Fire And Ash

by Nia Davenport

“I would prefer that you not go to Highland Village alone until this whole mess with the girl that was abducted is resolved. The library in town has the books you need. I already checked.”

  “What does that have to do with me going to Highland Village? It’s not like I’m going to get abducted too. I can take care of myself.”

  “I know you think you can Ashley and if we were sure that it is the average sick bastard behind the girl’s abduction then I would believe that too. But all evidence points to not just one phoenix but a group of them being responsible which means she will not be the only one.”

  I want to tell her that I can still take care of myself, but I know my insistence will fall on death ears. When my grandmother feels some type of way about something it’s final.

  “Fine I will go to the library,” I say instead.

  After my family takes off I use my laptop to look up the details of the missing girl’s abduction out of boredom, wondering what evidence made my family so sure a group of phoenix were behind it. I find the initial amber alert and headline of the abduction with a picture of the girl. She looks about my age and was last seen when she left her house to meet a couple of friends at the movies. Her friends claim she never made it and she never returned home either. I also come across several byline updates that say the search for the girl and her abductor is still ongoing. But I don’t find anything else. Whatever my family knows, hasn’t been disclosed to the local media.

  I close my computer screen when my stomach grumbles. It hasn’t been too long since breakfast but my inconsiderate cousins ate most of the food and what was left wasn’t enough to fill me up. My stomach grumbles a second time and a craving for a chocolate milkshake and a cheeseburger hits me. I change into a pair of loose black running shorts and a purple tank top and head to Cal’s Diner. It’s the same place I recommended to Cassie and it’s legendary all over Colorado for its artery clogging, but beyond delicious burgers and milkshakes.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  A Three?!

  Halfway through my double cheeseburger and chocolate milkshake I look up and groan.

  Why did I ever tell Cassie about this spot?

  I don’t mind that she is walking through the door. It is the person’s presence beside her that I mind. After dealing with my cousins this morning, I’m not in the mood for dealing with another jackass of the male variety.

  She sees me after the waitress walks them to a booth four places away from the one I am sitting in and the pair slide into it. Derek sits with his back to me, thank God, and Cassie faces my direction. When she spots me I’m looking at them so I can’t pretend I haven’t spotted her too. She waves and I wave back. Derek turns his head, sees who she is waving to, and without any acknowledgement turns back around. Rude Jerk.

  Cassie stands and walks over to say hi.

  “Hey, Cassie,” I say returning a smile. Derek whips his head around again and the smile reshapes into a hard pressed line.

  Cassie’s gaze follows mine then she turns back to me looking sheepish. “I know you told me I didn’t have to apologize for Derek, but I still feel like I do. I would have texted you but I didn’t know if you wanted to hear from me after the way he acted at our house. Or if you wanted to hangout again.”

  “Your brother is a dick, but I’d be an equal one to hold that against you so we’re cool.” It is childish and inappropriate I know, but I make sure my voice carries enough for him to hear me.

  Cassie breathes out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad you feel like that because you’re the first, well really the only friend I’ve made here. This move is supposed to be another fresh start for us. We’ve had a lot. And I want it to be different than all the last ones. Oh and Derek’s not my brother. He’s the uncle I told you about. I know that sounds weird but I promise it’s not hillbilly weird,” she rushes to explain after a confused look crosses my face. “If you don’t count me, Derek is technically the baby of his parents. Their oldest child was Derek’s brother and my dad. So Mom is really his mom and my grandmother. But my real mom and dad both died when I was a baby and I’ve lived with Derek’s parents who are my grandparents since then. Derek and his siblings called them Mom and Dad so I grew up doing the same.”

  Wow. Um. Okay. That was a lot of and kind of heavy information. I don’t know what to say so I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “I’m sorry about your parents.” Which sounds so like I am not really sorry and just saying what is the thing to say. Trying to sound less cliche I add, “My mom passed away too. I was six though.”

  Cassie chews on her bottom lip. “That must have sucked.”

