Fire Girl Part 1 Read online

  I laughed.

  Antone’s face lit up and he took another puff. “She likes Antone. She finds him fascinating.”

  I clutched the cigarettes tighter into my palm.

  He nodded in the direction of the school. “Antone is in shop class right now. His favorite class. The only class he understands. Molding metal, fixing cars.” He jerked his thumb toward his chest. “Manly stuff.”

  I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped me, and the small sympathy I felt for poor Antone—the third person talking boy. It would be pretty hard to swallow being sent to America and ending up in Sugar Valley. I shrugged. “I lived in Florence for a stint.”

  Antone threw his cigarette onto the ground. His eyebrows shot up. “What?”

  I thought about the sightseeing tours my parents had made me go on. “It was only for a couple of months, but it’s beautiful there.”

  His chocolate eyes sparked with interest. “Yes, Italia is beautiful. More beautiful than I realized. How do you say, ‘you don’t know what you got, ‘til it’s gone.’”

  I giggled again, finding that I didn’t know this giggling girl I’d suddenly become.

  He flicked his fingers at the pack of cigarettes. “Please, go ahead, smoke your cigarette.”

  I’d forgotten about them. “Naa—it’s . . .The moment’s over. I-it’s . . .” I looked into his happy, chocolate eyes and decided to tell the truth. “I don’t smoke. I-I just thought it might make me feel better. Ya know a bad habit worth trying out.”

  Antone frowned. “I know. I know too well what you describe.”

  A flicker of skin and black hair played at the edges of my peripheral vision.

  I jerked around, not wanting to get caught.

  A laugh puffed out. “New girl’s jumpy.”

  I stared at the girl, completely baffled.

  She wore heeled baby doll shoes and a black, tight spandex dress. It had a black layered afghan over it. Her face—white, pale, kohl-lined eyes. This must be the goth girl Chance had told me about. For a split second I marveled how seemingly unimportant information had a way of turning useful in a small town.

  She inspected me.

  I took note of her black lips and long, dark hair. It parted down the middle.

  The side of her lip-ringed mouth curled as if she’d just noticed the stench of the dumpster. “Am I interrupting something?”

  Antone delayed and took a long drag from his cigarette. “You have come to taunt me.”

  She hissed and threw two fingers up like snake fangs.

  I stared between them. I didn’t want to get in the middle of whatever this was. I moved past her. “I think I better go back.”

  She sidestepped in front of me and lifted a match into the air. “Where ya goin?” She spoke out of the side of her mouth and puffed gently on the cigarette.

  I thought about the other goth kids at my old school—kind of smart, kind of crazy.

  Antone let out a sharp, ripping laugh that made me jump.

  “Geez.” I breathed out.

  Antone maneuvered between us. “No Maddie, don’t try smoking.” He blew a puff into goth girl’s face. “Bad habits are never worth it.”

  “Oh, go die somewhere.” She puffed her cigarette and glared at me. “He’s just bitter I said no to him. But I guess he found you.”

  I tried to move around them. “Look, I gotta go.”

  Antone danced in front of me.

  Every step I took he matched. “Don’t listen to her. Sometimes destiny has a plan.”

  The knot in my stomach tightened.

  She let out a small laugh. “Oh, that’s right everybody’s buzzing about the new girl.”

  I stopped trying to get around Antone and whizzed back to her. “What do you mean buzzing?”

  She puffed out smoke. “Look, everything’s not about you, new girl.”

  The whole small town everyone knows everything had gotten old. I shoved into her face. “What have you heard?”

  She gave a satisfied smile. “I’m Trina, by the way.”

  She liked this. She liked getting people to notice her—by whatever means necessary. I moved past her. “I don’t want trouble.”

  Trina shoved her shoulder into me—hard.

  I teetered on my stilettos and caught myself. “Back off.”

  “You sing.” She spat it out but took a step back.

  All my anger concentrated onto her words—what did she just say?

