by:

After a tragedy, Charlie and his small family move from the West Coast to the East and to a small and idyllic, dairy community to start anew. Soon he starts to realize the town seems a bit odd and the things there not so right, including himself.

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Author's Note: Hello people, I'm back again. Sorry for such a long hiatus on my writing. Things have been a little crazy in real life lately. Those who know me know what I'm talking about. Thankfully things have calmed down now and I've been able to devote most of my free time to writing again. So new story. This is the one I teased about a little while ago in a blog. Its not finished but I'm currently on the 7th chapter so its going pretty strong. I'll post one chapter a week again like usual. You're going to need to bear with this story for a while though. Most of the first few chapters are about setting things up. Its going to take a while too. I've had fun writing it though. I'd like to thank everyone who's been helping me with it, especially ashleigh for her editing prowess.

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1.

“There’s another one”

“How many does that make now?”

“I don’t know, I think I lost count at like five hundred”

Dad groaned from the front seat.

He could groan all he wanted but he knew we were right. Ok so maybe five hundred was a bit of an exaggeration on my sister’s part but not by much. For the last several hours now, everywhere we looked all we saw was cows. I guess I now knew what they meant when they called this Cow Country but it was getting pretty ridiculous. Then again this whole damn thing was ridiculous. Things were finally starting to go right in my life---I had a girlfriend, I was finally starting to make some real friends and I think puberty was finally starting. Then Dad has to go and have some demented midlife crisis. I mean what sane person decides to uproot their entire family and move them from a city like Portland to the middle of Cow Country USA. Also, know as the “Middle of Fucking Nowhere”.

“Five hundred and two,” said Sara from the backseat.

“That’s enough of that now”

“Five hundred and three”

I could hear the enthusiasm in her voice.

“I mean it, young lady!”

I turned back in time to see Sara roll her eyes and crank up the volume on her iPod.

She was about as thrilled as I was about this move.

“Charlie, would you please stop instigating your sister?”

I groaned.

“Why, she’s right. We’ve passed like a billion cows and I mean why not we are in the middle of nowhere after all”

“I need you on my side for this buddy”

“Why, this is bull shit”

“Watch your language!”

“Sorry”

It was, though.

Mom definitely would not have approved either. She left her tiny little farm town for a reason. She told me once that she thought it was the most boring place on Earth. That’s why as soon as she graduated from high school she picked a West coast school and never looked back. Not that there was much to look back too. So far for the last few hours, the scenery was the same. Large open fields filled with grazing cattle. The grass wasn’t even green---it was this bland yellow color and don’t even get me started on the smell. Even with the windows rolled up, you could still smell the stink. I found it hard to believe that people wanted to live out here.

Dad, however, was excited.

When he pitched the idea to us a couple of weeks ago, he called it an adventure.

I called it insane.

Dad was adamant, though.

So he closed his huge, highly successful PR firm in the city, sold the house, packed all our belongings into a moving truck and dragged us out here. To the middle of Nowhere USA. Ok, so it was technically New York but definitely not a part you ever actually saw. I mean the least he could have done was take us to NYC to live or something. Dad had a plan, though. He wanted to live the simple life or something. So our port of call was Whisper Pines, the tiny little town in Cow Country that my mother grew up in. He wanted us to get closer to our roots or something. He said he made all the arrangements. He got us a new house in a brand new housing development and he took a cushy job as VP of Marketing for Whisper Meadows Dairy, a company owned and operated by my grandparents.

Dad thought it was the greatest.

Sara and I literally felt like slitting our wrists.

Ok so maybe not that extreme.

If there was such a thing as a mid-mid-life crisis, I think Dad was having one. I mean do thirty-five-year-old men usually decide to uproot their family on a whim? That’s what it was too, it had to be. There was no other explanation as to why someone who was successful and financially sound would want to dump his whole business and go work on a dairy farm? Sure the farm was owned by my grandfather and Mom said milk was in our veins but that still didn’t explain why Dad was so keen on it. Milk wasn’t in his veins after all. In fact, he was Greek. His parents actually lived on this little Greek island somewhere. Sara and I tried to convince him to let us go live with them but no dice.

Dad was keen on this new adventure.

We stopped talking after Dad snapped at me for my language. I turned to the window, hoping to find something out there to stem my boredom. It was all the same, though. The road was lined with wooden fences for as far as the eye could see. Beyond them was that yellow grass and beyond that, more yellow grass. There were lots of cows too. Most of them belonged to little farms that popped up here and there. Usually, though all I saw was grass and fence. It was horrible. How could people live like this? I mean I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen any true sign of civilization. Maybe the occasional sign or something but nothing concrete. An hour ago we crossed some train tracks and that was probably one of the most exciting things ever.

This was the adventure Dad wanted so much?

The boredom was killing me too.

Dad had forced me to sit up in front with him this morning, to help navigate he said. I’m not sure why, to be honest. We had GPS. I looked at the little screen now. The road we were on seemed to go for miles in both directions. I was pretty sure TomTom had died of boredom a long time ago too.

“Can we at least listen to the radio, please?”

Dad hated the radio playing while he was driving. He said it was too distracting.

“Why don’t you play that game thing of yours?”

That game thing was my 3DS.

“It needs to be charged”

“How about the license plate game. You used to love that”

I groaned. “When I was five”

Dad just didn’t get me anymore. Then again he had to be around some of the time to actually know me. I suppose there was one good thing about all of this. Dad had to spend some time with us again. We used to be pretty close when I was younger. That was before work became the most important thing in his life, though. We used to go to ball games and the park and the movies. Now, Dad was too busy to even have breakfast with us. Or at least he had been. Everything changed after Mom’s accident. I think Dad blamed himself for it. For a while, I think I blamed him too.

Tragedy has a way of changing things.

Dad stopped going to work. Sara and I started missing days of school. Eventually, we decided to stop going altogether. It was just easier. The school understood. They tried to send counselors. That lasted about a month before Dad realized he didn’t like what they were saying. Mom’s accident was four months ago. We spent three of those months in this collective funk. Dad decided we needed a change last month. That’s when he decided to let a colleague buy him out of the business. He cashed in some stock, put the house on the market and decided we all needed a change of scenery.

Personally, I think he needed the change.

At the time Sara and I didn’t argue because we thought Dad was blowing smoke out of his ass.

It didn’t become real for us until the house sold.

Now here we were on Day Three of our cross country road trip. We were apparently taking it slow. According to Google, this trip should have taken two days. Dad was pacing himself, though. I think he was trying to stretch things to spend more time with us or something. Too little too late in my opinion. I was fourteen now, Sara was eleven. Dad had his chance and blew it.

“I need to pee”

So she speaks again.

“Can you hold it, sweetie?”

“I’ve been holding it for like twenty minutes”

Sara leaned forward from the backseat, a lock of that rainbow hair of hers dropped in front of her face. Sara’s hair was an act of rebellion on her part. Or so she said. Her hair was usually dirty blonde but a year ago, she started experimenting with colors. It wasn’t the permanent kind of hair dye, though, Mom wouldn’t let her do that. Instead, Sara had permission to use the kind that washed out in a few days. Since then I think she used every color in the spectrum at least twice. Hence why I referred to it as “Rainbow Hair”. Today’s current color was purple.

Well, the ends of it anyway.

“Can you hold it for maybe twenty more?”

She gave him that look. She rolled her eyes again. Which looked, even more, threatening what with the dark eye makeup she was wearing. It was the only makeup my parents allowed her to wear. She was too young to wear other kinds. Personally, I thought it made her look like a raccoon but who was I to complain. My girlfriend Fiona wore it like that too. I mean my ex-girlfriend now I suppose.

"Charlie, give your sister one of those empty bottles”

Dad gestured to the floor with his head. There were a few empty water bottles at my feet.

I smirked. Dad really was clueless sometimes.

“What?” gasped Sara, disgusted. “I’m a girl, Dad!”

“Oh c’mon, it's not that bad,” I said, grabbing my bottle of mountain dew to tease her. “I mean I used one like an hour ago”

I waved the bottle in her face.

“Get that fucking thing away from me!”

She smacked the bottle out of my hand. I couldn’t help but laugh. Dad yelled at her for swearing. It was actually pretty damn classic.

A second later, I picked up the bottle, unscrewed the cap and took a swig. Sara looked like she was going to puke.

“It's Dew you idiot”

“You’re an ass”

“SARA”

“Well he is”

She dropped back into her seat.

I sat back with a bit of renewed confidence. I felt a little better actually. Messing with Sara felt normal. She and I had never really been close. When not listening to her music or dyeing her hair five different colors, Sara spent most of her time playing volleyball. I think she got all the sporty genes. Me, I couldn’t even tell you the first thing about volleyball. Or any other ball for that matter. I only went to baseball games with Dad because it was time to spend with him. I didn’t really know the first thing about it, to be honest. Before Fiona asked me out, I spent most of my time in my room playing games on the computer or reading comic books. The idea of going outside and doing something active was a pretty foreign concept to me.

Dad started to fiddle with the GPS for a few seconds.

“Ok,” he announced. “There’s a gas station rest stop about two miles down the road, you can go pee there”

“Thank you”

I snorted, still remembering the look of horror on her face when I drank my “pee” just seconds ago.

Still classic.

The gas station rest stop wasn’t much to look at, to be honest. Sure it had all the usuals of a rest stop---the gas station, a tiny convenient store, there was even a diner. What it didn’t have was people. It also looked like it had been here since the 1950s. The paint was peeling, the pumps were covered in rust and the buildings looked really dated. I think I’d seen this place before, maybe in some creepy old horror movie.

“You want me to pee in there?”

Apparently, Sara was thinking the same thing.

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” said Dad, as he parked the car in front of the station.

A moment later, an older gentleman in faded gray overalls came walking around the side of the station. I could see what appeared to be a large garage back there. So maybe this place fixed cars too? The man walked slowly toward us. He even looked kinda creepy---thin, with large coke rim glasses and an unkempt beard. I think I’d seen him in that same horror movie. As he got closer, I saw the name on his overalls, Bud.

Great.

“Afternoon folks,” he said as Dad rolled down his window.

“Hi,” Dad said for lack of any better words I suppose.

“We don’t see too many people around here these days,” he said, wiping his grease-covered hands on his pant legs.

“Just passing through to Whisper Pines”

“I know that place well. We got a truck that drops off milk from that there dairy they have.”

Dad nodded.

“Do you have a restroom, sir?” asked Sara from the back.

“Sure thing little lady”

Sara didn’t wait for an invitation. She opened the car door and took off for the gas station. Bud chuckled a bit. Sara didn’t even bother to shut the door.

Dad looked over at the diner. “Is it open?”

“Of course it is. The Missus makes a fine pecan pie if you’re interested”

“Sounds wonderful”

I wanted to groan but that would have been rude.

Now we were going to be stuck here for a while. Just great. I wanted to get this trip over with, not drag it out some more. The way Dad was taking things we’d probably end up spending another night in some motel somewhere. At this rate, we’d probably be to our new house next week.

“Charlie, would you get her door please”

This time I did groan. Dad gave me a look so I didn’t really have much of a choice. I opened the door and climbed out of the car. I’ll be honest, it felt pretty good to stretch my legs. We’d been driving for about five or six hours now. We started the journey this morning in a small motel just on the Indiana/Ohio border. Now here we were having just passed into New York about an hour ago. According to Dad, we’d be in cow country for the rest of our journey apparently. The rest of which was only a few hours, thank you, Google!

Walking around to the back of the car, I couldn’t help but notice the smell was here as well. Pinching my nose, I closed my sister’s door. By the time I got around to my side of the car again, Dad was getting out. He was doing that old person stretching thing he liked to do----overly doing it I might add. Not that he was out of shape, far from it actually. To look at Dad then his children, it was hard to see how we could even be related. Dad was tall with broad shoulders, olive skin, and dark hair. He was well fit too, spending what little free time he had at the Gym and every morning before working jogging at least two miles. Dad was like something out of Pygmalion, a Greek sculpture come to life.
When he and Mom used to go out, women used to walk up to her and tell her how lucky she was.

He made me feel so inferior all the time.

“Charlie, can you get your sister and meet me over at the diner?”

Great now we were eating here too.

“Sure whatever”

Dad shook his head before heading off in the direction of the little building. I watched him go before looking at it. It looked like one of those old Soda Shop places you only saw in real old movies. It even had one of those neon signs that said “Terri’s Diner”. I’m assuming that was the owner. There was a similar looking sign for the Gas Station that told me this place was Samuel’s Gas and Go. If I had to guess I’d say this place was probably a truck stop too. Not that there were any big rigs here now. It---like the rest of this place---looked disused and deserted.

I started toward the gas station, keeping my eye on the convenient store attached to it. As I got closer I could see inside through the large glass windows. Sure enough, I found Sara, up at the counter chatting it up with the guy there. Of course, my sister would be with a guy. Sara liked only a handful of things---one was a band called the Poison Tongues, two was her crazy alternative fashion sense, volleyball of course and most importantly, it was guys obviously. It didn’t matter if they were ugly either, she just always seemed to gravitate toward them. They gravitated toward her too. She had this way about her.

Walking into the little shop, a bell actually sounded.

Neither of them noticed.

I didn’t really care.

I browsed the aisles as I made my way up front. It was the typical little convenient store with the freezers against one wall, a coffee machine, some vending machines and even some old arcade machines. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen one of those actually. I stopped at the chips, grabbing a few bags before getting a couple of Slim Jims and some Combos. When I finally reached the counter, I grabbed a couple of Snickers. Hey, I’m a growing boy, not that I looked like it sadly.

“When you’re done flirting, Dad wants us over in the diner”

My sister flushed about five shades of red.

Served her right.

“I’m not related to him,” she said, waving me off.

The guy looked disinterested. He was her type, though. Sorta grunge meets idiot. I could tell by the dopey look on his face. The little peach fuzz on his chin was a pretty dead giveaway too. Sara was pouring on the charm though but the guy was barely biting.

I pushed her aside so I could pay for my things.

“Give me your stuff too,” I said, taking her single pack of gum.

She rolled her eyes.

The guy watched me with interest.

“You guys live around here?” he asked, ringing up my things.

“Not yet,” said Sara happily “We’re moving to Whisper Pines, though”

The guy nodded.

“Cool. I live there too. You guys going to Whisper High too?”

Sara shrugged.

“If that’s the high school then ya,” I said, wondering if this guy was even smart enough to go to high school.

“Cool”

“Yeah cool,” said Sara, beaming.

“When are you starting?” he asked, looking directly at me.

It was as if he was trying to pierce into me with those eyes. Ok, so I’m an oblivious idiot too because it took me longer than a minute or two to realize what was going on. As soon as I did, though, I wanted to hurl. The dude wasn’t into my sister, he was into me. Double hurl. Not that I thought there was anything wrong with it, of course, I knew of gay people back home. I just knew that the reason he was into me wasn’t because he was gay, though. Probably . It was me. There were a few things about me that some guys had trouble with. One I was thin and shall you saw delicate looking. I did not get my father’s manly genes sadly. Two I was only fourteen and puberty was taking its time so no facial hair or anything like that. Three I had my mother’s very fair complexion and almost white blonde hair. Last but not least was the length of that hair.

I kept it long.

It was only down to the middle of my neck but that seemed to be enough. Most people either assumed I didn't care or I was a tomboyish girl. It was kind of frustrating. Sadly it made a lot of guys think two things about me. I was either a “big fag” or I was a “cute girl”. There was no middle ground either. I had every intention of getting it cut before we left but kept procrastinating.

"I’m sorry,” I said, feeling myself turning green. “I’m not into guys”

The look of disappointment on his face made me feel a little bad for the idiot.

“Oh,” he said.

Sara twigged on it a few seconds later. The look on her face was priceless as always. First, she looked as if she wanted to punch him in the throat. Then she looked like she wanted to punch me in the throat. Then she got this cruel smile.

Oh shit.

“Now don’t be that way, sis,” she said wickedly, emphasizing the word sis, of course. “Everyone knows you swing both ways”

Damn her.

“So why don’t you give Ricky your cell number,” she said, still with that evil smile. “And try to fit him into your busy social calendar”
Before I could say anything, Sara took a napkin from the counter and wrote my number on it.

Double Damn Her.

The cashier---Ricky---took it from her with a big smile.

I shot him an awkward smile before I grabbed my bag and Sara by the arm.

I dragged her toward the door quickly.

“I hate you” I hissed as I pulled her outside.

“Mountain Dew, Dip Shit!”

She pulled out of my grip and started off toward the diner, laughing like a jackass.

Oh, she was so getting her hand dipped in water tonight.

Terri’s Diner was just as quaint on the inside as it was on the outside.

It had one of those bells too. It smelled a lot better than the convenient store, though. Thank God for that. I always loved the smell of apple pie and french fries. It reminded me a bit of home. Mom had been a great cook. I missed her cooking. With Dad these last few months, it had either been take out or fast food. Sara didn’t seem to mind because she was like a Bottomless Pit but me, I missed a nice home cooked meal.

Looking around as soon as we stepped inside, I found Dad in a booth by the window.

Not that he was hard to spot, the place was empty.

Well, save for the overweight older woman in the waitress uniform. I could only assume she was Terri.

She smiled at us as we walked toward Dad.

“Take a seat anywhere, girls,” she said with a warm smile.

Sara scoffed, I wanted to punch her.

What was with it with these Backwater people. Hadn’t any of them seen a boy with longish hair before?

We slipped into the booth. Sara was chuckling, Dad shook his head.

“See I told you to get your hair cut”

Sara broke out laughing. “You should have seen the guy in the store hitting on him”

I threw sugar packets at him. “If he calls my cell, I’m kicking your ass”

“You’ll try”

She had a point there. I wasn’t proud to admit that she could easily beat me up.

Dad raised an eyebrow.

“Do I even want to know?”

Sara quickly regaled him about the “Convenient Store Incident”

Dad smirked and shook his head.

“I’ll get you a new cell as soon as we get settled”

“It's fine” I huffed.

I’d deal with it later.

I was in the middle of my pout when the waitress came over. Looking at her up close I could tell she was the same age as Bud. Which further strengthened my theory that she was his wife. He also mentioned that the “Missus made a mean pecan pie”. Looking at the counter behind her, I could see a pecan pie on display. I also noticed a few other indications. She was wearing a wedding ring for one thing. For another, she had the same little cross pin on her lapel as the mechanic had. I hadn’t really paid much attention to his but now that I saw it on her I knew there had to be connection.

“Good afternoon folks,” she said with a warm smile. “My name is Terri. My husband Bud said you all were passing through on your way to Whisper Pines?”

Bingo.

Dad smiled back. “That’s right. My In-Laws own the dairy”

“Oh my word, these are Penny’s little uns”

“You knew my wife?”

“Of course dear,” she said then gently touched my father’s hand. “I was heartbroken when her father told me about her accident. You lot must have been devastated”

My sister and father nodded.

I think I nodded too.

I was just a bit distracted by being called a “little un”. I was fourteen now, not exactly little anymore. Unless of course, she was talking about my height. Not that five foot five was short by any means of course. It was, however, a tad on the short side for a boy my age. Stupid puberty, mucking things up again.

“It's been hard” Dad was saying. “But I wanted the kids to see where their mother grew up, maybe have a fresh start”

Terri nodded. “Of course”

She and dad talked a bit about Mom. Apparently, she really knew her. She started talking about Mom as a little girl but I tuned it all out. I turned and looked out the window instead. There wasn’t much out there. No wait, there was something. There was a cow. That was kind of odd actually. I’d never actually just seen one cow before. Usually, they were in a herd right? Not that that was the odd thing about this cow, though. The odd thing was that it was eating a shirt. A bright pink one to be exact.

“Ummm,” I said, interrupting. “I think your cow took something off your clothes line”

Terri looked out the window and laughed. “That’s not my cow sweetie. It's a stray. Probably wandered off. Bud has already called your grandpa about it. They’re sending someone to get it tomorrow morning”

I nodded and turned to look at the cow again. I noticed something else too. There was a pair of shorts near it as well, underneath its hind legs. I couldn’t help but smirk, thinking maybe the cow had been wearing clothes. Of course, it was ridiculous but it was funny nonetheless.

Sara looked out the window too. “Oh tough break, that’s a Kenny Martel she’s eating”

“Who’s Kenny Martel?” asked Dad.

Sara rolled her eyes. “A big designer. That's his logo on the sleeve. That shirt is like three hundred dollars, easy”

Jesus.

“Well, it's a future cow patty now,” said Terri with a light chuckle.

I looked back out the window. The shirt was almost completely devoured now. I couldn’t help but think how strange it was. Who in their right mind would leave a three hundred dollar shirt lying around for a cow to eat?

Sara lost interest in the cow about two seconds after she grieved the shirt. Dad watched for a second longer before he gave up too. I sat and watched as the shirt slowly disappeared. I’m not sure why I was so fascinated with it, to be honest. I guess it was just the idea of something so expensive going to waste like that. It just seemed so pointless. When the shirt was completely gone, I lost interest too.

“Now then, what can I get you folks”

Dad ordered first. A club sandwich and fries. His usual.

“How about you girls?”

I groaned. What the hell was it with these people?

“Do you have chicken fingers?”

“Sure do, Sugah”

She ordered that then asked for some coffee.

“Aren’t you a little young for something like that”

“I’m from Portland. That’s in Oregon. It's like the Coffee Capital of the World”

“Just bring her a pop or something”

“Eww, no”

“How about some milk, sweetie?”

Sara looked disgusted. “I’m not five”

Dad gave her his “Don’t sass adults” look. He was constantly giving it to her. Sara had a bit of an attitude that sometimes needed adjusting.

“Ok, we have juice. Apple or Orange?”

I scoffed at the apple juice. It was a shame I didn’t have some of that in the car earlier. It would have made that joke all the more genuine. Sara shot me a dirty look. She clearly knew what I thought was so funny.

“Orange then please”

“And for you, sweetie?”

I ordered a grilled cheese and fries.

“I’ll have that glass of milk too if you don’t mind, Ma’am”

I shot Sara a dirty look of my own.

Sara refused to drink milk because of all the empty carbs or some stupid thing. She was always changing her mind about stuff. One week she was a Vegan, the next week she couldn’t eat vegetables. It was actually hard to keep track. Mom always knew what was what, though. She was cool like that. I think it was what made her so good at her job. Being a reporter you always had to know the right things at the right time. Out of the three of us, she was the only one that seemed to understand the world that was Sara.

“I’ll be right back with those drinks then”

Terri left a moment later.

“You’re such a dork,” said Sara, throwing a sugar packet at me.

“Knock it off!” snapped Dad.

I think he was finally getting annoyed with her today.

It was about time honestly.

Terri returned a few minutes later with our drinks. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a glass of milk with any meal. Least of all in a restaurant. Taking the class, I took a nice long sip. Wow. There was something different about this one. The milk tasted fresh. I mean fresher than most milk. It was also cold and frothy. I’ve had my fair share of milk over the years but this one was amazing. It was like super milk or something. Ok, so that was taking it too far but not really.

“What kind of milk is this?”

Terri gave me a strange look. “It's Whisper Meadows, sweetie”

“Wow, really?”

She nodded. “You’ve never drank your own granddad’s milk before?”

I shook my head. “They don’t carry it in Portland”

She looked wounded for a second. Then she turned that frown into a great big smile again.

“Well drink up, sweetie”

I smiled and nodded, taking another great big sip.

Terri wandered off again, Sara rolled her eyes again. I sat and drank my milk. Before I knew it, I finished the whole glass. Terri brought me another when she brought our food. Biting into my grilled cheese, I could automatically tell the cheese was from the Dairy too. I couldn’t help but smile when I ate. Not just because of that fact but because well it tasted home cooked. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually had something, not in a plastic bin or paper wrapper. Looking at Dad and Sara I could tell they were enjoying it just as much as I was.

It was so good, none of us spoke through the whole thing.

I couldn’t remember the last time we ate a meal without talking.

When we were finished, Terri came over.

“And how was that?”

“Fantastic,” I said, speaking for all three of us.

She smiled.

When Dad pulled out his wallet, she stopped him.

“Not on your life. Joe Miller would blow a gasket if he found out I charged his family for a meal. This one is on the house, dear”

“Well that’s really nice of you but I insist...”

“I don’t want your money, honey,” she said sweetly.

The two of them went back and forth about it a few times.

Terri won in the end, though.

We thanked her again for the meal and she followed us toward the door. As we were leaving, a couple of big rigs pulled in. I smiled. I was glad to see this place wasn’t as dead as I originally thought.

“Race you to the car, dweeb!” shouted Sara as she ran off.

I wasn’t in the mood, though. I started to walk slowly toward the car when I stopped. I turned and looked back toward the cow. I was still perplexed about something. I looked at Dad but he seemed to be engrossed in a conversation with Bud and Terri. Shrugging it off, I decided I wanted to get a closer look at the cow. The last time I’d ever really been close to one when I was five. It was during the summer that year when we came here to visit Grandpa Joe and Grandma Diana. It was one of my favorite vacations we took. Sara didn’t remember it of course because she was a baby but it was a good, happy trip.

Approaching the cow now, I noticed it had moved onto eating the shorts.

They were jean ones, probably just as expensive as the shirt.

I thought about trying to pull them out of its mouth but decided it wasn’t worth it.

The cow lazily looked at me as I approached. I forgot how big they were. I also forget how bad they smelled. Strangely enough, though, this one smelled pretty good. Well, not as bad as some of the rest I suppose. That wasn’t the funny thing about this cow, though. It was its hooves. Or actually what was on them. I actually had to bend down to take a closer look but I couldn’t help but laugh as I did. It looked like someone had painted the cow’s hooves blue. No, wait not paint. It was fingernail polish. It covered all four hooves too. What the hell? I started to stand up when I noticed something else, something in the grass by her left hoof. It was gold and caught the light. Bending down, I picked it up and found myself holding a necklace. Well, a broken chain and a pendant. The pendant was about the size of a quarter, shaped in a heart. The front was smooth and the back, there was something written there.

I flipped it over.

“A & C. BFFs” I read softly to myself.

It must have belonged to the girl who left her clothes.

Why in the hell would she leave them, though?

I stuck the pendant in my pocket. Maybe there was someone in town who knew who it belonged too. It seemed important and I wanted to make sure it got back to the right person.

“Hey Charlie, c’mon!” shouted Dad, who was at the car.

I waved and patted the cow on the head. I started to turn when something else strange caught my eye. It was the cow’s eyes. I’d seen a lot of cows in the last day or so. Some of them pretty close as we drove by. All of them had these dull, muddy brown eyes. This cow, though, it had vibrant blue eyes. They didn’t look cow-like either. Ok so I didn’t really see other cows this close but the eyes looked too bright to be a cow’s. Could cows even have blue eyes?

“C’mon idiot!” shouted Sara, annoyed.

“I’ll google it later,” I said to myself, before turning and running toward the car.

I stopped one more time to take a look back at the cow before climbing into the passenger seat.

What a strange thing.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

by:

After a tragedy, Charlie and his small family move from the West Coast to the East and to a small and idyllic, dairy community to start anew. Soon he starts to realize the town seems a bit odd and the things there not so right, including himself.

