In the Image of Grace (16 page)

“Get up, you’ll be late for school,” she said.

“We have to go to school?” I asked. I figured perhaps
our whole still slightly unexplained ordeal would have given us the
chance to stay home.

“It’s Monday,” she said. “You’re father told me to
make sure you girls went to school.”

I growled into my pillow. “Fine,” I said rolling over
and sitting up.

I got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. I
turned on the shower and while I waited for it to get hot I looked
in the mirror. I had large plum circled under my eyes that looked
liked bruises. I definitely needed more sleep. As I was taking my
shower Isabelle came in and sat on the toilet, with the lid down so
you know, and talked to me as I tried to cleanse away the memories
of our traumatizing evening.

“What do you think Jeremy’s mom and stepdad will do
to him? Do you think he’ll ever be able to see the light of day
again?” Isabelle asked.

“I don’t see why not,” I said as I washed my hair.
“He didn’t do anything. It was all just our father’s lies.”

“Do you think they will believe him?”

“I sure hope so. The story is too implausible not to
believe him.”

“Yeah, I still don’t even believe it. Don’t use all
the hot water,” Isabelle said leaving the bathroom.

…………………………………………………………….

On the corner of the street where we cross to get to
the bus stop there was a few newspaper vending dispenser machines
of sorts. I quickly glanced at the one newspaper and my eyes were
stuck on it. I couldn’t peel them off. A picture of my sisters and
me was plastered on the front. Above it the headline read,
“Abducted teenage sisters found safe in Indiana.” I fumbled in my
bag for some change, put the money into the machine and pulled out
a newspaper. Isabelle bought the other city newspaper which had a
picture of Jeremy being taken away in handcuffs on it.

“Holy shit,” Clarissa yelped as the three of us stood
on the street corner looking over the newspaper.

“Why is this in the newspaper?” I asked. “Was our
story really news worthy?”

“If it’s in the paper I bet it was on the news too,”
Isabelle said.

“This is horrifying. Everybody at school is going to
think Jeremy is some kind of criminal or something,” I said
thinking of Jeremy wondering how he or his mother and stepdad would
react to the picture in the newspaper.

The light turned and the three of us walked across
the street to the bus stop. Once at the bus stop I swear everybody
simultaneously turned in our direction. I knew it was going to be a
long day.

On the bus I read the newspaper article and it almost
made me want to laugh and cry all at the same time. It was all so
ridiculous. According to the article we showed up at Mr. Carl’s
apartment or as the newspaper said, Dr. Carl Williams, a highly
respected professor and researcher at Bradwell University, and we
seemed highly distressed and anxious. Jeremy seemed very
overpowering and threatening. According to Dr. Williams we were
shoved into Jeremy’s car and he sped away. Supposedly Mr. Carl
seemed worried about our odd behavior. He phoned our father who
instantly said he knew we were kidnapped. The article went on to
talk about how distinguished and successful our father was and the
whole time he was distraught fearing for our safety because
according to him Jeremy had a history of being unstable, which made
me laugh. He didn’t even know who Jeremy was. He had never met him.
I knew our father was setting up something. I just wasn’t too sure
what.

…………………………………………………….

Once at school I rushed through the halls with my
head down not wanting to make eye contact with anybody. I made it
to my locker and was pulling books from the top shelf when I felt a
pair of arms wrap around me and lift me up into the air. I looked
over my shoulder to find Jeremy.

“Jeremy,” I said so relieved to see him. “Are you
okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “May I just kiss you?”

He didn’t wait for my response. We were soon locked
in a kiss, a kiss that seemed to have washed everything away at
least just for a quick moment. His kisses seemed to have been able
to do that. I wrapped my hands around his head in all of his hair
and pulled him in closer. We fell against my locker locked in our
kiss when I heard somebody making a noise like when someone needs
to clear their throat. I looked over Jeremy’s shoulder and a
teacher with a quite noticeable toupee stood there with his hands
on his hips. We unlocked ourselves.

“Sorry,” Jeremy said. “I can’t resist my kidnapping
victim.”

