Chapter 1
2505 Words
The last school bell rung, Mia grabbed her bag and headed to her locked. She was exhausted, she wanted a bowl of ice cream and to watch Twilight. She was glad school wasn’t as bard as she thought it would be. She was a freshman, and she was loving it. She and her best friend from grade school had a lot of the same classes. Her favorite was English and Math. Jenny hated both.
Hey Mia!” Jenny called walking towards her. Mia was glad her best friend found her. She hoped that she could walk home with her today. They didn’t get to hang out after lunch, Jenny was in detention.
“Hey.” Mia waved at her. “You want to come over and have some ice cream and watch Twilight?”
“I wish.” She said sounding sad. “My Parents found out that I ditched yesterday and I am grounded until summer.” She said with her lips pouting.
“Ah man, you need to stop.” Mia laughed. “Well at least summer we’ll be able to go swimming and stuff.”
“Yeah.” She said looking down the hallway, her Mother was standing there waiting for her. “I better go.” She sighed. “I guess they mean business.” She said waving to her Mom. “See you tomorrow.”
“Alright have fun being grounded.” She giggled to herself. Jenny rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything.
Closing her locker, she headed the same way Jenny did. She had to walk the mile to her house. Her father lived on the military base, and she didn’t get free rides like some of the other kids.
Finally unlocking her front door, she tossed her bag aside and went into the kitchen to get her ice cream. She had homework; she would get that done after dinner. She couldn’t wait to go to bed, she knew her friend wouldn’t be able to hang out until summer, but she had other things that kept her attention.
After the movie Mia’s parents walked into the house. “Hey Mia!” her Mother hugged her. “We’re going to have pizza for dinner, your father got a promotion today.”
“What!” Mia smiled. “That’s great, so no more moving around now?” she said looking at her Dad.
“Well. We will have to move again; I am awaiting where we will be relocating. But after this one, it will be the last one I promise.” He said kissing her on the forehead.
“You say that every time. I am finally getting friends here, and now we’re just going to move away.” She said with a sad face. “I can’t even hang out with Jenny until this summer.”
“Ah yeah I heard about her skipping school. The good thing is, she is moving too.” He said taking his shoes off.
“Do you know if she is moving where we are going to be?” she said looking at her Dad.
He didn’t know, he shook his head at her. “Honey are you going to order the pizza or you want me to?” he said looking at her.
“I already ordered, it’ll be here in thirty minutes or less.” She half smiled.
Mia grabbed her bag and headed upstairs. Since dinner was going to be a while, she had to get her homework done. She was okay with that, she liked homework. Sitting down at her desk, she turned on her computer and then checked her email. There was an email from Jenny.
“Hey girl, guess what I’m moving! Jenny.” Is what it said, she replied back. “Me too.”
Getting her book out of her bag, she tackled her math homework before her Mom knocked on the door. She popped her head in, “pizza is here.” She said, opening the door all the way.
“Okay.” Mia said closing her math book. Her stomach was rumbling, she was starving.
Grabbing a couple of slices, and a soda she sat down at the kitchen table with her parents. They were talking about work mostly. Mia didn’t want to move again, but she knew it wasn’t her choice. She hoped that the kids at the new school would treat her well.
“So, Mia, I’m going to be gone a lot.” Her father said clearing his throat. “I’ve heard the school in the town we will be in is a night school, so you are going to have to get used to night school. I still expect you to keep up your chores.” He said taking a bite of his pizza.
“Why can’t you find a school that is day time?” Mia looked at him and then her mom. “I don’t want to go to school at night.” She said shaking her head.
“It’s just how they do it there. I have asked the military if there is a school on base, unfortunately there isn’t. You will adjust.” He said looking back at his pizza. “Anyways we’ll get packing this weekend, by the end of the month we need to move. They have only given me enough time to get everything sorted here.”
Mia excused herself from the dinner table, she wanted to eat more pizza, but she didn’t want to listen to her Dad go on and on about his new position. She wasn’t looking forward to going to school at night. She felt like it was a mistake.
She had a month to get things done with her friends at school. She didn’t want to pack this weekend, but she knew it would be easier if she just did what her parents said.
Mia finished her homework and got into bed. She would read a chapter of Twilight, and then she would go to bed.
Morning peaked around, Mia wanted to get to school a little early, she was hoping Jenny would do the same, she wanted all the time she could with her best friend. They were both moving, and neither had any idea if they would see each other again.
Jenny didn’t show up to school that day or the next. Mia was wondering if she was forced to move already, she would send her an email and see what happened. She was sad that her friend left without saying good-bye. She wanted to leave just as fast if that was the case.
The school day dragged all day, but she made it to the last bell. She was really missing Jenny, at least when they were together the day seemed to suck less. She quickly made it home. She tossed her bag on her bed, and turned on her computer. There were no emails from Jenny, she sent one.