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Author's Note: Ok so two things, one from now on this story will be posted on Mondays. The second is that I'm going to try something new, which is to use a new picture with each chapter. The pictures that I'll use are going to have some connection to the chapter. Or least that's the plan. I'll get them as close as I can :D. As for this chapter itself, I'd once again like to thank ashleigh for her great editing :)

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2.

“What’s that?” asked my sister, looking over my shoulder.

After leaving the cow at the diner, I decided to get into the back seat of the car. Sara had the choice to take shotgun but she loved the freedom in the back. I was feeling a little sleepy. The back seat allowed more room to lay down if I needed it. The new car was another bit of contention with us. Dad used to be seen as semi-cool because he drove a Mustang. It was one of those sleek, shiny newer models. It only had two seats, though. It was the reason he ended up selling it in favor of something a little more family friendly. Which meant our current vehicle---a 2017 Hyundai Accent. A big downgrade from the Stang if you ask me but seeing as the Mustang would never fit all three of us, it was necessary.

The only good thing about the Accent was the roomier backseat.

Sara poked my arm. “I asked you a question”

“Oh sorry,” I said, showing her the pendant I was currently holding. “I found it near the cow”

Sara took it from me, looking it over closely before handing it back.

“Nothing special”

I shrugged. “Maybe not to you but to whoever lost it”

“You’re going to try to find her aren’t you?” she asked in a mocking tone, I shrugged again. “Be her Knight in Shining Armor”

“Bite me”

Sara started laughing then went back to her music. Just as well, I really didn’t want to talk to her anyway.

I looked back down at the pendant in my hand. It didn’t look brand new which meant someone probably had it a long time. It was a little worn too so that told me someone also gripped it in their hand, probably rubbed it a few times. It was definitely a cherished item. Not only that it had an inscription. It meant something to someone. Not just one someone either. There were two girls out there that this necklace and pendant had meaning too. Someone had the twin and I wanted to make sure that whoever they were, that everything was made right again.

Maybe I was just over thinking it all, though.

Maybe it meant nothing.

I didn’t really know all that much about friendships, to be honest.

I didn’t actually make my first friend until after Mom passed away.

His name was Doug. It was all rather a strange set of circumstances that led to our first meeting. I was on one of my many walks in the city proper. I rarely went into the city because I hated a lot of noise and tended to avoid large crowds whenever possible. Unfortunately for me at the time I had no choice. The online store I ordered my comics from didn’t have my current issue in stock. At least online anymore. Apparently, they had a physical store in the city, which sadly forced me to make the trip. I took the bus and dreaded it almost immediately. The way I look is always a problem, well at least to me. People liked to stare because they thought I was sick or an albino or something. It was all pretty strange. I mean not even Mom was as pale as I was. Don’t even get me started on Dad. Anyway, the bus was a mute point. It took me to the city, I got off a block from the comic book shop.

I met Doug inside.

I would never have given a guy like him the time of day, to be honest. He was tall, with broad shoulders and a buzzed head. He looked so out of place in there. Except of course for the Batman t-shirt, he was wearing. Our meeting was by some weird chance. We were both actually there for the same comic. I hated meeting people for the first time because of the assumptions---I was short, pale and had my hair. Everyone just assumed I was a girl and treated me like one. Not Doug though. We both reached for the same comic and he said, “Sorry Dude”. I was thrilled to finally be seen as the guy I was.

Our friendship grew from there.

It turned out we actually had a lot in common.

Then we moved.

Doug had my cell number of course. He also had my Skype contact information. Like with Fiona though, I knew it was only a matter of time before we stopped talking. Such was the way with things. I would try my hardest to keep in touch with him but I knew already how it was going to end.

Which reminded me…

“Hey Dad, can you pull over for a second?”

Dad looked in the rear view.

“You should have gone before we left the rest stop”

“What no, not that. I want to get my laptop out of the trunk”

Dad looked at the road. There was no one on it but us. Nodding, he pulled the car over to the shoulder and stopped. It only took me like a minute or two to hop up. He popped the trunk and I found my laptop bag right where I left it, wedged between Dad’s golf clubs and my school backpack. I grabbed the pack as well and carried both of them back to the car. I was about to get back in when I noticed we were close to one of those fences. On the other side, I saw a bunch of cows. They were off in the distance, though. I couldn’t help but wonder how many of them had blue eyes like the one at the diner.

“C’mon idiot!” shouted Sara, leaning out her window.

I walked back to the car, trying not to think about cows again.

We got back on our way in a couple of minutes. I was back in the front seat with Dad. I didn’t like it when Sara looked over my shoulder when I was doing things on the laptop. Especially when I was trying to call Fiona. I brought up Skype, waited as it called her number. It was taking longer than it usually did for some reason.

Dad must have seen me getting frustrated.

“We’re three hours ahead of her now, she’s probably in school”

I shook my head. “We...I mean they had a three-day vacation”

It was President’s Day weekend after all. The reason Dad wanted to go now so we wouldn’t miss any more school than we had too. Of course, we’d still miss school when we got to our new house. We left home---well our former home----Friday morning and it was now one o’clock on Monday afternoon. Eastern Standard time. The time zone change took some getting used to actually. It was still a little confusing actually. So I knew where Dad was coming from. No, Fiona and I had made a promise to one another Thursday night. We knew a long distance relationship would never work but we promised to still remain good friends. She also promised she’d be available today around this time to Skype with me.

I tried calling her again.

She finally picked up on the third time.

The Internet here in the middle of nowhere wasn’t all that great, to be honest. I was actually kind of surprised there was any at all. I’m not sure but we must have been driving through a Hot Spot or something. At least the picture wasn’t fuzzy or anything. Fiona’s smiling face appeared on the screen, just as beautiful as I remembered. Not that I could forget it, of course, especially seeing as we spoke last night in the motel. It was nice to see her again, look into those green eyes, admire all that auburn hair again.

“Hey Greek,” she said, with a smile.

God, I loved that smile.

“Hey Irish”

It was this little thing we had. It actually wasn’t our doing. Fiona and I actually met at the school’s week-long Cultural festival. It was in October and as a Freshman, I wasn’t even sure how I got roped into it actually. It was a big thing though apparently. Each country had a table that represented their culture. The school tried its hardest to assign kids to tables with nationalities they represented. Most of the tables though were just manned by random students. Greece had been one of those tables for years apparently. That is until the Student Council sought me out. With a last name like Kanenas, it was hard not to know I was Greek.

Unfortunately for me, I was the only Greek kid in the whole school. I ended up having to main the Greece booth through the whole festival. Fortunately for me, though, the Ireland booth was right next to mine. The school didn’t really put the booths in any concrete order. There were also a lot of kids who manned the booths around me. Fiona was luckily one of them. We didn’t actually know each other’s names because the Student Council member who introduced us said “He’s Greek” and “She’s Irish”. So that’s what we ended up calling one another the whole time. We eventually learned each other’s real names but those names stuck with us as a little inside joke.

‘Where are you, your connection is a little slow?”

I groaned. “New York now. Not too far from our destination”

“I miss you”

“I miss you, too”

Our relationship wasn’t a very long one actually. We’d been friends for only a few months before she decided to ask me out. It was last month that we made it official. It was during Winter Break, we were at one of these indoor ice skating rinks. Fiona was a figure skater or was one in training I guess. She liked to spend what little free time she had---outside of school and practicing---at the rink. We were skating around together when she stopped me in the middle of the ice and asked me if I was ever going to ask her out. It took me a bit by surprise actually. Not that I didn’t like her, I really did. I just never really thought of her as girlfriend material. She took the next step though and asked me out, before kissing me of course.

That’s the way she was.

Forceful.

Not that I minded in the least of course.

“So how goes training?”

Fiona had a big competition coming up. She wasn’t the best in her class but she wasn’t the worst either. She’d been practicing this new move and she was getting pretty confident that she could pull it off. At least she was pretty sure last night anyway. Most of our conversations were about her skating, which I didn’t mind. She had a lot more going on in her life than I did. Me, the only thing I was ever able to contribute was a few quick things about the current comic I was reading or the game I was playing. I liked them a lot but I wasn’t nearly as passionate about them as she was her skating. She could talk for hours about it and I had no problem listening. Maybe that’s what made me such a good boyfriend?

“It's going great. Madame Olga says I’m ready”

“That’s fantastic”

Her teacher was this strict Russian Slave Driver. I should know, I’d had my fair share of run-ins with her. She called me The Distraction. If anyone was happy to see me go, it was probably her. She had made it known many times that Fiona did not have time for a boyfriend.

“So how are things going there?”

“Weird”

I quickly told her about the rest stop and the cow. It was after all the first time I could tell her something cool had happened to me. Not that it was really cool or anything but it was different. Plus how many people could say they say a Blue hoofed, blue eyed cow eating a designer shirt. Fiona laughed of course. When I mentioned the necklace, she agreed with my sentiments. I needed to find whoever it belonged too.

“BFF is for life, Kar. You have no idea how sacred that is to a girl”

When she wasn’t calling me Greek, she was calling me Kar. Fiona was the only one I allowed to call me that. Charlie was after all a nickname. One that I made sure everyone thought was my real name of course. Not that I didn’t like my real name, it was just a little weird. It's not every day you meet a boy named Karolos. Though to be fair it was the Greek equivalent of Charles. It just wasn’t a name one often heard outside of Greece. I wasn’t ashamed of it. It was my great grandfather’s name. I just didn’t want the same ridicule I got when I first started elementary school.

Fiona thought it was the coolest, though. She asked if she could call me Kar and of course, I said yes. It was hard to say No to her.

“I’m gonna ask around as soon as I start school”

“When is that?”

“Wednesday I think”

Fiona sighed. “This sucks”

“Tell me about it”

“I want you here with me.”

“I want to be there with you”

More than she knew. I was hoping Dad would come to his senses soon and take us back home. The odds of that happening were pretty slim but there was always a chance.

“Hey, have you talked to your parents about this summer yet?”

Right before I left, Fiona and I decided we weren’t going to let living on the other sides of the country ruin our friendship. So we came up with this plan. Depending on who could convince who first, one of us would travel either East or West and spend the summer with the other. It was a long shot of course but I didn’t want to lose her.

The look on Fiona’s face wasn’t promising.

“They’re not really keen on me spending the summer with a boy”

“Oh”

I’d forgotten about that little tidbit.

“We’ll think of something, though,” she said with a big reassuring smile.

My Fiona, always the Optimist.

We talked a little more about a variety of things, most of them pertaining to her life. I asked about her friends, about Doug of course. I wanted to know everything going on back home because I didn’t want to forget it. I couldn’t forget it. The more we talked, the more I realized I was really home sick. Thinking about it only hurt more. After about forty minutes or so, the conversation kinda got sour. We said our goodbyes then I closed up my laptop.

“Everything ok?” asked Dad.

I’m sure he was trying not to pry but it was hard not too, what with sitting next to me and all.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure really”

“You two are still friends right?”

“For now I guess. We were going to try getting together over the summer but her parents don’t want her staying with a boy”

“That’s tough. If it's any consolation, we have a spare room in the house”

I suppose there was that. Why wasn’t I happier about it, though? I mean I’d bring it up with her when we talked again tomorrow but I wasn’t very hopeful. I liked her parents but they were pretty strict. Plus they thought I was a distraction too. To them, Fiona should be concentrating only on skating. Not that I was actually distracting her from it, they just felt like I was. Now their daughter was giving something 99% instead of the full 100 like they wanted. It was kinda stupid but I couldn’t really fault them either. If I had a daughter and if she was passionate about something like Fiona was, I’d want her to give it her all too.

I tried not to think about it.

“Hey look at that!” said Dad happily.

I looked and saw. It was one of those green road signs, you know the ones that told you how far you were from a place.

Whisper Pines ½ Mile.

So we were finally here.

Our New Home.

Great.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“Sara, it's not that bad”

“Really?” she said, pointing. “Dad that place is selling cassette tapes”

I looked to where she was pointing and sure enough, the sign did say they had all the latest cassettes. That wasn’t what worried me, though. What worried me were the lack of people or rather the lack of men. We’d only been in the town proper for about ten minutes and so far I’d only seen two men walking the streets. The rest were all women. Not that was a problem I suppose but it was kind of weird. Weirder than that though was the town itself. It was pretty small. My vague memories of this place were just that vague. I couldn’t really remember much about the town from when I was five. All I could really remember was grandpa’s farm and his big, welcoming house.

Most everything else was a blur.

It was hard not to be.

There was only one main road leading into the town itself. We’d been on it since we arrived. It was a pretty wide street, though, on either side were small Mom and Pop stores. They were kind of quaint if you liked that sorta thing. They weren’t the only places, though---I spotted a small church, an old-fashioned movie theater, and a small town hall. The largest building had to be the library which was directly across from the town center, a large gazebo smack dab in the middle of a turn-about. That was pretty much it for the main road too. I could see two roads branching off of it though so there was some promise there.

It felt like we were being blasted into the past.

It was all very old fashion and happy.

All the buildings were brightly painted in pastels and every hedge was cut to look the same. Even the flowers looked happy. If that was even possible. It was like that movie Pleasantville. The only thing that told me we were in fact in the year 2017 were the people. They were dressed like normal ones. Not some crazy Stepford-like pod people I was expecting from the look of the town. It didn’t seem a little odd, though. All the people looked very fit, like Dad, even the women. Ok so they weren’t like body builder grotesque or anything like that but it was clear they exercised a lot.

Dad finally stopped the car near a quaint Colonial looking building. A sign hanging above the porch told me it was the Bovine Delights Bed and Breakfast. Wow. There was an even a smiling caricature of a cartoon cow on the sign. Looking about, I noticed it wasn’t the only place that seemed strangely cow themed. There was a large bronze cow statue right in front of that gazebo.

This place was obsessed.

“What’s going on?” asked Sara, giving the place a weary look.

“The moving van has been delayed”

We both groaned.

“Tell me we’re not staying here!”

“Afraid so, kiddo”

“Dad, the bright colors literally make me want to puke”

“Then sleep in the car,” he said as he opened his door.

Sara let out an aggravated half huff, half scream.

I felt the same.

“I think Dad has lost his God Damn mind” she mumbled as we both got out of the car.

I nodded. “Let’s hope it's not contagious”

Sara laughed. I couldn’t help but smile at that, I couldn’t remember the last time the two of us made one another laugh. She ran ahead of me toward the B&B, I followed closely on her heels. She was through the door by the time I got there and I could hear her groan from the other side of it. That wasn’t promising. Stepping into the building myself, I could see why Sara felt the need to express her displeasure. Someone had taken the cow theme and gone overboard it. There were cow knickknacks and stuff animals all over the place. Now to mention the cow themed paintings on the walls, the cow cushions on all the chairs, even the sign in desk was painted to look like a cow. It was absolutely ridiculous.

“Gag worthy” whispered Sara.

Not soft enough because Dad shot her a nasty glare.

A moment later, a woman appeared from a doorway behind the desk.

She was a knockout.

About Dad’s age, tall with long silky black hair. She was just as fit looking at the women I’d seen walking about and her smile, it was enchanting. Her most dominate feature though were her eyes, I’d never seen eyes that green before. When she walked, I could hear the clack of her heels. I looked to Sara and even she seemed to be blown away by the vision before us.

“Welcome,” she said in a pleasant voice. “This is The Bovine Delight, my name is Rebecca Collins, how can I help you this fine afternoon?”

“I’m Costas Kanenas, I believe we spoke on the phone”

Her face lit up. “Oh of course. How foolish of me. It's a real pleasure to finally meet you in person”

The way she said “real pleasure”, made me roll my eyes.

Dad always had that effect on women. It got tiresome fast.

I watched Dad, waiting for his reaction. He smiled but I could tell he wasn’t into her. Besides, she was clearly too blind to see that Dad was still wearing his wedding ring. What kind of woman hits on a married man?

She turned to us. “These most be your children. My what lovely daughters you have”

Sara scoffed, Dad pinched his nose and shook his head.

She looked from him to us and back to him.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“I’m his son,” I said, speaking up.

She looked at me and frowned. “I’m sorry dear, it's the hair and...”

“I get it all the time,” I said interrupting quickly.

I didn’t need some stranger pointing out my flaws.

Rebecca looked ready to say more but stopped before she did. I’m not sure I liked her, to be honest. Sure she was gorgeous and she seemed kind but there was something else there. Something about her that bothered me. She was too nice. Maybe I was just overreacting because of her one-sided interest in my father but there was more. It was the way she kept looking at me and Sara. I didn’t like it. It was almost as if she was already planning ahead for the future, sizing us up for things she might be able to change.

Dad seemed to sense something as well because he broke whatever tension might have been building.

“I don’t mean to sound rude or anything but we’ve had a long trip and I was wondering…”

“Oh yes of course,” she said with a giddy laugh, putting her hand gently on Dad’s arm. “Let me show you to your room personally”

“What about us?”

Sara seemed to sense her interests as well.

“Oh yes,” she said, waving her hand. “Connie!”

I heard the slow approach of footfall. A moment later, someone came running down the stairs. Time seemed to stand still as the girl reached the bottom of the stairs. There was no doubt about the fact that she and Rebecca Collins were related. They both had the same long black hair and those piercing green eyes. The best part was she appeared to be my age as well. Well maybe a bit older, she was a little more developed than most girls my age after all. Her jeans hung to her curves quite nicely, though. I’m sure if I’d been lucky enough to go through puberty, something below would have been stirring.

“This is Connie, my daughter” Rebecca put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Connie, be a dear and show these two to our best rooms”

“Sure Mom,” she said, all bright and cheery.

I could almost hear Sara groan. I knew what she thought of the perky ones.

I couldn’t help but smile because this was going to be amusing.

“Follow me,” she said, turning and walking toward the stairs she just came down.

My sister and I followed without hesitation. We didn’t have anything else to do. I did manage to look back and see her mother slip her arm through my father’s, leading him off to parts unknown. Something about it pissed me off. I’m not sure why I was so mad she was trying to wrangle in my father. He was a grown man, after all, he was free to make his own decisions. I just couldn’t get over the fact that he was married or rather had been four months ago. It felt like he was dishonoring my mother’s memory or something.

I turned in annoyance, following the two girls.

On the second floor, we stopped for a quick moment as Sara asked some nonsense question. I took the time to take the bottle of mountain dew out of my pack. I was taking a sip when Sara asked a question I was interested in:

“How old are you anyway?”

It was a bit rude but I wasn’t going to chastise her for it because well I was curious too.

Sara just didn’t have any manners.

Connie didn’t skip a beat though when she answered: “Fourteen”

I almost spit the mountain dew all over the back of her head.

Fourteen? There was no way!

“With boobs like those?” asked Sara, grabbing at the tiny bumps on her own chest.

Connie laughed. “What can I saw. Milk does the body good”

“Milk did that?”

Connie laughed again. “Of course not. It's genetics”

Connie started to talk about something science related. I only half paid attention because well science was never my strong suit. Sara seemed to hang on her every word, though. Boobs were important to my little sister and any advice on how to grow them faster, she was all ears.

They were finished by the time Connie in front of a door.

“Here’s one of the rooms,” she said, opening the door.

My sister and I both took a look inside.

It was pretty sparse. It had a bed and a dresser. There was a door I suspected to a closet and a single window. The whole room was decorated in a pale yellow. It looked pretty gender neutral. I suppose if I had too, I could stay in there for a couple of days. I also noticed a desk in the far corner. It was perfect for my laptop. Connie didn’t say anything. She led us to the next room down and opened that door too. Taking a peek inside, I nearly gagged. It looked identical to the last room but it was pink. I’m not talking about a normal pink either, this was like bubble gum pink. There was a lot of frill and lace too. Clearly, this room was meant for a five-year-old or something. I almost gagged, I think I heard Sara actually making the sound.

“Oh c’mon it's not that bad,” said Connie, stepping into the room. “See, I fit in just fine”

“Yeah but you’re a girly girl”

Connie fake pouted. “And what’s wrong with that?”

Sara didn’t have an answer. She did have a solution, though:

“The yellow room is mine!”

She quickly bolted out of the room and I heard the door slam before I could even react. I cursed. The little traitor probably had the door locked already too.

“Well then,” said Connie with a big smile. “I guess this is your room”

Yay me.

“I think if I wear sunglasses, it won’t be so bad”

Connie rolled her eyes.

“What a pretty girl like you afraid of a little pink?”

I groaned. Not her too.

“I’m a boy,” I said miserably.

I was getting tired of people in this town mistaking me for a girl.

The look of shock on Connie’s face was priceless.

“You can’t be...I mean...the hair and the body...”

I shook my head. “I’ve heard it all before. Boys can have longish hair and my body well let’s just say I’m a little late in development”

Connie just stared at me for a few minutes but shaking her head.

“Well I guess I’ll leave you alone for a bit then,” she said and started for the door, she stopped before leaving, though. “Dinner is at six, I’ll come get you then”

I thanked her then she left.

Finally, alone, I couldn’t help but groan as I looked around the room. How could there be this much pink fabric in the whole world? Trying not to think about it, I walked over to the bed and dropped my pack on it. Opening it up, I rifled through to find my stash of comics there. I bought several for the trip but then I remembered I had a hell of a time reading in the car. Now that we weren’t moving, I could finally catch up on some well-needed reading.

I dropped on the bed and got to it. The bed spread and pillow were surprisingly comfortable. I was about halfway through my third comic when my eyelids started to feel heavy. Before I knew it, Connie was shaking me awake. Confused for a moment, she giggled.

“I think you fell asleep,” she said, taking the comic from my chest. “Oh Dark Avenger, I’ve seen those movies”

I groaned. “They hardly do the comics justice sadly”

She shrugged. “They were pretty cool to me”

She smiled at me afterward. She had a great smile. Not quite as good as Fiona’s but pretty darn close.

She told me dinner was ready now. I followed her downstairs to find her mother and my family already at the table. There was another person there as well, an older man who seemed engrossed in his newspaper. Rebecca called him “Dad” and told him they had guests. I watched as Mr. Collins lowered his paper and looked at Connie and I as we walked into the room. He huffed and went back to reading his paper. His daughter apologized and then everyone quickly started to eat. No one said Grace I noticed. Not that I was complaining, to be honest. Not that we weren’t religious, we just didn’t really do the whole church thing much. My parents were always too busy on Sundays and it was always a bother to go by yourself.

We did go to the church for Mom’s funeral, though.

I tried not to think about it as I concerned on dinner: Meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Another nice home cooked meal. I noticed that Sara and Dad weren’t complaining. I also noticed that the adults were drinking wine while us kids were either drinking pop---in Sara’s case---or milk in my case. Connie had a glass as well I noticed. Taking a sip, I noticed it was more Whisper Meadows. Well, when in Rome I suppose.

Dinner was a fairly quiet affair.

Rebecca had a lot of questions, mainly for Dad I noticed. She wanted to know about where we were from and why we moved. I tuned out Dad talking about Mom and quitting his job. I also ignored most of his speech about wanting to start over somewhere different. He mentioned something about touring grandpa’s dairy tomorrow but I wasn’t really paying attention. I did pay attention to Rebecca though. While she was still flirty, most of her advances had dwindled since finding out Dad had only been a Widower for four months.

Served her right.

Dinner ended just as quickly as it started, though.

“I want you two to head to bed now” Dad announced as Connie collected the plates. “We need to get up bright and early tomorrow”

Sara groaned. “You’re kidding right?”

Dad gave her a look.

“Go now,” he said, pointing to the stairs.

Sara huffed and crossed her arms as she marched out of the room.

I watched her go but didn’t need to be told to leave. Even with the quick four nap from earlier, I was actually still pretty tired. Thankfully I was awake enough to make it back to my room. I had just about closed the door when there was a knock on it. Opening it up, I found Connie standing there with some folded clothes in her arms.

“What’s this?”

“Your sister told me your secret,” she said with a smile.

“What secret?”

“You pretending to be a boy, of course, silly,” she said with a playful shove of my arm. “You had me fooled there for a second”

I was going to kill Sara.

“Oh she also told me how all your PJs are packed away in boxes, so I took the liberty of bringing you some of mine. We look to be about the same size”

She held out the folded clothes to me. I took them with a quiet thank you.

“I’m really tired now, I’m going to lie down and try to catch up on some well-needed rest”

Ok, night Karrie”

Karrie? Who the hell was Karrie?

Connie smiled and started down the hall. I watched her go then saw Sara’s head peaking around her door, snickering.

Oh God, she was definitely going to get hers.

I closed my door and carried the PJs over to my bed. Unfolding them, I groaned. A pale lavender cami and bed pants.

Sara was definitely dead tomorrow.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

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After a tragedy, Charlie and his small family move from the West Coast to the East and to a small and idyllic, dairy community to start anew. Soon he starts to realize the town seems a bit odd and the things there not so right, including himself.

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Author's Note: Its Monday again, time for another update. I wasn't sure if I was going to get this one up this week or not, what with all the fun I've been having. Check out my latest two blogs if you're interested. Thankfully everything in my personal life seems to be ok at the moment. Its a good thing I have plenty of these chapters already written lol. As for the story itself, we get to meet some new characters, an old friend and more set up for the tale to come. I promise the story will start to pick up. I'd once again like to thank ashleigh for editing this tale for me :).

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3.

Morning came too bright and too early.

Someone was knocking loudly on my door. I tried to ignore it by rolling over and covering my head with my pillow. The knocking continued, though. Groaning, I finally threw off my covers to investigate. Opening the door I found Dad standing there. He took one look at my sleeping attire and made a face.

“What are you wearing?”

“Good morning to you too, Dad.”

He scratched the back of his head. “Ummm...is there something you want to...”

I interrupted him. “Sara told Connie I was just pretending to be a boy. So Connie brought me some of her things to wear to bed. Seeing as I didn’t have anything else, I wore the pants.”

“And the room?” asked dad, looking around, noticeably shielding his eyes.

“Sara again.”

“I’ll talk to her.”

I nodded. “Good luck with that.”

Between my parents, Dad was always the bigger push over. Especially when it came to Sara. Sure she listened to him when he scolded her for complaining and what not. When it came to everything else, though, Sara had him wrapped around her little finger. That is of course when he was actually around. The two of them had a different relationship than the one Dad and I had too. Dad was big into sports, especially soccer. Me not so much. Not for lack of trying, though. Besides going to the occasional ball game with him, he tried to get me to kick the ball around the yard with him or shoot some hoops. I was just never really into it, to be honest. With Sara, it was different, though. I think she wanted desperately to get my father’s attention so she did all the things with him that he wanted to do with me. She was really good at them too, especially volleyball. I’m not really sure how it happened but my sister became the son he always wanted.

While also being his daughter as well.

It was like Sara had taken both roles.

I’m not even sure what that made me.

“Well the shower is free right now,” he said, turning away from the room probably to keep from puking. “So I’d take one in a hurry, we’re leaving in about thirty minutes.”

I nodded, anything to get out of these pants and this room.

Dad left after that. I waited for him to leave before I left as well. I wandered down the hall, peeking into open doorways to try and find the bathroom. I found it as Sara was stepping out, wearing fluffy white bath robe.

