A Homecoming to Forget Read online

  A Homecoming to forget

  By Emily Camp

  A Homecoming to Forget

  Copyright©2019 Emily Camp

  First Printing 2019

  All rights reserved no part of this book may be reproduced without permission

  Cover design and photo © 2019 Emily Camp

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to people or events are purely coincidence and not intended by author.

  Ages 14+

  1.Fiction 2. Young Adult 3. Mystery

  Chapter 1

  I was found on a riverbank at eleven on a Monday morning in October. I was wearing the maroon dress I wore to homecoming that Saturday night before.

  The tiara sat on my dresser. I stared at it every day. I needed to find the girl who wore that tiara. Because, I didn’t know the girl that put the crown on her head, anticipating a magical night with her boyfriend. A night that she’d always remember.

  Yet, it was a night I had forgotten.

  I didn’t remember getting ready for the dance. A dance where I was a seventeen-year-old homecoming queen, a senior in high school, and my boyfriend was my long-time crush. I may not have remembered that dance, but I remembered a dance.

  A dance that took place three years earlier, freshman year homecoming. I wore a blue, long-sleeved, two-piece. the skirt was short, and it fanned out like an umbrella.

  I went with Henry, just as friends, of course.

  We were only fourteen. That was the last thing I remembered.

  Apparently, a lot could happen in three years.

  Including the fact that someone wanted me dead.

  Chapter 2

  I woke in the hospital, surrounded and confused, because my fourteen-year-old-self did not have a step-mom, step-brother or a boyfriend.

  They all looked at me with expecting eyes. I, on the other hand, felt like I’d been hit by a train and the last thing I wanted was an audience.

  It was a relief when I spotted my dad. He had a little bit of grey at his temples that was not there before. I squinted my eyes at him past Trey Oliver whom I did recognize. I just didn’t know he was my boyfriend at that time, or why my long-time crush would be sitting by my bed.

  “Dad?” I looked around the room taking in all the eyes on me, the white walls, and the machines. I looked down at the paper-thin hospital gown covering me. My dad rushed to my side, pushing Trey from his spot.

  “Sawyer?” My dad sat down in the squeaky chair that he’d just crowded Trey out of. “How are you feeling?”

  My dad was the only thing I could look at. I was too embarrassed at everyone seeing me like this. “Horrible. My head hurts” As I spoke my esophagus burned. “And my throat.” I reached up for my neck. A tube was attached to my arm. I winced and looked away. I didn’t like needles.

  One time when I was twelve, I was climbing up the boards nailed to a trunk of a tree in Henry’s backyard, my foot slipped, and my shin caught on a nail. I had to have a tetanus shot and three stitches. My dad had to hold me down at the sight of the needle. He’d always joked about having a daughter who was afraid of needles, since he was a doctor himself.

  “Need some water?” My dad held a large cup with a straw. “Would you get a nurse, son?” He said over his shoulder.

  Trey looked wide-eyed from me to my father and said, “Sure.” His hair was lighter blond than I remembered, and it was disheveled as if he’d been sleeping in that chair beside me. He hurried out of the room.

  “What happened?” Even though I’d just had a drink of cool water, my voice was still hoarse.

  “We were hoping you could tell us.” My dad looked up at a skinny lady, who’s brown hair was slicked back in a ponytail and she wore a pair of black dress pants and a button up shirt, that looked a lot more put together than my dad’s rumpled button up with the first three buttons unbuttoned, his white t-shirt peeking out. I knew I’d seen the woman before but couldn’t place where.

  “Bill, you should let her rest.” Her dark eyes darted toward me but didn’t stay there.

  “I don’t … I don’t remember,” I said.

  “Is there anything you do remember?” My dad leaned forward in the chair after setting the cup down.

  “A nurse is on the way.” Trey rushed in the room. He looked at me. His irises were several shades of green and gray looking like a storm. Those eyes were the reason I had a crush on him.

  In the sixth grade, on the playground, I was in the path of a flying football, Trey grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me out of the way. Then he looked into my eyes and said, “That was close.”

  I’d fantasized about his eyes and him professing his undying love for me ever since. This wasn’t how I wanted him to see me though. Maybe I did have a knight-in-shining armor complex, at least that’s what Henry said.

  “Are you okay?” So much concern in those words as Trey started toward me, but hesitated when he glanced down at my dad. My father was a big man, making a solid barrier between Trey and me.

  “I don’t know.” I got a good look at him when my dad sat back in the chair. Trey wore a football tee shirt from our school. It said. Ellsworth High School 2018 Football Champs.

  How could he be wearing a shirt from 2018 when it was only 2016? I rubbed my eyes and looked again, thinking maybe I mistook the six for an eight, but no, it still said eight. My heart started to hammer and the machine I was hooked up to beeped.

  “Sawyer,” My dad leaned forward again putting his hand over mine. I wanted to feel protected in that moment, but I didn’t. How could he protect me from this horrible nightmare? “What’s wrong?”

  “What year is it?”

  “What year do you think it is?” My dad said slowly, looking up at the strange woman.

  “I don’t know. How long have I been sleeping?” Tears pricked my eyes. I didn’t want to cry in front of Trey, or that strange woman, or my dad for that matter. The last time I’d cried in front of my dad was when I got those stitches when I was twelve.

  “You’ve been here for three days.” My dad wrinkled his brow.

  “How are you feeling?” A round nurse, in bright scrubs shuffled in with a cart.

  “Not good.” I said, making all the adults in the room laugh. Though, I didn’t see what the humor was.

  She wrote some things down in her chart. “Can you tell me the level of your pain between 1 and 10.”

  “Seven?” I didn’t know how to rate it. What was a one anyway? Was it a paper cut? I mean I did feel like I was dying, but I’m sure there was worse pain.

  She grabbed the tube on my arm. I looked away as long as I didn’t see it, I was okay. “You’re going to feel something warm.”

  I didn’t want her to tell me that, I just needed to pretend this wasn’t happening.

  “I think she might have some memory loss.” My dad said.

  The nurse tilted her head and pursed her pink lips. “Can you tell me who the president is?”

  “Obama.”

  The nurse looked at my dad then the lady. “What year is it?”

  “2016, but he has a shirt that says 2018, so …” I looked up at my dad, who was now standing by the strange lady to give the nurse room to do her job. She pressed something into my ear and a second later when it beeped, she looked at it and typed into the computer on her cart.

  “It’s 2019.” Trey said.

  I looked blankly at my dad. “What mo …” my throat seared with pain as I cleared it. “Water.” I reached for the cup and the nurse handed it to me. I sipped then said, “What month?”

  “October.” My dad’s voice was gruff.

  The get-well balloons and poster boards should have given that away as most of them were orange, yellow and brown. One poster boar
d in particular caught my eye. Get Well Soon Homecoming Queen. I squinted, seeing if I read that right. I didn’t share the room with anyone else, so they had to be meant for me. That would explain why one of the balloons was gold and shaped like a crown.

  “Maybe you should get some rest.” The lady said.

  Then a boy, no a man? Walked in. He looked to be in his 20s. He had wavy, light brown hair. He looked at the lady then me. His blue eyes were big with fear. “I heard.”

  “Yeah, she’s up, Benji.” The woman said as if I wasn’t even in the room.

  He blinked at me, a frown on his full lips. “We were so worried.”

  Just like the lady, Benji looked familiar, but I didn’t know how I knew him.

  “I’m going to guess she doesn’t know who you are.” My dad looked at me for confirmation.

  I shrugged and a scratchy, “sorry,” left my lips.

  “You don’t remember what happened?” Benji’s eyes darted from me, to my dad, back to the lady.

  “She thinks it’s the year 2016.” The lady said.

  Trey stepped forward, now that the nurse and my dad were out of his way. “You know me, though, right. I’m your boyfriend.”

  I nearly choked. “My boyfriend?” I reached up to pat my hair down, though the attempt was useless because I wasn’t sure when I last brushed it.

  “Maybe we should ease her back into her memories.” The lady put her hand on my dad’s bicep as if she owned him. That’s when I caught sight of the large diamond on her finger.

  “You’re married?” I asked.

  My dad put his arm around the lady. “You don’t remember Janice? Your step-mom?” then he pointed toward the guy. “Benji, your step-brother?”

  Trey glared at Benji and his hands fisted at his sides.

  “Where’s mom?” It shouldn’t have surprised me she wasn’t here.

  My mother was in and out of my life like the sun on a partly cloudy day. We would go months without seeing her and then she’d show up in a whirlwind claiming to make up for all the time she’d missed, including the birthdays and holidays.

  My dad wouldn’t let her take me anywhere without him, so when she wanted to take me to the zoo, he went. When she wanted to go to that waterpark with me, he not only accompanied us, he paid for the day, because it turned out she’d made a promise she couldn’t afford. Some days ended with her and dad laughing and disappearing into his bedroom. I always believed that this would be the time she stayed, but if she wasn’t gone by breakfast, she was gone by dinner the next day. Except for the one time she stayed for a week. I thought for sure we were going to be a family again.

  There were other days that ended in fighting, those were the days I knew she wasn’t staying. I would bury my head under my pillow and cry, because even though she wasn’t gone yet, I already missed her. That’s why it didn’t surprise me when she wasn’t here with me now.

  My dad looked down at his wife as if she had the answer to my question. “She’ll be here soon.”

  Janice grimaced.

  No matter what her relationship was with my dad, my mom was still my mom and she should be here if she wanted to be. Even if it was a few days late.

  My head and eyelids were heavy. Unable to keep my eyes open, I barely heard the conversation about my memory loss around me as I dozed off.

  Chapter 3

  I thought I’d be relieved to be home. It was the same, but so many things were different that I didn’t feel at home. Instead of the bright pink walls, which I was ready to update anyway, my bedroom walls were lavender. I had a string of lights around the perimeter of my bedroom and polaroid pictures hanging from the string.

  The photographs were of me and Trey. Some of me and Ambrosia, who was a total snob and never even spoken to me before, and another girl I didn’t recognize. There were some selfies of me and some of the other girls and Trey. A group photo of a guy named Ryan, who just like Ambrosia, I’d never talked to before, Brendan, who was okay, but I’d never been good friends with, Trey, and another guy I didn’t recognize. What puzzled me even more than the pictures of these people on my walls was the absence of Henry.

  Henry was my best friend, my partner in crime. We went everywhere and did everything together. That was the only good thing that came from my mom, the fact she and Henry’s mom were friends and I’d known him since birth.

  Even in my mom’s absence, Henry and I were together. His mom taking the role of my own sometimes. I’d go to their house after school when my dad was working late. His mom would take us to the movies every Friday with our refillable tub of popcorn. More would spill on the ground than would make it to our mouths. We’d bring the leftovers home for his grandma, who complained because she loved popcorn, but it stuck in her dentures.

  In the summers, Henry’s mom would take us to the pool three times a week and we would camp out in his treehouse at least a dozen times a summer. We rode our bikes in the street and skinned our knees more than once, me passing out at the sight of blood. We chased the ice cream man, though Henry was a little chubby and winded quickly. Most of all we vowed to always be friends.

  When his dad left, we fantasized about what it would be like if his mom and my dad got married. We were already like siblings. What could be better than spending almost every waking moment together? That was why I didn’t understand why there was no trace of him in my life now.

  When I sat on my bright paisley bedspread, my view in front of me was the full-length mirror hanging on my closet door. I cringed when I saw the girl looking back at me. My hair was platinum blonde. I had always had blonde hair, but not this light. Besides the obvious bruises on my face, it was different. Somehow, my cheekbones stuck out more.

  A knock on my door made me jump. My dad walked in without waiting for a reply. “Any memories come back?”

  I looked at him, then shook my head. “It’s different.”

  The doctors had said that my memories may come back when I got home around familiar things, so far that hasn’t happened.

  He sat beside me, resting his arm on my shoulders. “Janice helped you redecorate. You outgrew the bright pink.”

  “Mom didn’t show up while I was sleeping, did she?” She hadn’t shown up while I was awake, but I hadn’t brought it up either. I just pretended she’d been there.

  My dad’s large hand ran up and down my arm. He didn’t respond right away. He looked at me in the mirror. At us. Forever it was just the two of us and now, overnight, we had Janice and Benji. Strangers to me, they weren’t my family.

  “No, sweetheart. I’m sure she tried to make it.”

  I knew he was just saying that to make me feel better.

  “Dad?” I looked into his eyes in our reflections. The same almond shaped, blue-green as mine. I got most of my features from my dad.

  “Yeah?”

  “Why isn’t Henry in any of my photographs?”

  His jaw twitched and his grip around my shoulders tightened. “You two aren’t friends anymore.”

  “We’re not?”

  He shook his head, his brow furrowed and a frown appeared on his face.

  “What happened?”

  He took a deep breath in, “You should get some rest, don’t worry about all the little details you’ve missed.”

  But this was a huge detail. A big part of my life that was gone. Yesterday I had my best friend. When I’d been so sure that Trey was going to ask me to homecoming because he talked to me in Science class that week then I found out he was taking Ambrosia, I was devastated. It was Henry who volunteered to take me as a friend, even though he hated dances. How could the boy that did that for me no longer be in my life?

  “Anyway, the doctor also said that you should continue with your routine as normal, but if you’re not ready to go to school yet, that’s okay.”

  “I want to go.” I had so many blanks that needed to be filled in and I wanted answers now. I wasn’t someone who liked surprises or not knowing things. I always read the endings o
f books before I got to the actual ending. I’d look up spoilers to the shows I binged on Netflix. I peeked at my Christmas presents every year. My dad was too predictable because I always found them hiding in his closet.

  “You normally ride with Trey in the mornings, so … we can have him pick you up?”

  “Sure.” Though I wasn’t sure what it would be like sitting in a car with Trey. I barely knew him and had a crush on him forever. If he was my boyfriend, he might have some answers.

  “Why don’t you get some rest before dinner.” My bed creaked as he stood and walked away, leaving me here with all these missing memories.

  Chapter 4

  “Sawyer.” I barely heard my name coming from outside. “Sawyer.”

  My dad was sleeping soundly in his recliner. I wasn’t paying attention to the television, staring at my phone.

  “Sawyer.” There was a light ping on the glass. I turned toward the window where Henry’s round face peered in.

  “Henry?” I whispered and motioned toward the door where I met him. I stepped outside into the mild night. “What’s going on?” the concrete porch was cold on my bare feet.

  “I need your help.” He was dressed in a black sweat suit, the hoodie pulled over his head.

  “Are you robbing a bank?” I laughed.

  “Can you come along or what?” I looked back at the door. My dad just got off a fourteen-hour shift, I was sure he wasn’t waking up anytime soon. “I need shoes.”

  “Hurry up.”

  I ran in the house and slipped on my canvas shoes. Even though he was in a sweat suit, I didn’t bother to put anything over the shorts and tee-shirt I was wearing.

  He snickered as he climbed on his bike, and I on my own. “What’s up? What are we doing?” With Henry I never knew.

  “Shh.” He rounded the corner, then stopped.

  “Henry?” We were between streetlights. I could barely see him.

  He pedaled on until we were at his house. We drove our bikes outback, tossed them on the ground, and scaled the treehouse. I was always extra careful now ever since that nail caught me, even more-so in the dark. Once Henry was inside, he turned around and shone his cell phone flashlight at me. I appreciated it.