WORD ART by Leah Hughes
As I look out the window, I wonder what my new school will look like. In all the movies I've seen, California schools are big and beautiful, and they all look fairly new.
“Are we almost there yet? I really have to go to the bathroom.”
“We’ll be there soon, I promise”
It's always just been my mom and I. My dad left when I was a little girl. We never talk about him much, and I’m not mad about it. I just have to get over the fact that he wasn’t and still isn’t the father figure I needed. Since I am an only child, I always keep myself busy. Right off the bat, people look at me and see a really shy girl, but if people actually got to know me they would see my true personality shine through.
We pull into the driveway and I get a feeling in my stomach that almost makes me throw up. My mom flew down here earlier in the month to look at the house and make sure it was exactly what we wanted, so this is my first time seeing it in person. It’s bigger than I thought it would be. It is definitely a modern home – the outside is white with black rims painted on the massive windows, the roof is dark gray, and delicate trees are planted with tiny shrubs lying beside them. Our home in Montana looked nothing like this. It was a light brownish color, with a brown roof, tiny windows, and no trees or plants in front of the house.
My mom told me “Get your bags out of the car and put them in the house please sweetie. The front door should be unlocked”
She looked at the app on her phone to lock and unlock the front door to double-check.
“Woah! This is like really boujie. How much did we spend on this again?”
“Don’t worry about it!” she said in a somewhat mysterious voice. I walk through the front door and there is an open area. A light fixture hangs high from the ceiling with crystals outlining the chandelier. Stairs lead to the next level and have a black railing with white carpeting on the stairs. The walls are white and the floor is a white marble tile also. I go into what is supposed to be my new bedroom, set my suitcase down, and have a look around. The room is massive! There is already a bed frame against the wall right beside a big window.
“I am going back out to get food. Do you want to come with me?”
“Sure! Let me unpack really quickly”
I start to unpack what is in my suitcases but don’t even try to tackle the boxes yet.
Once I finish, I grab my purse and get in the car where my mom is waiting for me. We go out of the driveway and I notice a boy across the street. He has brown hair and looks about six foot two with caramel skin. He is looking at our car as we drive away and I am intrigued by why he is staring, but oh well. “Do you think he’s cute” my mom asks.
In my mind, he was a little cute, but I can’t say that to my mom because lord knows what she would do if I did tell her, so I just rolled my eyes and ignored the question.
We ride for about ten minutes until we get to the restaurant my mom had been recommended to go to. My mom starts talking about my new school and asks if I am excited. I don’t know what to tell her. We moved here because she got the job of her dreams, so I feel like I can’t tell her I’m not excited about living here.
“I am a little nervous.”
“I'm sure you will find friends right off the bat.”
I seriously doubt that. I barely had friends in Montana, so there is no way I can make a lot of friends here in California. I am terrified about going to school. I have lived in Montana since I was a baby, and now that I am sixteen years old my life is being completely changed. The waiter came to take our order and then my mom and I kept talking about school. My mom keeps looking around like she is waiting for someone to walk through the door, but nothing ever happens. Lately, it seems as if she has been a little on edge, but I figure it is just because we are in a new place and it takes time to adjust.
About fifteen minutes go by, and the waiter is already back with our food. I was hungry when I walked in, but now that we have been talking about how my school day might go tomorrow I feel sick to my stomach. I barely touch my food, meanwhile, my mom has eaten every single bit of hers. On the car ride back home my mom is interrogating me about why I seem to be acting differently. Something seemed different in the environment. I felt uncomfortable being around her.
“You barely ate your food so I know something is wrong.”
“I'm fine!”
“Ok so whenever you say that it means you are not fine, so tell me what is wrong.”
“Mom, I can't talk to you about it!”
