Authors: Lauren Shelton
“Oh,” Tru
replied.
She
was shocked
that
Bethany
would even consider her a friend enough to invite her.
Tru had to admit that it felt kind of nice to be included.
“Sure,” she answered, smiling. “I’ll be there.”
“Cool,” Bethany replied. Well, I’ll tell Danielle and
Jackie that you’re coming.” Tru had completely forgotten
Bethany’s friend’s names until she had mentioned them.
“They’ll be so excited!”
“What should I wear?” Tru had never been to a high
school party before, and she didn’t want to make it too
obvious. She usually avoided social events at all costs, but
something made her
want
to go to this one, and she
couldn’t quite figure out why.
“Well, I guess something that you feel comfortable in,”
Bethany looked down at Tru’s waterlogged jeans and
muddy sneakers as she spoke, “or, I could help you if you
want.”
Tru remained quiet for a few seconds before answering. She wasn’t sure that she really wanted Bethany’s
help, but she knew she needed help nonetheless. “Sure,”
Tru said quietly. “What time should I come over then?”
“How about six? The party doesn’t start until eight, so
that should be plenty of time. Danielle and Jackie will
already be here helping me decorate everything.” Bethany
spoke so fast that Tru barely registered what she was saying. Her voice pitched higher and higher every time she
finished a sentence. Talking about parties took Bethany to
a level of enthusiasm Tru had never seen in anyone before.
“Okay.”
“Well, see you tomorrow at school.”
Tru slowly opened the door and walked through it.
Bethany grabbed the handle as Tru released it, and remained standing in the doorway just as her mother had
when Tru had first arrived.
“Okay, and thanks again,” Tru said as she walked out
onto the covered porch and gestured to the notebook that
was clutched tightly against her chest.
“Don’t worry about it.” A huge smile was now beaming
across Bethany’s face.
“Bye,” Tru finally said. And as she turned around slowly, she could hear the faint swooshing sound of the red
door closing gently behind her.
Tru stood on the porch and looked at the rain falling
on the cement sidewalk. She pulled her damp hood over
her head once again, and slid the invitation into the front
pocket of her jeans. Carefully, Tru placed the notebook
under her jacket and zipped it up. Then, she took a deep
breath, and walked out into the cold rain.
Her grandparent’s house was a short walk from Bethany’s, but Tru took her time, turning what would normally
be a five-minute walk, into a leisurely ten-minute walk.
San Diego rarely ever had any rain, and it was nice feeling
the cool drops against her face. As she exhaled, a plume of
steam billowed out of her nose and into the open air in
front of her face.
The light grey sidewalk was speckled with small, darker grey, wet circles. And soon, the entire pathway was
completely covered in them, making it hard to see where
the last raindrop had fallen.
Tru walked slowly through the rain, becoming completely saturated with the water once more, but it comforted her, listening to the pitter-patter of water hitting
the ground, the grass, and the roofs of houses around her.
Tru looked up at the menacing sky as she walked, watching the clouds as they shifted, growing larger and darker
by the second.
When she arrived home, Maggie and Ben were still
sitting in the family room. Maggie was pressed against
the couch, reading a book, and Ben was perched quietly in
his
reclining
chair,
watching
the
home
improvement
channel on T.V. ⎯ possibly looking for new projects to
start when he was finished with his current ones.
Maggie glanced over the top of her book as Tru closed
the front door behind herself. “How did it go over at
Bethany’s?” she asked.
“Fine,” Tru replied. “She invited me to a party this
weekend.” Tru handed her grandmother the bright pink
⎯ and slightly damp ⎯ piece of folded paper. Maggie
looked at it quietly, and then looked over at her granddaughter as she handed it back.
“Oh, okay then.” Maggie turned back to her book. It
had almost seemed like she didn’t
want
Tru to go, like
she was afraid the girl would have too much fun. But
wasn’t that what she was trying to get Tru to do? To get
out of the house and meet new people? To go out and
have
some
fun?
“Um,” Tru said quietly, trying to gain her grandmother’s attention once more, “I was wondering if it would be
okay if I walked to school tomorrow?” Tru cautiously
walked closer to the couch.
