Chapter 2
"Wait, so Alicia is living with you now Ms?" asked Rilan.
"How is that possible?" Asked Chloe.
"Well it is possible, I mean, in a few ways." said Markus.
"Everyone, calm down! Yes, Alicia is living with me, because I fostered her. There is no need to make a huge fuss about it." Adriana said
"But it's so cool!" said Abigail.
"Yeah Ms., you're like the best teacher in the whole school, I know I would call the cops on my parents any day if I knew I was going to end up being fostered by you!" said Nicole
"Kiss up!" exclaimed Daniel and Dylan in unison.
"Oh like you weren't thinking the same thing," she retorted
"Guys, calm down!" Adriana tried to calm the class down, and failed, she looked at Alicia who nodded back at her.
"Guys! Shut up!" Alicia shouted over everyone else's noise "Calm down, It's not a big deal."
"Thank you Ally, now can we get back to the lesson all of you? we have a lot to do and we've wasted enough time!" Adriana said and they went on with the lesson.
In the next few days that followed Alicia's popularity increased. While most welcomed her as a friend, some got jealous of her, though only two people were envious to act on it.
One day, when they were in Adriana's car on their way home, they were talking about that day.
"Was lunch ok?" Adriana asked.
"Yeah, though, did you put anything different in my sandwich today?" Alicia asked.
"Nothing more than the usual, tomatoes, lettuce, a bit of mayo, why?" Adriana said, concerned.
"I don't know, it tasted kind of different today, it's probably nothing though" Alicia said reassuringly.
But the next day while they were getting ready to go to school, Alicia got really sick and started throwing up. Adriana was really worried about her, she stayed home with her that day.
"Probably nothing?" Adriana repeated in a sarcastic tone, knowing it would cheer Alicia up a bit, even if they were sitting next to a toilet, Adriana holding Alicia's hair back.
"Never listen to me again, deal?" Alicia said, jokingly
"Deal!" Adriana replied with a smile, glad to see Alicia still kept her sense of humour in the hardest situations. But what happened later that day was no laughing matter, Alicia got extremely dehydrated and passed out, Adriana panicked, called an ambulance and they took her to the hospital. Alicia was unconscious for a good two hours and when she finally came to, Adriana was right by her side.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Adriana asked as Alicia woke up slowly, her eyes adjusting to the light.
"Well, last thing I know we were in our bathroom at home, and now I'm in a hospital, so, not so great." she said, attempting to ease the situation a little.
Adriana smiled at her, at that moment the doctor walked in.
"Ah, you're awake, how are you?" he asked.
"Still alive, that must be a good sign right?" Alicia said, laughing.
"Yeah, and you're lucky to, with what you had in your system, you could have easily died." the doctor said.
"What?" Adriana said, worried.
"Yeah, apparently you ingested some sort of acid, your immune system must be rock solid if it fought against that and won!" he said
"Did you figure out what kind of acid it was?" asked Adriana
"Well, the way it was affecting her, we believe it was concentrated citric acid, but we're going to run a few more tests just to be sure." the doctor said
"How did concentrated citric acid get in my system?" Alicia asked, bewildered.
"Well, do you know if anyone touched any food you ate before you ate it?" he asked.
"Not that I know of." she replied.
"Well, do you often leave your bag at school unattended? Someone could have touched it there." the doctor said, trying to give her an answer. “Well, I don’t carry it with me everywhere,” she said. “I have classes all over the school, but usually I keep it in my locker, so it was locked up safe and sound, or so I thought anyway.” Just then, Daryl walked in “What happened?” he asked. So they explained everything to him, after asking a few other questions he said "I think we need to report this to the police." "Isn't that going a bit over board Daryl? I mean I'm fine so-" Alicia began but Daryl cut her off and said "Someone tried to kill you and they failed, it's still a crime. Attempted murder." "He does have a point, I mean what if they strike again?" Adriana agreed. So they all agreed to start an investigation, Daryl called the police and reported it and an officer came to ask Alicia a few questions.
"Did you notice anything out of the ordinary with your food?" the officer asked.
"Only that my sandwich tasted different." Alicia said
"Did you make your sandwich that morning or does someone else make it for you?" he asked.
"I made it for her just like I usually do" Adriana said.
"I see" the officer said, giving Adriana a suspicious look, which Alicia saw
"Officer, if you think that Adriana would do something like this to me, then I have to break it to you. You've probably never been this mistaken in your entire life!" Alicia said matter-of-factly. "I know Adriana, she couldn't hurt a fly. I know because last time a fly was bothering her I was the one who had to kill it."
