Nano Nano
Two weeks ago when I last posted Erin was heading for an adventure of a lifetime- meeting up with Toby. The next two chapters are in preparation for that meetup and the events that follow next that will change Erin's life forever.
Thanks again to eolivet for betaing!!! Any mistakes made are mine, not hers.
Chapter: 11
The Toby meet up, as Jessie referred to our trip to Salem, was planned for the weekend after school began. Jessie had gotten a decent used car from the end of the start up money, a green Jeep Cherokee. Mom and dad approved of the proposed outing to Salem believing that two sisters were out for a day of fun. They didn’t realize that the day of fun included seeing a certain young man. That fact wasn't lost on Dennis who made a point to give me a hard time the day before school.
I was setting up my book bag for the next day. I had bought pencils, pens, highlighters, a graphing calculator, notebooks and a mirror for more vain purposes. I was nervous about entering a new school. It was quite a large high school with over a thousand students and I was entering Senior year when I should have been a Junior. It was a daunting task.
Due to our inclusion in the Witness Protection Program I was being forced to grow up more quickly and in turn I would be heading to college when I didn't feel ready to go. I had more butterflies this year than I usually had. Jessie and I would be meeting more new people who we would have to lie to. The lies were getting easier to tell, they slipped off my tongue, a new part of my life fabricated with such ease that I was growing concerned that the lies and the truth would get wrapped around in each other. Then maybe one day I wouldn’t recall what truly had happened because of the lies I’d invented. Lying was never a good thing.
Jessie and Darrien had their own share of concerns and mother was going to begin her pre-k job and try her best to fake teaching. She had been studying up on the subject all summer. Laid out on our living room coffee table were books by people named Otto and McPherson. She was reading through psych books, behavioral accounts, and teaching practices to get herself prepared. She put on a bright smile saying she was excited about the job but I could tell she was nervous about her new position.
We were all entering a world of uncertainly. It was to begin the hardest time in our lives even harder than what we had already been through.
Dennis knocked on my door and poked his head in. "We need to have a chat."
I nodded, I had known, since I had made known my intentions that I was going to Salem with Jessie, that the chat was coming. "Come in.," I said.
Dennis entered Jessie and my shared bedroom and closed the door behind him. "You told Christine about that boy didn't you?"
"Yes I did." He would never have believed me again if I had lied to him.
"That is why you two have planned a trip to Salem isn't it?"
"Jessie and I are allowed to go somewhere if we want," I said rather defiantly even though Dennis had the power to end the trip by telling my parents about the proposed trip's actual purpose.
"You don't even know this boy," Dennis said with a shake of his head.
"I won't be alone, Jessie will be there."
"Christine. That is her new name and Carrie is yours don't forget that!"
I decided it would not be the best time to tell him that Toby actually knew me as Erin. Jessie had shrugged it off as a minor problem but I doubted Dennis would think so.
"You can't go," Dennis declared, "My job is to keep you safe and going to another city to hook up with some boy falls into unsafe territory."
"If he murders us at least it won't be on watch Dennis because Jessie and I are going to Salem this weekend." I felt angry but maybe I was just upset because I didn't want to miss out on seeing Toby and having a shot at fun.
"Not once did I tell your parents about your little friend. I kept that secret for you but I’m not withholding information anymore. How did you arrange a meeting with him anyways? Did he give you his number?"
"No, check our phone records."
"There are ways around that."
"Glad you realize that Dennis," I said and at that snotty remark I saw his face turn red. Snottiness was not part of my real personality but when we became the Parkers some facets of my old life stopped working. I was no longer as nice as I once was.
"The weekend is off! Don't you ever be such a brat to me." He spun around and left. I could hear his feet pounding the wood as he headed down the staircase. A grown man having a child’s temper tantrum.
I waited for the impending doom of my mother and my father coming to yell at me for my acts of defiance. But time passed, my book bag was set and no one was around. I gave up worrying what my fate would be and headed downstairs. Mom and Dad were in the kitchen with Dennis and when I walked in their lowered voices grew mute.
"Let's just get this all out in the open," I started but mother hushed me.
"This weekend Christine and you may head to Salem," she said.
"What?" I responded dumbfounded.
"James told us of your plans but Christine is actually an adult and she's responsible. She'll watch out for you and keep you safe. We have complete faith in her."
