Chapter 10

Chapter 10:
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It was finally Monday. The start of the school week.  Molly usually loved school.  She loved to learn, she loved her friends, and she just loved catching up with everyone and seeing how their weekend went.  By Sunday everybody knew what had happened to Ashley. Molly's cell phone had been blowing up all day with people asking her how Ashley was. She thought about just letting her phone fill up, but she wanted to keep it empty in case Ashley texted or called her.  She was going to be in the hospital for a while. That was all Molly really knew and cared about at that point. Molly would have lived there if she could, but her parents insisted that Ashley was somewhere being taken care of and her father couldn't hurt her from where he was.  That made Molly feel a little bit better.
Also, her parents were taking her to see Ashley today instead of going to school. The principal told Violet that she was excused for as long as she needed to be, that it was a traumatic experience and that if she was having issues with her schoolwork then they'd work something out. Molly didn't think she needed that much time, after all it wasn't she who was laid up in that hospital bed, but she just couldn't take all the questions and whispering and the weekend had been hard enough.  She could use an extra day to recover and finally see her friend.  Plus, it had been a couple of days since Molly had seen Ash and she felt like she was jumping out of her skin.
She was just waking up and doing her morning stretches when she heard her cell phone chirp.  She leaned over to her end table and picked up her phone. It was from Ashley.

"hey, just checking in.  feeling a little better today.  miss you.  will you come see me today?"

Molly's heart skipped a beat a little.  As if Ash even had to ask.  "of course.  still trying to figure out what in the heck I'm going to wear."

"lol.  try that deep purple shirt with the stripes, it's supposed to be a little chilly out.  and your Jack Skellington hoodie."

"thanks!  will come by after school."

"yay!  can you bring me some Starbucks?  I am dying for a green tea frappe."

"i'll see what i can do.  love you."

"love you, too."

Molly sighed as she stretched one final time and finally got up out of bed.  She was having those weird dreams again, and she always felt like she hadn't gotten any sleep.  Something was definitely up, she could feel it in her bones.  How could anything be any worse than what she had already gone through this weekend?  Her best friend was in the hospital, her father in jail.  She didn't know what else could possibly happen.  But this time she was going to be ready for it.
She went over to her closet and had to do some digging before coming across her purple shirt.  It was almost at the end of her wardrobe.  It might have been too long since she wore it.  She took off the shirt she'd been wearing to sleep and slipped the shirt on over her head.  Her wings resisted a bit, it had been a while since they had been in anything besides a tank top and the extra fabric was restricting.  "I know, guys," she said as she stroked her wings.  "soon it'll be winter and I'll have to practically hide you guys away but then it will be springtime again and you will be able to breathe again."  With that she pulled the shirt down the rest of the way and adjusted herself so all of her could fit.  She did a little twirl and found that her wings looked a little brighter against the contrast of the darker color.  Maybe autumn wasn't such a bad season, after all.

She rooted around on the floor of her closet for a while until she found her hoodie.  It was her favorite one to wear until it was too cold for it because it had Jack Skellington on the front.  She felt like she could relate to Halloween movies the most because she had what people would pay big money for to wear over whatever costume they had or even tattoo on their backs.  To her, every day was Halloween.  Her costume was never her wings though. Her costume was whatever else she decided to wear with them.
She was barely changed and just getting her hair brushed when she heard her mom shouting for her downstairs.  Breakfast must be ready.