Dawn by S.C. Taufa (read e book TXT) 📖

“Rahh!”An annoying little voice came from behind the lounge, I knew who it was so I stayed absolutely still and when the bugger popped his up I went,”Boo!” I was satisfied to see him jump, and then we both laughed enjoying our selves until we could hardly breathe. “You should be careful Michelle; you could really scare the little ones by doing that.” Came a voice from the open door and it could only be Alex who reminded me so much of his brother, Marcus. I had to look away before I started to think how lonely I was without them. “We were only playing Alex and I started it.” Little Edward innocently stated. Alex smiled, I could see his reflection in the window and he was looking at me. I looked at Ed so I didn’t have to look at Alex who was still looking at me, I could tell that he was still looking at me. Ed smiled at me and I smiled back to hide my loneliness from him; he bought it. “Well I have homework to do so I can’t play anymore Ed maybe later.”I literally ran from the room, I did this every time Alex or Daniel was watching me and I always had an excuse. I went to my bunk (I’m in an all foster kid family, a big one), grabbed my school bag and went outside into the forest that was our backyard. The forest was my safe haven, no-one came into the forest because I told spooky stories to keep everyone out, and sometimes they weren’t just stories. I didn’t do my homework because I didn’t have any, that’s one good thing about small schools but there is a bad thing, in my opinion, is that there’s no shortage of attention and whenever Alex has a class with me in it he doesn’t stop watching me. It gets on my nerves a lot of the time and I’d even walked out of class to go to the secondary teacher, Mrs Waters. I would get into trouble but I didn’t care I missed Jason and Marcus too much. I lied down and curled up in my little natural tent like house and cried silently. I did this every time I ran out of the house and it hurt too much to tell anyone how I feel (no-one knows about me being friends with Jason and Marcus). They are teachers like Alex and Daniel; it’s more like Alex and Daniel are like Jason and Marcus. I needed to get out of my head and talk to someone. I wish that they were here so I had someone to talk freely with. I uncurled and stood up, picking up my school bag I went back to the house, it had been an hour since I had ran out of the house. I went back to my bunk, emptied my school bag and filled it with clothes. I put a few pairs of shoes in there just in case something happened while I was away. Alex was standing in the doorway watching me like always and he seemed to know something was up. “Where are you going Michelle?” Alex asked. “To Mitchells’ house.” I answered shortly. “How long?”Alex was talking to me a lot and he usually doesn’t do that often. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. I need some time away from you. Will you stop starring at me all the time! If Marcus put you up to this it’s fine, just tone the starring done, but if you’re doing it because you want to then I’m going until I want to come back.”It was the longest answer he had gotten from me before and it looked like it had surprised him. I watched him search for words and I picked my bag up after a minute of watching him. “If you have nothing more to say then I’ll be going now, goodbye.”I didn’t storm out because I knew Ed was listening and the others were too. I didn’t look at them just in case they tried to make me stay. “Be careful Michelle, Marcus wanted me to watch over you, I’m sorry.” I heard Alex say very quietly but I heard nevertheless I kept walking anyway, Alex didn’t know that I knew he had said that and I felt bad now for saying what I had said. But it’s in the past where I can’t take it back.

I was still a little annoyed with Alex when I arrived at Mitchells’ place. I pulled out my mobile and text Mitchell to tell him I was outside. His reply was that he was too but it wasn’t by text message. “Bloody hell you scared the living day lights out of me Mitch.” I exclaimed.

“That was sort of the point and I wanted to see how you reacted. So how long will you be staying over for?”Mitch asked.

“Until I run out of clothes I guess. Is it alright if I stay over? I don’t want to cause any trouble; I’ll go if I’m making trouble.” I was babbling and who wouldn’t if your best friend was standing there with his shirt off. Note to boys don’t ever have your shirt off in front of your best friend.

“Why do you want to stay at my place, I don’t mean to be nosy.” Mitch asked with a furrow on his forehead. I smiled at him to say it was okay to ask. I had to think this over; I didn’t want to reveal anything about my past.

