Wings From Ashes Trilogy

by Linda Nelson

  The only one who had heard from Gerry while he was away had been Maggie. Only because she was the only one who was willing to write to him, call him, and send him money, but then again what easier way to stalk someone than to do it where they can’t get away from you.

  Maggie still blamed Karla and Carol for his arrest. She had managed to turn some of the girls against Carol, or so Carol believed she had done. Or maybe they had just stopped hanging out with her because she had become somewhat withdrawn due to the up and coming holidays. Carol didn’t know what their real problem was. What she did know was that not many of them blamed Karla the way Maggie did. They knew the truth of the matter.

  Ashley, one of the only girls who would associate herself with Maggie, had made sure to tell a few select souls about Maggie’s confession the night after the accident. And they in turn told a few of their choice souls about this confession until it made its way almost all around the school.

  Because of this confession about who had done what, for the most part the other students left Karla alone. But they didn’t go out of their way to talk to her either.

  Karla also did not go out of her way when it came to making new friends with any of the other students. To play it safe and to allow the story about her die down she kept a low profile. Her trust of others was relatively low these days. She scrutinized everyone no matter what their motives seemed to be. Even if they were just saying hi to her as they passed her in the hallway.

  The students at this school could be just downright nasty as far as Karla was concerned. Sometimes she wondered if they were like this with all the new students or was it just her.

  So when Carol took the seat across from her just now, Karla was surprised and wondered why after all this time that Carol had suddenly decided to reestablish contact with her.

  Karla might be naive, but she was not about to fall for the same trick twice.

  Karla hissed, “What do you want?”

  “Look, you can continue to go on hating me if you want, but I came to say I’m terribly sorry for what happened to you. I didn’t know things were going to get way out of hand.

  The agreement I had with Gerry was that he was supposed to lead you on and break up with you. He was only supposed to break your heart, not do what he did do to you.

  And all I gave you that night in the drink at my house was just a little bit of a helper to help you relax before going to the party. It wasn’t anything that serious.

  I wasn’t the one that put that Roofie in your drink. That was crazy Maggie’s doing, everyone knows that, she said so herself. If I had known she was going to do that, I would of just ditched you at the football game, which I did consider at one point in time. I’m not into seeing anyone overdose. It’s not my thing.”

  Karla sneered, “Yeah – Right!”

  But Karla did have a hunch that night that Carol had contemplated ditching her during the football game. So maybe she was telling the truth. In a way, Karla kind of wished that she had.

  “You don’t believe me – what can I do to make things up to you?”

  “Seriously, you expect me to believe you after you’ve waited all this time, to come to me to apologize?”

  “I meant it Karla. I never actually meant to see that happen to you. I like you. I think you are pretty cool for having put up with, and having tried to be friends with me, which most new kids wouldn’t of even considered after spending their first lunch with me if you know what I mean? I know what some of the other’s say about me. Especially Marla and Jerra…”

  Karla glanced over to where Marla and Jerra were sitting at the other end of the table. They were the other two girls that Karla had met during her first week at Brantwood High School. They had warned Karla about hanging out with Carol. They both were also members of the High School Newspaper Club that Karla had considered joining. But this never came about because when she was supposed to be at the meeting that day she had been in the hospital instead. When she got out she never bothered to ask them again if the offer still stood for her to join their club. She figured they wouldn’t want anything to do with her after hearing what had happened at the party, or the fact that she had gone to the party in the first place.

  When Karla looked in the direction of where Marla and Jerra were sitting she couldn’t help but notice the two new students that took seats in between where they sat and where she and Carol sat. They were two boys who had started at the school on the same day. One of them was in Karla’s math class. She liked him and had walked to school with him every day since that first time they had met. She had heard the other girls talking about him while she was in the girls’ bathroom stall early this morning. They all thought he was decent looking.

  She wondered what they would say if they knew that she was already going out with him.

  Max had told Karla he was from a city near Boston and that his old school was pretty big, bigger than this one. She hadn’t heard exactly where he was from, but she did know from others that he was from a much larger school. Even he had said so to her. And Karla thought this school was big. She couldn’t imagine attending a school as big as his was.

  The two girls at the other end of the table had continued to be nice to Karla after all that happened, but Karla had continued to keep to herself anyway. She did, however, want to take part in the newspaper club, but that would have been the furthest contact outside of normal school hours that Karla had any desire to be around anyone besides Max.

  Slowly she had even become distant from her old friends, Sarah and Jody, as well.

  And she hadn’t talked to Jan in over a month.

  Hmm Karla thought.

  “All right, if you want to make it up to me you can come home with me after school and apologize to my mom for what happened.

  You do know that I have been grounded ever since that night.”

  Carol looked toward Maggie. She was still sitting there glaring at her.

  “All right – you got a deal. After school, it’s your house, and I will tell your mom in person that I’m sorry.”

  “Deal…”

  The bell rang out. It was time for their next class.