"Do you have any enemies at school?" The officer asked, feeling a little put to shame about what he was just told
"Well, a few, I got really popular recently and there are a few who didn't welcome the change." Alicia said.
"Do you know of any of them who would go this far?" The officer asked, feeling that they got a step closer now.
"Not sure, you think one of them could have done this to me?" Alicia asked.
"Envy is always a big part of a case like this. Probably, yes." the officer answered "Do you still have the paper bag that you put your lunch in?"
Alicia thought for a second then replied "Yes, it's in my school bag, but it's back home."
"No problem, I'll go get it." Adriana said, picking up her jacket and her keys. "I need to get a few things from there anyway. Daryl, do you mind staying with her until I get back?"
"Not at all, no problem." Daryl said.
So the investigation went on, the fingerprints were taken off of the paper bag and matched with two girls from school. Alicia had to stay in the hospital for a week after they found out who did it, but that didn't stop Adriana from confronting them.
"See you later class, Becka, Heather, can I have a word?" Adriana asked as the students were leaving the class.
"Sure, Ms." Becka said.
"Whats up? How's Alicia?" Heather asked, non-chalantly
"Well, after you two poisoned her, pretty good actually, she's getting better" Adriana said, fury hidden in her voice.
"What?" Becka said
"We didn't do anything to her." Heather said matter-of-factly.
"Then why were your fingerprints on the paper bag she used for lunch the day she was poisoned?" Adriana asked, knowing full well that they didn't have an answer, and they didn't.
They both looked at eachother, knowing they were caught. "You two could have killed her, you know that right?"
"We didn't mean for it to get so serious." Becka said.
"You don't put concentrated citric acid in someones food as a joke Becka! You both have chemistry, you should know that!" Adriana said, trying to keep herself calm.
"Alicia should have known her place, she's not meant to be a popular, she's meant to stay a loser like she always was!" Heather said arrogantly
"Heather, just because you don't like the fact that she's popular does not justify the fact that you tried to kill her!" Adriana said, her rage about to burst out. "We reported it to the police, the principal knows too. Don't try to get out of this, just pray that both your futures aren't ruined because of this, it's lucky you're both still under age, the worst thing you can get is juvi until you're 18."
"What?" Becka said "but that will mean that we won't be able to graduate!"
"Should have thought of that before you let your jealousy get out of hand!" Adriana replied.
"Heather, I told you it was a bad idea!" Becka yelled at her friend.
"Hey, you could have backed out any time you wanted!" Heather yelled back.
"You said if I did you would ruin my reputation in this school, what was I supposed to do?" Becka shouted again.
"Both of you knock it off, you're both in the wrong here, now get to class!" Adriana shouted at both of them, she was furious, why would someone want to hurt Alicia? She started shaking, she never felt so mad before, she never shouted at anyone like that in her entire life.
After school that day she headed straight for the hospital, it was the first time she left Alicia alone since she fostered her, and being completely honest with herself, she was worried about her. She arrived at the hospital and walked into the ward, took a deep breath to calm herself down after what happened that day, and walked into the room Alicia was in.
“Hey Ally.” she said with a smile.
“Hey Adriana, how was your day?” Alicia asked while Adriana hugged her tightly, holding her there for a minute or two. “Is everything ok?”
Taking a deep breath, she answered “yeah, just a tough day that’s all.”
“What happened?” Alicia asked, concerned, Adriana was still shaking a little and she noticed.
“I spoke to Becka and Heather.” Adriana said.
"What?" Alicia said, shocked.
"I couldn't stand them thinking they got away with it!" Adriana said.
"What did they say?" Alicia asked.
"Well, at first they denied it completely, but then Becka admitted it and Heather said that you should have stayed in your place." Adriana explained. "I got so mad, I started shaking afterwards."
"You still are, calm down" Alicia said, smiling at her and squeezing her hand reassuringly.
"You're right, it's just that, I can't stand the fact that someone would want to hurt you, I find it illogical." Adriana said, squeezing Alicia's hand back.
"It's okay, I'm fine now, you don't have to worry." Alicia said, still smiling.
“Aren’t I supposed to be making you feel better?” Adriana asked sarcastically, smiling back at her. Alicia didn’t say anything, she just smiled at Adriana, she was glad to have her as her foster mother, not just because it means she got away from people who only wanted to make her life hell. But because it means she gets to have someone that actually cares about her, and that she has someone to turn to if she needs it. She wouldn’t let anything hurt Adriana, she promised herself that.
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