“Whoa, nice pants bros,” she said with a laugh. “They really bring out the color of your eyes.”

I gave her the finger. It was just too damn early to trade barbs with her.

Thankfully there was no one else around to comment about my attire. I slipped into the bathroom and locked the door behind me. Feeling safe for once, I finally let out a sigh. I walked to the toilet to take care of some morning business then to the sink to wash my hands. As I was washing them, I couldn’t help but look in the mirror. The sight there made me frown. I saw an overly skinny pale kid wearing a pair of girl pants. At home, I usually slept in a pair of bed pants of my own and an old t-shirt. I hated to admit it but these pants were a hundred times more comfortable. Not that I’d ever go out of my way to wear them again of course.

Groaning at the thought, I quickly stripped out of them.

Then I stepped into the shower. I closed my eyes as I turned on the water and let it cascade over me.

When I was younger, I couldn’t even get this close to water.

I used to have this overwhelming fear of it. I’m not even sure where it came from, though. I never almost drown or anything like that. My mother said ever since I was a baby, I used to freak out near the water. I would scream and cry and kick to get away from it. She actually had to give me sponge baths because she could never get me into the tub. It was only things filled with water, though. She was able to wash my hands and scrub me down with wash clothes and sponges. As I got older, though, my aversion to it went away. Sure I still didn’t care for swimming all that much and I never took baths. But I was no longer afraid of it.

Sara used to tease me about it from time to time.

Especially around the large in ground pool, we had back at home.

Well used to have in our former home.

If anything, the shower was pretty refreshing.

It only took me about ten minutes too.

I had enough time to run back to my room and get quickly dressed, toweling off the whole time.

Downstairs, everyone was sitting around the table again. This time it was breakfast. Sara gave me a knowing smirk, Connie frowned.

“You've dressed like a boy again.”

“I am a boy.”

“Ok so you might be a bit tomboyish but there’s no way you’re a boy.”

“Of course he is sweetie.”

“No, Sara said...”

Dad glared at Sara. I saw my sister look like a deer caught in headlights but it wasn’t enough. I sat down at the table and grabbed the salt before she could. Rebecca placed a plate a bacon and scrambled eggs in front of me. I added some salt and quickly---without Sara noticing---I twisted loose the top of the shaker. Then passed it her way. I hid my knowing smile as she shook it on her eggs and the top popped off, pouring the whole thing all over her breakfast.

“You son of a...” she snapped at me.

Dad interrupted her before she could finish, though. “That’s enough from you young lady!” he snapped then quickly apologized to Rebecca before turning to me. “You, you’re old enough to know better.”

“She started it.”

“No, you did with that bottle of pee in the car.”

Well, she had me there.

“Well I’m ending it,” he said and looked back at Sara. “When we get back from the dairy, you are giving your brother the yellow room, you will take the pink room then you’re going to apologize to everyone for misleading them with your stupid, childish pranks.”

Connie looked at me and I nodded.

Her face turned red with embarrassment.

Sara looked as if someone took the air out of her tires.

Served her right.

Breakfast after that was a pretty quiet affair. Sara was pissed, Connie was still embarrassed, Dad looked annoyed. Only Rebecca looked as if she didn’t know what was going on. Her father just sat, reading his paper as usual as if nothing happened. Me, I was satisfied. Sara got what was coming to her but honestly, it wasn’t enough. She’d been messing with me all day yesterday, a scolding from Dad wasn’t enough to settle that. I looked over at Connie and smiled.

When breakfast ended, we all started to file toward the door. Dad wanted to get to the dairy on time.

Connie stopped me. “I feel really bad about...well...you know.”

“It's nothing new. Everyone thinks I’m a girl.”

“I want to make it up to you, though,” she said with a smile. “How about after your dairy tour, you’d let me give you and your sister a tour of the town, show you all the places and things?”

I nodded. “On one condition. I want some revenge against Sara.”

Connie smiled slyly. “What did you have in mind?”

I smirked. “I think maybe you could help my sister embrace her inner girl.”

Connie looked confused for a moment then I saw a tiny light bulb go off in that head of hers.

She looked at Sara and smiled. “I think that can be arranged.”

Excellent.

“C’mon you two, your grandparents are waiting.”

Connie grabbed me and pulled me into a quick hug before we went to the car. I was a bit confused, to say the least. The only girl that had ever hugged me---besides family---had been Fiona. The girl I was still in love with. Looking back at Connie, I’d be a liar if I didn’t say she was pretty but she was no Fiona. I smiled weakly at her before getting into the car.

I think maybe when I talked to Fi tonight, I’d leave the hug out of it.

The drive to my grandparent’s farm took us through the rest of town.

Connie had promised to give Sara and I a tour but I couldn’t help but feel we’d sadly seen everything there was to offer now. After leaving the main road that went straight through the town proper, we took one of the side roads. Here we saw several other little Mom and Pop shops, the Fire Hall and Police station and the elementary/middle school/ high school across the street from that. I paid careful attention to the building actually because it was a lot smaller than the one back home. It was hard to believe every kid in the town went to one school and it was that size.

From there it was houses, some clumped together but most of them alone. Then it was more farmland. There were at least three farms along the way it seemed.

As we drove on, things started to look a little familiar.

I spotted a water tower that I knew I’d seen before and beyond that a large tree in the middle of an empty field. The tree was very old and looked foreboding. Like the Whomping Willow from the Harry Potter books. I think I might have climbed that tree the last time I was here. Past the tree, we had the first signs of civilization again. First, it was the fence then it was the farm itself. As we got closer, the barns and the house slowly came into view. Old memories started coming back. Memories of a warm and inviting place, of baked cookies and pies, of smiling people happy to see me. Also memories of Mom. I found myself wiping away a tear or two as we got closer.

“Is that it?” asked Sara, excitedly.

I couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this excited for anything.

“That’s it,” said Dad as our Accent approached the front of the house.

Grandpa and Grandma Miller lived on the largest farm in the town. Well, that was a given of course. Their house was a giant farmhouse, painted blue with white shutters. There was a large oak in the yard with a tire swing. Beyond the house were the barns---there were three---next to those were the nursery pens. It was all starting to come back to me as I saw it with my own eyes again.

On the front porch waiting for us were my grandparents.

Sara and I rarely got to see them in person these days.

The last time they were in Portland was a couple of years ago for Christmas. They were always too busy with the Dairy to do much traveling. The same could be said for Mom and Dad I suppose. Especially Dad. Work always seemed to be more important to him than family. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time we’d seen Grandpa and Grandma Kanenas.

Grandpa Miller approached the car as we stopped. He always told us to call him Grandpa Hank but we always ended up just calling him Pop. He looked like a Pop too. He was a tall man with broad shoulder not unlike my father actually. That was the only similarity, though. Pop had a thick white beard that he kept well trimmed and his hair was slicked back, looking ever the professional. The only thing that told me he was related to my mother though were his eyes, blue like hers and mine. Today Pop was dressed for business, in a crisp suit. Usually, though he wore a plain shirt and jeans. Ever the farmer, I knew he hated dressing up.

Behind him, Grandma Judy came walking up.

She looked like my mother.

A little too much for my liking at the moment.

Thin and pale, her light blonde hair pulled back in a loose ponytail. She had my mother’s eyes as well but they were pale like mine. She smiled and waved.

Looking at her, I missed Mom so much it ached.

Grandma was the first to hug us when we got out of the car. She grabbed Sara first, pulling her in before she could react. Then it was me. For such a small, thin woman, Grandma had a bear-like, bone crushing hug. When she finally let me go, she fluffed up the ends of my hair a bit.

“Charlie, I hardly recognized you,” she said with a laugh. “You’ve gotten so tall and this hair...”

“I’m trying to get him to cut it, Judy,” said Dad with a laugh.

“Nonsense. I think it makes him look unique” said grandma with a smile.

Pop hugged us next or rather Sara. He shook my hand instead.

Pop was the kind of man who believed boys didn’t need as much coddling as girls.

“I think I agree with Costas my dear, the boy is starting to look a bit girly.”

“You pay little attention to them,” said grandma, scowling at her husband.

Pop was all about tough love too. My mother used to talk about it a lot. Not that he wasn’t a loving father, she said he was great. He just seemed to dote more on her and her sister Grace then he did his son, my uncle, Kurt. Not that it really mattered much anymore. Uncle Kurt was the only one who decided to stick around. Pop was even grooming him to take over the business one day. My Aunt Grace was probably in the Andes or climbing Everest or something. She and Mom shared that same adventurous spirit. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d seen her in person. She emailed from time to time, sent the occasional postcard. Every once in a while I even got a birthday card from her.

“Now Costas, what’s this I hear about you staying at the Bovine Delights in town?”

Dad seemed to cave under Grandma’s gaze.

“I didn’t want to intrude.”

“Nonsense,” said Grandma “We have plenty of room here. Until your things arrive, you and the kids will be staying with us.”

Yes, thank you, Grandma.

No more gag me pink rooms.

No more awkward Connie moments.

Grandma led Sara and me toward the house. Pop and Dad stayed near the car. I could hear the two of them talking business, something I wasn’t really keen to hear. I wanted to be with grandma anyway. After Mom, I just wanted to be close to something motherly. Grandma was the closest thing to my mother I was going to get.

Inside the house, I couldn’t help but get struck by the familiar again.

First, it was the smell, lilacs, and cinnamon.

Then it was the furnishings. Everything looked exactly the same. The living room was off to the left, the dining room off to the right. The main entry way led toward the kitchen, the downstairs bathroom was off of that. The stairs were just off the entryway, leading from the living room to the second floor where I knew there were three more rooms: my grandparents, the one that used to belong to my uncle and the one my mother used to share with Grace. There was also a bathroom up there as well. Say what I will but I missed this place just as much as home.

Walking slowly into the living room, I noticed the mantle above the fireplace was covered in framed photos. Grandma and Grandpa on their honeymoon, Mom in her cap and gown, her siblings in the same, Mom’s wedding, Uncle Kurt’s wedding. There were other pictures too, mainly of Sara and I. I did notice a few of our cousins too---Uncle Kurt’s kids. I’d completely forgotten about Craig and Catherine. Mostly because they were a bunch of snobs. Twins and my age. They walked about like they owned the place and as far as they were concerned they did.

Grandma saw me sneering at a picture of the two of them, sitting and smiling.

“None of that,” she said “they’re good kids.”

I wanted to comment but kept my mouth shut.

“Now let’s go to the kitchen, I made some cookies. We can eat while we wait for the older men folk.”

I didn’t have to be told twice.

Sara and I happily followed Grandma into the kitchen. I didn’t get all that far though before I was nearly bowled over by a charging mass of black fur and barking.

I was on my back before I knew it, the large dog on top of me. He proceeded to whine and lick my face, alternating between the two.

Oh my God Argos.

I couldn’t believe he was still around.

He was my dog.

When I came here all those years ago, my grandparents wanted to surprise me with something special. So they took me a friend of Pop's whose dog just had puppies. Dad wasn’t too happy, though. He was allergic to dogs and well didn’t really like them much. Grandma overruled him though like she often did. Mom just found the whole thing humorous. We named him Argos because he was a little black bundle of energy. Also because well we thought by naming him after the dog of a Greek hero that Dad would relent. He didn’t so Pop agreed to keep him here for when I visited. Of course, that never happened again and I’d completely forgotten about him.

So maybe not forgotten. I cried for days.

I just thought by now he was long gone.

Here he was, though. Still alive and still as energetic as ever.

“Off boy,” I said and he dutifully obeyed. “Good boy Argos.”

Sara looked at him wearily. “I didn’t know you had a dog, Grandma?”

“Oh I don’t,” she said with a smile. “That’s your brother’s dog.”

“Wait, we have a dog!” she asked, excitedly.

“I have a dog.”

I was on the floor, Argos sitting next to me.

He was a large black German Shepherd, still solid and regal after all these years. Unlike Odysseus and his faithful and tragic hound, there was no sign of age at all. It was hard to believe actually. He was a puppy when I left so he was clearly nine or so now. To look at him, though, you would swear he was four or five at the most. Sure he was a great deal bigger than I remembered but the way he knocked me over it was like he was definitely not acting his age.

Dad came into the house a moment later. He paused when he saw me sitting on the floor with the dog.

“That thing is still alive?” he asked, clearly annoyed.

“That thing,” said Pop, coming up beside him. “Is the best damn hunting dog in the county. You know I think he knew you were coming, he’s been sitting there patiently waiting, for a couple of days now.”

Just like Argos.

I stood up and went into the kitchen. Argos followed closely by my side.

I had to admit, I was feeling pretty lousy about this whole moving here thing. Had I remembered Argos though, I might not have felt as bad. In fact, I would have been anticipating coming here.

I sat at the table and he sat right there, the constant sentinel.

“So what’s the plan?” asked Grandma, looking between Pop and Dad.

“Well, I figured I’d give them the local tour first then we’d get in one of the company cars and go to the main dairy.”

I’d forgotten this place was pretty much just for the tourists.

It was a Dairy sure but it wasn’t the real one. Well, it might have been at one time but the main facility was actually outside of town. It was large, made of concrete and several buildings altogether. It was where they turned the cow’s milk into cartoned milk and other dairy products. This farm was here for appearances. I didn’t really understand it all, to be honest. All I knew was that I didn’t really want to go on the tour of the big facility. It sounded kind of dull and boring. I don’t think Sara was too keen on it either. This whole tour thing was mainly for Dad anyway.

“We don’t have to go to the big facility, do we?”

It was actually Sara who asked.

“Don’t you want to see where I’m gonna be working?”

Sara shrugged. “I’m not six Dad. I don’t really get excited about those kind of things.”

“I’m with her,” I said. “I thought maybe I’d just stick around here, maybe hang out with Argos or something?”

Neither Dad or Pop argued.

So it was settled.

Sara and I were skipping the factory tour.

Thank the Gods.

That, of course, didn’t stop Pop from taking us on the “Elementary School Tour” as he liked to call it. I was expecting that to be boring as well but it was actually pretty fun. He took us around the farm yard proper then into the barns. He showed us where the cows stayed and where the calf nursery. He took us into the milking barns and things like that. He ended the tour at the Milk house where the milk was stored before being sent off to the big facility to be processed. All in all the farm tour took a little under two hours to finish. We ended it right back where we started, on the front porch of the house.

“What did you think?” Pop asked Sara.

She shrugged. “Neat.”

She was clearly disinterested.

I figured she would be. This place was not Sara’s idea of living. Much like my snobby cousins, Sara preferred the big city.

Dad and Pop left shortly after, leaving Sara and me alone with Grandma.

“Now then Saina,” said Grandma, looking at my sister. “Why don’t you and I wash these dishes, while your brother takes Argos out to do his business.”

Sara groaned for more than one reason. One, I knew she hated to do chores and two because Grandma had used her real name. Sara hated being called Saina. I used to do it to her just to tick her off but honestly, it got tiring a long time ago. In fact, most of the time I forgot that Sara was actually her middle name. You see my parents gave us both Greek names, to honor my father’s family and traditions. We had normal middle names, though---mine was David.

I left the two women in the kitchen and went out the back door.

Argos followed on my heels.

As soon as I was out the door, he took off. He didn’t go far, over to one of the trees beyond the house. I let him pee while I went wandering. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d took a breath of really fresh air. Sure the air at home was fresh but it was nothing like this. Mind you, breathing here was pretty hard because of the proximity to the cows. I won’t lie, it smelled really bad here. At the same time, though, the air was kind of refreshing too. Not only that but the sky seemed clearer and almost bluer here. Looking up at the clouds I couldn’t help but feel at peace. It was a strange feeling. I’d only been here for a short period time, a long time ago and yet I felt like I’d never left.

Even stranger, I felt like I almost belonged.

I tried to shake the feeling and looked over at the cows. There was a large outside pen for them to graze when they weren’t milking. We saw it briefly on Pop’s tour. Argos was sniffing around one of the fence posts. I walked over to see what caught his interest so much. As I got closer, I caught sight of a familiar cow. Sure they all looked the same but I’d definitely seen this one before. I recognized her bright blue hooves after all. I grabbed a clump of grass and coaxed her over.

The cow absently wandered her way over.

She took the grass, standing close so I could pat her on the head.

As I was patting her, I noticed something strange. Her blue eyes from before were gone. In their place was the same muddy brown of every other cow. Had I been mistaken before? Was I mistaken now? I bent to look down at her hooves, no they were definitely still blue. Though a lot of the nail polish was starting to chip away. I looked over at some of the other cows, wondering if maybe it was a way Pop’s marked them. But nope, no other cow had blue hooves.

This was the same cow.

How was that possible?

“That’s our little runaway,” said a voice as someone approached from behind.

I turned and found myself staring at a tall boy. He was wearing a white tank top, jeans, and leather work gloves. His skin nicely tanned, his muscles bulging. He was wearing a Yankees cap but what hair I saw was brown and his eyes seemed to match. Something about him seemed familiar, though.

“Yeah, I saw her yesterday at the rest stop on the way into town,” I said, still patting the cow on her head.

The boy laughed. “She was a weird one that’s for sure. I can’t even tell you how she got out that far, though.”

“Was she one of yours?”

He nodded. He reached up and touched something in the cow’s ear. “That’s our tag. She had it when we found her. Damnest thing, though, we were pretty sure all of them were accounted for.”

I kept looking at him, wondering where I’d seen him before.

“I’m Lucas by the way,” he said, holding out his hand.

“Charlie,” I said, shaking it.

God, he had a strong grip. It made me feel like a real wimp.

“Oh you’re Mr. Miller’s grandson,” he said, I nodded. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

“Sorta.”

He laughed. “I live on the farm down the road. You and my little brother Rex were friends while you were here.”

I shook my head. None of it rang a bell. I mean his face looked vaguely familiar but that was about it.

“Well, Rex will remember you. He’s got this thing about not forgetting faces.”

I was about to say something more when Sara and Grandma came out of the house. Sara noticed Lucas immediately and practically ran to me. She introduced herself and practically pushed me out of the way. I rolled my eyes. There she goes again. I stepped away, though, done with the conversation anyways.

“Oh I see you’re bonding with our little deserter,” said Grandma with a laugh, noticing me still feeding the cow.

“I saw her at the diner.”

She nodded. “Terri called me shortly after you left. She was absolutely gushing about my two beautiful granddaughters.”

I fingered my hair. “I think I need to find a barber.”

Grandma chuckled. "Its not so bad honey. It's just boys around here tend to keep their hair short, like young Lucas over there.”

I nodded, still feeding the cow. Then I remembered the eyes.

“Hey Grandma, do cow eyes usually change colors?”

She gave me a strange look. “Cow’s eyes are usually brown sweetie.”

I nodded. “I know but yesterday, this cow had bright blue eyes.”

Grandma laughed. “It's called being walled eye but you’re mistaken. This one has brown eyes. They can’t change back and forth.”

She might be right but I definitely was not mistaken. I could swear this cow had blue eyes yesterday.

“It's weird because I could have sworn she had blue eyes before?”

“Sometimes the light out here plays tricks on the eyes.”

Maybe.

“So how are you doing? I know with your mother’s death and the move, things can’t have been easy. I tried talking to your sister about it a little bit but “Everything is fine” to her.”

That sounded like Sara. Nothing was ever wrong when Sara was involved.

Even after the funeral, Everything was Fine.

I shrugged. I didn’t really know what to say, to be honest.

After the accident, Dad thought a therapist might help. So he started taking us to one every week. Dr. Holmes was a nice woman but I don’t think she really got me. She did pretty well with the family sessions but once she got me one on one, she didn’t really ask about Mom. Most of her questions were about girls and the way I saw myself. I think the doctor---like most others---saw my appearance and jumped to conclusions. When I told Dad about her questions, he wasn’t too happy that the woman was making assumptions. We stopped going to see her after that. The ironic thing about it was, she never really ever got around to asking me how I felt about losing Mom.

“It's easier now” I finally admitted to my grandmother. “After it happened, things were different. I think we were all pretty numb you know.” I sighed, grandma looked sad. “I couldn’t go into her room. I tried but every time I approached the door to Mom and Dad’s room, I couldn’t bring myself to step inside. Is that weird?”

Grandma shook her head then pulled me into a hug.

She held me a long time. I think she might have even cried a bit. I wanted to cry too but nothing seemed to come out.

When she finally let me go, she wiped her cheeks.

I forgot that I wasn’t the only one who lost someone. Mom was her daughter. I think Grandma was hurting even more because she and Pop couldn’t make it to the funeral. Dad had offered to fly them out but this time of the year was really busy for the dairy. They sent a large flower arrangement though and paid for the whole thing. Uncle Kurt managed to come, though, alone of course. Mom and Aunt Polly never really got along much. Polly hated Sara and me too. It was all about money to her. Pop made it very clear that the Dairy was to be split between his three children. Grace being the carefree spirit she was, declined. So it was then split fifty-fifty between Mom and Kurt. With Mom gone, her half went to Sara and me.

I don’t think Aunt Polly liked that very much.

“So tell me about this Fiona then?” said Grandma, trying to lighten the mood.

So I did. I took out my cell, showing her several pictures the two of us together. Including the ones, we took right before I left. Doug was there too of course. Grandma asked about him as well. We sat and talked about my friends and my life back in Portland for about twenty minutes. It was kind of nice actually. I lost track of time talking to her. So much so that I didn’t even hear Dad and Pop come back.

“You guys really missed something,” said Dad, after taking a sip from a small carton of milk.

Pop was holding one as well.

“Was she there?”

The way Grandma said “She”, it was clear whoever she was talking about was someone on her radar. Not in a good way either.

Pop shook his head. “Yes, she was. She’s a researcher Judy, she’s doing research.”

‘Uh huh” said Grandma, straightening up with a huff.

I looked from her to Pop and back. Grandma said nothing more and started back toward the house.

“Adult business,” said Pop, ruffled my hair as he walked past me.

I rolled my eyes.

Pop was so old fashion.

I looked at Dad. “There’s some Animal Husbandry expert from the university here. Your grandfather is allowing her and her team to set up shop at the dairy. Your grandparents are not in agreement over it. I met the woman, Dr. Clarke seems like a nice capable person.”

I was confused. What could a researcher want with a dairy farm?

Dad didn’t stay around to say. He walked back toward the house, following my grandparents. I turned to find Sara still at the fence talking to Lucas. It was clear she was annoying him but he was nice enough to stay and talk to her. I whistled for Argos and he came running up to my side a second or two later. I hadn’t realized he’d been that close. I checked my watch as I started back toward the house. Connie still wanted to give Sara and I that tour today. It was almost noon now. I couldn’t help but wonder if Dad would drive us back into town to the B&B so we could meet her.

I ran up the steps so I could ask him.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

by:

After a tragedy, Charlie and his small family move from the West Coast to the East and to a small and idyllic, dairy community to start anew. Soon he starts to realize the town seems a bit odd and the things there not so right, including himself.

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Author's Note: Its Monday again, time for another chapter. This is the halfway point on the chapters I have written for this story. I'm currently still at work on Ch.8. The progress slowed down a bit due to recent tree related drama lol. I'm working on it though. Today is a lazy, free day for me so maybe I can finally finish it. I do have some good stuff coming up though :). As for this chapter, we have some characters. We have a new place to visit too. I'd once again like to thank ashleigh for editing this tale for me :).

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4.

Dad drove us back to the B&B. Looking up at the pastel colored building, I wasn’t going to miss it. We all went inside to find Rebecca talking to other guests. I was actually surprised. I honestly thought that this place was a dead town. The couple she was attending too were hanging off each other and standing close. They were so obviously newlyweds. The woman was young, one of those fake types---her hair was dyed and her boobs were clearly artificial. Her husband looked a bit older, there were age lines at his eyes and a little gray at his temple. He had money, though, that much was evident by his suit. Dad had a few of those in his closet----tailor made and not cheap.

“This is so exciting” the woman gushed “a real B&B.”

“Anything for you, princess,” said the new husband, kissing her on the cheek.

She giggled like an idiot.

I rolled my eyes.

Rebecca looked beyond them at Dad and smiled. I wondered if it was going to break her heart when he told her we were leaving. Good riddance as far as I was concerned. I think if I stayed another night here, I’d start to get dreams about rainbows and bunnies. I couldn’t help but shudder at the thought.

The couple moved on. As they walked away, I found myself staring at the woman’s legs. They were smooth and nicely tanned, clearly professionally done. It was her shoes that drew my attention. I couldn’t help but wonder how someone could walk in things with a heel that high. I started to turn away when I noticed the rose tattoo on her calf. I was not expecting that to be honest. Here I thought she was some dippy trophy wife but the tat told me differently: she had a bit of a wild side too.

I watched as they giggled and went up the stairs, all I could think about was what an idiot.

“She’s in that one for the money,” said Connie as she came up behind me. “I mean did you see that tan and those clothes. Not to mention those nails?!??”

I shook my head.

“Well let’s just say that woman is walking around with more money on her than I’ll ever see...in at least two lifetimes.”

I smirked. Connie was a bit cynical. I missed that about her before.

“So you’re leaving?”

How did she know that?

I turned to her and saw our parents talking. Oh, Dad must have said.

“Grandma offered to let us stay at their house until our stuff gets here.”

Connie looked a bit disappointed. “You still want to do the tour though right?”

I smiled. “Sure we do!”

She lit up at that.

“C’mon then,” she said, taking my hand and dragging me toward the door.

“Dad, I’m going with Connie!” I shouted as she practically pulled me out the door.

Dad shouted something but I was gone before I could hear it.

Outside, there were three cars in the parking lot now. I knew our Accent of course. The silver-blue BMW must have belonged to the gold digger and her husband. I guess I missed that when we pulled up. The third car was an SUV. I think I noticed it parked around back yesterday but I couldn’t remember. Behind the wheel was another girl, though. I did a double take when I got a look at her. It was almost as if Connie was in two places at once. The girl behind the wheel had the same long black hair, green eyes, and complexion. A moment later, the girl stuck her head out the window.

“Hey you two, hurry up.”

Wow, she even sounded a bit like Connie.

“You have a twin?” I asked, confused.

Connie laughed. “That’s my older sister Beth.”

I was still confused as Connie dragged me over to the SUV. She pulled open the back door and I found Sara already inside waiting. She was listening to her iPod as usual. She ignored me as I climbed inside. Connie got into the back with me. She smiled at me as she sat next to me, taking my hand again. This girl certainly worked fast. Not that I had anything against a beautiful girl being this interested in me, I just couldn’t stop thinking about Fiona. I still wanted to be with her, back in Portland where I belonged.

“So you must be Karrie?"

I groaned. Why had Dad told them my full name?

“Its Karolos actually but everyone just calls me Charlie.”

Beth made a face. “I think I like Karrie better.”

Connie laughed.

I huffed a bit. This was going to stick, wasn’t it?

Beth pulled out of the parking lot with a little speed. It was kind of jarring. Connie was still holding my hand I noticed.

“So Karrie,” asked Beth as we turned onto the main road. “You have someone special back home?”

“I did,” I said, feeling Connie tense a bit next to me. “We ended up calling it off right before I left, though. Long distant relationships don’t really work, you know.”

