by Maisy Morgan
Kara laughed. “Um, no,” she said and turned to her side a bit, propping her arms up at the center of the two-seater inner tube that acted as an armrest. “How old are you exactly?” she asked.
Tripp turned a bit on his side as well so that he was facing her, propping his arms up as well. “Fourteen,” he said honestly.
“Before or after your birthday tomorrow?” Kara asked.
“Before,” he said. “I’ll be fifteen tomorrow.”
This seemed to be a satisfactory answer because she leaned in and gently kissed his lips. One of her hands reached around his neck for a moment, and it gave Tripp chills. She pulled away and smiled at him. “Tripp, have you ever kissed a girl before?” she asked.
Tripp blushed. “Yes,” he said.
“Not including now?”
“No,” he said, and she laughed. “Why, was it obvious?”
“Only a little,” she said, but she leaned in and gave him one more kiss, holding for a bit longer this time before turning off her side back into her comfortable seat. Tripp did the same, his face burning a bit. Did she not want to kiss him anymore? Was it that bad? He felt her staring at him, and after a moment of pretending not to notice he worked up enough bravery to look directly at her. She was smiling. “When we get back to the dance party, make sure I put your number in my phone, all right?” she said, and he grinned.
“Sure,” he said and started to lean over again, but she laughed and gently palmed his forehead, pushing him back.
“Easy,” she warned him. “That’s all you’re getting from me. You want more, you’ll have to take me on an actual date. Got it?”
Tripp nodded, and she laughed at him again. Soon they caught up to Bradley and Stacey, who were both laughing hysterically for whatever reason—Stacey’s hair was soaking wet. “What are they laughing at?” Tripp asked, but he got his answer as the water sped up suddenly and took them over a bit of a slope. They both jolted in surprise, causing their inner tube to flip. They completely soaked themselves, and they stood upright once they reached the bottom of the slope.
“You could have warned us!” Kara exclaimed.
“We decided to wait here and watch instead,” Bradley said, and Tripp realized he was holding onto a low-hanging tree branch to keep from floating any further down the river.
Once Tripp and Kara were upright again, Tripp grabbed onto one of the branches as well. They hushed each other, not wanting to alert Becky and Draco. After a few minutes, the last inner tube came into view. Becky and Draco were making out again, so they had absolutely no warning as they went over the slope, and their tube flipped over completely.
Becky and Draco stood upright, both soaking wet from head to toe, and were subjected to loud, hysterical laughter.
Chapter Four
Mary was starting to feel increasingly antsy about the ‘Help Wanted’ sign in the front window of her shop. She had not received a single application or email regarding the sign, and now as she put a ‘Be Back Soon’ sign in the door, she felt the weight of them both on her shoulders. If she didn’t find help before Tripp started school, she was going to be holding down the fort entirely on her own. She hadn’t expected finding help to be so difficult. Here she was, closing up shop in the middle of the day because she couldn’t be there—not that she wasn’t looking forward to taking Tripp to open house at his school. She just knew if she had hired someone already that she wouldn’t have had to close up shop for a few hours.
She and Tripp bid Sweet Feet, their friendly polydactyl cat, farewell and told him to hold down the fort while they were gone. Sweet Feet curled up in a corner of the shop, evidently content to sleep through their absence. Tripp was fidgety as they loaded up into the car and headed down Highway 85 Connector, destined for the long strip of road that would lead to his future high school. “Nervous?” Mary asked him as he drummed away on his knees in the passenger’s seat.
“Just a little,” he admitted. “High school would have been stressful enough if I had been starting it up in my school district back home in LA. This is a whole new state. Do I have an accent?”
“An accent?” Mary questioned.
“Hannah once said I had a Cali accent,” Tripp said, blushing.
“If you do then I guess I do too because I sound a lot more Cali than you do,” Mary said, laughing. “I don’t think you’re going to be made fun of for a slight West Coast tone in your voice.”
“Maybe,” Tripp said. “Kara told me the school is pretty big, but she was just comparing it to the middle school she went to, I guess.”