I didn't know what to say. My parents never ending faith in Jessie must have lead them to believe that she would take care of any problems that could possibly come up. Or maybe they were just happy that I wasn’t planning on joining the nunnery.
I noticed the look on Dennis' face, he was not pleased in the least. "I really disagree with this mom and dad," he said to them "the girls need to be safe."
"They have already had to give up so much don't tell us that we have to make them give up this as well," my father yelled. I couldn’t recall the last time I had heard him raise his voice, I probably never had.
"And Dennis," my mother said slowly, "we are not your parents and you do not have any control over our children's lives. We thank you for the help you have given us and we like having you around but please stay out of personal affairs that only affect this family.”
Dennis nodded dejectedly, “I understand.” I doubted that he really did and I felt sorry for him. We were the only family he had now and my mother had made it clear that he wasn’t a real part of the family he had been claiming as his own.
Dennis left the room and it was my turn to look at my parents. “I’m sorry I lied.”
Dad let out a small smile, “I think your mother and I have done probably something similar in the past. Just try to stay with Christine okay because this guy is still a stranger.”
“I will,” I promised and with that I gave each of them a big hug.
Chapter: 12
The first day of school went off without a hitch. I found my new teachers to be extremely pleasant. I couldn’t gage if Senior year would be difficult for me. Jessie and I had already met some new friends and ate lunch with the Braden sisters. Michelle and Anna were bubbly red heads who were identical twins. Only at one point during our lunch time together I almost messed up. Michelle was asking us who was the older twin. I started to answer “Christine is, by two years.” Then caught myself amending it to two minutes. Which I just had to hope was a possibility.
Jessie drove me back home and we waited impatiently for Darrien to be dropped off by his bus. The new Parker clan had a successful first day although a part of me still was saddened. The new life was pretty good but I missed being me and I missed my friends particularly Julie.
My last period of the day was computers. It was more of a free time period because the teacher Mr. Givens liked to let his students “explore the vast world on the internet”. That translated into free time to check out sports scores and email friends. I of course had used that time to send out a letter to Toby. It occurred to me that I could also try to keep in touch with Julie in the same fashion. I knew her email address, I could just send her an email revealing that I was okay. I grew excited at the prospect. The risk didn’t seem too great for either Julie or me. But I stopped myself from doing so. She would never look at an email that wasn’t from someone she knew. It was the only disappointing part of that day. Julie Eastwin happened to be too good of a friend to shove out of my mind, and that was something I would just have to accept.
The next few days passed with ease. Darrien, Jessie and I were very happy which in turn delighted our parents. Dennis on the other hand stopped eating dinner with us (he seemed to always be “out”) and didn’t talk too much. The tension was thick between him and our parents, which put us minors (and sort of minor Jessie) in an odd position. We loved our parents but we actually really liked Dennis and missed having him as our “brother”. I wasn’t pleased with him on several occasions but after spending the majority of my life displeased with Jessie and her actions I wasn’t about to start hating Dennis.
The night before the big trip to Salem I thought my dreams would be Toby filled but instead the dreams turned into nightmares. I was in a car with the Robinson boys. Tony was Toby (must have been the similar names) and Jake was smiling from the front seat. I was yelling at them to let me off, stop the car. The bad guys wanted me not them. But they wouldn’t listen. I saw the saw whole crash again in my mind. Even as I slept, it seemed like everything was happening in real time. Tony floated above me a ghostly apparition. His face changed into Toby’s. I woke up with a start and sweat was pouring down my face.
Jessie turned on her table lamp blinding me temporally.
“You okay?” she asked.
My eyes were slits. “Yeah,” I answered her, “Just had a bad nightmare.”
Jessie frowned. “I have them too a lot. A lot of nightmares actually about Griffin.”
She turned off her light and I knew that was a signal that she wasn’t ready to discus Griffin’s death.
I brushed my teeth twice that next morning. I tried three different hairstyles- down, pulled back, put into a French twist. I applied some makeup stolen from my mother’s cabinet. Jessie and I had trouble deciding what I should wear. We finally decided on nice jeans and a pink stripped three- quarter length blouse.
I took a look in the mirror. Erin McLaughlin was no where to be seen but Carrie Parker looked ready for her date, meet up, thing that was causing butterflies in my stomach- whatever one decided to call it.