“Why are you outside, I’m not trying to be nosy.” I asked so I didn’t have to answer the question. I was watching his face to see if I had annoyed him, he didn’t seem at all annoyed but he didn’t answer my question. Right then our mobiles went off; my message was from Telstra and Mitchells’ didn’t look like it was from Telstra. His expression was crossed between surprise and shock “What is it?”I asked knowing I wasn’t going to get an answer from him.

“It’s nothing to worry about.”Mitchell sounded like he didn’t want to talk about it but I would’ve done the same if I was him. There was a short silence, someone had to break it and I don’t really like silences.

“So where will I be sleeping tonight, just out of curiosity that is.” At least there wasn’t a long silence. Mitchell didn’t answer strait away, he was actually hesitant to answer.

“You can stay in my room, unless you want to sleep in a different room if you’re uncomfortable with being in my room.”Mitchell slowly and carefully answered.
“It’s fine with me; as long as you stay in your bed I’ll be comfortable.” I said with a smile, we both laughed at that and began walking to Mitchells’ house from the fringe of the forest. We walked slowly to his house I don’t know why but we did and it was...Comfortable.

“What do you want to do Michelle?”Mitch asked.

“It’s up to you; I don’t mind what we do today; anything to kill some time.”

“I was thinking of going for a walk in the forest for a few hours, how does that sound to you?" He was looking at me waiting for an answer. “It sounds like a great idea, it’s nice and quiet in the forest and it’s a great place to get away from everyone.” I answered in a quiet voice.

“I’ll show you to my room so later if you need to get anything from your bag you can.”Mitchell led the way to his room once we were inside; we came in through the back door and as we walked past a shut door Mitchells’ Dad came out startling both of us.

“You didn’t tell me you would be having a visitor Mitch.” Mitchells’ step Dad was trying to hide his surprise behind a parentally voice. “She called me while I was out so how could I know that we were going to have a visitor, I’m allowed to have friends over you agreed to that.” Mitchell replied snidely, I don’t think Mitchell got along with his step Dad. I was watching this like a ping pong match.

“There’s no need to get upset Mitch.”Mr Cronk said.

“You don’t have to state the obvious.” I butted in and Mr Cronk starred at us.

“You two make quite a pair, are you dating?”Mr Cronk asked teasingly.

“NO!!” We both yelled, he took one look at our face and knew not to ask any more questions. Mitchell and I turned our backs on him and headed to Mitchells’ room, again.

“You two should consider dating each other.”Mr Cronk called behind our backs. Something about what Mr Cronk had said made Mitchell turn around and go at his Dad; of course his Dad didn’t expect a thing but I knew exactly what was happening. I grabbed Mitchell by the arm hoping it would stop him and it did, it really did stop him.

“Mitch don’t,” I said very quietly so Mr Cronk didn’t hear me.

"Take it out on someone else.” I said this louder so Mr Cronk would hear, he heard me and I knew this because his eyes widened with realisation. I gave Mitchells’ arm a small tug, he started walking again and I didn’t let him go until his Dad was out of sight. Mitchells’ eyes were smouldering with fury still, an idea came to me and it was a good one. I looked into his eyes once we were in his room and didn’t look away until he started to calm down. But I kept looking at him until the fury was no longer in his eyes and when it had I didn’t look away or talk; he seemed to be trying to see what I was thinking. There was a knock at the door that made both of us jump slightly.

“What do you want?”Mitchell called unhappily.

“Can I come in Mitch?” It was his sister Dayna, I took a few steps away so she didn’t think there was something going on between us and Dayna came in without Mitchells’ answer.

“Mitch I heard you down the hall, what was that about?” Dayna asked.

“Nothing you need to know Dayna.” Mitchell told her, Dayna glanced at me and did a double take.

“Who’s this?” She asked, she had only just noticed me sanding there watching the conversation.

“This is Michelle one of my friends that I hang around with at school and if you paid attention to the girls that are around