Wishing Pearl

by Nicole O'Dell

  Ju-Ju squinted at Kira’s retreating back. “I’m going to keep my eye on that girl. Olivia, I’d suggest you do the same.”

  Seriously? Prayer time at 5:00 a.m.? Was God even awake at five o’clock in the morning? Standing in the foyer after their extra-early quiet time, the girls anxiously waited to load into the vans for their Black Friday trip to the mall.

  Ben stood on the third step and spoke over the banister to the group, his eyes twinkling. “Girls, we’re about ready to go. I just have to point out that most of you would only just now be rolling out of bed and whining about the time. Funny how, for a special event like shopping, you can get up even earlier than you normally do, with hardly any complaining. Hmm.”

  Well, what did he expect? Of course shopping on Black Friday was easier to get out of bed for than a prayer time that meant nothing to you and a breakfast you didn’t even want to eat. Still, Olivia could see his point. She could probably try to make a better effort to wake up on time without complaining. But first, shopping!

  They left no corner of the mall unexplored. Arms full of packages, Olivia had purchased more than anyone, and that was even with trying to hold back on some of her purchases so she wouldn’t make the other girls feel bad. She was proud of herself for purchasing only Christmas gifts for other people, forgoing a new outfit or anything else for herself.

  At the preset meeting time, Olivia, Ju-Ju, and Skye collapsed in orange plastic chairs in the food court next to Tammy while they waited for the rest of the group to arrive.

  “Where’s Tricia?” Tammy signed as she glanced around the noisy food court.

  “She ran into the restroom.” Olivia let her bags slide from her lap to the floor. “In fact, I think I’ll go, too. Do you guys mind watching my stuff?”

  “Naw. ‘Course not. You go on.” Skye waved toward the public bathroom. “We’ll be right here when you get back.”

  Olivia navigated around strollers and shopping bags scattered on the floor near the tables she passed. Her shoulders sagged at the sight of the line extending out the restroom door and past the one for Taco Bell. No Tricia though. She must have made it in already. Olivia counted the people ahead of her—she could be all the way back home at Diamond Estates before making it through that line. Maybe she could at least go in just to wash her hands.

  Standing at the sink, she peered into the mirror and wiped away the smudged eyeliner. Ugh. Dark circles. Puffy eyes. Looking just like she’d risen before dawn.

  A toilet flushed. Then another. Women milled around. Where was Tricia?

  As a whoosh faded away, Olivia heard someone gag. Gross! A toilet flushed, more retching. Her stomach churned at the thought of some stranger vomiting only a few feet away. She shook the water off her hands and pulled the lever for the paper towels. Oh no—empty! Olivia looked at her wet hands and then rubbed them on her jeans as the door to the far stall swung open and she locked eyes with Tricia.

  “Was that you in there? Are you okay?” Olivia went to Tricia’s side and reached a hand out to touch Tricia’s shoulder.

  “Yeah. It’s no big deal. Just something I ate, I guess.” Tricia shrugged and turned her back to Olivia to wash her hands.

  “Are you sure? That sounded awful.” Olivia searched Tricia’s face in the mirror. “Look. Your eyes are all red. You look terrible.”

  “I’m fine. Really. Please don’t make a big deal out of it.” Tricia left the crowded bathroom with Olivia following right behind.

  Approaching the group after having crossed the packed commons, Tricia grinned and held up her few shopping bags. “Success!”

  Weird. She looked totally normal. If Olivia threw up, she was in bed for at least a day. How had Tricia bounced back so quickly? She was Superwoman.

  “Are you going to tell them you’re sick?” Olivia whispered.

  “Shh. Please don’t say anything. I’m fine. Really.”

  “If you say so.” Olivia shrugged.

  “Oh, I almost forgot.” Olivia rooted around in her largest bag searching for the CD she’d purchased for the prayer room. She had to remove several things before she uncovered it. “Here you go, Tammy. I really love this group, and it’s a worship album, so it’s allowed at the center. Do you think maybe we could have it on some morning during prayer?”

