“This is Hally, she's traditionally a “C” student and I'd like to line up some tutoring for her if that's alright, with Keeley, I mean? If her grades drop too low, she's off the squad, but she's really nice.” She shifted to Eve and patted her on the back.
“Eve here is from a broken home and a bit free with what she does with guys, but is a very loyal friend and really, what she does with the guys is her business, don't you think?”
Keeley's mom nodded knowingly.
“I've always thought so.”
“I know!” Eve reached forward and shook the older woman's hand firmly. “I mean I practice safe sex and everything, so it shouldn't matter, right?” Her voice was earnest and heartfelt, almost painfully so.
Keeley saw the laughter in her mom's eyes but nearly winced anyway. It was weird, even she could see that.
Darla moved to Gary and put her arm around him.
“This is Gary. He's gay. Also my boyfriend if anyone asks. His real boyfriend, Rob, is going to be coming around here to “date” Keeley. If she likes him I mean. Just for dances and stuff, this isn't some weird baroque comedy or something. I just want to be up front so that when Keeley comes in with other guys you don't worry too much. Oh, and your daughter is also my new best friend, so I guess I'll probably be around too. I hope that's alright? I know, “cheerleader” but don't worry, we'll make sure our grades stay high enough. It's not like school is hard.”
“Sherry Thomson.” She said, smiling hugely. Her hand out to each in turn, taking a longer time holding Gary's hand than the others, by about three seconds. No one else seemed to notice, but it was nearly enough to embarrass Keeley.
“I'm so glad to meet you all! Well, you're all welcome any time. Just to be clear the wine thing was a joke, I'm not that open minded. Still, just let us know if you're staying over and it should be fine.” She waved a little at Gary.
“Except for you. Keeley's father wouldn't like that. Plus, no one will buy that you're straight if you spend the night with a group of girls, not with parents in the house.” She just smiled at the boy though.
Gary nodded back firmly.
“Yeah. There are limits aren't there? No big thing. Thanks for being so understanding though... Um and if you ever meet my dad, um, tell him all about how I hit on you? Maybe seem a little put out about it? That should work.” He looked around at Darla who patted his back a bit.
“Ooh, good one. Yeah. She's hot, a straight guy would totally do that in your dad's mind. Good call Gar.”
This got laughter all around, except from Keeley who felt a bit out of step suddenly. Was this normal banter? It seemed a little too fast and chummy for some reason. A lot too fast. It all seemed to center on Darla, who spoke for several more minutes, smoothly and as if she expected everything to just go her way. It wasn't just the “pretty” effect either. Sherry stood smiling and nodding along like the rest of them. Like a puppet or a bobble head doll.
“I think that sounds wonderful Darla.” The nodding and smile both got bigger. Just shy of over eager. That phrase got used several times in a row, making them all chuckle about it for a moment.
They talked for a few minutes, covering a lot of ground fast. Sherry looked at the girl half skeptically on a few points at least. So whatever was happening wasn't total mind kung-fu or whatever. Still, it was fishy to Keeley.
“You live alone, because your father is working overseas?”
“Yep. Japan. He pays for everything and I'm already eighteen, so it's not as weird as it sounds. I had a little trouble in the first grade so had to repeat it. I blame the teacher on that one, I always got “A's” through all the other grades. Personality conflict most likely. I really hated Mrs. Brong. I always thought she was a witch. The sacrifice children when no one was looking kind, not the dance around under the full moon Wicca type.”
Keeley blinked at that.
Because sure, her OCD mom that had run a home inspection the one time she'd tried to spend the night at a friend's house before was going to let her go into that situation. A sleepover party with cheerleaders and no chaperons? A wave of relief flowed over her then. It was a way out, so that she could spend the night hitting the inter-webs and then maybe doing some extra credit for school.
That was something Darla had right. School wasn't hard. It never had been, but lately it seemed almost ridiculously easy. She turned in work that seemed a bit light to her, lacking decent content in the papers half the time and not only got good marks, but glowing comments for them. Sure, she made them look pretty and could back up her research with sources, but it took maybe an hour or two for a ten page paper, tops.
Still, good student or not, she really doubted that she was going anywhere that night, and maybe not over to Darla's at all, ever. Not once the implications soaked in with her mother. Keeley waited for that shoe to drop, letting her own skepticism show pretty clearly.
“Sure! That sounds great. Keeley honey, make sure to check in and remember, you can always call if you need a ride. Any of you kids can, here, let me get you some of my business cards, that has my cell on them in case you ever need to reach me.” She scurried off for less than a minute and came back with some small cream colored cards in hand.
“Ooh! Floral arrangements? So cool!” Eve actually sounded impressed and started a conversation about the business while the rest trooped into Keeley's room to get some clothes and a bag for the next few days.
