“Yes, ma’am.” I shut the door so I can get into my uniform. There’s not time to do anything with my hair, so I just pull it into a ponytail. I’ll have to do without the lipstick this morning, for all that will really matter.
Sister Matilda is still by the doorway when I open up. She gestures me to move forward. It’s not hard for her to fall into step beside me with her longer legs. “So what’s this about?” I ask.
“Sister Mary Francis will tell you.”
“Oh. I thought maybe you could give me a preview.”
“I’m sorry, Rose. I can’t do that.”
“It’s all right. I guess I can’t expect any special treatment with what happened.”
I open the door to let us outside. There are other girls heading to the chapel in small packs. I can’t see Melanie among them, but I’m sure she’ll be there. Tonya will be there too, unless the meeting is to announce she has been expelled. I should be so lucky.
Sister Matilda has me sit in the back pew along with the janitors and cafeteria staff. That seems appropriate for Cinderella. I lean up a little to try to find Melanie, but it’s hard to tell with so many girls who have the same light brown hair and of course the same uniform. I settle back onto the seat when Sister Matilda puts a hand on my back.
Sister Mary Francis enters from the rectory, Father Barclay behind her. The father speaks first, leading us in a prayer. Then he says, “Sister Mary Francis has an important announcement. Sister?”
She stands behind the lectern to address us. “Last night I received word from the sheriff. A couple of very dangerous men have escaped from Granite Heights Penitentiary, about ten miles east of here. The police are doing everything they can to find these men, but in the meantime we must take precautions. As of now I want no one walking around here alone, especially at night. If you see anyone suspicious, you are to contact an adult at once.”
The sister sweeps around the room with a hard glare that’s enough to make me flinch. “It’s important to keep calm. These men might be dangerous, but it’s unlikely they will come here. We will continue with classes and all activities as we normally would. We will allow you to contact your parents if you would like to leave until this issue has been resolved.”
It is tempting to ask Sister Matilda to let me call Jessica, but the situation back home might be worse than it is here. There’s no reason to get her involved unless it’s absolutely necessary. And thanks to Sister Matilda I know how to protect myself a lot better than I did a few months ago.
Sister Mary Francis goes on for a few minutes and then dismisses us without any questions. I still can’t find Melanie; is she going to ask to go home? I hope not or I won’t have anyone to talk to on campus except when Dr. Tyrell visits.
The rest of the day goes by as it normally does. The only difference is I make sure to stay close to groups of other girls when I’m going from one class to another. I doubt these convicts would attack us in broad daylight even if they are around here, but it doesn’t pay to take chances.
I finish with the dishes at eight o’clock. I open the kitchen door and squeak with surprise to find Melanie there. She’s quick to wrap me in a hug. “What are you doing here?” I ask. “You could get in trouble—”
“I figured you’d need someone to walk you home. Buddy system, remember? That’s what Sister Mary Francis said we’re supposed to do.”
“Oh, right. That’s a good idea.”
I’m glad for the company as we step out into the night air. It has never looked so spooky on campus as it does now. I tell myself that everything is the same and yet now the shadows from the lamps seem a lot more menacing.
Melanie must feel the same way because we’re walking a lot faster than we usually would. It says something about the kind of friend she is that she’d wait to take me home despite how scared she is. She has been such a good friend all through everything that has happened. I don’t know what I’d do without her.
At first I think the shadow that peels off of the wall of our dorm is my imagination. Then I see a figure ambling towards us. From the bulk it has to be a guy. I take Melanie’s hand to pull her back. I put a finger to my lips before she can say anything.
We start back for the cafeteria, but there’s another silhouette closing in. Sister Mary Francis said there were two of them. Melanie looks from one guy to the other and then starts to cry. I squeeze Melanie’s arm to try to reassure her.
I drop my backpack to the sidewalk and then put up my hands. “Look, guys, we don’t have much but you can have it, OK? We won’t tell anyone.”