“That’s not funny sir,” the teacher said. “I saw the
news. Nothing to joke about. Public displays of affection are not
allowed,” he said then walking away down the hall.

I leaned my head back against my locker and Jeremy
put his hands on either side of it. “I’m surprised to see you in
school,” I said.

“I can say the same. Our parents suck for making us
come to school today. I’ve been harassed since the second I stepped
foot on campus. I will live out the rest of my high school days
known as the kidnapper.”

“You can kidnap me whenever you want to,” I declared
smiling at him. He was the only thing I had to smile about that day
or even in my life at the time. “How much trouble did you get
into?”

“Oh God, you would have thought I seriously did
kidnap the three of you at gunpoint and stolen a car.” The bell
rang and Jeremy stroked my chin with his thumb. “Do we really have
to go to class?”

“I better,” I said. “If I don’t show up somebody
might think you kidnapped me again.”

“I guess,” he said slipping in one last quick kiss.
“May I walk you to class?”

“Why yes.”

As we walked down the hall I think everybody in the
school stared or pointed. Jeremy squeezed my hand. “Ignore them. It
will pass.”

We were almost to my class when somebody jumped on
Jeremy’s back. It was the short drummer from his band.

“Dude,” he said jumping down. “You flipped out last
night and took your girlfriend and her sisters’ hostage. That’s
some pretty serious shit.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened,” Jeremy said
shoving the guy away.

“I saw your picture in the paper. You got frickin
arrested?”

“Yes,” Jeremy said turning red. “It’s actually kinda
embarrassing.”

“What happened?”

“I’ll tell ya later. Have you formally met
Charlotte?”

“No, but I would say worthy of committing a
crime.”

The bell rang again. We were all officially late for
class.

“Talk to ya later,” Jeremy said to his friend.

His friend slowly sauntered away, not seeming to care
that he was late for class.

“You have to learn to ignore Ron. He can be quite
obnoxious at times,” Jeremy said giving me a kiss on the forehead.
“Gotta get to class I guess.”

I threw in a last embrace before class and walked the
few feet away to my classroom. As soon as I entered into the
classroom every person in the room turned in my direction. Did
everybody in my school watch the news or did word spread that
quickly? I tried to pretend not to notice and took my seat next to
Lawrence.

He turned in my direction with a big cheesy grin.
“It’s like something right out of the movies.” He raised his
eyebrows up and down.

“Not really,” I said. “It was just all a big
misunderstanding.”

Lawrence turned around in his seat facing the whole
class. “A big misunderstanding,” he announced.

“Oh, right,” somebody behind me said.

I then too turned in my seat. “I did not get
kidnapped, okay.”

“Keep tellin yourself that,” one guy with greenish
hair said.

A couple others gave me a thumbs up. I have the
slightest idea what it was for. Were they trying to tell me; you’re
fooling yourself with lies, we really know you got kidnapped? Or
gee golly we’re glad you’re okay, or you’re boyfriend got arrested
and you were involved in a police raid and we think that’s awesome.
I turned back towards the front of the classroom where Mrs. Brown
was setting up an overhead while wearing a quilted snowman
vest.

…………………………………………………………..

I ran through the halls to division once class was
over. I wanted to be one of the first people there, so they
wouldn’t stare at me as I walked into the room. The only person in
there was the girl with the unfortunate skin. She looked up at me
and smiled. I walked up to the desk next to her.

“Mind if I sit here?” I asked.

“No, go ahead.”

“Thanks,” I said as I threw my bag to the ground and
slid into the seat. I put my elbows up on the desk and rubbed my
temples. I was only done with the first class of the day. I was
already ready to go home.

“You okay?” The girl with the unfortunate skin
asked.

I stopped rubbing my temples and looked over at her.
Her hair was cut in a short layered bob and she had really light
blue eyes. “Yeah,” I answered her. “It’s just going to be a long
day.”

“Yeah, people suck.”

“Today, I’m starting to believe that.”

“Jeremy Moretti is your boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” I said. “You know him.”

“Yeah, kinda, I know the drummer from his band. I’ve
seen them play a buncha times. They’re really good.”

“You think?”

