Tuesday, October 5th, 2018
I sat alone in the Commons at Stewart Falls Academy with my double-shot skinny mocha and a blueberry muffin, a month and a half later. I’d caught up with Warren in the laundry room at home last night and convinced him to play chauffer and drop me off early so I could study for my English presentation.
I gazed at the book on the table in front of me and tried to understand the Shakespearean scene. Mr. Barrett loved The Taming of the Shrew. Every year, he assigned different parts of the play to groups of his students and we had to get up in front of the class and act them out, or at least read them aloud. It was my turn, well, mine, Kaitlyn Harris’, and Rob Rivers’.
This unit was a big part of the fall semester grades. Their parents wouldn’t lose it if we blew it, because nobody ever got more than a B from Barrett. Personally, I’d have to listen to my mom and stepdad bitch and threaten to sell my horse if my grades dropped.
“Hey there.” Wearing her red sweater and short Royal Stewart Tartan cheer skirt, Kaitlyn dropped her backpack on an empty chair. She glanced across the room to the espresso stand, which thankfully opened at 6:30, an hour before school started. “I need coffee. Did you figure out how to save our butts, Sarah?”
“I’m working on it,” I said, wondering if the whole squad was going to show up in uniform today. I’d opted for a white blouse and the dark blue slacks that matched my eyes and let my waist-length black hair hang long and free. I wouldn’t braid it until practice after school. If I needed my cheer clothes, I’d have to track down either Warren or Timber and get one of them to run me back home before school started so I could change. “Did Abbie say to dress for school today?”
“No. I just have to see my dad tonight and he likes to show off his cheerleader daughter to his lawyer buddies.” Kaitlyn rooted through her backpack and fished out her purse. “I’d have texted you if our beloved new cheer captain came up with anything you had to know after you and Jason left yesterday.” She eyeballed my muffin. “What’s that about? I thought you were watching your weight, although I don’t know why you stress about it. Ever since Hailey moved to Seattle right before Labor Day, Jason treats you like you’re the latest superstar, not the newest flyer on Varsity Cheer.”
I remembered the lecture I’d gotten at the espresso stand. “Timber decided I must be anorexic if I skip breakfast so he bought me a muffin.” I heaved a dramatic sigh. “He and Warren keep arguing about who’s my big brother.”
“Considering that both of them are hunks, they can spoil me anytime,” Kaitlyn said. “But do yourself a favor and don’t mention them to Jason. He’s such a control freak. And if I were you, I’d scarf down that muffin before he gets here so he doesn’t have an issue about that too.”
“Okay.” I eyed the large entry hall to the school and the glass doors that opened onto the parking lot. “Have you seen Rob Rivers? I called him last night, and he promised to meet us but he hasn’t—”
“Oh my Gawd!” Kaitlyn gaped at me, golden-brown eyes wide. “Sarah, that is so not done. Don’t tell Jason you called yet another guy. He’ll totally lose it. You’re the quarterback’s girl now, remember?”
I sighed. “Go get your coffee. I’ll tell Jason when he gets here, and it’ll be okay. He’s going to have to get used to the idea that I’m friends with a lot of people at the academy. His former girlfriend Hailey Collins may have been Ms. Stuck-up, but I’m not.”
“Yeah, but personally I’d go with ‘discretion being the better part of valor’ like Barrett says and keep my mouth shut.” Kaitlyn headed through the clustered tables in the cafeteria for the espresso stand and her morning jolt of caffeine.
I wondered if she was right about not mentioning the phone call to Jason. She didn’t know much more about guys than I did. Her single mom said no dating ’till Kaitlyn turned sixteen and whenever she pushed it, her mom talked about a private girls-only school. As if the academy with all its rules wasn’t harsh enough!
Jason was my first serious boyfriend and there was a lot of stuff I just didn’t get when it came to dating. Sure, he and Hailey had been the school dream couple until she moved away, but that wasn’t my fault. I’d been stunned when he congratulated me for making it onto the Varsity Cheer squad and brought me flowers at the beginning of school. I hadn’t thought he’d known who I was, even if he did look at me occasionally last year when I was a freshman.
Why would he be angry if I was assigned to do a team project for English and there were guys on the team? I hadn’t picked my partners or the scene. Mr. Barrett had.
