Intro by Carla Ann

“Tiffany, I’ve asked you how everything is going with people and the activities you’re involved in, but you haven’t mentioned how you are coping with everything.” She emphasized the ‘you,’ when she asked that.

“Well, better than I was last year,” I started. “Way better than last year… I have a lot of friends now, and I’m not getting picked on every day.” I saw her eyes boring into me looking for something else. “Alright, I don’t know how I’m doing right now.” I told her honestly.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Well for one I’m really tired of everyone guessing I’m five if I wear the wrong clothes.” I told her hesitantly. I was sure my parents had filled her in with everything anyway, “Tuesday was pajama day. Mom and I had found some cute pajamas with feet on them that would fit Amy and me, so we wore them for pajama day. We really did look cute dressed like that, and I was having a lot of fun with it. That was until the sub in English class thought that I was someone’s little sister that had come them to school that day.”

I was really surprised Dr. Reynolds didn’t laugh about it, but I continued, “Then the next day the whole squad was wearing shortalls and our hair done in pigtails and I looked to be about five again. One of my best friends even brought a doll to school to play a joke on the sub that we’d had. I don’t think she knew that it really upset me though. I’m not five, I’m twelve! Amy has grown about five inches here in the last couple months, but I’m still the same height I was last year. It’s good for cheerleading stuff because people can toss me so easily… but…” I was doing my best to not go into tears over all of this. “as long as we’ve got my puberty stopped then I won’t be doing much growing. That’s all on top of the fact that I’m never going to be able to have periods like my friends… and I’m stuck with this stupid thing between my legs,” I told her with a great deal of exasperation. “I’m so tired of having to look at it, or hide it, every time I turn around. I know you can’t do anything about it till I’m eighteen – but I wish it could be gone now!” I had gone to tears now.

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The Legal Stuff: Dreaming of Cheers  © 2010 By Tiffany Shar
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright  © 2010 By Tiffany Shar. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Preface
 
 
It’s been a long road to publishing this third book in my Standing Up to Life Series. I began writing the first book over two years ago, putting the first two books out in a quick succession of six months work. The third book became more challenging to finish as I had set my sights on only writing a trilogy. I declared myself finished last August, but found myself unhappy with the ending. Well seven months later I feel this is ready to give to you, my readers, and I hope you will enjoy it. It has not gone on the track I had expected, and indeed there will probably be at least one more book following this in order to complete Tiffany’s story. I hope you will find that your wait has been worth it.

Like the first two books I posted here, I will be posting a full copy here on BigCloset. This time I am going to upload two chapters per week to the site. The full version should be completely posted by August. For those that cannot wait however, I have an e-book version of the full book available from Lulu.com as of today. You may find it at My Store. My assumption is that the majority of my readers would be more interested in this edition of the book rather than a hardback or paperback. If you enjoy this work perhaps you will consider supporting me by purchasing it ($5.95 for the eBook).

Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy reading Dreaming of Cheers!

 

Chapter 27:

 
MONDAY MORNING IT was tough to get myself out the door. If Amy hadn’t been there I was sure I would have stayed home sick. The only thing, other than her, that had any pull on me was that we had our Christmas Concert tomorrow night. I needed to be there to rehearse for the choir solo that had earned me that other threat on Friday. Melanie picked us up on time and seemed relieved to see that I had taken the time to do my hair and make myself look nice. “You look nice today,” she commented to me.

“Thanks, it’s easier now with the haircut on Friday,” I told her. She smiled at me in response and we drove to the school. Almost as soon as we walked out of the car Amy and I were both ambushed by our friends over our nails, ‘They’re so pretty!’ Kristina said when she saw them. When I took my seat in science a couple hours later I was unnerved to find a note that said, ‘Tiffany,’ across the top of it.

Amy saw it too and tried to offer to read it for me first but I had to look. I opened up the note that had been folded into a note-square. I pulled the corner out and unfolded it slowly. ‘Stop stuffing your bra,’ was what it said inside.

I laughed. A little at first, and then a lot. I had so much pent up emotion that I couldn’t stop laughing a few minutes later when I had finally passed it to Amy. “What’s so funny about this?” She asked me.

“Out of all of the things they could have saidt… it’s just funny for it to be so wrong.” I told her when I caught my breath.

She gave me a look like I was crazy, but said, “I guess,” she said. “This does seem to be just a normal thing — even I’ve gotten notes like this,” she added the last part to my surprise.

“When?”

“Beginning of this year, I just tossed them in the trash.”

“I would do that with this one, but it needs to go to the office too,” I sighed the last part. I refolded the note and put it in the front of my backpack figuring we could take it by there on the way to choir.

That day we got an early look at our report card grade for science class. I was pleased to see that I had an A+ listed on the paper. “Good job Tiffany,” Mr. Grainger told me with a smile. I turned and began to walk away from his desk but he said, “Hang in there kiddo, things are going to calm down.”

I just smiled at him in response, I didn’t believe they were.

Amy and I took the note by the office without comment to the secretaries and walked to choir. In choir we rehearsed until the last ten minutes when Ms. Beecher gave us some time just to sit and talk. Somehow the topic of the last note came up as I was talking to Kristina. “You are growing aren’t you!” she said excitedly to me.

“Uh-huh.”

“That’s awesome Tiffany. Well sort of, don’t grow too much or you’ll have to get a new uniform for nationals,” she suggested.

“I can always force myself in there,” I said with a smile. “Besides I think Coach Holt ordered all of our uniforms with a little bit of extra room added for that competition. She told me that a few weeks ago,” I added.

“That’s smart,” she said to me.

The rest of the day continued with me getting another three notes about stuffing my bra, at which point it was just getting kind of old. When I turned in the other three notes before band with Kyle in tow Mrs. Henry looked at them and shook her head. “You know if this was anyone else I’d be telling you to ignore them,” she said honestly.

“I actually laughed at the first one this morning,” I told her, “But I’m sure these are probably related to the others.”

“Probably,” she conceded and took them back to add to her file on me. That had to have been almost a file cabinet full on me alone by now.

In band everyone turned in permission slips to go to the college for our rehearsal the next morning. I was looking forward to the idea of not being at school in the morning. I would just have to make sure I stuck with my friends like glue on the trip. After we ran through our concert music several times Mrs. Remar had us put up our instruments. “Tiffany, would you come here for a moment please?” She asked me.

“Yes Mrs. Remar?” I asked politely.

