by Tara Ellis
“I waited to talk to Cassy,” Sam explains. “I didn’t know that the buses would leave so soon. How did everyone get on them so fast?”
After promising to text her when she gets home, Sam makes the dreaded call to her mom. She knows what an ordeal it is to get her two-year-old twin sisters into the car. Although not happy about it, Mrs. Wolf promises to be there as soon as possible.
Resigned to waiting, Sam decides to walk around the school until her mom gets there. Kicking at random rocks, Sam doesn’t pay attention to where’s she going, lost in her thoughts of the wooded trails near her home.
After several minutes, she finds herself in a smaller parking area with a sign that designates it for teachers. Quite a few cars fill the lot, and Sam figures that the owners are still inside working. Her mom was a teacher for several years before leaving her job in order to stay home and raise the twins. While still teaching, she always got home later than Sam, and often continued working at home until late at night, correcting assignments.
Stepping over a curb and onto a strip of grass along the edge of the pavement, movement from a nearby Volkswagen Bug catches Sam’s eye. She squints in the late afternoon light, trying to see, then slips into a building’s shadow for a better view. Sure enough, there’s someone in the driver’s seat. The older vehicle is a cute, light blue color and Sam isn’t surprised to see that the driver is a woman. What startles her, though, is that the woman is covering her face and her shoulders are heaving. Even with the window up, Sam can hear her sobbing. And what surprises her even more is that it’s Miss. Covington.
3
HOME IS WHERE THE HOMEWORK IS
Sam is quiet during the ride home. When she catches her mom looking at her, she rolls her eyes. Her mom always seems to know when something’s up.
“I was having a debate with myself over whether I should tell you or not,” Sam admits. “I should have known better. You can always tell what I’m thinking.”
“Spill it,” her mom orders, while checking on the twins in the rearview mirror. “It’ll make you feel better,” she adds more gently, turning to Sam after coming to a stop at a red light.
Unsure how to start, Sam decides to let her mom in on the first unfortunate exchange she had earlier in the day with her new teacher. By the time she describes the young woman crying in her car, Kathy’s frown is deep.
“I know that you don’t like having people cross with you,” she tells Sam, pulling through the intersection. “And you hate it even more when others are upset, but I really think you need to leave this one alone, Sam. I imagine Miss Covington just had a long first day at school and was simply letting out some frustration.”
“Oh, no” Sam gasps. “Do you think what happened with me might have made it worse?”
Laughing, Kathy reaches over to gently touch Sam’s arm. “Sam, when I was a teacher, kids talking out of turn was a given. Your apology is more than most kids offer. I’m sure that had nothing to do with her…breakdown. At least, I certainly hope she isn’t that sensitive, or she isn’t going to last very long.”
“Is Miss Covington a new teacher?” Sam already feels better from her mom’s reassurance. Her mother joined the school board after resigning from teaching, so she’s up on all the new hires.
“Yes, this is her first year as a teacher. But please don’t go around talking about it, especially not about what you saw today.”
Disappointed that her mom thinks she would do such a thing, Sam chooses her words carefully. “I know better than to do that, Mom.”
“Oh, I know you do, Sam,” Kathy answers as they head up the long driveway to their house. After parking the car, she puts out a hand to stop Sam from leaving. “Just remember, while I would never make you promise not to speak to Ally about it, because I know that’s a promise you can’t keep, widening the circle any further would amount to gossip.”
It’s not like I have anyone else to talk to, Sam thinks. But she knows that isn’t the response her mom is looking for. Sam isn’t a gossip. She might be nosey and persistent, and sometimes gets involved in situations that are none of her business, but she doesn’t go around talking about it with everyone. In this case, though, she knows why her mom is concerned. It would be easy to mention it without really meaning to, while sitting on the bus or at lunch. It wouldn’t take much to start rumors, and that could be damaging to a new teacher.
