Chapter 148 – Home before Nightfall – Ellie Daniels

Opal was initially reluctant to accept Holly’s offer. This wasn’t anything out of the usual given the nature of the request. She was always stubborn about going out after school. It wasn’t that her parents didn’t allow her to go out after school, or that she was required to return home early. It’s just how she was.

The pizza place that we were going to was a small mom-and-pop store down the road from the neighborhood we lived in. This part of the city was lively and filled with similar small shops. This was considered a cultural district by the city due to the high proximity of locally owned businesses.

Aside from the regular shops, there were also street stalls and food trucks that frequented the area. This property was highly coveted by these sorts of sellers due to the nearby event stadium. That being the case, Holly and I often had the luxury of trying new things on our way back home.

Opal was the odd one out when it came to these types of things. She was on a strict diet and alleged that deviating even slightly from her schedule meant risking gaining weight. She wasn’t unhealthy, but both her parents worked in healthcare and nutrition. She believed that she had standards to live up to.

Holly knew all this, of course. The fact that she chose to make her apology a pizza place almost seemed like insult to injury, and further evidence to Opal’s point that Holly wasn’t being considerate. Opal, however, decided to relent this time in an uncharacteristic show of good faith. She was going to give Holly a chance, it seemed.

The shop had a pizza buffet and salad bar for walk-in guests. Holly paid for all of us, like she said she would. Opal ignored the pizza in favor of the salad bar, filling her plate only modestly. I was too hungry from skipping breakfast and lunch to do the same. My stomach pains were only just recently easing up.

Admittedly, pizza probably wasn’t the wisest choice for me in light of my stomach aches, but I was too hungry at the moment to be picky. The three of us sat down together in one of the restaurant booths and began eating. Holly came to a new realization as we were talking about how our day went.

“You had detention?!” She asked me. “But… How…?”

“I told you this morning that I had a stomach ache, remember? Well, when I tried sitting out of P.E. class by sitting outside of the gym I was counted as skipping class.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Holly said.

“That’s what I said.” Opal said. “The principal said he’ll rescind the offense on her record but didn’t take the time to pull her out of after-school detention. What a useless dolt.”

Holly laughed.

“Still, though… Ellie getting detention…? That sounds a little unbelievable. Please tell me that Zara had detention today too.”

“Doesn’t she always?” I asked. “There’s even a desk in the detention room with her name on it.”

Holly laughed again.

“That sounds like a joke! Zara… The school might seriously kick her out someday.”

“Unlikely,” Opal said. “It’s rare that expulsions are handed out for any reason. You’d have to do something bordering on illegal, and maybe even that wouldn’t be enough.”

“Ah… I wish I would’ve known that you were in the detention room.” Holly said. “I would’ve stopped by to take a couple of pictures. You’re a real delinquent gangster now.”

“Oh ha-ha,” I said sarcastically. “Like you’ve never been in trouble with the school before.”

Holly put a finger to her chin and thought about it.

“Hmm… Well there was that one time back in middle school when I changed what was written on the whiteboard.”

Opal smiled for the first time since entering the restaurant.

“I remember that.” Opal said. “It took Mrs. Davey a full half-hour to notice that the message was changed.”

“What did it even say?” I asked. “I didn’t have the same class as you two back then.”

“Holly altered the poem written on the board in literature class. It was on the board for nearly the entire class period. It wasn’t until the teacher was reading it aloud that she realized something was wrong.”

“You should’ve seen Mrs. Davey’s face! Haha! It was worth the trouble that I landed in!”

“I’m still surprised you did that.” Opal said. “Even the usual class clowns were raising their eyebrows.”

Holly shrugged lightly.

“I wasn’t really doing it to entertain the class as much as I was doing it to get back at Mrs. Davey. She always marked down my essays several points lower than they deserved without good reason. At some point I stopped taking her seriously. I know I was being an annoying brat by doing that, but I wanted to send a message.”

“I don’t think she appreciated the fact that you went over her head to talk to the principal about the books we were reading that year.” Opal said. “Not that I blame you. I fully agreed with the changes to the curriculum that you suggested.”

“The principal ended up agreeing with me anyways so I don’t understand why she was upset about that.” Holly said.

“You managed to change the books you were assigned to read?” I asked.

“No, but the principal said he’d be altering the next year’s curriculum. Mrs. Davey resisted the change for no reason other than the fact that she’s a stubborn old goat.”

I laughed.

“Well, I’m glad that I had a different teacher for literature class then.”