“Yes, and Jeremy seems like a very nice person and
I’m pretty sure he didn’t really kidnap you, did he?”

“No,” I said starting to realize the room was filling
up with other students. “Hey, I’d hate to ask this, but I don’t
know your name.”

“Oh, Rain,” she told me. At first I thought I miss
heard her, but then she said, “Seriously, that’s my name.”

“It’s pretty,” I said as Mr. Alvarez walked into the
room.

“Thanks,” she said smiling at me.

The kids in my division stared at me, but I wasn’t
bothered as much, talking to someone and having my energy focused
elsewhere somehow helped drain them out. ………………………………………….

My next couple of classes went like all the rest.
Some stared, a few made comments, but I was learning to tune them
all out. During study hall I went to the library of course. I
looked around. The library was quite dark that day. No light shone
through the windows. I didn’t see Jeremy, so I started in fiction
and looked down all the aisles. I didn’t find him. I went upstairs
and found him in the last row of reference sitting on the ground
with his knees drawn up and his chin on top of them.

Jeremy looked up and smiled. “Been waiting for
you.”

I went and sat next to him leaning up against the
wall. He put his arm around me and pulled me in close.

“How does your stomach feel?”

“Fine,” Jeremy said laughing. “I sure did not prove
my manliness last night.”

I gave Jeremy a pouty face sticking out my bottom
lip. “What did you mom and stepdad say about everything?”

“God, they were furious.”

“But you didn’t do anything.”

“I think my mom was madder that I took the car outta
state and Brett, was really pissed because he had to drive all the
way there to get me. Then they kept goin on about me being
irresponsible and yadayadayada. N how I’ll prolly really grow up to
be a criminal. N they said there prolly was some truth to the whole
situation.”

“Really,” I said. “I wouldn’t take you for the
criminal type.”

“What happened after your dad got you?”

“Nothing. Nothing was said the car ride home and when
we got home we went straight to bed and of course he was already
gone when we woke up.”

“Oh,” Jeremy replied. “How scared were you when those
dudes busted in through the door?”

“Totally. I was so worried about you and so confused.
All of a sudden there’s these guys busting into the house and
dragging me out. It all happened so fast.”

“Tell me about it. Robert was standing in the doorway
talking to me, n I was drinking tea, n he heard Helen yell and then
Robert went to go n check on her, n then all of a sudden there were
these guys yellin at me to stand up. I still felt sick, so I just
kinda sat there, n they yanked me off the ground and were yellin
stuff at me, n I had the slightest idea what they were sayin, n
handcuffs were being slapped on me, n I was being dragged away, n
God did I feel like shit,” Jeremy paused and rubbed his face.

“It was pretty outstanding when you projectile
vomited on that swat guy’s back.”

“I felt a lot better after that. Ya wanna know
something?”

“Of course.”

“I was so scared shitless. I think I still am. It
really freaked me out.”

“I’m sorry,” I said feeling pretty bad because if he
didn’t have any affiliation with me he wouldn’t have gone through
the whole mess.

“Stop saying that will ya? You have nothing to be
sorry for. Anyways, how are you processing everything else?”

“I don’t know. What Mr. Carl said just really
confirmed everything. My father really isn’t my father at all. It
explains so much. We’re just science experiments to him and that’s
what I am really. I’m somebody’s science experiment. I was never
really anybody’s child. Grace never knew about me. I was just an
experiment growing in the petri dish of our house.”

“Charlotte, you’re not just some science experiment.
You are a loving, smart, teenage girl that has deeply affected my
heart.”

“You’re not just saying that?”

“Of course not, it’s the truth.”

I kissed him on the cheek.

“What kind of father does that?” I asked Jeremy.
“Report a fake kidnapping. I know he must have some sort of
ulterior motive. I mean he did say there would be severe
consequences if I snuck out again, but I don’t know if that’s it
and what does this all mean for me and my sisters? Once word gets
out that were clones, I don’t know how I’ll handle it. I partook in
a fake kidnapping and people have been staring and pointing all
day, wait,” I said. “That’s it. How much you want to bet my father
did this to start drumming up publicity because didn’t Mr. Carl say
something about the press release being soon?”