  “It did,” I say picking up a fry and dipping it in a pile of ketchup simply to have something to do.

  An awkward silence settles between us.

  “So your uncle’s the baby. That explains a lot,” I joke trying to lighten the mood.

  Cassie follows suit and exaggeratedly shudders. “Please don’t ever refer to him as that again. Especially not when he’s within earshot. He thinks it means he can tell me what to do.”

  “Cass,” Derek calls from the booth he is now standing beside. He holds up a plastic bag that says TAKE OUT across it in red letters. “Time to go.” He turns around and exits the diner.

  “Is he always such a jerk?” I ask genuinely curious about the answer and about the amount of energy he has to expend being one all the time.

  Cassie smiles at me apologetically. “Unfortunately, when it comes to everyone other than family the answer is yes. It’s not an excuse but he hasn’t always been like that. His dad and sister died two years ago in an…accident. It hit us all pretty hard, but it affected Derek the worst. Mom and I have always been the perkiest ones of the family and Derek has always been the most…serious. It got worse last year and it’s one of the reason we’ve moved three times in the last twelve months. He keeps getting into fights and getting expelled. Mom worries about him and keeps trying to find the right fit. I’m sorry I’m babbling.”

  A horn sounds from in front of the diner. The black Mustang I’d first seen Cassie in is idling in front of it. I roll my eyes.

  “I have to go, but do you want to hang out tomorrow. I was thinking about going to the mall in Highland Village and getting an early start on back to school shopping. I was planning on going by myself. Shopping with Derek or Mom drives me crazy. He’s ready to go five minutes after we get there and Mom ends up taking over and picking out clothes for me and making me try every last one of the items she picks up on. Do you want to go?”

  “Sounds great,” I tell her. “I’ve been meaning to go to the bookstore there and get my summer reading books and I actually need to do a little bit of back to school shopping myself.”

  My grandmother said I could not go to Highland Village alone. So I technically am not going against her wishes. Plus, I figure if Grandma is concerned about me going by myself then going with Cassie who was going to go alone is the responsible thing to do.

  ******

  “I’m all ready to go,” I tell Cassie as I hoist my messenger bag higher up on my shoulder and grab my car keys from the wall beside me.

  “Your house seems really quiet,” Cassie mentions as I lock the front door.

  “Yeah it is. My family is out of town for a few days so I’m home alone.”

  “That’s cool. Are you going to throw a party while they’re gone?”

  My Aunt had suggested the same thing. “Nah. My grandfather doesn’t really like outsiders in the house and Laurel is so small enough that my family would definitely find out about it when they got back.” Plus with Becca out of town that dwindled the number of people I would invite down to a whopping none.Yeah that would be loads of fun. Throwing a party with just me and me.

  “So this is your grandfather’s house?” Cassie asks as we walk towards my Jetta.

  “Actually, it’s more like our collective house then it is his. It’s been in our family for generations. Me, my dad, him, my grandmother, my two cousins and my Aunt
when she’s home from Europe all live here.”

  “Wow. That’s a lot of people. Sounds like your living arrangements are as kooky as mine.”

  “They are. And I have two in residence jackasses as opposed to one. My cousins might even have Derek beat. Sorry,” I say after an embarrassed pause where I think about how I should probably not insult her uncle so much in front of her.

  “”It’s cool,” She smiles at me. “If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then I can’t get mad if you call it a duck.”

  “Do you want to take my car or yours?” I ask as we walk out of the black wrought-iron gate that surrounds my house to the street beyond it where both cars are parked. We have a garage, but it’s detached and I’m generally too lazy to use it. It seems easier to park on the main street instead of using the narrow side street that leads around back.

  “Um is that a serious question?” Cassie laughs pointing to the old Buick sitting a few feet away from us. “I’m surprised that hunk of rusting metal made it from my house to yours. If we try and take it to Highland Village we will definitely end up stranded on the side of the road. Mom makes me and Derek share the Mustang but he always finds a way to drive it more than me, our truck is only for emergencies, and Mom is out running errands in the sedan.”