  ***

  “Can you believe that bitch – going behind my back like that and talking to that slut,” Maggie said to Ashley.

  She never noticed that Ashley seemed to be the only one who would stay at the table with her. As soon as Carol had picked up her things and marched off to sit with Karla, everyone else followed suit but in different directions.

  It was as if the clique were breaking up and going their separate ways.

  Maggie was oblivious to everything that wasn’t about Maggie. This was one of the things that made everyone refer to her as being Crazy Maggie.

  She was not just self-centered. She was suspicious and delusional to top it off.

  Her delusion was that everyone especially Karla was after her man. She was also delusional about Gerry. She thought he actually was her boyfriend, but actually he couldn’t stand her because she was paranoid, delusional and a stalker.

  Her paranoia was from thinking that she was going to lose Gerry to some other girl, when, in fact, he was never hers to begin with.

  But Maggie didn’t know any different. She was just Maggie, and everyone else was stupid or a slut, except for Ashley.

  Ashley put up with Maggie for what reason she had no idea, maybe it was she took pity on her for having some sort of mental illness. She did know never to trust her because Maggie was sick in the head. Ashley was sure that was why she put up with Maggie because she had a mental illness like her aunt who lived in her home. Her aunt was bi-polar and took medication for it. She thought it was possible that was what Maggie needed since they do make medication for everything, even schizophrenia.

  Ashley didn’t reply to Maggie. She just sat there pitying her. She knew the truth about the whole matter and Maggie was just a lost soul.

  ***

  On the other side of the cafeteria, two new students st
ood holding their trays scanning the room for an open table. With a nod at each other, they made their way toward the table occupied by Karla and Carol, Jerra and Marla and sat across from each other in between the two groups of girls.

  The boys received quick glances from the two sets of girls but didn’t get much of any other form of acknowledgement, except for Karla who let her eyes meet Max’s. It brought a smile to his face.

  Rod wondered what was it with the kids at this school; they appeared to be such an unfriendly lot?

  In his old school, the new kids were always welcomed unlike the way they were being treated.

  “You’re new here too?”

  “…I just started today.”

  “Me too – I’m Rodrick, Rodrick Phelps. You can call me Rod.”

  “I’m Maximo, Maximo Colton. My friends and family call me Max.”

  Rodney briefly caught Carol looking at him. He couldn’t help but smile. He liked blondes, and she was a looker. She looked hot in her low cut blouse and low rise jeans. He almost could make out what kind of panties she was wearing as they peeked out from underneath her waist band.

  Even though he was nineteen he was still in high school. He only needed to finish out this semester then he would be done with school.

  He had been kept back a grade while he was attending his former school. Rod could not blame it on his on his upbringing even though his parents were divorced. His mother worked, but she was home every night for supper.

  She always insisted that they ate together like families were supposed to do, but for the past year he had managed to find an excuse not to be around during dinner time. He settled for leftovers every night so he could escape this so called family meal. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his mom. She was all right. He just felt that it was no longer cool to be around her. He didn’t want to be called a Momma’s Boy by nobody. So that was one of his sacrifices he made at his and her expense. Slowly he and his mom had grown apart. But he thought that was normal.

  Rod missed his buddies. They were like family to him. Even though he had moved to a different state, he still would text them and call them on his cellphone when he had the minutes on his phone.

  On his first day at this new school, he stopped in the office and picked up his schedule and his locker number. The rest of the day he had spent constantly scanning the crowd of students looking for someone else who appeared to be somewhat friendly. None was to be seen until lunch time. Not one student paid any attention to him until lunch time came around. Even when the teacher announced him to the class as being a new student and how they should welcome him, he was still met with what appeared to be hostile looks and attitudes.

  Baseball hats were not allowed to be worn during school time. This rule was also in effect at his former school, but they never enforced it. Here, not one single hat was to be seen on a head when the students were off the baseball field. That was, until lunch time.

  That was how he had spotted Max. He wore a dark blue baseball hat on his head backwards. The teachers so far disregarded this rebel student. Rod was sure this kid had to be new to school like him.

  Seeing how this student was getting away with wearing the hat made Rod decided that he was going to start wearing his own to school starting Monday. So what if he got expelled. Actually He didn’t want to be here anyway, which is why he had waited until Friday, to show up for his first day of school. If he had his own way and his mother didn’t keep on insisting that he go to school, she was such a nag, he would have put school off another week.

  “Where you from,” asked Max.

  “I’m from Manchester, Manchester, New Hampshire, and you?” Rod replied.

  Max pushed his hat down further on the back of his head so that the visor was almost touching the back of his neck, “Roxbury, Mass…”

  “Your family just moved here too?”

  “Shit yah – I’m only here for one more year and then I’m gone. I’ll be going back to be with my homies.”

  “Same here,” replied Rod, “but I only have one more semester to go then I’m done.”

  “Damn,” Max said while he tossed his empty milk container onto his tray. “That ain’t far from now.”

  “I know, and I can’t wait.”

