Crushed (4 page)

“Seniors
!” They
all turned obediently toward him.
“In no time at al
l you are going to be out of high school and tossed
in
to
the real world. More often than not, you will be spending time with people who would
not normally be of your choosing. Whether it be in the workforce, embracing community
service projects or whatever else comes your way. As part of the objective of this
class, I want you to be comfortable working with someone chosen at random.” He held
up a large, blue bowl.
“
This
is how partners will be decided.” He held up a
slip of paper as he motioned to her
side of the room.
“This section has their names in the
bowl.” He shook the bowl so they
had a visual, apparently. “And this side,” he motioned to the other, “will draw names.”

A chorus of groans filled the air, causing Mr. Jessen to smile. “Ah, such enthusiasm
so bright and early in the day! So delightful!
A wonderful start to the year!
”

She
was sure he was being sarcastic but he kind of sounded like he meant it
. Or maybe he just
enjoyed their
tormen
t. With that grin on his face, she
really couldn’t be sure.

Emma was
technically
on
the opposite side of the room. She mentally crossed her
fingers hoping Emma would draw her name. Emma looked at her
and made a comical face, m
aking Cleo
sure she was hoping
so, too.

Mr. Jessen held the bowl up in the air, above the first person’s head. It was a kid
named Eli. Eli drew a name and Mr. Jessen told him to announce to the class who it
was.

Cleo
breathed a silent sigh of relief that it was Natalie, Mia’s best friend
.
Natalie
crinkled her nose at having to work with Eli. He quickly turned around in his seat,
facing the fro
nt when he noted her reaction. Cleo
already felt bad for the guy.
Natalie
was s
omeone she
absolutely
would
not want f
or a partner. Not that she
would
’ve ended up with her anyway considering
they
both had
their
names in the bowl, but still.

Mr. Jessen
continued to go down the aisle
. He w
aited after each name was drawn.
G
iving the student enough time to announce the name of their partner before he moved
on.

Cleo
was trying not to watch because he was getting closer to Reece’s seat
. And she
did not want to look at Reece.

But
she finally did because he was
drawing a name.

She
tried not to feel too self-conscious because really, about half the eyes in the room
were on h
im. Not just hers. They
wait
ed
to hear who he h
a
d
. She realized it was silly to be
glad that Natalie’s name was already drawn.
She
didn’t want Reece working w
ith Natalie
because it would just be one more connection to Mia.

Ridiculous, she knew. She
was sure he saw Mia every day, every night for that matter. S
o having Natalie for a partner sh
ould not have mattered
to her
.

Yet it did.

He unfolded the pa
per as Mr. Jessen waited and she
knew
. She
just knew because of the way the color drained from
his face. It was so apparent she
could see it from the other side of the room. He looked at the paper like he had
to read the name more than once.
She was sure h
e was
probably hoping it would magically morph into someone else’s name in the next three
seconds.

She felt her
stomach drop. What kind of cruel twist of fate was this? There were at least a dozen
other names in the bowl. But fate h
ad never exactly been kind to her. Why should she expect things to go her
way now?

“Don’t keep it a secret Mr.
Hildenbrandt
,” Mr. Jessen chastised
. He moved on to the next person but held the bowl out of reach as he waited for Reece.

Reece’s eyes drifted to
Cleo’s
. “Uh,” he said, and then
he
had to clear his throat. As if
it was hard for him to force
her
name from his lips. “Cleo,” he finally admitted, n
ever taking his eyes off of her
.

She
felt herself biting her lip again. He gave her
what looked like an apologetic shrug
. T
hen he grabbed his pen and started writing something in his notebook. Or at
least he was pretending to. They
hadn’t been given any information to write down yet.

Reece wa
s sim
ply avoiding looking at her
.

She
didn’t blame him
. Not at all.

Chapter 3

“
Twins
!” Luci squealed again
.
She was beaming and her blue eyes were sparkling.
S
he bounced so hard on her bed that
Cleo
bounced
right
along with her.

“But they don’t sound like twins. Their names are Marissa and Addison. Like, don’t
you think it should’ve been Marissa and
Madison
? Or Addison and
Madison
? But it’s not. I mean, they don’t rhyme or even start with the same letter but they
look
exactly
alike. Well, not exactly because Marissa told me the way I could tell them apart
is because she parts her hair on the left and Addison parts hers on the right. But
that’s so funny because I don’t even
have
bangs
. S
o it’s like all three of us are different even though we look so much alike. But I’m
not supposed to tell anyone else about their bangs. They only wanted
me
to know. And they said no one
ever
figures it out
. E
ven though their mom started doing it when they were tiny.

