Joshua's Island (James Madison Series Book 1)

by Patrick Hodges

  She smiled smugly. “No, I haven't. Not yet. But I'm about to.”

  I didn't even want to know what was going to come out of her mouth next. “Rhonda, please,” I said. “Just leave us alone. We're outcasts. No one talks to us. Everyone ignores us. All we have is each other. Just leave us in peace!”

  I could feel the bile rising in my throat. “For once in your life, can you be a human being?” I trailed off into a whisper. “Please.”

  Rhonda's face softened, and she took a half-step backward. She seemed to consider my plea for a moment, and I prayed I might have actually gotten through to her. She smiled, and I knew this was her most charming smile. It was probably the one she'd used on Eve five months ago. But I knew better than to trust that smile, which was like that of a wolf stalking a lost sheep.

  “Tell you what, Joshua,” she said, using my real name for once, “I'm impressed by your loyalty, so I'll make a deal with you.”

  All hope instantly left me. I knew any deal Rhonda offered came at a horrible price. “I was about to threaten to have you beaten up, every single day, until you did what I told you,” she said. “But I'm not going to do that.”

  She paused dramatically. Out with it already.

  “I'm going to give you a one-time-only offer: you break off all contact with Eve Devereaux, starting right now, and I'll give you what you've always wanted.”

  “And what's that?” I asked.

  “Freedom,” she replied, “pure and simple.” She put her hands on her hips. “No more pain, no more humiliation. You can finally walk around school with no fear. Isn't that what you want?”

  “Of course it's what I want.”

  “Then you accept?”

  A world of possibilities ran through my mind. Lie to her. Tell her you'll do it. You can still see Eve on the bus and in Science class, maybe even away from the school grounds. It could be weeks, even months before Rhonda finds out. And in the meantime, you can get back your old life, your old friends, be a normal kid again …

  I glanced at Rhonda's smug face, and all of these thoughts evaporated.

  Look at who you're dealing with, Joshua. This girl has had her way for too long, and she's taken too much from too many people. A line has to be drawn. I closed my eyes briefly, pictured Eve's face, and did what needed to be done.

  “No. I don't.”

  Again, clearly not the response she expected. “What'd you say?”

  My anger erupted into blinding, seething hatred. “You didn't hear me, you heartless bitch? I said NO!” I screamed, forcing her to take another step back.

  I took a half-step toward her, seeing if she would back down. She didn't, but her air of superiority was wavering. “Even if I believed for one damn second you would keep that promise – which I don't, by the way – there is nothing on Earth that you could ever, EVER, say to me that would make me turn my back on her!” *Holy crap, am I really saying this out loud? “*You walk around this school like you own it, and you may have everyone here under your spell, but you don't own me! I'm not making any deals with you, now or ever!”

  Rhonda had recovered after her initial shock at my answer. “You'd better reconsider, worm. You're not going to get any more warnings after this.”

  Oh well, too late to stop now. I knew I had only a few minutes before the bus left, so I hitched my backpack up my shoulder, glared my meanest glare, and said softly, “Kiss my ass, Rhonda.”

  I walked away without looking back. I wondered if she might hit me from behind, but the blow never came.

  Chapter 22

  DAY 29

  EVE

  For the first time, I brought home an A on my science test, after narrowly missing last week with a B-plus. My grounding had long since been lifted, which was nice, but ironically, I had nowhere to go now.

  Every day Joshua and I grew closer and closer, but for some reason, he hadn't made a move on me. I waited patiently for him to ask me out on a date, but it still hadn't happened. I knew he had soccer season coming up, and I was hoping he would ask me to attend one of his games, but he hadn't done that either.

  On the Island, I spent a lot of time just looking into his eyes. They were so expressive; his best feature, apart from his smile. I'd gotten good at reading what was behind his eyes, and though I could tell he was happier than he'd been in years, maybe ever, I could also sense a fair amount of fear in them too.