“Why didn’t you take your saxophone home Friday?” she asked me.

“I was in the office most of the afternoon and I forgot,” I answered honestly.

“Is everything alright?” she asked as she led me into her office and shut the door.

“No.” I told her.

“What’s going on?”

“What’s not going on?” I started before explaining everything from the past week.

“It doesn’t seem to get better for you, does it?” She asked me rhetorically. I just shook my head, “Tiffany, make sure you’re always with a couple people tomorrow, okay?” She suggested to me.

“I figure I’ll be with friends all morning,” I told her.

“Good.” She said leading me back out to the band room just as the bell rang, “Don’t forget…” she listed off a string of reminders to us all as I picked up my stuff and walked with Kyle to Coach Holt’s classroom again for my other stuff.

Coach Holt spoke casually with me as she walked down with me to the locker room. Practice was good that day. We watched the previous weeks’ recording again and tried to fix a few more things that were wrong with those run-throughs. “We’re going to record again on Thursday,” she told us. “But, since so many of you are involved in the concert tomorrow night we won’t be having practice tomorrow,” she told us.

“Thank you!” I said while a lot of other girls said, “Yay!” I had managed to make it through that practice without breaking a nail, but didn’t think I would succeed two days in a row. Before she dismissed us she said, “Don’t forget we have a meeting with your parents about Nationals at seven tonight!”

I had forgotten about it, but thankfully when I got out to the car my mom hadn’t. She had already called and cancelled my gymnastics lesson. “How was your day sweetie?” she had asked me when I got in the car.

“Well I didn’t have any major threats today…” I said, “does that make it a good day?” I asked honestly.

“It makes a start,” she told me with a thinner smile. I knew she couldn’t help but worry about me anytime I was out of her sight at this point. “Let’s get you home and showered so we can get back here for the meeting,” she said as she pulled away from the curb. I waved at Amy as she was getting into her moms’ car. She and her mom waved back at me and I was left to think quietly for a bit. I was grateful for the trip meeting tonight, because it gave me a chance to sit and daydream about what the competition would be like.

Coach Holt had dug up a tape she’d recorded off of ESPN of a competition similar to what we were going to. She’d even said there was potential for ESPN to do a show on the competition, but she thought they’d probably skip the middle school portion of it. Either way it made me dream of our squad winning the competition and bringing a huge trophy back to Holden Junior High.

I was suddenly awakened from my reverie when Mom said, “Are you getting out Tiffany?”

I realized with a jolt that we were at home already, “Umm… yeah?” I said as coolly as I could. I was kind of embarrassed, but at least I hadn’t been daydreaming about Kyle…

I jumped into the shower and tried not to take too long. Mom already had dinner in the Crockpot, so it was ready. I dried off and put on my cheerleading warm-up pants with a sweatshirt. I had gotten really chilled as I got out of the shower for some reason, so I also grabbed a hooded sweatshirt that I put over my first sweatshirt. “Cold?” Mom asked as I walked into the kitchen bundled up.

“Uh-huh…” I told her. She gave me a strange look and shrugged my temperature issues off, it wasn’t the first time. Dad came home about the time that I sat down at the table. He came by and gave me a hug before he went back to the bathroom to wash up.

“So there’s a meeting tonight?” he asked Mom and I as he sat down.

“Yes, about the trip to Nationals next month,” I answered.

“What time?” he asked us a second later.

“At seven,” she answered. I just kept picking at my food and was slowly warming up with the food in me.

“Okay, I think I can be ready by then,” he said. Just then the pager on his belt went off. He pulled it out of the holster and looked at the phone number. “Well maybe, let me see what this is about.”

Dad left his dinner on the table and walked over to the phone behind the kitchen table to dial the number that had been left. “I received a page…” I heard him say, immediately knowing he wouldn’t be going with us to the parent meeting.

That hurt for some reason, I wasn’t really certain why, but I found myself shivering more. I pulled my feet up on my chairs so they were my knees were right in front of my stomach before pulling my hoodie over them too. I forced myself to keep eating a few more bites before saying, “Mommy I’m going to go brush my hair out real quick before we go.”

“Okay sweetie, you don’t have too long though.”

I had been in front of my dresser for a few minutes when Dad came in behind me and gave me a hug around my shoulders. “I have to go to work so I’m not going to be able to come to the meeting tonight, sorry,” he told me.

“That’s okay, I understand,” I told him. I tried not to sound too unhappy about it, but that was pretty tough.

“I love you,” he told me before squeezing me one more time, giving me a kiss on the top of my head, and then heading out the door to go to who knows where. He was the best his company had, and that unfortunately meant when something went wrong he was called up to fix it. I probably wouldn’t even see him until the next night if I was lucky. I hoped he would make it to the concert…

“Are you ready, Tiffany?” I heard after I’d been brushing my hair continually for who knows how long.

I looked at myself in the mirror and decided to heck with it and threw my hair in a ponytail as I walked out my door. I had left my tennis shoes in the living room and quickly stepped into them without untying them. Mom gave me a look over that, but didn’t say anything. I knew it was a bad habit, but I didn’t really care. After grabbing I was ready to go.

I hurried out to the car while Mom locked the house up. My teeth were chattering by the time she opened it and I closed it. “Turn the heater on quick,” I begged her. “Just how cold is it tonight?”

She complied with the heater while saying, “It’s supposed to get down to ten or so tonight.”

“Brrrrr….”

About the time we were pulling into the parking lot at school the car finally warmed up. “Where’s the meeting?” Mom asked me.

“I think the cafeteria,” I told her uncertainly. I didn’t think we’d have it in Coach Holt’s classroom, the only other place was the locker room which didn’t seem likely either, so that’s where we went to — thankfully I was right.

“Hey Tiffany!” Kristina said while motioning that we should sit next to her and her parents.

“Kristina I think you’ve met my mom before?” I suggested.

“Yes, it’s nice to see you again Mrs. Jacobson,” she said to her politely. My mom had met her parents before too so there wasn’t much to be said.

“I’m so excited Tiff!” Kristina said to me as we stood around. “We’re going to do awesome at Nationals!”

“I hope so,” I told her. I kept a good cheerleaders’ smile on my face as I said it though.

“Hey Tiffany,” I heard Amy say behind me. I gave her a hug and I ended up sitting down with Kristina on one side and Amy on the other.

Our parents mingled a bit with each other and Greg, Amys’ dad, asked where my dad was. “He got called out…” Mom replied.

