12//Rose- May 5, 1843, Kansas  

“He didn’t come back yester-day,” Lydia admitted, her head lowered. I was furious. I couldn’t believe that they didn’t only break the rules by switching wagons in the middle of the night, they also kicked Mingan out and left him alone with nowhere to go. I turned to Jennifer, she just shrugged, trying to contain a smirk.

“Not funny, we have to go find him before we get moving for the day. The sun is almost up,” I folded my arms, then suddenly I felt two hands clasp themselves over my shoulders,

“Find who?” Mingan asked, I turned to see him fully intact except for a bandage on his wrist, I pulled him into a hug. When I let go, both Jules and Lydia looked embarrassed and furious. Next to Mingan, stood a young woman his height with long, light brown hair and a kind expression on her face. I recognised the lady as Delores, Scotty’s sister, speaking of Scotty he was running up to us at that moment. 

“Hey guys, hi Bubb,” he smiled at Delores, who grinned back. 

“Hi Scotty, where did you sleep last night?” I turned to Mingan, who was about to speak but Delores spoke instead,

“With me, he fell on his wrist, I wrapped him up and let him sleep in my wagon,” She explained calmly, I nodded, shooting a glance at Jules and Lyds, who were both burning bright red. 

“Sorry, Mingan,” Jules expressed, Jennifer started laughing so I smacked her over the head, she huffed and pouted her lips,

“The hell was that for? You guys hit me all the time, it hurts you know,” she folded her arms. I just rolled my eyes and tried to shift in place, but my ankle was really hurting so I lost balance and out of everyone around me, I fell into Lydia’s arms. I stood back up, shoving her away when she tried to help me up,

“Lydia, you know that I have a bad ankle, so if anything happened to Billy or Eliza Jane, I couldn’t have done anything? You know that Mingan fell and if he had hurt his leg and not his wrist he would have been stranded by the creek till morning and no one would have been able to find him? Do you understand how much chaos you could have caused? Do you have any idea?” I exclaimed, Lydia looked down at my shoes, I pulled her chin up to look at me, “do you?” I asked, she still tried to drag her gaze away from me. 

“It’s okay, really, I was the one that fell, she’s not responsible for this,” Mingan spoke up, I scoffed at his kindness, Mingan was a really good person for not throwing a complete fit, but I was going to since father never took any shit from anyone and told me not to either. When Drew was very little, he somehow managed to fall down a well. Mother screamed at us for ages, telling us that she left him with me and Jennifer and we were responsible, even if he was at fault for falling down that well. If you leave a soldier in battle, it’s your fault he died even if he could have dodged the bullet.

“That doesn’t mean she ain’t gonna apologise, does it? Answer, Lydia,” my voice turned cold, Lydia grabbed my wrists and pushed me away, turning around and trying to contain her tears. Mingan held me up, I sighed.

“I’ll let you think about it,” I told her, before hopping on one leg, Mingan, Jennifer, Delores and Scotty following me, Delores placing my arm around her shoulders. Delores started talking about how one time she sprained her ankle in France and ever since then wished to be a nurse, it was a lovely story but I was thinking of Lyds. I knew I was far too harsh but I felt so upset that she just left like that, not warning me or anyone in the wagon. I hated how horrible I was being, since it was what our father did to us . I knew he was strict but fair though.

“I’m not listening to you, Margot!” my mother yelled at Mrs Driscoll, heading angrily towards us, “Billy, Rose, with me now. I said now!” her eyebrows furrowed, she looked irate.

My mother grabbed my arm, pinching it painfully, she dragged Jennifer and I, we exchanged looks, having no idea what was happening.

“Carl! With me, right now, grab Miles, Drew and Olive as well,” 

I winced in pain from having to step on my sprained ankle to keep up with my furious mother. 

“We are never speaking to the Driscoll’s again, do you hear me? That includes Linda and James,” she snapped at us. I suddenly felt a burning rage inside of me, although I was angry at Lydia, there was not one person on this godforsaken planet that could make me hate her.

“What about Mingan?” Jennifer looked surprisingly calm, she always was when our parents were screaming at us while I screamed back and cried. 

“No. He is an indian, of course you may not talk to him. His kind are savages. Have you not heard the stories?” she stated, looking at my father bringing Drew and Miles carrying Olive. 

“What’s happened, mama?” Miles questioned, handing Olive to me and wrapping his long arm around mother. 

“Margot has taken this too far, none of you speak to them again.” 

“Glinda, don’t you think this is a little too far? What could she have said that made you react like this?” Father spoke up, mother shook her head and blessed herself before whispering urgently into father’s ear, making me feel even worse when I noticed his cheeks turning red.

“Your mother is correct, this is very bad, those kids are a terrible influence. Just look what happened to poor Rose,” he looked at my ankle, I hid it behind my other leg, Jennifer held me up. We exchanged looks. I knew one thing; I couldn’t disobey my father. 

***

“What are we gonna do?” Jennifer uttered into the darkness of our wagon that we now shared with Drew and Miles. 

“Don’t ask me, Jen,” 

“Shh! They can hear you, let’s go outside,” she offered, reluctantly, I dragged my feet up to the entrance and with help from Jennifer, I got out. “They’re our friends, right? We can’t just stop talking to them all together unannounced,” 

“We can if that means father doesn’t cane us,” I retorted, leaning on Jen for support, “besides, we fucked our relationships up already,” 

“You fucked up, not me, and would we be able to talk to Scotty? Or anyone beside Drew and Miles?” she inquired, as if I was mother; she always did that. When we were young, Jen would always copy me and I called her copycat for it, she also had bright orange hair like my own but soon grew out of it, but we looked identical and when she did the same things as me it seemed like double vision; and she’d ask me what we’d do next instead of deciding on her own. 

“I didn’t, Lydia did. And don’t ask me as if I know, Jennifer,” I groaned, she was now dragging me around because she was pacing.