15

Auriana

We all couldn't wait to hold our friend in our arms again. We walked, the now all too familiar way, down the long hallway to the room where Nikki had been lying all this time. Nikki's mother was already waiting for us. The smell of disinfectant was as strong as ever. Brooke took a deep breath and opened the wooden door. As we walked into Nikki's room, our eyes fell on Nikki sitting up in bed.

"I've missed you so much!" Her voice was still hoarse from the breathing tube.

"We missed you too!" we said in unison. We hugged Nikki one by one.

"And I think four of you have something to tell me?" Nikki laughed. Brooke and Jimmy, Jake and I looked at our hands. Brooke and Jimmy were holding hands. Jake and I didn't realize we were holding hands and quickly let go.

"Jimmy and I have started dating," Brooke said. Her cheeks started to glow.

"I expected that, and Auriana and Jake too," Nikki laughed. She started coughing.

"Jake and I aren't dating," I protested. We sat down on the stools next to the bed.

"Oh come on! You've kissed twice already!" Jeremy said.

"Twice?!" Nikki asked, surprised. She took a sip of water against her sore throat and looked at the two of them expectantly.

"The first time was in the closet at school where Auriana got her memory back, which she had lost after the accident…," Jake began. The guilt started to build as he thought about it.

"And the second time was here in the dressing room when he was hit by my hairbrush against his head and pretended to pass out and when I leaned over him he kissed me under pressure," I added.

"That's not true at all." Jake smiled as he thought back to that moment.

"You held me by the neck so I couldn't get away." I gave him a look and he laughed.

"Okay, maybe it's true…" He shrugged and winked at Nikki.

"But they hugged anyway," Brooke said. Emma could tell it was getting awkward and changed the subject.

"Anyway…when do you get to go home?"

"In a few days," Emilia replied, walking in.

"Good in that case…" Renee pulled out a measuring tape. Nikki spread her arms as she sat up a little straighter. Emilia laughed.

Scarlet

I put the picture frames in a box, but stopped when I picked up a group photo. It was a photo from three years ago. A tear rolled down my cheek. There was a lot of packing going on in our house the last few days. I heard a lot of shuffling downstairs before my brother came into my room. I quickly wiped the tear from my cheek and looked at him.

"I'm getting tired of all this fighting between Mom and Dad," he said with a sigh. I pulled him into my arms and hugged him.

"I'm getting tired of it too. This could have been avoided if Dad had talked to us about the new job beforehand instead of taking it without at least talking to Mom." He took the picture frame out of the box and handed it to me.

"We've built our lives here, he doesn't have the right to just take that away from us." With those words, he walked out of my room and slammed his bedroom door behind him. The fighting died down downstairs, I looked at the picture of my friends and me again. Several tears were rolling down my cheeks.

"Scarlet? Do you have some more full boxes?" my father asked. Then he saw the tears on my face.

"What's wrong?" he asked. I looked up and roughly wiped my cheek with my sleeve.

"I don't want to move!" I glared at my father. None of my family had made it easy for him since the news. All three of us made it clear to him that we didn't agree with his choices.

Renee

The next day I was still making small adjustments to the clothes for the performance. I was cutting through the fabric while humming a tune. Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Brooke entered the sewing room. After the whole hospital thing, Brooke and I had had a good talk. We forgave each other and agreed that we would talk better to each other from now on.

"What are you doing?" She flopped down on one of the beanbags and looked around the room curiously.

"I'm making something out of the leftover fabric." Brooke sat up and saw a clothes rack with a sheet over it.

"What's under that sheet?" Her eyes scanned the sheet for clues.

"A surprise," I replied. Brooke's eyes started to sparkle.

"Can I see it?"

"No, it's a surprise." Brooke crossed her arms in disappointment. She tried to keep her attention on me but she couldn't contain her curiosity any longer and wanted to pull the sheet off the rack.