  Makes sense. I'm all he has, after years of having no one at all. He's scared he's going to lose me, just like he lost all his other friends. What would that do to him? What would it do to me if I lost him? I didn't even want to think about that.

  “Joshua, can I ask you a personal question?” I asked.

  “Of course,” he said.

  “Do you … get along with your parents?”

  He blinked. “Yeah,” he replied with a puzzled look. “Why would you ask me that?”

  “I've just been wondering … why they haven't helped you. With your … problem.”

  He leaned over, putting his elbows on his legs. A sad look came over his face.

  “I'm sorry,” I said, “It's … it's none of my business …”

  “They don't know about it,” he said. “I don't tell them.”

  I was shocked. “Why would you keep something like that a secret?”

  He stared into space. “Back when it started, I told them about the name-calling. They said, 'Just ignore them, and they'll stop.' But they didn't, of course. Like I told you before, it wasn't so bad back then. I thought I could handle it.” He shook his head. “Don't know why I thought that, though … I let them get in my head. And once they were in there, I couldn't get them out. And that's when Rhonda came along.”

  “You mean, the rumors?”

  “Yeah. It took me a long time to find out who was spreading them. I just came to school one day, and people I'd known for years were looking at me like I was a serial killer. Before I could figure out what was really going on, the entire school was avoiding me like poison ivy. And that's when the fun really started.” He turned his head to look at me.

  I turned to him. “That doesn't explain why you wouldn't tell your parents about it.”

  He got a pained look on his face. “Do you know what it's like to be this small, Eve?”

  “I'm practically the same height as you, Joshua.”

  “It's different when you're a guy. The taller you are, the more grown-up people treat you. When you're as small as me, they treat you like a child. Like you're worthless. Try going through that for two years.”

  I grasped his hand. “I can't even imagine what that feels like. I mean, I think I'm starting to, but …”

  “It's the worst,” he said. “You get treated as worthless by everyone, and you start to believe you are. I hadn't done anything … but everyone hated me. All I could think was that there was just something wrong with me. Something I couldn't see. I was so ashamed of myself, I couldn't tell my parents what was going on. I still can't.”

  “But Joshua …”

  “And what could they do, anyway? Nothing I say can make Principal Baird give a crap. Why would he listen to them?”

  I glared at him. “You can't just do nothing!”

  He averted his eyes. “Yes. I can.”

  “That's a pretty crappy attitude.”

  “I know. But in eight months I'm out of this place forever. I've made it through three years of hell. I can make it eight more months.”

  “What about next year? Won't the bullies be going to the same high school as you?”

  He sighed. “Maybe they will, maybe they won't. There'll be a lot more people there. And maybe I'll finally have hit my growth spurt by then.”

  “That's a lot of 'maybes', Joshua.”

  “It's all I have, Eve.”

  I smiled. “Not … all.” I leaned forward, thinking he might pull away, but he remained still while I planted a quick peck on his cheek. He looked down at the ground, his face turning strawberry-red.

  After a f
ew moments, he faced me again. “You're something else, Eve.” Then he broke into one of his amazing smiles.

  I squeezed his hand. “I'm a Devereaux.”

  Chapter 23

  DAY 37

  JOSHUA

  Another week passed, and I still hadn't told Eve about my confrontation with Rhonda. I hated keeping anything from her, particularly something this big, but I didn't want to alarm her. After all, what could Rhonda and the bully squad do to me that they weren't already doing? Rhonda hadn't actually threatened me with anything new, just more of the same.

  I cleverly came up with various routes from the cafeteria to the Island. The cafeteria, which also served as our school's auditorium, was enormous. It had five exits, and I used them all. For all their toughness, the bully squad was hardly inconspicuous, and their movements had become predictable, so for the time being, I felt certain I could slip through their net whenever I wanted.

  The rest of the time, I used whatever stealth tactics I could think of: sticking close to teachers, hiding behind crowds, whatever the situation called for. Occasionally one of Brent's guys would catch sight of me, but they all lacked the moxie to act on their own, which was also to my advantage.