  “Definitely. I know this group—it’ll be perfect. Thanks for contributing. It’s good for you guys to make the time personal to your own tastes.” Tammy accepted the CD and tucked it into her bag.

  “No problem.” Olivia bent to replace the items she’d pulled from her bag. Something caught her eye on the bottom. She lifted a sweater and stifled a gasp as she uncovered a green-and-white dream come true.

  An unopened pack of Newport Menthols.

  Chapter 20

  Glancing to her right and her left, Olivia tried to be discreet. Had anyone noticed? Where had the cigarettes come from? They were her favorite brand—she could almost taste them. Were they a gift from God? Manna from heaven? Yeah right. Someone put them there—someone who wanted her to get in trouble.

  Should she tell Tammy and let her sort it out? But what if Tammy didn’t believe Olivia and thought they really were her cigarettes? Plus it would cause a huge problem with the other girls. They were probably testing her. If she ratted them out, they’d hate her. No, she couldn’t risk that by telling. Plus an unknown enemy was out to get her, and she didn’t want to stir up even more trouble by making her mad.

  Olivia rummaged in the depths of the big shopping bag, pretending to fold some items as she sorted through her purchases. She slipped the pack up her sleeve and collected some garbage from the table, intending to toss the cigs and then dump the messy trash on top.

  On the way to the waste cans, Olivia felt the lump of the cigarette pack in her sleeve. What if she kept it? What if she hid the cigarettes and pulled them out only when she really, really needed one? The thought of a private walk through the woods with the warmth of the minty cigarette smoke coursing through her lungs almost brought tears to her eyes.

  No one was watching her—that she knew of—so she’d never get caught. But she still had no idea who’d slipped the pack into her bag. In all likelihood, the culprit was waiting to see what she did. Maybe she was watching Olivia right now. Since she had no idea who had planted the pack, where she was at the moment, or what her intentions were, Olivia needed to cover her tracks. Pretending to dig into her sleeve, Olivia let some items fall into the can and then dumped the food remains right on top. She made enough of a show of it that whoever knew about the cigarettes would think she tossed them, but anyone else would just think she had a bad itch on her arm.

  Safe.

  Now, who was out to get her? It couldn’t have been one of her roommates. Skye and Tricia seemed to really like her. She and Ju-Ju may have had a rougher start, but Ju-Ju didn’t seem the type to do something that mean and juvenile. Olivia really didn’t know the others girls well enough yet for them to have any reason to do something so cold and hateful. Something that could have gotten her sent home.

  Lost in her thoughts as she walked back to the table where her friends sat, Olivia tripped on something in the center of the aisle and went sprawling onto the ground. She popped right up, before she even realized what had happened, and whipped her head around to see what made her stumble. Kira’s foot stuck out across the middle of the aisle. Had she tripped Olivia on purpose? Then Kira winked at her.

  Of course. Kira had hidden the cigarettes. Olivia should have thought of her first thing because Kira had made no secret of the fact that she didn’t like Olivia. But what had Olivia ever done to Kira? Or what did Kira think Olivia had done?

  “Everyone is present and accounted for.” Patty tucked her clipboard into her bag and pointed toward the doors. “Let’s move out.”

  Everyone gathered their belongings. Olivia scooped up her bags and shouldered her purse. She tried to clear her mind, but the pack of cigarettes still hidden in her sleeve was calling her name. She’d bet
ter not let them fall out while they were riding in the van.

  She took a seat and perched her things around her feet and on her lap.

  Tammy popped her head in once they were all settled. “Inspection time, girls.”

  Obediently, everyone held their bags open as Tammy poked through the purchases to make sure nothing was against the rules.

  When her turn came, Olivia’s hands trembled as she held out each sack and even helped Tammy lift out the items and look in and under each thing. Kira knew about the bag check and probably assumed Olivia didn’t. Her plan had likely been for Olivia to get caught with cigarettes during the inspection. Olivia could hear herself protesting that they weren’t hers and imagined no one would have believed her. Why would they?

  If she would stoop that low, what else was Kira capable of?