About that time Coach Holt walked to the front of the group and began saying, “If I can have your attention we’ll get this started and get you all out of here as soon as I can. I understand that your time is very valuable.”

With that all of the parents sat down and got quiet. I looked around real quick and saw that there were around forty people sitting around the tables closest to the stage. With sixteen girls on the squad that seemed about right. Coach Holt came around and gave each girl’s family a packet of information to look at. “Everyone got a packet?” She asked as she returned once again to the front.

Seeing everyone nodding she continued, “Okay the first thing in the packet is the expectations we have of the girls while we are on the trip. This is nothing new to them, but let me go ahead and reiterate a few of them. First and foremost is that there will be no alcohol or drugs, including tobacco on this trip,” she said looking sternly. “Any girl found with such things in her possession will be immediately sent home at her parents’ expense. I don’t think we’ll have any problems, but I want that clear.”

Coach Holt paused and looked around before looking back down at her paper, “Next, there will be a curfew. All of the girls will be taped into their rooms. We will also be having a security guard keeping an eye on the doors. I will get a report in the morning of any doors that are opened and deal with the girls immediately. Any girl that sneaks out of her room will also be sent home immediately.” She looked to make sure that everyone understood and went through a couple other rules.

“Okay, the next page is the itinerary for the trip.” Coach turned over the page in her packet and continued, “We’re going to be performing for the preliminary round Thursday afternoon at about four, and again at six-thirty. There will be an awards ceremony that will announce the results and finalists at about eight that night. Because of this we’re going to be heading out of the airport in Albuquerque at seven in the morning…” she continued to discuss the specifics of the trip.

We were going to get to spend Friday in Disney World having fun and then return to the competition on Saturday no matter what. Friday was the prelim round for the high school teams, and the finals for both groups would be on Saturday. The finals would be held on a stage in Disney World. Ours would be in the morning and the high school’s would be in the afternoon. There would be a massive awards ceremony for both categories that night in Disney World at the same spot as the competition. No matter how we placed we would be spending the morning and afternoon at the competition, watching if nothing else. ‘I really hope we perform and don’t sit all day,’ I said to myself.

Questions were asked and answered about all sorts of things for the next thirty minutes. “What about the state competition?” Lindsey’s mother asked down at the other end of the tables.

“We’ll be going to that the weekend before. Our performance times as of right now are at five-thirty and six-thirty on Friday night for the prelims. Finals will be held on Saturday.”

“Will they be missing any school for that?” Ashley’s dad asked.

“Maybe the last couple hours of the day, so we can get them changed and their makeup on.” She told him.

After ten more minutes the questions began to be less focused and relevant, so Coach Holt said, “Alright, I think we’ve gotten through everything. Please fill out the forms before you leave and give them to me on your way out the door. I appreciate your time!” She told us all with a smile and we began to break up to go home.

Melanie and my mom talked for several minutes off to one side and they took a moment to look at the room lists. I was going to be in a room with Melanie and Amy so that took away any possible problems with awkwardness. I kind of clung to Amy a bit wishing I could stay at her house or vice-versa, but as we walked to our cars our mom’s put a stop to that notion, “Come on girls, we need you to come to your normal houses tonight, it’ll do you some good to be apart.” We both grumbled a bit but consented.

At home I just kind of wandered around aimlessly. I finally sat still long enough to watch a bit of TV while curled up on the couch underneath a blanket and holding Emily. My bedtime came and I didn’t argue about it, I wanted to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day with the concert and the dress rehearsal in the morning. I triple checked that I had a pair of pantyhose in my drawer before pulling the covers up over me. Mrs. Remar had been very specific that we were not to go on stage without a set of hose to cover our legs. Something about our legs “would shine like the sun” if we didn’t do so.

Amazingly I didn’t wake up that night to any nightmares. Instead all I remembered in the morning were dreams that were a mix of memories from the summer camp competition and what I thought the national competition would be like.

 

CHAOS REIGNED THE next morning as half the school boarded buses throughout the morning to go up to the college auditorium for the dress rehearsal. Because I was in both choir and band, I was going up with the band first thing in the morning, and then coming back with the choir a little bit before lunch. In between the two groups the orchestra would be rehearsing. Just as the choir got there, the advanced band and advanced orchestra were going to practice playing together while the choir sang for the final two pieces. I was glad that my friends would have to stay until Amy got there, at least I would always have someone there with me.

“Ladies and gentlemen have a seat!” Mrs. Remar said to us as she boarded our bus. I had been standing up stretching and flung myself down into the seat next to Kyle. “I expect you all to show the best behavior of everyone there!” She looked at us. “If I’m going to take you all to Denver in April I’d better be able to trust you to behave. Any problems from this group will make me reconsider that trip, am I clear?”

“Yes ma’am,” the whole bus said at once.

“Good, when we get there do not get off the bus until I tell you to. Also I expect that you all will help the beginners find their way to where they’re supposed to go. We’re going to start the concert with them.”

We all nodded and watched as she got off the bus and moved over to another one behind us. “So are you excited?” Kyle asked me.

“A little,” I told him before adding, “and scared too. I have a solo with the choir as well as the jazz band.”

“You’ll be great,” he told me with a smile.

“I hope so,” I said and turned to face the front of the bus as it started to move. The drive to the auditorium was across town so it took us about five minutes to get over there. We all waited obediently for Mrs. Remar to tell us to get off the bus. Once she did I grabbed my saxophone from the overhead bin above me and walked with Kyle, Ashley, and Nikki towards the doors. In the auditorium we were told to have a seat and stay there.

The beginning band was herded as quickly as they could be onto the stage. Chairs were already setup, but a few changes were made. Soon after that they started their concert program… They were okay I suppose, I’m sure we were just as bad at that point last year, but it was kind of tough to listen to. My group of friends continued to sit still as the intermediate band got onto the stage. It was a much smaller group than the advanced or beginning groups, but sounded a little bit better than the beginners. Mrs. Remar stood at the edge of the stage at the end of their rehearsal and told them and the beginners to pack up and board the buses to go back. She had some parents help out while she got us all situated.

For our part the rehearsal went okay, it wasn’t spectacular. Jazz band played our three songs first off to the right of the stage. My solo was good enough, and so was Kyle’s. The whole band sounded kind of cool in the large space, and I was pretty sure it would be the most interesting part of the concert.

