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Going Back For Her | Shook Chapter 25 Part 8
Dyan and Maya ran until they made it to the inflatable boat and the line of police cars, where the rest of the family was waiting for them.
Everyone was silent for a moment.
Azure was the one to break the silence. “Maya! You’re alive!”
“WOOO!” One guy from the other side of the highway yelled and clapped. It turned out that the whole highway had stopped and gotten out of their cars to witness the commotion. Other people started clapping and cheering, until both sides of the highway were giving the girls a standing ovation.
It felt weird at first, to be the center of a storm of claps and cheers, but it made Dyan realize she had made it out of a truck crash. She was alive. She smiled, and the crowd cheered even louder.
Dyan looked at Maya, and the two shared a smile until they were tackled by Mrs. Blue. “My sweet, sweet children. You’re alive, you’re safe!” she whispered.
Dyan heard wailing from over Mrs. Blue’s arms. Maya was crying, tears and snot escaping her face.
Dyan was so stunned she was barely able to blink. The only thing she could think to do was hug Mrs. Blue back, tight.
“Dad, I’m sorry! I’m sorry I set your truck on fire! I didn’t mean too!” Maya desperately tried to swipe the tears off her face.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about that, you're alive, and that’s all that matters right now.” Mr. Blue hugged Maya and left a kiss on her head.
After a few minutes, Mrs. Blue picked up a crying Teal and took steps back to get a full scope of all the children. “What happened!?”
Maya’s eyes widened. She wiped away her tears, sniffled. “It was crazy Mom! When the trucks crashed into each other, it sounded like someone crunching on a bag of tortilla chips- but times a million! I wonder why they didn’t explode.” Maya scrunched up her face and turned back to the busted truck on the highway.
“There was nothing to make the trucks explode,” said Mr. Blue “Trucks are very durable and made of aluminum, so a crash will break things in the truck, but it won’t really explode,” Mr. Blue reasoned.
Maya told everything that had happened to them since the brakes went on fire. She used her hands to help explain like she was playing charades.
“Dyan made a whole plan to save us all by using the boat to shove everyone out of the truck while I kept it steady. Then, I was really scared to jump out of the truck but Dyan started telling me my own advice on facing fears! She counted, but before she got to one the truck was already too close and so she jumped, but I was startled and I ended up leaning to try and turn the truck out of the way of the other one when they collided! I went flying out the door almost down to my death but at the last second I grabbed onto the highway rail. Dyan came back and lifted me up just before the truck fell!”
“Wait, you went back to save Maya!? I would’ve been so scared to do that!” Royal tugged on Dyan's shoulder.
“Yeah, Dyan, that took guts!” Navy added, shaking a fist in front of his chest.
“Are you sure you’re not a superhero in disguise.” Asked True, glaring at Dyan closely.
Dyan giggled, half from True’s silliness, and half out of embarrassment of everyone’s eyes being on her.
“I don’t know what I was thinking when I did that. But Maya’s my best friend, and I couldn’t let her die, so I just went back.” Dyan shrugged.
Maya turned to Dyan with a straight face. "Dyan, I owe you one for life."
The rest Blue children voiced there agreement with Maya.
“Yeah.” (Royal)
“Same here.” (Navy)
“No debate.” (Wild Yonder)
Dyan smiled at all the children. But when she looked at the Blue parents, she didn’t see happiness. Mrs. Blue had her arms crossed, and there was no trace of a smile on Mr. Blue’s lips.
Mrs. Blue slapped Maya so hard her face went all the way right. “Ouch! What was that for?” Maya blurted.
“What were you thinking Maya!? On top of all the lying you did earlier, you stole your father’s truck, drove it on the highway and almost killed yourself and your siblings! What in the world has gotten into you!?”
Maya stared at the road, red and blue police lice lightsbflashing against her face.
All the other children were glancing at each other, they’re eyebrows raising as if asking ‘are you gonna tell her?’ ‘Are you?’
“The honest answer is that we all were planning to run away. Well, drive away in this case.” Dyan stepped up.
When she saw their faces transform, Dyan immediately regretted her decision. She went on anyway. “Maya was angry about me leaving and having to go to boarding school, so she made a plan to steal the truck and run away so that we could all live together elsewhere, and not have to go to boarding school or change homes every few months.”
It was a hard task for Dyan to look the parents in the eye. “I learned that this was a bad idea and I’m really sorry.”
Dyan turned to the Blue children and they all gave their apologies, with Maya adding, “I’ll never do something like this again. Ever.”
Mr. and Mrs. Blue stared at their children, then looked at each other.
Mr. Blue huffed. “No matter how you slice it, this was a terrible idea. Terrible. Running away was one of the worst things you could do. Kidnappers lurk for gullible kids and who knows how you would get food, money, and shelter for yourselves?”
Maya frowned, her eyebrows close to her rich brown eyes. “You didn’t want us anyway! You shipped us all off to the frozen tundra for boarding school!”
“Are you crazy!?” Mrs. Blue eyes widened and she tilted her head. “Of course we want you! We love you! If we didn’t, we wouldn't have been so angry at you for lying and we wouldn't have cared if you ran away.” Mrs. Blue looked at all her children. “Do you know how hard it was for us to send you all away? Your Dad could hardly sleep thinking about being away from you all for so long! No matter how tall you get, or how old you become, you’re still our babies. I remember when each of you were as tiny as Teal!” Mrs. Blue’s eyes watered as she looked down at Teal, who was in her arms being slowly rocked to sleep. “We only put y’all in boarding school because we were trying to teach you a lesson that actions have consequences, something we wouldn’t try to teach you if we didn’t care.”
Some of the children stared at their parents. Others looked at the police that surrounded them and the crowd of people on the highway. Some looked back at the broken railing on the highway and the black smoke rising from the road below. Police sirens whined all around and as the sun fell, Maine was freezing. Some of their fingers and feet were numb from the cold.
Find out what happens next in the next part!
New to Shook? You can find the chapter archive in this post.
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