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Shook Chapter 9 Part 4: Conflicted
While cozied up at a hotel, Maya and Royal try to get to the root of what's bothering Dyan. Will Dyan cave in to their questions?
Maya was still staring at Dyan, her eyebrows lowered in confusion. “I don’t understand, what is it that you are so afraid of?”
“Everything!” Dyan burst into tears. “I’m afraid of absolutely everything! Bugs! Dogs! Planes! People at school always called me scaredy-Dyan! I feel like I’m the biggest scaredy-cat in the world! I don’t have even a bit of courage in my body.”
Dyan went to the small table by the TV to grab some tissues. It was hard to cry quietly, especially when her throat hurt from crying. She wiped her eyes and saw Maya staring at her with the deadpan face.
“Dyan, you survived a house fire all by yourself. If that isn’t brave, then there’s no definition for that word.” Said Maya, her face not wavering once.
Dyan didn't think her escaping the house fire was brave, that was just surviving with no time to think about anything else. On second thought, she guessed it was pretty quick-thinking of her.
Maya continued. “And you said you were scared of dogs. You weren’t afraid of Bear, and he’s REAL big! People sometimes mistake him for a real bear!”
Dyan laughed. Suddenly she didn’t feel like she needed to cry anymore.
“Everyone gets afraid of something at some point. Even me, and I’m in middle school!” Royal told Dyan. “There was a girl in my class everyone was afraid of, myself included.”
Dyan’s eyes widened. “Really?”
Royal nodded. “Middle school is hard, and that girl made it worse! She kept bullying me, trying to steal my lunch and make me do her work.”
“What!? What did you do about it?” Dyan leaned on the edge of her bed, eyes widening.
“Well, one day I had enough and I punched her in the face. We started to fight and I won!”
“Wow,” Dyan said. She could hardly imagine Royal punching anyone in the face, but then again, she couldn’t imagine Royal making this up either. “I’m glad you won! Bullies are the worst!
That didn’t end my middle school troubles though. I got into multiple fights at school. I lost some fights and got suspended because of her. Twice. But hey, I’m not afraid of mean girls anymore.” Royal raised her eyebrows and smiled. “So you definitely aren’t the only kid afraid of things.”
“Plus, you got over being afraid to get on Dad’s truck, and I know adults who are afraid of trucks,” said Maya. "So if you ever get into a fight with an adult for some reason, you can say, ‘well you're afraid of trucks and I’m not, so there!’”
Dyan smiled so hard she could feel her round cheeks right below her eyes. She wasn’t afraid of trucks anymore. Nor was she afraid of highways anymore. And not dogs either, as she had grown to even like Bear, who was way bigger than blizzard the husky. Dyan could be brave! Dyan could be like Spirit!
She smiled at the real Spirit, Maya, as well as Royal. “Wow, talking to you guys made me realize things I didn't notice earlier. Thanks. Now I know I’m not the most scaredie-est person ever.”
That’s when the connecting door clicked open just enough for Mrs. Bue to stick her head inside. Her head swiveled until she saw Dyan in the corner of the room and she smiled.
“Dyan, Mr. Blue and I think we've found the person that was looking after you. Was her name Edalina Moleti?”
Oh no. It was game over! Dyan would soon be sent back to that evil women who would take her to some other evil foster parent, and the cycle of doom would repeat itself again.
“Uh…” Dyan began, not wanting to say the inevitable.
“No.”
Dyan’s chest grew cold. Mrs. Blue turned her head. “Maya, I wasn’t asking you. And how do you know if Dyan knows this woman or not?”
Maya's back went stick-straight and she stared at what was on TV. “Because… Because Dyan was just telling us about her foster guardian and she didn’t have that name.”
"Oh, well then what name did she have?" Mrs. Blue asked Dyan.
Dyan's heart was racing. "Well…" she looked over to Maya. Maya, still wide-eyed, gave her a shrug.
"Uh…I don't remember, since I only met her once, but I think her name began with a C." Dyan fibbed, repressing the urge to twitch in the stare of Mrs. Blue.
Mrs. Blue ducked her head and shrunk a bit. “....oh. Guess we’re on the wrong trail." Then she picked her head up and smiled again. "Well, don’t worry Dyan, we’ll find who was taking care of you and make sure you get to the right place! Good night.” She ended her statement and quietly shut the door.
Dyan felt awful. The thought that she had just lied to Mrs. Blue was already tourtruring the back of her mind. At the same time Dyan was relived True was sleeping in room 31 and not with them, since she would have told Mrs. Blue everything and then Dyan would be in a world of trouble.
“I can’t believe you two lied!” Royal whispered angrily.
“We’ll, you heard Dyan! She doesn't wanna go back! It was better to fib than to have Dyan go live with a mean lady!” Maya whispered back.
Royal thought about it for a moment. “I guess you’re right… well, you still spoiled my movie, so I’m going to sleep.” and with that, Royal threw the covers over her head, and turned away from Maya.
The only ones left awake were Dyan and Maya. They stared at each other.
"Heet-heet-heet-heet," Maya mimicked the noise of a crowd of crickets.
Then the two burst out laughing. "Crickets dont even sound like that," Dyan giggled.
Between laughs, they said goodnight to each other, then drifted off to their own realms of sleep.
Find out what happens next in the next part!
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