9

Jimmy

Brooke, Skylar and I walked into Nikki's room where we found Nikki's mother sitting next to her.

"Mrs. Simon? Are you okay?" I asked. Mrs. Simon was dressed in the same clothes as the day before, her hair was a mess and she had dark circles under her eyes. Her nose was red from blowing her nose.

"You look like shit," Brooke said. I slapped her on her upper arm.

"No offense," she added quickly. Mrs. Simon ran a hand through her hair, trying to straighten it out a bit.

"It's okay," she said, "I stayed here all night. I couldn't bring myself to leave her here alone." One of Nikki's doctors came in.

"She has to have surgery today," he said.

"But I thought the X-rays didn't show anything, did they?" Mrs. Simon asked.

"We discovered a bleeding last night, it wasn't serious enough to operate right away, so we're coming to get her in a minute. Someone will be here shortly to prep her for surgery." An hour later, Nikki was taken to the operating room. We walked into Auriana's room. Jake smiled shyly when he saw Auriana looking his way. Brooke, Skylar, Emma, ​​and Scarlet exchanged glances. Jeremy and I looked at each other in surprise. Nurse Emilia walked in with some paperwork.

"Auriana, I have good news…you can go home." We couldn't help but smile.

"Really?" Auriana asked in disbelief. Emilia nodded.

"Your parents just need to fill out some paperwork and then you can go."

Auriana

Later that afternoon, most of my friends had already gone home. Jake, Brooke, Emma, ​​and my dad were in my room. I felt another sharp stab in my head, grabbing my head as the room started to spin.

"Don't you guys ever get tired of all this arguing?" Nikki asked slightly irritated, as soon as we were standing next to them. She ran a hand through her dark blond hair. Nikki was the smart one of the group. She had never gotten lower than a B in her entire school career. When people needed tutoring or help with their homework, she was their first choice.

"I'll stop when she does," Jake laughed. He had his arms crossed over his chest and the leather jacket he was wearing made him look like a real bad boy.

"He's the one who acts like a little kid," I mumbled, crossing my arms over my chest and rolling my eyes. My friends looked at me with an all too familiar look. I was getting tired of his constant taunting comments.

"You're both acting like little kids, just admit that you like each other already," Brooke said. That was also a thing, my friends had the stupid idea that there was more going on between Jake and me than we were admitting. I looked at Jake who was already looking at me with a disgusted look.

"In love? NO WAY!" we both said at the same time. The rest of us made a noise that showed they didn't believe us. My father looked at me worriedly.

"Do you remember anything?" Jake asked. My dad looked from me to my friends and realized that this happened every time I remembered something.

"Yeah…they keep saying we like each other," I said, gesturing to Emma and Brooke with my hand. My mom walked back into the room. She had just signed the discharge papers and handed them to a nurse.

"Auriana are you coming?" Theresa asked. I couldn't wait to finally get out of this room and jumped off the bed a little too quickly, causing me to stagger. Jake caught me just in time.

"Thanks Jake."

"No problem," Jake said, smiling. I broke free from his grip and walked over to my mom.

"Auriana!" Two girls ran up to me and threw their arms around me. As soon as I saw the two girls, the room started spinning again and my head felt like it was going to split in two.

"Auriana, we have to tell you something." I climbed onto the couch next to my mother. She hadn't been feeling well for a few days and she had an doctors appointment today.

"Everything okay Mommy?" My mother gave me a reassuring look while my father sat down next to me.

"You're getting two sisters," he said. I jumped into my father's arms, full of joy.

"Are you serious? That's so awesome! Can I help pick out the names?" I looked expectantly from my father to my mother.

"Of course," she said. My father didn't seem to think it was such a good idea, he looked rather doubtful. He had been overly worried since they got back from the doctor, they had to go to the gynecologist when it turned out that his wife was already twenty weeks pregnant.

"Is that such a good idea? To let an eight-year-old come up with names?" Theresa looked at him indignantly.

"She's full of imagination and she's creative. Also, I've read that it's good to let the older sibling experience as much of the pregnancy as possible to make sure they'll accept the new baby," Theresa said. I had already stopped listening to what my parents were saying. My head was filling up with possible baby names for my future sisters.

"Rosalynn and Ruby…no wait…Rosalynn and Ryleigh," Auriana said. My dad let the names sink in for a moment.

"Rosalynn and Ryleigh…those have a nice ring to it," he said.

"See, Daddy," I laughed, holding my fist up for a fist bump.

"Now girls, don't forget that Auriana has lost her memory and may not remember you." Slowly the pain subsided.

"Of course I remember Ryleigh and Rose." The twins pressed themselves even tighter against me as I hugged them.

"Rose?! What's going on here?" our dad asked. He was white-hot with anger, and looked at his daughters one by one. If there was one thing I hadn't forgotten, it was that our father could be very aggressive when something didn't please him.

"I hate the name Rosalynn," Rose said with difficulty. Ever since they were little, everyone called her Rose, our mother only called her Rosalynn when she was pushing her boundaries. Our father was the only one who called her by her full name.

"It's too difficult that's why everyone calls her Rose," Ryleigh explained, steam barely coming out of his ears.

"Listen Rosalynn, you're eight! You don't even know what you want!" he said angrily. Rose backed away in fear. We had never seen our father so angry.

"Mark enough!" Theresa said angrily. She tried to keep her composure so that we wouldn't notice the tension that had been building between them for a few weeks.

"She didn't get a name for nothing." Theresa took a deep breath.

"Auriana, will you take Ryleigh and Rose outside, show Auriana how we work in the apple orchard?" Ryleigh, Rose and I walked outside. I looked over my shoulder hesitantly before I closed the door behind me.

"Don't be so mean to my daughters!" she said angrily. He directed his anger onto his wife. I wanted nothing more than to go back inside and help my mother. I could hear his tyranny outside.

"They're my daughters too!" he flared back. She couldn't argue with that.

"I want you out of my house!" my mother said calmly. She tried very hard to keep her composure, but he didn't make it easy on her.

"Your house?! It's my apple orchard!"

"I pay the rent, the house is in my name and the children carry my last name!" she now shouted back. The composure she tried to maintain had disappeared like snow in the warm sun. I didn't realize through the words that were coming from the house that my friends had walked through the gate and into the our backyard. Brooke told me that my father had asked them last night if they were coming to our house today as a surprise. He wanted to throw a mini welcome home party. Rose climbed up the ladder and pulled one of the ripe apples from the tree. Ryleigh, who was standing on the ground below with a basket in her hands, caught the apple with ease as Rose dropped it. She tried to ignore the screams. We heard a loud scream coming from the house. All of us ran to the house and looked out the window. Ryleigh and Rose burst into tears. Skylar and Emma tried to comfort them. We saw my father slap my mother. I stormed inside before anyone could stop me.

"How dare you slap my mother!" I screamed.

"Stay out of this Auriana," my father yelled back. Before he knew what was happening I grabbed his wrist and pushed it between his shoulder blades.

"Mom…would you mind opening the door?" My mother opened the door.

"Good luck with this bruise, Mark!" I kicked him against his arse and he fell out. My mother closed the door behind him and hugged me.

"Thank you, Auriana."

"You're welcome, Mom." Jake walked in.

"I don't want to interrupt this family moment, but your daughters won't stop crying and your husband is trying to climb over the fence." My mother took her phone out of her pocket and dialed 911.

"Auriana, get everyone inside and lock the doors, I'm calling the police."