“Maybe that’s not all we want,” the guy ahead of us says. He steps into the light enough that I can see he’s wearing a blue work shirt with “Gary” stitched over the right pocket; I doubt his name is really Gary. He reaches into the pocket of his jeans to take out a knife. “You girls stay quiet and we won’t have to hurt you. You make a sound and—” His voice trails off to let us imagine what he might do. He looks back at the guy behind us. “Which one you want: the big one or the little one?”
“I like the big one,” the other guy says. Melanie gasps. She throws herself against me, her entire body trembling.
“Gary” flashes a yellow smile with a few teeth missing. “Good. I like the little ones, except they have a habit of breaking.” He snickers as he takes a step towards us.
I look up at Melanie and then take off my glasses. I press them into her hand. “Keep these safe for me, all right?”
“What?”
I shove her back and then dart forward to take “Gary” by the wrist. I twist hard enough that he screams with pain, the knife dropping to the sidewalk. I can’t throw him over my shoulder, but I do throw him down to the ground, where he lands with a groan of pain. Before he can recover, I kick him in the face. He’ll probably lose a few more teeth from that.
I scoop up the knife from the sidewalk and then brandish it at the other guy. “You want some of this?”
He snorts and then shows a smile that’s even more yellow and with fewer teeth. “You got balls, kid. I’ll give you that. It’s going to be fun.”
I let him come towards me, waiting for him to make the first move. I’m not surprised when he takes a wild swing with the knife; he thinks I’m some dopey little girl who got lucky the first time. I duck under his swing and then jam his partner’s knife into his right thigh. As he screams, I sweep my leg around to kick his right calf. He tumbles to the sidewalk. A couple of kicks to his face and he’s down too. I take both knives from the guy.
I turn to Melanie. I expect to find her a sobbing mess, but she’s staring at me with wide eyes. “Are you all right?” I ask.
She nods. Then she stammers, “You’re her. You’re…you’re the Outcast.”
“What?”
“That girl. That girl from the train. You’re her!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I take my glasses from her and then say, “Come on, we better go tell Sister Mary Francis.”
***
We spend the rest of the night talking first with the nuns and then with the sheriff. A couple of deputies have those escaped convicts on their way back to Granite Heights—with a stop at the hospital. I give the nuns and the sheriff the same story: those guys approached us when we were walking home. They got into an argument over which of them would have which of us; it turned to blows, allowing us to get away. Melanie backs this story and I’m sure the convicts won’t deny it either; better that than to admit they got beat up by a girl.
It’s three in the morning before we’re let go. “Can I stay with Melanie tonight?” I ask Sister Mary Francis. “She’s a little shaken up yet.”
“Certainly, young lady.” The nun actually pats me on the head. “You were both very brave girls. You’ve done God’s work tonight.”
“Thank you, Sister.” I take Melanie’s arm to lead her back to the dorm. A deputy accompanies us to make sure we make it in one piece. He doesn’t follow us into our room.
&n
bsp; I sit Melanie down on a chair. She has hardly said a word since we left those two guys on the sidewalk. Now that we’re alone, though, she comes to life. “It’s true, isn’t it? You’re the girl from the train. You saved me. Twice now.”
“You mean that girl in your comic book? I’m not her. I mean, she looked totally different, didn’t she? Her hair was black, wasn’t it? And she didn’t have glasses or braces, right?”
“It’s not the hair or the glasses or the braces. It’s…it’s the look in her eyes. It was exactly the same. I mean, I was pretty much wetting myself and you weren’t scared at all. When you kicked their asses it was like with the guy on the train, like they were barely even there.”
“Come on, Melanie, what are the odds that that girl would be assigned to you as a roommate? It’d have to be astronomical.”
“But not impossible. Why won’t you admit it? Is it that you don’t trust me?”
“Melanie, please, I don’t know what—”
Before I can stop her, she snatches the glasses from my face. She looks through them and then snorts. “Glass. That’s what I thought. You don’t even need these.”