“It’s probably bigger than your middle school in LA,” Mary said. “Have you and Kara been talking?”
“Just texting a little,” Tripp said, looking embarrassed. “She said she was going to be there today, well, obviously. We probably already missed her, though. Seniors and Juniors came in the morning. She’ll probably be gone by the time we get there.”
“Probably, but you’re bound to see Hannah and Draco there,” Mary said. “Cindy and Anna asked me if we wanted to all grab lunch together afterward.”
“That sounds good to me,” Tripp said, smiling. “I haven’t seen Hannah much in the past couple of weeks between the trip to Helen and me working the dessert shop with you.”
“It’ll be good to see her,” Mary agreed.
Soon they were pulling up to the school, being waved on by faculty members in orange vests to the parking lot. They were told to go in the main entrance, which was easy to find thanks to the giant sign hanging over the archway, and that it would lead straight into the cafeteria where they could pick up their schedules.
Mary walked alongside Tripp into the school where they were greeted by the entire Morris family along with Cindy and Hannah. Tripp smiled, bending down to give Hannah a quick hug. She sat up tall in her wheelchair, looking thrilled to be there. “Man, I miss you dopes!” she said, punching Tripp in the arm.
“Easy,” he said, laughing.
The group headed into the cafeteria and Mary gathered with the other parents while Tripp, Hannah, and Draco got in line to obtain their class schedules. Mary spotted a vending machine, and feeling a bit parched, decided to grab herself a drink—excusing herself from Cindy and the Morris’, who were chattering away about how quickly their kids were growing up. The machine spit out an energy drink just as a familiar voice exclaimed, “Ms. Hopkins!”
She turned to see Bradley dressed in a t-shirt that read “Here to Help!”
“Bradley,” she said, smiling. “Wasn’t expecting you to be here. I thought the upperclassmen came this morning.”
“Varsity players are here showing underclassmen around and helping them find their classrooms,” Bradley said with a smile. “Tripp here?” he asked and then laughed at himself. “Well, of course he is.”
Mary laughed. “Yes, he’s here. Draco too. You’ll have to meet their friend Hannah, the third partner in their little trio.”
“For sure,” he said, scanning the crowd. Mary could tell that he spotted Tripp based on the smile that appeared on his face, but she saw a slight glimmer of surprise on him.
Tripp, evidently spotting him, waved and began heading over along with Draco and Hannah. For a moment, Mary thought the surprised gaze was because of Hannah’s wheelchair, but she realized it was Draco he was staring at. Draco was wearing his Doctor Who trench coat and had on high-top socks with depictions of the Tardis on them. Thinking back to the time spent at the cabin, Bradley had never seen Draco in one of his more unusual outfits.
“Hey, Bradley!” Tripp said excitedly. “Hannah, this our friend Bradley. We met him up in Helen.”
Bradley smiled warmly at Hannah. “Nice to meet you,” he said. Bradley’s eyes kept bouncing back towards Draco, but he shook it off after a moment. “Listen, I’d love to hang around and chat, but the coach needs me by the check-in tables. We’ll catch up, Tripp.” He gave them all an awkward wave and put as much distance between himself and Draco as possible.
Mary
stared at the boy as he hurried off, hardly paying her grandson any mind as he compared schedules with his friends. The three families split off in different directions, walking the halls with their children to make sure they knew how to get from class to class and gathering material lists from each teacher—all of whom seemed exceptionally friendly. Tripp, much to his horror, learned that he had been put into an introductory drama class alongside Draco and Hannah. It was the only class the three of them had together, and only Draco had intentionally signed up for it. Mary pointed out that he should consider himself lucky that the three of them would have at least one class together. Tripp also had math and English with Hannah and science and Spanish with Draco. The rest of his classes, he grumbled, he would be on his own.
As they walked the halls together, Mary couldn’t help but bring up Bradley’s odd behavior. Tripp, however, brushed it off. “He was probably just surprised by the outfit, Grandma,” Tripp said. “You know, you and I were a little taken aback by him at first too.” Mary supposed this was true, and she felt a little ashamed of herself for assuming the worst of Bradley so quickly. It wasn’t as though he had been rude to Draco or that he had mocked him—he had just stared at him with a confused look.
