Phoenix Rises

Chapter 8 Dust to Dust

It was the beginning of April 2005 and only a couple months were left in my sophomore year of high school. "I hope I am able to make friends easily" I thought to myself. I packed up my new binder and school schedule and made my way down the hallways to the P.E. class that was being held in a large gymnasium.

"Hey! My name is Leah. What's yours?" A tall brunette girl said to me as we lined the wall of the gymnasium.

"I'm Phoenix and I just moved here with my sister Anna" I replied.

"Well, it's good to meet you. This is my friend Krista" Leah said pointing over to her red-haired friend that was standing next to her.

"And my name is Kelly" another girl chimed in with the others. Kelly had long dark hair and wore a lot of eye make-up. "She is very pretty" I thought to myself. The four of us sat together chatting until gym class was over and then it was time for lunch.

"Why don't we walk over to my house for lunch? I can introduce you to my boyfriend Danny and his mother Christina" I said, at the time I thought this was a wonderful idea, and I was happy to be making friends so quickly.

We walked into Christinas' small home that was set on the corner of a street called "Mirabeau" and I cheerily announced, "Hey mama! These are my new friends, Kelly, Leah, and Krista."

To my surprise, Christina shushed me and asked me to be quiet. She was annoyed and I wasn't sure what I had done wrong. So, with that we made ourselves some sandwiches and then headed back to class.

We had a good lunch, but I was still bothered, and a bit let down by Christinas' reaction to me bringing friends by. I thought that she would be happy for me, but she seemed rather annoyed instead. When I got home after school, I would soon find out what had gone wrong.

"Jerry works third shift. You can't be bringing friends by in the middle of the afternoon," Christina asked of me.

"I'm sorry mama, I didn't know. I was just excited to have made some friends." I replied.

Something was still off about this whole interaction, and I couldn't figure out what it was. It wasn't long before I was downstairs in the basement that we had turned into a bedroom when I heard Christina and Jerry in the upstairs kitchen speaking to one another.

"You should have asked me before you agreed to bring two wild teenagers into the home" Jerry said. He was clearly unhappy and out of the know.

"I'm sorry but where else were they going to go." Christina replied.

"I don't know, maybe their family should have taken them in. You ever think about that! It's not our responsibility!" he demanded.

"Well, it's too late now. I've already been granted guardianship." She said.

My heart sank a little bit. Wishing that I didn't hear everything I had just heard. As it turned out, Anna and I were in a home that we were not fully welcomed in. Jerry was Christinas long-time live-in boyfriend and not someone that I wanted to find myself in competition with. Christina would never side with us over him, that much I already knew would be true.

The next afternoon as I was walking in from school the phone rang, and since I was the only one in the kitchen, I picked it up and answered. It was Jay, and he was pissed.

"Why did you call children services on us?" he demanded.

I was shocked. I had done no such thing and didn't know what the hell he was talking about. "I didn't call Child Services on you!" I yelled.

Jay continued to yell over the phone, not even letting me get a word in. After some back and forth he set the phone down. I could hear wrestling and crying in the background. After a moment my sister Nichole picked up the phone and said, "Why would you do this to me dude." She was crying, and I realized what had happened.