“You got it!” His friend yelled back.
George turned back to the two he had tried to help, but feared that he may have hurt them in the process. He needed to make sure they were all right before he dealt with the boys.
“Are you two okay?” George asked Jeanette and Isabella. His wrinkled brow told Jeanette that George was very worried about them.
Realizing that George was protecting them from being hit by the bicyclists, Jeanette reached over and gave him a hug.
“Yes George, we are okay. Thank you…that could have been a lot worse.” Jeanette was still trying to catch her breath.
“How about you, little lady?” George asked Isabella as he stooped over a bit to get a closer look at her.
Isabella shyly stepped partially behind her mother. She held tight to her mother’s hand while she peered around Jeanette to get a better look at the man that had slammed them into the wall. “I’m okay,” she answered back in the tiniest of voices. “I bumped my head.”
“Oh sweetheart, I’m very sorry about that,” George apologized to the little girl. “I hope it’s not too bad of a bump.”
He looked up at Jeanette. “I’ll check her out. I’m sure she’s fine,” Jeanette responded. “We got the wind knocked out of us, but we’re all right.”
“Good.” George smiled at the two of them. “I’ll be right back.”
With that, George turned and stormed over to the two teen boys, who were standing in the small crowd, while the one that had run into the lamppost tried to compose himself. He was more embarrassed than hurt. George made his way through the onlookers and stopped to confront the two boys.
“You hurt?” George asked the tall boy. He couldn’t remember the boy’s name, but George knew his grandfather, as he was a regular among the men that hung out at Dooley’s hardware store.
“No sir,” the boy responded.
“Good.” George grabbed both of them by the shirt collar and helped them over to where mother and daughter were standing, still trying to compose themselves. Isabella was crying and her mother was comforting her.
The shorter of the two boys was struggling to get away, but George held tight to his collar. George turned to him and gave him a glare that said he had better settle down or else.
“Apologize,” George told the boys, looking to his left and right at each of them. No additional words were necessary.
The taller boy, named Luke, spoke first. “Ma’am, I’m really sorry. Really. Are you two okay?” He was rubbing the right side of his face as he spoke. It was turning a bright red color where his face had met the lamppost.
Jeanette nodded at him, without speaking. She didn’t see any need to chastise the boys. George was doing a fine job of taking care of the problem.
He genuinely looked sorry and George released his shirt, looking to the other boy.
“Well?” George asked him.
“Man, let go of me,” the other boy, named Eric, said. He jerked away from him, causing George to release his collar, whether he liked it or not. “We didn’t do anything. People should watch where they are walking.” The boy straightened his shirt as he looked at George and Jeanette with disdain. His green eyes were set in a scowl as he flipped his head back to get the shoulder length, dishwater blond strands out of his eyes. He was wearing a ratty t-shirt with a band on it that George did not recognize.
“They were walking on the sidewalk, which is where you are supposed to walk. You two were riding your bikes and playing carelessly on the sidewalk, putting others in danger. You are lucky that no one got hurt. I’m going to have a talk with the sheriff about it,” George told them sternly.
“Go ahead,” Eric said. “What is the sheriff gonna do about it? No one got hurt. Just get over yourself, old man.” The boy looked over at his friend, Luke, who had stood quietly after he apologized. He showed no reaction to Eric’s comments. “Let’s go. We don’t need to stay here for this.” It sounded more like an order than a request. Luke followed him dutifully.
The two boys walked back over toward their bicycles, with Luke looking back apologetically. They then got back on their bikes and rode away.
“Are you sure you are both okay?” George directed his question more to the little girl than to her mother that time. “How’s your head, sweetheart?”
“I have a little bump on the back of my head, but it doesn’t hurt anymore,” Isabella explained as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, trying to act brave in front of all the people that were now focused on the three of them.
“Thank you again, George. If you hadn’t been there…” Jeanette shuddered at the thought of what might have been.
“Well, no worries. Everyone is okay and that’s all that matters,” George responded.
He looked around then and noticed that the small crowd that had gathered around the two teenage boys, were now gathered around him, Jeanette, and Isabella. George felt the warmth of a flush creeping across his cheeks. He instinctively reached up to feel his face. Though George was an outgoing, friendly guy, he hated being the center of attention. All those eyes on him made his heart race and he wanted nothing more than to get away.
“Um, I’ve got to go,” George told Jeanette quickly. “I’m glad you are both all right.”
“Well, okay. Thank you again,” Jeanette replied as they parted.
George walked over and picked up his cup and newspaper, covered in coffee, and threw both items away in the trashcan that lived next to the newsstand. He was a bit flustered by the whole event and decided to skip his walk to Dooley’s hardware store that day. He walked back over to his motel instead. Time to get some work done, he figured. He had had enough excitement to last him the rest of the month.
Chapter 4
The Wildflower Inn was a halfway house of sorts. They didn’t call it that, but that’s pretty much what it was. They had housed many teenage girls over the years. It was a better situation for them than going to a detention center, especially for the non-violent offenders. The girls were housed there by the state and in exchange for free room and board, worked at the inn and cafe.
