“Have you seen Percy?” She asks, standing by the edge of the chain-link fence that divides our yards. Percy is one of her many cats. Yes, I live next to a crazy cat lady.
“No, he is probably somewhere getting warm, Deloris.” I have to speak louder than I would like, but if I don’t practically yell in her face, she won’t hear a word I say. Percy probably threw himself into oncoming traffic. The woman is really sweet, but if she talks Percy’s ear off as much as she does mine, then there is a good chance he has ran away. I say goodbye, making a promise to come over for dinner later this week. I know she is lonely. I go over and check on her when I can, or when I need to get away from my mom. I have spent many nights eating with Mrs. Jennings, well Deloris. She takes offense if I call her Mrs. She has been like the grandma I never knew I wanted.
Two blocks over, Becks, short for Beckett, is waiting for me. Becks is my best friend, and if it wasn’t for him, I probably would have died of starvation in middle school. We met in the fifth grade when his family moved here from South Carolina. He’s wearing a huge grin on his face as he reaches me a Styrofoam cup of caramel vanilla goodness. He lives next to the Grab ‘N Go, so he always treats me when he can. He is always spoiling me with little surprises.
Becks is in that awkward stage of growing still. His head is too big for his skinny frame. I tease him that one day his head will shrink to match the rest of him. Don’t get me wrong, he is cute enough, but he’s my Becks. I could never look at him any other way than my best friend.
“You’re the best.” I poke him in the rib and he jumps. I laugh at how ticklish he is.
Becks lives four blocks away from me, so we meet in the middle every school morning to walk with Penny. I think he has a thing for Penny, but he would never admit it willingly. Penny is my other best friend. She lives closer to our high school, so we get hooked up with her on the way after we meet.
Penny also dates Aaron Carver, the most popular guy in school. Aaron doesn’t care for Becks, but he tolerates him for Penny. His father is a deacon at my church. We met in choir the summer before ninth grade when his father was transferred to serve here.
Penny was love struck the first time she seen him when she attended a program I was singing in. I didn’t have the heart to tell her he took my virginity on a church trip in the back of a bus the summer before ninth grade. I pretend it never happened, and Aaron has treated me like shit ever since. Well, when Penny isn’t around.
Every girl in school and most guys thinks he is something because he’s captain of the basketball team. Even the other senior girls chase after him, and they normally go after older boys—college guys, or the coal miners. Needless to say, we make up an interesting group.
We’re presently a few weeks away from spring break. I usually spend most of break helping asshole Aaron and his dad at the mission. They are always in need of donations and volunteers. I am not looking forward to working with Aaron, especially since Penny won’t be with us because she is going with her family to visit her Grandma in Virginia. Becks said he would try to help, but knowing him, he will try to weasel out of it, so I am thinking of bailing on it all together. Aaron is pushy and always expects to get what he wants.
We weave in and out of the morning traffic, finally reaching Penny’s house. She’s dressed warmly in her favorite red pea coat. Penny has the best of everything: best clothes, best parents, nice home. Need I go on? She tugs her beret down over her wheat colored hair. One great thing about being friends with Penny is when she gets tired of something, she gives it to me. The girl has a makeup fetish and is constantly giving me lipstick and eye shadow once she decides she hates it. We have been best friends since third grade when we bonded over our love of the Jonas Brothers. Not so much in love with them now, but hey, it was third grade.
“Hey, Penny,” Becks greets her warmly and reaches her a croissant from his backpack. He’s so thoughtful.
“Um, thanks.” She takes the warm bread from him. The smell hits my nose, making my stomach rumble embarrassingly. That small bowl of cereal just didn’t do it for me. “Spilt it with me, I can’t eat it all,” Penny offers.
I scarf down my half in one bite. Becks shakes his head, laughing at me. His sandy brown hair shakes and slithers in a wave like he should be in a shampoo commercial. It reaches right under his chin. It isn’t fair that a boy should have such beautiful silky hair when mine is a constant frizzy mess. Penny once gave me some smoother for it. The stuff worked a miracle on my hair, but I wasn’t able to afford to keep buying it, so now I am back to the frizz.
“What?” I bark.
“Nothing,” he quips, continuing to snicker.
I step in front of them and continue the cold walk to school. I can tell it is about to snow soon. The air has a dampness to it that coats my throat when I breathe in. Once we get there, we take our turns going through the metal detectors. I once made the mistake of bringing a pair of nail clippers in my purse. I was nearly expelled. I mean, I understand the whole no weapons rule but seriously, what was I going to accomplish with nail clips. They didn’t even have one of those little things you can dig under your nails with on them. Besides, it isn’t as if we live in some big city. We live in a poor Kentucky coal-mining town, Muddy Waters to be exact. Our town earned the name, because the water when the town was founded was muddy.
The guys here either go to work in the coalmines straight out of high school or go away to college, never to be seen again. And the girls, if they don’t get out of here to go to college, they end up pregnant and married to a miner by the age of twenty-three. I refuse to end up like that. I study hard and work hard at maintaining good grades. My dream is to move to New York and sing. A girl has to have dreams, right?
I leave Penny at her locker with Becks and head down to the south hall to mine. I hate that our lockers are so far apart, but it’s actually better for me being on this end. It’s closer to my first period History class. I linger at my locker a little too long before realizing the second bell has rang. Mr. Lowe does not tolerate tardiness. Slamming my locker shut, I nearly scream when I turn around and bump straight into the chest of Aaron.
“Katie,” he says my name sickly sweet in a singsong tone, twirling my hair around his finger.
I smack his hand away. “What do you want peter cheese?” I am always thinking of a new insulting name to call him. The real Aaron comes out whenever Penny isn’t around. I tried to tell her about his horrible behavior once and she got mad at me and didn’t speak to me for a week. It was awful, so now I keep his asshole episodes to myself.
“Valentine’s Day party this weekend at my place. Parents are going to be out of town. You should come. Could be like old times, I haven’t forgotten how sweet you were.” He leans in close, pressing my back against the row of lockers.
“I’m sure you understand that I have better things to do with my time.” I try to step aroun
d him, but he steps in closer to me, pressing me into the locker.
He pinches my bottom lip roughly, staring at me with this weird expression on his face. He closes his eyes briefly and it freaks me out.
“Um, what are you doing?” I ask hesitantly, not sure if I want to know the answer.
“Did you think I wanted to kiss your frog lips?” He laughs and punches the locker beside of my head.
Kai Cooper picks the perfect moment to interrupt whatever game Aaron was playing just now. Aaron bumps roughly into his shoulder. “Watch it loser,” he barks loudly at him.
Most guys would shrink away from Aaron but not Kai. He is his own brand of special. Kai Cooper is also known as the school stoner to most, but to me he is Mr. Mystery.
Kai is that mysterious guy. The one you know skips class and smokes in the bathroom. I just wish he’d leave me alone and allow me to disappear like most do, other than Beckett and Penny. He has made it his personal mission to drive me insane ever since sixth grade when we were put into a closet together to play seven minutes in heaven. He licked my face like a dog, it was gross, and I screamed and kneed him in the nuts.