Crossing Into Forever

Chapter 23

 A few weeks had passed, and Ella was feeling much better now. Her asthma had not been bothering her so much and she had settled into a nice routine at the school. The sun was warm on this fall day, and it felt good to be outside. So much of Ella's time had been spent inside now. She was forbidden from going outside of the school walls because of the danger that it posed to her. She was told that Erebus was on the watch for her and that anywhere outside of the confines of the great school would be dangerous. She couldn't walk outside unless she was escorted by a staff member that Dr Moustakas approved. Today was the first soccer game of the year and just about the entire school was outside at the stadium getting ready to watch the day's events. The doctor had given Ella permission to join in the game day festivities and actually go outside, but she was not allowed to leave the stadium area and she also had to stay with her group of friends. She was warned not to venture off by herself anywhere. Even going to the concession stand or bathroom meant at least one of her friends had to go. She couldn't help but feel a little resentful at the idea of having to be babysat. On the other hand, she was so happy to get to go outside that she gladly agreed to follow the rules and not do anything that would cause the doctor to change his mind about letting her join the others. The festive atmosphere was exhilarating to her, and she couldn't remember feeling this much excitement since she had been told by Mother Christina that she would be allowed to move in with Millicent for the summer and take classes with her. Remembering this made her get a troubling feeling in her gut though. She tried to push it away, but the memories of how all of this had started came rushing back. If she wouldn't have insisted that she leave the convent for the summer, none of this would be happening now. She was so adamant that she was going to do what she wanted and that she was an adult that couldn't be bossed around. She wished so badly she could go back and take it all away, but she knew there was no sense in hashing all of this over and over in her head again. It was getting her know where. She tried as hard as she could to focus on how much fun she was having right now. She was dressed in the school colors and sitting with all of her friends. Everyone was in a great mood. There was no way she was going to ruin everyone's fun by becoming melancholy. She decided even if it was all an act, she was going to put on the appearance of having fun, and maybe then she would forget about her past bad decisions.

Some time had passed, and Ella was surprised at how interested in the game she had become. Indeed, she had forgotten about her past woes and was truly immersed in the game. It wasn't long before the game was well in progress and their school was winning by several points. Lucy, Millicent, Sibylla and she were all having a good time, all of them yelling as loud as they could. Ella had decided at that point that this was probably the most fun she had ever had. Nowhere at any time had she been allowed to scream and yell like this. It was quite exhilarating and liberating in a way. She had even noticed the doctor standing on the sidelines, but that did nothing to suppress her excitement for the game. He was far enough away anyway and had no idea she was acting so unruly. She was trying to decide if they were being that way. All of the other students were acting the same way, so it didn't matter. Call it childish, rowdy or whatever. It was fun for sure.

Soon, Millicent had decided she wanted to get some snacks from the concession stand and Ella wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to walk around for a bit. It was not something that she got to do very often... walk outside. She accompanied Millicent and before long, they were both back with drinks and snacks for all of them.

"Oh...are those cookies? They look homemade", Lucy blurted out in an excited voice. She was the one in the group that loved sweets. Soon, each girl had cookies, chips and drinks in hand and was taking a break from the cheering. The cookies were indeed homemade and chocolate chip. A definite favorite of all of theirs. These had a different taste to them though. Definitely chewy and chocolatey, but another something in them that added to the flavor. Ella couldn't put her finger on it, but it was some kind of nut. The nuts had been chopped up very fine though, so it was hard to tell what kind they were. Before long, all of the cookies were gone, and the girls were back to their previous silly behavior. It was just a moment later that Ella couldn't help but noticed Lucy had not been cheering quite as loud as she had been earlier. The other two girls were so oblivious to anything else but the game, but Ella could tell something was wrong with Lucy.