Rarely had more than three or four girls at a time lived with them. Since Roxanne set up the program with the state, they had almost always had at least one troubled teen staying with them. There was never a shortage of teenage girls with problems. Eventually those problems would land them in legal trouble and they would become a ward of the state. Most spent some time in detention, but their probation officers felt some of them would benefit from living at the Wildflower Inn more than living with hundreds of other troubled girls. The girls with lesser offenses were farmed out to a few different homes that took in the teens and truly wanted to help them. The Wildflower Inn was the only place on the island that was part of the state program. Everyone on the island knew about it and affectionately called the girls ‘The Wildflowers.’
Currently there was just one girl, Frankie, who had been staying with them for several months and was not a ward of the state, like most were. She had been living in an abusive situation at home and found her way to the Wildflower Inn on her own. She had her moments, but overall was not a troublemaker. At 16 years old, the Carmichaels were happy to take her in and get her off the streets. She would most likely live with them until she was an adult. Frankie’s mother had never come looking for her, not that Frankie expected her to.
The last girl, Anna, who had been staying with them over the summer, due to some trouble she got into at school, had returned home to her family recently. The Carmichaels loved Anna and vowed to keep in touch with her.
The day had come for a new arrival.
As they did with every new girl that showed up on their doorstep, the Carmichael family gathered together to greet her. Most girls were terrified of moving into an unknown place, with an unknown family, and it usually took them several weeks before they warmed up to their new surroundings. This time Frankie stood with the Carmichaels, Tim and Roxanne, as well as the twins, Piper and Mary
. It was the first time Frankie really felt like she was part of the family, and it made her heart warm.
The Carmichaels knew absolutely nothing about the new girl, not even her name. Her probation officer had called the day before and asked if he could bring a new girl in. The only thing he told her was that it was an emergency situation. They had plenty of room, so Roxanne agreed. As soon as she told him it was okay, he said he would be there the next morning, early, with the girl, and hung up before Roxanne had a chance to ask any questions. Normally, Roxanne spent a good deal of time on the phone with the probation officers getting a complete background on every girl that they housed. She and Tim had their own daughters to consider and she wanted to make sure it would be a good fit. She didn’t get the chance to do that this time. Roxanne hoped desperately that it wouldn’t be something they would all regret.
“Oh, here they are,” Mary said excitedly as she knelt on the couch and peered out the window. She watched them for a moment. “Oh, Mom, I don’t think you are going to like this.”
Mary looked at her mother with a strange look on her face that Roxanne couldn’t read. Roxanne gave her a quizzical look back.
“What do you mean?” her mother asked her.
At that moment they all heard the two car doors slamming, almost simultaneously.
“You’ll see,” Mary said with a slight grin as she reluctantly left the front window and found her spot amongst the family. She had braided her long blonde hair into a single ponytail and was flipping it around nervously.
“Mary, stop that,” Tim scolded her. “Please just stand still.” He looked at Mary with a frown and she complied.
Tim walked over and opened the front door of the inn for their two guests. He widened his eyes and looked over at his wife, when he got a look at their new ‘guest.’ The reaction on Roxanne’s face mirrored his own.
Though the Carmichael family, and Frankie, all tried their best to hide the outward manifestation of their initial reactions to Lola, they failed. Lola could see how they felt about her appearance the second she walked through the door. She was used to it though. People frequently stared at her. It used to bother her, but not anymore. She had learned to let it go. She had decided long ago that she was going to be who she wanted to be, and be damned everyone’s opinion.
Frankie began fidgeting with her hair, in an unsuccessful attempt to not stare. There was nothing physically wrong with Lola, nothing she didn’t do to herself anyway. It was just that she had obviously spent an enormous amount of time changing her appearance to ‘express herself.’
For a girl of only 14 years old, she had an enormous number of tattoos on her arms. Roxanne wondered who would have done that to her. Didn’t someone have to be 18 years old to get a tattoo? It made Roxanne realize that she must be completely out of her depth, with Lola’s kind of teenager anyway. The twins were 15 years old and seemed very normal to Roxanne, and that’s the way she liked them. Boring and normal. It made her smile.
Lola looked up just as Roxanne smiled. She couldn’t quite tell if Roxanne was smiling because she liked, or she hated, Lola’s look. Lola figured it was the latter. In addition to both arms being covered in tattoos, Lola had several piercings in each ear, adorned with multiple silver hoops. Piper wondered how she held her head up with so much silver sticking out of her ears. Lola had also shaved the sides of her head and spiked the middle of her hair up into a jet black, multi-spiked mohawk. Tim’s first thought was that the spiky mohawk look went out with the ‘80s. Apparently he was wrong.
Lola’s clothing was head to toe black leather, with silver chains adorning the jacket. It made everyone wonder how in the world she didn’t pass out from the heat. It was September and still very warm on the island. Frankie and Piper were wearing shorts and t-shirts. Mary was wearing a flowy summer dress with daisies on it, and a single strand of turquoise beads around her neck, expressing her inner hippie. Tim wore slacks with a polo shirt and Roxanne wore a pretty lavender sundress. They were completely the opposite of Lola, and she noticed.
