Dawn (5 page)

"You stupid idiot!" she screamed. "Why did you tell her?"

"I thought it was a fire," I explained.

"Oh, brother. Who are you, Alice in Wonderland? Now you got me in trouble."

"I'm sorry, I . . ."

I looked around. All the girls were glaring at me. "I didn't mean it. Honest. I thought I was helping you."

"Helping?" She shook her head. "You helped me into trouble, that's what you did."

Everyone nodded and the group broke up so everyone could finish dressing. I looked to Louise, but even she turned away. Afterward, the girls were very standoffish in the gym. Every chance she got, Clara Sue glared hatefully at me. I tried to explain again, but she wasn't interested.

When Mrs. Allen blew the whistle to end the period and send us to the showers, I tried to get Louise's attention.

"You got her in trouble," was all she would say.

Here I was only an hour or so in a new school and already I had made enemies when all I wanted to do was make some new friends. As soon as I saw Clara Sue, I apologized again, making it sound as sincere as I could.

"It's all right," Clara Sue suddenly said. "I shouldn't have blamed you. I just lost my temper. It was my own fault."

"Really, I wouldn't have pointed out the smoke if I'd thought you were smoking. I don't tattletale."

"I believe you. Girls," she said to those nearest, "we shouldn't blame Dawn. That's your name, right? Dawn?"

"Uh-huh."

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"A brother," I said quickly.

"What's his name, Afternoon?" a tall beautiful girl with dark hair asked. Everyone laughed.

"We better get moving or we're going to be late for our next class," Clara Sue announced. It was easy to see that many of the girls looked up to her as a leader. I couldn't believe I'd had the bad luck to begin by getting her in trouble. Of all the girls to get in trouble, I thought, and breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for her forgiveness. I took off my gym uniform quickly and followed everyone to the showers. They were nice showers, clean stalls with flower-print shower curtains, and the water was warm, too.

"You better get a move on in there," I heard Mrs. Allen call.

I stepped out of the shower and wiped myself dry as quickly as I could. Then I wrapped the towel around my body and rushed to my locker. It was wide open. Had I forgotten to lock it? I wondered. I discovered the answer very quickly. Except for my shoes, all my clothes were gone.

"Where are my clothes?" I cried. I turned around.

All the girls were looking my way and smiling. Clara Sue was standing by the sink, brushing her hair. "Please. This isn't funny. Those are my best clothes."

That made everyone laugh. I looked to Louise, but she turned away quickly, slammed her locker shut, and hurried out of the locker room. Soon everyone but me was leaving.

"Please!" I cried. "Who knows where my clothes are?"

"They're being washed," someone called back.

"Washed? What does that mean? Washed?"

I spun around, the towel still tucked in over my body. I was alone in the locker room. The bells were ringing. What was I going to do?

I started looking everywhere, under benches, in corners, but I found nothing until I went into the bathroom and checked the stalls.

"Oh, no!" I cried. They had thrown my clothes into the toilet. There was my pretty dress, my bra, and my panties. Even my socks, soaking with toilet paper floating around it all for good measure. And the water was discolored. Someone had urinated in there, too!

I fell back against the stall door and sobbed. What was I going to do?

"Who's left in here?" I heard Mrs. Allen ask.

"It's me," I bawled. She stepped into the bathroom.

"Well, what are you . . ."

I pointed down at the toilet, and she gazed into the stall.

"Oh, no. Who did this?"

"I don't know, Mrs. Allen."

"I don't have any trouble guessing," she said sternly.

"What will I do?"

She thought a moment, shaking her head.

"Fish them out and we'll put them in the washer and dryer with the towels. In the meantime, you will have to wear your gym uniform."

"To classes?"

"There's nothing else you can do, Dawn. I'm sorry."

"But . . . everyone will laugh at me."

"It's up to you. You will miss a few classes by the time this is all washed and dried out. I'll go to see Mrs. Turnbell and explain what happened."

I nodded and lowered my head in defeat as I walked back to my locker to put on my gym uniform.

As the morning went on, I found most of my teachers to be kind and sympathetic once they heard what had happened, but the rest of the students thought it was very funny, and everywhere I looked I found them smiling and laughing at me. It was always hard to face new students whenever I went to a new school, but here, before I even got a chance to meet anyone and anyone got a chance to know me, I was the laughingstock.

When Jimmy saw me in the hallway and I told him what had happened, he was outraged.