“Connie had a boy too but then he ran away from her,” said Beth, laughing.

“He didn’t run away!”

I turned to her and she looked slightly upset.

“What happened?”

She shrugged. “Mark just left. Well, not left, his parents said he went to stay with some relatives in Canada. It was really weird, though. One minute we were really happy and then the next day he just ups and moves?”

It was kind of weird.

Connie stopped talking about it. She did, however, want to know everything about Fiona. So I told her all that I could. How we met, how she asked me out. Then I talked about her figure skating, how the coach and her parents hated me. I ended it all with how we decided to stay friends and Skype each other every day. I saw the look on Connie’s face. It mirrored my thoughts. I knew the friendship thing probably wasn’t going to last and the skyping was going to end at some point. Fiona was popular and pretty, it was only a matter of time before some other guy came along and she forgot about me. I was going to take what I could get when I could get it, though.

It was then that I looked out the window and realized we were going pretty fast for a town tour.

“Aren’t we supposed to be stopping and looking at places as you tell me what they are?”

Beth laughed. “You drove through the town when you got here, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then town tour is over with,” said Beth with a laugh. “Connie only told Mom that to mask our real goal.”

“Which is?”

“The mall of course, silly!”

“Mall?” Sara took out her ear buds. “Did someone say mall?”

Both sisters laughed.

I groaned. Somehow I’d just got roped into going to the mall with three girls.

Gods help me now.

The mall was in nearby Edgerton, about twenty miles away. With Beth’s driving, it took about thirty minutes to get there. Someone really needed to take away this girl’s license or something.

According to the “Welcome to Edgerton” sign, the town was a great deal larger than Whisper Pines. Whereas Whisper Pines put their population at about three hundred, Edgerton boasted a robust three thousand. It was pretty evident as we drove through. There were several streets and though most of the buildings were brick and no higher than a few stories, it felt a little more like home. It had a modern looking theater with an IMAX, I actually counted several schools, there was even a large town center with an actual ice skating rink. The mall was pretty much in the middle of the town. It was fairly good sized too, three stories. The front was made all of glass and I could see an actual elevator.

It kind of surprised me actually. I wasn’t expecting something like that here.

“Welcome to Edgerton Galleria, the Mecca for teenagers everywhere,” said, Beth, as she pulled into the large parking lot.

“Yes, Thank You, God!”

Well, at least Sara was happy.

It took us another ten minutes to find a parking spot. Then another few minutes to actually walk from it to one of the many entrances. The whole time Sara was practically bouncing. When we finally got inside, I was amazed at the tall ceilings and how shiny everything looked. The floor was polished marble or at least something that looked like it. The surfaces appeared to be chrome or some other kind of metal. It was like walking into some futuristic spaceport. So in other words, it felt like a real mall. Like something back home. I couldn’t help but smile a bit. Not that I really cared for malls much but I was glad to see that I could make the best out of this whole “adventure”.

“Ok so here’s the game plan,” said Connie, winking at me quickly. "I’m taking Little Sister here and running away with her. You guys can do whatever.”

Beth feigned being hurt.

Sara looked confused.

“Where are we going?” she asked as Connie started to walk away with her.

“You need to pick a hair color and stick...” I heard Connie say as they walked away from hearing range.

The two of them quickly disappeared into the crowd.

“So just me and you, huh?”

I wanted to gulp.

“I think I’m gonna go look for a game store,” I said, trying to escape.

“Not so fast,” she said, grabbing my arm. “I need someone to carry my bags until Lucas gets here.”

“I don’t want to be your pack mule” I moaned, knowing what that entailed.

Fiona used to do it to me all the time.

“It's just until the Boy Toy gets here.”

“Oh, you and Lucas...”

She smiled and nodded. “It's been a few months now actually. That boy has some great hands and the way he kisses...”

“Enough please” I interrupted, she laughed.

I did not want that image in my head.

Beth laughed. “So,” she said, walking with her arm still in mine. “You and Fiona, is that over?”

I hadn’t realized Beth had been eavesdropping.

“Romantically, probably,” I said “its hard to keep a relationship going from across the country, you know.”

She nodded. “Looking for someone else?”

“Aren’t you and Lucas...I mean...the hands...and the….”

Beth laughed out loud. “Lucas and I are in love. Plus I’m too old for you. I was talking about Connie, stupid.”

I’d be a fool if I didn’t say there was something there. I think it was a bit one-sided, though. The Collins’ women seemed to see what they liked and tried to grab it. Not that Connie wasn’t pretty---she was a knockout---but she was no Fiona. Fiona was like fire in a bottle. Connie was more like a warm milk. Not that there was anything wrong with that but I just couldn’t see myself with someone like that. Plus I was pretty certain she wasn’t over this Mark guy. It's hard to start a relationship with someone when they’re not over their Ex.

“It's not a good time,” I said, trying to be polite.

“You’re talking about this Mark guy?”

I nodded.

Beth rolled her eyes. “The mysterious Mark. You know I never actually did meet him. I mean Connie says she dated this guy but No one has ever seen him. She says he went to our school but no one besides her even remembers him. If you want my personal opinion, I think she made him up.”

That didn’t make any sense. I mean, did girls do that?

“She said he moved to Canada?”

Beth shrugged. “Connie’s weird like that. She likes the attention. It was just probably her trying to relate to you. Soften you up to get you to sympathize with her. Then in a few weeks time, she’d make her move. My sister is a little devious minx that way.”

I couldn’t believe that. Connie was a fluffy bunny. There was no way she’d try to trick me like that. She definitely didn’t have the vibe.

“Can we talk about something else please?”

“Sure,” said Beth, stopping us in front of Rue 21. “So how much can those skinny arms of yours carry?”

I groaned. I knew where this was going.

Beth dragged me into the store. No amount of my struggling could stop it. She was pretty strong for a girl actually.

I’d been in Rue 21 before. Lots of times actually. It didn’t just sell girls clothes after all.

Beth shopped like she drove.

She wove in and out of the aisles, spending only a few seconds at one before zipping to the other. Lucas had to be fast because it was the only way anyone could keep up with her.

“Hey lookie here, Karrie,” she said, pulling me over to a section where they were advertising new looks. “This whole line is called Borrowed From the Boys. This might be just perfect for you.”

I rolled my eyes.

The section in question was selling oversized sports shirts, ripped jeans and flannel apparel. Things that most guys would probably wear. Only they were all cut and designed for women. There were other things too, dresses and things like that.

You know as much as I wanted to hate Beth for the joke, I couldn’t help but smile. If anything she reminded a lot of Fiona in her own weird way.

I laughed. “Fiona would have pulled me over here too.”

Beth smiled. “Great minds I guess.”

Beth quickly grabbed a dress off the rack, holding it up to me.

“Nope, you’re more of a skater dress kind of girl I think,” she said with a laugh.

I swatted it away. She had a good laugh at my expense.

Then she quickly dragged me over to the cash registers. The girl behind the counter made a comment about Beth’s purchases then asked me about my own look.

“The tomboy look is pretty retro but it's making a comeback, you know.”

I looked down at what I was wearing: hoodie, jeans, and my high top converse. There was nothing tomboy about this look. It was all boy.
Beth clamped her mouth shut but I could tell she wanted to laugh. Thankfully I was able to get her out of the store before she made a scene. That didn’t stop her from laughing as soon as we got out of there. She laughed for a while actually, only agreeing to stop after I threatened to push her into the nearby fountain. Not that I could, though. Beth had some nice arm muscles. I would be lucky if I could even move her an inch. The girl was ripped and not in that grotesque female body builder kind of way either. It was clear she was an athlete of some kind. I could only imagine how much fun she and Sara would have talking shop.

“Does that happen a lot?” she asked as we walked away.

I shrugged. “More and more these days.”

“Is it just the hair or...”

So she noticed.

“I’m only fourteen. On the internet, they said fourteen isn’t late for puberty.”

I don’t know why I was defending myself. I guess I was just getting sick and tired of all the talking and the stares. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was a little concerned, though. That’s why I ended up googling it. Puberty at fourteen was not all that uncommon actually. It still meant I was healthy. It was afterward where I might have some concern. Dad and I talked about it a little while ago actually. He said it was nothing to worry about and if it really bothered me so much he’d make a doctor’s appointment. I wasn’t all that bothered. So my voice was still high, I had no body hair growth and flabby muscles, I was still me. There were just some intimate parts of me that still hadn’t descended yet.

“Ohh I gotta go in there,” said Beth, pointing.

I followed her finger with my eyes. The store she was pointing at looked pretty ritzy. It actually had a red carpet at the entrance and above the glass doors, a large name in fancy gold lettering, Martel.

“You want to go into Kenny Martel’s store?"

“Oh, so you’ve heard of him.”

“Only recently.”

Beth didn’t say anything. Instead, she started toward it like a woman possessed. I followed close behind, carrying her bags awkwardly. As we got closer, I couldn’t help but notice a mannequin in the window wearing the same pink top the cow was eating. I winced at the cost. Three thousand dollars gone to waste. As soon as I stepped into the store, I smelled fruity perfume that clung in the air and made me gag. I gagged, even more, when a woman in a pink dress stepped out of nowhere and blasted me in the face with it.

She handed me a coupon a second later.

“Martel Musk,” she said “over on the back wall. Trust me, girl, you’ll love it!”

She disappeared back into the racks from whence she came.

I started to cough, waving my hand in front of my face in the hope of dispersing the pink cloud.

God this stuff smelled awful.

It was then that I realized I lost track of Beth. Looking around quickly, I saw her browsing around some handbags. They were ugly as hell, all faux fur, and pink. Looking around, I noticed that pink seemed to be a theme with this guy. I couldn’t help but wonder if he had a hand in decorating my former room back at the B&B.

“I think this guy is secretly your mother’s interior decorator,” I said as I snuck up behind her.

She snorted. “You saw the pink room then?”

“I slept in the pink room.”

“No way!”

“Way!”

She shuddered. “I pity you, sir.”

I laughed. Beth was cool. How was she related to Rebecca and Connie?

“So you know this stuff is super expensive right?”

“I’m not here to buy, just look.”

I looked at the purse she was currently drooling over. I checked the tag: $9000.

For a purse!!!

“We have those in white and purple too, ladies,” said a voice from behind us.

Gah.

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

It was the Crazy Perfume Lady again.

“No thanks,” said Beth, dismissing her with a wave. “We’re just admiring them from afar.”

The woman gave us a miffed look before disappearing again.

Beth and I laughed.

We left Martel’s after a few more minutes of her “admiring”.

Back out in the mall proper, someone shouted for us. Turning I saw Lucas coming up. He was with a boy about my age, a little shorter than him and not quite as handsome. There was something vaguely familiar about him too. He looked a tad bit like Lucas but the glasses and the freckles made him unique. As they got closer, I noticed the younger was taller than me, though.

It really sucked to be short.

“Hey,” said Lucas then grabbed Beth into a kiss. “Hey, babe.”

“Hi, there,” she said, wrapping herself around him.

The boy looked at me. “Charlie?”

Wow.

“Ummm yeah but how did you...”

Lucas laughed. “Charlie this is my brother Rex. Remember what I said, he remembers everything.”

“Its good to see you again, man.”

Rex made a move like he wanted to bump my fist, all gangsta style or something. About halfway through it, though, I think he realized how futile and ridiculous it was and stopped.

“Yeah sure is” I said, trying not to sound like I had no idea who he was.

Rex didn’t miss a beat, though. “It's ok if you don’t remember me, we were only five.”

I nodded. Good because I had no idea who he was.

“So,” said Lucas, looking at the bags in my hands. “You got roped into the Beth Tornado, huh?”

“Sadly,” I said and she playfully punched my arm.

“Charlie was just being sweet and helping me,” she said, rubbing her finger along Lucas’ pec. “I was just waiting for my big, strong man to come along.”

Wow, this was a completely different Beth.

I looked to Rex. He looked strangely uncomfortable.

Hell, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable myself.

Beth turned to me, taking her bags. “Charlie, I free you from my service.”

I bowed. “Thank you my liege,” I said, putting in a bit of theatrics.

“Hey Rex, why not show Charlie that game place you like so much.”

Yes, Thank the Gods.

“Sure,” he said, stepping away. “C’mon.”

He cast his brother and Beth another uncomfortable look, then started to walk off. I ran a bit to catch up with him.

“You don’t approve?” I asked, referring to their relationship.

“It's weird.”

“Weird how?”

“Its just...forget it.”

Ok.

Rex didn’t say another thing. Instead, he started meandering his way through the mall crowd like a real pro, dodging and weaving around every single person. It was pretty impressive actually. He never touched a single one. Me, I was like a bull in a china shop. I don’t think there was a single person I didn’t bump into. Finally, after weaving and dodging, Rex stopped in front of a store. The bright lights and loud noises told me it was an arcade.

Wow.

“An actual arcade?”

Rex nodded. “I know kinda prehistoric but it's still cool.”

Rex led the way inside.

My senses were quickly assaulted by overly loud kids, stale drinks, and unfortunately, lots of nasty B.O. This was a place for boys. Most of which were sweaty and unbathed. Trying not to let that deter me, I followed Rex to a counter where he tried to get the kid to give him a deal on tokens. The kid’s eyes seemed to bulge out of his head, making him look even more bug like through his thick glasses.

“Dude, you brought a chick?”

I groaned. “I’m a dude.”

“No way!”

“Yes way,” said Rex, annoyed. “Rog, the tokens?”

“Oh sure,” said the kid---Rog---as he handed over the goods.

Rex gave him a twenty and Rog dropped a handful of coins into his hands. Rex passed half to me without saying a word. Then started off toward the machines. There were a lot of them. Well, of course, it being an arcade and all. Most of them were pretty old school too, like from those 80s movies. I didn’t even know these things existed. There were some modern ones too but they were way in the back. They were also populated by an older crowd. Most of the younger kids avoided them. I glanced over quickly----backward caps, sagging pants, lots of laughing.
Yeah, I definitely didn’t want to go back there.

“So how’ve you been these last nine years?”

Rex turned and gave me a look. “It's ok, you don’t have to pretend. I know you don’t remember me. It's an occupational hazard on my part. So you can stop trying.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

What bug was up his ass?

“If you don’t want to hang here its cool too,” he said, putting some of those tokens into a machine. “I’m sure you’d rather be with Beth or maybe some other friends.”

“First of all,” I said, putting my own tokens into the same machine. “I just arrived here yesterday so, besides a few people, I have no friends here yet. And second, sure Beth is cool but if she dragged me into another clothes store, I was going to burst.”

Rex smirked. “You should have seen her before.”

“Before what?”

“Nevermind.”

Fair enough.

We played the game without much talking. It was one of those old side-scrolling space shooters. You know with a little ship blowing up asteroids. It was a two person game, the kind that I might have played as a kid. Something came back to me about half way through. This wasn’t just like the kind I’d play, it was nearly identical. I had a quick memory flash: of playing this game with a little red headed kid with freckles and glasses.

“Oh wow, we played this.”

“What?” he asked, not turning from the screen.

“You and I,” I said “When I was here nine years ago. We played this game.”

“So you remembered something.”

“Hey don’t feel so bad, I forgot I had a dog too.”

“Really?”

I nodded. We shared a laugh.

We played the game for about twenty minutes then moved onto another one. Before I knew it, we spent an hour in the Arcade and burnt through all of our tokens. We had a bunch of tickets but I wasn’t really interested so I gave them to him. Rex went to the counter and came back a few minutes later carrying a pack of cards. He didn’t say a thing, instead putting the pack in his back pocket, unopened. I shrugged. After that, he took me to the comic place. It was pretty epic. I was surprised at the size of the place and the variety of comics. We spent a lot of time in there.

The more I hung out with Rex, the more I felt like I was with Doug again.

It was kind of cool actually.

“Oh shit,” said Rex, looking at the clock. “I’m supposed to meet Luke in like two minutes.”

“Then let’s go,” I said, quickly paying for our comics on the way out.

I handed Rex his bag and the two of us rushed back into the mall mob.

I tried to dodge them like him but he was a natural. An Olympian even.

Finally, we found ourselves where Lucas was supposedly suppose to meet us. We were early though as Beth and Lucas arrived a minute or two later. Lucas’s arms were full of bags so I really dodged a bullet there. The look on his face would have made the day for me if not for the scene that I saw a moment later. Walking up, teetering on a pair of heels, was Sara. I almost fell over laughing at the sight of her: yellow flowered sundress, heels, and purse. Not to mention her hair was now a honey blonde and the look on her face could kill a great white from a thousand yards away.

She looked at me and glared when I smirked.

Connie came up behind her, practically gliding in her own heels. She was wearing a new dress as well. Blue, I think. It was hard to tell because it seemed to shimmer in the light. She was holding some bags, though. If I had to guess I’d say it was the clothes they swapped out of.

“You did this, didn’t you?” asked Sara, glaring her evil eye at me.

I played dumb. “Whatever do you mean, dear sister?”

“I hate you,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Oh she looks so sweet,” said Beth, patting her on the head like a puppy.

“Back off or I’m biting it off, Barbie!”

Beth quickly pulled her hand away.

“Wow” whispered Rex in my ear. “I’ve never seen anyone scare Beth like that.”

I snorted.

“So our day was a success” said Connie, spinning slightly to show off her dress. “It's perfect, right?”

Rex and I both dumbly nodded.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one in the Connie Collins Fan Club.

“You look like a fucking blueberry,” said a girl as she walked by.

The snark oozed off of her.

“No one asked you Goth Freak” snapped Connie at the girl’s backside.

The girl raised her arm, flicking Connie off backwards before vanishing into the mall crowd.

I only caught a glimpse of her but she was pretty awesome. I never really cared for the Emo girls back home because they were all moody and tortured. Or at least pretended to be. There was something about this girl, though. It wasn’t just her weird fashion sense or her long blue hair. It was the way she appeared out of nowhere, threw out a quick insult and vanished just as quickly.

It was something I’d never seen before.

“Who was that?” I asked, still watching her walk away.

“No one” said Connie.

“Clara Grimes,” said Rex “Don’t get too close, though, I heard she hasn’t had all her shots.”

Connie snorted.

Our little group broke up after that. Lucas and Rex went there own way but not before I ended up with both Beth’s bags and Rex’s cell number. So sorta a win for me. It was kind of nice making a friend. Or reconnecting with an old one? It was kind of confusing actually. No matter, I wasn’t going to be totally alone I guess. Well, at least I’d have someone to talk too besides Connie I suppose. That was something right?

When we got back to the car, Sara shoved me out of the way.

“You better sleep with one eye open tonight, chump!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. There was no way I could take her threats seriously with her dressed like that.

I climbed into the SUV right behind her. Connie dropped into the seat next to me again. She tried to get me to notice her but I wasn’t really interested. She gave up and turned to talk to Sara. I watched as the mall and Edgerton slowly started to disappear behind us. All in all, it was a pretty good outing I guess. I met Rex again and I think I found the most interesting girl I’d ever seen.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

by:

After a tragedy, Charlie and his small family move from the West Coast to the East and to a small and idyllic, dairy community to start anew. Soon he starts to realize the town seems a bit odd and the things there not so right, including himself.

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Author's Note: Monday again, new chapter again. This is the school chapter. Well actually Part one of two if you want to get technical because Ch.6 also takes place in school too. Some new and interesting things start to pop here. Also the picture I'm using for this chapter is what I envisioned the school mascot to look like :). I'd once again like to thank ashleigh for editing this tale for me :).

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5.

There was knocking again.

Groaning, I threw off my covers. Mornings and this town were never going to agree with me. Not after a rather restless night. I couldn’t even remember how much sleep I had. It was made worse by this strange dream that I could only half remember. There was someone shouting my name but not my first name, my last one. It was kind of weird really because the name was echoing like I was in a large room and the shouting didn’t sound too happy. Sadly, though, I couldn’t remember any more than that.

Sitting up, I looked around the room in confusion for a second.

Then I remembered where I was.

This was Mom’s room.

It was one of the strangest things actually. When grandma suggested Sara and I put our things in Mom and Grace’s room, I didn’t really think about it. I was just hoping for a non-repeat of the pink room. Thankfully my fears were lifted as soon as I walked in. Mom had a pretty gender neutral taste. Well it was clear two girls lived here once but it wasn’t a nauseating shade of pink. The walls were painted a light lavender and the carpet was blue. Most of the furniture was white with light blue accents. The focal point of the room though was the large window with the seat. It was kind of cool, like that show Girl Meets World that Sara swore she didn’t watch.

The rest of the room was typical teenage girl stuff.

There were a couple of dressers, two vanities and a large dressing mirror. The posters on the walls were boy bands from the late 90s and early 2000s. Most of those were covered up though thank god. It was clear that when Mom finally left the room, her photography was starting to take over. The walls on her side of the room were covered in pictures. Most of friends and family but there were lots of pictures of the town too. They were kind of nice in a way. It left like I was taking a peek into my mother’s soul.

Aunt Grace’s side of the room was covered in trophies, awards, and postcards.

Even back then she apparently had an adventurous streak.

Getting up, I walked over to the closet. Opening it, I found a lot of Mom’s old clothes hanging there. I fought back the urge to lean forward and smell them. That was the greatest thing about this place. It still smelled like Mom. Mom had left this room at eighteen to go to college and the room had frozen itself in time with her absence. She and Dad met on her spring break that year when she took a trip to Europe. They fell in love and he followed her back. He’d been taking the year off to help his father with their fishing business but my mother convinced him to join her. They were pretty inseparable after that. Mom got her journalism degree and didn’t realize it at the time but she was already pregnant with me. My parents didn’t get married until after Dad got his business degree.

Sara came while Dad was finishing up his MBA.

Thinking about it all left a hollow pit in my stomach.

I quickly stopped thinking and went through my morning routine. I was still wearing Connie’s borrowed bed pants because I didn’t really have anything else. I wanted to sleep in my boxers but seeing as I was currently sharing the room with Sara she vetoed that idea. Pop wasn’t too happy to see what I was wearing but he couldn’t really complain. They did try to give me some stuff my Uncle Kurt left but he was bigger than me so none of his clothes fit. Grandma was nice enough to wash the clothes I was wearing yesterday, though. Rebecca had washed my other clothes from Monday.

I’d only been stupid enough to pack one change of clothes in my backpack.

The rest of my clothes were in the boxes currently making their way across country.

A trip that was taking way longer than necessary.

Dad had called the moving company last night. Our truck had a broken axle. It was going to be another few days before they got it fixed. So either I’d be alternating my two outfits for school or else I’d have to go clothes shopping.

Yay me.

Pulling Monday’s clothes out of the pack, I tossed them on the bed before I opened the door and nearly tripped over Argos.

Man’s loyal best friend.

Dad wouldn’t let him in my room last night.

“Did you sleep out here all night, boy?” I asked, rubbing his head gently.

As I walked down the hall toward the upstairs bathroom, he followed. He stopped at the bathroom door, though, sitting there like a silent sentinel. He whined slightly as I started to close it but I reassured him I wouldn’t be long. Walking toward the toilet, I looked toward the little window behind me. It was still slightly dark outside, I couldn’t remember the last time I got up before the sun. Back home, school didn’t start until almost eight in the morning. I usually got up at seven and had plenty of time to get there. It was six now and school began in an hour.

Stupid farm people.

I peed then got into the shower. I took another quick one. I got out just as fast as I got in and groaned at the dweeb in the mirror as I passed. I made sure to wear my towel back to the room, though. Sara had still been sleeping when I woke up but now apparently she was downstairs. I could hear the sound of the other shower. It was decided that I would use the upstairs bathroom and she the downstairs one. She had spent nearly an hour in said bathroom after we got back from the mall, scrubbing off all the girly makeup that Connie had put all over her face. Unfortunately for her, though, she didn’t have any of her washable hair dye with her so her hair was still honey blonde.

The rest of the night she shot me daggers.

Hey, all’s fair in Sibling War.

Besides after Monday, she had it coming.

Argos came trotting into the room behind me. I patted him on the head as I walked over to my bed. On it, I found my clothes neatly folded. That was a little weird but not as weird as what I found sitting on them: the heart pendant. This time, though, it was on a new silver chain. Now how in the heck did that happen? I picked it up, turning it over in my hand. No one even knew I had it except Sara and I was pretty certain she didn’t know I’d been keeping it in my pack. I set it aside and got dressed: boxers, jeans, socks then shirt. I pulled on my zip up hoodie too. It was going to be my crutch for the day.

I wanted to make a manly impression on my new schoolmates.

No more of this girl garbage.

Argos followed me out of the room and down the stairs. I wasn’t even to the bottom of them before I smelt breakfast: homemade pancakes, bacon, eggs, and sausage. Grandma really knew how to lay out a morning feast.

“Morning, sweetheart,” she said as she was putting more pancakes on a plate.

“Smells delicious,” I said, dropping into a seat.

Sara and Dad were already there. Dad was wearing one of his overly expensive suits. The tie itself cost more than all my video games combined. Sara, on the other hand, looked miserable. Whereas the high school didn’t have a dress code, apparently the elementary school did. Girls were required to wear these hideous green vests and skirts. Add to that her knee high socks and black buckle shoes and she looked:

“So adorable” I gushed like an idiot.

“Die in a fire” she grumbled at me.

“I think your brother is right,” said Grandma with a smile. “You look darling.”

“Well, I feel like a damn idiot.”

“Don’t say damn.”

“Sorry, Grandma.”

It was funny because the outfit actually made her look a little bit younger. Not like an eleven-year-old at all, more like a little five-year-old. As soon as I thought it, I had another vague memory of a girl, long red pigtails, wearing the same outfit. I’m not sure who she was or where she came from. I’m not even sure why I suddenly remembered it. Ok so Sara’s outfit probably triggered it but still, it was kind of weird that I was remembering it now of all times.

“Now do you have everything you’ll need?” asked Grandma as she finally sat down. “Lunch money? Your backpacks? Do you know where your classes are and where the bus picks you up and drops you off?”

Sara and I nodded yes to all her questions.

“”They’re fine Judy,” said Pop from behind his paper.

What was it with grandfather’s and their papers in the morning?

Breakfast was pretty quiet after that. Well if you didn’t count Grandma trying to braid Sara's hair into twin tails. I couldn’t help but scoff at the image. It would have really made her look like a little kid. Sara refused of course and kept shooting me nasty looks as if she could read my mind or something. It didn’t stop me from having them, though.

It was really funny, though, the outfit really did make her look younger. Or more accurately it made her look her age for once. Mom had always been on Sara’s case about dressing too grown up. There had been no strict dress code at her old school and Sara had pretty much been allowed to go to school however she wanted, including with makeup and padded bra. Now the makeup was all gone and of course, there was no padded bra. Grandma had seen to that bit last night. I think she was about to have a heart attack when she saw it. She went so far as to throw it in the garbage. Sara went postal, there had been shouting and everything. It was great. Dad had to finally step in and that ended that.

Grandma made something clear, though. As long as Sara was in her house, she was to present as the young lady she appeared to be. She told Sara there was plenty of time to grow up.

Sara was growing, though. I’d seen the cami tops and training bras all over the house back home. I think Grandma was just a little set in her ways.