Nodding in understanding, Sam smiles at her mom. “I get what you’re saying,” she reassures her. “I’ll be careful not to talk with Ally about it anywhere that someone might overhear, and I won’t pester Miss Covington. Even though we got off to a bad start, she seems really nice. I wouldn’t want to do anything to make things hard for her.”
The twins are screaming by now, upset about being kept in the car for so long after arriving home.
Apparently satisfied that Sam understands, Kathy turns her attention to the two younger ones. “Hold your horses, girls!” she calls to them, making a funny face. They immediately begin to make poor imitations of horses neighing, and then laugh at each other. It’s a well-practiced game that started before they could even crawl.
Sam helps get her sisters out, and then retreats to the sanctuary of her room to get homework done. She doesn’t have a huge amount to do, but the biggest assignment is reading the first whole chapter in her history book. Sam likes to read, but prefers fiction.
After trudging through ten math equations without too much trouble, she fills out Miss Covington’s questionnaire and then pulls the huge history book out of her backpack.
This is when the twins decide it’s time to play. Sam hears them pounding down the hall, long before they reach her room. Taking a deep breath, she prepares to break their little hearts. They fling her door open, a trick they discovered a few weeks before.
Sam looks at the twins’ cute blonde heads as they poke them inside her room. Both younger girls inherited their mom’s bright blue eyes, while Sam has the same brown hair and unusual green eyes of her father. Sam loves her sisters, and they can normally rely on her to entertain them. But she needs to stand firm in order to finish her homework. “Sissy can’t play right now,” she says.
Ignoring her, the twins toddle into her room and busy themselves trying to climb up onto her bed. In the midst of grabbing at the soft comforter and scrambling onto the top, they manage to crumple about half of the homework still spread across the surface.
Crying out in alarm, Sam lunges for the papers, trying to rescue as much as she can. Alarmed by their older sister’s scream, the twins look at her in shock, scrunching up their faces.
“Oh, no,” Sam moans, knowing what’s coming next. “I didn’t mean it, Tabby and Addy. I’m not mad at you. It’s okay!”
Unconvinced by their sister’s pleas, their mouths finally open and they begin to wail. Shoulders sagging in defeat, Sam steps back from the bed, the crumpled and torn assignments falling to the floor around her.
Kathy appears in the doorway, expecting to find twins with hurt feelings, and an older sister who’s unwilling to play. But when she sees Sam kneeling on the floor, trying to press wrinkles out of the papers, she quickly shoos the twins out. “I’m sorry, Sam,” she says softly, noticing her daughter’s defeated expression. “I turned my back for a second. They’re not used to Sissy being unavailable. I’ll keep them in the other room until supper.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Sam answers. “Think Miss Covington will believe that my sisters ate my homework?” she adds, holding up the torn questionnaire.
Chuckling, Kathy takes the paper from Sam. “I’ll go put some tape on it, and add a little note, explaining what happened. I’m sure it’ll be okay.”
Nodding, Sam stuffs the rest of her work into the backpack and goes back to the history book. She closes the door, wishing it had a lock, and settles back against the headboard to read. After only one paragraph, her cell phone starts buzzing. She has incoming texts from Ally set with a distinct signal, so she knows it’s from her best frie
nd. She’s eager to speak with her about what happened with Miss Covington, but has decided it can wait.
Glancing at the text, Sam sees that Ally is about to die of boredom and wants Sam to come over now. Shaking her head and smiling at her friend’s dramatics, Sam types out a response. Gotta finish homework. Will come over after dinner. Have to tell you something! Her smile widens because she knows that last comment will drive Ally crazy.
Sam again tries to concentrate on the story about ancient civilizations. When her phone buzzes a couple more times, she turns it off. Trying not to get frustrated, she re-reads the first paragraph for the third time.
“I wanna play, SISSY!” Abby suddenly wails from down the hallway. Sam knows that it’s Abby, because Tabby doesn’t say more than one or two word sentences still.
“Abigail, Mommy told you…Samantha is busy right now. You have to be a big girl and wait.”
