Tianna the Terrible (Anika Scott Series) (12 page)

Esther Miller grabbed the other end, and we got busy cleaning up.

Muthoni found Tianna's chow tin on the floor. One side was all dented in. She picked it up, turned it over, and said, "I bet she got up and took this into the bathroom because she was hungry. Then she found the note and got mad."

"Did she ever!" I said.

Just then Mr. Jackson marched Tianna and Sabrina back in. "Tianna," he said, "this kind of behavior is completely unacceptable here, no matter what the provocation. Is that clear?"

Tianna nodded and gave Sabrina a dirty look through her bangs.

Mr. Jackson stood and watched until everyone was in bed, then said, "For Pete's sake, get back to sleep!" and left, slamming the door.

"That man washed out my mouth for swearing!" hissed Tianna. "I'll kill him!"

"Shhh!" half the people in the room shushed. I lay in the dark, as stiff as a board, wishing I was back home with Mom and Daddy.

For breakfast the next morning we had birdseed. Well, it was really hot cereal, but it looked like birdseed, so that's what we called it. I like it. It's bumpy and warm in your mouth and tastes kind of like nuts.

Tianna picked up a spoonful and let it drip off in little globs. Then she did it again, lifting her spoon even higher.

"This stuff is gross!" she said, blobbing her spoon up and down on the top of her cereal. "I can't believe you're eating it."

Lisa giggled. "That's what I thought, too," she said, taking a bite from her bowl. "Actually, it's not as bad as it looks. It's better than glue or fingernails."

"They feed you glue and fingernails?" Tianna said in a squeak.

We laughed, and I said, "Wait and see."

Tianna had made me late for breakfast. She wouldn't get out of bed, and when she finally did she just pulled some clothes on and didn't brush her hair. It was a good thing I'd read Galatians 6:2 like Mom had suggested, otherwise I probably would have just left.

The first verse of the chapter had been talking about what to do when somebody else was being bad. It said we should gently try to help them do right. Then it said, "Share each other's troubles and problems, and so obey our Lord's command."

"Come on, Tianna, brush your hair," I had said. "Your mom can't see you here, and it's Sunday."

"Mind your own business," she had snapped and headed for the door.

Lisa, Muthoni, and Amy had saved us a place at their table, so it could have been worse.

After breakfast we walked up to Sunday school. The sun was shining, and I looked up at the dark green hill high above us. The bright edge of a white cloud showed above the top of the hill. It was so pretty against the deep blue sky. I spun and walked backwards to look at the valley. The wind blew the ends of my now-short hair into my face.

Amy giggled. "This wind makes me feel like I have no hair."

I laughed and shook my head so my hair flew around. "My hair's like a horse's mane," I said, running and picking my feet up really high like I was trotting.

"Race you to the fig tree," Muthoni yelled, and took off at a dead run. I quit trotting and tore after her. Her thin brown legs flashed, and she beat me by two steps.

Muthoni and I were still laughing and breathing hard when we went in to Sunday school. Lisa, Tianna, and Amy came in a couple seconds later when we were already singing, "Praise the Name of Jesus." I liked that song and I sang with all my might. "He's my rock…" My hands stung from the clapping. "He's my fortress, he's my deliverer, in him will I trust…"

I remembered how God had kept Lisa and me safe several months before. We'd been swimming in the ocean and had gotten caught in Mida Creek, a very strong current that can grab you and carry you away from shore before you even know it. We'd been carried pretty far—I could still remember how scared we were. But God had been watching over us, and we made it to shore, and back home, safely.

I looked over at Lisa, and she saw me and grinned. Then I looked at Tianna. She was just standing there with her mouth shut. For a minute I thought she was just being mean. Then it hit me that she probably didn't know any of the songs.

As soon as the song was over, Miss Garrett stood up to teach. She's a bossy old lady with legs that look like cigars. Once she gave Darren Brown a demerit for chewing gum. "We have a new student in our class this morning," she said, "but before I introduce her, I'm going to ask her to go and brush her hair." There was a shocked silence, and I slid way down in my seat. Nobody moved.