“
They invited me over Friday night. I mean, they have to ask their mom first, but they
think I probably can. The only reason they think maybe I couldn’t is because their
house might not be unpacked enough yet. But if it is, they’re going to invite me
for sure
. So can I?” Luci asked as she stopped for a breath. “Can I go if they invite me?”

“
If
they invite you,”
Cleo
agreed. “Just make sure you don’t invite yourself.”

Luci tossed an insulted look
her
way. “I wouldn’t do that!”

Cleo
bit back a smile and gave her a stern look
.
Luci was outgoing enough that yes, she
would
. She
refrained from calling
her
out on this
. She
just gave her a gentle warning instead. “If they just moved here, it might take them
a while to settle in. So don’t be pushy about it. Just wait until they invite you.”

“Do you think maybe they could come here?”
she asked. She scrunched
her face up into a look of hopeful apprehension.

“You know that’
s probably not the best idea,” Cleo told her. Luci seemed to deflate before her
eyes
. “I’m not saying they can’t,” Cleo
relented. “Let me think about it. It’s just…it’s hard to plan ahead for things like
that.
And you know
that most of your friend
’
s moms
don’t like it if a parent isn’t around,
”
she gently reminded her. And Paul, Luci’s dad, luckily wasn’t around much on the
weekends.

“I know,” Luci sighed as she stilled.

She hadn’t bothered to make her bed that morning
.
Cleo
knew for a fact she probably wouldn’t get around to making it once
during the school year unless she
begged her.
H
er br
ight pink comforter hung half way of
f the bed, on
the floor at their feet. She
tried to tug it up and toss it back on the bed withou
t d
islodging Luci from her perch.

Luci
continued to jabber.

“They weren’t going to even move until the middle of the month but their mom insisted
that they move at the start of the school year
. O
r she said she wasn’t going to move at all. So they moved and their dad is coming
as soon as he’s done with…well,” she paused
and her pale eyebrows furrowed
, “I don’t really know what he’s doing. But he’s moving as soon as he can. So right
now, it’s just them and their mom.”

Cleo
grinned at
her
sister. She was
pleased that she’d made not just one new frien
d, but two on her first day. She
hadn’t followed the story completely
. B
ut apparently Luci had an uncanny likeness to the twins and a fast friendship had
been formed.

“
Cleo!
Get your ass out here!” Paul shouted a second before the smoke detector went off.

She
jumped off of Luci’s bed
and darted into the kitchen. She
could hear L
uci’s footsteps right behind her
. The room was clogged with smoke and the acrid smell of
burned
hamburger permeated t
he air. Paul scowled at her
. Instead of sliding the pan to a cool burner he tossed the hot frying pan into the
sink. Grease and charred burger bits flew into the air, cascading back down in a messy
arc across the countertop and floor. Some grease splattered the wall and the window
above the sink.

“I’m not eating that crap,” Paul informed
her
, shouting to be heard over t
he beeping. Or most likely, Cleo
knew,
he’d probably be shouting
regardless. He started toward the door that led out of the kitchen to the entry way
.
She and Luci
ducked
out of his path.

“Sorry, I was helping Luci,” she
called by way of
an
explanation
. T
he front door slammed
in response
.
She
had gone in to
see if Luci
needed help with her math
.
She
’d gotten sidetracked with her story about her new friends.

She
grabbed the kitchen towel off the handle of the fridge
. She
waved it in front of the alarm, trying to clear the air. It stopped after a few seconds.

“Eww, that stinks,” Luci said as she crinkled up her freckled nose
. She
wiggled the kitchen window open.

“I know,” Cleo
sighed.

Paul was her
st
ep-dad, Luci’s real dad. She’d never met her father. She wasn’t even all
that sure that her mom had
known who her
father was.
And now she
was gone and Cleo had lost any chance of ever finding out.

Paul m
arried her mom when
she
was seven. After
her mom died the spring of her sophomore year, she
wasn’t sure
what was going to happen to her
. Paul had never re
ally been a father figure to her
. He was bare
ly a father figure to Luci. She
hadn’t k
nown if he was going to kick her
out. T
urn her
over to Social Services
or what he was going to do. Sh
e’d been too afraid to ask
. S
o she
’d spent weeks, then months just wondering and waiting and expecting the worst.