“Bailey Sanders.”
“Here,” Bailey said, facing Mrs. Pearson.
“Miss Sanders, while in my classroom you will face forward and be respectful. As long as you continue to do both, we will get along well. Do you understand?”
“Yes ma’am.” Bailey’s head bobbed, though her tone spelled a gigantic no.
Mrs. Pearson finished the remaining names and passed out a syllabus, not once smiling. After every point came chalk on the board and a chance for Bailey to whisper to Angel. Every time I looked at Chase, his hands were moving across pages in a black binder. I groaned, sure of two things: No way would Bailey ‘get along’ with our new teacher, and someone had finally found a way to make me hate English.
* * * * *
Bailey and I weren’t through the cafeteria’s doors five seconds before she spotted Angel and Rachelle. Nearly dragging me to the end of a long table, Bailey pulled my arm until I landed in the seat next to her.
“Oooh, cute guy alert.” They followed Bailey’s gaze while I glanced over the line and made a mental note to bring my lunch the next day. “Check out the cutie I’m calling at the next table.” She slapped the table in front of me. “Oh, I forgot, you’ve already met.”
Chase sat slumped over the table, surrounded by empty seats, with a sandwich in one hand and a book in the other.
“Oh my God,” Angel said. “Is he really going to sit by himself and read during lunch?”
Rachelle laughed. “You’re the one needing the glasses, Bailey. You’ve found yourself a real bookworm.”
Why did I feel the urge to defend Chase? “Why don’t you both stop? He’s a nice guy.”
“Who belongs in a library.” Angel rolled her eyes. “Maybe he’ll read Bailey a bedtime story.”
Bailey drummed her fingers on the table. “You guys are just jealous since I called Chase first.”
“You go right ahead,” Rachelle said, “but you may have some competition. I saw Jes walking rather close to Chase on the way to first block.”
“I know.” Bailey faced me. “You’ve got to give me the scoop on him. How did you get him to sit next to you?”
“Since we were both late, seats were kind of limited. I didn’t ask him to sit next to me.”
Angel exploded in laughter. “Yeah, right you didn’t.”
I turned to Rachelle. “You really think I have a thing for Chase?”
“Don’t you?”
“Dr. Greene asked him to show me the way to first class. I didn’t realize it was because he was going there too.”
“First block,” Rachelle said, grinning. “We call it blocks here, not classes. And I can see how that might suck.”
I leaned closer to Bailey. “Speaking of things that suck, you do realize Mrs. Pearson is his mother.”
Her eyes doubled in size. “You’re telling me that mean woman in first block is related to my cutie? The Wicked Witch of English?”
As her voice thundered in my ears, I glanced around to see if half the cafeteria had taken notice. “If there’s a tornado, I know where I won’t be standing.”
Bailey pointed to the line and I glanced at the clock. Exactly fifteen minutes left to get our meals and finish.
“If only Chase would lose the glasses,” Bailey said as we reached the end. “Rachelle and Angel could see how cute he is. Why don’t you fill him in on the advantages of contacts?”
“Hey,” I said, gripping her arm. “You can’t tell anyone.”
“That your eyes are really blue? Seems like a dumb secret.”
Turning my back to the line, I pulled Bailey closer. “Yeah, I’m sure it is dumb to someone who has lived in the same town with the same yearbook of friends since kindergarten. I wear contacts because I have to, and why not make them brown like Mom’s eyes?”
“Maybe dumb was a dumb word to use,” Bailey said as we made it through the last doorway.
“Chase might not speak to me after today.” I grabbed a plate, wondering if anyone would tease me for buying three pieces of pizza. “He barely spoke to me this morning.”
“But he watched you during English.”
One foot tripped over the other as I spun around. Why did Bailey’s words send my thoughts into panic mode?
“While Mrs. Pearson wrote on the board, I checked him out. You were too busy looking through the new English book, but he definitely watched you.”
