the others, I promise.” He looked at my wrist and saw bruises where my mom had grabbed me.
“Come here” he whispered. He looked at it and I started to cry. No one had ever cared what happened to me before. It was obvious I was interrupting a date and he still worried more about me than impressing the girl at the counter. She didn’t seem to mind, either. Once his examination was over I grabbed my bag and ran to school. I made it just in time for math. I found myself honestly focusing for once and even understand what we were doing. At lunch, Adrian kept looking back and forth between my wrist and face, trying to figure out what had happened.
“I’ll tell you later” I muttered at him. After math, I ran to the choir room. Now, I don’t know how everyone else thinks, but to me, the art wing is the one part of the school I can completely relax. No one ever questions why you love music or dance or drawing or painting in the art wing. We are the kids that no one else fully understands and that is fine with us. When I got in the room, I decided to lie down on the bleachers. “Hello?” I heard a shy voice say. I looked towards the door and I saw a new girl standing there. “Is this choir?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know where the teacher is. She is either in her office, the closet, or the other room.” Turned out she was in the closet, doing inventory. Once she checked in, she looked lost. “There is a movie in there, or you can listen to music, read, and do whatever it is you want to do. We are killing time until end of semester.”
“What are you doing?” she asked, looking at the bleachers.
“Thinking” I said, laying down again. “If you want to talk we can do that. I just don’t get along with many people.” I told her.
“Why not? You seem so nice. I’m Elizabeth, by the way. But I prefer Lizzy.”
“It’s kind of a long story. I am really shy and know there are better things in life than parties and the mall. I am Rori.” Lizzy and I spent the rest of the class talking. When she went to leave, I saw scars on her wrists and ankles. “What happened?” I asked her.
“I could ask you the same thing about your face and wrist. I will talk when you do.” And with that, she left. I guess that everyone had rough patches in life, but I couldn’t think of much that would make someone want to hurt themselves. Things would have to be rough to do that. I met up with Adrian, David, and Emi, still thinking about Lizzy. I did some research at home and learned why Lizzy had shown up so late in the school year. She was a runaway who had just gotten out of rehab for self-mutilation. She had grown up here, but no one recognized the once sunny little girl. She had moved in with her grandmother to avoid her mom. It was in the local newspaper, so it couldn’t be too big of a secret. However, no one knew why she had started in the first place. I decided I would help her, if only be listening and being her friend. It was time to return the favor I was given. I went to bed thinking of ways to help her.

Chapter 15

It’s the last day of school and surprisingly Rori’s mom hasn’t done anything. I wonder what happened. Oh well, as long as she isn’t going to do anything to us. Since it’s the last day of school, there’s really nothing to do and it’s a half day so this is going to be one boring day; just like this last week. All we’ve done this week is watch stupid movies that not everyone liked, mostly me, because they usually pick comedies and I don’t like them very much. I’m just not that interested in them. So I ended up falling asleep most of the time. Also there will be practices throughout this summer, so I’m never going to get a break am I? Oh well. I could always get a summer job for an excuse to miss them? Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. I smiled at the thought. I’ll start looking for some as soon as I get out of school. Ugh! I just want this day to end already. The only reason why I came is because if I didn’t they’d give me a referral and I’d have to serve ISS starting the first day of school next year and nobody wants to spend their first day of school in ISS. The reason for this is because I missed so many days of school and if I miss another well I’m not going to repeat myself. Isaac brought Eva home a few times and we met her and she seems really nice. Isaac is crazy head over heels for her and when she leaves, we laugh at him.
I’m glad that he’s found someone he likes though. He deserves to be happy and do something for himself after all the things he’s done for us. And Rori’s friend Rachelle came yesterday and Rori has been busy helping her get settled into her room for the summer. I noticed that David was staring at her the whole time but looked like he was trying not to. I chuckled quietly at the thought since we’re watching a movie. He’s been a lot happier since she got her. He’s always staring off into space and when I ask what he’s thinking about, his face heats up and he stutters. I can’t help it but laugh. He’s totally in love with her. Adrian laughed at him every time and David would tell him to shut up and then Rori and Rachelle would walk in and ask what’s going on and David would just go in the other room making Adrian laugh again. I’m glad that they’re both happy. They’re happier than they’ve ever been before we met Rori. That’s all I’ve ever wanted, that those two be truly happy. They haven’t been this happy since Mom and Dad were around. I’m happy just knowing that their happy.
Ugh! I wish they’d let us watch horror movies instead of this stupid comedy crap! That’s another thing, they always show the same movies; they meaning the teachers. It’s like they get together and all decide on what movie they’re going to show the kids to bore them to death. The actors in this movie aren’t even good. I went to the teacher and asked to use the bathroom and left. Once I was out in the hall, I sighed in relief. Just across the hall, Adrian, David, and Rori were doing the same thing. We looked up at each other and laughed. “You guys want to go do something fun?” I asked smirking. They looked at me curiously but nodded.
“Just what do you have in mind, my very mischievous sister?” Adrian asked grinning.
“I thought you’d never ask.” I said grinning as I led them to the gym. There wasn’t anyone in here and I went to the supply closet. I opened and said, “Grab all the basketballs you can and follow me.” David and Adrian both grinned and did what I said, but Rori hesitated. “If we get caught, I’ll take all the blame.” She nodded and grabbed some basketballs. I led them to the top of the second floor stairs and started throwing them down the stairs. I told them to go to the other set of stairs and do the same. They