The pizza restaurant wasn’t that populated when we first walked in. Things changed as we were talking. Over the course of several minutes, more and more people streamed into the building. These were mostly students and their guardians since there was another high school and two middle schools in the area letting out at around the same time.

A group of girls from our school noticed us and felt the need to come up to Holly as we were eating. It was a little rude of them to do so, but Holly didn’t seem to mind. Of course, they wanted to talk about her medals. Opal immediately rolled her eyes as Holly went into a long rant. The group of girls dragged Holly away so that they could introduce her to the two parents at their table.

“There she goes…” Opal said, sighing and looking away.

“That wasn’t really her fault.” I said. “That’s the nature of her popularity.”

“Maybe, but we’re here because she wanted to apologize for leaving us waiting while she was busy hanging out with other people. Doesn’t it seem rude to go off and do the same thing now that we’re in the restaurant?”

“We’re basically done eating now, so it isn’t a big deal.”

“Yeah, we just need to wait on her again so that we can walk home.” Opal said flatly. “Unbelievable…”

Opal was looking out of the window with a placid expression until something caught her eye. She pulled away as someone pushed their entire body against the window outside our booth. It was Zara. Zara quickly ran into the building and ran over to our table.

Her skateboard was in two pieces. She was carrying the broken skateboard pieces in her backpack. Her right knee was bleeding and she had a grief-stricken look on her face. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened.

“You really suck at skateboarding.” I said as she sat down beside me.

“Shut up,” She said and picked up Holly’s pizza. “Whose pizza is this? I’m hungry.”

She didn’t await an answer before taking a bite. Why even ask in the first place? I laughed and took off my book bag so that I could reach inside it.

“I’ll bandage that cut on your leg.” I said. “You shouldn’t be walking around with an open wound like that, let alone coming into a food store.”

“It’s not that serious.” Zara said. “I’m going to get far worse when my parents see what happened to my skateboard. My dad just bought it for me.”

Opal pushed her glasses back up.

“You mean to tell me that your parents actually get onto you about this type of hooliganism?” Opal asked.

“Of course they do! I’m always getting lecture after lecture! Every day, every night! It never ends!” Zara said overdramatically.

Opal grinned.

“Given the fact that you’re always in detention I just assumed that you were raised by wolves.”

“Rude.” Zara said. “I’m a good girl at heart.”

“Well, good girl, that’s Holly’s pizza you’re eating.” Opal said.

“It’s okay. She owes me for looking out for her girlfriend during detention. There are some real shady characters in there, you know? Ellie’s lucky that I had her back.”

“Right,” Opal said dubiously. “You can tell her that yourself when she’s done entertaining the crowd over there.”

Holly returned to our table at the same time that Zara was finishing her food. She was confused at first, but dismissed it as Zara being Zara. We left the shop on that note. Zara followed after us, although I was pretty certain that she lived in a different direction. She was riding on the back pegs of Holly’s bike as they rode around us.

“You’re falling behind,” Opal noted as we walked together.

I sped up to match her pace.

“Yeah…” I said. “My legs are just tired from so much walking today. It’s been a busy day.”

“Hm…” Opal hummed. “I’m guessing that you’re really trying to avoid returning home, aren’t you?”

“Am I that obvious?”

“Only to some,” Opal said, gesturing to Holly and Zara riding around in the middle of the street.

There were no cars coming since traffic this close to our neighborhood was light. Holly was trying to throw Zara off her bike by cycling around in tight circles. The two of them were laughing and having a good time. Opal was right. I wasn’t ready to go home.

“You should tell Holly about what’s been going on.” Opal said suddenly. “Tell her how you’re really feeling. Maybe that will make her snap back to the real world.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean.” She said. “She’s living a fantasy ever since winning those gilded pieces of tin. She needs to open her eyes and look at the world around her. I think this is why I’m really upset with her. How can she not notice something that’s happening right beside her?”

“What…?” I asked.

Zara jumped off of Holly’s bike, laughing uncontrollably.

“Alright, I give! I give! That’s too much for me! I feel like I’m going to vomit! Haha!” Zara shouted.

“I told you that I’d outlast you!” Holly said.

“That’s only because I ate more of your pizza than you did!”

“And whose fault is that?” Holly laughed. “That’s what you get for stealing someone else’s food.”

“Holly!” Opal said intently. “We need to talk.”

“We’re talking now, aren’t we?” Holly asked. “What is it you want to talk about?”

“I’m sick of you not taking anything seriously.”