  Olivia stood straighter and squared her shoulders, immune to the stares she was sure pierced her back like lasers as she made her way up the sanctuary aisle to her seat between Ju-Ju and Skye. Had she already been there three weeks? In some ways it seemed like she’d arrived only the day before. But in other ways it felt like a lifetime. Nine counseling sessions, two phone conferences with Mom, a major holiday, new friendships … but no God. Maybe all the rest would be enough to get her through. She hadn’t really hoped to make friends. She’d never expected to love her counselor. She hadn’t even hoped for the opportunity to advance her oboe skills. So maybe it was enough … with or without God.

  She stood to her feet as the service opened with a contemporary worship song. Becoming familiar with the practice of reading from the overhead screens and singing along, Olivia actually joined in. The same woman who did it every week sat on the stool on the far right of the stage, signing to several rows of hearing-impaired people. Olivia preferred to watch her rather than the preacher. It made her feel closer to Jake. Plus she thought the signing was such a great thing to offer hearing-impaired people. Maybe they’d let Olivia fill in sometime if the regular woman got sick or something.

  Ack. Olivia shook her head at the thought. What was she thinking? She could never do something like that in front of all those people. For crying out loud, she could barely garner enough nerve to walk down the aisle to sit down.

  After a few choruses, the worship director signaled for them to take their seats. He held out the microphone to a special guest who walked onto the stage. Ah. A solo performance. Olivia loved when they did that—it felt like a concert. The first few bars of the song came through the speakers, and Olivia peered a little closer at the singer. Justin?

  Dressed in sleek black trousers with a crisp seam and a black and gray tweed sport coat over a royal blue knit shirt, Justin opened his mouth to sing.

  Olivia had never heard anything like it in person. He sounded like an angel. She sat on the edge of her seat, never expecting him to do well throughout the whole song—surely he’d mess up and be embarrassed.

  Skye nudged her and giggled. “Close your mouth. You might catch a fly.”

  Olivia snapped her jaw shut. She hadn’t realized she’d been gawking, but she could hardly help it. “I had no idea he could sing like that.”

  “Justin can do just about anything musical. He’s been attending Denver Fine Arts Academy on a full scholarship.”

  “He’s amazing,” Olivia whispered. She couldn’t pull her eyes from the gorgeous guy who gripped the microphone and sang convincingly about the voice of truth calling him to get out of a boat. Olivia had no idea what it meant, but she wanted to know, and she didn’t want the song to end.

  Skye nodded. “Just don’t let Kira hear you say that.”

  Kira? Olivia glanced over at the little firecracker who sat in the row ahead of her. Someone said she’d been a gymnast for years—had Olympic hopes until she got injured. She couldn’t be more than five feet tall. Muscular but tiny—no big threat. Kira had eyes that bored holes through Olivia, but what did she have to worry about? Besides, why did Kira care what Olivia thought of Justin anyway?

  As if she were a mind reader, Kira turned around and winked at Olivia again.

  Olivia gasped at her nerve. “What’s the deal with the winking? She keeps doing that to me,” she hissed at Skye through the corner of her mouth.

  “Don’t bother trying to figure Kira out. Just know she’s not going to make this easy on you.”

  “Well, there is nothing going on. But even if there were, Kira is the least of my concerns.”

  “I reckon I’d be a little worried if I were you.” Skye chuckled. “Don’t put nothin’ past that girl.”

  Donna leaned over the laps of a couple of girls. “Shh. Pay attention to the song.”

  “Sorry.” Skye grimaced.

  Olivia faced forward and listened to the last words of the loveliest sound she’d ever heard, shaking her head the whole time. He did a beautiful job—as well as a professional singer at a concert hall—without a single mistake. The song ended, and Justin lowered the mic and dropped his head as he walked off the stage to thunderous applause. Right before he got to the end of the stage, he turned and pointed skyward.

  How could such a simple gesture make her stomach do flip-flops?

  What could Kira do to her anyway?

  Olivia’s flip-flops turned to nausea. Kira had already tried to get Olivia in trouble with the cigarettes. If she’d already stooped to that level, Kira would stop at nothing to get Olivia in some kind of mess. But why would she want to do that?