To Be continued...
Thanks again to eolivet for betaing!!! Any mistakes made are mine, not hers.
Chapter: 11
The Toby meet up, as Jessie referred to our trip to Salem, was planned for the weekend after school began. Jessie had gotten a decent used car from the end of the start up money, a green Jeep Cherokee. Mom and dad approved of the proposed outing to Salem believing that two sisters were out for a day of fun. They didn’t realize that the day of fun included seeing a certain young man. That fact wasn't lost on Dennis who made a point to give me a hard time the day before school.
I was setting up my book bag for the next day. I had bought pencils, pens, highlighters, a graphing calculator, notebooks and a mirror for more vain purposes. I was nervous about entering a new school. It was quite a large high school with over a thousand students and I was entering Senior year when I should have been a Junior. It was a daunting task.
Due to our inclusion in the Witness Protection Program I was being forced to grow up more quickly and in turn I would be heading to college when I didn't feel ready to go. I had more butterflies this year than I usually had. Jessie and I would be meeting more new people who we would have to lie to. The lies were getting easier to tell, they slipped off my tongue, a new part of my life fabricated with such ease that I was growing concerned that the lies and the truth would get wrapped around in each other. Then maybe one day I wouldn’t recall what truly had happened because of the lies I’d invented. Lying was never a good thing.
Jessie and Darrien had their own share of concerns and mother was going to begin her pre-k job and try her best to fake teaching. She had been studying up on the subject all summer. Laid out on our living room coffee table were books by people named Otto and McPherson. She was reading through psych books, behavioral accounts, and teaching practices to get herself prepared. She put on a bright smile saying she was excited about the job but I could tell she was nervous about her new position.
We were all entering a world of uncertainly. It was to begin the hardest time in our lives even harder than what we had already been through.
Dennis knocked on my door and poked his head in. "We need to have a chat."
I nodded, I had known, since I had made known my intentions that I was going to Salem with Jessie, that the chat was coming. "Come in.," I said.
Dennis entered Jessie and my shared bedroom and closed the door behind him. "You told Christine about that boy didn't you?"
"Yes I did." He would never have believed me again if I had lied to him.
"That is why you two have planned a trip to Salem isn't it?"
"Jessie and I are allowed to go somewhere if we want," I said rather defiantly even though Dennis had the power to end the trip by telling my parents about the proposed trip's actual purpose.
"You don't even know this boy," Dennis said with a shake of his head.
"I won't be alone, Jessie will be there."
"Christine. That is her new name and Carrie is yours don't forget that!"
I decided it would not be the best time to tell him that Toby actually knew me as Erin. Jessie had shrugged it off as a minor problem but I doubted Dennis would think so.
"You can't go," Dennis declared, "My job is to keep you safe and going to another city to hook up with some boy falls into unsafe territory."
"If he murders us at least it won't be on watch Dennis because Jessie and I are going to Salem this weekend." I felt angry but maybe I was just upset because I didn't want to miss out on seeing Toby and having a shot at fun.
"Not once did I tell your parents about your little friend. I kept that secret for you but I’m not withholding information anymore. How did you arrange a meeting with him anyways? Did he give you his number?"
"No, check our phone records."
"There are ways around that."
"Glad you realize that Dennis," I said and at that snotty remark I saw his face turn red. Snottiness was not part of my real personality but when we became the Parkers some facets of my old life stopped working. I was no longer as nice as I once was.
"The weekend is off! Don't you ever be such a brat to me." He spun around and left. I could hear his feet pounding the wood as he headed down the staircase. A grown man having a child’s temper tantrum.
I waited for the impending doom of my mother and my father coming to yell at me for my acts of defiance. But time passed, my book bag was set and no one was around. I gave up worrying what my fate would be and headed downstairs. Mom and Dad were in the kitchen with Dennis and when I walked in their lowered voices grew mute.
"Let's just get this all out in the open," I started but mother hushed me.
"This weekend Christine and you may head to Salem," she said.
"What?" I responded dumbfounded.
"James told us of your plans but Christine is actually an adult and she's responsible. She'll watch out for you and keep you safe. We have complete faith in her."
