Avari's Epic Adventure

**Avari**

My parents were still sleeping when I left home that morning. Dad was an early riser, but Mom tended to sleep in late, especially after her late night shift at the hospital.

I walked through the back door and quietly opened the gate to let out my cat, Minty. He looked back at me with his big blue eyes, mewing softly as he struggled to turn himself around to leave. I laughed and followed him until he'd crossed the yard and jumped over the fence into Mrs. Thompson's property. She didn't mind if he got into her garden occasionally - she said it kept her vegetables free of pests.

I turned around and went into the house again. I used a stool to climb up onto the kitchen bench where I kept my backpack ready for school every day, and shoved my lunchbox into it before slipping on my jacket and leaving again. It was raining quite heavily outside now, so I pulled my hood over my head and ran down the footpath towards school without bothering to lock the gate behind me.

As usual, I arrived at school just as the bell started ringing - and as usual, I was one of only three people who managed to get there on time. The rest of them were straggling in like always, all wet from the rain, grumbling about having been caught in traffic and/or trying to explain why they were late yet again. I hated being tardy; it made me feel even more self-conscious than usual about being a high school freshman who had never even kissed anyone before.

I hurried through the building to get to my locker, which was already running out of space again despite my best efforts to keep it neat. Most of my classmates were heading for their homeroom class now, so I decided to skip mine for today and went straight for Mr. Jacob’s office instead. His door was always open during this hour of the day, since most kids didn’t really need a teacher during lunch break while they were mostly busy with their phones or chatting with friends anyway. He would be there right now working on lesson plans or marking tests, but he’d welcome me anyhow because he was always very nice to me.

I knocked twice on his door before pushing it open slightly and peeking inside. "Mr Jacob? Are you there?"

"Yes?"

"Is this a good time?"

"Sure." He smiled at me over his shoulder as he wrote something down on a piece of paper in front of him. "Come in!"

"Thanks." I entered his office slowly and casually closed the door behind me before walking over to his desk where he gestured for me to sit down in front of him. "So… what is it today?"

He smiled and nodded slowly as he looked at me thoughtfully for a moment before answering my question with another question: "How have you been doing lately? How are things with your parents?"

"Oh." My face fell slightly as I answered him honestly: "It's been kind of difficult lately."

"Any particular reason?"

"Well…"* My voice trailed off as I hesitated to say anything else - but then I realised that Mr Jacob had known us ever since we first moved here when I was small enough not even able to speak properly yet, so he probably knew more about our family life than most people did anyway.* "…we all just seem so tired all the time."

He nodded somberly in response while scribbling something down on his notepad again.* "…and how are things at home?"

"…Just normal stuff."* I shrugged helplessly.* "Mom works too hard… Dad has his work too… And neither one seems interested in doing anything other than that anymore." *

He nodded again silently.* "…anyone giving you trouble at school?"

"…No… not really."* Another shrug.* "No one bothers me there - everyone knows better." *

He clicked his pen closed before putting it down on top of his notepad.* "Have you told your parents about this? Have you talked with them about any of this?"

I shook my head quickly.* "…no… nothing like that… We don't talk much anymore…" *

He nodded sympathetically once more.* "…well then… why don't we do something about that this afternoon? How does an appointment with each of your parents sound? If things have been strained between you guys recently, it might help if we could talk together as a family again."