Elm Creek: A Readymade Family, Volume 2

🌺5🌺

FIVE

November 1992

When the final bell rang shrilly in the sixth-grade classroom, chair legs scraped the floor as students pushed back from their tables and stood. In frantic movements, books and papers were shoved into their bags and feet rushed to the door. Mrs. Brooks’ reminder to walk in a line was lost in the din of footsteps and voices.

Charity, preferring not to be crushed by the crowd, remained in her seat and watched. She’d been pushed down and almost stepped on once. Once was one time too many. While most of her classmates stampeded to the door, bringing to mind the cattle stampedes she’d seen on some of the westerns her father liked to watch, she calmly and methodically gathered and organized her belongings and put them into her purple school bag.

As she straightened, she noticed Jake leaning over her shoulder too late and their heads collided. Wincing in pain, she shoved his head away and tenderly rubbed her sore spot.

“What were you doing?” she groaned. “That hurt.”

“Sorry,” he said as he rubbed his head. “I was about to ask you if you wanted to go get some ice cream on our way home.” He gestured to Missy, standing at her desk and watching them. “But then you moved.”

“Figures that Jake would bump heads with someone,” Missy remarked with an amused grin. “He’s such a klutz.”

Jake grinned and used his index finger to push his silver-framed glasses up his nose. It had been just this year that it had been discovered he needed glasses. “So, what about it? Wanna go for ice cream?”

Charity slipped her arms through the straps of her school bag and smiled. The news of a potential treat was welcome. “Sure.”

“Sweet,” he said. “I have enough money for all three of us.”

“Great,” Charity said.

Save for the three longtime friends, the classroom was now empty. Even the teacher had left. After they had all gathered their belongings and picked up their bags, they exited in a line and headed down the hallways, no longer crowded with the groups of students, frantic to make their escape at the first ring of the bell. Now just a few students as well as some teachers and other staff members walked the halls on their way to the open doors.

When the three friends reached the gates, a long, sleek black limousine was parked before it. Just as they stepped out, the door opened and Kevin emerged from the backseat, a charming smile in place.

“Hey, Charity. Want a ride home?”

Since Charity had started walking to school and back home with her friends instead of her mother when she was nine, Kevin always dropped by to offer her a ride home. Those appearances seemed to make her friends uncomfortable, but she didn’t have the heart to tell him to stop. However, except for some isolated incidents when she was too weak to refuse, she never accepted. Her father’s instructions were firm—she wasn’t allowed to get in Kevin’s ride, especially not alone.

Charity didn’t understand her father’s feelings when it came to Kevin. David, Jake’s brother, was the same age, but she was allowed to be alone with him frequently. He’d been her designated babysitter since her mother started working two years ago. Though she didn’t understand her father’s reasons and didn’t agree that Kevin wasn’t trustworthy, she still usually listened.

Jake and Missy both frowned, their usual reaction to seeing Kevin. She didn’t understand their avid dislike of Kevin either, but he didn’t always appeal to other children. He could be mean sometimes. Charity wished all of her friends would get along, though.