Advanced band on the other hand wasn’t so great. We were certainly better than the other two bands at least, but I felt we could do a lot better. Mrs. Remar let us know that she thought that too. She had us remain in our seats as the beginning orchestra played through their songs. If the beginning band had been okay, I declared the orchestra bad… I think it was just how hard their instruments are to learn, but I wanted to jam earplugs into my ears. I looked over at my friends and they all seemed to agree with me — we just wanted them to stop already!

Fortunately for us they didn’t play but three very short lines out of their books. ‘Who plays a concert out of their books?’ I wondered to myself. It seemed strange to me that we had never done that with band. Why would they do that with orchestra? ‘Oh well, I didn’t ever want to do it,’ I finished to myself.

Just about the time the advanced orchestra came onto the stage the choir arrived too. The teachers decided to mix up their plans a bit and get rid of the band kids as soon as they could, so they got everyone together for the two mixed pieces. It was the first year they had tried this, so I think they were all really nervous. As Mrs. Remar was the one who was conducting the songs, she got up to the podium and looked out at the two hundred plus kids that were in front of her. They had set up the groups to where she was standing in front of the orchestra, which was in front of the band, which was in turn in front of the choir.

Her downbeat brought chaos the first time, the orchestra director always counted off for some reason. Mrs. Remar fixed that by practicing the first note several times, and then started the piece again. It was cool!!! I don’t know how it sounded in the audience, but from where we were sitting it sounded awesome. We did run through both songs twice just to make sure everyone was balanced right, and then advanced band was sent home and I ran back to the safety of the choir.

In the choir part Ms. Beecher announced that we were doing things a little bit out of order for the dress rehearsal. “The actual order is going to be Beginning Orchestra, then Beginning Band, then Beginning Choir. Beginning Choir, you’re going to go right back out to the seats so you can come back on for the last two songs, if you leave before the end of the concert you will fail the grade.” She looked at the sixth graders to make sure they understood. “After the Beginning Choir it’ll be Intermediate Band, Advanced Orchestra, the Jazz Band, Advanced Choir, Advanced Band, and then the combined groups,” she finished off.

I sat there thinking it sounded like a long concert to which she seemed to agree, “It’s going to be a long concert ladies and gentlemen, but you can help make sure it’s not too long if you move quickly on and off stage like you’re supposed to.” She continued to give us information before finishing the rehearsal. In the end she changed her mind on the choirs coming on and off the stage. She decided to keep all three choirs up there and have the other students that weren’t singing sit down where they were.

Ms. Beecher went through another list of things we needed to do in between each of the pieces. She included reminders about concert dress and when we were supposed to be there. By the time we got to the piece in which I had a solo I was feeling tired. The college had a set of stage hands there that made sure a wireless mic I was using for the solo worked alright. “Tiffany I want you to just start off holding it, and then when you’re done with your first solo put it down at your side. Then when you get to the next solo bring it back up to your mouth,” she told me.

‘Don’t drop it,’ was the thought going through my mind. The technician that handed me the mic mentioned that it wasn’t cheap… I made it through the solo without falling apart and crying, or doing anything else, but we decided to run it again. “Your name is Tiffany?” the technician said as he came back up to check on something.

“Umm… yeah,” I said tentatively.

“Make sure you hold the microphone close to your mouth,” he smiled at me, “that way we can hear your beautiful voice more clearly.”

“Okay, thanks,” I told him forcing a smile to my face. On that run through of the piece I did as he had said, and I was rewarded by a ‘thumbs up’ from the technician.

“That’s it ladies and gentlemen, let’s head back to the buses,” Ms. Beecher said.

In the chaos that ensued I made sure that Amy and Kristina followed me to the seat where I left my saxophone. Satisfied that it was alright, I followed them outside and sat in a seat next to Amy. “Nice job Tiffany!” Kristina told me once we were seated.

“It didn’t sound terrible?” I asked insecurely.

“Of course not! It sounded great!” She told me with a smile.

“Thanks Kristina,” I told her. The three of us talked about what we were wearing that night to the concert and how we were wearing our hair. “I don’t know how I’m doing it,” I told them. “I’m kind of hoping my mom will do something nicer with it,” I added.

“I am too,” Amy said hopefully.

“I’m not going to bother that much,” Kristina started, “I’ll probably just make it a little bit nicer than I normally do it.”

We were back at the school just barely in time to go to the beginning of lunch. The three of us made it through the line without any problems, and I was actually beginning to think things were improving. To my surprise, the rest of the day passed by without anything bad happening. Mrs. Remar was nice to us and didn’t make us play in band class since we’d already rehearsed that day. Instead she talked about the trip to Denver and gave us some more information. She also wanted our second payment in the next week.

“I’m glad I’ve already paid off the trip to Nationals Nikki, I think my parents would have trouble paying for this and that too!”

“It’s definitely a lot of money for your parents.” She told me. She wasn’t on the squad, but I really wished she was. If it wasn’t for how close I’d become with Amy, I’d probably have considered Nikki the next in-line for my title of best-friend. Nikki had definitely been friends with me longer, but things just hadn’t fallen into place that way. As soon as we were dismissed from class by the bell I walked with Kyle to where I met Amy.

“Tiffany, my mom’s here to give us a ride home,” she said with a smile as I walked up to her.

“Really?” I asked. I hadn’t been looking forward to riding the bus.

“Yep! She took off a little early today so she could help me get ready,” she told me.

“That’s nice,” I told her. “I’ll see you tonight Kyle,” I told him as we walked away.

“My mom would probably be willing to help you get ready too, Tiffany,” she told me.

“I know…” I said trying to decide how to put it, “I kind of want my mom to get a chance to get her daughter ready…” I said.

Amy smiled at me, “Mom thought you would say that.”

“Your mom’s smart,” I replied with a smile of my own. The two of us approached her mom’s car and we climbed inside.

“Hi girls, did you have a good day?” She asked the question hopefully.

“Pretty much,” I answered.

“Good. Tiffany, I know your mom doesn’t get off till four-thirty, do you want me to help you get ready for the concert?” she asked me.

“I think we’ll be okay,” I told her. “We don’t have to be at the auditorium until six-thirty.”

“Good,” she told me smiling. Melanie drove me to my house and parked in the driveway to let me out.

“Thank you for the ride!” I told her with a smile. I unlocked my door and she watched me go into the house before she pulled away. She and my mom always did that for us, they both watched to make sure we made it safely wherever. It made me feel good that she cared about me like that.

