Clara was coughing.
“Blair?”
“Yeah, not good news.” Clara was standing at the back of the cafeteria, holding an unlit cigarette despite the noises she was making.
“Ugh, Clara give up already.” Abigail joined Alexis and took the cigarette from Clara’s hands, stomping it under one cowboy boot and grinding it into the sidewalk with a heel. “Sometimes I ask how we’re still friends.” She scowled.
“I’m at least being a friend to Alexis,” she gestured and then crossed her arms, “did you know that Blair Castell has made friendly overtures to Alexis?”
Abigail shrugged, “So?” She looped an arm through Alexis’s elbow and pulled her back to the cafeteria. “Aren’t you cold?”
When Alexis looked back, Clara was lighting a cigarette.
“I’m sorry if got you guys mad at each other,” Alexis began saying but Abigail shook her head.
“Estee and I were just talking about how to best tell you about Clara, but she’s not exactly a regular on the show anymore. She changed when we left the middle school building for the high school building. It just took Estee and me the better part of two months to figure out she wants this.” She jerked open the café door. “We have to let her go is all.”
Alexis followed her inside.
“Wait, what did you just say?” George was sitting at a table left out in the hallway while Felicity was rambling about her english paper.
“I said that Godot is God.” She hopped onto the table and lay down. “It’s a pretty slick metaphor for a junior high paper, I gotta say.”
“You don’t think it’s trite?”
She cocked her head toward him, “pardon me?”
“Sorry, never mind, pretend I didn’t—”
“Do you want me to explain?”
“The absurd is often an explination of dissatisfation with the work of the church and in this case Estragon is a perfect example of—”
“Whoa! Okay,” he jerked a pen out of his bag and slammed it onto the paper to catch up, “okay, continue. Estragon is?”
“Like Vlad the boring dude, Estragon is just waiting around for a messiah, someone who may or may not be coming.”
“I didn’t ask for the cliffnotes.”
“Do you want my paper summery or not?” She was sitting up again and glaring him down. “Hey Jonah!” She slid off the table and high fived Jonah as he came into the building. “I keep forgetting that you’re not in English with us anymore, we just watched the coolest—”
“I’m sure it was great, can you excuse me?” He pushed past her, “George, can I talk to you?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Not here.” They left for the boys room.
“And me?” Felicity asked the near empty hallway, just as Alexis came in.
“Pardon me.” Alexis ducked a wild arm of Felicity’s.
“Hey, new girl!”
Alexis turned.
“Can’t you see I’m monologuing here?”
“Spare me, I have class.” Alexis pulled a face and turned away.
“Meh meh meh meh.” Felicity made a face at her back.
“So, you went to a PS before you came here?” Blair asked.
“A catholic school actually.” Alexis answered, “but it was so secular. We had morning prayer, but it was optional. Most of us went because it was in our home rooms, such a minor deal, it wasn’t worth the effort to get up and come back.” She shrugged. “Have you been at this school since Kindergarten?”
“I actually moved here when I was in second grade.” Blair shrugged, “close enough, though. We were living in Newburgh before.”
“Oh.” Alexis said this like it meant something to her, she only knew Newburgh as a train stop.
“Anyway, I’m giving the interview.” Blair swatted at Alexis with her notepad.
“What has been your impression of Bear’s Claw so far?”
“It’s not at all the hicksville I was promised.”
“Was that on or off the record.”
“On the record. To tell the truth,” Alexis leaned forward in a confidential manner, “this is more than enough hicksville for me.”
Blair laughed, “Remind me to show you Quesigeeka sometime.”
“No, that’s okay.” She took a deep breath, “I miss New York, but I miss my best friend the most. More than I miss the civilation I was used to.” She looked out the window the rolling slope down into the small town from the high school building. “I mean, Bear’s Claw is nice, but the name doesn’t fit.”
“What do you mean?”
“It sounds way too rural. It doesn’t fit the kind of image the town tries to fit. Like a smaller, less-famous version of Sleepy Hollow.”
“I take it you haven’t seen much of the surrounding area then.”
“What do you mean?”
“This is the down town area, I live out on the county route, in a trailer park.”
“What, really?”
Blair lifted one shoulder nonchalantly, she began to blush and swept her braid over her other shoulder. “It’s just my mom and me, after all.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Why?” She met Alexis’s pitying look head on, “It’s always been that way. My dad wasn’t a good guy, so when he bailed my mom took it as good news.”
Alexis immediately found herself gauging the simple outfit that Blair was wearing, Blair laughed.
“Oh my god,” She began to giggle and pack up her things.
“What?”
“Are you looking for signs of distress and threadbare cloth?” She stood.
“No!”
“Maybe we should continue this some other time.”
“I’m sorry.” Alexis stood as well, “I’ve just never met someone who lives in a trailer park.”
“Well, we live in a mobile home, whatever difference that makes.”
“You’re not what I expected, and after what Clara said to me during free period…”
“What did Clara say.”
“She suggested I might not want to associate with you.” Alexis watched as Blair nodded in a self-defeated sort of way.
“And you thought—”
“I didn’t think anything. You seem fine to me. And I can judge people by myself.”
Blair nodded. “Looks like you can,” she slung her bag over her shoulder. “I’ll see you around.”
“Hey, hey, October.”
“Shut up, Bend-a-dick.”
Benedict stopped where he stood and recalled the image of being rained on. Would he never be able to speak to the black and white girl? His only hope for companionship?
