With my books and notebooks in one hand, I strut down the middle of the hallway, scanning for two specific people. By the end of today, I’ll either have failed, succeeded or done a little of both, and I’ll possibly have been suspended.
I’m good with any of those options—as long as I get Stella back in my life.
At the corner of the senior hallway, I spot two people, and one has his hand on the waist of someone he should be easily eight feet away from. I intended to talk to him alone, but I don’t mind having an audience. Dropping onah one my books to the floor, I grab Cooper by the collar of his shirt and slam him into the locker.
“Jonah!” my sister yells, but she can keep shouting. I’m not letting go.
“Call Stella ‘Trash Can Girl’ again and I’ll beat the hell out of you. In fact, call her or anyone else anything ever again and I’ll do the same. I’m done saying nothing. I’m done letting you treat people like crap. Do you hear me?”
Cooper’s eyes widen to the point that they threaten to fall out. “Let me go, Jonah.”
I have to work each muscle to force my fingers to release and when I do, Cooper sags against the lockers, but his voice contains violence. “I thought we were friends.”
“So did I. In fact, for years I thought you were a man, but you’re not. A man wouldn’t treat anyone the way you treat other people.”
He smoothes out his shirt and glares. “You’re the one destroying this. You’re the one throwing everything away over a girl.”
“You knew Stella meant something to me weeks ago. That’s why you began riding her again. A real friend wouldn’t have done that. A real friend would have welcomed her. And a real friend...” I lean into him. “Wouldn’t be trying to get into my sister’s pants.”
“Jonah!” Martha shout-whispers. She glances around. People keep walking, but they’re gaping. It’s obvious things aren’t okay, but our voices are low enough that we could be fighting about the weather.
I round on her. “I can’t stop you from seeing him. You’re so stubborn you’ll do what you want, but he hurts people. He hurts girls. I can give you a list a mile long and tell you each line he gave to them that he’s probably giving to you, too.”
Cooper shrinks under my stare and I soften my voice when I talk to Martha again. “I wish you wouldn’t, but I can’t stop you.”
The pure menace radiating from my younger sister is undeniable. She can hate me, but I need her to know that she has what Stella never did: a place to fall. “And if he hurts you or if anyone else hurts you...you have me.”
It feels unnatural, but I hug my sister. Her arms are limp at her sides, but she doesn’t push me away.
“Remember, you have me,” I repeat.
Martha slowly wraps her arms around my waist, reminding me of the conversation we had weeks ago in the driveway at home. “I was so scared that you had died that night.”
“I know.” I was terrified of the same thing. “But I’m here and I’m alive.”
24
Stella
My fingers tap repeatedly against the arm of the plastic chair in the main office’s waiting room.
“Stella?” The receptionist peers at me from the other side of her desk. “Mrs. Collins could be a while. Why don’t you go to your first period class and I’ll pull you when she’s done?”
And face Jonah again? “No. I’ll wait.”
Magically, the door to her office opens. Out walks a girl who clutches a tissue and looks like a bucket of water has been tossed onto her face. For real? People actually fall for her shrink routine?
Mrs. Collins’s eyes land on me and she has enough grace to wait until the girl leaves the office before speaking to me. “Hello, Stella.”
“I need you to put me on the co-op track today.”
She waves her hand for me to enter and I accept the bait. I collapse into the guest seat and lean back. This should be fast and painless. The clock shows ten more minutes of first period. I can easily make my new second period class.
Instead of going to the other side of her desk like I expect her to, she sits on the corner and folds her arms over her chest. “I thought we had an agreement. I was going to complete the paperwork to get the position at Dave’s Automall approved and you were going to weigh your choices.”
“I thought about it and I want to take the co-op track.”
“I haven’t had enough time to get Dave’s Automall approved yet.”
“Twenty bucks says that’s not the problem.”
She assesses me like I’ve figured her out. I’ll admit to feeling a bit smug and I’m not ashamed to let it show.
“Hold your hands out,” she says.
Uh... “What?”
“Your hands. Hold them out.”
I slowly outstretch my arms. Mrs. Collins picks up a huge stack of papers and folders and drops it like a ton of bricks onto my hands. It’s so heavy my arms give way and it all lands in my lap. “What are you doing?”
“If you don’t feel like you can apply to a major college or university, which I disagree with, then we start with community colleges. You’ll work on your associate degree then move on to another school for your Bachelor’s. That stack has every scholarship application and financial aid document I could find last night and I guarantee with a few more phone calls, I can find more.”
No thoughts. Not a one. Other than somehow the power in the room just shifted.
In her knee-length skirt, Mrs. Collins crouches so that she’s at my level. “You can do this, and I want you to let me help you. I’ll admit it can be daunting and not always easy, but together we can figure it out.”
My heart pauses because I’m on the verge of going places in my mind that I shouldn’t. “I need the job.”
“And you’ll have it. I talked to Dave. They’re hiring for a new position, which means they not only need someone during the day, but in the evening and on weekends as well. It won’t be easy, Stella. I’ll never promise you easy, but lots of people work full-time jobs and go to school. It’s not the traditional way, but...” She smiles as she looks at my hair. “Something tells me you’re okay with nontraditional.”
I don’t know what to say so I say nothing.
“Let me help you,” she says. “I want to help.”
The papers threaten to spill to the ground, but I catch them before they can leave my hands. “You say that now...” I think of Dad and all of the girlfriends of Christmases past. “But I’ll stop being new and shiny and then you’ll find another kid in this school to pick on.”