Stray Story - 009

School started up again, with the new year, two days after me and Tayla's date.

On the Sunday, I worked my last full day over the summer. With school coming back, I'm returning to my original evening hours. Part-time.

Tayla had to go back home before Sunday night. Her parents were fine with her staying over at mine for four nights, but not for another with school the next day, so it was back to just me and Caroline on the Monday.

On the first day back at school, the whole year group has an assembly at the beginning. As there's no indoor space that fits the whole school, the assemblies are spread out across the morning, and so on my first day back, I'm starting an hour later than usual.

It doesn't stop me from still getting up at my usual time. I don't think I've ever mentioned this, but I don't have an alarm clock or anything. I rely solely on my internal biological clock. Well, that's not completely true. I can always hear the birds in the morning, even if I don't leave any windows open, because of how bad the walls are.

The point, however, is that biological clocks are hard to break, so I still get up quite early, even though school's a few hours away.

When I walk through to the lounge, Caroline's also sitting up on the couch, where she's still been sleeping every night. I guess she's also gotten used to me getting up at this time and awakening her from her slumber every day.

Well, that's perfect. Since there's just the two of us, it's probably a good time for us to talk about what Caroline's going to do now. Actually, I'm going to make my breakfast before I speak to her. I think I'm going to have some of the cereal that Tayla brought over while she was staying here. Apparently, it's her favourite, and I can see why.

The first mouthful that I have really hits the spot. What a wonderful mouthfeel.

"Caroline."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you're going to go to school?"

"I don't have my uniform."

"I see."

Even though we both leave it unspoken, I'm sure she understands that if she went to school, there's a very good chance that she would end up being forced to go back home afterwards.

"You know," I continue, "I'm not saying that it has to be today, but you can't stay here forever, Caroline."

…

She doesn't reply to that.

After that, I continue to eat my breakfast in silence, and when it comes time to go to school, I leave without saying another word to her.

Our assembly lasted forty-five minutes, but I don't remember any of it. Being completely honest, I fell asleep. What I do remember, is waking to the sound of rapturous applause, something quite rare in high school assemblies. Maybe I missed something that was actually interesting.

I had yet to spot Arthur, and I don't have any other friends at school. Perhaps it would be a good time to explain now, that I haven't really made friends at school. Getting on the bad side of those guys who were bullying Arthur when I first met him really didn't help my case in that aspect.

Not that it really matters. I wouldn't have changed how that went in the slightest. It's not a big deal. Just like what I said to Arthur at that time, 'There's only one person in the world who really knows me, and I'm fine with that. Just that one person is all I need.'

And I still have that one person. With Tayla.

"Hey."

Someone calls out to me as we're walking from the hall to our new form classes for the year.

I look around for the source. That's right. Now that I think about it, I do have one other friend at school. I'd just forgotten because I saw her almost every day over the summer.

Me and AJ have been close friends ever since that time where I got involved in her family infighting. She's in the year above me, so her assembly will be starting shortly, as opposed to ending.

I walk over to speak with her.

"Hey, what's up?"

"I'm surprised you came to talk with me, I thought you wouldn't bother."

"Why's that?"

"I thought you had a thing for younger girls."

Not this again.

"I don't. My girlfriend may be in the year below me at school, but she isn't even twelve months younger than me. She doesn't even count as a younger girl."

"But aren't you keeping a twelve-year-old girl at your house?"

Guh.

How does she know about that?

Never mind that, what does she mean 'keeping'? Though I get a feeling I know who told her that story.

"I'm not keeping her there. And since when did you and Tayla get that close with each other?"

"Oh, we've been hanging out together for ages."

"Huh? Why did neither of you tell me that?"

"Well, I can't speak for Tayla, but personally it was because I'm trying to take her away from you."

"What?"

"Don't worry about it. Anyway, I didn't really get all the details but why is there a twelve-year-old staying at your place?"

"Hmm, well…" I started, "long story short, she ran away from home, and I'm letting her stay at mine for the time being."

"For the time being… does that mean you've got some plan for getting her back home?"

"Yeah, I do it's just…"

"Just what?"

…

…

"I think it would be hypocritical of me to do so."

"Hypocritical?"

AJ looks at me, confused. She doesn't understand what about it is hypocritical, because she doesn't know about my past. How I came to live here in Christchurch. She knows I used to live with people who weren't my parents in Wellington, but she has no idea about my current living arrangements, or that I ran away from Wellington.

"Does that matter? Who cares if you're being a hypocrite?"

I look over at AJ.

And when I hear her say that and see the smile on her face, I remember something. A conversation that I had with Ray Starcrawler. When me and AJ went to stop him from selling drugs to her brother, he'd called me a hypocrite. But in that moment, I'd realised that it doesn't matter at all.

I said to him, 'It's absolutely undeniably, absolutely true, that all I am is a hypocrite. But what's wrong with that? Does it take away from what I've done, even if I only did it for myself? No, I don't think so. What I've done isn't any less valuable, because it wasn't altruistic.'

And I don't think I was wrong then. Perhaps it will be hypocritical of me to do so, but if I can get Caroline to go back home, then I'll still have done some good. It would be impossible for her to live by herself at such a young age, and she can't stay at mine indefinitely.

There's not really much choice but to convince her to return home. And I think I know the way to do that.

"Say, AJ."

"Yes?"

"If the two of you hang out that much, you wouldn't happen to have Tayla's phone number would you?"

"Yes, I do, but shouldn't you know it?"

"I don't have a phone, so I haven't needed it before."

"Huh…"

"So, on that note. Could I borrow your phone for a second?"