  “You could have just called me to come pick you up. I wouldn’t have minded.”

  Cassie’s cheeks turn a light shade of pink. “I didn’t know how you would feel about coming to my house again. You know after the last time.”

  It is my turn to look embarrassed. “It was uncool of me to bail on you like that,” I apologize over the roof of the car.

  “No it was perfectly understandable. It was uncool for Derek to be so rude. Mom got him good after you left though so his behavior should be better the next time. You know, if you ever want to come over again.”

  Regardless of what her mom did or said to Derek I doubted his attitude towards me for no good reason would improve, and I tried to make it a point not to put myself in situations that would poke at my already bad temper when people pissed me off. Cassie’s family weren’t hunters and they didn’t need to know that I was one. If I wasn’t careful, I might blow my family’s cover in Laurel Springs when my temper got the better of me and I embedded something sharp and pointy into Cassie’s stab-worthy uncle. I am about to say I probably won’t, but when it becomes clear that that is what Cassie expects my response to be by the way her shoulders drops a fraction and she lets out a disheartened breath I don’t. I remember her saying that they’ve had to move several times in the past year after her grandfather’s death because of Derek and his attitude. I bet it kept causing problems for them and made it hard for her to make and keep friends. She was such a nice person that I felt bad for her that she suffered because he was an ass. Well screw him. He is about to meet his match.

  “Of course I do. Not too many houses in Laurel Springs have a pool in their backyard. It doesn’t get hot enough for long enough here for it to be common and the only other pool around is the community one at the school,” I say instead.

  Her demeanor brightens as we climb into my car.

  “So how old are your cousins?” Cassie probes on the way to Highland Village.

  “Gerard is nineteen and Sean is twenty.” When I tell her their ages her eyes light up enthusiastically.

  “Are they hot?” She asks me.

  Eww. “I’ve never thought about it before, but I guess if I had to rate them, and I think I just threw up a little in my mouth by thinking about it, then I’d say if Derek is a ten then that makes them an eight. They work out all the time so they’re fit, and they have these baby faces with brown hair and hazel eyes and girls around town normally fall all over themselves when they’re around. But they have an All-American down-home sort of look that keeps them from being a ten as opposed to Derek’s dark edginess that might bump him up to an eleven.”

  “Wait!” Cassie’s eyes practically bulge out of her head. “You think Derek is a ten. Possibly an eleven out of ten?!”

  I feel my face heating up. Did I seriously just say all of that? My hands tighten around the steering wheel and I keep my eyes strictly on the road in front of us as I talk. “Well I’m not blind. Derek is hot, until he opens his mouth then he drops from above the richter to way below it.”

  From the corner of my eye I see her mouth twitch.

  “What?” I ask.

  She breaks into a full smile. “Nothing. Just thinking about how Derek said the same thing about you after you left the house the other day. Except he said it’s your attitude that drops you from a ten to a three.”

  A three?! And my attitude?! As if he is one to talk. And he’d been nasty to me first while I’d tried to stay on my best behavior. And a three?! I am so not a three. I feel offended that he rated me so low until I catch myself and remind my pride that his opinion doesn’t matter. Who the fuck is he? He can shove his three straight up his—

  “Earth to Ash. Did you hear anything I just said.” Cassie’s voice interrupts my inner raging.

  “Sorry. I didn’t. What’d you say?”

  “What were you thinking about so hard?”

  “Nothing important. Just trying to remember the books I need to pick up for my summer reading.” The lie sounds lame but I’m not about to tell her the real reason I spaced out on her. “Anyway, what’d you say?” I redirect the conversation back to her.

  “I asked how you think I will fit in when school starts. Are the people at Laurel Springs nice?”

  I put on my blinker then change lanes to take the exit to the mall.