As soon as I got inside the house I headed straight for the shower. My mom would be home in about thirty minutes and I wanted my hair ready for her to work with! I used the time in the shower to relax a bit and try and calm my nerves. I was scared of messing up tonight on my solos. There were two of them in the one choir piece, plus the solo with the jazz band. The rest of the concert no one would really know if I made a mistake, but during those two times it would be plain as day if I messed up.

I clambered out of the shower and put on some sweatpants and a t-shirt to wear while Mom worked on my hair. I had just finished making that happen, with my hair wrapped in a towel, when mom came in the door. “Hey sweetie,” she told me as she came in. “You ready for me to do your hair?” she asked.

“Please,” I told her sweetly with a big smile.

“Sweetie whatever you do… please don’t use that smile on boys, they won’t stand a chance to say no to it,” she told me. I giggled in response and we walked to my room where I already had curling irons set up on my dresser. I sat down in the chair and just let Mom work. She disappeared a couple times mysteriously to get some things and I couldn’t help but wonder what she was getting as she worked on my hair. After much blow drying, curling, hair-spraying, pulling, tugging, and wincing on my part when the curling iron touched my scalp, she said, “all-done!”

I looked at myself in the mirror and found myself trying to keep from crying. She had done my hair as well as it had been done the previous Friday. It was up with lots of little spirals coming down from it. It looked so pretty! I turned around and gave her a big hug and said, “Thank you Mommy!”

“You’re welcome sweetie,” her eyes were wet and I knew she was on the verge of crying. “It’s your first concert as Tiffany, and I want everyone else to see just how beautiful my daughter is,” she said. “I’m glad to have a daughter to have this kind of fun with,” she added softly. I gave her another hug and then she said, “Okay, let’s get you fed, get you dressed, and then I’m doing your makeup!” she insisted the last part.

“Okay!” I told her and followed her to the kitchen. She got me a real quick dinner of leftovers from the night before. I swallowed the last bite my nervous stomach would hold when I heard the doorbell ring.

“I’ll get it,” I told mom who was still trying to finish eating.

I opened the door and saw in surprise that my grandparents were standing there! “Uh… hi!” I said.

“Hi Tiffany!” Grandma said, “Your hair looks pretty,” she added after she had given me a hug.

“Yeah… I’m not exactly ready yet,” I told them…

“It’s okay sweetheart,” Grandpa said and gave me a hug as well.

“Well I’m going to go finish getting ready,” I said as I showed them inside to the kitchen where my mom offered them some food. They turned it down because they’d already eaten.

In the meantime I headed back to my room to get out the dress that we had bought last month for this occasion. I closed my door and pulled my pants and shirt off. My pantyhose were already sitting on my bed. I worked them carefully up my legs and up over my panties making sure I didn’t cause a run in them. After checking to make sure they looked alright I carefully unzipped and slipped the dress off the hanger and pulled it on over my head. The dress was black and covered midway down to my elbows, and all of my shoulders. An a-line dress, I noticed that I now filled it out even better than when we’d bought it. I managed to get it zipped up and then walked out to the kitchen to peek my head out and get my mom’s attention.

“Are you ready?” Mom asked me.

“Please?” I said politely.

“Excuse me, I’ll be back in a bit.” Mom said as she came down the hallway and met me in the bathroom. There she began doing my makeup. She did it in an evening style so that my eyes and lips in particular were more pronounced. “Don’t you dare wear your makeup like this to school,” she told me.

“I won’t,” I told her.

“The only reason why you need this much tonight is because you’ll be on stage.”

I just nodded and asked, “Okay, it’s the same as when we dance for games and stuff right?”

“Not quite the same, but the right idea,” she told me. She sighed. “I wish I would have had time with you as a little girl, before makeup,” she seemed kind of sad by that.

“I don’t wear makeup all the time,” I told her.

“No, but you need it for this kind of stuff already. I just wish I could have had a chance to dress you in really frilly dresses when you were little…” She looked kind of sad before giving me a big hug, being careful not to smudge any of my makeup. “You’re going to do great tonight Tiffany. You’re really a beautiful young lady.”

“Thanks Mom,” I told her.

The two of us looked one last time at my makeup before I headed back into my room and got the earring and necklace set out that they had given me for my birthday. I had been tempted to wear the new necklace Amy’s mom had given me last Friday, but tonight I was being my mommy’s daughter. It seemed right I should wear something they had given me. I put on the pair of black two inch-heels that we had bought to go with the dress, happy that I seemed to be able to hold myself up without killing myself. Mom hadn’t let me wear heels much yet, saying I should wait until I was older. I liked how these made me grow two inches though!

As I walked out to the kitchen I saw my dad had gotten home and joined my grandparents at the dining table. “Wow!” My grandfather catcalled at me obnoxiously. He was really bad about it, and seemed to take pleasure from my reddening face…

“Sweetie you look gorgeous,” my grandmother said and gave me another hug.

“Thanks,” I managed to say.

The three of them fawned over me for a good ten minutes before my grandfather took out a camera and started taking pictures of me. My dad decided to do the same and I spent twenty minutes posing by myself and with my family members in the living room in front of the Christmas tree before Mom said, “I need to go ahead and get Tiffany to the college, I’ll save you all seats.”

I wanted to say thank you a hundred times to her for getting me free of the blinding camera flashes, but didn’t have much of a chance. I grabbed my saxophone, put on my long dress coat, and headed out to the car with her. I didn’t say much as we drove to the college, I was far too nervous about the solos. ‘Well at least I look pretty if nothing else!’ a voice inside me said.

 

PROMPTLY AT SEVEN o’clock the beginning orchestra started the concert. I had my saxophone in my lap and sat next to the rest of the Jazz Band members quietly and watched with a little bit of horror at the sounds from the orchestra. Well, it got everyone’s attention… We all watched the rest of the groups perform until it was our turn. We got setup quickly for the jazz band and Mrs. Remar had us play a B Flat Concert scale to tune and warm-up real quick.

“Ladies and Gentlemen I’d like to introduce the jazz band to you!” She said with some excitement in her voice. “Our first number will be…” I didn’t hear the rest of it, as I saw my grandparents and parents sitting in the audience watching me. Thankfully I came back to reality when she said, “One, two, a-one, two, three, four!” to get us going. The first piece had just been a jazzy version of Jingle Bells. It was pretty easy. Following that we played a slow ballad called Traces.