Listening to her mom, Sam flinches at her formal name. Her parents have a thing for using the older forms of their names from previous generations. It drives her mom crazy when Sam does the whole, ‘Abby and Tabby’ thing, but it’s a hard habit to break. Tabitha, for example, is named after their great-grandmother, who took great offense to the ‘Tabby’ nickname. So it’s somehow considered disrespectful for Sam to use it now with her little sister.
Blinking rapidly, Sam shakes her head, realizing that her thoughts have once again drifted. She is still on the first paragraph! This isn’t going to work, she thinks, slamming the book shut. She glances at the late-afternoon sunshine flowing through her window and comes to a decision. Grabbing her history book, she goes to the back door, slipping on her play shoes. While her ‘good’ shoes are worn, these are literally falling apart. But they’re still her favorites and she refuses to throw them away, much to her mom’s disdain.
“Where are you going?” Kathy asks from the kitchen, where she’s wrestling the little girls into their highchairs for a snack. This reminds Sam that she’s hungry, and she backtracks to the fridge.
“I’m going out to the barn to read,” she explains, poking her head inside the refrigerator. Backing out with a drink and cheese stick, she waves the history book in the air. “I just have to get this read, but I’ll be back in to help with dinner.”
It’s her older brother’s turn to set the table, but he won’t be back from football practice in time. It’s Hunter’s first day at the high school as a freshman, and she hopes he had a better day than she did. Even though he goes out of his way to torture her, they’re only two years apart and used to be pretty close. They’ve been getting along better since their trip to the beach last month, where he and Ally’s older brother, John, helped solve a troubling mystery.
Sam’s dad would normally pitch in with dinner duties, but he’s in Alaska on his annual fishing trip. He’s a career fisherman, and it’s the only income for their family, now that her mom isn’t working as a teacher. Money is often tight, but his job has been growing lately, with his boss handing him more responsibilities. That also means that he might be away longer. Sam tries not to think about that too much.
Fighting back feelings of guilt over leaving her mom alone with the screaming two-year-olds, she heads to her absolutely favorite place in the world, a dilapidated barn in in the far corner of the property.
Her family’s modest, older house sits on a three-acre parcel. Most of the land is behind the home, with a large mowed area giving way to the woods that line the edge of the small town they live in. Her parents bought the property a year before she was born, so this is the only home she’s known. During this time, the barn has never been used for anything other than storage, and a place to daydream. Once used for horses and other farm animals, it’s now taken over by cobwebs and dust.
Pushing the large, rickety double doors of the barn open, Sam steps inside and breathes in the welcoming scents, a combination of old hay and worn cedar boards. Sunlight filters in through missing planks in the walls, and she stops briefly in the warm beams, closing her eyes and tilting her head up to the light.
Ever since she was a little girl, Sam’s dreamed of having her own horse, and adding the unique smells of horse, leather, and saddle soap to the current atmosphere. But she’s the only family member willing to put the time and effort into taking care of a horse, and she’s always been too young. Now that she’s old enough, they don’t have enough money to afford one, and all of the necessary care that horses require.
Sighing, Sam turns away from the light and climbs up into the loft. Her dad throws a couple of fresh bales of hay up there every year, since he knows that she likes to use the space.
Plopping down in a well-worn section of hay, she kicks her shoes off and reclines back with the book. “Now, I can concentrate!” she says aloud, enjoying the silence.
Unfortunately, she’s sound asleep before even turning the first page.
4
CASSY
The second day of school starts out much better than the first, in part because Sam already knows where she’s going and isn’t as rushed. Having an idea of what to expect always makes things a little less scary, too.
She spent the time during the bus ride explaining to Ally why she didn’t show up the night before. By the time Hunter woke her up by throwing hay on her face, she was already late for dinner. After eating and cleaning up, it was time to help bathe the twins and put them to bed. Sam texted Ally, of course, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy her friend. She promised to spend time with her after school today.