"Well," said Miss Garrett, glaring at Tianna. "Are you intending to be insubordinate as well as sloppy? At VCA we don't come to Sunday school with our hair looking like a rat's nest."

A couple of boys giggled. Tianna got up and bolted from the room. She didn't come back.

Miss Garrett cornered me right after class. "You realize," she said, leaning over me, her perfume nearly smothering me, "that I meant no harm. Your cousin must understand we have standards of behavior here."

I squirmed and jerked my head in a nod. I had to get out of there and find Tianna.

"That's fine, then," Miss Garrett said, patting my shoulder. "You'll tell her for me. I won't report her for missing Sunday school."

I nodded again and ran.

Lisa, Muthoni, and Amy were waiting for me in a little knot on the porch.

"I've got to find Tianna," I said, pushing past them.

"I know," said Amy. "We'll help. We were just waiting for you. Muthoni and I will search around here. Lisa, you look beside the path and stuff."

"I'll go to the dorm," I said and took off, then stopped to yank off my Sunday shoes and socks so I could run faster. The
slap, slap
my bare feet made on the packed dirt of the path sounded loud as I ran downhill.

"Looking for a rat's nest?" Sabrina Oats called as I tore by her and some other kids. Their laughter followed me as I ran.

Tianna was sitting on her bed, stuffing things into a gym bag. "I'm getting out of here," she said as soon as I walked in.

"Miss Garrett said to tell you she was sorry," I said.
Well, she did, sort of,
I told myself. Besides, I had to calm Tianna down.

"Everybody hates me," she half yelled. "Mr. Jackson washed my mouth out with soap. They feed me glop and humiliate me, and that Sabrina Oats geek stole my food." She glared at me. "So tell me why I should stay."

"Lisa, Muthoni, and Amy don't hate you," I said. "They're trying to be your friends. So am I. And Jesus loves you, too. Besides, where would you go?"

There was a long pause, then she said, "I guess you're right." She shrugged and looked down. After a second she looked up, shook her hair out of her eyes, and almost yelled, "I'm telling you right now, if it doesn't get better, I'll find a way to get out of here!" She looked at me for a second, then frowned. "You wouldn't tell me how to get out of here even if you knew, would you?"

"I don't really know, anyway," I said, looking away from her. I didn't, not exactly. "Besides, if you tried to fit in a little it wouldn't be so bad here. All you need to do is brush your hair, and don't swear, and clean up when we're supposed to, and junk."

"Don't you bug me, too," she said and walked out. She went and sat at the edge of the yard and looked down over the valley.

When I followed her, she said, "Leave me alone, OK?"

"You sure you're all right?" I asked.

She nodded and looked straight ahead, so I left her. Back inside I looked at her messy bed. The part of the verse that said, "Help each other with your troubles," ran through my mind.

OK, Jesus, I'll try.
Then I started to make Tianna's bed.

Tianna came back in just as I was finishing. She gave me a funny look, then went over and got her brush out. She stood there holding it, not brushing her hair.

Sabrina Oats walked in. "Hi, Rat's Nest," she said. "I know, I'll just call you Rat for short. Bitten anyone lately?"

"I told you last night not to hassle me," Tianna said, swinging around to face Sabrina. "I meant it, ditz brain."

"Tsk, tsk,"
said Sabrina. "The beast is becoming enraged."

Esther Miller interrupted. "Sabrina, don't. It's not funny."

My mouth fell open. Esther Miller was standing up to

Sabrina Oats! Sabrina whirled on her. "Stay out of this," she said, her voice low and mean.

"Sabrina," Esther said, "don't bug her, please."

"What's the matter, you afraid of her? Well, I'm not afraid of that," Sabrina said, jerking her head toward Tianna.

"I'm not scared," said Esther. "It's just that we're supposed to be Christians and she isn't and she's here all by herself." Esther said it all in a rush, with her shoulders hunched and her head down.