“Hey Jenn, missed you at school. Did you already move? What happened? Mia” she sent the email off and then started her homework. She wasn’t in the mood to do anything, so she got it done before her parents got home from work at five.
“Mia!” her father called from the stairs.
“Yeah Dad?” she said coming out of her room and she walked down the stairs so her dad didn’t have to yell.
“Our move out date will be this coming week, you need to get your room packed as soon as possible, and it doesn’t look like Jenny and her father followed us. I hope you two can keep a friendship through the computer.” He said sounding sad.
“It’s alright, Jenny already left I guess.” She said shrugging her shoulders. “I need some boxes.”
“There’s some in the garage, don’t worry you will make new friends.” He said patting her on the shoulder. “I have to go back to work for the night, one of the majors called in and they said it would be a good learning experience for me.” He said kissing her cheek before leaving through the garage door.
Mia decided to grab some of the boxes, she didn’t have much to pack, but it would still take her a couple of hours to get everything in the boxes. Mia finished her books and other things that could fit in the box, she taped it up and wrote her name on it.
After she was finished, she went downstairs to find something to eat, and to see if her Mom was home, she wasn’t. Mia made herself a turkey sandwich and went back to her room. She wanted to get more packed, but since her parents weren’t home, she decided to surf the internet to see if there was anything cool to read. There wasn’t. she checked her email to see if her friend emailed her, she hadn’t.
Going back downstairs, her Mother still wasn’t home. She decided to call her work to see why.
“Hey is Jane there?” she said into the phone.
“Jane left four hours ago.” The male voice said on the other end.
“Alright thanks.”
Mia was confused, her mother never didn’t come home. She was starting to worry, so she called her Dad.
“Is General Mark there?”
“Yes, may I ask who is calling?” the woman on the other end asked.
“Yeah Mia, his Daughter.”
“Hold please.” She said placing Mia on hold.
Mia twirled the cord from the phone around her finger. “Hey Mia what’s going on?” her dad said picking up the phone.
“Mom isn’t home, do you know why not?” she said.
“Um she’s not there? She should have been there four hours ago.” He said sounding confused.
“I know, I called her work and they said the same thing. Mom isn’t home.” She said sounding like she was about to cry.
“Alright I am going to come home, after I make a few phone calls, this isn’t like your mother, she should have been home by now. Stay by the phone okay?”
“Alright bye.” She said hanging up the phone. Now she was starting to worry more since her dad didn’t know where she was.
Mia paced back and forth by the phone, it seemed like hours went by. Her dad walked into the door. “She still not here?” he asked taking his hat off.
“No.” she said shaking her head, with tears forming in her eyes. “Are you two fighting? Why wouldn’t she come home?”
Before he could answer the question, the phone rang. Mark picked it up. “Yes?” he said. “Are you sure? What hospital?” he said looking Mia. “Alright, I will come back to work when I find out about my wife.” He said hanging the phone up.
He looked at Mia, he looked worried. “Your, your mother was in a terrible car crash. I need you to stay here, I need to go and find out more information. This isn’t sounding too good.” He said trying not to cry in front of Mia.
“But-“ she tried to talk, but he was out the door and driving away.
Mia had to stay awake, she wanted to know what happened, and why her dad didn’t want to say anything to her. Was her mom dead, or was she okay and she would be coming home with her dad in a little while.
Mia sat down on the couch; her eyes were tired. She tried to stay awake, but fell asleep. Morning peaked around, and her dad hasn’t come back, she was starting to worry. She knew she had to go to school, it was Friday, this would be the last time she would see anyone she knew. She was sad, but she couldn’t keep her mom off her mind.
Half way through the day, she was called to the office. When she arrived, her father was there, he looked like he’d been crying for some time.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Come on, I am taking you home. We are going to gather a few things; we are going to head out sooner then I said we would.” He said walking out of the office.
“What about Mom?” she asked as she followed him.
He stopped, he didn’t want to tell his daughter, but he didn’t have a choice. He turned to face her. “She died last night.” He said trying to hold the tears back. “I couldn’t bring myself to come home last night, they said she didn’t suffer much if at all. The military is going to fly her body to Kansas, we will bury her there.” He said turning away from her. “Come on, before everyone figures out what happened.
Mia couldn’t cry, she didn’t know what to think. Her mother killed in a crash; she didn’t get to say good-bye. She was heartbroken.
Arriving back at the house. She stayed in the car for a bit, she finally broke down and cried for what seemed like an hour. She slowly got out of the car, she wasn’t ready to face her father, she knew he wasn’t going to talk too much. She wanted to get what she could, they probably would leave this evening.
She was right, he was in his room the door was closed. She could hear from crying, she wanted to g in there and comfort him, but she figured he wanted to be alone. She went into her room and closed the door. She would pack her clothes; she knew her Dad was going to drive with as little as possible. She put her laptop in the bag, and put it near the boxes that she’d already packed. This ride was going to be hard for the both of them. Mia knew she was strong, but was she going to be strong enoug
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