"What did I tell you about this place?" he said loud enough for most of the students around us in the hallway to hear. "I'd just like to know who did it, that's all. I'd just like to get my hands on her."

"It's all right, Jimmy," I said, trying to calm him down. "I'll be all right. After the next class my clothes should be washed and dried." I didn't mention the fact that my dress would be wrinkled and need ironing. I didn't want him to get any angrier than he was.

The warning bell for the next class rang.

Jimmy scowled so hard at the students who were staring at us that most turned their heads away as they rushed to get to class.

"I'll be all right, Jimmy," I insisted again before starting toward my math class.

"I'd like to know who did it!" he called after me. "Just so I could wring her neck." He said it loud enough for everyone who was left in the hallway to hear.

As soon as I entered class, the teacher called me to his desk.

"You're Dawn Longchamp, I assume," he said.

"Yes, sir." I looked at the class, and of course, all the students were looking at me, smiles on their faces. "Well, we'll introduce ourselves later. Mrs. Turnbell wants to see you immediately," he said.

"The Longchamp girl is here," Mrs. Turnbell's secretary announced as I entered the reception room. I heard Mrs. Turnbell say, "Send her in." The secretary stepped back and I entered.

Mrs. Turnbell's gaze was icy as she asked me to explain what had happened.

With my stomach jumping up and down and my voice shaking, I told her how I had come out of the shower and found my clothing in the toilet.

"Why would anyone do that to a new girl?" she asked. I didn't respond. I didn't want to get into any more trouble with the other girls, and I knew that was exactly what would happen if I mentioned the smoke.

But she knew already!

"You don't have to explain. Mrs. Allen told me how you turned in Clara Sue Cutler for smoking."

"I didn't turn her in. I saw smoke coming from this locker and—"

"Now, listen to me," Mrs. Turnbell ordered, leaning over her desk, her pale face going first pink, then red. "The other students at this school have been brought up in fine homes and have a head start on how to get along with other people. But that doesn’t mean I will allow you and your brother to come in here and disrupt everything. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said hoarsely, tears choking me. Coldly Mrs. Turnbell eyed me and shook her head.

"Going around to class in a gym uniform," she muttered. "You march right out of here and go directly to the laundry and wait for your clothing to be washed and dried."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Go on. Get dressed and back to your classes as soon as possible," she commanded with a wave of her hand.

I hurried out, wiping the tears away as I ran through the hallway and down to the laundry. When I put on my dress again, it was so wrinkled it looked like I had been sitting on it. But there was nothing I could do.

I hurried up to make my English class. When I got there several students looked disappointed to see me in regular clothing again. Only Louise looked relieved. When our gazes met, she smiled and then looked away quickly. At least for now, my ordeal had ended.

After English class, Louise caught up with me at the doorway.

"I'm sorry they did that to you!" she cried. "I just want you to know I wasn't part of it."

"Thank you."

"I should have warned you right away about Clara Sue. For some reason most of the girls do what she tells them to."

"If she did this, it was a very mean thing to do. I told her I was sorry."

"Clara Sue always gets her way," Louise said. "Maybe she won't bother you anymore. Come on, I'll go with you to lunch."

"Thank you," I said. A few other students said hello to me and smiled, but for the most part Louise was the only raft for me to cling to in unfamiliar waters.

The cafeteria was fancier than any I'd ever seen. Here the seats and tables looked plush and comfortable. The walls were painted light blue, and the tiled floor was an off-white. The students picked up their trays and silverware at an area just before the serving counter and proceeded to the awaiting cashier.

I saw Clara Sue Cutler sitting with some of the other girls from our gym class. They all laughed when they set eyes on me.

"Let's sit over there," Louise said, indicating an empty table away from them.

"Just a minute," I said and marched up to Clara Sue's table. The girls all turned in surprise.

"Hi, Dawn," Clara Sue said, with a cat-who-has-eaten-the-canary look on her spiteful face. "Shouldn't you have ironed that?"

Everyone laughed.

"I don't know why you did this to me," I fired back in a hard voice as I eyed them all coldly. "But it was a terrible thing to do to someone, especially someone who has just entered your school."

"Who told you I did?" she demanded.

"No one told me. I know."

The girls stared. Clara Sue's big blue eyes narrowed to slits and then widened with an apparent softness. "All right, Dawn," she said in a voice of amnesty. "I guess we broke you into Emerson Peabody. You're forgiven," she said with a queenly gesture. "In fact, you may sit here, if you like. You, too, Louise," she added.