Her room, thankfully, was just as tidy as the rest of the house. Her mom again. She could have locked the door or padlocked it from the outside, but that didn't make a lot of sense. She didn't hide anything, mainly because she didn't do anything wrong.
Not really wrong. Not sex and drugs, or serial murder hard core. When she did do things, like what she did to those football team members, she kept it open and subtle. Most people couldn't even see that anything related to her had happened at all. Putting up a peppy and interesting poster wasn't bad. It couldn't hurt anyone.
The freaky thing was that she had an odd sense that Darla got it. More, that the girl was strumming a song out of the situation so perfectly that no one else really even saw it. It wasn't something she could do herself. Keeley got that something was happening, and that it was... smooth and controlled, it flowed too well really.
Darla went to her closet and, kindly enough, didn't wince too much, or threaten to burn anything. She started sorting through things and pulling them out. Just a few. Some jeans, a single skirt that Keeley had worn a grand total of once, and some tops. That and a pair of footie pajamas that actually fit, given to her by her dad as a gag Christmas gift. That or he secretly hoped that by dressing her funny no guy would ever touch her. That wasn't too far from the actual case, she knew.
They were all red, with white traction feet on the bottom and made her look like a Dr. Seuss character when she wore them. They were also hot to sleep in, so she grabbed a pair of stretch shorts and a tank top as well. In about five minutes they had everything and were back out in the hallway. The house had come with paintings, so they looked at a scene of an old barn with assorted wild flowers around it as they headed down the little hallway toward the front room.
Amazingly enough Eve sat in the little office space off the living room, working at a flower arrangement with Sherry, just a single vase, a salmon pink ceramic with crackle finish that was given a base of dried babies breath, little white dried flowers, and some fresh cut daisies. This got finished with a very nicely tied yellow ribbon.
“And there you go!” Sherry said, passing the flowers along to Eve. “It's not that hard, once you have the equipment and know what you're doing. Then, that's most things in life, isn't it?”
Eve goggled more than a bit and finally nodded her head.
“Can you do corsages? If you can make them not too expensive I think we can get you some orders for homecoming.” She glanced at Darla who took the vase lovingly for a second.
“I agree. We can probably deliver more work than you can handle just from Raintree. It's a price thing. Most of the shops in the area charge about forty dollars for an arrangement. If you can bring it in for under twenty...”
Sherry seemed pleased by the idea, but didn't say anything more about it. Keeley wondered if it was because her mom almost never really did anything with her business? Not that she wasn't good, just that getting the clients was hard for her. Her dad didn't really like her to leave the house, but – surprise – that's where the customers were.
Sherry walked over and gave her a hug, then passed hugs out to everyone else too, which should have been embarrassing but no one seemed to mind too much. Her mom wasn't OCD about germs, just keeping things in order and of course, doing things in threes or fours. The medicine had really helped there. She almost never had to go back and redo each group of three things three times any more.
“OK, remember to check in! At least once a day.” She called as Darla practically dragged Keeley out the door by the arm, making pleased sounds as she did it. Giggling.
Who giggled?
“Don't worry, I will.” Darla called back as if the woman had been talking to her. It got a laugh though.
When they resettled back in the car Keeley turned to her and shook her head.
“OK, that was not normal, what did you do to my mom?” Even drugs wouldn't have explained it. No time for them to be delivered and the control was too precise for that anyway, hitting just the needed area of her mom's brain. So it had to be something else.
Yes, her mom was always nice, but also overprotective and a bit hesitant when it came to letting Keeley do much of anything. She didn't let her gaze wonder even as Darla sat, looking innocent at first, and then focusing on backing up carefully. She didn't speak until they were on the road.
“Oh... that.” The blond let the wind blow her hair back, not concerned with losing her hairstyle for some reason.
“I used an ancient mental trick on her...”
“Oh?” Keeley suddenly felt electric, like she was on to something new. An actual technique had been used? Before she could even point and yell, “ah ha” accusingly, Darla explained.
“Yes, it's called “inundating people with the truth.” When I walked in I didn't give her a chance to doubt us or become suspicious, just putting everything up front. Obviously so. When you hit people with that much blunt truth, they tend to trust you instantly. It doesn't make them like you any better really, but they won't think you're lying. Which I didn't, so that all works out.” She waved her right hand a little, at first Keeley thought it was a conversational gesture, but then she noticed that it was directed toward a motorcycle police officer giving someone a ticket.
The helmeted man nodded back. His look suddenly strained. Worried. Keeley wondered what the girl could have done to make the man feel like that. He looked away, a pointed thing, and stopped writing, then patted the top of the car, causing the suddenly shocked looking driver to pull out into traffic slowly. The officer's eyes followed them as they passed.