As we reached the table, I laughed at Bailey, but déjà vu out-of-body weirdness lingered from my first meeting with Chase. “‘Likes me’ watched or ‘stalker’ watched?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe you should ask him.”
From my view, Chase could be leading a dance sequence in a Disney movie.
Her smile turned devious. “Should I tell Pade to watch out for his new competition?”
I smiled, dreading the knowledge Pade would hear about Chase somehow. “I think we better find out more about Chase.”
* * * * *
After fourth block, I fumbled with the combination of the locker Bailey and I would share, hopefully all year. While on my knees and trying to force open a latch along the dreaded bottom row, my palm slipped, hugging a sharp edge. Pain fired up my arm, fighting a current of red racing to fill the wound.
“It’s her,” Tosh said. “Lisa, check out the new girl.”
“That’s Jes Delaney?” Lisa asked, laughing.
“Or shall we call her De-lame-y?” Tosh’s nasty laugh followed.
I stared at the floor, forcing the pool of blood out of sight as they stopped behind me.
Tosh leaned against the lockers, eyes boring into me. “What are you doing on your knees, De-lame-y?”
“The Lamester sure is quiet today,” Lisa said. “Come on Jes, tell us about that kiss.”
Tosh slammed her foot into the next locker. “Damn it, Jes, look at me. You will answer my question.” Her voice rose. “Shithead…why ya…on ya… knees?”
Shame scorched my cheeks as I peeked around to spot people staring. Although class had ended more than twenty minutes before, no one seemed in a rush to leave Credence High. Hot tears formed in the corners of my eyes, intensified by the memory of Dad’s words to ‘never fight, no matter what’. If I looked up, Tosh’s hands would grab my hair, revealing a tight inner struggle to keep the tears from falling. After choking on the smell of strawberry gum, I imagined her hands on me at any second. What I didn’t picture was a tidal wave of cold liquid down my arms, through the lengths of my hair, soaking into my shirt and jeans.
“What the hell are you doing?” Tosh howled at the skinny blonde who stood open-mouthed, cheerleader skirt shaking as much as the empty cup in her hand.
“Sorry Tosh,” Lisa said. “I didn’t mean to spill it. I…I swear the cup just flipped in my hand.”
A throat cleared from the end of the lockers. “Lisa Johnson and Tosh Henley, what have I told you about drinks inside the building?” Dr. Greene frowned. “Clean up this mess.”
“Yes, sir.” Lisa ran to the nearest bathroom door and emerged with a handful of paper towels.
Dr. Greene regarded the scene in silence, the disapproving kind that usually carried detention or worse. I felt his eyes stop on me, maybe in an attempt to figure out my role in a situation involving these girls, maybe urging me to open wide and scream denial, but my eyes were fixed on the floor. When he disappeared down the hall, Tosh bolted to a set of double doors in the opposite direction.
Lisa spun. “Where are you going?”
Tosh shoved open the doors. “Clean up your own mess.”
The crinkled paper fell around me as Lisa dropped to the floor. Expecting her to follow Tosh, I sat back in amazement as Lisa stretched across the floor, soaking up the sugary puddle. I grabbed some of the towels, blotting the sticky mess from my face and arms, then swabbed the tiles around my knees.
With most of the floor dry, Lisa gathered the towels and looked up, finally meeting my eyes. Loose hair forked from the braid down her neck, w
ith a few random strands coiling around her face. “Why did you help me? You didn’t have to, I…” She pushed back the hair and closed her hands over both ears, eyes now skyward. “I mean I’m sorry. Thanks for helping.”
“You’re welcome.”
Her hands lowered and her shoulders seemed to relax. Her fingers no longer shook, but her eyes fixed on me again. “I don’t understand why you’re being nice to me.”
“Free county,” I said, with a giddy high coursing through my veins.
Lisa stood, aimed for the doors Tosh had used, and I forced my eyes to the locker door, not wanting to see her leave. My hand still throbbed as I reached for the locker, but my whole body froze when one of the doors opened a second time, this time to the trailing end of white-blond only a certain new guy could boast. Embarrassment propelled the high into a nosedive.
