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Chapter 52: Growth

Chapter 52: Growth

"Sarah! Phone!"

Along with the shout, Sarah's mom knocked loudly on her bedroom door, and Sarah was startled awake. She flailed and twisted around before she was all the way awake, and as her sheets and blankets slid out of her way she managed to roll all the way off her bed. She sat up, pulled herself up, and pushed her hair out of her face. As she stood up, her blankets pulled themselves back into position, arranging themselves tightly on the mattress.

"What?" shouted Sarah, kicking her pillow back on top of the bed where it crawled into place.

"Phone!" her mom called from farther away. She must have gone back downstairs after waking up Sarah. With a yawn, Sarah opened her door and saw the cordless laying on the ground in front of her door. She picked it up and yawned again before answering.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Why didn't you answer your cell?" Jill's voice was brisk with irritation.

"My cell?" answered Sarah. She stumbled back into her room and shut the door.

"I've been calling all morning," said Jill.

"Sorry, asleep," said Sarah. She sat on her bed and let herself fall backward onto her pillow.

"So you forgot." Jill scoffed. Sarah could hear a few other voices in the background sounding equally bothered.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't," mumbled Sarah. She fumbled at her desk for her cell, but the flip phone had died in the night. Which meant her alarm hadn't gone off either.

"Listen, just come over when you can. Bring donuts or something, ok? See you." Jill hung up, ending the conversation.

Sarah shut her eyes again, but after a moment the cordless started emitting a loud tone to announce that it wasn't still on a call. Sarah opened her eyes and pushed the button to end the call. She lay a moment longer, decided she couldn't get back to sleep, and sat up again. She fumbled behind her desk and pulled the phone cord out and plugged her cell, watching to make sure the indicator light came on. Finally, she stood up from her bed and stretched, feeling her back pop in a few places from the movement. She quickly brushed her teeth and washed her face, trying to wake herself up. As she looked in the mirror, she noticed her eyes still had a bit of sleepiness in them, so she splashed some cold water on her face. School had only been out for a week, and Sarah had already forgotten how to get up early.

She was sitting on the toilet when her mom knocked on the bathroom door. "Hey, my ride's here so I'm off to work. Don't forget to put gas in the car before you come back home, ok? Don't work too hard!"

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"Ok," said Sarah. After finishing in the bathroom, Sarah sat down and checked her phone now that it charged a bit. She yawned again as she scrolled through her notifications on the cell phone, realizing she had missed several calls and messages from Jill, Finn, Alexa, and some other number she didn't recognize.

Jill was moving out to college today, for the summer semester.

Sarah had said she'd come to help pack and move.

Sarah had said she'd be there at eight.

It was nine-thirty.

Her eyes snapped open, and Sarah pulled out a pair of jeans and a comfortable t-shirt, just grabbing whatever was on top of the drawer. She quickly got dressed and slipped on some sneakers, grabbing her wallet and phone before heading downstairs, taking the steps three at a time.

She was in the car, phone plugged back in, and pulling out before her brain caught up. "Oh, right, donuts," she thought, remembering Jill's request.

She took a detour to a donut shop, eyeballed the big red sign announcing hot donuts, and pulled into their drive-through. She ordered a dozen assorted donuts and a dozen plain. The smell of the warm pastry filled her car, making her stomach grumble in anticipation. She opened up the top box and grabbed a glazed donut, finishing it before pulling back onto the road. By the time she reached Jill's house, she'd had three.

As Sarah approached Jill's house, she saw Jill standing on the porch by a pile of boxes. The door was open, and Sarah could hear Finn and Alexa arguing inside. Jill's face brightened when she saw Sarah arriving with a box of donuts in hand.

"Finally! I was starting to think you'd never wake up," Jill teased as she walked over to greet Sarah, bending down to give her a hug.

"Sorry, I didn't get my phone plugged in last night, and it died," Sarah replied with a sheepish smile, handing over the box of donuts.

"No worries, you're here now," Jill said, giving her another quick hug. "Thanks for bringing the donuts! I think low blood sugar is getting the better of my help."

"No worries, I needed some this morning too," Sarah said, taking a bite of her fourth. "My head is seriously behind."

Finn came storming out of the house, setting down a box on the porch with a grunt. He was breathing heavily through his nose, and his face was bright red, almost matching his hair. He didn't seem very sweaty though, even though the sun had already worn away the morning chill.

"Because you're the big strong guy!" shouted Alexa from somewhere inside the house.

He somehow flushed a deeper red, and turned towards the door when Sarah grabbed an arm to interrupt him. "Donut?" she asked.

Finn didn't say anything, just took one without looking and walked back inside.

"Has this been going on long?" asked Sarah.

"Not really," said Jill. "It's just that my dad's out of town, and there's some heavy stuff to move. I think he's embarrassed he can't move some of my furniture by himself, and Alexa has been teasing him."

Sarah decided she wouldn't get involved while Jill was around, so she changed the subject. "So what are we doing with your stuff?"

Jill kicked one of the boxes and said, "You're not actually all that late. There's not much to do until my mom gets back, she's still out getting a Uhaul, and then we'll take it to my apartment. I still say I should have just moved into a dorm, like all the other freshmen, but they wanted me in my own place with a roommate instead. It would have been easier, no furniture, no kitchen stuff. But it's all in boxes already. So really, you can just sit while we wait. No point until the truck is here, and then we'll help Finn get the mattress and dresser and stuff into the truck, and then boxes.

"And maybe it's best not to get between Finn and Alexa until they've got their blood sugar back up," added Jill as more raised voices came from inside.

Sarah nodded, and she sat down on the porch with Jill to wait.