  “I overheard your cousin telling his obnoxious girlfriend last hour all about how you used to sing and now your grandma’s worried because you won’t go to church and bla, bla, bla.”

  Fury burned through me. How dare he? How dare he talk about crap like that in class where anybody could just—

  “So let’s hear it.” A wicked smile pinched her lips.

  I swerved back to her, ready to give her my fourth grade hook.

  Trina widened her eyes and gave a mock smile. She flicked the edges of her fingers up. “Bring it.”

  Antone moved behind me. “Stop this.”

  Trina shoved a lit cigarette into my hand. “You say you don’t want trouble but if you ask me—trouble usually finds you.”

  I fumbled with the cigarette and then hot potatoed it. Who in the crap was she?

  “Smoke it.” Trina shouted at me.

  I chucked the cigarette into the dumpster. I hardened my best ‘don’t mess with me’ glare into place. “Stay out of my way.”

  A taunting smile stretched her lips. “Oh, right, of course I will. Because you’re new and you deserve anything you want, right?”

  I hardened my glare for an extra second and then moved past her. “I so do not need this.”

  “Wait!” Antone called to me.

  I stomped toward the school. Crazy—the whole town had to be completely insane.

  “Maadie!” Antone gained on me.

  I turned around. “I’m going back in.”

  Antone’s eyes widened like he’d just seen a space ship crash land. “Stop!”

  But it was too late.

  The thud of hitting something really solid was more surprising than I ever expected.

  I fell backward; knife-like pain went through my back. I couldn’t breathe.

  “Tarnation, girl!” Principal Schmidt stuck his hands on his overly large hips. His ruddy cheeks looked even bulgier from my position on the ground. He didn’t move to help me up, but kept his gaze fixed on the emotionally charged Antone that knelt beside me.

  “Maadie!” An overly dramatic lovesick face, like out of some sappy movie, rippled over his features.

  Principal Schmidt put out a hand to help me stand. “What in the Sam hill are you doing out of class, Antone?”

  Reluctantly, I took Principal Schmidt’s hand. This whole day had just gotten even worse.

  Principal Schmidt turned a cocked eyebrow to me and did a quick sniff of the air. “Is that smoke I smell?”

  Antone puffed out his chest like a warrior ready to come to my defense. “I am the one that smells of smoke, do not blame her.”

  My heart pounded in a pitter patter beat. I really, really, really didn’t need this!

  The sound of something falling echoed behind us. A haze of smoke filled the air and blackened above one of the dumpsters.

  Trina stepped out and pointed a finger at me. “It was her! She’s trying to burn the place down!”

  ***

  Grandpa stalked up the cement steps and threw open the screen door. He didn’t hold it for me.

  I caught it just before it clunked back into place. He hadn’t spoken to me the whole ride home. He hadn’t even looked at me during the meeting in Principal Schmidt’s office.

  I sauntered into the front room.

  Grandma stood in the middle of front room, her eyes puffy. The knick knacks surrounded her like soldiers ready to wage battle.

  She’d been crying? My heart fell into a flat line. The only other time in my entire life that I’d seen her cry had been t
hat day.

  Grandpa moved to her side and took her hand. He scowled and the creases on the edges of his eyes deepened.

  “Maddie, what were you thinking?” Grandma’s voice held an honest sadness to it.

  I reached for my sunflower. “I don’t know.” What could I tell them—I wanted to leave town and thought smoking might make me feel better?

  “That’s right you don’t know.” Grandpa snapped. “Do you know the good name you’re dragging through the mud? Of course you don’t because you don’t know the respect that your Grandma and I have worked long and hard to earn in this town. Your first day of school you skip class.” He touched one finger. “You smoke cigarettes.” He let out a puff of air in exasperation and lay out a second finger. “And, you start a fire!” He threw both his hands into the air and roared. “You’re lucky Principal Schmidt goes way back with your father. He could have pressed legal charges against you.” He shook his finger in my face. “And you’re going to do his student work program as long as it takes. And did you know that Officer Justice, our local Sheriff, has agreed to escort you to and from school?”