We finished breakfast just in time to hear the beeping of the bus horn.

Grandma kissed both of us on the forehead before we rushed out the door.

I was surprised to see an actual school bus. It was yellow and everything. Back home, the kids who took the bus to school usually used city buses. Rushing across the lawn behind my sister, I couldn’t help but feel a little like a dork. I mean kids actually thought it was ok to ride around in one of these things? Getting on the bus only made it worse. The bus driver grunted at me and all eyes were on the two of us. The bus I noticed was fairly packed. Sara and I ended up having to sit with one another toward the front.

“Don’t talk to me from this moment forward?” she said.

“I’m not the one talking.”

She didn’t have an answer for that.

I decided to sit quietly and look out the window as we drove to school.

Whisper Pines High was actually a lot smaller than I thought it was from the car. My school back home was at least three times bigger. This place could barely be considered a school at all, to be honest. Looking around, I saw a lot of kids my own age walking toward the building. I turned to say something to Sara as she stepped off the bus behind me but she was already on her way across the campus toward the elementary school. That place was small too. Was this what it was like to be in a small town?

Walking toward the building, I did notice they had a football field which was surprising.

I half expected them to send their players to another town to practice or something.

I also noticed that the field looked a little unused. The grass was unmowed and the field goal posts looked a little rusty.
Well, maybe they didn’t have a team anymore?

Walking up the large stone steps and into the building, the first thing I noticed was the mascot. Well, it was hard not too, his image was painted on the wall directly in front of me. I half expected it to be a cow honestly. I was more than a little surprised to see it was a Greek Soldier. No not Greek, Trojan I think. I tried to keep up with Greek myth as much as I could. My father always told me it was a good idea to know where I came from. I knew they were only stories but it was kind of cool to think that maybe some of them were true. I mean all stories had to have some truth behind them right? Who’s to say there wasn’t really a Jason or a Heracles out there at one time in history?

“Kinda out of place if you ask me,” said Rex as he came up beside me.

“Hey,” I said then nodded. “I thought maybe it would be a cow.”

He shrugged. “It might have been once.”

I was starting to get the impression that Rex was a little eccentric. It was how he acted and the things he said. Almost as if he believed that half the things he saw weren’t actually the truth.

“Yeah well it makes me feel right at home,” I said with a half laugh.

He nodded. “C’mon I’ll show you to the office so you can get your schedule and things.”

He waved me on and I obediently followed.

The office was right around the corner from the main entry foyer. It was separated from the rest of the school by a large glass partition with two doors. Rex pointed to it.

“Try to talk to Vice Principal Willis, she’s easier.”

I nodded. What did that even mean?

Rex started to walk off.

“You’re not going to wait to see if we have similar classes?”

“I’ll catch up with you in lunch.”

“What if we don’t have the same lunch period?”

He laughed. “Everyone has the same lunch period,” he said then continued down the hall.

Ok, so Rex was definitely weird.

I shrugged and opened the door. I walked up to one of the two desks. I made sure it was the one near the door that said Vice Principal Willis. The woman behind the desk was young, probably in her late twenties. Her dark hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and she wore a charcoal gray suit and skirt combination thing. Sorry, I’m not too fashion forward, to be honest. Unless of course, I’m in the room when Sara and her friends were talking.

“Can I help you, sweetie?” she asked in a sing-song voice.

“I’m Charlie Kanenas, I just moved here a few days ago.”

She nodded and quickly started typing away at her computer. A moment later she looked at me.

“We have a Karolos Kanenas?”

“That’s me,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I prefer to be called Charlie, though.”

“I see,” she said, typing again. “There were ago, I put a note of it in your file. Go on through that door, I’ll let Ms. Willis know.”

I smiled and thanked her.

Then I took a deep breath as I stepped toward the Vice Principal’s office. I knocked on the door. My parents always taught me to be polite. I heard a muffled voice give me permission to enter. As soon as I opened the door, I was greeted by a neat and spartan looking office. There was a desk and some chairs, filing cabinets and a large bookshelf. There was nothing else, though. No sign of anything personal. The woman sitting behind the desk had a severe look to her. She was maybe mid-thirties, glasses, her darker hair pulled back like her secretary. She was wearing a gray pants suit. When she stood up, she was taller than I expected. Probably because of the heels she was wearing.

“Mr. Kanenas?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded. ‘Its the hair. I like to be called Charlie too.”

She smiled. It was actually a warm and welcoming one. It betrayed her actually. To look at her I was expecting some horrid woman. She surprised me.

“Well then have a seat, Charlie,” she said, pointing to the chair in front of her desk.

I quickly took it.

Ms. Willis looked at her computer. “It says here you’re from Portland.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Your father is Greek, hence the name,” she said, still reading the screen. “And your mother is...Penny Miller?’

There was a bit of surprise in her voice. She turned away from the computer screen and looked at me. She smiled as she did so.

“You look like her” she said softly. “Your mother I mean. She and I...” She lost composure for a second then regained it just as quick. “We were schoolmates together. Good friends. The best of friends.”

Her voice faltered a bit.

“I miss her too,” I said softly.

She smiled and gave me a gentle nod.

“You and your family are staying with the Millers then?”

“For the time being. We have a house at the new development I guess. Our moving van broke an axle so we’re staying with my grandparents until they get here.”

“They’re good people, your grandparents.”

I nodded. “I like them.”

“Now then,” she said “now that that’s out of the way. I can get you all situated.”

A moment later, the printer behind her sprang to life. A few seconds later, she handed me a few sheets of paper.

“The first sheet is your schedule, your locker location and combination should be right there on the bottom,” she said, pointing it out to me. “The other sheet is a quick list of school rules. Nothing too crazy or drastic. The Principal Mr. Carpenter likes to run a tight ship around here so make sure you stick to those rules. Now lunch is always 5th period, the vending machines in the cafeteria are for after school only.”

I saw that on the list of rules as I quickly scanned them.

“Gym is 7th period” she continued. “Boys and girls take PE together but separate locker rooms for obvious reasons. Each student has at least one study hall a day and the last period of the day is for an elective if you requested one. I put you in study hall again, though, unfortunately for you coming in the middle of the year like this, most of the electives are filled up.”

“Its ok,” I said and it was.

She smiled. “Well, then Mr. Kanenas” she held out her hand for me to shake. “Welcome to Whisper Pines High.”

I stood up and shook her hand. She had well-manicured nails I noticed.

She walked around her desk and showed me out of the office.

The secretary smiled at me as I walked toward the hall.

“Have a nice day?” she said sweetly before I left.

The bell must have already rung because the halls were deserted. I was stopped a few seconds later by an adult walking the halls. I’m guessing he was a Hall Monitor or something. When I told him I came from the office, he gave me a pass and told me not to do it again. Like it was my fault or something?

My first class of the day was thankfully not very far.

Algebra with Mrs. Gromley.

I stepped into the room and all eyes were on me.

“Can I help you young lady?” asked the portly, older woman in the front of the room.

“Boy actually,” I said, walking to the front of the room to show her my pass and schedule.

“Ah yes Karolos,” she said with little interest.

Several of the guys in class snickered.

I ignored them. I always ignored them when they laughed at my name.

“Charlie actually.”

Mrs. Gromley waved me off. “Sit somewhere and don’t interrupt my class again.”

Wow, this was getting off to a great start.

I found a seat in the back of the room. When I sat down, the girl from the mall was sitting next to me. She gave me a look, sizing me up maybe? She looked like she was dressed for a rave: ripped shirt, fishnet sleeves, lots of dark eye makeup. I looked at her legs, she was wearing a skirt. I found myself staring a little too long, though.

“See something you like?” she asked.

“Sorry,” I said, turning away, blushing.

Mrs. Gromley glared at us. “Girls, pay attention!”

The class snickered again.

And that’s how the rest of the morning went. I wasn’t late for another class again but it didn’t matter. Most of the teachers saw me as an annoyance somehow. Most of them also referred to me as a girl. I did the whole “I’m a boy and Charlie” thing three more times before I finally let out a sigh of relief when my fourth period Earth Science class let out. Being a Freshman was tough, being a new freshman at a new school was torture.

It didn’t help that my new Emo friend was in three of my four morning classes.

She was Miss Sunshine too every time she saw me.

When I got to the cafeteria, it was already half full. I fell into line like a drone, barely paying attention as I was given some semblance of a meal. I paid the lady, smiled and walked away to find a table. I scanned the crowd of people, looking for Rex. I spotted him in the far corner, sitting with a bunch of guys that looked to be about my flavor. They were all nerds of course but they were kind of my people I guess. Not that I really had a clique back home. I usually just sat with Fiona and her skating friends. They weren’t bad company and Doug often sat with us too. He drew most of the attention though because well “he was a hunk”.

According to Fiona’s group anyways.

I started toward Rex when someone slipped their arm through mine.

“Where you going?” asked Connie.

“Over with Rex,” I said, pointing.

“Sit with him tomorrow,” she said, steering me away. “Come sit with me today. I want you to meet the girls.”

I tried to protest but it was already too late.

Connie led me over to a table where three other girls were currently sitting. I was amazed at the beauties before me. Two blondes and a brunette, all of them absolutely gorgeous. All of them smiled at me when Connie brought me over.

“Guys this is Karrie, the boy I was telling you about.”

I groaned at her cutesy bastardization of my name.

“Karrie these are the girls,” she said and introduced me quickly. “That’s Britney, Amber, and Tracy.”

Britney and Amber were the blondes. I was not surprised. Of the two, Amber was the prettier one. She had a thinner nose and pouty lips. She was the kind of girl guys would crawl over glass naked to be with. She was also well endowed in the chest region if you get my meaning. Brtiney was no slouch, though. She just wasn’t as pretty as Amber. She did have these great eyes, though---sparkling blue. She also apparently painted her fingernails each a different alternating color: red and blue currently.

Tracy was the odd girl out I think.

She looked a bit out of place here, to be honest.

She looked shy. She kept looking at me and seemed to avert her eyes every few seconds. She was pretty too if you liked that whole girl with glasses thing.

I sat down in one of the two empty seats.

“Nice to meet you guys,” I said, trying to be polite.

I looked at the empty chair across from me.

“That’s Mel’s chair. She’s got student council today. You can meet her tomorrow” said Connie, taking my hand.

“So is it true that you guys were at the mall and all over each other yesterday?”

I rolled my eyes. I forgot how girls gossiped.

“Mall yes,” I said.

“I told you he has a girlfriend,” said Connie “stop trying to make something out of this when there’s nothing here. Besides...”

Amber scoffed. “The mysterious Mark again.”

“He’s not a mystery,” said Connie, annoyed. “You guys met him. He used to go to school here.”

Amber shrugged. “Sorry, doesn’t ring any bells.”

I studied her face. I couldn’t tell if she was being catty or if she genuinely didn’t remember this guy. Beth had said the same thing yesterday or something similar. That her sister was making the guy up to get attention. Maybe it was true but Connie really seemed to care for this guy.

Fake or not.

I was about to jump to Connie’s defense when I noticed something. Britney was wearing a low cut top. A very low cut top. Not that I was staring but it was kind of hard not too when she was almost directly across from me. It wasn’t her breasts that drew my interest, though, it was her necklace. More importantly, it was the heart shaped pendant. The very same one I found the other day at the diner.

“That necklace,” I said, “where did you get it?”

“Oh this,” she said, grabbing the pendant and lifting it off her neck. “We all have them. It's our little club.”

“Club?”

“Yeah,” said Connie, showing me hers. “The Heart Club.”

I nodded. Then I quickly rummaged around in my backpack until I found what I was looking for. I took out the necklace and put it on the table.

“Where did you get that?” asked Britney.

“I found it at a rest stop a few days ago.”

Connie picked it up, flipped it over and put it back down. “Well, it looks like ours but it's not.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Well, the Heart Club only has five members. Four of them are sitting at this table with you. Mel is the fifth of course.”

“Whoever that belongs too,” said Amber, pointing to my necklace. “It's clearly from some girl trying to copy us.”

“Well it could be...” said Tracy, looking around.

“No,” said Connie quickly. “She definitely burned hers.”

“Who?” I asked.

Connie shook her head. “It's not important.”

“Hey,” said Britney with a giggle. “If you want it, you can wear it. Be an honorary member. I mean you’re cute enough, you could totally pass as a girl.”

Britney and the others broke into a fit of giggles.

Then, of course, Connie had to tell them about how we met and how she thought I was a girl. There was more laughing. I tuned out the rest of the conversation. I quickly looked around the lunch room, wondering who the girl that Tracy mentioned might be. I scanned several of the people but none of them seemed to fit. My eyes finally fell on Miss Emo Sunshine, Clara. She was sitting by herself. I felt kind of bad for her in a way. I mean didn’t she have any friends?

I was tempted to get up and go over there but after this morning’s misunderstanding, I was pretty sure that wasn’t a good idea. So instead I stayed with the Heart Club for the rest of the lunch period. They laughed at me for a bit longer, joking about makeovers and things like that. I half paid attention. Then they switched topics to something else just as inane and asinine. Connie and the others didn’t bother to involve me in the conversation which was fine by me.

I made up my mind that tomorrow I was definitely going to sit with Rex.

Lunch ended a little while after that.

When the bell rang, I was more than ready to get the hell out of there honestly.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

by:

After a tragedy, Charlie and his small family move from the West Coast to the East and to a small and idyllic, dairy community to start anew. Soon he starts to realize the town seems a bit odd and the things there not so right, including himself.

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Author's NoteHere's Ch.6, I almost forgot to update today. I got busy with a great deal of errands this morning and it completely slipped my mind. This chapter is a continuation of the last one. It also partially takes place in Gym class, that's why the picture is a basketball. The picture is also connected to something else but no spoilers from me lol. I'd once again like to thank ashleigh for editing this tale for me :).

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6.

The class after lunch was History. So far it was the only class of the day that I actually kind of liked. Mr. Greene was a pretty cool guy. For one thing, he didn’t call me a girl as soon as I walked through the door. For another, he knew the English equivalent of the name Karolos. As soon as he met me, he shook my hand and asked, “Do you want to be called Charlie?”

I thought that was kind of cool actually.

His lesson wasn’t boring either. It didn’t matter that the guy was clearly older than my grandfather, he made learning fun.

At least for me anyways. Most of the other kids in class seemed disinterested.

As class was winding down, he called me to the front of the room.

Mr. Greene was tall, taller than most people I’d seen. He kept his head clean shaved, his glasses perched on his long nose and his goatee neatly trimmed.

“So Charlie, how has Whisper Pines been treating you?”

“Strangely” I answered honestly.

He nodded. “Small towns like this are always a bit on the strange side. I know when I first came here in the 60s, I swore that the squirrels were plotting war in my front yard. It was the strangest thing too. Of course, it was just me being crazy.”

He laughed. I laughed along with him.

“Oh that reminds me,” he said, opening his desk. “I was in Greece, in the 1950s, back when I was in school. I did a summer abroad there and I found something interesting.”

He came out of his desk with something wrapped in a red handkerchief. He slowly unwrapped it in front of me. It was a coin, a pretty old one by the looks of it. There was a woman’s face on it but it was pretty worn. She was wearing a strange hat but I couldn’t make anything else out.

“I found it snorkeling off the coast of some Greek islands,” he said, holding it up for me to take a look. “Go ahead, you can touch it.”

I gripped one edge of the table and with my other hand, I slowly reached my finger forward to touch it. As soon as I did, a bit of static build up zapped me from the coin. Well, actually it was probably from my clothes or me touching the desk. It was something that happened sometimes. I pulled my hand back nevertheless. Mr. Greene gave me a strange look before chuckling slightly.

“Static electricity?”

I nodded.

“It's the cloth I think. It's gotten me a few times too.”

“Do you know who is on the coin?”

He shook his head. “I know it's made of bronze and she’s a very prominent figure to be featured on a coin like this. I’ve taken it to quite a few people but none of them have been able to tell me much. Similar coins like this one have been dated back to the third century, though. Its a real ancient mystery.”

He folded it back up in the handkerchief, a small look of excitement on his face.

“That’s kind of cool.”

“I thought you might like it,” he said with a smile. “Have you ever been?”

“To Greece, no,” I said sadly. “At least not that I can remember anyways. My mother said they took me there as an infant but of course, I don’t remember that far back.”

“I’ve been there a few times in my life,” he said “it's such a lovely country. I used to live there for a time but that was a long time ago.”

He looked at the wall clock. “Look at the time, you’re gonna need a pass for your next class I think.”

I didn't even hear the bell ring.

He wrote me a pass and told me if I ever wanted to talk Greece with him that he’d been in his office down the hall. I thanked him for showing me the coin before rushing off to my next class. Thankfully it was only Study Hall. My first of the day apparently. It gave me time to catch up on my reading and do some of the light homework I’d been assigned. School was never a problem for me. I’m not trying to gloat or anything but I always got straight A’s. The work here didn’t seem all that different. In fact, I think they were a little behind us in some subjects. So it wasn’t all that hard to get it done easily.

I was just finishing up the last of it when I noticed Clara watching.

How many classes did I have with this girl?

I waved like a fool.

She huffed and quickly looked away.

Study Hall was pretty slow and boring. I wanted it to last forever though because I knew what was coming next.

Gym class.

My least favorite class of all time.

The bell finally rang and I couldn’t help but groan. The class quickly started to file out. Clara got up and made a mad dash for the door. She was pretty fast but I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to apologize for earlier and try to explain things. Thankfully she wasn’t as fast as she was pretending to be. I caught her only a few feet out the door.

“Hey,” I said, slipping in beside her.

“Go away.”

“Look I just wanted to say I’m sorry about earlier.”

“Fine you’re sorry, now go.”

“What’s the big deal?”

“You’re friends with them.”

“Who is them?”

She stopped and turned, giving me a look. She had these intense eyes. They were really pretty, a violet color which I knew had to be fake. Probably contact lenses. It wasn’t the color of them that drew me to them, though. It was something behind them, something smoldering there. She was trying to scare me off with her glare and her dark eyeliner and purple eye shadow. Honestly, though, it was actually doing the exact opposite. It was drawing me in, wanting me to stay here with her.

“Look, Connie already has her hooks in you.”

“Oh Them,” I said and waved it off. “Connie thinks I’m hers or something. I spent one night at her mother’s B&B and somehow we’re friends. I barely know her. I thought she was pretty cool but she’s kind of superficial if you ask me.”

Clara smirked. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“I’d actually rather be friends with you.”

That surprised her I think. From what I could tell, no one wanted to be friends with her.

“Why?” she asked, clearly confused.

“Why not?”

She bit her lip then shook her head. “Go away, I’m poisonous.”

She pushed past me, her head down. I didn’t bother to run and catch up with her this time, though. I knew she’d shut me out if I tried. Not that I was going to stop though. She intrigued me. There was something about her, something that I couldn’t quite place. She was so different than any other girl I’d ever seen. I wanted to know more about her. I had to respect her wishes though and leave her alone. It was a shame though because I knew the two of us would have been really good friends.

“Hey Coach, I think we have a problem.”

Here we go.

I’d just walked into the boy’s locker room and the dicks were already starting. This was nothing new. It didn’t help that most of these guys were in my classes. I used to get the same thing back at my old school. Or at least I did at the beginning of the year. Once the year started to progress, the name calling and the jokes stopped. It took about a month or so, though. Most of the guys back home learned to live with it and found other things to laugh about.

I ignored the laughing and the pointing.

I walked to the far corner of the room and found a locker.

I’d been through all this before.

As I was taking off my hoodie, I noticed someone standing behind me.

“This is the wrong room, princess,” he said, giving my shoulder a shove.

Great, physical contact.

It's not like that hasn’t happened before either.

I turned and found the perfect neanderthal specimen standing behind me. Tall, muscular, head buzzed so close to the skull he was pretty much bald. I’d met these types before too. He had chiseled good looks, piercing eyes and one of those chins. I liked to call them Gastons. You know from Beauty and the Beast. Arrogant pricks who swaggered around and thought they owned the place. This guy was a definite prime example of one. The fact that he was standing there without his shirt made it even worse.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m a boy.”

“And I’m the King of England,” he said, laughing.

Several others around him laughed too.

I was proud to be a boy. I liked being a boy. In situations like this, though, I couldn’t help but wonder why boys were so stupid. Did they honestly think that if I was a girl, I would want to walk into the boy’s locker room? Or that I was blind. I mean I could clearly tell that the room was full of boys because well they’re boys. A real girl would have never been stupid enough to walk this far into the room. She would have stopped at the door, said something like “oops” and walked away. These guys were either total idiots or enjoyed being total dicks.
“He’s a boy,” said a voice from somewhere behind them.

I think it was Rex.

“What’s going on here?” asked a large man as he pushed his way through the circle of people behind me.

“Coach,” said Gaston #1, pointing at me. “That’s a girl.”

I groaned. “I’m a boy!”

I reached into my pack and took out my schedule, I handed it to the Coach. He took it and scanned it. He looked from it to me and back again. Then he smacked Gaston #1 in the back of the head.

“Hunter, finish getting dressed.”

That seemed to end things. The others laughed. Gaston #1---Hunter---glared at me before he wandered off.

The Coach shook his head. “Sorry about that...umm...Karo...”

“Charlie,” I said.

“Well sorry again, Charlie, sometimes I think these boys have taken one too many hits to the head.”

“This from the man who just smacked him in the back of it?”

The Coach laughed. “I like you kid. I’m Coach Moore, if you need anything, let me know.”

He turned and started to walk away when I realized there was something I actually needed.

“Ummm Coach, I wasn’t expecting to have Gym today,” I said, realizing that I didn’t have any gym clothes.

“Right, new kid,” he said, nodding. “I’ll see what I can find.”

I took off my hoodie and stuck it in my locker. Then I sat down and waited. The locker room slowly started to empty. Pretty soon I was the only one there and the Coach still wasn’t back. Feeling a little abandoned, I thought about just leaving. Sitting on the bleachers was nothing new to me after all. Like I said before, Sara was the athletic one. Back home, we didn’t have to participate if we didn’t want too. Of course, it docked our grade a lot but seeing as the PE wasn’t tallied into our overall GPA, I warmed the benches a lot. Especially when it came to swimming.

Finally, the Coach returned.

He cut a huge, imposing figure. The man was broad, all muscle and very little neck. His head was shaved clean and there was an interesting scar on his chin. I’m sure that had a good story.

He approached me carrying some folded clothes. The look on his face though told me I wasn’t going to like what he said.

“Ok so I went looking for some spares, we usually have them lying around,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “But well you’re kinda a little guy so...”

I looked at the clothes in his hand.

“You had to get those from the girls’ locker room, right?”

He nodded. I’d been here before too.

At my old school, they provided the gym clothes. Because of my size, none of the ones that the boys usually wore actually fit. So my PE teacher, Mr. Norris, had to get some from the girls. Thankfully they were pretty gender neutral so it wasn’t too much of a problem. I only had to wear them for a few weeks too. The school was able to take my measurements and order me a set that actually fit. The embarrassment though was enough. The ridicule was just as bad. Like the locker room ribbing, though, it eventually went away as well.

“You don’t have to wear them, you can sit in the bleachers today.”

“How does the PE grade work?”

Coach sighed. “It gets worked into your GPA.”

Great.

Well, one day probably wouldn’t hurt that much but it would still be a zero. I’d never really gotten a zero on anything. Even when I didn’t participate in PE back home, they marked it as Incomplete. The school I went to back home catered more to the students than it should have. It was a private establishment that relied on the parents’ money to keep it running. So if a student didn’t want to participate in gym class, he or she didn’t have too.

I groaned. “Hand me the clothes then.”

“You sure?”

“Sir, I’ve never failed and I’ve never taken a zero for anything in my life. I’m not about to right now.”

He nodded and handed them over.

Call it stupidity, call it Hubris.

I just didn’t like to be a loser.

Looking at the clothes, though, I couldn’t help but groan. In what school were these considered suitable for gym class?

I held up the tiny shorts and tank top.

I looked at the Coach.

“The girls voted last year. That’s the outfit that won apparently. You can still sit on the bench if you want?”

I shook my head. “I’ll be out in a few minutes, Coach.”

He nodded with a smile then walked away.

I stripped quickly and got dressed just as fast. Thankfully I was wearing briefs today or else my boxers would have been sticking way out. Yes, the shorts were that small. They were a bit tight too and I hated the way they seemed to hug my body. It was almost as if they were designed that way. Ignoring them, I put on the tank top. It was a little loose in the chest region for obvious reasons and it was a bit short at the bottom too. Putting my shoes back on, I stood up and felt exposed.

Girls actually voted on this?

Trying not to think about it, I slowly walked through the locker room and out into the gym. As soon as I stepped through the door and into the gymnasium, I tried to go unnoticed. It didn’t last long. A second later there was some whistling and cat calling. The usual crap. A lot of the boys were laughing too. It all stopped when Coach Moore shouted at them, even threatening to kick them off their perspective teams. On the other side of the gym, I noticed the girls. Most of them were wearing their own gym outfits. My borrowed top and shorts were gray with the school name on each. I spotted Connie and her Heart club then Clara off by herself. They were in the middle of playing basketball and hardly noticed.

Which was good because I didn’t want to give Connie any more ideas.

Rex came walking up.

“Why are you dressed like that?”

I groaned. “Because apparently it's Humiliate the New Kid on his First Day of School Day.”

I felt a bit inferior standing next to him. Rex wasn’t much to look at honestly but even he had some muscles. He was also taller than me. Benefits of farm living probably.

The coach blew his whistle. Everyone quickly started to gather around him. There was a large group of boys here, a lot more than in the locker room I noticed. The school must have had more than one locker room. Ms. Willis had said PE was 7th period. I hadn’t realized she met it was 7th period for everyone. Then again this was a small school so I could see where something like that was possible. The gymnasium was rather large too. Bigger than the one at my old school even. So it was definitely big enough to fit all these guys and girls in it together.

Looking at the faces, I saw Lucas too.

He nodded, I returned it.

A minute or so after blowing his whistle, the coach told us what we were doing today.

Basketball.

Great.

Everything went well for a while. He told us to pair off. I went with Rex. It turns out it wasn’t his sport either. What we did while paired off was up to us so Rex and I just started shooting hoops. There was nothing wrong with it. About ten minutes into it, though, the coach blew his whistle again.

“Change up.”

Which apparently meant switch partners.

And my new partner was none other than Gaston #1.

Fate hated me.

“Hey Girly Boy,” he said with a smirk, throwing the ball hard at me.

I barely caught it. My hands stung, though.

“Charlie,” I said, even though I knew it wouldn’t matter.

Dicks like this Hunter guy were a dime a dozen. I’d dealt with them before. They liked to swagger, they liked to talk big. They liked to throw their weight around. He was no different. Apparently, something about me bothered him. It was probably nothing he could even pinpoint either. He was a dick and dicks like him didn’t need a reason. I’m sure he could give me one if I asked. He could give several but in truth, it was all about his own insecurities. Something about me brought out something in him he didn’t like. I’m not sure what it was and frankly, I didn’t care.

“You might have the coach fooled, Girly Boy but I’m not an idiot.”