Both of Ally’s parents work, and usually aren’t home until later in the evening. Since her older brother, John, has football practice until nearly six, that means she’s at home alone in her huge house for some time. They often hang out there for that reason, and because Ally has a big game room.
Sam has a nice surprise in first period, when a girl she knows from fifth grade walks in late. Sam waves her over to the empty stool next to her, happy to have someone in her art class that she can talk to.
By the time second lunch arrives, and she stands at the entrance to the cafeteria, her positive mood takes a big hit as she looks around timidly. Sam is determined to find some friends to sit with today. But she’ll have to keep her head up if that’s going to happen. Not pointed at the ground.
Taking a big breath, she starts to take a step forward, when someone grabs her from behind.
“Sam!” Ally shouts in her ear.
Sam spins around to face her best friend. “Ally! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” she scolds good-naturedly. “What are you doing here?
“I guess they put a bunch of kids in the wrong classes,” Ally explains. “There were close to forty of us in my third period cooking class, so they had to move us around. I now have wood shop. I thought I was going to hate it, but it’s actually pretty cool. I get to make a jewelry box for my mom, for Christmas! Anyways,” she rushes on, before Sam can get a word in, “The move also changed my lunch period, so now I have second lunch with you!”
They’ve been moving with the tide of students into the lunch line while talking. Sam picks up a tray, then hands another one to Ally. She can’t believe her luck! “This is perfect!” she exclaims, selecting a big slice of pizza. “It makes up for not having more than one class together. And, I won’t have to be the ‘kid who sits by herself at lunch every day!’”
Laughing, they find an empty table and sit down. Sam doesn’t even care if no one else joins them. It doesn’t matter now that Ally’s there. However, as she takes a generous bite of pizza, she notices Cassy walking by. Still determined to make up for the bad impression she made yesterday, Sam drops her food back on the tray and stands up.
“Cassy!” she calls to the surprised girl. “Would you like to eat with us? There’s plenty of room.”
Looking hesitantly at Sam, Cassy appears to consider her options. Sam senses Cassy’s unsure whether she’s being teased or not. She doesn’t blame her for being on guard. Other kids have made fun of the unusual gi
rl in the past, and she isn’t used to genuine kindness.
“Yeah, come sit next to me!” Ally adds, patting an empty seat.
“Um…okay. I mean, I guess so,” Cassy finally mumbles. Shuffling over to the offered seat, she doesn’t meet either of their gazes.
Ally and Sam exchange a questioning look, and Sam shrugs. She has no idea why Cassy is so hesitant around them. She knows that Cassy is different, and gets picked on because of it, but she hasn’t been around her enough to know just how mean some of the other kids have been.
“What do you have for lunch?” Sam asks, trying to strike up a conversation.
Cassy has a crumpled, worn paper sack on the table in front of her. She’s rolling and unrolling the top of the bag, and it’s obvious by the condition of the paper that it’s been used several times. Slowly, she reaches inside without a word and pulls out a small, soft-looking apple. Next, she places a snack pack of cheese crackers beside it. When she begins opening the crackers, it’s apparent that this is all she has.
Sam is shocked. A bad feeling starts stirring within her. She risks being accused of acting rudely again, and studies the girl’s appearance. She’s wearing the same clothes as yesterday. The backpack she set on the floor is falling apart, with duct tape reinforcing the torn edges. But, just like yesterday, she looks freshly showered. And while the clothes are old and stained, they’re still clean.
Cassy is tall for her age, like Sam. In fact, she’s probably nearly the same height as Sam, but much thinner. Her face is pale in comparison to her dark hair, and a bit gaunt. She has warm, brown eyes that are slightly sunken, with blackish/purple smudges under them. She has a pleasant face when she isn’t frowning, but she doesn’t look well.
“Cassy,” Sam begins cautiously. “Have you ever considered applying for the free lunch program?”
Pausing with the apple halfway to her mouth, Cassy slams it back down on the table, making both Sam and Ally jump. “What makes you think I need a handout?” she says angrily, glaring at Sam.