  * * *

  Eve and I nailed our latest lab project today. As I was walking from the science room to my sixth-period Social Studies class, I stopped dead when I saw Randy talking to Derek at the far end of the upper concourse. They hadn't seen me, so I turned and went back in the direction I came from.

  To my horror, I then saw Brent climbing the central staircase. Knowing that he would see me at any second, I ran through the doorway of the classroom next to Mr. Taylor's, which happened to be the computer lab. With students coming and going, it was easy to quietly sneak into a storage closet, which also shared a door with the classroom on the other side of the interior wall. I emerged as quickly as I could and ran out the door before the teacher had a chance to question me.

  I found myself enjoying the rush; I was like a mouse trying to avoid four very nasty cats. It was a game, and I was winning it. For now.

  * * *

  Eve and I had been sharing a seat on the bus for weeks. Up until now, the two of us had been completely ignored by the rest of the passengers, but not today. The girl we'd both seen staring at us on several occasions plunked herself down in the seat right in front of us, smiled and said, “Hi. I'm Kelsey.”

  She was a couple of inches shorter than me, with almond-colored eyes, light brown hair set in pigtails, a few freckles and braces. Most girls tended to be self-conscious about smiling with a mouth full of metal, but Kelsey apparently didn't have that problem.

  Now, eighth graders and fifth graders at our school never spent time together. Their buildings were on opposite ends of the school, they had separate playgrounds, and they had different lunch times. The school bus was pretty much the only place we would ever see each other.

  Normally, I would have been annoyed with a fifth-grader interrupting our private conversation, but something about this girl won me over immediately. Plus, it was nice to have someone else to talk to, however briefly.

  “Hi, Kelsey,” I said, breaking the silence. “I'm Joshua and this is Eve.”

  “Nice to finally meet you,” Kelsey replied, smiling.

  “What can we do for you?” Eve asked.

  “I want to hear your story,” she answered.

  I looked at Eve, then back at Kelsey. “What … makes you think we have a story?”

  “I've been watching you guys for the past month, you know.”

  “Yeah, we've noticed,” said Eve, grinning.

  Kelsey looked at me, her face serious. “When the school year started, Joshua, you were sitting alone back here, looking really sad all the time …”

  She turned to face Eve. “And Eve, you sat in the front, and you didn't look much happier. But now, here you are, sitting together, and you look so happy.” Grinning, she leaned over the seat. “I want to know why.”

  I blinked, then smiled. This girl's powers of observation were uncanny. “Geez, Kelsey, you could be a detective!”

  She winked. “Actually … my dad's a detective. He just got transferred from Denver P.D. a few months ago. I've already read every Sherlock Holmes story ever written. I love it!”

  Eve, too, was smiling. It was clear she liked this freckle-faced pixie as much as I did. “And you want to hear our story? This might take a while.”

  “Of course. I've got all the time in the world.” She leaned in again. “Most of these other kids are so … boring. It's only been a month, and I've already run out of things to talk about with them.”

  This made me laugh out loud. Eve also started giggling. “Well, Kelsey,” I said, “our story is anything but boring. In fact, there are some parts you probably won't believe.”

  So starting right then and there, and twice daily for the rest of the week, the three of us gathered in the back corner of the bus, and we laid out our entire story. We spared no details. Eve let me do most of the talking, although she did jump in with the occasional detail I'd overlooked. And through it all, Kelsey just listened intently, drinking it all in. By the time we'd finished, Kelsey had become our newest friend and ally.

  Chapter 24

  DAY 37

  EVE

  It had been almost three weeks since I'd been forced into exile, and spending the last week listening to Joshua tell our story to Kelsey made me realize just how incredibly close he and I had become. I'd gotten used to being ignored by all my other classmates, but it wasn't until Kelsey breezed into our lives that I realized what a toll it had taken on me.

