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chapter forty-nine bravado
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"When I had you to myself, I didn't want you around!" says six-year-old Holly Wheeler. Her voice has a childish lisp, but she refuses to let that stop her from singing the Jackson 5 song. "Those pretty faces always made you stand out in the crowd."
Rue watches Holly twirl around the pink room, almost tripping over the doll playhouse. Rue's lips twist into a grin as she sits on the rainbow carpet in Holly's bedroom, her fingers tapping on the floor with the beat of the music.
"Is that your favourite song?" She asked because it had been the tenth time Holly had begged her to start it from the beginning since she walked in.
Holly spots dancing abruptly and pushes her hair out of her flushed face. She turns to Rue with a flushed face and giggles, "Duh!
Mrs. Wheeler had left the house for brunch with her book club friends roughly half an hour after Nancy and Robin had gone to Pennhurst Asylum to carry out their plan. Ted Wheeler was meant to be watching Holly, but he had fallen asleep in the living room, and Holly had become tired of watching cartoons on TV. The girl had visited the basement and found Steve, Dustin, Lucas, and Rue huddled on the couch.
Rue fidgets with the music player Nancy had given her while the three boys stare holes into the back of Max Mayfield's head. Rue is the first to notice Holly coming slowly into the basement, and she waves to the small girl standing at the stairway.
Holly waved back and beckoned Rue to follow her before dashing back up the stairs. Rue listened and found herself in Holly's bedroom, watching after the little girl while her ballerina music player blasted I Want You Back on loop for the past half hour.