After gathering all of their supply lists and meeting the teachers, Mary and Tripp met up with the others, deciding on a local burger joint for lunch. Officer Preston, who had the afternoon off, met them for lunch, wanting to hear all about Tripp and Draco’s time in the mountains and to talk about his and Tripp’s future plans for the Volkswagen they were trying to fix up. “I can’t believe the summer is over already,” Preston said. “You kids think you can stay out of trouble during the school year?”
“Yes,” Roy said in agreement. “No repeats of any of the madness this summer.”
“Agreed,” Cindy said, shaking her head. “No more joyrides in stolen cruisers or dipping out on me while you’re at the movies.”
“To be fair,” Tripp said, gobbling down his burger, “the joyride in the stolen car was not our fault.”
Mary laughed. She simply adored this tight-knit group she and Tripp had formed with the Morris’ and with Cindy, Hannah, and Preston. Eventually, lunch came to an end, and she and Tripp had a twenty-five-minute drive back into the heart of Brooks from the square in Fayette County. She took a breath. There was something she had been wanting to talk to him about, and being alone in the car for twenty-five minutes with nowhere he could go to avoid the conversation seemed like an opportune time. “Tripp,” Mary said almost as soon as they got onto the main road. “There is something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.”
“Mom?” Tripp asked, guessing.
Mary nodded. “I just want to know what you want to do, Tripp.”
Mary’s daughter, Tripp’s mother, had been out of their lives for a long time. As for Tripp, he had never really known the woman. He had been a mere toddler when his father had fought for custody and won against the teenaged drug addict, Lilly. Mary had had to take care of her daughter at the time, and Tripp’s father had elected to cut her out of his life as well. Mary understood the decision, and she knew at the time it was what was best for Tripp.
Nearly three years ago, Lilly had completely disappeared. Then Mary had reached out to Tripp’s father, and they had been in contact. She hadn’t had much time to get to know Tripp before his father had been killed during a break-in. But, recently, Lilly had contacted them through Mary’s ex-husband. Evidently, she was staying at a fancy rehabilitation facility, paid for by some boyfriend Mary had never met, and she was doing well.
Tripp avoided eye contact; he stared out the window. “Have you talked to her yet?” he asked.
“No,” Mary said. “Though I reached out to the rehab center to confirm she was there, and they told me she wants to talk. I told them I would call her this weekend.”
Tripp nodded. “That’s too soon for me,” he admitted, looking embarrassed to have to say this.
“I’m not going to force you to do anything,” Mary promised him.
“But I want to talk to her,” he said. “I just don’t want to go to LA to see her. Not yet.”
“You don’t have to,” Mary said. “You don’t have to do anything. Believe me, I want you two to make amends, but I will never force that on you. She’s my daughter. You’re my grandson, but I know it won’t be easy for you to forgive her for what she did.”
“I know,” Tripp said. “Just… I want to take baby steps, I guess. I don’t want the first time I talk to my mom to be over the phone… I want to be able to see her… do you think we could set up… I don’t know… a video chat or something?”
Mary smiled. “I think we could figure something out.”
“Okay,” he said, nodding. “That sounds good to me.”
“You don’t want to try to do that this weekend?” Mary asked.
“Does she even know I’m with you?” Tripp asked.
“Probably not,” she said.
Tripp thought for a moment. “I think… I think it would be a good idea if just you talked to her first. She probably doesn’t even know what happened to Dad. I don’t want to be the one to have to explain all that to her.”
Mary nodded. “I’ll talk to her this weekend. I’ll tell her what happened and then set up a time later for you two to talk—see if the rehab center can set her up with a webcam?”
He looked at Mary at last. “I think that would be perfect.”
Mary smiled. “You’re a good kid, Tripp. Your dad did good by you.”
He smiled back at her. “Thanks, Grandma.”