“Hmm?” her grandma asked, half listening, still staring
intently at her book.
So Tru repeated herself, slightly louder this time. “Can
I walk to school tomorrow?”
“Oh, yes, of course dear,” Maggie replied, smiling. “Are
you sure though? I can always drive you.”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Tru began walking to her room, still
watching her grandparents.
“Okay.” Finally, Maggie looked up at Tru with slight
curiosity, and then returned to her book.
Tru spent the rest of the night
trying
to read more of
her grandmother’s book that she had retrieved from the
shelf earlier that day. It took her about an hour to actually
open
the
book,
and
then
about
another
hour
to get
through just one page.
Her mind was racing with thoughts of Edyn⎯ the way
he managed to stay warm when it was nearly close to
snowing outside, the way he said her name, the way he
laughed,
the
way
his
eyes
changed
from
a
beautiful
hunter green, to an almost pure lime color, and most of
all, the way he left her to
die
.
Tru tried, repeatedly, to figure out the right excuse for
why Edyn hadn’t shown up when Airi had attacked her.
At first, she thought he could have been busy, or in trouble himself. But then, she started thinking that maybe he
had
asked
for Airi to attack her. Maybe he had wanted to
hurt her himself, but he just wasn’t strong enough. But, if
he wanted to kill Tru, why didn’t he do it when they were
alone in the forest together?
She thought of every conceivable reason as she sat in
her quiet room, but each excuse put her into another panic. Finally, Tru paused and asked herself aloud, “Why am
I getting so worked up over this? I won’t go to the forest
again, and that will be the end of it.”
A short while later, it was time for dinner, so Tru
walked to the kitchen in silence, looking at the floor as
her feet scooted across the carpet. When she reached the
table, her grandparents had already started eating. Tru
sat down, without saying a word, and piled green beans
and mashed potatoes onto her plate, once again, avoiding
the big slices of steak that were located on another plate,
directly in front of her.
“So,” Maggie began, crossing her hands on the table,
“tomorrow is supposed to be sunny. That should be nice.”
She was always good at small talk, something Tru knew
she would never be able to master. If anyone was ever in
need of a subject change, they could always count on
Maggie to come to their rescue.
There’s not much to really say about Grandpa Ben. He
was always a simple man. He never really spoke unless he
desperately needed to. Tru could see now that she was a
lot more like him than she had previously thought. She
enjoyed just sitting around and relaxing, and he did too.
“So, then I guess we can put up that new awning in the
backyard?” Maggie continued.
“Mhm,” Tru’s grandfather repeated, forcing another
forkful of food into his mouth.
“And what do you plan on doing after school tomorrow, Trudy?”
Tru looked up and saw her grandmother looking at
her, her hands now folded delicately under her slightly
wrinkled chin.
“Oh,” Tru knew exactly what she wanted to do, but instead of disappointing her grandmother yet again, she
told the woman what she wanted to hear. “I’m probably
going to go to the library. I have a research paper due
next week.” Tru never liked lying to her grandmother. It
always left her with a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach. But she knew that if she had told Maggie the truth,
she would have locked Tru in her room and thrown away
the key.
“Oh, okay,” Maggie replied with a smile. Then, she
turned to her plate and continued eating.
Tru looked down at her own plate, pushing around the
pile of mashed potatoes with her fork, drawing circles in
the gravy.
As soon as she finished eating, Tru stood from the table, picked up her plate, and walked to the sink. The water from the faucet seemed to wash away more than just
the remnants of food from the plate. As Tru looked at the
running water, it seemed to wash away almost everything
that she had been feeling just moments before. And when
the plate was clean, she casually set it on the counter and
walked back over to the table.
“May I be excused?” she asked her grandmother.
“Are
you
sure?
You
hardly
ate
anything.” Maggie
looked up at her granddaughter with a vacant face.
“Yeah, Grandma, I’m fine.” Tru rubbed a hand against
her stomach. “I’m actually really full.”
“Okay, then. I guess so.” Maggie looked at her husband, who shrugged, and then looked back at Tru and
smiled.