Roxanne just shook her head slowly from side to side as she watched Lola and her probation officer greet Tim. The twins noticed Lola glancing over at them as the adults spoke. Mary smiled at her, hoping to win Lola over early. She needed the scary girl in front of her to be an ally.
“Roxanne, girls, please come over and meet our guests,” Tim said cordially. He gave no indication whatsoever that Lola was anything other than what they expected. He revealed no surprise in his face or his voice.
Roxanne and the three teens walked over and Tim introduced everyone. They all shook hands and added pleasantries.
“Girls,” Roxanne said to Piper, Mary and Frankie, “why don’t you take Lola here upstairs and show her the bedroom she’ll be staying in?”
Frankie would be Lola’s roommate, and Frankie was not pleased about it at all. Though Frankie knew that when the last girl, Anna, moved out, anyone new would move into Anna’s old spot. However, in her wildest imagination she never thought it would be someone like Lola. Frankie and Anna weren’t the best of friends, but they got along okay. Frankie wanted a really good friend. Unfortunately, she could tell right away that Lola was not going to be that person for her.
“That one is your bed,” Frankie pointed out, as all four girls filed into her bedroom.
Lola walked over, plopped her backpack and herself on the bed next to the closet, and turned to the girls.
“So, what do you all do around here for fun? This place looks boring as hell,” Lola said, looking carefully at each girl for a reaction. She could see judgment in their eyes and didn’t care. She didn’t plan to be around for long.
“Well, we go to the beach,” Mary told her, pulling at her earlobe nervously.
“What else?” Lola asked.
The girls all looked at each other.
“Nothing else, really,” Piper chimed in. “This is a small island. Other than the beach, there’s pretty much nothing else to do. I guess we go to friends’ houses sometimes. But that’s it. We don’t have a mall and we’ve been to every shop in town like a million times.”
“Oh goody,” Lola replied, rolling her eyes.
“Seriously, what did you expect?” Frankie asked her, with a bit of snark in her voice.
“Not this, that’s for sure. They could have at least put me in a place in Los Angeles. At least there’s lots to do there,” Lola told her, with a bit of snark back.
“Guess what? If you stay out of trouble, you can live anywhere you want,” Frankie explained, her voice loaded with sarcasm.
Frankie didn’t like Lola and her attitude, and didn’t care if the feeling was mutual. Frankie would give anything to have a mother that cared more for her than the current boyfriend of the month. But that wasn’t the case. Even with all her trouble at home, Frankie stayed out of trouble herself. She lived at the Wildflower Inn out of necessity, not because she was on probation.
“You don’t know anything about me. You have no right to judge,” Lola sniped back.
“I know you are here on probation. And I can see for myself that you are troubled and have self-esteem issues. Why else would you find it necessary to do that to yourself? You are looking for attention,” Frankie explained, looking at Lola from head to toe. She didn’t have to say anything further, her expression said it all.
“What are you, the resident shrink?” Lola asked her, as she jumped up off the bed and walked toward Frankie.
“Okay, you two,” Piper jumped in between them. “That’s enough. My parents want all of us to get along. We have to live together, you know. Come on, let’s go back downstairs. Breakfast is probably ready.”
Piper looked back and forth between the two girls. She didn’t dare leave her post in the middle. She was afraid they might tear each other’s hair out, with the way they were glaring at one another.
“Yeah, fine,” Lola relented. She backed down first because she didn’t know Frankie, and didn’t know what she was capable of. Sh
e was new there and figured she had better get the lay of the land before she did anything that might get her sent back to detention. Even a boring little island was better than that.
Lola walked around Piper and toward the bedroom door. The other three girls followed her down the stairs, with Frankie bringing up the rear. Piper made sure she and Mary were second and third in the line. Though she didn’t actually think Frankie would push Lola down a flight of stairs, she was taking no chances.
No one at the inn had any idea exactly what Lola had done to land herself on their little island. That was another story.
Chapter 5
The very day that Lola arrived at the Wildflower Inn turned out to be a beautiful day. The sun was shining bright and it was about 80 degrees, with a slight breeze off the sea. A few wispy clouds graced the skies.
After the devastating earthquake and huge wave that pummeled the island only a few short months prior, the island was mostly recovered. The Wildflower Inn and Cafe had been completely cleaned up and restored. It was costly, but the Carmichaels felt the investment was well worth it. They even repainted the outside to make it lighter and brighter. It was painted white, with a sea blue trim. It was beautiful and perfectly fit the atmosphere of the beach. Fittingly, wildflowers grew in abundance around the property and everything was in bloom. The grounds were peppered with yucca plants, oleander, and even bright purple bougainvillea. It was just gorgeous.
With the sun gleaming off the water, it was the kind of day that made everyone want to venture out. The Wildflower Cafe was packed for lunch and every available body was expected to help. Roxanne, Frankie, Piper, and Mary were all pitching in to help Tim run the cafe. Even then, they could barely keep up. Though she had just arrived and hadn’t even had the chance to settle in yet, Tim asked Lola to help. All of the troubled teens that came to live at the inn were expected to work there. However, Tim and Roxanne usually gave them a few days to get settled in first. There was no time for settling in that day.
Desperation on Wildflower Island Page 3