  “What?” How would I escape if I had a cop on my tail the whole time?

  Grandpa’s face soured even more. “Do not act that way!”

  My mind flashed to that night. The rising smoke. The way his thick glasses stared back at me from behind those blue curtains. The way Carrie had yelled at me. I shook my head and tried to clear it.

  “You don’t know the trouble you’ve caused.”

  My vision started to blur, blood whooshed through my ears in a pumping frenzy, I staggered back.

  “The past year has been hard on your grandmother!”

  I stumbled back. Carrie had grabbed my arm and shoved me into the car before I could stop it. Before I could stop any of it. “Shut up!”

  Grandpa’s face contorted into something fierce and angry and vicious. “Watch your mouth!”

  I backed into the wall right next to the antlers. I sucked in a breath. In through the nose, slow, out through the mouth.

  Grandma clenched her jaw and looked from me back to grandpa. “Frank, calm down. You know this isn’t good for your heart.”

  Grandpa gave her a suffered pause and then turned his clouded eyes back to me. “She has to be dealt with, Star.”

  My head cleared and I honed into Grandpa’s words.

  “I want to make it understood that farm work is not an option for you. You will work after school, and then you’ll come home and work here.”

  “I never smoked it.” I inhaled and studied the brown, faded spirals in the carpet.

  Grandpa let out a long sigh. “That boy told us you were there. That you were talking to them before the fire started. If you think I’ll stand for you lying to my face, if you think your behavior will be tolerated in this house for one second, you better have another think coming. If you’re going to fit in here and belong in this town—”

  “But I don’t belong here. Isn’t that what you said?” The memory of his words. The words that had been on permanent repeat the past year.

  Grandpa and Grandma both stared at me in stunned pause.

  I pointed at him, accusing him. “I heard you. That’s what you said, right? You told Aunt Sylvie to take me. You said to take me because I don’t belong here.”

  Grandma gasped.

  Grandpa’s face froze into a mask.

  A surge of emotion caught inside my throat and I couldn’t stay for another minute. Another second. Another instant. I shot from the room and down the hall. Down the stairs and slammed my cupboard room door.

  “Maddie!” Grandma yelled.

  I heard grandma on the stairs and quickly locked the door.

  “Come out and talk to us, Sweetie.”

  I couldn’t get a full breath of air. I shut my eyes and slumped against the freezer. I pressed a hand against my chest. It hurt. It hurt even worse than before. The words connected to the scabbed over wound inside my heart.

  Finally, I heard Grandma pad up the stairs.

  I let myself collapse face down on the bed. I wished I could forget the last year. I wished I could see my parents. I wished I could just die.

  I fished through the events of the day in my mind and took apart each one like a doctor inspected organs. I thought of the grumpy wheelchair girl, the tight, controlled fear in her eyes. She didn’t know it but I could see through her. I could see through the anger she used to cover her fear.

  I looked at it every day in the mirror.

  The faint sound of buzzing brought me out of my desperate thoughts. I dove for my backpack and bumped against the unopened iphone box next to the freezer. I hadn’t even cut the sticker. I wanted Uncle Bill to be able to take it back when I left.

  I pulled my phone out and touched the front of it. “Please tell me you got the money—”

  Chapter 5 Long Gone

  Cop or no cop, I would be leaving Sugar Valley today. The last breakfast. That’s what I could call this day. I scraped cereal out of my bowl and tilted it to drink the last of the milk.

  Carrie said Jimmy had a contact and they would get the money this morning. They would pick me up by two o’clock this afternoon, and I would finally be free. I could finally get away from the last year and the courts and this stupid town.

  I told them I would meet them at the bus station right outside of town. There would be no way I could chance Carrie and Jimmy coming into town, especially now that everyone would be watching my every move. So I had to get away. I had to take my chance and split. I had to plan it perfectly.

  I tapped my spoon against the bowl in pattering tings. The few necessities I needed were in my backpack. I didn’t want to alert anyone that I wouldn’t be returning. A trick Carrie had told me she’d used during her foster home escapes.