Mrs. White was sitting and reading in the teacher’s lounge when Mr. Rivera burst in.
“I’m sorry to interrupt Sofie, but—”
“What?” She uncrossed her legs.
“There’s been a fight.”
She followed Mr. Rivera down the hall to the boys bathroom where a crowd had formed. Thompson Fish was standing in the doorway, as the quarter back and generally a beefy senior, he’d been responsible for keeping students out of the bathroom.
“Has the nurse come yet?”
Thompson shook his head.
Inside Dr. Howard was holding a blood soaked wad of cardboard texture hand towels to Jonah’s nose.
“What happened?” Mrs. White gasped.
“What’s he doing here?” Dr. Howard asked, sneering.
“Mrs. White was asked to accompany me. She is the only guidance counselor here today, Dr. Howard.” Mr. Rivera said.
Dr. Howard pushed the towels into Jonah’s face and he grabbed them with a groan. Dr. Howard’s heels clicked on the tile floor as she strode out.
“Boys, what did you do?” Mr. Rivera was kneeling in blood smears between Jonah and George who were leaning against the wall.
“It’s a fact that the face bleeds more than you might think is healthy, without actually causing damage.” George removed a hand from his eye which he had been cupping. “I’d like to wash my face, can I have a hand up?”
“We really need to talk about what you did. What happened?”
“I slipped on the floor and Jonah tried to catch me. His nose collided with the sink.” He gestured to the blood on the porcelain.
“There was yelling. You were seen ‘having words’.” Mr. Rivera actually made the air quotes, before standing with his hands on his hips. “Jonah?”
Jonah glanced at George on briefly before answering, “He slipped and I tried to catch him. I forgot that thing, that you shouldn’t catch a person, let them fall, but I just reacted.”
“I’d like you to come by after the nurse cleans you up.” Mrs. White helped George to his feet, he began to scoop water to his face and as the blood rinsed away, it became clear that the right side of his face was swelling. She dabbed at it and he winced.
“Hmm,” she frowned.
Mrs. Goldstein burst onto the scene, short hair in complete disarray. “What happened?” She went to Jonah and pulled his hands away from his face. “I’ll need to set it.” She told him.
“An accident.” Mr. Rivera said, and everyone turned to him. He shrugged. “I’ll go disperse the crowd then, shall I?”
“Hey, Blair!”
“Ciao!” Blair offered a polite smile from her seat in the back, “<we’re in Italian class. You have to say it in Italian.>”
Alexis fixed her with a blank stare.
“Ugh, fine.” Blair huffed. “Just be quick, I don’t want to lose credit because of you.”
“I want to apologize for how that sounded earlier.”
“I get it.”
“It’s just that when Clara said that—” she paused, “I’ve had some duplicitous friends in my past, and I’m new here—”
“I’m not duplicitous.”
“No, I know.” Alexis put out a hand and touched her arm. “I’m saying Clara is.”
“What?”
“I don’t know what she has against you, but you’ve only been nice to me, and I want to help you out with your assignment.”
“Sh, Signor Rossi.”
“I’ll text you.” Alexis whispered.
Blair nodded.
“Hello George.” Mrs. White stepped out of her office and peered into the hallway behind him, “where’s Jonah?” George shrugged.
“Come inside.” She held the door open for him and pulled a chair beside her desk. “Have a seat.” He sat. “I don’t want you to think I’m out to get you, you know me.” He nodded. “But I need to know what’s been going on with you and Jonah. This isn’t the first time you two have had issues. If I remember correctly, eighth grade was a tough time for you two.”
George remained silent.
Mrs. White leaned back in her chair and folded her hands in thought. “I’m offering you my ear, George. I’m not asking you to expose everything, blab or whatever is going on.”
She waited for a long moment while he studied his hands.
“I know how hard it can be to bottle things out, and lashing is the last thing you want. The next time it might not be Jonah, and then what will you do? You’ll have to face something worse than sitting around with a bossy lady who wants to help you.”
He looked up at her.
“You have to understand, I only want to help. I’m not doing this for any other reason.”
George swallowed, licked his lips and finally spoke. “Maybe I can get Jonah to come by another time. I’ll let you know if I need to talk.”
She nodded. “That sounds okay.”
“Bye, Mrs. White.” He stood and didn’t look back. “Have a nice afternoon.”
October dropped her key into the tray on the table in the front hall and let herself relax. She felt as though she’d been holding something inside herself and could finally expose a secret that was hurting her to keep.
“Head’s up.” Claude came out of the bedroom area, and was swiftly followed by actual footsteps. October grabbed for the keys again.
“October!” A stocky man, unshaven since yesterday, came in and she dropped the keys again.
“Richard!” She hugged him and he laughed.
“You look as though you’ve seen a ghost,” he said and swept her bangs to one side of her face, “pale as ever.” He pinched one of her cheeks and hugged her again.
“God, I was not expecting you—”
“Of course not, it was a surprise.”
“I could have stabbed you, you should be more careful.”
“You’re still not strong enough.” He gestured for her to follow him into the kitchen, glancing at her as she crossed the thresh-hold, “still anemic?”
She shrugged, “still a doctor?” He laughed. “You really dropped out, then?”
He got out a cutting board and began to collect things from the fridge and pantry.
“Rick.” She leaned on the counter top and watched his back as he washed and cut vegetables in silence.
Claude wafted in, “He’s already argued with your parents on the phone. I can fill you in later if you want.” He watched her.
“It’s cold, can you pass me that sweater?” Was all Richard would say.
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