Ricky

Getting Ready to Visit

         Mr. Bitely looked up with a confused expression, so Ricky got up and opened the door. Standing on the other side was a woman who looked strangely familiar with her reddish-blonde hair and eyes that seemed to fade between blue and green, but Ricky couldn’t place her. He stepped back and gestured for her to come in. As she strolled past him, she nodded her thanks and he noticed that her eyes were somewhat red, as if she’d cried a little recently. Ricky closed the door behind her, and then he spun around as the lady sat in the wooden chair. Mr. Bitely was still talking to Ricky’s dad, so Ricky just leaned back on the closed door and tried to remember how he recognized her. Her hair was short, only shoulder-length, but her remembered it being long.
         “Thank you for coming in, Ms. Wright,” Mr. Bitely thanked her. Ricky had to ask.
         “Sir? What’d my dad say?” he questioned. Both the principal and the lady that had to be Drake’s mom looked at him.
         “Oh, sorry, Ricky. I actually forgot you were here. Your dad said you can go visit Drake. You’ll have to call your brother though because I need to talk to Ms. Wright. Mrs. Vonner will let you use her phone if you want,” Mr. Bitely informed him. Ms Wright’s expression changed when the principal mentioned Drake. She probably wondered how Ricky fit into her son’s life since he had left.
         “Yes, sir. I’m going to take my stuff, so I’ll probably be at the hospital the rest of today,” Ricky added, striding over next to Drake’s mom and grabbing his book bag off the floor. As he glanced at her, he realized where he knew her from.
         “Ms. Wright, do you have a daughter that goes to school here? I know it sounds strange, but there’s a girl in my study hall that looks a lot like you,” Ricky explained, then he realized that if the girl was Ms. Wright’s daughter, then she’d be Drake’s sister. The lady looked confused for a moment before understanding showed in her eyes.
         “No, I don’t but my niece goes here. Her mother is my twin sister, so my niece looks a lot like me. I don’t think Drake knows Cheyenne, though, because he doesn’t know my sister Riley that well,” she explained to Ricky. That cleared the feeling of knowing her, so he simply nodded and walked backwards to the door, saying good-bye to Mr. Bitely before he strolled back out into the office. Now there were two people sitting, waiting to see Mr. Conner, the vice principal. One of them was a girl who would’ve been pretty if she didn’t go tanning so much or wear so much make-up. As it was, her skin had taken on an orange tint and her make-up was overdone, but she seemed to think otherwise because at that moment, she was adding more eyeliner to the layers already on there. The boy in the seat next to her was just about a social outcast, wearing mostly black and only talking to his small group of friends. Ricky sauntered up to the side of Mrs. Vonner’s desk and knocked on it to get her attention, so she looked over at him. The two students were now watching him, but, yet again, he ignored the prickling sensation.
         “Hi. Um, Mr. Bitely said that I could use your phone to call my house,” Ricky explained. Mrs. Vonner nodded and motioned toward the phone, right under the section of her desk that Ricky was leaning on, so Ricky leaned over more to reach it. He grabbed the handset part, and then dialed in his number, even though the phone was facing the opposite way. He then had to wait for his brother Blayze to answer.
         “Hello?” Blayze answered groggily. Ricky decided that he had just woken his brother up.
         “Hey, big brother, you miss me yet?” Ricky asked with a smile because he knew how late Blayze had been out the night before and that Blayze hated mornings.
         “Ricky, aren’t you supposed to be in school? If you’re skipping, don’t tell the parents you got it from me,” Blayze added, making Ricky laugh. The sound made the girl in the office look up with a confused look. According to rumors, Ricky had no sense of humor at all.
         “But I did learn it from you, Blayze. And I am at school. Oh, by the way, you’re coming to get me and take me to the hospital because I don’t want to be here, okay?” Ricky joked. All the sudden, Blayze sounded wide awake.
         “The hospital, little brother? You okay?” Blayze asked, sounding somewhat worried. For all the joking around, Ricky knew his brother was protective of him.
         “Yeah, man, I’m okay, but Drake’s in the hospital. That’s why I’m going there. Somebody beat him last night, so I got to check up on him. How long will you be?” Ricky questioned. There was silence on the other end while Blayze registered the information.
         “Ten minutes, Ricky. I’ll be there soon, okay?” Blayze responded, now definitely worried, but Ricky knew it was for Drake this time, not for Ricky. The brothers had adopted Drake and the three of them were best friends.
         “Yeah, man. I’ll talk to you when you get here,” Ricky replied, knowing that Blayze would hurry. The two said good-bye and hung up. Ricky thanked Mrs. Vonner and left the office. His mind was reeling from all the information he’d learned that morning. He wasn’t sure if Drake ever would’ve told him everything that Ricky had found out, but Ricky was going to tell Drake what he now knew. Ricky reached the main doors and laid his head on the cool glass door, waiting for Blayze.