Family Storms (30 page)

“Trust me, you're dynamite. Now let's go find a reason to explode,” she said. Her phone rang. “We'll be right down,” she said, and hung up. “They're pulling in. Let's go.”

We almost left the house without anyone knowing, but Mrs. Duval spotted us just as we reached the front door. “Where are you going?” she asked, hurrying toward us. “Your parents will definitely be home for dinner,” she added.

“We're going to Disneyland with friends, Mrs. Duval. Didn't I mention it this morning?”

“No, you didn't.”

“Didn't I? I'm sorry. We probably won't make it back in time for dinner. I'll call you if we can.”

Before Mrs. Duval could respond, Kiera opened the door and shouted at Ricky and the others as they pulled up to the front of the mansion. She grabbed my hand to pull
me out, and I looked back at Mrs. Duval. She gazed at me and shook her head as if I were about to step off the edge of a cliff.

It made me hesitate but only for a moment. The boys were howling as we stepped out.

“Who's that foxy girl with you, Kiera?” Ricky called.

The laughter and shouting replaced my worry with excitement. It hadn't been that long ago that I was desperate on a street.
Now look at yourself,
I thought.

You're a foxy girl.

23
Happiest Place on Earth

K
iera decided that I should sit up front with Ricky since this was my first trip to Disneyland. On the way, everyone argued about the best rides and events. The boys liked Pirates of the Caribbean the most, and the girls favored Alice in Wonderland. I was surprised to hear that most of them had been there a dozen times at least. Because I didn't want to look and sound like some wide-eyed, dazzled child, I didn't want to say it, but I felt like Alice in Wonderland when we arrived and started down Main Street.

I was surprised at the attention I was receiving. Everyone wanted to show me something he or she liked. I was rushed along from one ride to another. Whether or not Kiera had coached the others about making me feel wanted, I did feel like part of their group and as if I had been for some time. Ricky was especially attentive and sat with me on every ride, especially Autopia. Boyd and Margot were right behind us in their car, deliberately bumping
us every chance they had, but it was all great fun. I had never laughed and screamed so much.

After lunch, we went to Indiana Jones and then to Alice in Wonderland. Both Ricky and Boyd were ecstatic when I voted with them on best attraction and created a tie. The girls weren't upset. We joked about it and finished the day by going to the 3-D show of
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
I had not even looked at the time once and was shocked to see that it was nearly six-thirty. There was no question now that we would not be home for dinner. Kiera didn't seem at all nervous or upset about it. On the way home, we stopped at one of Deidre's favorite restaurants. By the time Ricky drove through the Marches' gate, it was nearly nine-fifteen.

No one worried about doing homework. In fact, nothing about school had been mentioned all day until Ricky said he'd see me the next day at school. Kiera and I got out and watched them drive off. I felt exhausted, but it was a happy sort of exhaustion that I would welcome again and again. I thanked Kiera. She had paid for everything for me, of course.

“Ricky seems to genuinely like you,” she commented as we opened the door. “He's usually very critical of younger girls.”

I basked in the compliment, but only for an instant, because Mrs. March came marching out of the living room with a look of anger I had not seen before.

“Earthquake coming,” Kiera whispered.

“How dare you keep Sasha out all day and have her miss dinner?” she began. “Your father is too angry to come out of his office.”

“She didn't miss dinner. We stopped on the way home.”

“I don't mean that, and you know I don't mean that, Kiera. We worked out our travel schedule so we could have dinner together when we returned. And why didn't you answer your cell phone? Either of you?” she asked, looking at me.

“I didn't have mine with me,” I said.

“Come to think of it, neither did I,” Kiera said. “Everyone I wanted to talk to today was with us, anyway.”

That brought blood into Mrs. March's face. For a moment, rage choked her throat, and she couldn't speak. Then she looked at me again. “What are you wearing? Where did you get those clothes?”

“They're mine,” Kiera said.

“I never saw them before. Those shorts are inappropriate.”

“Please, Mother, don't be a prude.”

“And they're surely not warm enough.”

“They were,” Kiera said. “We weren't exactly on a hiking and camping outing. Can we go upstairs now? We both have homework.”

“I'm very disappointed,” Mrs. March said, stepping back. She was saying it mostly to me.

“You wouldn't have been if you had come along. Disneyland was great today. The lines weren't that long and …”

“Go to your room, Kiera. We'll discuss this tomorrow,” Mrs. March said.

I lowered my head and followed Kiera to the stairway.

“My father's not as angry as she claims he is,” she whispered as we went up. “Otherwise, he'd be out here, too.”

I didn't say anything. The look of disappointment on Mrs. March's face was not only sobering, it was a little frightening. Maybe now all her of kindness and generosity would end. Perhaps she no longer saw me as being as good and as nice as her Alena. If anyone had told me months ago that I would fear being sent away, I would have practically laughed because it seemed such a ridiculous possibility. How could I ever get to care much about being with the girl who was driving the car that night or the family that protected her? All of the gifts, the money, the clothes, and the wonderful new school would not buy my forgiveness.