Sabrina flushed and ducked her head. Then she blurted, "I thought you were my friend," and left the room.

"Thanks, Esther," I said.

Esther gave me a nervous smile, then said, "I've got to find Sabrina."

"'We're Christians and she isn't,'" said Tianna in a singsong voice. "If Sabrina Oats is a Christian, she can keep it."

I squirmed. "It's not like that. I mean, being a Christian doesn't mean you're perfect all of a sudden. It means, like, you want to belong to Jesus, and he loves you and forgives you and helps you do the right thing."

"Like Sabrina Oats making fun of me?" Tianna demanded, yanking the brush though her hair.

"No," I said, "like Esther standing up for you, or Lisa deciding to be your friend even after you took her bed—"

"
I
didn't do that," Tianna interrupted.

"I know, it was Mrs. Jackson. But if you decided to be a Christian…" I stopped and swallowed hard, watching Tianna to see if she'd be mad.

She stopped brushing her hair and said, "Well?"

"If you did, it wouldn't mean you'd never do dumb things. But you would know that Jesus is taking care of you, and that makes things OK when you're lonely and your mom and daddy are so far away, or when people make fun of you, or when you do something wrong or just really stupid. Jesus helps you change."

"I wish he'd hurry up with Sabrina Oats, then," she said and jerked the brush savagely through her hair. She threw the brush down and shook her head so her bangs were back in her face. "Come on," she said. "It must be almost lunchtime. Let's go try the glue, or is it fingernails this time?"

I laughed and said, "No, those are for breakfast. Maybe they'll give us garbage patties for lunch."

She gave me such a horrified look that it made me laugh even harder. On the way up the hill, we met Muthoni and Amy coming down. "You found her!" said Amy.

"I couldn't believe Miss Garrett," said Muthoni.

"You're from here, aren't you?" Tianna interrupted, looking at Muthoni.

"No, from Nairobi," Muthoni said.

"Well, if you wanted to get out of here, would you know how?"

I shook my head at Muthoni, but she didn't see me.

She just gave Tianna a funny look and said, "Take a matatu up and catch a bus at Kishengo."

"What's a 'matatum,' or whatever?" asked Tianna, "and where do you get one?"

"It's a truck, and you catch them down by the hospital," Muthoni said. Then she stopped, put her hands on her hips, and demanded, "Why are you asking me these things?"

"No reason," said Tianna and ran ahead. Things seemed to go better after that. Tianna even brushed her hair, made her bed, and got to breakfast on time the next day. Monday afternoon we finished the fort, and Tianna actually seemed to like it.

Then everything fell apart at recess on Tuesday.

I was sitting at my desk finishing some math corrections that Mr. George said we had to get done before we could go out. I looked out the window at the sunshine on the top of the wild olive tree below our classroom and then back at my paper. I erased a wrong answer and tried to think. I could hear kids out on the porch, laughing and running.

A voice outside rose to a yell, and a couple of other voices joined it. I held still and listened.

"Rat's Nest is chicken! Rat's Nest is chicken!" a couple of boys' voices chanted.

I stood up to see out the window better. Trevor Norton shoved Tianna toward the big rope swing that was hanging from a branch of the wild olive tree. Tianna whirled and slugged him hard in the stomach.

She swore at the group, then yelled, "Mind your own business."

I ran for the door.

"Careful! Rat bites!" I heard Sabrina Oats yell. "Rabid rat bites."

I got outside just as Tianna ran at Sabrina and shoved her hard. Sabrina went backward, down the hill, and started screaming—a high, different scream than when she had been teasing Tianna.

A scream that didn't quit.

Chapter Ten

I reached the edge of the hill and looked down. Sabrina was still screaming. She was lying on her side, partway down the hill. Mr. George came running and bent down over Sabrina, who moaned, "My arm! My arm!"

The kids were in a big circle all around. Tianna, her hair over her face and her big blue eyes full of fear, looked down the hill at Mr. George and Sabrina. I went toward her, and Mr. George looked up and saw me.