My mom dropped it because she could tell I was irritated. Part of me wishes she kept pushing my buttons to tell her because I want her to know how I feel, but I just can’t see her face when I tell her I never wanted to move here. We rarely get into fights, but when we do I feel like there is real meaning behind it. It is a silent car ride home. Nothing but the radio playing. When we get home I go straight up to my room and try to unpack the boxes, but I am just too nervous for my first day at school tomorrow. Before I went to sleep I decided to write my mother a letter explaining how I have been feeling lately and leave the letter on the kitchen table for her to read:
Dear Mom,
I don’t know how to talk to you face to face about how I am feeling, because no matter what I feel, you only care about your happiness. I don't know what has been going on with you lately, but I feel like you haven't been your normal self. You seem on edge about everything around us. When we were eating at the diner you looked at the door every time someone walked in, and when there was a loud sound you would jump. I know there is something you aren’t telling me, but I just don't understand why you are so afraid to let me in. I have my suspicions like are you dating someone and you don’t want me to find out, or maybe you are just trying to hide a good surprise from me. I wonder if I am overthinking this, but I know when my mother seems off. Although I am excited for you and your new job, I don't want the atmosphere between us to change. It has always just been you and me, and if there were someone you were dating I wouldn’t be mad. I will learn and adapt to the change. I hope you can trust me, Mom. I promise I will be happy for you no matter what, but I just want everything to go back to normal.
Your Daughter,
Ava
It's around seven in the morning and I dread walking through those halls. I have changed my outfit maybe ten times now because I want everything to be as perfect as possible. After finally finding the perfect outfit I hurry downstairs to eat a quick breakfast and then drive myself to school. My mom wasn’t at home when I woke up, but I am sure she wanted to get to her new job early to make a good first impression. I drive to school which is about 8 minutes away from our house. There it is. It is ginormous! My heart starts beating faster and faster. I step out of the car. My heart is still beating at the speed of a car. I don’t know where to go, who to talk to, or what to even do right now. I walk into the school and all I see are kids scattered around. I arrived just before school started so that I wouldn’t be forced to mingle with anyone. I take out my schedule and start to look for my first class which is my Musical Theatre class. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a girl with brown hair and glasses approach me.
“Hi! My name is Jen. What's your name?” I was caught off guard when she started talking to me. I almost forgot my name. “Hi, uhm I’m Ava!”
“Nice to meet you Ava! Do you need help finding any of your classes?”
“Yes! Can you help me find my Musical Theater class with Mrs. Willson?
“I am actually on my way there now! So I can just walk with you.”
Some of the stress is gone now. A nice girl is helping me find my classes, and she seems to be very genuine. Maybe I am gonna be fine here and I don’t have that much to worry about. I entered my classroom and I became excited. All the musicals that had been done before were pinned on the wall, and there were practice rooms the size of my bedroom. Quickly, I turned my head and there he was. The boy I saw across the street the other day. Jen saw me staring for a hot second and then responded to my reaction. “That's Grant. Troy Bolton of the musical theater department. Every girl has a crush on him.” I sat down and tried to focus on what the teacher was saying, but I couldn’t concentrate.
“Well that class went by pretty fast,” I told Jen. “Yeah, that is my favorite class because we are never bored.” The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly and Jen stayed with me for most of the day. I stood at the front of the school just procrastinating and then I heard a voice from behind me.
“Are you waiting for someone?”
“Oh no! I am just wasting time because I have nothing else to do”. I turn around and Grant is standing right there. My heart starts beating, and I suddenly can’t remember my name. “Hi, my name is Grant, nice to meet you.” My hand feels like there is an earthquake going on inside of it because it won't stop shaking as he reaches his hand out to shake mine.
“I'm Ava!”
“I think I saw you and your mom drive out of my neighborhood the other day!”
“Oh yeah! I saw you standing outside.”
“Yeah. Since we live so close, if you need anything or just want to hang out you know where to find me.”
“That sounds great! Thank you.” I said with a shaky voice.
I tried calling my mom twice on the way home, but she didn’t pick up. I got home and my mom was nowhere to be found. The house is pitch black and our boxes are still packed up. I called her again to see if she would pick up this time, but surprise, surprise, no response. I go upstairs and lay on my bed because I am exhausted from the stress of today. I end up falling asleep for what feels like a long time, but then I am awakened by the sound of police sirens. I look out my front window and police cars are surrounding my house. Quickly, I sprinted downstairs to open my door and was greeted by a male police officer with gray facial hair and a bald head. “Miss, do you mind coming with me?” he says with a stern look on his face.“What is going on? Has something happened? Am I in trouble?” Without even answering any of my questions they escort me to the police car. I don't know what to think right now. I am left aghast in the back of the cop car, and then soon after we drive off.
