Previous Part:
Shook Chapter 18: An Unexpected Visit
Miss Moleti told the Blues the other sie of the story. Now Dyan must face the music...
It was a cold Sunday morning. This was the very Sunday before school started up again after the holiday break! The sun didn’t show, but the sky was a bright gray. Dyan woke up and saw all the girls' empty beds messy and peeled to one side.
She went to the bathroom in the middle of the hall to brush her teeth. There was no long line of kids waiting. As she passed the stairs, she heard dishes clanking. That was weird. Dyan was normally called for breakfast time. She didn’t smell anything sweet or savory, so they must have been having cereal for breakfast, which was unlike the Blue family. Cereal was usually exclusively for the late risers.
It was also unusually quiet. The TV wasn’t blaring with gun blast or power sound effects. There were no sizzling noises or sweet aroma’s wafting from the kitchen. Heck, there wasn’t even anybody talking, yelling, or crying.
The first one Dyan saw downstairs was a sad-looking Bear. His newfoundland eyes and ears were droopier than usual.
She walked over to him and began to rub his fur. “Aw, Bear, what’s the matter?”
Dyan heard someone's throat clear.
Dyan turned to the dining room. Where Mr. Blue held this side of his fist to his mouth. He was at the head of the table, while at his sides, the Blue children quietly ate cereal.
Dyan stood up and walked over to the family. “What’s going on?”
Maya turned to Dyan while crunching on cereal, her mouth leaking milk. “That’s what I was asking them earlier, but they won’t tell anyone!”
“Quiet Maya.” Mr. Blue turned to her sharply. Maya went back to focusing on her bowl of cereal.
“You can eat first. We’ll explain everything after everyone’s done.” Mr. Blue intertwined his fingers and stared at the table.
Dyan didn’t like how quiet everyone was, or how Mr. Blue seemed on edge. Or how Mrs. Blue was leaning on the pantry with her arms crossed. Only pointing to say “Cereal’s on the counter,” to Dyan.
Dyan ate as quickly as she could. She couldn’t stand the silence of the house, with only spoons clinking or mouths crunching.
Once Dyan was done, she slid her bowl towards the middle of the table, then when she saw all the other kids making their way to the sink with their bowls, she grabbed hers and did the same.
“Done,” Dyan informed them.
“We’ll wait ‘till you have a seat,” said Mr. Blue, his eyes still on the table.
Dyan’s mouth twitched. She had a seat at the table and waited for all the Blue children to sit at their places. Mrs. Blue made her way to sit at the other end of the table. The only one who wasn’t there was baby Teal.
“We spoke with Miss Moleti last night.” Mr. Blue turned to Dyan.
The Blue children turned their heads to Dyan. Maya gasped quietly. Dyan's chest grew cold and her heart beat fast. Uh-oh.
“I just want to confirm your last statement,” Mrs. Blue said with one eyebrow raised. “You don’t know her, right?” Everyone’s head then flipped to Mrs. Blue’s direction, then turned back to Dyan when the question was asked.
If Mr. and Mrs. Blue had already talked to Mrs. Moleti, there was no use in Dyan lying to their faces. Again.
“No, I do know her,” Dyan huffed and looked at the floor. “She… was my old caregiver,” she mumbled.
“So you ran away from the police, purposefully, all because you didn’t want to go back to Miss Moleti, your Foster Mom?” said Mr. Blue, slowly and carefully, banging the table lightly as he emphasized words.
“No! She wouldn’t let me go back to her! she’d send me somewhere else, they always do…” Dyan said. Tears made her vision blurry.
“We found out there were police, fire-fighters, even the dag-on neighbor was there to help you! Why would you leave this out, Dyan? I mean, you made it seem like you had absolutely nowhere else to go…” Mrs. Blue’s voice faded off.
“You lied to us. You said you were out of options. You said you didn’t know Miss Moleti. All lies!” Mr. Blue yelled.
“I’m sorry!” Dyan wailed. “I just didn’t wanna go back! I didn’t wanna go back!” hot tears were rolling down Dyan’s cheeks, and her nose was running. She wanted to run and go get a tissue. She wanted to leave the painful stares she received from all around the table. It felt like they were burning her from the outside.
Mrs. Blue crossed her arms. “Not only did you lie to us, you lied to the whole family too. The twins, the other twins, True, Maya,-”
“I didn’t lie to Maya! I told her the truth!” Dyan yelled.
“Wait, so you told Maya, But you kept it from us!?” said Mrs. Blue, a hand to her chest. She had teary eyes as well.
“That also means Maya had the power to tell us, but she didn’t say a thing!” Mr. Blue yelled, eyeing his daughter.
“Dang it!” Dyan slapped a hand over her mouth.
“Maya, you should be ashamed of yourself. How could you hide this from us!?” asked Mrs. Blue, her neck leaning over the table as if she could get to Maya’s face.
“That’s easy. If I told you, then Dyan would leave, and who wants that!?” Maya asked with both hands up. “And it wasn’t just me who knew!”
Mr. Blue looked around the table. “All of you should be ashamed. How could you not tell us Dyan ran away purposefully even though you know it was the right thing to do?”
“No, no, some of them didn’t know! I promise! It was just me and Maya who knew!” Royal yelled.
“Are you sure about that?” Azure asked from across the table.
“What are you talking about?” Royal turned to her younger brother.
“In that hotel in Arizona, y’all thought we was asleep, but really, me and Navy and Wild Yonder were just turned away from you guys pretending to be asleep. We heard all that stuff about Dyan’s old foster home and how she ran away, and how y’all lied to Mom!” said Azure.
Navy widened his eyes and grit his teeth. “Stupid! We almost got away with it!”
“Am I the only one that didn’t know!?” True yelled.
“Pretty much,” answered Wild Yonder.
Dyan kept looking back and forth at each of the Blue parents, whos’ wide eyes bounced about all their children around the table.
“Oh, so y’all ALL knew, but decided to keep it a secret huh?” even though Mr. Blue asked this like a question, his stone face dared them to answer.
When he raised his eyebrows and put up a flat hand, the children began to stutter out their explanations.
“Maya forced me to go along with her!” Royal yelled.
“No I didn’t!” Maya yelled in response.
“Well, it wasn’t really my business, so why would I be nosy and tell others Dyan’s private life stuff?” Navy asked.
“I mean, I’m not a tattle-tale,” Azure shrugged.
“Why? Come on, I actually want to know!” Mr. Blue slammed the table.
“Because you would send Dyan away!” Maya snapped. “Dyan’s like a sister to me! No, she is a sister to me!” she yelled even as her voice went rugged.
“It doesn’t matter. She’s not our child, Maya. She is a missing foster kid. We could get into legal trouble for keeping her. Did you ever factor that in!?” Mrs. Blue asked.
Maya got quiet, but her brow didn’t lose its wrinkles. She dropped her eyes from her Mrs. Blue and stared at the wood floor with her arms crossed.
Silence.
Mr. Blue’s frown lessened, as the corners of his mouth went up slightly, and some of his forehead wrinkles went away. He took a breath. “Well, according to Mrs. Moleti, Dyan has to go. And it’s a coincidence, since she won’t be the only one.”
True looked up with one raised eyebrow. “Huh!?”
“We can’t have little liars on our hands. We’re sending you all to boarding school.” Mr. Blue looked around the table, making his phone do cartwheels on the table.
Find out what happens next in the next part!
Hey there! I’m Shila! I’ve loved books since I could read, and decided I would write books I wanted to see written for others! Check my children’s book Imagination on Amazon!
Follow me on Twitter!
I also write on Tumblr!