Then it was time for the final song… the song I had a solo in. “For our final piece I would like to talk to you about jazz etiquette. When someone has a solo in a jazz band it’s polite to clap after their solo. This piece will feature two of our members, Kyle and Tiffany,” she said pointing to us. I semi-froze and just smiled stupidly at everyone.

Before I knew it she had started the song. When I was about four bars out from my solo I carefully stood and raised my stand to be ready. I was never even exactly sure what I played during those measures, I think it was sort of what I was supposed to play. It was over before I even really knew it had begun — and I heard people clapping… After the song was over she had me stand and Kyle waved again since he was already standing in the back.

“Please give us just a moment to get set for the next group,” Mrs. Remar said after the clapping had stopped. Once she had put the mic down she came over to me and gave me a hug, “Good job kiddo,” she told me.

“Thanks, I’m not even sure what I played,” I told her honestly.

“You did a really nice job Tiffany, especially for your first performance improvising,” she told me. “You’re in choir right?” She asked me.

I nodded, “Uh-huh, I’m supposed to go there next.”

“Here let’s leave your saxophone on this table off stage then,” she told me and showed me where to set it before I took my seat on the riser next to Amy.

Ms. Beecher had us all stand at once and we sang through our first piece. The butterflies were really starting to hit me now as she introduced me as a soloist on the next piece and handed me the microphone. Before I could think much though I heard the pianist play the introductory measures, I placed the microphone to my lips and sang. At first I was really nervous, but I knew I couldn’t let that win so I just sang fully and smiled my big cheerleading smile while I did it. I felt better when the choir joined me for the next part. I felt my jitters return though as I began to think about what people would say to me after the concert. It took a lot of concentration on my part to force that out of my mind and put the mic back up to my lips and sang the second solo. As I returned to the choir for the last part of the song I smiled a really big smile: it was over, and I had done really well!

“Ms. Tiffany Jacobson,” Ms. Beecher said introducing me after the song again. I curtsied as the audience applauded loudly and I turned a bright shade of red. “Our final advanced choir piece tonight…” she finished talking and we sang. Right after we took our final quick bow I hurried to the side of the stage I left my saxophone. I quickly put the neck-strap back on my neck and hurried to go sit back in the band.

I felt rushed as I set my music down on the stand and got ready to play. Mrs. Remar got us all situated and I participated in my third ensemble of the night. I was getting kind of tired of running around! The band played the best we had ever played any of the music, and the audience seemed to enjoy it. The final piece with all of the ensembles performing at once arrived before I knew it.

“Ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for coming to our performance tonight. Please continue to support your students as they participate in the Holden Junior High Music Department. During this final song we invite you all to sing along to the songs with us. The words are printed in your program.” Mrs. Remar said just before she stood up on the podium and conducted us.

That to me was my favorite part of the evening. I could hear the mixture of the band and the orchestra, which was cool, but combined with the choir and audience singing it was absolutely surreal. I loved every second of it, and I almost hated to have it end. Right after the last notes the audience stood and gave us all a standing ovation for several minutes. As the last of the applause died out we all began finding our cases and putting our instruments up.

Just as I had placed my saxophone neck into the case I turned and saw my mom standing there. I quickly latched the case shut and she gave me a big hug. “You were great!” she told me enthusiastically.

We walked to where my dad and his parents were waiting. I saw Amy and her parents waiting there as well. On my way over there though I had some other people say, “Nice job young lady,” and other things like that. One even said, “Sweetie you’re going to be very famous someday with a voice like that…”

I felt really embarrassed and blushed profusely by the time I got to my waiting families. My dad and grandparents gave me hugs first. “Sweetie we’re so proud of you,” my grandfather told me.

“You looked like a princess up there,” Grandma told me, “I loved hearing you sing,” she added.

Amy’s parents gave me hugs and congratulatory comments too before Mr. Hancock suggested we go out for dessert. The nine of us all left to our cars with plans to meet up at a local diner that stayed open all night. There we talked about the concert and how pretty Amy and I had looked. It was towards the end that Amy’s parents said they had videotaped it and would give us all copies.

When we got home I had expected to be exhausted, too tired to do anything but crawl into bed. I wasn’t expecting to be more hyper than I could remember having been! I bounced around the house for a good hour before my mom finally put her foot down at eleven and told me I had to go to bed. As I did finally fall asleep that night I was actually happy, things had gone so well that night that I didn’t have any fears running through my head. I was a beautiful girl who sang and played her heart out that night — and everyone had noticed it. I smiled deeply with those thoughts.

 

Chapter 28:

 

WEDNESDAY WENT SMOOTHLY and I received a lot of compliments throughout the day from different friends who had been in the concert or had gone to support the rest of us. As I walked into Ms. Damien’s class for English she said, “Nice job last night Tiffany! You have a really pretty voice and a lot of talent on saxophone too!” I gave her a quick hug as a thank you for the compliments while blushing profusely.

“Thanks Ms. Damien,” I told her.

“You’re welcome Tiffany,” she told me and directed me to go towards my seat.

The last fifteen minutes of class she let us spend some time talking to our friends. Somehow during the conversation Amy asked me, “Tiffany are you umm… going to be here during science tomorrow?”

It took a second for me to think about it, we had a project we’d been working on due tomorrow in science… Oh no! I had an appointment with Dr. Reynolds scheduled tomorrow. ‘I could ask Mom to reschedule,’ I started to tell myself. ‘She’ll never do that right now with everything going on…’ I sighed internally at that. “Umm… no? I’m going to be getting picked up at the beginning of second hour again…” I told her grudgingly.

“Maybe he’ll let us present on Friday?” She asked me hopefully.

I shrugged, “Maybe he will.”

“I’m sure he will actually. He likes us both!” she said with a smile. It was true, we both got along with him great and were maintaining good grades…

“So do you want to come over to my house tonight?” Amy asked.

“I think my parents pretty much expected it,” I told her honestly. ”I’m also supposed to stay over Friday night since my parents are going to my dad’s company party.”

“That’ll be nice,” she told me. “Maybe we should think about doing something different like go to a movie or something?” She suggested.

“Let’s wait till then?” I looked at her before adding, “Especially if it’s going to be as cold as it was this morning.”