  “Most of them are. They will especially be nice to you. We don’t get a lot of newcomers at Laurel High so when we do they’re like a novelty. Everyone will automatically want to get to know you. We’re not in the South but the varsity football team is pretty good. We’ve won state like six times in the last decade so football has evolved into a religion around here as if we were. Our school is mostly divided into those who play football and/ or worship it and those who do not. If you’re looking for a sure fire way to make friends,” I say because it sounds like doing so is important to her, “try out for the cheerleading team in September. The rest of the school automatically flocks to the cheerleaders and the jocks.”

  It worked for Miranda. She went from Becca and I being her only friends to having the entire rest of the school at her beck and call. Becca says she dropped us not the other way around but that’s not exactly true. I saw the hurt look in her eyes every time we made an excuse as to why the two of us had plans together that didn’t include her.

  I glance at Cassie and see her biting her bottom lip. “That might be fun, but I don’t think I’d make the cut. Isn’t it written down somewhere that cheerleaders have to be pretty.”

  I gape at her. “You’re kidding right?”

  “About what?” The genuinely confused look her face scrunches into says Cassie really doesn’t know she is pretty.

  “You’d definitely make the cut. Have you seen your long legs or your gorgeous blonde hair?” Add both of those things to her heart-shaped face and the dainty petit frame that I will never in a million years possess and she has every girl in Laurel Springs beat including me.

  When Cassie blushes and self-consciously insists that I am only trying to be nice I gape at her even wider. Most people who look like her are well aware that they received the long end of the genetic stick and act like they not only look better than everybody else but that they are better than everyone else too. Like Derek for example. From the moment he swung their front door open and looked down at me with that condescending smirk I’ve since wanted to slap it off his face.

  “You don’t have to believe me Cass,” I tell her as I pull the car into an empty spot. “You’ll see how much attention you get when school starts.”

  I only pick up the few items that I intended to. A few new pairs of jeans, a couple of tank tops, a handful of graphic tees, and a new pair of sneakers. But Cassie
as it turns out has impeccable fashion sense and turns into a monster when she gets within the walls of a mall. Four hours after arriving, she has me and her both loaded down with her shopping bags.

  We haul the bags to the car then make our way back inside to the bookstore.

  “Did you get your summer reading list yet?” I ask Cassie as I comb through a bunch of uninteresting looking books in the historical section to locate the particular boring one that is on my summer reading list.

  Her face scrunches up in the way I’m learning it does when something is perplexing her. “No. When Mom registered us last week I don’t think they gave her any. Will it be bad if I don’t get the reading done?”

  “Are you planning to take any of the junior level A.P classes?” I finally locate A History of Our Nation. Really? That is the best title the author could come up with? He could have at least named it Star-Spangled or Home of the Brave or something equally cheesy but more exciting.

  “U.S. History, yes. A.P. Literature, no. Derek’s the lit person. I’m not.”

  I pull a second copy of A History of Our Nation off the shelf and hand it to her. “Then you need this because yes, it will be very bad if you walk into Hamilton’s class on the first day and you have not done his reading. I promise. Regardless of what you do every day after that or what excuse you give him, he will make it his personal mission to see you fail. He’s a ‘first impressions are the only impressions’ type of teacher.”

  I quote Hamilton’s favorite line in the obnoxious self-important voice he likes to say it in. Not only is he the advanced placement U.S. History teacher, he is also the World History and World Geography teacher so I’ve had to suffer through forty five minutes of his class every day since starting high school. If Aunt Farrah hadn’t told me otherwise I would have thought that his first impressions are the only impressions line was thought up especially for me.

  “He claims I didn’t make a good one my first time in his class freshman year, even though I didn’t do anything but walk in, sit down and tell him I preferred to be called Ash when he’d called the name Ashley off the roll sheet. Whatever I did, or he thinks I did, he has held it against me ever since. I consistently do A work and I get a C, and that’s only because when he’d tried to fail me that very first semester my grandmother went up to the school and lit into him.” She’d had to do the same thing for Aunt Farrah too.