He caught the ball I threw at him without a problem. Apparently, we were only going to be playing catch. Then he returned it even harder than before.

Wow, that really hurt.

“Why do you care?” I asked, tossing the ball back.

“I don’t care,” he said, whipping it at me again.

“Well you’re sure doing a lot of whining for someone who doesn’t care.”

Ok so it wasn’t the smartest thing to say but I was getting sick of this crap. I’d been dealing with it all day and this guy wasn’t helping. I couldn’t help it that I was short or thin or “girly” as everyone called it. I didn’t like the way I looked either. Mother Nature had not been kind so far and hopefully, the problem would correct itself in time. Right now though I’d have to deal with it. I was dealing with it. It was other people who couldn’t seem to deal.

“What did you say?”

“What’s the big deal anyways?” I asked, pushing it. “Why are you so convinced I’m a girl?”

It hit me the second I said it. It was his face. First surprise at my words then confusion. It was only there for a second before it disappeared into his sneer. It was there, though, I saw it. He’s was another convenient store idiot. He thought I was a girl because he wanted me to be a girl. Me being a girl was the only way he could explain his attraction to me. It was weird, though. I wasn’t even androgynous looking. At least I didn’t think so. Everyone always mistook me for being a girl. Even before the hair. Mom once told me it was the way I sometimes acted. When I asked her to clarify she didn’t really answer or at least it was an answer I couldn’t quite understand:

“It's just the way you are.”

What did that even mean?

“What are you looking at, freak?”

Oh so now I’m a freak.

“Nothing.”

“Are you coming onto me?”

The anger was there. It was building too. I should have backed away but of course, I didn’t. I’d never really been in a fight before. I knew the principles of them of course. One moron pounding on another with his bare fists. I’d seen quite a few of them. I was just never really in a situation where I might get into one. Back home I stayed below the radar. There were a lot of kids at my school and I could easily blend into the crowd and disappear. Here there was a lot less and I stuck out a lot more. I apparently stuck out enough to this Hunter idiot that it was making him question his sexuality.

“Why would I be coming onto you?”

That only seem to anger him even more. The ball he threw wasn’t toward my hands anymore. It was so fast I didn’t have time to react.

Now I’ve been hit in the head by many basketballs.

I’m not sure why this one hurt so much.

I’m also not sure why the world was spinning around me as I hit the ground.

Someone shouted my name, though.

Then darkness.

I woke up disoriented, confused and in pain.

Yeah, lots of pain.

There was also this bright light.

Gods I hope that wasn’t what I thought it was.

“Careful, sweetie,” said a kind voice as I felt a hand on my shoulder. “You got hit pretty hard.”

The light went away and the room came into focus. Everything was white. For a second I thought the light was still there until I realized I was looking up at a ceiling. The white came from the ceiling tiles and the walls on either side of me. I turned my head slightly and saw a pretty young blonde woman in white scrubs sitting next to me. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun and around her neck was a silver necklace, the pendant dangling from it was two snakes wound around a winged staff.

The Caduceus.

“Who are you?” I asked, trying to look around the room but finding most of my view blocked off by what looked like a shower curtain. “Where am I?”

She smiled. “I’m Mia Bright and you’re in the Nurses’ office.”

Bright, her name fit her nicely.

“He hit me with the ball, didn’t he?”

“Yes he did,” she said with a sigh. “Got himself into quite a bit of trouble for it too.”

Good.

“He’s a dick.”

“Well, bullies always get theirs in the end. Give it time, that boy does not have a good future laid out for him.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that.

I really liked her.

Nurse Bright helped me sit up a minute or so later, telling me to take it slow. My head still hurt and the room was still slightly spinning. I tried to remember what happened but it was a bit fuzzy. I remember Hunter getting angry and him throwing the ball at me. I fell backward maybe…
“Did I hit my head too?”

“According to your friend, Reginald,” she said, looking at an iPad she was holding. “You got hit in the face with a basketball and fell backward, hitting your head on the gym floor. So yes you hit your head. You’ve been in here for about an hour, unconscious. There’s no bump back there so that’s good but you might have a mild concussion.”

Concussion? Shouldn’t I have been at the hospital then?

And who’d Reginald?

“Reginald?”

“Rex, dear.”

His name is Reginald! No wonder he calls himself Rex. Not that I could complain, though. I am the Pot calling the Kettle black after all.
“Shouldn’t I be in the hospital?”

I still couldn’t see anything beyond the curtain around the bed but it was clear this was still the school. Usually, in situations like this, the person with the concussion would be in the hospital. They would run a battery of tests to make sure there wasn’t brain damage or something. There was a football player at my old school who had something similar happen to him during a game. Then again he was sacked by this massive linebacker. Both of them were going pretty fast too. It was all pretty messy. He was out of school for a month, most of the time spent either in bed or the hospital.

“You were only mildly concussed. Besides we don’t have a hospital in town. The nearest one is Edgerton. I have spoken with Dr. Riley---the town’s physician---and he’s agreed to monitor the situation. You have an appointment with him later this week.”

None of this made sense.

I was about to ask more when I heard the door open. Nurse Bright excused herself and stepped through the curtain. I heard voices, one of them sounded strangely like my grandmother. A moment later the curtain was pulled back and I was correct, it was her. The first thing she did, of course, was hug me then asked if it was ok to do so.

“He’s fine. Just make sure he gets plenty of rest and tries not to do anything too strenuous. Dr. Riley wrote him a prescription for some pain medication if needed. There will more than likely be headaches and possibly some nausea.”

“What about this boy? Hunter Phelps?”

The nurse smiled. “Mr. Phelps has already been dealt with.”

The way she said it made me wonder.

“Well, his father is going to be hearing from our lawyer.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

Nurse Bright then helped me get off the flimsy school cot. I was glad to be off of it actually. The thing was as hard as a rock. I was still a little woozy but I could walk. Not that that stopped Grandma from standing next to me as I did so. I took a look around the nurse’s office as I walked to the door. It was white and very bright like I suspected before. There was a desk over by the window, devoid of personal items. There was a poster on the wall, though, a little kitten hanging from a tree branch. Below it were the words HANG IN THERE in bold, green font. Opposite to that was a picture of an idyllic looking landscape.

In the hallway, Connie and Rex were waiting.

Had they been waiting the whole hour?

Why weren’t they in class?

“Hey guys,” I said with a weak smile.

“You ok, Charlie?” asked Rex, looking concerned.

“I’m good, just a bump.”

Connie wiped her eyes. They were slightly puffy and red. Had she been crying? Was a girl actually crying for me?

She rushed forward and gave me a hug. I winced a bit but only because it took me off guard.

“Ok dear,” said Grandma, after a few seconds. “The nurse wants him to avoid anything strenuous.”

Grandma must have seen the wince.

Connie finally let go. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“I’ll manage.”

She smiled at that.

“You two should be in class,” said a voice as I heard the clicking of heels coming toward us.

Behind them, walking our way, was Ms. Willis.

Behind her---trying to keep up---was that hall monitor from earlier.

“Mr. Banks will escort you both to class, no need for passes,” she said, looking directly at the Hall Monitor.

He looked a little peeved that she was undermining his job but he nodded. Without saying another word, he motioned for Rex and Connie to follow him. They quickly said their goodbyes, both agreed to call later and then they were gone. I watched him lead them down the hall and around the corner.

“First of all, Charlie, I’d like to apologize,” said Ms. Willis, drawing my attention back to her. “Coach Moore will send you his apology tomorrow, as will Mr. Phelps as soon as he gets out of his month-long detention,” She said that last bit with a slight smile.

“So the boy is being punished then?”

‘Oh yes,” she said sternly. “He knows the rules very well. We have Zero tolerance for bullies here at WPH. This isn’t Mr. Phelps first offense either. There will be consequences to this one, I assure you of that.”

Grandma smiled happily. “I will definitely be speaking to that boy’s parents too.”

“I’ll make sure you get the number, Mrs. Miller.”

“Thank you, Patty.”

Ms. Willis blushed a bit by being called something so informal. The blush was out of place for her, she usually looked so stern and put together. It was also weird. You don’t often see adults blush like that. I looked from her to Grandma. She didn’t seem phased by it in the least. After all hadn’t Ms. Willis just told me this morning that she and my mother were best friends. It was only natural that my grandmother knew her on such a casual level.

Ms. Willis put on her stoic face when she spoke again. ‘Now, Charlie, I’ve already spoken to your teacher from your 8th-period class and excused your absence. 9th period is already in session but seeing as its study hall for you I see no reason why you can’t go home now. If you feel the need, you can take the next few days of school off as well.”

“That might be a good idea.”

“No,” I said “I’m fine. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Charlie, that’s hardly...”

I loved Grandma and she met well but not on this.

I shook my head. “I’ve never missed a day of school in my life and I’m not going to start now. I’ll be here tomorrow, bright and early. I’m not going to let a bump on the head stop me.”

Ms. Willis nodded. “Just like Penny.”

There was pain in her voice as she said it. There was a pained look on grandma’s face as well.

I could feel it in the pit of my stomach.

I don’t think it was ever going to truly go away.

None of us said anything for a few minutes.

Finally, Ms. Willis agreed to walk us to the door. I guess there wasn’t really anything else to say. The hall was empty and quiet, the only sound was our footfall. Of course, mine and grandma’s was drowned out by the clacking of heels. I couldn’t help but wonder how she managed walking around in those all day. She must have been on her feet a lot and yet she chose to wear such high, thin heels. It was insanity if you ask me. Looking at my own feet, I knew I could never pull it off. Not that I wanted to wear heels of course. Though, they would probably make me taller?

Wait, no, where did that come from?

I shook my head which of course made me wince.

Stupid tiny concussion.

Stupid Hunter.

Stupid heels.

“Something wrong, sweetie?” asked grandma, looking concerned again.

“Nothing, just thinking of something stupid.”

When we rounded the corner and started down the main hallway toward the front entrance, I was surprised to see my Sentinel there waiting. Argos was sitting in front of the glass doors, staring into the building, not moving. Like a large, black dog statue. As we got closer, he broke character though as his tail started to wag.

“I locked him in the truck, how did...” Grandma sighed. “Never mind, that dog truly is something else.”

I smiled at that.

Ms. Willis watched Argos with a wary eye as we approached the door. She stopped about ten feet from it too I noticed. Well, he was a very intimidating looking animal.

“I believe I’ll leave you two here then, it was nice seeing you again, Mrs. Miller,” she said then turned to me. “Again I want to apologize for all of this, especially on your first day too. It doesn’t make a very good first impression of us, does it?”

“It's ok,” I said and meant it.

It was a foolish misunderstanding. Not that I condoned what Hunter did but it wasn’t all his fault either. I goaded him a little bit after all. Tomorrow I’d make sure to talk to someone about that, see if I could get his sentence reduced. After all, it was a mistake and his stupidity that lead to it. He was still a dick of course but not even dicks deserved to get punished for dumb things.

I watched as Ms. Willis turned and walked away, clicking as she did so.

So much taller.

Stop that.

“What say you to a nice cup of tea when we get home?”

“Sounds good Grandma.”

We walked out the door, Argos snapped to my side as soon as we got to him. I patted him on the head and followed grandma to the truck, my Sentinel at my heels.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

by:

After a tragedy, Charlie and his small family move from the West Coast to the East and to a small and idyllic, dairy community to start anew. Soon he starts to realize the town seems a bit odd and the things there not so right, including himself.

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Author's NoteOk so I know its been a while and I apologize for that. I'm still not done with this story though sadly. I haven't been able to write much of anything in the past few months. Things are just not great right now. I do have this chapter and two others finished though. Maybe by the time Ch.9 is posted, I'll have a few more written and ready to go. Don't count on it though :(.

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7.

I finally stopped puking.

I’ll admit it wasn’t pleasant. I’d been doing it all week so I thought maybe I would start getting used to it. The thing about puking though, no matter how many times you do it, you never get used to it. I’d been doing it a lot too. At first, it was because of the concussion of course. After I came home from school Wednesday, I spent all night either trying to rest or rushing to the bathroom. Thankfully by Thursday, things were better. At least as far as the concussion was concerned. I was in and out of the bathroom all Thursday too but the nausea was mostly gone. It was my stomach that seemed to be the culprit. The town doctor---Dr. Riley---made a house call. I mean how cool was that, I thought that only happened in old movies.

He declared the concussion having run its course.

That didn’t explain why I was throwing up though.

He had an answer for that too:

“Common stomach virus. Its been going around. She must have picked it up in the nurse’s office.”

Yeah, he had said “She” too. It didn’t matter that he knew my full name and that everyone was referring to me as Charlie. Even Pop tried to correct the man but he was pretty old. He either didn’t hear or didn’t care. My gender was hardly of any importance in the situation. When you’re sick, you didn’t really care if the old senile country doctor called you he, she or it. All you wanted to do was get better and do it fast.

It was Friday now.

I didn’t want too but I ended up missing school yesterday and today.

The first time in forever.

I think that honestly made me sick more than anything.

I finally stopped throwing up and flushed.

I really hated this feeling.

I walked to the sink and splashed water in my face. I groaned at what I saw in the mirror. I looked horrible. Haggard and worn out. There were dark circles under my eyes and my hair was a mess. Not that I cared much for what my hair looked like but I at least ran a comb through it every now and then. Today and the last few days though, it looked like I stuck my head in a fan or something. Maybe it was from lack of sleep. This stomach bug wasn’t good on my sleep cycle. Add that to the fact that I was afraid of slipping into a coma if I slept too much because of the concussion and I’d maybe had about a day’s worth of sleep in the last few days.
Not fun.

Fiona noticed it last night during our Skype call too.

I felt so bad about neglecting our calls. I apologized when I talked to her, telling her how hectic things had been. She apologized too. She’d been pretty busy herself, what with practice and school. I think this whole long distance Skype friendship was going to be a strain. Not only because of the three hour time difference either. We both had school and she, of course, had practice too. We talked for about an hour last night though. I told her about school and of course about that dick Hunter and the concussion. She sent me her best wishes and wished she could be there to help me feel better. Just hearing her say that was good enough.

She asked about the pendant too of course. When I told her about the Heart club, the first thing she did was roll her eyes. She insisted I find the necklace’s owner though. She once again emphasized how important friends were to a girl. I couldn’t help but be reminded of her own friendships. I couldn’t really call them what they really were though---competition. All of her friends were in her skating club and though friendly with one another, they were still competing to be the best.

I couldn’t even imagine how that was.

One minute a friend could be your BFF and then stab you in the back the next.

It must have sucked.

It must have been nerve-wracking too.

Thinking about it now though was a mute point. I only had one friend to worry about. For some reason, I just knew Rex wouldn’t stab me in the back. I knew it because he’d been my friend this whole time. Even when I forgot about him. I don’t think he had many either. Sure there were the guys he sat with at lunch but something told me they were just friends of convenience. I remember the distant look he gave me the other day when Connie dragged me off to her table---it was disappointment. He wanted me to sit with him. In hindsight, I probably should have. As nice as Connie was, I just couldn’t see myself making any lasting friendship with her. She was looking for a boyfriend and honestly, I wasn’t over Fiona.

There was also Clara too.

I’m not sure what she was to me.

I didn’t feel attraction to her but there was something else.

I just needed to know her.

A gentle knock on the door drew me from my thoughts.

“Charlie, honey.”

It was grandma.

“I’m ok, Grandma,” I said, shutting off the sink.

She was a wonderful person. I loved her too death. She was, however, starting to smother. I know when you’re sick, it's nice to have people around to take care of you. Grandma was great at that. I think she just took the job a little too seriously though. She was constantly hovering. Every time I moved she thought it was because I wanted something and rushed to my side. In a way I guess I couldn’t really blame her. All her children were grown and distant. Mom and Aunt Grace both moved away and Uncle Kurt, well he was probably not much of a son, to begin with. I’m pretty sure the twins were like their father. After all, there was only that one picture of them on the mantle.

Grandma didn’t seem to have a lot of practice being a grandmother.

I think she was trying to make up for lost time.

I stepped out of the bathroom to find Argos waiting.

Ever the loyal companion.

He perked his ears as I rubbed his head.

“Good boy,” I said as I walked back to my room, he followed at my heels.

He followed me into the room again.

Dad had finally relented when he saw how much the dog wanted to be with me. It's hard to deny something like that when he literally slept outside my door. I don’t think Dad was too happy about it and frankly, I didn’t care. I was a little pissed at him actually. He said this move was supposed to be different, a time for us to be a family again. Old habits die hard. As soon as he got back into work, he got absorbed into it again. Sara and I took notice. He tried to explain it away as “new guy” things but we both knew what it really was. He had a purpose again. Being home had been painful. His sloth was his grieving. He was done with Portland, done with his life there. Here he could start fresh. Which apparently meant starting nothing fresh because he fell right back into work again.

I never expected him to change.

Letting Argos into my room wasn’t really relenting, it was avoidance. Once he got focused on one thing, all other things for Dad seemed less important.

I sat on the edge of my bed, Argos put his head in my lap.

Looking around the room, my eyes fell on a picture of Mom. It was her when she younger, maybe sixteen. She was with another girl, a definitely younger and more carefree version of Ms. Willis. It was weird to see such a stern woman smiling and looking happy. The two of them were hugging, both turned and smiling at the camera. Mom looked so young. She looked happy too. She had a great smile that I missed more than anything.

“He’s doing it again, Mom,” I said to the photo.

I’d taken to talking to it since arriving here.

It was the only one in the room that really spoke to me. There were other pictures of her but this one seemed different. The others were candid and somehow less alive. This one felt more real somehow. That’s why it was no longer on the wall either. I took it down that first night and put it on the bedside table where it was currently sitting.

I quickly envisioned Mom’s response:

“You know how he is, sweetie.”

I didn’t have to make those words up.

I’d heard her say them more times than I could count.

I picked up the photo, rubbing her smiling face with my finger.

“Why did you leave us?’ I asked softly, a tear rolling down my cheek.

There was another gentle knock.

Grandma stepped into the room a moment later.

“Are you feeling any better, sweetie?”

I shrugged. “Still throwing up but not as much.”

It was true. I’d only thrown up that once. I felt a little better too. The fever was down a bit and it didn’t feel so bad when I moved. Before I’d been all achy and stuff. I wouldn’t say I was one hundred percent though, maybe sixty five or so.

She came over to me and put her hand on my forehead.

“Well, you do feel a little cooler.”

That always amazed me. I never really could understand how people did that? I mean she touched my head and could instantly tell if I had a fever or not. I think it was a Mom thing. I didn’t get sick often but when I did, Mom always touched my forehead too. She could easily proclaim if I was fine or “burning up”. It must have been this secret passed down from mother to daughter or something. Though I’m sure there was some overly complicated scientific explanation for it. No matter though, Mom’s were always pretty accurate about their built-in thermometers.

“How about I bring you another bowl of Chicken Noodle soup?”

The soup was a mystery to me as well. I didn’t even really like soup but somehow it made me feel better. I’m sure there was an explanation for that as well but I didn’t really care.

“That would be awesome.”

She smiled, stroked my cheek gently and walked out of the room.

When she got to the door though, she stopped and stared at me strangely.

“I think your father and grandfather might be right, your hair is getting a bit on the long side, isn’t it?”

I reached up and touched it.

Huh.

She smiled sweetly and left.

Confused, I got up and walked over to my mother’s vanity. It was covered in a bunch of girly things: old bottles of nail polish, some face cosmetics. Her hairbrush I left untouched because it still had some of her hair in it. Even this old hand mirror. Then there was the jewelry box. It was ornate and polished. My mother talked about it more than once. She said she wanted to give it to Sara but confessed that it was probably something my sister wouldn’t have cherished much. Over the last few days, I was tempted to take a look inside out of curiosity but stopped because it felt too intimate. Almost as if I was invading her privacy somehow.

It was stupid I know.

Trying not to think about that and more about my grandmother’s comment, I looked into the vanity.

What had she meant?

For the last few days, Pop had been hassling me about my hair. Grandma kept coming to my defense. So it was a little odd for her to suddenly do a complete 180 on me.

Looking in the mirror, I grasped the end of my hair.

I blinked a few times to be sure but there was no doubt about it, it looked longer.

What the hell?

Ok so it wasn’t down my back or anything silly like that of course. I knew how hair grew after all. I also knew that it definitely didn’t grow a couple of inches in only a few days. I knew a lot about my hair because well it was the thing that most people commented on. It was also the thing that my mother loved most about me. She used to comment about it all the time, how soft and thick it was. She used to love running her fingers through it and combing it. I used to keep it a lot longer when I was younger too. Well past my shoulders at least. It was that way until middle school. One day, Freddie Griggs cornered me in the boy’s bathroom and confronted me. He seemed pretty pissed about something.

Things were made worse when he tried to kiss me. When I recoiled from the gesture, he got angry and punched me in the face. He split my lip with that punch and bloodied my nose. He probably would have done more if not for the untimely arrival of Mr. Frost, our English teacher. He had to pull Freddie off of me apparently. It was then that Dad decided that I need to get my hair cut. Mom usually took me to her hair salon to get a trim but Dad took me to his barber to get it cut properly. Thankfully he didn’t let the man shave my head but I was given a hairstyle more fitting a boy my age.

That was two years ago.

It took that long to grow it back to where I had it now.

So I knew how long it took for hair to grow.

“Did I just not notice?” I said to myself, turning my head left and right.

Well, maybe that explained why people were getting so confused?

I stared at it in the mirror for a long time. Long enough for grandma to come into the room with my soup on a tray.

“Is something wrong, sweetie?” she asked, setting the tray on the little bedside table where I kept the photo.

“It is longer,” I said, still confused as hell.

Grandma’s reflection in the mirror smiled at me.

“No longer than before,” she said, stroking my head. “I just think I finally began to notice that’s all. Maybe its because its all messed up now. If you want, as soon as you’re better I can have your grandfather take you to his barber?”

I shook my head. After that first and last visit to the barber with Dad, I was traumatized. I used to love my hair. I promised myself I wasn’t going to let some “butcher” touch it again. Besides, it was Mom’s favorite thing about me. How could I get rid of something that my mother loved so much?

“Mom liked my hair,” I said, turning away from the mirror. “It broke her heart when Dad had it cut before.”

Grandma nodded. “You did look darling with it like that,” she said with a smile. “Though whenever a guest saw your pictures, they always told us we had a very beautiful granddaughter.”

I could only imagine how that made Pop feel.

“What bothers him so much about my hair?”

She put her hands on my shoulders. “Honey, your grandfather loves you very much. Sometimes I think it's difficult for him to understand things. He’s an old fashion man. Even in the 60s when the boys were growing their hair long in rebellion of the war, your grandfather grumbled. Though of course being a Marine probably didn’t help. He’s set in his ways. It takes time for a man like that to change.”

“I’m his grandson though?”

“I know and he loves you,” she said, kissing me on the forehead. “Now then, how about we eat this soup.”

Grandma changing the subject was enough to tell me to not dwell on it. As much as I loved Pop and I did, I knew he wasn’t going to change. He wouldn’t outright hate me for being different bedside but he would never truly embrace it either. The fact that I loved my hair the way it was and he didn’t, well we’d have to live with that. I’d deal with it if things got out of control.

Like my mother did all those years ago when she finally left.

Trying not to think about that, I followed Grandma back over to my bed.

She handed me the tray with the soup. It was still hot, the steam rising off of it. I took my first spoonful. Gods, it was so good. I couldn’t help but smile. She smiled too then excused herself, apparently, there was work to be done around the house. I sat and ate the soup, Argos watching every spoonful with envious anticipation. I knew better than to give him any because it would be a dangerous slope of no return from there. So I ate it all myself. When I finished I set the tray on the bedside again. Then I retrieved one of my comics. It was a new one.
Something grandma was nice enough to pick up for me from Edgerton. That and some new school clothes. The van was still delayed.

I rolled onto my stomach to read it, putting my feet in the air as I did so.

I smiled as I flipped the pages, absently pushing some hair behind my ear as I did so.

I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew I waking up.

I was under the covers too.

Sitting up slowly, I looked around. My comic was on my bedside table, the tray was gone and Argos as sleeping on the floor near the door. Turning to look at the clock on the wall, I saw it was three forty-five. Not only did I doze off but I’d been asleep for at least four hours. Which meant Sara would probably be home any minute. I looked over to her side of the room and groaned. She and Aunt Grace were a lot alike. When we arrived here, that side of the room looked like a bomb had gone off. There were clothes all over the place, boxes still sitting ready to be packed. Her dresser and vanity were cluttered with crap too.

Much like how my sister did things.

I noticed that Sara only tossed the boxes into the corner.

Nothing else had been touched.

Typical.

Crawling out of bed, Argos perked up. He watched me, probably making sure I wasn’t going to get sick again. He’d been a real trooper through the last few days. When I came home from school Wednesday afternoon, he never left my side. All through that first night, he sat with me, making sure I was ok. The last couple of days had been the same. When I started to feel the urge to puke, he went with me to bathroom. He sat outside the door and waited for me too. It was almost as if someone had trained him to do these type of things. It made him more special than I already thought he was.

It also made me realize that I was a fool for forgetting him.

Ok so maybe not a fool because I was five after all.

Argos followed me as I walked across the room, grabbing a towel from the floor as I made my way out the door. At one time the towel was probably on my dresser. Grandma had been setting them there the last few mornings for me. This morning I’d been too sick to take a shower. I was feeling a little better now. This was the first time I’d woken up without the urge to puke for instance. Something told me that the last of this virus had finally passed from my system. Which was fantastic because I really wanted to get back to school.

I know what you’re thinking.

A kid actually wants to go to school?

The truth of the matter was simple, I was bored out of my mind. I’d been too sick to play games, too sick to browse the internet and definitely too sick to read my comics. Plus I really didn’t want to puke all over my cool stuff. So I’d pretty much been bed ridden for the last couple of days. This morning was the first time I’d picked up one of my comics in a few days. Well since that first night in the Delightful Bovine.
Something about it though felt off. I’m not sure but I’d never before fallen asleep while reading one for instance. Comics were meant to be light reading, full of action and adventure. Well, at least the ones I read anyway.

I made my way down the hall slowly until I finally reached the bathroom.

Downstairs I could hear Sara, talking with Grandma.

The conversation was too far away for me to make out words but I think my name was mentioned once or twice.

A second later, Sara was pounding up the stairs.

In her hand was a rolled up bunch of papers.

“Your dweeb friend got your homework,” she said, waving the paper roll in my face.

“Just put it in the room. I’ll look at it as soon as I’m done with my shower.”

“Whatever,” she said then turned her attention to Argos. “C’mon boy.”

She slapped her legs, trying to get him to follow her.

Argos didn’t even look at her.

“Stupid dog” she mumbled as she headed into our room.

Good dog.

So far Sara had been unsuccessful to get his attention. It was starting to annoy her too. On more than one occasion I heard her mumble, “What’s the point of having a dog if it only likes one person”. I couldn’t help but smile whenever I heard her say it. Sara wasn’t used to people ignoring her or downright rejecting her. Back home she was a star on the volleyball court. All of her peers loved her. She was also pretty popular outside of her stupid sport too. I think Argos completely ignoring her really pissed her off. For me, it was kind of nice actually. It meant for once there was something that my sister had no part in, no matter how much she tried.