The conversation was cut short by the bell. Mrs. Remar gave us the day off because we had done such a good job the night before. The period seemed to drag on for quite a while since we weren’t doing anything. I was looking forward to getting dance practice out of the way so I could go to Amy’s house. Kyle faithfully walked me to Coach Holt’s classroom again and I began to really think I was going to have to do something with him. ‘My parents’ll have a fit with the idea of me getting a steady boyfriend too early though…’

That night I mentioned it to Amy, “I think my parents will have a fit about it. Yours probably will too now that I think of it…” I added.

“Yeah, I think they all will. But, at least they all like Kyle, so maybe you’ll be okay. What about just scheduling a group date?” she suggested.

“Huh?”

“Get together a bunch of us, maybe we get David, Ashley, Nikki, Kristina… maybe a couple others and we all get our parents to drop us off at a mall in town. Go see a movie or something while we’re at it?” She looked at me, “Then you can at least spend some time with him if that’s what you want.”

“The problem is I don’t know what I want Amy,” I told her. “I’m still not sure that I’m ready for dating…”

“So wait then Tiff, he’ll wait for you — I’m sure of that.”

“But that’s not fair to him…”

She interrupted, “Hello Tiffany! You’re a girl! You can afford to wait and do whatever you want when you feel like it.” She smiled as she said that, “We hold all the cards.”

“Hrmm… Maybe you’re right,” I told her. “But what if he gets tired of waiting and moves on to some other girl?” I asked.

“That’s a risk you’ll have to take,” she suggested. “Besides, I have a feeling that you’re going to end up dating each other at some point no matter what.”

I shrugged and changed the subject. The two of us ended up enjoying the night just hanging out since we’d already finished our science assignment. Amy had asked Mr. Grainger after school about us moving our presentation. He said he had no problem with moving our presentation if I got pulled out early from his class.

“Tiffany? Amy?” We heard a while later.

“It’s time for bed girls,” Melanie told us.

“Okay,” we both said sleepily and I headed down to my room. We had changed into our pajamas earlier, so all I had to do was brush my teeth and wash my face and I was ready for bed. I wasn’t looking forward to my session with Dr. Reynolds the next day. I was sure she was still concerned about everything with me. I really didn’t want to talk about it all.

 

“WAKE UP SWEETIE,” I heard Melanie say while knocking on my door. The door handle twisted and she came in when she didn’t hear me say anything.

“Really? Already?” I asked whining a bit. I was so tired still!

“Yep!” She said way too enthusiastically for a morning. Unlike my parents who would usually just give me some space at this point she came over and started tickling me!

“Come on, time to get up!” she said having fun at my expense there.

“You don’t play nice,” I told her as I finally got her to stop tickling me. My bladder wasn’t real happy with her right then, either.

“You’re awake now aren’t you?” she said with a smile, and I couldn’t help but smile back — a little.

“Yeah… I guess.” I told her.

“Okay then, pop yourself into the shower so we can get you two to school.”

“Alright,” I told her and started moving towards the bathroom. I had been kind of annoyed at first, I’d seen her do that to Amy before but I’d been off limits… The fact that she considered me close enough to do that to though brought a thin smile to my face. I forced myself to shower quickly so I could spend more time on my hair. I had been wearing it in the same style as Rachel from Friends for a while. It looked great on me, and with the trim I’d had last week it looked really good again. When I finally pronounced it ‘good enough,’ I decided to add just a little bit of makeup. A little bit of mascara and lip gloss finished everything off nicely, I thought.

I put my best friend necklace on, half of the set Amy’s mom bought us at the ski resort last year. I found my cheerleader megaphone earrings in my ‘other bedroom’ jewelry box to complete everything. ‘I wish I could wear a skirt…’ I thought to myself, ‘but no way in this cold!’ Instead I was wearing a pair of jeans and a fairly tight-fitting striped brown and tan sweater that just barely covered my stomach.

I noticed it really emphasized my growing chest. I had put on a sports bra that morning again underneath to keep things covered. They were still sore, but doing better than they had been last week. I was supposed to have an appointment with Dr. Wilmer about whether or not the hormone dosage was still right now or not. ‘Hopefully they leave it alone or increase it… I sure hope they don’t lower it.’ Everything was growing well, and other parts were even looking less healthy. I appreciated that as much as the growing breasts.

“Are you about ready Tiffany?” I heard Amy ask behind me.

I turned to look at her and just about laughed, she was wearing the same thing as me almost — right down to the necklace and earrings. Her top was a solid color instead of striped like mine. “Yes, but you copied me…” I told her with a smile.

“I copied you? I copied you huh?” she asked. “I’ve had this sweater longer,” she told me in response along with her tongue stuck out.

“We might not look like twins anymore, but we still look like sisters,” I said with a smile.

“I always wanted a little sister,” she said with a smirk. I just stuck my tongue out in response.

The two of us laughed and headed downstairs together. I made sure I grabbed my backpack and checked to make sure all my homework was in it to turn in later. I also grabbed my saxophone that I had brought, but hadn’t had a chance to practice. I did practice at their house sometimes. Enough so, that they had even surprised me by buying a music stand for my room like I had at home. Last night though, practicing had been far from my mind. Amy and I set our stuff by the door then walked into the kitchen.

Melanie had already poured two bowls of cereal for us to eat. I looked at my watch and saw that we didn’t have a lot of time before we had to leave. I started eating as quickly as I could without being sick. Amy and I felt a bit rushed, but we still arrived at school at our normal time.

“Hey Tiffany,” Kyle said as we ran into him while dropping off my saxophone in the band room.

“Hi Kyle,” I told him with a smile.

He walked with us to social studies and asked me on the way there, “So what are you two doing about Mr. Grainger’s class?”

“Huh?”

“Aren’t you leaving?” he asked me.

“Oh yeah. Amy talked him into letting us go tomorrow. I think he’s thinking about giving everyone one more day though too.” I watched his face light up.

“Another day? Really? That would be really good. I hope he does,” he added.

The two of us talked with Amy and the rest of my friends while Mr. Randolph played the movie ‘Home Alone’ on the TV in his classroom. We’d already taken our semester test in there and he was just giving up on the rest of the week, and the couple days next week. The calendar kind of sucked for us this year. Because of the way Christmas fell we still had two more days of school next week instead of having break begin tomorrow. I wasn’t looking forward to coming back for another three days after today!

The bell rang and my friends and I walked to Mr. Grainger’s classroom together. I was starting to get really excited that break was so close to being here. Kyle was even trying to arrange for a group of us to go see Jumanji come out next week, on Friday, in Albuquerque. “That would be a lot of fun!” I told him with a smile.

