Dear Journal,

I bet you’ll be as surprised as I was to find out that it took until the next morning when my mom showed up! And it wasn’t even just my mom - she’d brought Ben and Bryce with her. Ben, I understood, but when I asked Bryce why she was brought with, she said that my mom told her that she’d lost all trust in her and that she didn’t trust her to stay back by herself because she was sure that she’d get into all sorts of trouble, even though Bryce wasn’t even the one who actually got into trouble. I guess that just proves what sort of treatment I have to look forward to when we actually get home.

Anyway, apparently according to Bryce, my mom had found out like within minutes that we had run off, and she tried to get Bryce to tell her where we went, but she didn’t crack. But then my mom had talked to Ben and they managed to figure it out pretty quickly. But still, for some reason, they didn’t even start trying to follow us until the next morning! I personally think that she was waiting for me to suddenly realize that I was totally wrong in not listening to ever demand she ever made and come crawling back. It’s too bad she doesn’t understand how great a clean shower is.

But when I heard my mom loudly talking to the guy at the door, I thought for sure Rex would come down immediately and talk to her like he said he would. But I guess he was still running whatever errand it was, because he was nowhere to be seen. We were even there for quite a while because my mom apparently wanted the chance to yell at me before we started back out on the road again. Which, frankly, I don’t mind her yelling - she’s yelled at me plenty of times before the end of the world, but it seemed like a little much when Ben started joining in, too. I thought Ben liked this place! But he immediately jumped right in with my mom, talking about how dangerous it was to travel here by ourselves without even letting anyone know where we’d gone. Not to mention that if they had let us go out and clear the roads, it would have been way less dangerous, but whatever.

I think it was just proof of how much of a grudge my mom has against Rex that she definitely yelled way more than when we snuck out to get medicine for Mr. Williams. But maybe that time had been better because we actually came back with medicine instead of sneaking out to take a shower. They’re both important things, though, and I don’t think my mom gets that!

Anyway, just as we were about to leave, Hansen popped out from behind a door, and I was so relieved because I thought that meant that Rex was finally going to come out and talk to my mom, but Hansen just said that Rex was out and he wouldn’t be back anytime soon, but that he didn’t think my mom should be so harsh on me for just wanting to be with other people.

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Let me tell you, journal - my mom got so mad that I was honestly scared that the blood vessel in her forehead was going to pop. She immediately started in on this rant about how Hansen was too young to be talking to her like that and whatever, as though teens can’t have their own opinions about the world or anything. But I didn’t butt in because Hansen didn’t look like he cared at all that my mom was yelling at him, and frankly I was just kind of glad to have my mom stop yelling at me for a minute.

But anyway, my mom insisted on leaving the power plant like as soon as she got there - I could barely even convince her to take a quick break to fill up our waters before she wanted to head back out. But luckily I did, because even just having a couple of days in luxury had made me stop carrying around my water bottle, and that would have been a very uncomfortable walk home. But then we were off again - I’m not sure if my mom was just super anxious to be home, or if she really didn’t want to risk running into Rex and having him talk her out of letting us stay there. Not that I thought he would be able to do that, but I could see that being the kind of thing my mom worried about.

For some reason, though, even knowing that I was probably going to be grounded for the rest of forever, there was a part of me that was happy to go back to the coffee shop. Kind of like when you’re on a fun vacation and that’s all great, but on those last few days, you’re just ready to be home, you know? Not that I didn’t definitely want to run away again and go back to the power plant to have the occasional shower and hang out with Hansen for a while, but it really didn’t feel like home to me. I guess what I mean is that I can totally understand why Jared wasn’t super excited about the prospect of us living there from now on.

Granted, if I got to spend every day with Hansen, I could definitely get over missing the coffee shop. I don’t know how his genes fit together just right to make someone so hot, but I want to thank whatever god took a little more time with him. Maybe I could convince him to come join us instead? Nah, almost certainly not - after living in the power plant for this long, being in the coffee shop would probably feel like its own circle of hell.

Anyway, like I was saying, my mom made us leave as soon as we were done filling up our water, but by that time, it was way too late for us to even possibly get back to the coffee shop, even if my mom and Ben weren’t slowing us down. So, instead of trying to traverse in the dark, we found a little clear spot and camped there for the night. It wasn’t until I was unrolling a coffee bag to lie on that I realized it was the same spot we had cleared off the first time we went to the power plant. I don’t know if Ben chose this spot to stay because he remembered that, or if it was just a weird coincidence. Either way, it made the whole trip feel like something that I had just made up in my head while I was getting ready for bed. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that sort of deja vu feeling before, but it’s pretty trippy when it’s so close to real life.

Anyway, tomorrow we’ll get back to the coffee shop, and we’ll see just how much trouble I’m actually in. I wouldn’t be surprised if my mom makes me clean the non-functioning bathroom or something, just to make me miserable. If that’s the case, I guess I’ll just run away again.

Love,

Kayla