I looked down at the book again and tried out the first line of my speech. “Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself—”
“Sarah, you’re already starting without me. At least, let me open my book.” Kaitlyn put down her cup. She opened her backpack and dragged out her Lit book then sat down in one of the empty chairs. “So, what are you thinking?”
“That nobody will understand what’s going on if we just read it the way it’s written,” I said. “That’s what all the other groups did. Mr. Barrett will have another meltdown. And we’ll get crappy grades like everybody else. What if we really emote and do a take-off on 10 Things I Hate About You?”
Kaitlyn frowned as she flipped through the textbook. “I hate the idea of making a fool of myself in front of the whole English class.”
“Oh, come on. We make fools of ourselves in front of the whole town on Friday nights.”
“That’s cheering, Sarah. It’s different.”
“Well, I think we might as well make it fun and go down in flames like Ms. Olson says.” I left the book on the table where I could read it and jumped to my feet.
I shook back my hair and threw up one hand as if it was a cheer. “Hey, sis! Don’t, like, do bad stuff to me or yourself. I’m not your servant or your slave so turn me loose. Set me free—”
“Somewhere in Montana,” Kaitlyn sang. “Give me all that I’ve got coming to me. And keep your retirement and your so-called Social Security—”
I cracked up. She always had a country song for every occasion. “That’s perfect.” I hugged her. “We are going to be so awesome. And I know the perfect twist to all this. I get to be the bitch, not you.”
“Yeah, sure. How are you going to pull that off when the scene says you start out with your hands tied? And me trying to hit you?”
“Easy.” I took a deep breath and adopted my stepsister’s snottiest tone. “You’re picking on me and you know Daddy loves me best. I’m getting married first and you’ll have to dance barefoot at my wedding and everybody in town will laugh at you.”
I stuck my tongue out at her and danced around to the other side of the table. “You’re a poor, pathetic, pitiful looo–ss–errrr. So, there!”
“Oh, you’re so dead.” Kaitlyn started after me and came to a sudden stop. “You’re right, Sarah.” A smile dawned on her face and then in her eyes. “We play this just as if it was a cheer routine. Okay, let’s start from the top and we read it straight. After each speech, we adlib so the meaning comes across. Barrett is gonna love it.”
“And we’ll go down in academy history when we score A’s,” I told her.
* * *
I looked at my watch. It was seven and Rob still hadn’t arrived. I pulled out my cell phone and tried his sister who just happened to be my closest friend outside of the squad. “Vonnie, where is your brother? He’s supposed to meet us at school. We’re waiting.”
“Dad couldn’t bring him. There was a wreck out at Lake Mary and all the cops were called. He’s the Stewart Falls police chief so he had to go. We’re riding the bus. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Okay, tell him to meet us in the Commons.”
I put away my cell and took my scarf out of my backpack. We wore uniforms at the academy, blue slacks or skirts, white shirts, and a Royal Stewart plaid scarf or tie. In the fall, we added blue sweaters and when the weather got cold, a blue jacket. Only cheerleaders were allowed our red sweaters since they were part of the cheer uniform. A single screw-up with our uniforms meant a demerit, and three of those added up to an all-day Saturday detention. No wonder my real dad, the Army colonel who adopted me and Warren, loved the place.
“Let’s practice,” I said. “We don’t need Rob till the end of the scene anyway. That’s when he’s supposed to show up and give Katherina hell.”
“Right.” Kaitlyn wrapped the scarf around my wrists so my hands looked as if they were tied in front of me. “Go, girl.”
We ran through the scene between the sisters twice. The Commons slowly filled up with students arriving for breakfast or looking for a place to hang out. A few people watched us, but most ignored us. They obviously thought we were practicing some routine for cheer and they’d see the whole thing on Friday night at the football game.
We finished the third run-through. Rob still hadn’t come. I made my exit by stepping to the far side of the table and Kaitlyn did her last speech before she followed me.
Applause sounded and I glanced toward the wide entrance hall. “Jason!”
He came toward me carrying a long-stemmed red rose. He stopped in front of me. At five feet, ten, he had eight inches on me and was a hunk-and-a-half in his SFA uniform. He leaned down to kiss me quick, before any of the teachers showed up and screamed, “Public Display of Affection. Two demerits for P.D.A.”
“What’s this?” I asked when he passed me the rose.
“Our one-month anniversary.” His tawny blond hair looked like he’d been running his fingers through it. He smiled down at me. “Hey. I called your house and your mom said you left early. What’s up?”
