I stared at him for a long time. He started to talk, "It really is you. You've grown up so much."

Michael was standing behind me, tapped my shoulder, and whispered, "Do you want me to leave?"

"No," I said grabbing his arm and pulling him in front of me. "That's my father, and I'm really scared. So, please don't leave." Michael understood and stood in front of me.

"Allison?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm taking over for Mr. Taylor because he had an accident. He will be out for a while. Did your mother not tell you?"

I looked at him, "No."

"The school said they called her last night." I then remember mom trying to tell me something this morning, so this must have been it.

"Well, either way, why did you come back? We don't need you in our lives."

"Allison?" I heard my sister coming down the hallway.

“Will you go stop here from coming this way? She can’t see him yet,” I whispered to Michael. He quickly ran towards Sara, and I turned to my father. “I do not care why or what you are doing here for. However, if you go near my mother or my sister and hurt them, I will end you.” I started walking away, towards Sara and Michael.

“I don’t care why you don’t want me to go that way. I need to see my sister.”

“Sara, I’m right here,” I yell walking up to you. “Sorry, I asked him to stop you. Ms. Smith wanted to give me the advanced assignment for Algebra.”

“Oh, sorry, Michael.”

“No worries,” he said walking with both, Sara and me, to the school bus. “I was just telling Sara that Mr. Taylor got into an accident, and we have a substitute teacher.” With plenty of force, I jammed my arm into Michael’s rib cage. “OW!”

“Oh really? Who’s your substitute teacher?”

I quickly swallowed and sat in the seat on the bus. “Sara?”

“Yeah?”

“Dad’s back.”

“What?”

“Yeah, he’s the new substitute teacher.”

“What?!”

“I don’t know why or how but mom knows. She was trying to tell us this morning.”

“Mom knows!”

“Yes,” I say as I look at Michael, whose stop was next. “I’ll text you when I get home.”

“Alright,” he said getting his bag ready for when he gets off. As soon as we reached his stop, he walked out of the bus and down the street to his house.

“Well, that’s upsetting.”

“She did try to tell us before we left this morning.”

“I guess, but still.”

“Well, we’ll have to see when we get home. I just hope he doesn’t have his hooks dug into Mom.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”