Mr. Grainger had just called roll when I heard a voice over the intercom say, “Mr. Grainger?”

“Yes?” He responded.

“Is Tiffany Jacobson there?”

“Yes ma’am,” he said looking at me with a smile.

“Would you please send her to the office, she’s getting checked out,” the secretary finished.

“Okay,” he responded and nodded to me. “Have a good day, I’ll have you and Amy, present your project tomorrow,” he added.

I heard some gleeful responses as Kyle talked him into giving everyone one more day as I walked out. I heard him also ask for permission for something just as I walked out of the door. I took a left outside of his classroom and headed down the hallway to get out of the science annex. At the end of that hallway I took a right and looked towards the main hallway that would lead to the office after another turn. Just as I got to the hallway to make my left turn, I halted.

Standing in front of me were Jarred, Lucas, Caitlyn, Liza, and Brittany. I felt a chill go over my body and I got really nervous. I decided to keep walking though; they wouldn’t really try anything right now would they?

Just as I was about to move around Lucas who was on the right he asked, “Where do you think you’re going freak?”

I ignored him and tried to get past him but he blocked me. “Let me…” I started to say but someone clamped a hand over my mouth and I felt my feet leave the ground as I was picked up.

“Take her in here,” Jarred said behind me, it was him with the hand on my mouth, “and I saw he was directing them towards the boy’s bathroom off the main hallway and to the right of the science annex hallway.

I tried to scream but his hand was too tight. I tried kicking whoever had my legs, but they had them too tight, and my arms were being held just as tightly. ‘What are they going to do to me?’ I panicked. I didn’t know what to do, I tried biting Jarred’s hand but it was just out of the range of my teeth, all I could do was bite my own lip which I did. I kept trying to scream and fight but it wasn’t doing any good. As soon as they got me inside the bathroom they shoved me against the wall in the back by the sinks. I lost my balance and hit my head.

“What are you doing?” I screamed as loudly as I could.

In response Jarred punched me in the stomach. I screamed again and began crying. Just as I started that though I felt vomit come out of my throat and felt a little bit of satisfaction as I saw a bunch of it land on Caitlyn.

“You little bitch!” she screamed at me and shoved me back against the wall. She smashed my head against the wall and I felt my head slide along it and could feel the cuts forming. She wiped the vomit I had gotten on her hand all over my shirt. “We warned you fag to get the hell out of our school but you didn’t listen!” she told me before she punched me again.

“You’ve been ruining our school every time we turn around,” Liza said to me before she tore at my hair and slammed my head against the wall again.

By this time I didn’t even think I had any scream left in me. I felt dizzy, breathing was coming hard to me, and I couldn’t even see because of the blood coming out of the cuts on my head. “Please…” I pleaded.

“Please what?” Jarred said sinisterly.

“Please? You want us to make you a real girl?” I heard Lucas say.

“Leave me alone,” I tried to say, but I wasn’t sure that’s what it sounded like. I was sobbing uncontrollably by this time. How was I going to survive this? There were five of them, and every single one of them was at least six inches taller than me. I shakily stood and looked as best I could at all of them. Jarred was moving towards me to do something. I couldn’t think of anything else so I tried to kick him in the crotch. He just laughed it off though as he blocked it easily with his hands.

“What are you trying to do that for freak?” He said angrily. “We’re just going to do for you what you want done anyway.” I saw Lucas pull out a switchblade knife and open it up menacingly.
“Please don’t,” I told him.

“It doesn’t matter how much you plead you little fag, we’re going to make it to where you never bother any of us ever again.” Caitlyn said behind them both. She came closer to me and said, “Let’s see just what you’re stuffing your bra with…

Jarred held me up by my throat all of the sudden while Caitlyn ripped my sweater off me with the help of Lucas’s knife. “Nice sports bra freak,” Liza said.

“Please…” was all that I could get out. Jarred was crushing my wind pipe. I could just barely see his eyes so I did the only thing I had left in me, I aimed for his eyes with two fingers like I’d been taught and tried to poke his eyes out. I missed his left eye, but I felt something gooey on my middle finger as it made contact and heard him scream, “YOU LITTLE BITCH!!!!!”

He moved away though and loosened his grip on my throat. I took in as big a breath as I could and screamed like I had never screamed before. Two seconds into that scream though I felt someone punch me in the stomach again before trying to rip my bra off. I tried to scratch at their face, but even as I felt my fingernails dig into their face and heard, “Fuck!” from them I knew it wasn’t going to do any good.

In those seconds I knew I wasn’t going to make it. There was no way, five of them against me… little me. What had I ever done to them? I was sobbing and knew it was only a matter of time before I was dead from this. “Mommy…” I cried all of the sudden out of nowhere. My poor mom. She had been so supportive of me, both of my parents had been, and now all of that was going to be for nothing.

“Your mommy ain’t going to help you slut,” I heard one of the voices say as they hit me in the face with their fist.

“What the fuck is going on in here?” I heard a voice say as someone was still trying to pull my bra off over my head. I knew that voice. ‘I must be hallucinating,’ I told myself.

“Tiffany?” I heard him scream louder next. “What are you doing to her?”

The next few moments were a blur, I had no idea what was going on but that I was sure I wasn’t going to last much longer. How could I? I was bleeding, humiliated, could barely breathe, and I couldn’t see straight. I heard someone scream and footsteps moving down the hallway as quickly as they could.

As quickly as everything had happened I felt a hand touch my bare shoulder, “Tiffany are you all right?”

It wasn’t the hand I expected though, it wasn’t one of the groping hands… it was a friendly hand. In that moment my brain finally made the connection and I opened my eyes to see Kyle standing in front of me. He grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser that I was curled up underneath and wiped the blood out of my eyes. Before he had even gotten more than one eye cleaned up though I hugged him and cried.

“It’s okay Tiffany, you’re safe now,” he told me over and over again as I hugged him. “Can you walk?” he asked me.

I couldn’t answer through my sobs, so he decided that meant no. I felt him place something over my body before picking me up and moving down the hallway with me. “What happened to her?” I heard my mom scream loudly as he took me into the office.

“Someone call Nine-One-One!” I heard another voice command.

My last memory from that moment was my mom taking me from Kyle and rocking me back and forth in her arms. Then I blacked out.