I followed him, stumbling through the door in a mad dash to discover what humiliation Chase might have witnessed. Down the walkway and around a brick wall, emptiness spanned my first snapshot of the courtyard. Bushes with tiny leaves lined the concrete trail, alongside wooden benches, but nothing large enough to cover Chase.
Laughter welled in my throat because of the same weird feeling from earlier, nervous humor wasted on my own ears. Answers to where he might have gone appealed to logic, but not enough to overcome the chill in my blood. Forcing my feet ahead brought confusion, as if maybe I didn’t want to know how Chase disappeared.
Circling back to the front office, I entered by the library and almost crashed into Pade.
“I’ll see you later,” said the girl next to him as she flashed a friendly smile and passed me for the exit, rounding an outside corner before the door slammed.
“Hey,” he said, but didn’t move.
I hesitated before meeting his stare. “Hey.”
“How was your first day?”
“Fine, except for the shower.” I expected either twenty questions or an encouraging joke, but he only stared. “I think Mom’s waiting.”
Pade halted my escape with a spark as his arm grazed mine. “I intended to break up with Sarah Beth, but now her parents are getting divorced. Jes, she needs me.”
“Sarah Beth’s a nice girl. I can see why you like her.”
His smile returned but with a careful twist. “She likes most everyone, maybe even you if you’ll let her.” His eyes dropped, along with the cool confidence. “Sarah Beth has no idea you’re the one she should fear.”
I swallowed an essay of words in my throat. “Don’t go there.”
“I won’t if you tell me the kiss didn’t mean anything.”
“Technically we’re family, so how could it?”
Pade laughed as his eyes recovered. “You do remember we’re not blood related? It’s not as if the thought never crossed my mind, I just didn’t expect kissing you to feel so…different.”
“If people think we’re dating, they’ll be all grossed out. You could never even pick me up for a date, my parents would freak.”
“So that’s your answer? We stay just friends?”
“Staying friends would require us being friends first.”
“What about the kiss? Look in my eyes and say it didn’t mean anything.”
For only a second, I considered cutting my heart out and exposing years of hope and fear packed inside as if we were speeding through a Cinderella movie. Then I remembered this was the guy who not only embarrassed me with that kiss, but probably hated me over a stupid pool. “It didn’t mean anything,” I said and casually walked to where Mom had the van running.
Phone Disaster
The eggs were cold and the hash browns, well Mom had made better. Maybe a thin layer would make my plate look halfway eaten, my only problem was the silent twins. Every dab of plate versus fork echoed through the kitchen. Dad scanned the paper, drinking his coffee by the drop, still refusing to give in over the water fight. Mom had a section of the paper, filling in blocks of a crossword puzzle.
“How was your first week of tenth grade?” he asked.
Dad’s words made me jump. “One more day and I’ll say fine.”
“No problems?”
I smiled. “No problems.”
“No write-ups for being tardy yet? How are your teachers?”
“Fine, Dad. Everything’s cool.”
He nodded and raised his cup, but paused before the sip. “What are your plans for tonight?”
I swallowed and took a deep breath. “Aunt Charlie said she’ll drop me and Bailey off at the Fun Connection.”
“The Fun Connection? Charlene said she’d take you there? Tonight?”
“Yes, Dad, tonight. Remember when you said you’d quit being a creepy-stalker parent and let me go out with friends? No hiding in the crowd with the twins while I skate?”
“When have we ever hid?” He looked at Mom and dread swirled in my stomach.
“Now Justin,” she said, “we did tell her that.”
“I don’t remember saying anything of the sort.” He turned back to me. “You’re only fifteen.”
“Angel and Rachelle said they’ve been dropped off for three years.”
“But you’re not Angel or Rachelle. You’re…”
“Different? A freak? Most normal tenth graders have their learners’ license by now.”