  The screen to the side door slid open then slammed shut. Grandpa tromped up the stairs and turned into the kitchen. He had always been up before dawn to do the morning chores. Our eyes met and both of us seemed to measure the mood of the other.

  Here we go. But, I didn’t care. I wouldn’t be here to be a burden to him anymore.

  He went straight for the cereal and filled a bowl on the counter. “Mornin’.”

  I’d been bracing myself for something else entirely. Not this. “Mornin’.”

  He pulled the milk out and threw me a frown. “You tryin’ to break the bowl?”

  The spoon in my fingers clanked to the floor.

  Grandpa stared at me.

  I picked it up and tried to stare back casually. I couldn’t look out of sorts.

  Grandpa picked up his bowl and sat across from me. “Chance coming to get you?”

  I nodded.

  He took a bite and slurped the spoon.

  Shouldn’t there be some kind of yelling match right now? I stood and took my bowl to the sink and rinsed it out.

  “Maddie!” Grandma called out from the front room. “Chance just pulled up.”

  I quickly dried the bowl and spoon and put it away.

  “Hey, you two—come out and let’s have family prayer.”

  Prayer. A strange surge of anger went through me. I paused. I’d grown up saying prayers with my parents every morning and night. But—it had been a long time since I’d prayed.

  “What’s wrong, Madds?” Grandpa waited next to the kitchen door.

  I shook my head. “Nothing.”

  Grandpa caught my arm. “Remember, I’ll see you after your work program, young lady. Be prepared for the beginning of your farm work training.”

  I didn’t know how every word out of someone’s mouth could grate on my nerves, but it did. He didn’t care about me. He never wanted me here anyway. It no longer mattered, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wrenched my arm away. “I will never do farm work for you.”

  Grandpa straightened and squished his face into a challenging pose. “You listen here, young lady—”

  “Maddie?” Grandma stood behind us.

  Both of us t
urned to her.

  Her face held a warning look, her voice quiet. “Let’s go have prayer.”

  We followed her into the front room. She knelt and then put both of her hands out.

  I plunked my hands into theirs. I needed to get this over with and get out of here.

  Grandpa pulled off his hat and nodded to Grandma.

  “Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for this day. Thank you for our blessings. Thank you for Maddie coming home to us. Lord, please help her to know she is loved. And, please help her to get her voice back.” She quickly ended the prayer.

  I ripped my hands from them causing Grandpa to fall back.

  “My heck, where are your manners?”

  “Let her be.” Grandma stood and helped Grandpa up.

  Grandpa gave me a hard look then stalked back to the kitchen.

  Grandma smiled at me and began to fold a pile of towels on the couch.

  My heart clutched inside my chest and I suddenly realized this was it. I would never see her again. I tried to memorize every part of her.

  “Sweetie, I’m going into town today to get my hair done. Could I give you a ride home after. . .” She cleared her throat. “. . . after your work program?”

  I didn’t know what to say. Stiffly, I opened the front door. “What?” I wouldn’t be there and I’d planned on her not finding out for a few hours.

  “I need to go talk with Principal Schmidt, anyway.”

  Chance’s horn blared out.

  I jumped a little. “Hmm . . .”

  His horn blew again, scrambling my thoughts like Yatzee dice thrown before coming up with the next answer.

  “What’s that knuckle head doing? My word! Waking up the neighbors.” Grandpa yelled from the kitchen.

  “It’ll be fun.” Grandma swooshed toward me, the smell of her Japanese Blossom Avon perfume touched my senses. I remembered sitting in front of her vanity and dabbing it all over my neck as I waited for her to dress for church. She hugged me.

  I leaned into her and gave her a goodbye hug. “Okay.” I would leave a letter for her. I would write it during class and give it to Chance before going to the bus stop.

  She put her hands together in fluttered claps. “Perfect, I’ll see you then.” She tilted her head to the side and studied me. “Do you want to talk about something, Sweetie?”