  Unless. Did Kira have some claim on Justin, or think she did anyway? Duh! That must be the problem. But even if it were true, it wasn’t like Olivia and Justin had ever even spoken but a few times. Well, there was the one incident with the snow. But Olivia would hardly call that flirting. Justin had meant the prank for his dad. Maybe Kira didn’t know that. But Olivia had done nothing wrong. But that couldn’t be it. Kira had had it in for Olivia since the time she first visited Diamond Estates, and Olivia wasn’t pursuing Justin. Besides, the last she’d heard, Justin was forbidden from dating the Diamond girls. So there was really nothing to talk to Kira about. Rules were rules.

  But rules are meant to be broken … right?

  Chapter 21

  Okay, girls, let’s count off by twos.” Patty stood on a chair holding her clipboard. What was this? Kindergarten? When her turn came, reminiscent of elementary school, Olivia held up two fingers. “Two.”

  The girl next to Olivia said, “One.” Very good, boys and girls.

  “Ones, you’ll be going with Ben to select a Christmas tree. Twos, you’ll be staying here with me and Alicia to get the tree trimmings ready.” Patty jumped down from her chair, her short frame disappearing as she slipped in among the girls.

  Phew! Olivia didn’t want to have to go traipsing around outside in the snow. She and Ju-Ju could hang out while Tricia and Skye went outside. But then again, Kira was also a two. Olivia would have to keep an eye on her—steer clear of her if at all possible. That girl was nothing but trouble.

  Christmas music was being piped in through the multiroom speaker system, and buckets of popcorn waited on the dining room tables for some of the girls to string. Ju-Ju and Olivia headed as far away from that project as they could get. Gingerbread cookies were spread on another table along with frosting, sprinkles, and all kinds of other decorations.

  Olivia grimaced at Ju-Ju. “Should we?” She wrinkled her nose at the thought of decorating cookies.

  “Nah.” Ju-Ju shook her head.

  That left one option—the kitchen and whatever crafty horror awaited them behind those doors. They passed through the entrance before Olivia realized they were joining Kira’s group. They’d better get out of there. Suddenly stringing popcorn held infinite appeal.

  “Come on in, girls!” Alicia flashed her deep dimples. “We could really use your help in here.”

  Too late to sneak away unnoticed. With dread like a lump in her stomach, Olivia approached the group standing around the center worktable and went to the corner, standing as far from K
ira as she could and still be a part of things. Why did she let that girl get to her so much?

  Ju-Ju grinned. “Ooh! Are we doing what I think we are?” She clapped her hands and rubbed them together.

  “Yep.” Alicia gestured to the cookbook. “We’re making homemade candy canes.”

  Huh? Why bother going to all that trouble? “Candy canes are probably cheaper to buy than to make. Why go to all that extra work?”

  “Cheaper is seldom better. Besides”—Alicia smiled proudly—”it’s a Diamond Estates tradition that everything on the Christmas tree is homemade. Except for the lights, of course. And no Christmas tree is complete without candy canes.”

  Olivia leaned in to whisper in Ju-Ju’s ear. “Let me guess, colored blinking lights?”

  “Of course. What other kind are there?”

  So much for the elegant, magazine-worthy trees her mom had professionally decorated with dainty white lights every year. Olivia made a mental note to pull up her online photo albums the next time they had computer access. Ju-Ju needed a lesson in taste—holiday style.

  Alicia handed out little cards with the recipe printed on them and then demonstrated one candy cane. Then the girls divided into groups of two and spread out to separate work spaces in the kitchen. Olivia steered Ju-Ju to a corner opposite Kira’s perch on a bar stool near Alicia.

  Olivia and Ju-Ju mixed their first batch of candy, heating it to the precise temperature and adding red food coloring to half of it. “So, Ju, tell me your story. If you’re ready to, I mean.” She dropped the red candy mixture onto the powdered-sugar-coated cookie sheet and dragged it into a long, thin strip to cool just like Alicia had done.

  Ju-Ju shrugged and did the same with the white candy. “It’s no big secret. Basically, my mom and brother were killed when I was twelve. They were shot in a drive-by while watching TV in our living room.” Ju-Ju shrugged again.