My Plan

Lory’s POV

One more day. One more day. I was so excited, it was hard to sleep. I had everything planned out. The money was ready, all my most important things were packed. I had a solid plan.

Today after school, I had my last shift at Ben’s auto shop. Ben was the only one I had told about my plan. He was sad, but he understood why I had decided this way. Ben was the only person I could discuss with over the past month about what and how to do things. He was so wise and gave me so much good advice. I am forever grateful to him and will definitely call him from time to time and visit.

We had repeatedly discussed how it would be wise to do things.

My plan:

1. Work and earn money to start off - I managed to save enough money at Ben’s to cover a couple of months’ rent in the new place. I’m not entirely sure, but I think Ben paid me more than a helper would normally earn. I kept the money at Ben’s because I was afraid the twins or Nancy would find it and take it. I was sure that my money was safe with Ben.

2. Find a small town to move to in the future and make sure it’s possible to continue school there - Ben also helped me with this. He had a friend who lived in a small town called Moon Stone, which is a few hours’ drive away but is at the foot of the mountains and seems like a nice, quiet town to start a new life. I was already able to look at street views on the computer and explore what activities are available in that city. I already looked into the available accommodation options, and Ben and I calculated my financial ability to allocate money for lodging as well as the limits of my budget.

There are rooms available for rent in the town, and some rental places are even right next to the school. I often looked at the city map and tried to familiarize myself with what I needed to know (where the school, work, laundromat, store, café, bus stops, etc., are located).

3. Spend time with Robin on the morning of my birthday so he wouldn’t be sad. He is the only one at home who remembered my birthday was coming up and he was so excited. I wrote a letter to Robin, which I planned to leave among his things after I had already left.

4. Take the documents from school on the morning of my birthday - I need to take my documents with me to start at the new school. I don’t want to come back for them, at least not initially. This will definitely be stressful for me, as things have never gone exactly according to my plans at school. I really hope my plan works.

5. Go to Ben’s, take my money and the bus ticket I bought earlier, and say goodbye to Ben. I had bought him a gift. About a week ago, I was walking from school to work when I suddenly stopped at the bookstore window. There was a statue of a female wolf with smooth, dark fur and dark brown eyes, sitting and watching something in front of her with interest. I couldn’t quite understand why it seemed like the perfect gift for Ben, but it just felt right. Fortunately, the statue wasn’t particularly expensive, so I was able to buy it for Ben.

6. Gather my courage and get on the bus to start my new life. Although I hadn’t initially looked for a job right away, I assumed I would look around once I got there and hopefully find a helper position. But Ben had been helpful again. He had a friend, Robert, who owned an auto repair shop in Moon Stone and could offer me a helper position similar to what I had been doing at Ben’s.

I went over all the points in my head and was truly grateful that Ben had come into my life because it would have been much harder to start my new life without him.

I turned over and thought, tomorrow is the last morning I will be mocked, the last morning I have to make breakfast for everyone, the last morning I have to see the taunts on my locker at school, hear how everyone belittles or looks at me with disdain.

I’m sure the whole world can’t be like this, there can’t be Jacks and Jackies everywhere, and even if there are, they won’t affect me.

Although my thoughts were in order, I still felt anxiety, fear, excitement, and a hundred worries about everything that could go wrong and prevent my plan from succeeding. I gazed out of my window at the moon, praying that tomorrow—and the life ahead of me—would be as good as I truly deserve. I refuse to believe that I was born into this world just to live alone like this.