"Thank you," I said. I was determined to mend fences and not disrupt Mrs. Turnbell's precious little school. Louise and I took the two empty seats.

"This is Linda Ann Brandise," Clara Sue said, indicating the taller girl with soft, dark brown hair and beautiful almond-shaped eyes. "And this is Margaret Ann Stanton, Diane Elaine Wilson, and Melissa Lee Norton."

I nodded at all of them and wondered if I was the only girl in the school without a formal middle name.

"Did you just move here?" Clara Sue asked. "You're not a sleep-over, I know."

"Sleep-over?"

"Students who stay in the dorms," Louise explained.

"Oh. No, I live in Richmond. Do you sleep over, Louise?"

"No, but Linda and Clara Sue do. I'm going to get my lunch," Louise declared and then pulled herself up. "Coming, Dawn?"

"I just need to get a container of milk," I said, putting my lunch bag on the table.

"What's that?" Louise asked.

"My lunch. I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." I opened my purse and found my milk money.

"You made your own lunch?" Clara Sue asked. "Why would you do that?"

"It saves money."

Louise stared at me, her watery, pale blue eyes blinking as she struggled to understand.

"Saves money? Why do you want to save money? Did your parents cut off your allowance?" Linda inquired.

"I don't have an allowance. Momma gives me money for milk, but other than that . . ."

"Money for milk?" Linda laughed and looked at

Clara Sue. "What does your father do, anyway?"

"He works here. He's a maintenance supervisor."

"Maintenance?" Linda gasped. "You mean . . . he's a janitor?" Her eyes widened when I nodded. "Uh-huh. Because he works here, my brother, Jimmy, and I get to go to Emerson Peabody."

The girls turned to each other and suddenly laughed.

"A janitor," Clara Sue said, as though she couldn't believe it. They laughed again. "I think we'll let Louise and Dawn have this table," she purred. Clara Sue lifted her tray and stood up. Linda and the others followed suit and started away.

"I didn't know your father was a janitor here," Louise said.

"You never gave me a chance to tell you. He's a supervisor because he's very good at fixing and maintaining all sorts of engines and motors," I said proudly.

"How nice." She looked around and then slipped her hands around her books and lifted them off the table. "Oh! I just remembered. I have to talk to Mary Jo Alcott. We have a science project to do together. I'll see you later," she said quickly and walked across the cafeteria to another table. The girls there didn't seem so happy to greet her, but she sat down anyway. She pointed at me and they all laughed.

They were snubbing me because they thought I was beneath them just because Daddy was the janitor.

Jimmy was right, I thought. Rich kids were spoiled and horrible. I glared back at them defiantly, even though tears burned like fire under my eyelids. I rose and walked proudly to the lunch line to get some milk.

I looked around for Jimmy, hoping that he had been luckier than me and had made at least one friend by now, but I didn't see him anywhere. I returned to my table and began to unfold my bag when I heard someone say, "There any free seats here?"

I looked up at one of the handsomest boys I had ever seen. His hair was thick and flaxen blond like mine. It waved just enough to be perfect. His eyes were cerulean blue and they sparkled with laughter. His nose was straight and neither too long nor too narrow, nor too thick. He was just a little taller than Jimmy, but he had wider shoulders and stood straight and confidently. When I looked more closely at him, I saw that just like me, he had a tiny patch of freckles under each eye.

"They're all free," I said.

"Really? Can't imagine why," he said and sat down across from me. He extended his hand. "My name's Philip Cutler," he said.

"Cutler?" I pulled my hand back quickly.

"What's wrong?" His blue eyes sparkled wickedly. "Don't tell me some of those catty girls have warned you against me already?"

"No . . ." I turned and looked at the table of girls with Clara Sue at the center. They were all looking our way.

"I . . . your sister . . ."

"Oh, her. What'd she do?" His gaze darkened as he glanced back their way. I saw how it infuriated Clara Sue.

"She . . . blames me for getting her in trouble this morning in gym class. I . . . didn't you see me walking through the school in my gym uniform?"

"Oh, that was you? So you're the famous new girl—Dawn. I did hear about you, but I was so busy this morning, I didn't catch sight of you."

The way he smiled made me wonder if he was lying. Did Clara Sue put him up to this?