~~~~~
I got up earlier than usual the next morning, thanks to my early bed time. I used it as an opportunity to take a bath and gently scrub my face to try to get rid of the puffiness from having cried myself to sleep. I quickly made my own breakfast after that and went straight to my room to read until my Dad knocked on my door and told me it was time for him to take me to school. I refused to talk to him the whole way there, even after we pulled up to the front of the school and he tried to talk to me.
“Listen, I’m not really that angry. I’m just worried that, now that you’re aware of what you’re capable of, you’re going to start trying dangerous things. I want to make sure you’re keeping yourself in check.”
I got out of the car and slammed it behind me in response. We had managed to arrive right as the first bell rang, so I didn’t even have a chance to find Dane or Nobuko before class started. Seeing Dani in my first period class and the fact that she was still mad at me just made me more upset, and by the time I got to second period I was so angry that I was willing to deck the next person to even look at me funny. I even growled at Nobuko when she tapped me on the shoulder as she got into class, which I immediately felt bad for when I saw the look of fear on her face.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that to you. Sorry,” I apologized.
She nodded slowly, accepting my apology. “Are you okay?”
“No. My dad grounded me for something that wasn’t my fault. I’m not going to be able to do anything for the next few weeks. I’m pretty pissed about it.”
“What happened?”
I lowered my voice so no one else could hear. “Some people thought they saw me set a fire in the school parking lot last night. I was trying to put it out, but, you know, who’s going to believe a teenager?”
Nobuko gave me a pitying look. “I’m so sorry. Oh, no! Kenna, does that mean you won’t be able to dance after school?”
The thought hadn’t occurred to me, and I became worried. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll find out Monday. I hope not. He can’t reasonably cut me off from everything.”
She nodded, and the bell to begin class rang, leaving our conversation there.
Dad was at the curb to pick me up, and the ride home was much the same as it was to school. He even tried to rationalize his actions to me again, but I was determined that until he either apologized or asked for my side of the story he was not going to get a single word out of me.
The weekend was boring, as expected. Dane tried to come by and see me, even though I had seen him at school and tried to explain the situation to him. Unfortunately my dad got to the door before I could and they had a very heated exchange, which I heard from at the top of the stairs. Dane tried to convince dad to at least let him hang out at the house so dad could even supervise what I was doing, but dad stood firm about the absoluteness of my punishment.
Monday rolled around and Dad managed to drop me off at school again just late enough that I only barely made it to class on time. The anger I had with him was building up and I resolved to go to dance practice, regardless of whether it was banned as part of my grounding or not.
As it turns out, it was. Five minutes in to practice and he had managed to find his way to the studio.
“Kenna, I need you to come with me,” he said as calmly as possible, though I could tell he was just barely reining in his anger. I followed him to just outside the studio and stopped.
“You aren’t grounding me from this, too, are you?” I snapped. It was the first thing I had said to him in days.
“I thought I made myself clear. You are to be either at school or at home.”
“But I am at school! This is a school activity!”
“Well, I’m forbidding you to be here. This isn’t an academic pursuit, and therefore off limits as part of your punishment.”
“I got all my projects done this weekend! I only have about a half hour worth of homework and then I’ll have nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon!”
“You’re not supposed to have fun during a punishment. I need you to grab your stuff and come with me. Don’t argue with me on this.”
I stared at him as defiantly as I could, but he stood firm. Flushed with anger, I went into the studio, grabbed my gym bag and threw my coat on. A couple of members stopped practicing and even followed me out to see what was going on. I tried to ignore them and hoped they would just go back to practice. Thankfully no one actually left the gym, but the damage had been done. I officially had the rudest, most embarrassing dad, and since this was high school, that’s how everyone would think he always was.
Dane ran to catch up with us as we got to the parking lot. “Mr. Reyvens! Wait!”
Dad didn’t stop, ignoring him.
“Mr. Reyvens! Can I please talk to you?” Dad continued to ignore him and unlocked the car. “I’m sorry for coming to your house on Saturday and arguing with you!” Dad paused, this finally catching his attention. “I was completely out of line, and you deserve more respect.”
Dad nodded, satisfied with this. “Thank you for apologizing. But you still can’t see Makenna until her grounding is over.”
“I understand that, but that’s not what I was going to ask. Sir, please, Makenna has some extremely important pieces in our winter show. We need her during practice. Can you please let her stay? Please. I’m begging you.”