Tru returned a smile, adding “thank you,” before heading to her bedroom. Once there, Tru stripped out of her
clothes, replacing them with a pair of basketball shorts
and a plain white tank top. Quickly, she pulled back the
covers to her bed, and climbed inside, pulling them all the
way up to her chin.
The next morning, Tru woke to the sound of birds
chirping loudly outside.
It’s sunny,
she thought,
just
like
Grandma
said
it
would be.
Slowly, she rolled over and looked at the clock on her
dresser, dreading yet another day at a school that she had
attended for less than a week.
7:00 A.M
. School started in exactly half an hour.
Instantly, Tru jumped out of her bed and ran to the
shower. She quickly washed her hair and body in the
warm water, hoping the entire time that she wasn’t going
to be late to her first class. After turning off the shower,
and wrapping herself in the warm towel that hung on the
bar next to the shower curtain, Tru hurried back to her
room and threw on a clean pair of shabby, worn out jeans,
and a light blue T-shirt. The bruises on her neck were still
very visible, so she quickly dabbed on a bit of foundation,
and threw on a hooded sweatshirt, trying to cover the
black and blue spots as best as she could.
Tru knew she wouldn’t have enough time for a sitdown breakfast, so on her way through the kitchen, she
grabbed a muffin from the breadbox on the counter next
to the fridge. She then grabbed her raincoat off of the
hook nearest to the kitchen door and walked to the entryway. Sure, she knew it was sunny now, but the way the
weather had been lately, she decided not to take any
chances.
As she placed her hand on the doorknob, and looked
back at the family room, she noticed for the first time that
morning that her grandparents were not around. So, she
opened the door wider, shrugging her shoulders as she
walked outside. Before shutting the door she looked back
at the family room, just to make sure she hadn’t imagined
an empty house. But the room remained silent.
Hurriedly, Tru shut the door, locked it, and walked
silently to school. Part of her hoped, desperately, that she
wouldn’t run into Bethany. She didn’t know what to say
around her, mostly because Tru never really spoke to
girls. And the awkward silences that usually arose in her
conversations with them were nothing to look forward to.
But surprisingly, Bethany was nowhere in sight. So, Tru
enjoyed the short walk to school, looking at the other students walking the same direction, feeling a bit like she
was finally beginning to fit in.
When Tru arrived on campus, she was surprised to
find that she had managed to make it with some time to
spare. The first bell still hadn’t rung, so she quietly sat
down at a bench just outside her first class. As she sat,
Tru watched a group of boys walk by, none of them paying much attention to her, which didn’t bother her, and
continued to watch as they rounded the corner of the
hallway to the left of where she sat. A few teachers would
walk by, some of them smiling, so she politely smiled
back before looking away casually.
Another few minutes had gone by, and there was still
no sign of Bethany or her friends. So, when the bell finally
rang, Tru rose from her spot on the bench, and meandered silently into the room.
“Hello, Miss Mason,” the teacher said as Tru entered
the room, quickly seating herself in the same desk she
had claimed last Friday.
“Good morning,” Tru replied, pausing for a brief second, “Mr. Kushner.” She smiled, trying not to let him see
that she had almost forgotten his last name.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, looking at her with a
concerned look.
“Fine,” Tru replied. She didn’t think anyone would
have noticed that the new girl was missing for three days.
But then again, the teachers here
actually
took attendance ⎯ everyday ⎯ and were probably pre-informed by
her grandmother of her condition.
“That’s good.” Mr. Kushner turned to face the whiteboard hanging on the wall in front of the desks and began
writing the agenda for the period.
The classroom was small, just barely big enough for
the fifteen to twenty desks in the room, including Mr.
Kushner’s desk. It was slightly rectangular shaped, and
the walls were completely bare, lacking any sort of projects or posters the class would probably be completing
over the course of the year. On the left wall, next to the
bright red door with the small window cut out of it, was a
row of plain white built in shelves, completely filled with
books of endless sizes, ages, and places of origin. And to
the right, on the opposite side of the room, was a wall
completely made of windows ⎯ a few of the desks had
been pushed right up against them. Being on the first
floor of the main building, a short row of bushes outside
lined the bottom of the windows, extending all the way
down the rest of the building.