“You keep on ignoring her, boy,” I said, rubbing his head before stepping into the bathroom.

Argos waited outside like usual.

I wasted no time getting into the shower after a quick pee.

As soon as the water hit me though, something felt off. I can’t really describe it with words though. It was almost as if my skin was more sensitive or the water was more...I don’t know. As it cascaded off my body, I felt almost euphoric. I’d never felt that way, especially with water. Most of the time, I tried to take the quickest shower possible. It was the only way I could do so with my mild aquaphobia. The nagging anxiety was still there of course---I don’t think I’d ever get over that---but it was overwhelmed by this new sensation. I tried to push both away as I tried to enjoy the shower but it was hard.

In the end, I just got out.

Toweling off, I stopped to look in the mirror again. I didn’t look as disheveled. The shower had done its purpose. Taking a step closer to the mirror, though, I noticed that the area around my nose was slightly bruised and swollen. That was a given, seeing as I was hit there a few days ago with a basketball. It was actually a miracle that he didn’t break it. It also looked a lot better than it had. When it first happened, my nose was all red and puffy. My father wanted to rush me to the hospital even. After Dr. Riley arrived though he checked it out and told him everything was fine. The bruising I realized must have gone up to under my eyes a bit too because the dark circles were now gone.

It was strange.

At least for me.

I didn’t really know much about this stuff, to be honest.

Trying not to think more about it, I turned away from the mirror and continued to towel off. I ended up using two towels, something I’d been doing lately because of my hair. One went around my waist, of course, the other I was currently using on said hair. Walking out into the hall, Argos was waiting as usually. He stood and followed me back to the room.

“Your crap is on the bed,” said Sara as I entered.

She was on her bed, reading one of her teen magazines.

She didn’t even bother to look up at me.

Sitting on the corner of the bed, I picked up the “crap”. Unrolling my homework, I took a look at what I had. A list of chapters to read for English, several Math work sheets, a list of chapters to read for Earth Science. Most of it pretty easy and straightforward. Mr. Greene put in some chapters too and a note that told me to get better soon except written in Greek. Thankful my rudimentary understanding of my father’s language was enough to help me understand what he wrote.

The last bit of “crap” was a note.

I almost missed it actually.

I was carrying the sheets over to my desk when it actually fell out onto the floor.

Picking it up, I noticed a quickly scrawled message:

You ok?

Beneath that was a number.

“You got this from Rex?”

Sara looked up from her magazine. “I don’t know his name. Glasses, looked like a younger, nerdier version of Lucas.”

I nodded, holding up the note. “You know where this came from?”

It wasn’t Rex’s number.

“How the hell should I know.”

I took a look at the note. I didn’t recognize the handwriting. Not that I really would have. I’d only been in this town for a few days now. I’d only had one day of school too. It wasn’t really a long time to get to know someone enough to know their handwriting. Though I could rule out some people from the evidence I currently had. Mainly Rex and Mr. Greene. The handwriting in Mr. Greene’s note didn’t match the one on this one. Even if he did write it, why would he put it on a separate note and give me his number? That was kind of creepy.

It wasn’t Rex’s handwriting either.

One I already had his number.

Two, I knew what his handwriting actually looked like.

When he’d given me my homework from yesterday,there was a post it on there, with him explaining some things to me. Specifically that he was asked to give me my assignments. After which he even signed his name. So whoever wrote this note to me was someone I didn’t know.

Or didn’t know well enough.

I heard Sara groan.

“You’re so annoying.”

A second later, she was standing next to me with phone in hand.

She took the note from me and quickly dialed the number then handed me her phone.

“You’re welcome.”

She stomped back to her bed. I only had a second or two before it started ringing. Cursing my sister, I put the phone to my ear. It rang a few times before ultimately going into voice mail.

The voice that spoke surprised me.

“This is Clara. I’m not here. Sucks to be you.”

There was a beep for me to leave my message but I was too stunned to leave one.

I clicked off instead.

Clara, the number belonged to Clara?

I almost dropped Sara’s cell from the shock of it. Instead, I tossed it back to her. She barely saw and caught it in time, shooting me a nasty glare. I ignored it though. I was still flabbergasted. A note and a cell number from a girl who told me to leave her alone. What were her exact words again? Oh yeah, “Go away, I’m poisonous”. How does that suddenly turn into Are You Ok, and here’s my cell just in case you want to talk? It made no sense. Did this girl want to be my friend after all? Or was it just concern for my well being? And why the cell number?

“Hey you even listening to me,” said Sara, a little louder.

“Sorry did you say something?”

Had she been talking?

“Yeah, dip shit. Next time you throw my phone like that...”

“You’ll what?”

Sara stopped, giving me a startled look. She liked to sling out the idle threats, “do this or I’ll...” or something similar. She never did carry through with any of it. I knew she had the means to do so. She was pretty tough for an eleven-year-old. I think I mentioned before how she could probably kick my ass. The point is though, she never actually did anything. She was all talk and no action. She usually got away with it too, especially with Dad. I was frankly getting tired of it.

“I...ummm...I.”

I rolled my eyes. “Just fuck off then.”

Sara’s mouth had been hanging open but slowly closed.

She slid off her bed and slowly made her way to the door, stopping a second to look at me. She looked like she was about to say something else but apparently thought better of it. Shaking her head again, she quickly left the room.

Good riddance.

Now that she was gone, I could finally think straight. Of course, that didn’t help at all. I couldn’t help but think about Clara for the next several minutes. It was a repeated loop of thoughts too. Did she like me or did she hate me? I finally couldn’t stand it anymore so I decided to start my homework. Maybe if I could get my mind off of her and the note, I could think straight.

It worked too. It usually did.

I got lost in my work. Thank the Gods for that.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

by:

After a tragedy, Charlie and his small family move from the West Coast to the East and to a small and idyllic, dairy community to start anew. Soon he starts to realize the town seems a bit odd and the things there not so right, including himself.

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Author's Note So it occurred to me that I had 2 more chapters of this story that I wrote but never got around to publishing. The plan I think was to hold onto them until I could write a couple more, help me build up a buffer. The problem is, I never did get around to writing anymore chapters after these two. I have them planned out but I got side tracked as I often do. Someone the other day PMed about these two chapters though, telling me they realize I'm not finished with the story but were wondering if I could post the chapters anyway. So I said sure.

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8.

“Say ahhh.”

Dr. Riley stuck one of those large wooden popsicle stick things in my mouth. He went a little too far back with it though because I nearly choked. So instead of “ahhhing”, I ended up coughing and gagging. He took his merry time with it though, waiting a full ten seconds before pulling it out. I could have punched him. Instead, I shot him a glare that he either ignored or completely misinterpreted as something else.

“See, now that wasn’t so bad, right?”

I so wanted to curse at him. A look from my grandmother told me that that might not be such a good idea.

Instead, I nodded, grandma smiled.

Dr. Riley turned to throw out the tongue depressor---yeah I know what its called.

While his back was to me, I took another moment to look around his office. It was quite a bit different than Nurse Bright’s office back at school. For one thing, this place looked more like a room in a house than an examination room. I guess that’s what happens when your office is a house. Or maybe was a house. When grandma brought me here I was a bit confused. I’d never seen a doctor’s office in an actual house before. The only thing that told people it was his office was the large sign out front. As we pulled into the little parking lot around back, I couldn’t help but wonder if the doctor lived here too.

Inside though, there was nothing really house like about it.

What had clearly once been a living room was now the waiting room, the small kitchen area was now the reception area. It still had a little sink and stove though, situated behind the receptionist’s desk. She was a nurse too I noticed. A middle-aged woman wearing a white outfit, her salt, and pepper hair bundled up under one of those old fashion nurse hats. The bedrooms in the house had been converted into examining rooms. When we entered, Dr. Riley came down the stairs to our right, so if I had to guess I’d say his office was probably up there. Or maybe his bedroom too?

Back in this room though.

The walls were covered with aging wallpaper. Some floral pattern that was definitely dated. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually seen wallpaper. Most people in those home improvement shows always tore it down. The hideousness of the walls seemed to pass onto the rest of the décor as well. The doctor either didn’t have any taste or he really needed someone to come in and update it. Not that he seemed to mind or notice for that matter.

“Are you still feeling sick?” he asked as he turned back around, holding a stethoscope.

He put those little things in his ear and the flat metal part on my chest.

I flinched because it was cold.

Why was that thing always cold?

Grandma put a hand gently on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. I think she thought I was scared or something. I wasn't but it was a nice gesture.

Though to be fair I didn’t want to be here.

I didn’t like Doctor’s offices. I didn’t like hospitals either. Every time I went to one I got this queasy, I want to puke feeling. It was no different now. I think the only reason I didn’t was that my body was getting sick and tired of throwing up. The funny thing about this was that I never felt this way with Nurse Bright. There was something warm and reassuring about her. When she spoke, I felt at ease and when she touched me, my whole body seemed to tingle with excitement. Some people might say that was sexual attraction. Sure I’d be a liar if I didn’t say she was pretty but it was more than that.

Different.

That feeling was not here though.

Dr. Riley gave off a completely different vibe altogether.

Whereas Nurse Bright fit her namesake, Dr. Riley should have been called Dr. Gloom and Boring. Ok so that wasn’t entirely fair but the man had the bedside manner of a pet rock and the demeanor of pocket lint. When I thought about small-town doctors they always seemed so warm and welcoming, with nice smiles and a lollipop to ease your pain. There were no smiles here and the only lollipops I saw were in the painting in his waiting room. This place and this man were dismal. It was kind of strange for this town actually. Even the outside of this building had a bright cheery disposition and to step inside was like walking into the beginning of Wizard of Oz.

There really is No Place Like Home.

“How’s that head of yours?” he asked.

I shrugged. “No more headaches.”

“Good.”

“Good as in I can go back to school on Monday?”

I was anxious to get back. I hated being out for this long.

“Too early to say,” he said, taking the little disc from my chest.

He then proceeded to check my eyes and my blood pressure. He didn’t say much for a bit then returned to his dresser. When he came back with a needle, I flinched. Not that I was afraid of needles but I was a bit surprised. I wasn’t expecting it.

“What’s that for?”

“I want to get a little blood for precautions.”

“Is that necessary?”

“Your development alarms me,” he said, preparing the needle.

As he stuck the needle into my arm, he asked a few questions. I’d heard them before. He wanted to know about puberty and if I’d seen any signs. My doctor back home had similar questions last time I went to visit him. Like Dr. Xavier, Dr. Riley didn’t seem overly concerned. With each answer I gave him, he nodded and told me it wasn’t uncommon. I already knew all that. What I didn’t know and what no one seemed to be willing to share was when things would start. Not that I was really concerned but it did bother me a bit. Back home, I was already one of the youngest kids in ninth grade, not to mention the shortest. I hated that I was born in April and that most of my friends were a few months older than me. Fiona even joked about how she was “robbing the cradle” by dating me. Her birthday was in December. So being fourteen and not starting puberty was a concern. It was a whole new ball game if I didn’t start to develop this year though. It didn’t scare me though. If by this time next year I was still me then I would be scared.

“I’ll make sure this sample gets to the university for testing,” he said, placing my blood filled syringe into a styrofoam cooler off to the right.

“So does this mean I can go back to school then?”

He nodded. “I don’t see any reason why not. I want you to avoid gym class for a few days though.”

He took out a small pad of paper, writing a quick note.

“For the school,” he said, handing the note to Grandma.

Grandma started to ask questions, mainly about my health. I half paid attention then excused myself. I walked out of the room and into an empty waiting room, even the receptionist was nowhere to be found. Shrugging it off, I made my way toward the door. I honestly just wanted to get out of there. The place was too depressing to stand in for a long period of time. Unfortunately stepping outside wasn’t much better for me. The pastel colors of Main Street seemed to be everywhere in this town. It was once again one of those blasts from the past. Even with the various piles of melting snow and the chill in the air, everything still seemed all happy and Pleasantville crazy.

Standing there was giving me a headache.

A bark interrupted me.

Turning, I found Argos sitting by the truck.

I wasn’t the least bit surprised.

Well, maybe a little. We did after all leave him at home. For some reason though, he just seemed to have this knack for showing up. If I had to guess, he probably jumped into the bed of the pickup without either Grandma or I noticing. If Argos was human, he’d definitely be the stealthy Ninja type. I suppose that’s what made him such a good guard dog. Out of boredom the other night, I decided to check online for his breed. I knew he was a German shepherd but he was unlike other Shepherds I’d seen. Apparently, I was right. He was actually a Belgian Malinois, a breed of Shepherd bred for security. I guess that made sense considering how guarded of me he was. What I did find interesting though was his fur color. Apparently, black Malinois weren’t very common.

So I guess that made me lucky.

Argos came wandering over, allowing me to scratch under his chin. The whole time though, his eyes were elsewhere. He was always alert, always watching. I looked too. The street was deserted though. I was starting to get a feel for this town. What I once thought was weird was just the way small towns like this functioned. Sure there were still plenty of weird things---the cows for instance---but you could find crazy stuff like that in any town.

Probably.

“Well that was certainly interesting,” said Grandma as she came up behind me.

“What’s that?”

Grandma didn’t say anything at first. She kept staring at me though. She even squinted her eyes for a bit but finally, she let out a little shake of her head and a chuckle. It was followed by a gentle hand on my shoulder. It kind of freaked me out a bit. Like there was something wrong with me.

Oh, Gods.

“Is there something wrong?”

“No, nothing.”

“What did you and the doctor talk about after I left?”

For some reason, I didn’t believe her.

She laughed again.

That wasn’t very promising.

She quickly apologized. “It's not what we talked about, well it is but not how you think. He was concerned about you not developing properly. We discussed it for a few minutes then he suggested you might need to see someone in Edgerton about it.”

I nodded, interrupting. “My doctor back home mentioned it too, last year.”

Grandma gave me another strange look.

“Honey, maybe we should take you to the hospital?”

Oh no.

“Did he say anything else?”

She shook her head. “Nothing physical but as we were leaving he told me I had a very healthy granddaughter.”

I groaned. So Dr. Riley was not only dull but senile too.

I mean the man had me with my shirt off for a few minutes.

“A lot of people say that Grandma. It's because of my late puberty and my hair.”

As if to demonstrate, I pushed some of it behind my ear.

Grandma reached out to touch my hair but pulled her hand back at the last minute.

“Perhaps we should get it cut, maybe trimmed a bit.”

I nodded. Ok, so I was finally ready to admit it was a bit long. It was one thing to be mistaken for a girl every once in a while but it was another for everyone to think I was one. The “not caring” was fading and the annoyance was beginning to rear its ugly head. Not that I had anything against girls---they were great---I just didn’t want to be one. Nor did I want to be mistaken for one anymore. After puberty kicked in, maybe I’d revisit the whole longish hair thing again. Of course, after I got some of my father’s height and muscles. I mean there were still some pretty macho guys out there that had long hair. Of course, I couldn’t think of any at the moment but they were out there.

Grandma pulled out her smartphone. “I think I might be able to make an appointment for you at Sally’s.”

It was strange to see her with one. It just never occurred to me that someone her age would have something like that. I’m not sure why it was so odd though. I mean sure she would have one. She was human after all and most people had a cell phone. I guess it was just weird to think of my grandmother being like most people.

“Well, Sally can fit you in sometime next week at the earliest.”

“There’s no barber?” I asked, weary to go to a hair salon.

“There is,” she said, looking down the road. “Mel is a little old-fashioned though. He wouldn’t trim it, he’d shave it down completely. He served with your grandfather...”

Ah yeah, enough said.

I looked toward the direction grandma was pointing nonetheless. I hadn’t even noticed a barber shop when we drove through town earlier this week. In fact, besides the few places, I hadn’t really noticed anything. It made me sorta regret not insisting on an actual town tour. It also made me very curious to see what the town had to offer. I mean so far the only places I’d actually gone to were Connie’s place, the doctor’s office, and the school. Not much of a Whisper Pines’ experience if you ask me. If I was going to be living here, I really needed to get to know my new home.

“Grandma,” I said as we made our way to the truck. “You think I could stay here for a bit, walk about the town?”

“Are you feeling up to it?”

I knew what she meant.

“I’m good, I haven’t thrown up since last night and the nausea is all gone. I really want to look about the town. If I feel even the littlest bit sick I’ll stop and call you.”

I gave her a pleading look. I wasn’t really the master of it like Sara but I kinda knew grandma was a bit of a softy. She proved that to me in the last few days.

She sighed. “Well, I need to do some things around the house. You know the house number?” I nodded, she smiled. “Call me when you’re ready to come home. Don’t make it too late though.”

She called for Argos but he made no attempt to follow. Not that either of us was surprised. Instead, she shook her head and climbed into the truck. I watched and waited until she was pulling away from the curb before I started my “adventure”.

I think I might have been off in my earlier assessment of the town.

Sure it was still pastel colored and a blast from the past but not in the way I thought. It wasn’t like the people wanted it this way. It was more like one of those towns that clearly tried to change with the times without losing itself to it. Like my grandmother with her smartphone for instance. Even though everything looked old and outdated, it was still a pretty normal place. Kinda like the town from Gilmore Girls or Eureka from that SyFy show. Slightly quirky and idyllic but still just like any other town you might come across. Ok so maybe Eureka was a bad example but they looked pretty similar.

I started my tour going left down Main Street.

I found myself passing the various shops that Sara and I saw from the car when we first arrived. Our assessment of them was a little off too. I spent about an hour going into and out of a few of them. The one with the Cassette sign in the window was actually a little electronics store. The sign was outdated and they actually sold modern electronics. The owner of the shop told me it was something that he never bothered to remove. Next door to that was a little bookstore that I spent some time in. They had a small comic section in the back which was kind of cool. It didn’t have the largest selection but the owner promised he could order anything I wanted. I couldn’t help but smile at that.

The rest of the shops I passed didn’t really interest me.

There was a hardware store, some kind of hobby shop, a few locally owned clothing stores. On the corner was a diner called Marty’s. Across the street from that was a pizza place, Mario’s. Passing by that I saw a lot of teenagers inside. Around the corner was a movie theater. Not one of those large cineplexes like back home though. It was one of those old-time theaters with a marque and an actual ticket booth. Walking by I saw a bored teenager in said booth. So clearly they didn’t get a lot of business this time of the day. Looking at some of the movie posters I could see why most of those movies were outdated and on Bluray months ago.

Down from the theater were more little Mom and Pop shops.

Then the B&B of course.

I was actually surprised I’d already walked this far.

I knew the Bovine Delights was at the end of road. Turning around, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d been walking for only a short while. Turning back to the B&B, I couldn’t help but smile a bit. I did notice it was pretty empty today though. Besides Beth’s SUV, there didn’t seem to be any other cars in the parking lot. So it looked like the Newlyweds had moved on too.

“Karrie!”

Oh great.

I groaned as I turned around, putting on a false smile for Connie.

She came running up to me, throwing her arms around me in a big hug. She wasn’t a bad person but her attention bothered me. I wouldn’t mind having her for a friend but she was a bit smothering. It was hard to go somewhere with her being there. Like at school the other day, I just wanted to find my own friends, not have her force me into friendships with hers. I know she was trying to be nice and I appreciated it but niceness can only go so far before its overwhelming.

“You’re feeling better?” she asked as she let me go.

Though it felt more like a statement than a question.

“No more headaches and vomiting,” I said, trying not to sound too gross about it.

She smiled. “Good. You going back to school then?”

“That’s the plan.”

It was too. It was one of the first things I wanted to discuss with Dr. Riley. It was the first thing that I said to him when I walked into his office earlier. I didn’t care what his diagnosis was, I told him I was going back to school. I hated not being there, I hated laying around doing nothing, neglecting my education.

“Good, the girls have been asking about you.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if she was added into that as well.

Connie was pretty forward with what she wanted. Attaching herself to me now made it clear that she wanted me. Not that I was denying it. I just wasn’t sure I felt the same. Sure I was still longing for Fiona but Connie was nice too. I’m not sure she was what I wanted though. She was pretty enough sure and she was nice but she was simple too. She knew what she wanted and she went for it. There was no mystery to her though, no complicated obstacles either. Connie was that kind of girl, the normal one who was around the corner that anyone could get.

Not like Clara.

Not that I wanted her either.

I just liked the idea of her.

“You ok?”

I nodded. “Sorry just thinking.”

“Anything interesting?”

“Yeah actually,” I said, trying to steer my thoughts away from girls though. “Where did the couple go?”

“Huh?”

I pointed to the parking lot. “You know the gold digger and her older husband?”

Connie followed to where I was pointed then shrugged.

“They left I guess. I don’t know. I never really noticed them.”

“How could you not?”

And what did she mean by that? She noticed them. She made a comment about how artificial the wife was.

“People come and go all the time” she shrugged again.

I wanted to press her on it but I decided it wasn’t important.

“So what brings you out and about today?” I asked, trying unsuccessfully to pry my arm from her grip.

“I was shopping of course!”

“Not at the mall?”

“I can’t drive yet and Beth is off, had to work.”

“She works?”

Connie laughed. “Yeah at Marty’s. Its a little diner on the corner. She’s a waitress”

I was about to mention I saw her SUV but I realized Marty’s wasn’t actually that far. Beth probably walked. I was a little floored though. I would have never taken her for a waitress. She was this carefree and wild girl. I half expected her to ride bucking broncos or something. Working as a waitress just seemed kind of mundane and simple for her. Then again I suppose Sky Divers had to have day jobs too. Like Aunt Grace for instance. Even though she was this crazy jet-setter, she still had to pay the bills. She did that with pen and paper. She was technically a Travel Journalist for some magazine. Like Mom, she went into journalism too, unlike Mom though she didn’t end up settling for a simpler life.

I thought about pursuing journalism too.

I wasn’t great with a camera like Mom but I noticed the details. It was something Mom said was a rare talent. It was also something she told me to never stop honing. She seemed to think I had the making to be a great investigative journalist because of it. I never really thought about it much before the accident. Afterward, though it was all I could think of. Well besides her being gone of course. So I made a vow to myself and to her to never stop paying attention. Its why I was so transfixed by certain things.

Like the cow and now this yuppie couple. There was just something about them that didn’t fit right. Like this town too. A giant jigsaw puzzle with one or two pieces not cut right.

“You’re doing it again,” said Connie, giving my arm a gentle squeeze.

“Doing what?”

“Zoning out.”

“Sorry.”

She shook her head. “No its kinda cute. I like the pensive look. You get this little line on your forehead” She touched my forehead with her finger. “Right there. It's really cute!”

Ok so that’s twice she’s called me “cute” in so many seconds.

She was definitely kicking her game up a notch or two.

Sadly flattery would get her nowhere with me.

I needed to distract her from it.

“Hey, so I was wondering,” I said quickly. “If you wouldn’t mind giving me the rest of the tour of this town. I mean I’ve walked Main Street already but I was wondering if maybe you could show me the rest?”

Connie smiled at that.

“I’d love too, kind sir,” she said “though I have to warn you, Beth wasn’t lying the other day. There really isn’t much to this place.”

I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t that far off.

I think I mentioned before how there were two roads that branched off from Main Street, going in two different directions. Well, it turns out central Whisper Pines was actually one giant circle. The two roads leading away from the town actually wrapped in around and back into Main Street. The one leading toward my grandparents’ farm was also the same that the school and a few other of the town’s larger structures was situated on. The other road was the one that led to Edgerton. It was also on this road where most of the people of the town actually lived. The development where we were going to live was actually outside of the town. Well still considered Whisper Pines, it was pretty much on the outskirts of things.

Connie didn’t bother taking me that far out.

She did take me down that road though. It took us about an hour to walk it.

It eventually led us back into Main Street of course.

In fact, we came back into town the very same way I entered it at the beginning of the week.

Kinda surreal.

“And that is sadly all this boring little town has to offer,” she said, bringing me back to where we started.

Argos had been our constant companion the whole time. It actually surprised me that a dog his age could walk as much as he was actually. Then again he was a dog full of surprises.

“So do you like pizza?”

I gave her a look.

“I’m an American teenager,” I said with a laugh. “Of course I like pizza!”

She pointed across the street.

I looked to where she was pointing. It was the same place I saw from earlier---Mario’s. A typical small pizza parlor. I’d seen something similar in movies. In fact, there were quite a few of them in Portland too. There probably weren’t many American towns out there that didn’t have some kind of pizza place. This one wasn’t as fancy as some of the ones back home though. It looked nice enough, there was an outside eatery and large windows that showed inside. It looked pretty packed for a Saturday afternoon too. Most of the people inside were teenagers, my age or older.

Connie took my hand and led me across the street, Argos closely following.

When we got to the restaurant, I made him sit outside.

It sucked but I knew there was no way they were going to allow a dog inside.

He sat like a statue.

Just like usual.

When we got inside, I quickly let my hand slip from hers. Not that I didn’t like the attention, I just didn’t want her to have the stigma of it. Most of the school thought I was a girl after all and it probably looked pretty bad her walking in hand and hand with me. She tried to grab my hand again but honestly, I didn’t want her too. Like I said Connie was great, just not dating material. There was a hurt look on her face for a second but it passed quickly. It melted completely when Britney called out from a corner booth.

Connie waved and tried to drag me over.

I wasn’t really in the mood for another go with the Heart Club though.

Besides, it didn’t look like there was any room at the table.

This place was after all standing room only it seemed.

I politely waved her off. Connie gave me a frown but once she looked at her table, I think she realized there was no room for me either.
I looked around the place, wondering if there was another table I might drop myself into too. It only took a few seconds to spot someone I didn’t want to see: my chief tormentor, Hunter. He was sitting with a bunch of his basketball teammates, they were laughing about something. All of them but Hunter. He looked absolutely miserable. I’m not sure if it was because of the multiple detentions that Miss Willis said she was going to rain down on his head or the crutches.

“Now that’s karma.”

Clara slipped up beside me, snarky as usual.

“What happened?”

“Mr. Big Shot thought he was untouchable. Apparently, he’s not.”

She shrugged and sauntered off to a table that had a couple of blonde cheerleader types sitting at it. She glared at them and the girls bolted, giving her the table. I couldn’t help but smile at that. I also found myself following her. I dropped into the booth opposite her. She raised an eyebrow but didn’t seem to care otherwise.

“There’s no other place to sit.”

“No spot with your buddy Connie?”

I groaned. “We’re not friends.”

“Could have fooled me.”

“I ran into her during my tour of your town.”

“Their town” she quickly clarified. “I refuse to call this place home.”

“Me either to be honest.”

She smirked at that.

For someone who didn’t want to be my friend, she was sure being friendly.

“So don’t take this the wrong way or anything but I thought you wanted me to leave you alone.”

“I do,” she said, taking a bit of some odd veggie pizza concoction.

“Then why give me your cell number?”

The look on her face was one of genuine surprise.

“I don’t give my cell number to anyone.”

I rattled off the phone for her.

“Bull shit.”

“Hey I was just as surprised as you but I called it, it was your voice mail.”

“I didn’t give you my number.”