Dad shook his head and said, “Sorry, but this is absolute. I’m making no exceptions. You will just have to make adjustments to your show.”
“Will you consider it anyway? You can even come and watch, just to see that we are working hard and not just hanging out and goofing off.” Dane was starting to shiver, as there was snow on the ground and he hadn’t put a coat on before coming out, but he still stood firm.
Dad gave a noncommittal grunt and got in the car. I glanced at Dane before getting at the car and mouthed I’m so sorry to him. He nodded and mouthed something else back to me. I’m no lip reader, but I could have sworn that it was I love you.
I was thrilled at this for all of thirty seconds, when dad peeled out of the parking lot recklessly. I grasped onto whatever I could and wanted to shout at him about driving on icy roads, but held my tongue when I realized it would only make things worse.
About halfway home I decided to speak up, initiating a conversation for the first time since the incident on Thursday night. “You know, dancing it what helps me maintain balance. It’s my outlet. I thought that was a good thing.”
“Well, obviously it didn’t work as well as you thought, did it? You still tried to set your school on fire.”
I breathed deeply to try and keep calm. “It really wasn’t my fault. Can you let me explain?”
Dad said nothing. If he wasn't going to keep me from talking, I was going to do my best to reason with him, whether he'd pay attention or not.
“I was driving home and there was a creature running through the parking lot. I stopped to see what it was. It looked like some sort of reptile cat, but it was made of clay and it was on fire. It could talk, but it seemed really confused and started wailing when I asked it questions. That’s what caused people to call the cops, and I guess that me trying to calm it down looked like I was making the fire worse. When the cops showed up, all the flames extinguished and it just became a lump of clay.” I looked at him anxiously, hoping that he would believe me.
He didn’t say anything until we pulled into the garage. As he put the car in park he announced, “I’ve never even heard of any creature resembling that description. The closest I can think of is a fire golem, though the fire is usually on the inside of the body and I’ve never known one to be confused or wail. I will look into it. You’re still grounded until I can figure it out.”
My mouth dropped open in disbelief. “But…” I started, then cut myself short. This was a step in the right direction, and I wasn’t going to mess it up. We got out
of the car without another word.
I was frustrated with my dad, upset that he was acting this way without mom around. I had an idea, and when I got up to my room I got out some paper so I could write to Ammon. He was usually in some exotic part of the world, taking pictures for a variety of travel magazines, but I found I could send a letter to the one that contracted him the most often and for the most part they’d get it to him just fine. I was comfortable with writing him things that I wouldn’t normally tell any other of my family members, because for some reason I felt that my secrets were safe when they were on the other side of the planet.
Ammon –
I loved your last postcard. I never imagined Thailand to be such a pretty place, but you’ve managed to make it look like a paradise. I can’t wait to see what place you glam up next. Great job on the Alaska piece, by the way. The magazine finally printed it and it looks great!
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written. Things have been pretty crazy since we first moved to Steven’s Ridge.
I’ve been working hard at dancing. I never imagined that I’d like dancing more than gymnastics, but there’s something so freeing about letting myself go in the music. Ha ha. I sound like such a romantic, but it’s hard to put it any other way. The club has a show tomorrow and I get my own solo. I’m excited, but really nervous. Oh, and I have a boyfriend, too! His name is Dane and we’ve been going out for a while, now. He’s really great – a complete gentleman.
There have been some rough spots, though. Mom went away to Germany without saying goodbye, and we’ve only gotten a couple of letters from her since she left a couple months ago. It’s been really rough on dad – without mom he’s been throwing himself into his work, and it’s been making him sick and really angry all the time.
Anyway, sorry to end on a downer note like that, but if I don’t keep it at that I’m going to end up writing a novel, and I know it’s difficult for heavy letters to reach you.
I hope things have been going well for you. Hope to hear from you soon,
Kenna
I looked at my letter. It wasn’t nearly as long as I would have liked it to be, but I needed to test the waters, first. If Ammon knew about my parents’ wardcarving, and if he knew about us kids being named for the elements and all of us needing an outlet, all I needed was a quick note worded in a way to let him know that I knew, too. If he understood what I was trying to say, maybe he’d have some advice on how to deal with dad. If he didn’t know, then he would just see it as an oddly short letter from me and throw it away once he was done reading it. I went downstairs again to find an envelope and stamp, and left the letter on the countertop so I could remember to mail it in the .
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