  “We should hang out sometime, maybe on the weekend or today after school. Get together and scope out some ladies,” Max said as he motioned toward Karla. “I live near that one.”

  “Do you know that babe too,” Rod asked while waving his thumb toward Carol.

  “Nope, haven’t met her yet.”

  Rod jotted his cellphone number down on a scrap piece of paper and slid it across the table.

  “Give me a call later and maybe we can hook up,” Rod said.

  Max accepted the piece of paper and pocketed it just as the bell rang.

  ***

  Carol was waiting at Karla’s locker at the end of the school day. Friday was here, and Thanksgiving vacation was right around the corner. In fact, it was next week. Her family never did much for Thanksgiving.

  All they would do is eat a turkey her dad cooked with some instant mashed potatoes and frozen vegetables. The gray was always out of a can and the stuffing out of a box.

  At least her dad tried to make the effort of having a traditional turkey dinner. Her mom wouldn’t cook because she didn’t know how to cook. That left either Carol or her dad making the meals.

  If she played her cards right, maybe Karla’s folks would ask them to their house for Thanksgiving dinner and then her dad wouldn’t have to cook at all. She thought, wouldn’t it be great to have a real Thanksgiving meal with all the traditional fixings for once.

  Five minutes passed, and Karla still did not show up at her locker. What in the hell was taking her so long? Did she miss her?

  She waited and watched and then there she was, Carol finally spotted Karla walking toward her, but she was not alone. She was with some guy. It was one of them new kids, one of the ones who had been sitting at their table at lunch. What was his name? Carol couldn’t remember. He was in her English class, and for the life of her she couldn’t remember his name. Was it Matt something?

  “Hey Carol, how long have you been waiting?”

  Karla paused at her locker to change her books. She only needed the ones that were for homework. As she pulled two of the books out, she handed them to the guy still standing there waiting for her.

  “Well, yeah, of course… what took you so long,” Carol asked while she eyed the new kid up and down, scoping him out. She could not help notice his baseball hat turned backwards. In fact, he was the only one in the school wearing a hat. His rebellious attitude made her smile.

  He was tall and slim, almost taller than Gerry but not as husky. If Gerry was to tackle him, he would probably break him or crush him. But he did have a face to dream over with those hazel eyes and crew cut hair. She could tell by the looks of it that he kept his head shaved most of the time. He looked as if he needed it cut from the short bristles that were appearing around his ears.

  Carol raised an eyebrow at Karla. She wondered how she had managed to meet up with this guy so fast. How had she not have noticed him until now? He was quite muscular looking for such a scrawny guy.

  Karla could not help but notice the way Carol was looking Max over. In a way, it kind of made her feel happy to know that she certainly did have decent taste in guys. Maybe Gerry had not been a total fluke after all.

  “Oh, Carol, this is Max. He started here this week. He’ll be walking home with us. I hope you don’t mind. He is my new neighbor.”

  Carol extended a hand to Max, expecting him to give her a normal handshake. But instead Max took hold of her hand and raised it to his lips and kissed the back of her hand.

  “Wow, and I thought chivalry was dead,” Carol giggled as Max gently released her hand.

  “It is always a pleasure to meet a pretty lady as yourself.”

  Carol giggled again.

  “Got any brothers,” she asked as
she followed Karla and Max down the school steps and onto the sidewalk.

  Max paused to answer her, “No, but I have a friend who wants to meet you. And here he is now.

  Hey Rod,” Max extend his hand out to his friend. The two gripped and pulled in close to each other in some kind of ritual greeting and released.

  Carol had seen some of the other guys do this from time to time. It was some form of a brotherly hug.

  “Hey Max, where you all headed,” Rod asked. He smacked his new found friend on the back as a friendly gesture.

  “Karla here wants to drop off her books, and then we were going to head over to the court to shoot some hoops.”

  “You shoot hoops? You never said you were into basketball,” Carol said, stunned by this news.

  Karla turned around and began walking backwards so she could address Carol.

  “Max, here, has been teaching me to shoot hoops since a couple of days ago. It gets me out of the house. You know what I mean?”

  Carol was puzzled. “I thought you said you were grounded.”

  “I am. But my dad said I can go to the court since I told him I was interested in trying out for basketball this year. He is kind of a sucker for basketball.”

  Karla then turned to Rod. “Oh, Rod, by the way, this is Carol. Carol this is Rod, Max’s friend.”

  “I see,” replied Carol.

  Rod asked, “So, Carol, do you shoot hoops too?”

  “I can.”

  “Good, Max, we got a four-some. We can play a game of horse. You and Karla can team up against me and Carol.”

  Max laughed.

  They were almost to Karla’s house. Her mom’s car was in the driveway.

  She took her books from Max and said, “You wait here, I’ll be right back.”

  Her mom was hardly ever home in the afternoon. Usually she was out somewhere, probably at the local liquor store buying more booze. Karla took off at a jog to her front door. She never expected Carol to follow right behind her, leaving the two guys standing mystified on the sidewalk.