I didn't know what to say. My parents never ending faith in Jessie must have lead them to believe that she would take care of any problems that could possibly come up. Or maybe they were just happy that I wasn’t planning on joining the nunnery.
I noticed the look on Dennis' face, he was not pleased in the least. "I really disagree with this mom and dad," he said to them "the girls need to be safe."
"They have already had to give up so much don't tell us that we have to make them give up this as well," my father yelled. I couldn’t recall the last time I had heard him raise his voice, I probably never had.
"And Dennis," my mother said slowly, "we are not your parents and you do not have any control over our children's lives. We thank you for the help you have given us and we like having you around but please stay out of personal affairs that only affect this family.”
Dennis nodded dejectedly, “I understand.” I doubted that he really did and I felt sorry for him. We were the only family he had now and my mother had made it clear that he wasn’t a real part of the family he had been claiming as his own.
Dennis left the room and it was my turn to look at my parents. “I’m sorry I lied.”
Dad let out a small smile, “I think your mother and I have done probably something similar in the past. Just try to stay with Christine okay because this guy is still a stranger.”
“I will,” I promised and with that I gave each of them a big hug.
Chapter: 12
The first day of school went off without a hitch. I found my new teachers to be extremely pleasant. I couldn’t gage if Senior year would be difficult for me. Jessie and I had already met some new friends and ate lunch with the Braden sisters. Michelle and Anna were bubbly red heads who were identical twins. Only at one point during our lunch time together I almost messed up. Michelle was asking us who was the older twin. I started to answer “Christine is, by two years.” Then caught myself amending it to two minutes. Which I just had to hope was a possibility.
Jessie drove me back home and we waited impatiently for Darrien to be dropped off by his bus. The new Parker clan had a successful first day although a part of me still was saddened. The new life was pretty good but I missed being me and I missed my friends particularly Julie.
My last period of the day was computers. It was more of a free time period because the teacher Mr. Givens liked to let his students “explore the vast world on the internet”. That translated into free time to check out sports scores and email friends. I of course had used that time to send out a letter to Toby. It occurred to me that I could also try to keep in touch with Julie in the same fashion. I knew her email address, I could just send her an email revealing that I was okay. I grew excited at the prospect. The risk didn’t seem too great for either Julie or me. But I stopped myself from doing so. She would never look at an email that wasn’t from someone she knew. It was the only disappointing part of that day. Julie Eastwin happened to be too good of a friend to shove out of my mind, and that was something I would just have to accept.
The next few days passed with ease. Darrien, Jessie and I were very happy which in turn delighted our parents. Dennis on the other hand stopped eating dinner with us (he seemed to always be “out”) and didn’t talk too much. The tension was thick between him and our parents, which put us minors (and sort of minor Jessie) in an odd position. We loved our parents but we actually really liked Dennis and missed having him as our “brother”. I wasn’t pleased with him on several occasions but after spending the majority of my life displeased with Jessie and her actions I wasn’t about to start hating Dennis.
The night before the big trip to Salem I thought my dreams would be Toby filled but instead the dreams turned into nightmares. I was in a car with the Robinson boys. Tony was Toby (must have been the similar names) and Jake was smiling from the front seat. I was yelling at them to let me off, stop the car. The bad guys wanted me not them. But they wouldn’t listen. I saw the saw whole crash again in my mind. Even as I slept, it seemed like everything was happening in real time. Tony floated above me a ghostly apparition. His face changed into Toby’s. I woke up with a start and sweat was pouring down my face.
Jessie turned on her table lamp blinding me temporally.
“You okay?” she asked.
My eyes were slits. “Yeah,” I answered her, “Just had a bad nightmare.”
Jessie frowned. “I have them too a lot. A lot of nightmares actually about Griffin.”
She turned off her light and I knew that was a signal that she wasn’t ready to discus Griffin’s death.
I brushed my teeth twice that next morning. I tried three different hairstyles- down, pulled back, put into a French twist. I applied some makeup stolen from my mother’s cabinet. Jessie and I had trouble deciding what I should wear. We finally decided on nice jeans and a pink stripped three- quarter length blouse.
I took a look in the mirror. Erin McLaughlin was no where to be seen but Carrie Parker looked ready for her date, meet up, thing that was causing butterflies in my stomach- whatever one decided to call it.
To Be continued...