“So? Lots of girls wear glasses these days. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Just tell me the truth, Rose.” Her eyes narrow at me. “Is that even your real name?”
I sigh and then shake my head. “No. My real name is Robin. And you’re right: I kicked that creep’s ass on the train. I was hoping you wouldn’t figure it out. I mean, I look a lot different than back then.” I run a hand through my long, light brown hair for emphasis.
I collapse on my old bed and then look down at my feet. “I’m sorry, Melanie. It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s just…something happened back in Redoubt City. My friend had to put me into witness protection. They gave me a new name and all that stuff. I didn’t tell anyone the truth, not even the nuns.
“And, well, I kind of thought if you knew it’d make things weird. I mean, you drew that whole comic book about me.”
“Oh, God, that was so dumb,” Melanie says. She shakes her head. “I mean, I can’t really see you in a black catsuit.”
We share a laugh at this. Melanie comes over to sit next to me. “Rose—Robin—I can’t thank you enough. You saved my life twice now. You’re a hero. Not a comic book hero either. You’re real.” She pinches my arm as if to make sure I am real. “It’s amazing. Really.”
“Thanks. My sister and my aunt didn’t feel the same way.”
“They sent you here for beating up that creep on the train?”
“No. That was just the start.” I tell her about what happened on the docks, how I nearly died and had to spend months recovering. “They enrolled me here to hide. Except they didn’t bother to check to see if Madame Crimson’s daughter was here.”
“You mean Tonya?”
“Duh. Don’t you ever read the news?”
“Not a whole lot. I guess it does explain things.”
“Yeah. Like mother like daughter.”
“I’m sorry about your dad. I’m sure he was a good guy.”
“He was the best.”
We don’t say anything for a moment and then Melanie giggles. “What?”
“I was just thinking this would make an awesome comic book. I mean your whole story it’s like Batman or Spider-Man or something. The orphaned kid who takes on criminals. You’ve even got a comic book name: Robin.”
“I’m not wearing tiny green shorts and a yellow cape.”
“No, but you need something better than your school uniform. It’d be too easy for anyone to identify you with that.”
“I don’t need any uniform. I’m not going to do that again. I mean, I almost died, OK? I can’t do that to my sister again.”
“But she’s still out there. You can’t let her get away with it.”
“What am I supposed to do? I’m just one kid. She’s got a whole army.”
“I can help you. Sister Matilda can train me—”
“Melanie, stop it. This isn’t one of your comic books. This is real life. People die in real life and they don’t get revived by a magic potion or cloning machine or time travel or anything. When they die, it’s forever. You got it?”
She stares at me for a moment but then nods. “I get it. But it was really awesome what you did to those guys. Totally ninja.”
“Thanks.” I yawn theatrically. “We should get to bed.”
“OK. Um, you think I could sleep on the floor tonight? I don’t want to sleep up there by myself, you know?”
“I’ll sleep on the floor. It’s softer than that cot in the janitor’s closet.”
“Thanks.” She gives me a hug and then springs off the bed to retrieve her pillows and blankets. I make a little nest on the floor beside the bottom bunk. Now that the adrenaline has worn off, it doesn’t take long for me to drop off into sleep.
Chapter 22
I’m finally out of the closet—the janitor’s closet. With some prodding from Dr. Tyrell, Sister Mary Francis lets me move back in with Melanie “for emotional support.” I still sleep on the cot only now it’s beside the bottom bunk. That’s also to provide emotional support and so I’m close by when Melanie wakes up from a nightmare and needs someone to quiet her screaming.
We both get to see Dr. Tyrell now. My session is after hers. Dr. Tyrell keeps pressing me, but I’m not traumatized by what happened with those convicts. I wouldn’t be losing any sleep over it at all if not for Melanie. Not that I’m holding that against her; she has the right to be freaked out by almost being raped and murdered by those jerks. It’s probably weirder that I’m not traumatized by it.