Chapter Five
Tripp bid his grandmother farewell, a little embarrassed that she had insisted on driving him to school that morning since it was his first day. Thankfully, he would be taking the bus that afternoon. “Nervous?” she asked as they pulled up to the curb at the drop off zone by the main entrance.
“Not as much as I thought I would be,” Tripp said. “But maybe just a little.”
“You’ll do fine,” Mary said confidently. “First day of high school! I can’t believe it.”
“Me either,” Tripp said. “I guess I’ll see you this afternoon…”
“I love you, Tripp,” she said.
“Love you too, Grandma,” Tripp said, jumping out of the car and putting as much distance between them as possible.
The main entrance to the building was a long walkway under a roof that led into the school’s lobby. The lobby opened up with the gym on the right and the enormous cafeteria on the left. He smiled when he spotted Draco seated by himself at the edge of a cafeteria table. Draco was dressed in blue jeans, a black button up, and a Slytherin tie. “Looking a little fancy for you,” Tripp teased as he sat down by Draco.
“Mom and Dad,” he said with an eye roll, “wanted me to wear a tie for my first day at school.”
“And your first thought was Harry Potter?” Tripp asked.
“That or the Tardis one I’ve got,” Draco said, and Tripp laughed.
A familiar face came strolling by, and Tripp immediately jumped up. “Hey, Bradley!” Tripp exclaimed, and the older boy who had been walking with a group of his friends stopped.
“Hey, Tripp,” Bradley said with a friendly smile. Draco stood up as well, standing near Tripp. Bradley glanced at Draco’s tie and smirked. “Nice,” he said. “You guys ready for your first day of high school?”
“Guess so,” Tripp said.
“Hey, listen,” Bradley said, looking directly at Tripp. “Doing a little back to school party this weekend. You should totally come. Taking advantage of the pool before it starts to get chilly.”
“Nice,” Tripp said.
“I’ll text you the address,” Bradley said.
“Sounds fun,” Draco said, and Bradley eyed him for a second.
Bradley shrugged. “Yeah, uh, you can come too,” he said with a bit of an attitude. “I’ll see you around, Tripp. Stacey’s waiting for me.” Bradley and his group of friends wandered off.
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Draco sat down rather quickly, and Tripp sat by him. “Cool,” Tripp said. “We got invited to a party our first day.”
“I think you mean that you did,” Draco said, looking embarrassed. “I don’t think he meant to invite me.”
“Sure he did,” Tripp said, trying to reassure him. “To be fair, you’re the guy who made out with his girlfriend’s little sister all weekend in Helen. You might have struck a nerve.”
Draco laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it,” he said a bit sarcastically. Draco seemed to feel slightly better about the uncomfortable interaction with Bradley. “What time does first bell ring?” Draco asked, and Tripp shrugged. Draco was looking around the crowded cafeteria. “I wonder if I’ll have any classes with Becky.”
“Maybe,” Tripp said. “Your odds are probably pretty good. Freshmen pretty much have to take all the same classes, so you’re bound to have at least one.” This seemed to put Draco in a very chipper mood.
The bell rang just as Hannah was wheeling in the door. Tripp pushed her wheelchair along for her, glad that her locker was just below his. She didn’t need any help getting her books in the locker or anything; he just stayed out of her way and shot a filthy look at one guy who was hovering because his locker was being blocked by her wheelchair. She finished quickly, and a moment later, Tripp spotted Kara in the hallway. He beamed, not having seen her face to face since their trip to Helen, though they had been texting. “Hey!” Tripp exclaimed.
Kara smiled. “Tripp!” she said, sounding incredibly enthusiastic as she approached. The two of them started talking immediately.
“Hey, Tripp,” Hannah tried to interrupt. “We’re going to be late for class.”
Tripp hardly heard her at all. He was too busy asking Kara whether or not she was going to be at Bradley’s party that weekend. “Of course, I am,” she said. “You’re going to be there too, right?” she asked, and Tripp promised her he would make it. By the time he was done talking to Kara, he looked down at his side where Hannah had been seated only to see that she had ditched him.