“Ma’am I know this can be scary, but I can assure you that you are not in any trouble. We are only trying to help you and your mom right now.” the police officer says in a country voice.
“My mom?” I said confused. The police officer did not care to explain anything, so the whole drive I was left with questions about what was going on.
When we arrived at the police station I walked past the metal detectors and I saw my mom. I run to her with my arms wide open and a tad bit of my fear gone, but still curious as to what is going on. “Mom please tell me what is going on!”
“Ladies please follow me,” the police officer said, interrupting my mother. We follow him to a room that looks like one of those interrogation rooms I always saw on TV. They close the door and leave the two of us to sit and wait. “Mom, what is going on?”
“Ava, I know I should have told you this from the start but my job isn’t…” Two police officers walk through the door mid-sentence. “Hello, ladies! This is Officer Fields and I am Officer Chambers. I am sure you both are wondering what has happened, but we received a threat with the intent of harming someone at your address. Now, do you know why this would have been sent to us?”
“Mom?” I have never kept anything from my mom and to my knowledge she has never kept anything from me up until this very moment. I could see the fear in my mother's eyes as she was trying to explain.
“Ok. A few months ago I got a call when I was at the grocery store. It was an unknown number and although I usually wouldn’t answer it, something told me to this time. When I answered the phone there was a lady with a serious tone and she said Ms. Johnson we have heard that you have incredible investigation skills and we would love for you to come and help us with this very important and top secret project. They offered me $144,000 a year and compared to what I am getting now I had to take the job.”
My jaw dropped. My mother is a private investigator! I don’t know how to feel about it. Should I be excited, perplexed, safe, scared? What does this mean for me now? Someone is after my mother, so are they after me too?
“Ma’am we are going to have to ask you a few questions without your daughter in the room,” the officer said in a stern voice.
They escort me out of the room. I go outside of the station to sit on the curb because I just need to get away from everything and hear myself think. A black van zooms up to the curb and three men wearing masks get out. They pick me up by my legs and arms with force. I move erratically around trying to escape but it is no use. They throw me in the back of the van and then blindfold me. Everything around me is black. Where there used to be the sky, it is now black.
It feels as if they're not trying to hurt me, but are more worried about getting me out of sight. I felt the vehicle start moving. My phone is still in my back pocket and my oversized sweater is covering it up. I felt us pass four stop signs and maybe five turns until we approached a full stop. They drag me out of the van again into a different location, but this time I can feel the warmth on my face. They tied me to a chair and kept me blindfolded. I screamed hoping that would do something, but instead, they gagged me and now I had no way to escape. I'm sure the police know I am missing by now, but what if they don’t? I am crying hysterically terrified of what they are going to do to me. I hear two men talking to each other in the room, but then one man comes up to the chair, removes my blindfold, and asks
“What do you know about what your mother has done?”
“I know nothing. I didn’t even know she had a job like this until today” I said, still crying.
The man walks away and then returns with another victim with a bag over his head hiding his identity. He removes the bag from his head and it is Grant. He pulls out a gun and holds it to his head.
“If you don't tell me what your mother is hiding then your friend here will be in trouble”
“I told you I don’t know anything about my mother's job now please leave him alone!”
The man throws Grant to the ground, and I attempt to escape from the chair to help him, but I can’t. The man leaves the room and closes the door behind him. Grant is on the ground whining in pain.
“Grant I am so so sorry. I have no clue what is going on and who these people are, but trust me I will find a way out of here for us.”
“I know who they are” Grant says hesitant.
“What? I'm sorry I am confused”
“My father is almost like an expert criminal, and somehow he is connected to the case your mom is working on. I live with my grandparents, but my father has recently been in touch, and just today after school, he came to my grandparents' house and kidnapped me. He has been stalking me for the past few days and saw that we were talking to each other and decided to use me as bait to get the truth out of you.”
I have no clue what to say right now. All this time I thought I was the one with all the issues in my family, but I guess everything is not as it seems.
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