Planets: Chapter Four: Master Plan

New chapter everyone (Kat?e rather)! I'm excited (this is my favorite chapter so far. With any of my luck, everyone will hate it :>) I would really like some feedback on this one if you don't mind. Thanks!

Chapter Four: Master Plan

“Excuse me, can you tell me what aisle tarragon is on?” A frantic mother with three screaming children asked.
“Aisle three,” Kelsi replied, not looking up from the fruit display she was re-arranging.
“Thank-you,” the woman quickly scurried off, grabbing several small toys to try and appease her small children.
“At lest it’s Friday,” muttered Kelsi though somehow the thought just made her more depressed. Almost a whole week had passed since she had found the medallion and she had nothing to show for it. She hadn’t even finished her report, the book that she was going to use had disappeared.
“What’s up?” Lorna asked Kelsi. “You look kinda down.”
“Don’t get me started,” moaned Kelsi. “Ths week has been horrible! People have been making fun of me more than usual, my job stinks, I’m flunking my computer class and barely passing most of my other classes. Oh yeah, I accidently touched an outlet at the orphanage yesterday and it burst into flames! No one got hurt but if someone had I’d never be able to forgive myself. I’m tired of how things are,” her voice was full of despair.
Lorna looked at Kelsi sympathetically. “I guess I can’t help you out much since I’m not in high school.” Lorna’s adopted parent’s didn’t believe in public school so they home-schooled all their kids.
Kelsi sat on the floor, staring blankly at the linoleum tiles. She looked as weary as her frame of mind. Dark circles were beneath her eyes and her hair lay in a deeper disarray than usual. After a minute she looked up.
“I’m going to run away,” she said resolutely. “I can’t stand it here any longer, I think if I stayed one week more I’d lose it.”
Lorna seemed surprisingly calm, as though she thought it would come to this. “And I’ll go with you.”
“Say that again?” That was something Kelsi hadn’t expected.
“When you run away I’m coming with you.”
Questions tumbled out of Kelsi’s mouth. “What about your dreams of going to college? What about your family?”
“They’re not . . . mine. I love them but I feel that I need to go on. There isn’t anything left for me here and who wants to go to college when they can become a forest hermit?” Lorna’s voice was light-hearted.
Kelsi was horribly confused. She would love to have her come along, Lorna was the sister that Kelsi never had, but Lorna had always been close to her family. She had never voiced any doubts or concerns about them.
“Sure, you can come,” Kelsi said hesitantly. “If you’re positive this is what you want to do.”
“When are we leaving?” Lorna placed her apron on a hook and shook her golden hair from the ponytail it had been it.
“Tonight. We’ll gather some provisions and hide in the woods.”
“Are we going anywhere in particular?”
“Not yet, we’ll figure that out later.”
* * * * *
Two hours later, Kelsi and Lorna met by a tree that was in between the town and the orphanage.
“What’d you tell your parents?” Kelsi smiled at the box Lorna was carrying and wondered how she explained it away.
“I’m taking donations to the orphanage. How did you slip by Matron?”
“I took out the “garbage” before dinner,” she motioned to the black plastic on the ground. “I won’t be missed until the late-night head count.” She pulled two candles and a book of matches out of the garbage bag. “I figured we’d need these.” The last of the sun’s rays had long since faded from the sky. She lit both tall, white candles and handed one to Lorna then stashed the matches in the pockets of her jeans. Quietly chattering, Kelsi and Lorna walked for quite some time, journeying closer and closer to the heart of the forest.
“Sometimes I wish that I could just use regular stuff, like lamps and flashlights,” Lorna grumbled after she had to re-light her candle for the sixth time.
“I always wish that,” Kelsi whispered, though the reply was quickly blown away by the wind, just as fast as her unshielded flame.
“What?” Lorna asked as Kelsi fumbled for a match.
“Nothing. If search parties come looking for us, it’ll take them a while to find us,” observed Kelsi. “We’ve covered up our tracks pretty well.”
“Can we stop then?” Lorna stumbled over a gnarled root. “I’m getting kind of sleepy.”
Kelsi looked around again. “I guess we’re safe here.” She spread out a blanket then draped her coat over herself. Shivering, she realized that it seemed to be several degrees cooler in the dark forest.
“Too bad we don’t have anything warmer,” her teeth chattered fiercely. “Who knew it would be so cold?”
Lorna threw Kelsi an extra blanket. “Guess it was good to bring me along after all. I have better foresight,” Kelsi could see her grin impishly in the faint candlelight. “Don’t freeze.”
“Thanks,” Kelsi smiled, relishing the freedom she had waited so long for.
* * * * *
“Mamma, come look!” Isabel tugged on her mother’s brown sweater.
Sarah looked up from the mushroom spore she had been examining underneath her heavy-duty microscope. “What?”
“Ryan found something! Come see!” The five-year-old girl practically dragged her mother to a large tree.
“Someone slept here last night,” Ryan’s voice held an unusually large amount of knowledge for a thirteen-year-old boy. “The grass is trampled down and it’s too big to be an animal, at least any animals you’d find around here.” Isabel looked at her brother in awe then quickly pulled toddling Jacob away from the scrutinized area.
Seven-year-old Anthony swung down from the tree he was in, accidently ripping a hole in his blue flannel shirt. “Let me see!” He grinned, gaps from missing teeth as he tugged on Isabel’s light brown braid. She let out a shriek and tugged on a handful of his pale blonde hair.
“That’s all you found?” Allie swished her yellow braids over her shoulder and laughed. “For being two years older you’d think you’d be more observant. I found this in the grass,” she handed a golden medallion to her mother.
Sarah was floored. “Fourteen years ago,” she mumbled softly. “In this very spot. A medallion with a bridge on it . . . Kelsi has gone home.” The three oldest children looked at their mom worriedly.
“Are you okay, Mom? Muttering isn’t part of being eight months pregnant, is it?” Allie asked.
“No,” Sarah smiled. “Lets go home and have some hot cocoa.” She swept Jacob up into her arms and fondly gazed at her five children. “Kelsi has gone home.”