I sniffed the rose. Hothouse, so it barely had any scent at all, but I wouldn’t tell Jason that the ones from my mom’s garden smelled like real flowers. Why had he called her when he could have called my cell? I never actually turned it off until I was in class. “We had to practice for our English class.”
“How’s that going?” He put his arm around my waist. “It looked really good, from what I saw.”
Kaitlyn twined a strand of her strawberry palomino hair around one finger. “It’d be better if Rob actually showed up and practiced with us.”
“Why do you need him when I’m here?” Jason asked. “What do you want me to do?”
“Would you really read Baptista’s part?” I clasped my hands around the rose. No thorns, thank Gawd! I gave him my best big-eyed, innocent look. “Oh, Jason. You’re such a hero.”
Kaitlyn choked back her giggles. She knew me better than he did and could tell when I was scamming someone.
Jason beamed at me, gorgeous in his light blue sweater, and I was sure he knew it. Sooner or later, he would learn to laugh when I teased him. I hoped.
“All right, what’s my motivation?” Narrowing his baby blue eyes, he looked at the book. “Who am I?”
“You’re the dad and I’m your favorite girl.” I pressed up next to him. “And Kait’s always mean to me, Daddy. Cut her dowry and send her to a convent. She doesn’t deserve a good husband. Then there will be more money for me.”
“You little witch. You’ll pay for that.” Kaitlyn glared at me and stalked forward. “You stink.”
“Hey, back off.” Jason stepped between us. “Don’t pick on my lucky charm.”
“Wow. You’re good,” I said. “Isn’t he great?”
“Fabulous,” Kaitlyn agreed. “You’ve got the attitude, Jason.”
He frowned, looked at her and then at me. “So, she’s not really hassling you?”
“Nope.” I glanced around and didn’t see any teachers so I kissed him. “She wouldn’t dare with you here.”
Another big grin and he shrugged those wonderful shoulders. “All right,” Jason said. “Let’s run through the whole thing and make it work.”
“You’re the boss,” I said in a super sweet tone.
Kaitlyn hid a grin and Jason stood like a movie star. One of these days, he’d figure out that I could be a real smart-mouth, but we’d only been together a few weeks since school started and I made senior varsity. There was time.
I reluctantly put the rose on the table. Then I wrapped the scarf around my wrists and stood beside Kaitlyn. “Good sister, wrong me not...”
* * *
I huddled in the paper robe and clutched my aching stomach. The walls of the exam room at the Pine Ridge clinic closed in on me. I shut my eyes. Now, I couldn’t see the green paint swirl.
“Tell me again. What happened this time, Sarah?”
I forced open my eyes and glanced at the old doctor who stood staring at the X-Rays on the light screen. “I already told you.”
Doctor Conway ran a hand through his white hair and looked over his shoulder at me. “This is the fifth time I’ve seen you since school started. What’s going on?”
“It was a stupid accident. I was careless. I got hurt. I’m sorry.”
“Take me through it one more time, Sarah.”
“Why? It was my fault,” I said again.
Well, mainly it was my fault. My pulses thudded faster. “I didn’t pay attention.” My stomach lurched. Oh Gawd, I’m not gonna hurl, am I?
We’d finished a terrific cheer practice. Ms. Olson kept the rest of the squad outside to talk to them, but she said the sophomores did great and we could go. So, Kaitlyn, Rita Fernandez, and I headed up the stairs in the field house with the football team. Jason was barely in front of me. Rob in front of Jason, going off again about the new iPod his dad owed him, and Kait laughing at him while Rita mimicked him.
“Ooh, Sarah’s so wonderful. She got me an A in English. Sarah’s great. She walks on water when she gets tired of making it rain.”
I didn’t blame Rob for being excited. We were the first sophomore group ever to get A’s out of Barrett, a notoriously tough grader. When Rob’s first iPod was jacked, back in September, his dad said he couldn’t have another one until he got an A in Sophomore English and we all knew Chief Rivers didn’t expect to pay up, even when he agreed to a single assignment, not a quarter or semester grade.
I’d elbowed Rita when she kept teasing me, but we were tight and I wasn’t mad at her. The next thing I knew, my feet slid on the slick, wooden stairs and I tumbled to the bottom of the staircase.
I took a deep breath. And slowly let it out as the memory raced back. I’d reeled backwards when I lost my balance. Nothing beneath my shoe. So, of course I fell. Down the stairs.