Dad choked on his coffee and leaned back, arms crossed. “I think the words normal, tenth grader, and license are mutually exclusive.”
I shook my head. “I don’t even know what that means.”
He glanced at Mom and then back at me, frowning. “Maybe you can drive when you’re a senior, like Pade will. He worked all summer and saved, and after next summer, he’ll be able to afford a car. No one can use a license without a car.”
“I’m not fighting about that again. I just want to go out for one night.”
He smiled. “One night and you’ll be happy for the rest of the year?”
“Dad!”
“The Fun Connection is thirty miles away. That’s too far to drop you off, come back home, and then make a one-eighty to pick you up.”
“Aunt Charlie is dropping us off. All you have to do is show up at ten.”
Dad’s face was firm, until I noticed the corners of his mouth twitch. Mom laughed first, but he did follow.
“We talked to Charlie last night. She’s in agreement with us,” Mom said, eyes pointed at Dad. “You and Bailey are now old enough to stay out until ten.”
“Nine-thirty,” Dad said.
“We want to go too,” the twins said.
My skin turned cold as I scrambled for a twin-worthy excuse, but Dad’s tone silenced their complaining. “You can’t go out after dark without us until you’re fifteen. Since Mom and I aren’t going, neither are the two of you.”
With the boys on mute my heart soared, ready for half a dozen ‘oh my God’ sessions with Bailey and an end to another long day of school. Standing in a rush, Dad motioned for me to reclaim the chair.
“Jessica Ray,” he said, stressing my middle name. “Except for certain recent events including that party at the river you failed to mention and pictures online, you’ve acted both responsible and respectable, thus proving we can trust you. As long as these exceptions are not repeated, your freedom will continue. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“Don’t mess up.”
“Smart girl. I believe we have an understanding?”
“No exceptions.”
“Since you’ll already be gone when I get home, we’ll discuss the rules now.”
I nodded, not about to open my mouth and possibly change his mind.
“When Charlene drops you off, you are to enter the doors and not leave again until Lorraine picks you up at ten. You and Bailey are to stay together at all times.” He reached in his bag and pulled out a box, which he slid across the table. “We got you a cell phone. It’s activated, just make sure it stays charged and call us if there are any problems. Can you do all of that?”
“Yes,
sir.”
“Jes,” Dad said, as I scaled the steps to my room in pairs. “Have a good time.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
* * * * *
When the first bell rang, I was already at my desk. Mrs. Pearson assigned an essay and picked a few unfortunate souls to read one of Shakespeare’s plays. Again, Chase lowered into the seat next to me, silent as every day before. Even when I dropped my pen and he reached down, Chase managed yet another day of invisibility in his mother’s class.
After hours of comedy that brought only tortured silence, our teacher finally passed out vocabulary tests. She was counting pages to pass down the aisle when her hand paused midair, swooping like a hawk to Bailey’s wrist.
“Miss Sanders, are you texting?” She scooped up Bailey’s phone before my friend could stammer an excuse.
Mrs. Pearson turned off the phone, dropping it into her desk drawer with a slam that sent waves of uncertainty coursing through me. Bailey couldn’t get in trouble, not today.
“As I said on our first day, school rules dictate phone usage is not permitted in any classroom. If another phone is found in any state but off, it will also be confiscated for the duration of the semester.”
Bailey opened her mouth, but the look on Mrs. Pearson’s face was a red light even she couldn’t ignore. “We will finish this discussion after class.”
When the bell rang, I stood outside, counting the seconds until I felt like exploding. Ultimately, I gave up and ran to second block, confident Bailey would monopolize every bit of thirty minutes to detail the chewing-out session at lunch.
I stepped into chemistry only tragic seconds after the late bell. As Mr. Larson called the class to order with one of his trademark whistles, I scrambled into the nearest seat, praying the pen in his hand failed to mark me tardy.
“Does everyone know what today is?”
“Lab day,” Ronald Pitts said, from the front row.
Leftover Girl Page 4