“This again…?” Holly asked. “Didn’t I just apologize for-…”

“Some apology,” Opal said. “The only thing you did was prove my point.”

“Oh, here we go again!” Holly said, throwing her hands up in aggravation. “What is it really, Opal? Why are you so upset? I can’t imagine what I did to deserve your constant ire.”

“If you’d just stop and seriously take a good look at…”

“And here I thought we were having such a nice evening!” Holly said. “Why do you have to be such a killjoy all the time?”

Something seemed to snap in Opal as she was taken aback by this. She turned from Holly to face me. She suddenly took me by the arm and pulled me closer to her so that she could draw back the sleeve on my left arm. Holly and Zara both froze in place. I pulled my arm away quickly to hide the cut marks on my wrists.

“You see?!” Opal shouted. “You haven’t been paying enough attention to the person you claim to love to see that she’s hurting herself!”

“No, this…” I started to say. “It was just and accident, I… I didn’t mean for… I mean…”

“I’m not mad at you, Ellie.” Opal clarified. “I just want Holly to realize what she’s turning a blind eye to. Is that really okay with you, Holly?”

Holly looked between the two of us in disbelief. I held my wrist in shame and embarrassment. I didn’t even know that Opal realized what I did to myself! This was something that I tried to keep hidden from others. I had been wearing long sleeve shirts ever since! How did she even manage to find out?

An uncomfortable silence descended on the four of us. Zara was the first to break it as she backed away and pointed at the direction of her house.

“Listen, girls… It’s getting late… I’m going to head home. I’ll see you three on Monday.”

The three of us remained in silence as Zara walked away. Opal shook her head and followed Zara’s lead by walking away. Neither of us tried to stop her. Holly seemed to be lost in thought, staring at the ground in quiet contemplation. Even I didn’t want to interrupt her.

Perhaps she was beginning to realize that Opal had a legitimate point. Holly was a different person ever since becoming incredibly popular. Then again, if I were in her shoes then maybe I’d be the same way? I’ve never had something so amazing happen to me. It was hard for me to be mad at her the same way Opal was.

I held my shirt sleeve over my wrist tightly and began to walk away. The fact that my family troubles were happening at the same time that Holly was becoming a superstar was unfortunate for everyone. I didn’t want to be a burden to anyone and yet I couldn’t confide in Holly the way that I used to.

I was going through a painful time in life and I didn’t want to thrust that painful feeling onto her as well. That’s why I stopped marching down the street and turned back to face her. She was still sitting in place on her bike, looking down at the ground. She lifted her head only as I approached her.

“Holly…” I started to say.

“Opal’s right.” Holly said immediately. “I’ve been a terrible friend lately and you both knew it. How could Opal see something that I couldn’t?”

“She’s a perceptive person.”

“So am I… Usually… It’s just… These medals…” Holly said, lifting them over her head to take them off. “I let them go to my head. I let them throw me off balance. Things can’t go on like this.”

Holly placed her medals into the bag hanging from her bike’s handle bars.

“I’m not mad.” I said. “It’s not like you win these types of awards every day. They’re proof of your hard work.”

“That hard work doesn’t mean anything if I can’t even be there for you when you need me.”

“I… I made a mistake too.” I admitted. “I don’t know why I’d hurt myself like that. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind at the time. I just wanted some way to hurt my parents the way they hurt me. It was childish and stupid of me to behave like that.”

“You felt lonely and I wasn’t there to help you.” Holly said. “I should’ve invested more of myself into your situation. I didn’t think too hard about it when you said your parents were separating. Now… I wish I had paid more attention.”

“None of this is your fault. My family business shouldn’t be your concern.”

“Your health is my concern.” She said, getting off her bike to pull me into a hug. “Please don’t do something like that again.”

I returned her hug gladly.

“I don’t even know why I did that in the first place. It was stupid of me.”

Holly pulled away from me and took me by both hands.

“Hey, let’s spend some time hanging out together. I don’t want to go straight home. I want to talk one-on-one.”

“My parents already think I’m at risk of running away. I promised them I wouldn’t arrive home too late.”

“It’ll be fine. I’ll have you back home before nightfall.”

I smiled wryly.

“I feel like I’ve heard that before…”

Holly smiled back at me. She turned to get back on her bike.

“I’ll have you back at a reasonable time. Hop on back.” She said.

I stared at her for a moment before agreeing.

“Okay.” I said. “What did you have in mind?”

“I want to head to our tree house. There, we’ll talk about things in privacy.”