I ask Dr. Tyrell about that. “You’ve suffered a few traumas already. Your mother’s accident. Your father’s death. What happened on the docks.”
“I guess that’s true. I’m not really freaked out by any of that stuff either. Does that mean there’s something wrong with me? I mean, do I not have a soul or something?”
Dr. Tyrell chuckles at that. “I’m sure you have a soul. Not everyone who experiences a traumatic event responds in the same way. Your friend Melanie is normal the rest of the time, isn’t she?”
“Pretty much. She gets nervous when I’m not around. Sometimes she even has me go with her into the bathroom. Not the same stall; I use the one next to her or wait by the sinks.”
“She sees you as her protector. That’s not unexpected with what has happened.”
“Uh-huh. There are times I want to tell her to go away, that I need my space. Is that selfish?”
“Everyone needs space now and then. But you don’t tell Melanie to go away, do you?”
“No. I don’t want to hurt her. She’s my friend. My best friend. OK, only friend.”
“I understand. Still, in the long run it would be best to tell Melanie the truth. I’m sure she’ll understand.”
“Couldn’t you do it? Like in her next session maybe suggest it to her?”
“I don’t think she would appreciate that as much as if it came from you.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Of course he can’t let me off the hook on that. I don’t want to hurt Melanie’s feelings, but her clinginess is getting to be a bit much. Sometimes it seems like we’re Siamese twins.
I wait until that night when we’re back in the dorm. Melanie is working on her homework at her desk while I read a book on the bunk that used to be mine. She pauses what she’s doing to look over at me. “Hey, um, I was thinking of taking a little break, you know?”
I put down my book and then sit up to glare at her. “Look, Melanie, you’re a big girl. You can go to the potty by yourself now.”
“I know, it’s just—”
“I can’t follow you everywhere. You’re going to have to learn to handle some things yourself.”
“I know,” she mumbles again. “I hate bugging you, but it’s just if I’m alone I start to feel them, you know? Like they’re right there with me.”
I go over to her desk to put a hand on her
shoulder. “They’re back in jail, Melanie. They aren’t going to bother you anymore.”
“I know! I know! It’s stupid, but I can’t help it. Dr. Tyrell says it’s going to take time. I hate it. I feel so…helpless, you know? You’re like a total ninja and I can hardly pee by myself. I guess you’re right that I’d make a lousy sidekick.”
“Not everyone deals with this stuff the same way,” I say, borrowing from Dr. Tyrell. “I have an idea: I’ll go into the hallway with you and keep watch. If I see any bad guys coming, I’ll kick their asses, right?”
“That…that sounds all right.”
I open the door and then peek outside. I motion for her to follow me into the hallway. As promised I stand out in the hallway while Melanie scurries into the bathroom to do her business. With her usual good sense of timing, Tonya shows up then.
“Shouldn’t you be mopping the floor, Cinderella?”
“Just keep walking, princess.”
“Oh, right, because you’re the big tough girl now.” She gets almost toe-to-toe with me so that she can look down at me. “I don’t know why those guys would want either of you, except they were really desperate after being in prison so long.”
She snickers at her own joke. I’d like to kick her in the knee and then knock a few of her teeth out, but while the incident with the convicts has gotten me out of the janitor’s closet, I’m still on probation with Sister Mary Francis. “Why don’t you go bother someone else for a change?”
Tonya glances down the hallway. “Your girlfriend in there?” Tonya snickers again before I can say anything. “I hear she’s got to have you wipe her ass for her. Poor widow baby Mewanie.”
Melanie picks that moment to appear from the bathroom. Tonya guffaws loud enough that I’m sure Melanie can hear it. “There she is now. You manage to pee-pee all by yourself?”
“Leave her alone,” I growl.
“Uh-oh, your girlfriend is getting pissed off,” she calls out to Melanie.
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