how to get out of this mess

Ellie knew there was no way to get out of this.

It was just for the next three weeks. Grounded. Come home straight after school. Do the Tuesday night babysitting job.

Yeah, she could behave herself, couldn't she? Or could she? There would be the scheduled phone call with Eric. Only it couldn't last long. She'd get to meet him in the morning for a few minutes at the wall before school.

But was it enough?

The fact was...this totally sucked. And it was her fault. She could see it on Eric's face even in her dreams. Why had she had to act out like that?

And seeing her mother? God, how she wanted to drop that class but her father wouldn't let her. Punishment, enough, wasn't it? Why couldn't her mother have taught her to sew long ago? Why did it have to take a class to learn something so simple..as sewing.

And she had Kyle watching her. Oh, he told her it was for her own good. Thank God, she didn't have to see him at lunch. She had Roxie to put up with.

What a great start the school year was becoming? The only thing good about lunch, lately, was Cory and he looked more depressed than she did. But she would rather have lunch with him than Roxie, any day.

They talked about anything but what was really bothering them.

1. Would Rain Wilson really leave the Office?

2. What did you think of Jim's new haircut from the Office?

3. Was the Terminator the TV show really worth watching?

4. Did that new CD from the Panic at the Disco seem a tad lame? Maybe the lead singer really was broken up over Ashley marrying Fred.

5. Shouldn't we have seen Hawthorn Heights when they were in town?

And that brought them to Eric.

"He really won't admit it, but he does like RUSH," Cory told her. And Ellie knew then that he missed him.

"I don't miss him like that?" Of course, Cory took it the wrong way from what Ellie said. "I never missed him that way."

"I know that." And she did. "We've all had a crush on you, you dummy."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Woo, that's weird." He shrugged. "I didn't do anything."

"I know. That's just the way you are," Ellie confessed.

"Doesn't make it any easier, though." He sighed.

"Yeah, I know, usually, I'm the last to know anything going on."

They smiled at each other.

Maybe she'd get through this mess somehow. She had phone calls to look forward to, and Eric's Friday night visits chaperoned, of course.