In the corner of the room, Mom tapped long, red fingernails on the wooden arm of her chair. “How is she, Doctor?”
“Sarah has a concussion.” Doctor Conway studied my X-rays again. “Bruised ribs, luckily none are broken, but one looks cracked.” He turned and looked at Mom. “Several contusions on her arms and legs. The bruises will be more painful and visible before she’s better.” He walked over to the counter and flipped through a folder of papers. “Did anyone else see the accident?”
“Only like Rita and Kaitlyn and a bunch of football players.” I sighed. That hurt. “I looked totally stupid in front of Jason.”
Doctor Conway glanced up from the medical reports, his dark eyes intent as he watched me. “Did any adults see what happened, Sarah?”
I shook my head. Then, I wished I hadn’t. It made my face throb even more, as if a hammer pounded behind my eyes. Why was he asking me these questions? “I don’t think so. Ms. Olson was outside, and the football coach had already gone into the gym, ahead of the guys. Aren’t you finished yet? I want to go home.”
“All right.” Doctor Conway stared at me. Finally, he turned to Mom. “I want to see her in three days, on Friday afternoon so I can check that rib.” He rubbed his jaw and thought. “And bring her back next Monday after the weekend.”
Mom’s incessant tapping stopped. “Why two appointments in a row?”
“I’m curious. I’ve been Sarah’s doctor four years now. She’s not accident-prone.” He set down the file, opened the cupboard doors over the counter, and took out bandages.
“Sarah’s new on the varsity cheer squad.” Mom took a deep breath. “Cheerleading is a dangerous sport, but she loves it, although I don’t know why. I can’t stand to watch it.”
“I don’t see any of the other cheerleaders on her squad as often as I see Sarah. They don’t come in with injuries like hers. I’ve seen her more in the past month than I did all last year.” He took the paper off one bandage and turned to me. “Do you still have those blue gel ice-packs I gave you when you twisted your ankle three weeks ago?”
“They’re in the freezer.”
I didn’t look at Mom. I heard her tapping on the arm of the chair again. I knew how hard she was working at Book City since her promotion to assistant store manager. She claimed she’d really be hassled for leaving in the middle of her shift and I’d hear about that forever. When Warren pointed out that all parents had to take care of their kids’ stuff sometime, she said that her boss didn’t appreciate slackers and we better grow up. Even the fact I was dating Jason Phillips, the mayor’s son wouldn’t keep her off my back now.
“When Mr. Donnelly, the headmaster called, I dropped everything to come.” Mom’s gray eyes were pure ice. “The accident happened at the academy.”
“You’ll follow up on it with the teachers, won’t you?” Doctor Conway asked. “If I suspected that my child was being hurt at school, I’d be there until I had satisfactory answers.”
“Stewart Falls Academy is one of the top-ranked private schools in the state,” Mom said, a worried frown crossing her face. “Sarah’s classmates come from some of the best families in the state. Even Senator Rutledge’s daughters attend the academy.”
“It’s not Mom’s fault. I told you it was an accident.”
“I heard you the first time, but I have doubts.” Doctor Conway lifted the paper robe I wore. “It’s not standard practice anymore, but I’m going to wrap your ribs, just like I do for the loggers so they can go back into the woods. I know you’re returning to the fray, and I want you to be a lot more careful, Sarah.”
“I will be,” I promised the doctor and myself.
“Mrs. Masters, I’m required by law to report suspected child abuse cases—”
“No! This was my fault. I’ll do better.” I leaned toward Mom, trying to ignore the dizziness in my head. “It won’t happen again.”
Doctor Conway’s voice remained calm and reasonable. “The academy does have a good reputation for working with parents and the headmaster should be able to tell you what’s happening there.”
I heard the doubt in his deep voice and wondered what had happened at the school that he wasn’t mentioning. He gave me a steady look and we stared at each other for what felt like a long time.
“I’ll talk to the cheer advisor and the headmaster,” Mom said, interrupting us. “If they can’t keep Sarah safe, I’ll pull her off the cheer squad. She has plenty of chores at home that she’s skipping right now to be a local star. Those five practices each week are a major inconvenience.”
I swallowed hard, determined not to cry. I’d been cheering ever since fourth grade and she still didn’t get how much I loved it. Instead, she wanted me to slave around her house and look after her princess stepdaughter.
“I’ll be more careful,” I said again. “I promise.”