  It wasn't so much that the other kids in my class weren't speaking to me; every now and then, I would lock eyes with someone I'd once 'kinda-sorta' been friends with. They would spend all of a second looking at me, almost like it was an apology. I'd talk to you, but I can't, you understand, right? Then they would turn away. I couldn't help but wonder if Rhonda was spreading nasty rumors about me too.

  I stayed a couple of minutes over in Mr. Havlicek's fourth-period Social Studies class after the bell rang, making sure I copied everything he'd written on the white-board into my notebook. When I looked up, I saw that everyone else had already left the room except for Jenn, a girl I'd once been close to. We'd both been obsessed with Barbie dolls when we were like seven, but by the time we'd turned ten, I'd outgrown them. She hadn't.

  I walked over to her. She saw me coming, but didn't react. She just kept on writing. “Hey, Jenn.”

  She looked up at me, her frizzy brown hair falling around her face. “Eve.”

  I wanted to say a million things, but the awkwardness was making my brain malfunction. All that came out was, “How's it going?”

  We were alone in the room, but she looked at me like Rhonda was standing right behind her. She quickly averted her eyes. “I … can't talk to you, Eve.”

  I sat down in the empty chair next to her. “Jenn, it's me. We were in the Brownies together. We had Barbie parties together. We were friends.”

  “I know, Eve. But …” She stood up quickly. “I just can't.” She headed for the door.

  Quickly, I stepped in front of her. “Jenn, don't go. Please.”

  She looked me right in the face. “I'm sorry.” She then walked around me and out the door.

  I sighed in frustration, staring at the empty classroom. Welcome to Rhondaland. It's a magical place.

  * * *

  That evening, around ten o'clock, my mom came into the family room just as I was finishing my English Comp homework. “Hey, sweetie,” she said, sitting down next to me on the sofa. “You're up late.”

  “Just finishing up,” I said. “How's that big case you're working on?”

  “It's over. Defendant cracked on the witness stand. He'll be going away for a long time.” She smiled, holding out her fist.

  I also smiled, returning the fist-bump. “Score another point for truth and justice!”

  “Speaking of which … how
are things going at school?”

  I sighed. “Well, Joshua and I made a new friend this week. A little fifth-grade girl on the bus. Other than that, no one's said a word to us in two weeks.”

  “Any more trouble? With the bullies? Or Rhonda?”

  “No, thank God. Joshua's been able to avoid them so far. He's been … pretty awesome, actually.”

  There was an awkward pause. “And how are things going? Between you two?”

  Okay, NOW I'm uncomfortable. I cleared my throat. “They're fine. Things are … fine.”

  She edged closer to me. “Tell me about him.”

  I went on to explain to her everything I'd learned about Joshua over the last two weeks: his love of books, his maturity, his sensitivity, his deep-rooted fear, and his unwillingness to involve his parents. “He's been a really great friend, Mom. But I think … I want to be more than that with him.” Make that VERY uncomfortable. Why the hell did I just tell her that?

  She put her arm around me. “Well, kiddo, I knew this would happen eventually. Didn't think it would be this soon, though. It's not exactly a mother's favorite moment when she finds out her daughter has … feelings for a boy. Do you think he feels the same way about you?”

  “Yeah, but I don't think he thinks he's ready for … that kind of … thing,” I said, my mouth suddenly dry. “He hasn't asked me out. He won't even talk about our relationship.” I pictured his face. “He's so brave, but there's still so much fear in him. He's so hard on himself, and yet he's too proud to ask for help. Does that even make sense?”

  Mom nodded. “It does. It's not all that uncommon with victims of bullying. Maybe now is when I get should get involved in your … situation. For both your sakes.”

  “I thought you said this was a mess I needed to clean up myself.”

  “I did say that, Evie, but what's going on at your school is wrong. Very wrong. If it's really as bad as you say, then it's beyond your power to fix it. I'm sorry I wasn't able to get involved before, but now I think I should.”