“Don't worry,” Kiera said, seeing my silence and concern. “She won't be as angry tomorrow. That's the way she is.”

“I'd better finish my homework,” I said, and hurried to my bedroom.

When I entered it, I felt even worse. It was as if I had let down Alena as much as Mrs. March.
I thought you were going to be me for my mother,
her picture said to me.
I'd never have done that.

Looking at myself in Kiera's clothes suddenly disgusted me. I took them off as quickly as I could and put on one of Alena's nightgowns before getting to my homework. It took me so long to finish that there was no time to practice the clarinet. I was so bleary-eyed by then anyway that I couldn't stay awake and, in fact, overslept.

Mrs. March came in to wake me. “You'll have to rush,” she said, and then she just left without another word.

I got up quickly. I could hear her yelling in Kiera's bedroom, and a door slammed. I dressed as fast as I could and hurried down to breakfast. Mr. March apparently had left
already. Mrs. March was at the table but had her head in her hands, her elbows on the table, and didn't look up when I entered.

“I want you to be sure to come directly home after school today,” she said, still looking down at the table. “Do not permit Kiera to talk you into coming home with her and sending Grover back without you.” She raised her head. “She wants you to go back and forth to school with her, but I refuse to permit it. In fact, I don't want you riding with her anywhere unless I specifically say. Understand, Sasha?”

“Yes.”

“I don't know what went on here exactly while I was away, but I'm not pleased,” she concluded.

“I'm sorry,” I said.

Kiera sauntered in and poured herself a cup of coffee. “They're still making the coffee too weak,” she told her mother after sipping some.

“I think you have more important things to think about than the strength of your coffee, Kiera.”

“We just went to Disneyland, Mother. Don't make it into a federal case.”

Mrs. March narrowed her eyes. “Rein yourself in, Kiera. You're heading for another major disaster,” she warned.

Kiera smirked and nibbled on a pastry. Then she just threw it down, got up, and left. Mrs. March didn't say anything, even to me.

I finished, got my things, and hurried out to the limousine. After being with Kiera and her friends, hearing their laughter and seeing their joy, it was even more depressing to be alone in the big vehicle. If anything, it made me feel
as if I had shrunken again and was back to being the mousy little girl with a limp.

After homeroom, I dreaded walking into Mr. Denacio's class. The moment I took out the clarinet, his eyes shifted with suspicion. I hadn't played for more than thirty seconds before he stopped me.

“You didn't practice at all, did you?”

“No,” I said.

He didn't say anything. He nodded and went to the next student, but that sort of quiet reaction of his was worse. I felt his disappointment and his conclusion that I was finally like most of the others and would not be anyone special after all. It was like almost getting to the top of a mountain and then sliding all the way back down. I wanted to cry. I tried to be enthusiastic for the remainder of the period but couldn't get my energy level up and was happy when the bell rang.

I wasn't as alert in any of my morning classes as I usually was and actually went into a daydream during math. I missed the entire explanation of a problem, and when called upon, I didn't know where we were in the lesson. There, too, my teacher didn't reprimand me. He just looked at me as if I had let him down and went on to another student. By the time lunch period came around, I felt as if I had stepped in quicksand and was nearly in it above my head. I certainly had no appetite.

But before I could settle into my funk and cry to myself, Ricky grabbed my arm. “We're eating outside,” he said.

I looked at him with surprise. It was one thing to do things with Kiera and her friends on the weekend, but for
them to want me with them at school, too, was quite another. My classmates and the girls with whom I usually sat looked up with as much surprise as I had when I filled my tray and followed Ricky out to their table.

He made a place for me, and I sat beside him.

“Why so sad a face?” Margot asked immediately.

“Not that it's any of your business, but my mother gave us a hard time for missing dinner with her and my father last night,” Kiera said quickly. “I suppose that's still bothering her.”

“Hey, don't mope, Sasha. It was worth it,” Boyd said. “It was the best time I've had there.”

That started us all reviewing the day at Disneyland. Before I knew it, I felt upbeat and happy again, especially with the way they were including me in everything they said. When the bell rang, Ricky helped me with my tray, and we walked out of the cafeteria together. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the way Charlotte Harris, Jessica Taylor, and Sydney Woods were watching us. When Ricky and I parted in the hallway, they approached me quickly before I entered class.

“How come Ricky Burns is so interested in you?” Charlotte asked.

“Did you go out with him?” Sydney followed before I could answer.

I looked at the three of them. When I first came to the school and met them, I was of no interest. They mocked my limping and never thought to invite me to anything once I didn't invite them to the March mansion. They rarely said a word or sent a smile my way.

“Who's Ricky Burns?” I asked, and went into the
classroom, leaving them stone-faced behind me. I laughed to myself.

When I sat and looked back, they were in deep conversation among themselves and Lisa Dirk, my first-day big sister who had had nothing much to do with me thereafter. They all looked my way, and I smiled at them.

I did much better in my afternoon classes. Before my last class, Kiera tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I wanted to go with her after school. “We're heading to the Century City Mall.”

I hadn't told her that her mother had forbidden me to ride with her without her specific permission and didn't want to do it now and start her on some tirade.