I shrugged. “It was on a slip of paper with my homework assignments.”

I happened to have the slip with me actually. I stuck it in my back pocket last night, not bothering to change these jeans from the day before. I passed it over to her. Her eyes bulged out of her head when she looked at it.

“That’s my handwriting,” she said, looking pissed. “But I didn’t write this?”

“Well someone did.”

She narrowed her eyes into slits. She stood up, crumbled the piece of paper and threw it in my face. Then she picked up her pizza and walked away. Poof just like that. I watched her go, she dumped the pizza in the trash on the way out. Maybe that girl was poisonous. Then again what poisonous person would also stop to pet my dog on the head too? I’m not sure why she fascinated me so much but she did. Even after she left I couldn’t help but stare at the door. There was just something about that girl that drew me to her. There was also something or someone trying to push me toward her as well.

I mean if she didn’t write the note then who did?

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF

by:

After a tragedy, Charlie and his small family move from the West Coast to the East and to a small and idyllic, dairy community to start anew. Soon he starts to realize the town seems a bit odd and the things there not so right, including himself.

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Author's Note: It suddenly occurred to me that I still had another chapter of this written. Sadly this is the last one that I wrote. I suppose I could have waited to post this until I had more but I saw it sitting on my computer and said what the hell. I might still have a few people clamoring for a bit more of this story, I do hope to finish it one of these days because I had great ideas for it. I have to confess that it does end in a mysterious cliffhanger and I apologize for that. Also the picture for this chapter is supposed to be a school Earth science lab :D. Oh, also if there's any other unfinished story of mine you'd like to see more of, drop me a PM and I'll see if there's any stray chapters lying around :).

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9.

“Hmmm, that’s interesting.”

“What?”

“Did you know you have a cute little birthmark right here.”

Nurse Bright poked me in the chest, right below my right nipple. I shuddered at her touch, her hands were slightly cold. I was also awfully uncomfortable. It's not every day that a super attractive blonde woman pokes your naked chest. She moved to poke me again but I swatted her hand away then grabbed my shirt. I pulled it on over my head before she could say anything else.

“So besides the birthmark, is there anything else I should be aware of?”

She pursed her lips. “I’m sure Dr. Riley has asked but how are things going?”

I didn’t really understand the question.

“I’m good.”

“And how about You Know, down there?”

She pointed at my crotch. I blushed about three shades of red.

She was a school nurse. Why in the hell did she need to know those things?

“What does that have to do with being physically fit for school?”

“Nothing just concern,” she said then lowered her voice. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but you’re not exactly the manliest man around. I also happened to take a look at your chart. I noticed that you haven’t gone through puberty yet either.”

“That’s not uncommon.”

“No but its unusual.”

“How did you see my chart anyways?”

Now I was really uncomfortable. Was she stalking me or something?

“I moonlight for Dr. Riley on the weekends. He’s getting kind of old as I’m sure you’re aware. He’s not as alert as he used to be. The beginning of the year he asked me to step in to help from time to time. I was there yesterday helping him with his charts when he passed me yours. He was a bit concerned.”

“I’m fine,” I said, maybe a little louder than I would have usually.

Honestly, I didn’t really feel fine. Not that I was still sick or anything but ever since the other day, something did feel off. Not that I was willing to discuss it with her of course. She was great, gorgeous but something about her made me cautious. It was that very same quirkiness that seemed to radiate with the rest of the town actually. It was hard to see if you didn’t know where to look for it but it was there nonetheless. Like the pastel-colored buildings or the weird Stepfordish way some of the women in town acted. Or how no matter how many times you told him, Dr. Riley still called me a “girl”. Not that Miss Bright had done those things but it was her overall perkiness and her borderline sexual innuendo way that made me a little nervous around her.

“So am I fit to go back to class?”

She nodded. “Class yes, P.E. you might want to give it another week.”

Oh, that reminded me of something I wanted to ask.

“What happened to Hunter anyway?”

“Oh, tragedy,” she said, shaking her head. “It happened right before Friday night’s game. The boys were goofing around in the parking lot, Hunter and another boy were showing off according to witnesses. He was taking a layup when a large gray cat ran out of nowhere and tripped him. Broke his ankle. He’s going to be out of commission for the rest of the year. Very tragic.”

Also very poetic.

I mean what were the odds.

He was a douche to me and Fate seemed to punish his Punk Ass for it. Not that I would have wished something like that on him but it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

The weirdest thing happened surrounding it too.

It happened right after Clara left the table on Saturday. Well actually right after I was leaving too. I ordered a few slices to go and was almost to the door when Hunter stopped me. I thought for sure he was going to continue where he left off but he surprised me. He actually apologized. He told me he’d been mistaken about things and had been an idiot. He even offered me his hand to shake. I thought for sure it was some kind of trap but he was actually sincere. I didn’t shake his hand though. He might have been ready to say he was sorry but I wasn’t ready to accept it. Hunter was still a dick and it was going to take more than some half-hearted apology before I forgave him.

I pushed past him and out the door. He tried to follow but stopped when Argos growled.

That should have been the end of it but it wasn’t. He tried calling my house Sunday, trying once again to apologize. I avoided the call. Pop answered the second time though, told him not to call again. It made me wonder why it was so important for him to apologize anyway?

“So are we done now?”

She waved me off.

I sighed in relief, jumping off her exam table as I did so. I hated the fact that it was actually tall enough off the ground that my feet dangled from it. I hated being short. I definitely couldn’t wait for puberty to kick in finally.

I didn’t wait around to be formally dismissed from the room. I nodded my thanks to her, grabbed my pack and headed out. In the hall, Mr. Norris was standing by, waiting to pounce.

“Hall pass?”

“You’re kidding right?” I asked, pointing behind me. “I literally just walked out of the nurse’s office. I’m not skipping or anything.”

He gave me a nasty look. “I could write you up you know.”

I looked at my watch. I wasn’t trying to be rude. I just didn’t want to be any later for Mrs. Gromley’s class. The woman already seemed like she hated me. I didn’t want to give her any more reason to do so. Thankfully Mr. Norris seemed to be all bark and no bite because he waved me on with another warning. I rushed down the hall, already later than I wanted to be. When I reached class and slipped inside, of course, all eyes were on me.

“Are we keeping you, Miss Kononas?”

The woman not only couldn’t get my gender right but now it seemed she couldn’t even remember my name.

“Its Mr. Kanenas,” I said, feeling particularly bold this morning.

I’m not sure where it came from actually.

“Yes well take your seat.”

I took my seat quickly. Clara looked over at me with a smirk before turning away.

The class seemed to drag on after that. Mrs. Gromley punished me for my boldness more than once though, calling on me constantly. I definitely wasn’t making any friends with her that’s for sure. When class finally ended, Clara smirked at me again:

“You just love making enemies, don’t you?”

I shrugged. “If the situation calls for it.”

She laughed.

Wow, she had a great laugh.

We parted ways after that. Second period was the only morning class she and I didn’t have together. Somehow it seemed dull without her. When we saw each other again in third period, she didn’t even look in my direction. So maybe first period was a fluke. Or maybe she only liked it when I made an ass out of myself. Thankfully no more of those opportunities presented themselves. Most of my other teachers called me by the proper gender and name. That didn’t stop things from being boring though. I’m not sure if I couldn’t concentrate or if I just didn’t care. The class work wasn’t hard or anything and I took notes, my mind just couldn’t seem to focus today.

Things only got more interesting when we got to Earth Science.

The class wasn’t arranged in desks but lab stations. Last week, I sat at one of the station’s alone. The teacher---Mrs. Ross---never even flinched. Today though she seemed to have a plan in place.

“Charlie?” she asked, not sure I guess but I nodded so she continued. “We usually assign seats based on lab partners, so why don’t you sit over there today, next to Miss Grimes.”

Oh, she was going to love that.

I was the first one in class so I took the seat I was offered. As the rest of the class filed in, no one seemed to care. That is until Clara arrived.
“What are you doing?” she asked when she dropped into the seat next to me.

“Sitting.”

“I know that dumb ass but why there?”

“Mrs. Ross told me to sit here.”

Clara groaned loudly. She looked to the front of the class, probably wondering if she could challenge the teacher. I looked up there too. Mrs. Ross was middle-aged and round. I didn’t know her all that well but she seemed pretty nice and easy going. She looked like the kind of woman who would cave under pressure. Clara, however, wasn’t the kind of person to push it. Instead, she spent the next few minutes glaring at the woman before she finally gave up.

Class went by pretty normally after that.

Well right up until the last ten minutes or so when Mrs. Ross dropped a bomb on us.

Well as defined by the rest of the class I’m guessing.

“Its come to my attention that most of you have lived in this town all your young lives?” she announced, the class murmured in response.

All except for me of course.

“Its also come to my attention that most of you don’t know this town at all” she continued. “I put a few questions about local landmarks on the test last week, places you should know but none of you actually did. Which brings me to the topic of our next lab project.”

There were a lot of groans.

Mrs. Ross was on a roll though.

“I want each of you, with your lab partner, to set out into this town and create a map. It can be as detailed as you want or as crude as you want. The better the map, the better the grade though.”

There was a lot of bitching from my classmates, including from the one sitting next to me.

Me, I thought it was a great idea.

I wanted to know more about the town actually. More importantly, I wanted to see more of it too. Sure I’d seen the town proper but there was a great deal more of it out there. Besides the farms, there was a large forest with a giant lake. My grandparents had a house on said lake. I also remember my mother talking fondly about the forest from time to time. It was one of the things she missed about living where we did. There were no good places to go hiking without having to drive for miles to get there.

So color me excited.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Because this is going to be fun.”

“And they call me the freak.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Class ended after that.

I filed out of the room with everyone else, Clara not too far behind. When we got into the hall, she grabbed my arm, pulling aside.

“I want to get this over with as fast as possible,” she said with a grunt. “I’ll meet you at your locker after school so we can get started?”

“Sure, looking forward to it.”

I was too.

Clara gave me an odd look before disappearing down the hall into the mass exodus toward the cafeteria.

I shook my head before following suit.

The rest of the day went by slowly.

Slower than usual I think because I was anticipating the end of it.

It didn’t help though that everything seemed to bore me.

I finally decided to sit with Rex and his friends at lunch. Though I had to promise Connie I would alternate days with her and Rex. Rex’s friends though were sadly no better than hers. After they got over the initial shock of having a “chick” sit with them, they only got worse from there. One, no matter how many times I told them I was a guy they didn’t seem to hear me. And two, they were bigger nerds than me. Sure I kinda saw that coming when I saw them last week but I thought for sure they weren’t as bad as I imagined. I was dead wrong. I liked all things sci-fi, video games, and comic books just like any other red-blooded geek but these guys took it to an all new level. At one point I thought there might actually be a fist fight after a Star Trek/Star Wars debate went sour.

Rex stayed out of it too I noticed.

So my earlier assumption about these guys was probably right.

He only sat with them because he had no one else.

After lunch, things only got worse. Hunter tried again to apologize to me but I was able to outrun him. Hey, it's easy when one of us has crutches. It worked too until we got to gym class of course. What with me not being allowed to play because of my recovery, guess who I had to share the bleachers with. Fortunately for me, they were big bleachers and he had a hard time navigating them all the way to the top. Plus the Coach wanted him to stay as far from me as he could.

I dodged him the rest of the day too.

That is until now.

I thought I was in the clear after leaving ninth period. Everything was pretty great too. I finally finished my first full day of school here at Whisper Pines High and I was going to be spending the afternoon with Clara, things were finally looking up.

Sadly it wasn't her waiting for me at my locker.

“Coach said to stay away from me.”

I tried to push him aside but he was bigger than me. He was also standing right in front of my locker, using those damn crutches of his to anchor him in place. I suppose I could be an ass and kick one of them away but who does something like that. Well maybe besides the person currently on the crutches.

“Will you talk to me now?”

“There’s nothing to say. You said your piece on Saturday. You apologized for being a dick and I told you to go fuck yourself. So apology not accepted.”

Hunter looked flustered. I flinched, waiting for the whatever was to come.

I even closed my eyes.

When nothing happened, I reopened them to find him looking almost sad.

I sighed. “Why is it so damn important that I apologize anyway?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Usually, when someone apologizes, the other person accepts it. It's just the way things are.”

“Why should I accept it, you were a dick to me?”

Hunter sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

“I said I was sorry about that. You confused me. I don’t like that. I see you and my mind tells me one thing and I know its wrong and I don’t...” He cursed. “Even now. I mean are you sure you’re a dude?”

I rolled my eyes. “Pretty sure.”

“Shit, look forget it ok. I’m sorry about what happened. You don’t need to say anything in reply.”

With that, he finally moved away from my locker then started to hobble down the hall.

A small part of me actually felt a bit sorry for him.

A very very small part though.

“What did your Stalker Boyfriend want?” asked Clara, appearing a second or two later.

I groaned. Of course, she saw all that.

“Apparently he wants me to accept his apology.”

“Did you?”

“Hell no,” I said defiantly.

Clara smiled. “Well, maybe you have some redeeming qualities after all.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

Who knew Clara could be funny.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked as I started putting books away and getting others.

“I thought maybe we could start the project, maybe over at my house. It should be fairly quiet right now.”

At her house, possibly alone?

Someone pinch me now.

“Sure, let me call my grandma first.”

I put the rest of my stuff away, making sure I had everything I needed. After closing my locker and getting my coat and pack, I pulled out my new cell. It was a gift from my grandmother. She did a little shopping for me yesterday. Besides some more clothes, she presented me with a new cell. It was a fancy smartphone like hers, tied in with her payment plan. She said she noticed the one I was using was pretty old and thought I needed an upgrade. I didn’t complain. Especially because that tool from the convenient store kept texting me on my old phone, trying to ask for a date. I tried ignoring him until I finally got fed up and told him I was only into girls. That stopped him but it still freaked me out that he had my number.

The new cell changed all that.

I made a quick call home. Grandma answered quickly and I got permission to go to Clara’s. I just had to promise to be home before dinner.
“Arrangements all made,” I said, putting the phone away.

“You live with your grandparents?”

“For now,” I said with a groan. “The movers got lost.”

Ok so not lost. After fixing the broken truck, they actually got our address all messed up. The truck that was supposed to be here this week actually ended up going to Florida. Now I have no idea where any of our stuff is. Dad is furious though. Not that I blamed him. Thankfully I didn’t really mind. I kinda liked living with my grandparents. The only true complaint I had was not having my large comic collection to read and re-read.

“That kinda sucks.”

I shrugged. “I’ll survive.”

I would too.

“C’mon, my ride is this way.”

I followed her through the hall, wondering what was going on. Clara was fourteen like me so there’s no way she was old enough to drive. She didn’t look like someone who had a parent drive them to school either. So I was a bit surprised when we finally got outside. It was the back parking lot and there was a black BMW waiting for us. It was a newer model and the man standing next to it was wearing a crisp black suit, his head shaved bald. For a second I thought he was Jason Statham, the two of them could have been twins.

“Joe, this is Charlie,” she said, pointing to me. “He’s coming home with me today.”

The driver---Joe---nodded. “As you say, Miss Grimes.”

He opened the back door, Clara slipped inside so I quickly followed.

“You have your own driver?” I asked, amazed as Joe shut the door behind us.

“I have nothing,” she said with a grimace. “My Step Dad does. He insists I use his driver to go to and from school.”

I could see that she didn’t like it. I also could see why she had him park back here.

There was no one else around.

She didn’t want anyone to know she got this kind of treatment.

We started driving. Joe took it nice and slow in the parking lot but picked up a bit of speed as we hit the road. I quickly noticed that we weren’t going to the town proper though. We were following the very same road that led away from town, going toward Edgerton.

“Is your Dad rich or something?”

“Step Dad” she clarified “and sorta I guess. He’s the Mayor.”

I nodded. I think I understood.

“And why doesn’t the Mayor live in town with the rest of the people?”

She scoffed. “Because he’s an ass.”

I didn’t ask any more questions.

It didn’t take us long to get to our destination. As we got closer, I grew a little excited. I knew where we were going. I knew because I’d seen many pictures of the place: Pine Acres. I knew it so well because it was the very same gated community development that my day bought a house in. Clara and I were going to be living in the same development. I didn’t realize it was so tight with security though. When we approached the development, we actually had to go through this huge electronic gate. There was a guard house and everything. At the sight of the car though, we were buzzed inside. I watched with interest. Even my old development back home wasn’t this high tech.

I watched as we drove on.

On either side of road were large McMansions. Not quite the same but pretty close. Though some had car ports, some had two car garages and things like that. Most, if not all of them had For Sale signs in their lawns though. I wasn’t expecting that. The way Dad talked about this place, it would be teeming with people. Unfortunately, he was probably just trying to make Sara and I excited. I hated this place for months though. Ever since I learned we were moving. Even when Dad showed us pictures. The house was bigger than our current home, there was a large yard and an even larger pool. Sara and I were able to pick out our own rooms and everything. It still didn’t make me like this place any better though.

That kind of changed when I got to town though.

Not that I hate living with my grandparents, I loved it actually. It was nice to have home cooked meals and a motherly presence again. It just didn’t feel like home. Sure it was home like but it wasn’t our own place. I wanted my own place again. My own room, my own privacy.

As we were driving along, I saw it.

My place.

Our place.

It looked like all the other houses around but it was the only one on the street that had a Sold sign. That wasn't why I recognized it though. I knew it was our house because of the blue door. It was just one of those weird things. It was something Mom always did. She told me once that it had been a dream of hers to live in a giant white house with a blue door. We used to have a blue door at home. It was one of the things that Dad made sure this new house had. He said it was a “way to have Mom still with us.”

“That’s my house,” I said excitedly as we passed.

“What?” asked Clara, apparently lost in her own thoughts.

“That house back there, the one with the blue door,” I said, pointing but the car was already past it. “That’s my house. Or it will be, once the movers finally get unlost.”

Clara looked but we were already way past it.

“I’ve seen it. Only place with some color.”

“Mom’s idea.”

I let it rest at that. I wasn’t ready to tell this girl my whole life story after all.

She didn’t ask either so I was glad for that.

The rest of the trip didn’t last much longer. I noticed the development seemed to go around in a circle and our particular path was leading us to a large house on a small hill. I say large house because it seemed much larger than the others. There were also trees in the yard with some topiaries and what looked like several small flower gardens. It was a place that had been landscaped and had been there for a while. It didn’t surprise me one bit when the BMW pulled into the long driveway. The car went into a large garage, the door closing slowly behind us. I noticed a navy blue SUV in there as well.

A moment later, Joe got out of the car and opened the door for us again.

“Thanks, Joe,” said Clara with a small smile.

Joe remained expressionless.

I followed Clara out of the car and through a door she opened.

It led into the rest of the house proper. Well actually into a small laundry type room. Clara kicked off her boots so I did the same. I looked around, seeing a washer and dryer that looked practically brand new. I tried not to think about it as Clara led me through another door and into a very large kitchen. In fact, you could almost fit the whole of my grandparents’ first floor into this kitchen. Ok so maybe it wasn’t that big but it was still pretty massive. It was one of those open arrangement ones too, leading directly into the dining room. There was a lot of lighting, an island and the dining room had one of those large walls with tall windows that looked onto a very spacious backyard. I could even see a pool.

It was actually very similar to the layout of the house Dad bought.

Only much much bigger.

“You want a drink?” asked Clara as she went to the fridge.

“Sure, just anything but milk.”

I’d had my fair share of it over the last week or so. Not that I had anything against it or anything but when you live on a dairy farm, you get tired of it pretty quick.

Clara seemed to read my mind. She handed me a can of Diet Sprite.

“We don’t have any milk around here actually. Well its non-dairy, I’m lactose intolerant. Its soy milk I think or something. I never really pay attention.”

I nodded.

She led me over to the island where she sat on one of the stools there.

I couldn’t help but stare at her legs again but only for a moment. She was wearing a skirt again today. Another short black one, her legs encased in fishnets. Clara followed my eyes with her own but didn’t really say anything this time.

“Clara, is that you?” shouted a voice from some other part of the house.

Clara groaned. “Shit.”

A moment later, a young woman appeared. Ok not young young, maybe mid to late twenties. She was blonde and well endowed. She was also dressed in running clothes: sports bra and tiny shorts. She was glistening with sweat but I knew she couldn’t have been running around here. It was still pretty cold outside, forties or something. Though most of the snow was melting these days, there was still that late winter chill in the air. Spring was, taking its merry time around here.

The woman looked at me, surprised I was here.

“Oh we have a guest,” she said, the surprise was in her voice too.

“Julia, this is Charlie, my lab partner.”

There was disdain in her voice. I’m not sure if it was for me or for this woman though.

“Is that short for Charlotte or something?”

I rolled my eyes. Clara spoke for me.

“Its short for Charlie. He’s a boy.”

Julia looked me over, from head to toe. It was nice to have such an attractive woman show me such interest. Though from the look Clara was giving her, I could tell it was unwanted attention.

“We’re going to my room.”

Clara jumped off the stool, clearly annoyed.

I quickly followed.

She led me out of the kitchen and around the corner where a flight of stairs was waiting. Clara pounded up them, I had to run to keep up.

“Keep your door open!”

Clara huffed down the hall.

Her room was at the end of it. As we walked I looked at the other rooms. Only two had names on them I noticed. One said Kristina and the other Clarissa. If I had to guess I’d say there were Clara’s younger siblings. Not only because the door script was very girly but because each of the doors had little hearts and ballerinas decorating them. I tried not to think about them though. I couldn’t help but smirk thinking about Sara having something like that on her door though.

Not a chance in Hell though.

“In here.”

Clara pushed open her door. As soon as I stepped inside, she made a big show of closing it too.

Clara’s room was pretty big too.

It was nothing like I expected either.

It wasn’t overly girly but it wasn’t dark and depressing either. You could tell that a teenage girl lived here though. There was a vanity table and a couple of dressers. A computer desk sat in front of a large window that faced the back and there was a drum set. I wasn’t expecting that. On the walls were several posters from punk bands though. I found myself standing awkwardly near the door, staring at the one of the dressers and the large queen size bed dominating the center of the room.

Clara threw her bag on the bed then dropped into the computer desk chair.

“Your mother seems young and ummm nice,” I said, trying to find something to say.

Clara scoffed. “Stepmother and don’t let her fool you, she’s thirty-two.”

Wow, behold the wonders of modern surgery.

“So they’re both your step-parents?”

I was confused. How did that work?

Clara rolled her eyes. “Greg is my stepdad. He and Mom were married like a year before she died. I was six. He remarried the bimbo a few years later. Then she had the little brats.”

The Brats I assume were her sisters.

I nodded.

I guess that kind of sucked. I could only imagine what I would have done if both Mom and Dad were gone. I suppose she was lucky she had her stepfather, even if she didn’t think so.

“Don’t just stand there, you’re freaking me out.”

I walked further into her room. I decided that I would take a look around without really looking. I scanned the room with my eyes as I walked further into it. One of her dressers caught my attention because it seemed out of place. For one thing, it didn’t match the rest of the décor. Most of the rest of the furniture---including her bedspread---were a dull gray. This dresser was bright pink and it was covered in flower decals. The top of it was also cluttered with trophies and framed photos. The trophies were mainly for riding. There was a picture or two of a brunette and a chestnut horse.

“You ride horses?” I asked, pretty impressed.

“Not anymore.”

It also surprised me she was a brunette once. Looking at her now you could never tell. Though if you squinted, you could almost make out the freckles hidden underneath all her facial piercings and dark makeup.

The rest of the pictures were her and a few girls, one of them I recognized immediately.

A younger version though.

“You and Connie were friends?”

She laughed. “Like an eternity ago.”

But it wasn’t. The picture looked recent. Maybe a year or two old.

I started to turn away when I noticed a very familiar pendant sitting there.

“Wait, you’re in the Heart Club!”

I reached for the pendant but she was there at my side in a split second.

She smacked my hand away.

“That’s enough prying into my life thank you very much!”

It all made a certain kind of sense now. Why Connie hated her so much? Why Tracy started to mention another member? Also why Connie was quick to dismiss her. Clara had been in the Heart Club. They must have had some kind of falling out and now they all hated one another. It, however, didn’t explain who the other pendant belonged too. Clara clearly still had hers, so who was missing?

“Connie really hates you.”

“And I really really hate her,” said Clara, walking over to her bed and dropping down on the corner of it. “But we’re not here to talk about that, remember?”

So we weren’t.

I took a seat in the recently abandoned computer chair and the two of us got to work. We quickly worked out a game plan for our project. It was pretty straightforward. We would continue to meet like this for the next few days, at my house though. I guess Clara didn’t like my prying which was fine. We also decided to start the map there too. Clara had a program on her phone, some kind of GPS. We were going to use it to start mapping out the town. The core chunk of it would be done over the weekend though. It was all fine by me to be honest. I just liked the idea of spending more time with her. She wasn’t exactly Fiona but she was pretty close, even if Clara would never admit it.

We planned and talked about it for an hour before we called it quits.

“Tomorrow, after school, your place.”

I nodded.

“You don’t mind riding the bus, right?”

Clara groaned. “I’ll get Joe to drive us.”

With that settled, she made arrangements for Joe to take me home too. It was a little weird driving in the backseat though. Especially with no conversation. It did give me time to think though. I was fixated on the pendant. Connie said there were only five members of her precious club. Clara made six even if she was no longer a member. The way Tracy made it sound, there was only one other. So it really bothered me that there was someone else out there with a pendant. Also the initials on the back. Now that I knew Clara had a pendant, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that she was C.

So that meant there had to be an A out there somewhere.

So where was she?

Why did she leave her clothes and necklace?

And why didn’t the other girls mention her?

When the car finally got to the farm, I thanked Joe before getting out on my own. He nodded then slowly drove off. I watched the car drive off. I started toward the house when I noticed some commotion coming from the pens. There was a truck there and Lucas. He wasn’t alone though. He was with two others and they were currently trying to wrestle a new cow into the pen. I’d seen this before. They were bringing in a new cow the other day actually. I’m not sure why this one caught my attention so much though. I found myself intrigued though so I wandered over, stopping at the fence.

“Another new one?”

Lucas came over. “Yeah, your grandfather acquired some of the stock from a farm upstate. They’ve been bringing them in readily over the last few weeks or so. That stray you saw, for instance, she came from there.”

I nodded. I’d actually forgotten about her. Ok so not exactly forgotten. I’d been a bit busy, what with being sick and all. I found myself looking into the field of cows, trying to spot her but of course, they all looked the same now. There wasn’t even a spec of blue on any of their hooves. I shrugged it off before turning my attention back to this new cow. She was out of the truck and down the ramp, the two men pulling and pushing her into the pen. I started to turn away when I noticed something odd on her leg.

Ok not odd just weird.

It was a mark, almost like a tattoo but not.

It looked almost like a rose.

“Lucas, do they usually put brands down there?” I asked, pointing.

He looked too and shook his head. “There’s been a lot of oddities like that from that place. Your grandfather will get it taken care of though. In a few days, you won’t even notice. Then we’ll put our mark on her and that will be that.”

I nodded and started back to the house.

There was something about that mark though.

Something familiar.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF