Hidden Away

1. Home Alone

Since Tia's Mum died she's not been to school, as in, she's been skipping. It's not like her step-Dad 'Doctor' cares, well I don't think he does. No one knows what goes on in Tia's house, the lights go off at exactly ten minutes past eleven every night, but from across the street, I always see a glow coming from upstairs.

Today is Saturday and I don't care what Tia says, I'm going into her house and talking her into coming back to school. I'm not facing that Algebra test by myself on Tuesday!

*At 3pm*
I ring her doorbell and see someone looking outside the lounge curtains. The door squeaks open and Tia is standing there, her short blonde hair is messily hanging out and she's wearing her pajamas. "What is it, Alice?" She scoffs at me. I pull a half melted chocolate bar out my jean pocket and hand it to her. "I just need to talk to you, pleaseeeee!" I squeal quite loudly. Doctor appears on the stairway behind her, he's wearing a lab coat and is carrying a satchel. "I'm leaving the house to you tonight, Tiana. I need to do some work." He says and pushes past her.

I step back as he struts down the stone pathway. "But-but, I can't be home alone! You know I can't!" Tia calls at him. He ignores her and gets into his grey Audi, he revvs up the engine. "I'll stay with you tonight, we can have a sleepover!" I say excitedly. Tia glares at me and then nods and lets me into her house.

The house looks different since I was last here, it has flowers everywhere and all of Tia's old toys have been moved out of the hallway. The lounge doesn't have the TV blaring as usual and the fireplace has been replaced with pictures of Tia's Mum instead of the normal family pictures from 10 years ago.

Tia flops onto the sofa and starts eating the chocolate bar I gave her, "What did you need to talk to me about then?" she asks whilst turning on the TV and handing me the remote. "Are you okay?" I ask her, "you've been skipping school..." She looks at me sadly and snatches the remote back and changes it to Disney Channel. She doesn't answer my question and we sit there watching shows I hadn't seen in years.