"No, Brooke!" I ran to the clothes rack and swatted Brooke's hand away.

"Ouch!" I grabbed Brooke's wrist and pushed her out of the room before locking the door.

"Okay, I'll just go home then," Brooke said disappointedly. She was used to being thrown out of the studio. The studio was a kind of sanctuary for me and if people didn't follow my rules they were thrown out.

Auriana

I sat upstairs in my room, bored. I didn't feel like working on my drawings or homework. I knew the others were busy and decided to text the only one I knew for sure was home.

Auriana: Hey Scarlet, what's up?

Scarlet: I'm okay, we're busy packing :.(.

Auriana: Should I come help? Then we'll have some time together.

Scarlet: Would you really like to do that?

Auriana: Sure. Otherwise I wouldn't suggest it :P.

Scarlet: Thanks Auri, I'll see you soon.

I put my phone in my back pocket and walked to my bedroom door, the shattering of glass stopped me from opening my door right away. It didn't sound like a glass breaking. I opened my bedroom door as quietly as a mouse and crept down the stairs. I saw that the glass from the window from the front door was shattered. 

"Where's Auriana?!" I crept to the door and silently climbed out through the broken window. Oh no, my dad is here and he's angry! I crawled past the window and saw that my dad had a gun pointed at my mom. I turned pale as snow and thought that the best thing I could do was to get out of here.

"Where's they?!" I heard him scream. I dialed 911 and as I ran I called the police and explained what was going on. Then I called another number.

"Jake speaking." I had never been so happy to hear his voice.

"Jake, are you home?" I asked, the fear clearly audible in my voice. Once I turned the corner a few blocks away I stopped to catch my breath. I hid behind a large bush in case my dad had followed me. I was too scared to look back.

"Yeah, why?" His voice sounded worried because of the panic in mine.

"Can you open the door in five minutes?"

"Okay?" I hung up and ran further to Jake's house. Five minutes later I could see Jake's house in the distance and I started running even faster. Jake opened the door and I ran inside where I threw myself into his arms.

"What's wrong? You sounded scared." I felt him wrap his arms around me.

"I am. The adrenaline drained from my body and I began to hyperventilate.

"Why?" He took a deep breath and gestured for me to imitate him.

"I heard the glass shattering and when I went downstairs to see what was wrong I saw my dad threatening my mom with a gun and he wanted to know where I was," I finally said after I had calmed down a bit. Jake pulled me closer to him. Before I knew it I started crying in his arms.

"Shh, it's going to be okay." I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket signaling I had a text message.

Scarlet: Hey, where are you? Are you okay?

"I have to go." I wiped my cheeks with my sleeve and pulled away from his embrace.

"You can't leave when your dad is looking for you with a gun." Jake grabbed my hand and looked at me intently.

"I promised Scarlet I would come help her pack." I looked at him with a determined look. He knew I wasn't going to change my mind.

"Okay, I'm here to help you, my mom can take us there." I threw my arms around his neck Gratefully.

"You're the best." I looked into his bright blue eyes. Little did I know, things were about to get horribly wrong back at my house.

Theresa (Auriana's mother)

"Where's Auriana?!" Mark bellowed. He had turned the whole house upside down while he was holding me at gunpoint.

"I don't know!" I wailed. Auriana had sneaked out of the house, I saw her looking through the window when he had just come in. She must have been startled by the breaking of the glass and come down to see what it was. All I could do at this moment was hope she'd called the police, and knowing her, she did.

"And where are Ryleigh and Rosalynn?!" I've never been so glad that my children weren't home. "They're at a friend's house." I heard sirens approaching in the distance and knew I was right about Auriana calling the police. Auriana is safe, I thought to myself with relief. That's what's most important to me.

"I'm going to find my daughters and they'll have to stay with me." Mark pulled the trigger and ran out of the house before the police could catch him. I grabbed the phone with the last bit of strength I had to call 911 for an ambulance.