The next few days were littered with pools of tears and harsh words, which of the more vicious ones were just a thought instead of spoken. Gary was the topic of a lot of their conversations. Emily was surprisingly strong. To Jane’s disappointment, they continued to go to school. She knew that she had to get back to the normal routine for Emily and Lilly to feel okay again. And what was better was that Lerumo’s organized a job for Emily’s mother at the call centre she worked at.
Jane walked up to Lerumo who had a wide smile on his face. Emily showed up a minute later. They chatted about how much they had to tell each other as it had been the weekend and Lerumo went to his cousin’s house.
“I’m serious! There’s like 10 of them. They drove me crazy!” said Lerumo.
“They’re just kids!” laughed Emily. Jane fiddled with Emily’s hair.
“Maybe we should curl it tomorrow?” she mumbled.
“Ooooh, wait, wait. Use that purple grip that we both have. And Lerumo can use the band and we can match!”
“They’re not just kids. They’re more like vampires. They suck the life out of you. Honestly. I find it hard to believe I had time to finish my homework!” Lerumo said.
“You always find time to do your homework, Mo. And Jay, we wore those on Monday,” Emily exclaimed. “How about the glasses? Then Lerumo will finally have an excuse show his new shades off!”
“That’s an excellent idea. But what if there’s no sun?” asked Jane.
“Impossible. The sun is always there, even if you can’t see it. It-” started Lerumo but Emily interrupted him.
“Who cares? We have science later today. Please don’t give me a headache this early.”
“I didn’t want you guys believing false information. That’s all. I just thought-”
“Well you thought wrong.” Emily said as they walked into school together.
“No one can think wrong!” argued Lerumo.
“Oh boy,” Jane said. “Here we go again.”
She knew this fight would be over soon and couldn’t wait for that moment but inside she felt warm and happy. Mahashi was all better now and she hadn’t had another vision for three months. And even if she did, she would be prepared.
Emily was Lerumo and Jane’s friend now. The three of them together got on so well it was hard to separate them. Jane had to admit, she felt like the happiest person on earth. For one, she had friends that she walked to school with and a family who loved her. Her mum hadn’t come to visit yet but promised she would as soon as she got the chance and said that she was so happy that Jane finally felt as though she could fit in.
Her father, though, hadn’t come to visit, as predicted, and instead was back traveling. Now he was in Paris. Lerumo and Emily could’t stand that someone would hurt Jane like that so they spent a whole week prank calling her dad. Jane joined them in doing so and felt a lot better. Aunt May almost had a heart attack when she saw the phone bill and calls to Paris but she soon calmed down after she had learned the purpose of this huge amount.
Now Jane was walking to school with her two best friends and it felt amazing not to have anything to worry about except clothing and the weather for the next day.
***
Tell us: Have you ever felt like you didn’t fit in? How did you handle it?
