You Are My Sunshine

Chapter 7

Fallon awoke to singing.

"The window is open so's that door! I didn't know they did that anymore! Who knew we owned eight thousand salad plaaates...." She heard dull thumps as Gabby danced around the room. Obviously the little girl had gotten all the benefits of a full night's sleep, despite her nightmare. Fallon most certainly had not. Her brain was foggy and her temples pounded. She felt cheated. She deserved at least another two hours of sleep, and now she would have to get up and go to school.

It was all Gabby's fault, she thought savagely.

She hauled her protesting body into a sitting position and dug her knuckles into her eyes. They felt like someone had rubbed sand into them. She glared at the sight of her cousin dancing around the carpet in her rumpled Disney Princess pajamas.

"Don't know if I'm elated or gassy, but I'm somewhere in that zone- hey, you're awake!" she said brightly, noticing that Fallon was sitting up and glaring at her.

"Must you sing that song?" the teenager grouched.

"Well," said Gabby, considering, "I guess I could do When Will my Life Begin? Because that's another good morning song, but I kind of woke up and thought of this one first. Hey, do you have any Disney songs memorized? Because your mommy said you knew like, all of them and I could really use someone to sing them with."

"My mommy, like, doesn't know what she's talking about," said Fallon, her voice laden with sarcasm.

Gabby slumped, disappointed. "But I thought-"

"I don't sing." Fallon rolled slowly out of bed and shuffled past her cousin to the closet. Her manner and tone indicated that the matter was closed, but this was utterly lost on Gabby.

"How come?" she asked unwisely.

"It's a totally unwelcome wake-up call at seven A.M. for one thing," came Fallon's voice from within the closet.

"Huh?"

Fallon emerged from the closet with a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt slung over one arm. She bent down and looked the little girl in the eye.

"It's very, very, annoying," she said in a low, sinister voice.

Gabby blinked.

"Your voice is annoying?"

Luckily for Gabby, Angela chose that moment to walk into the room.

"Morning girls!" she said brightly. "Did we sleep well?"

Two faces turned to her, one smiling, one glaring.

"Ask her," said Fallon, inclining her head towards her cousin. Then without another word she brushed past her mother out the room. Gabby and Angela heard the click of the bathroom door locking.

Gabby looked up at her aunt curiously.

"Hey, Auntie? Is she always like this?"

Angela nodded matter-of -factly. "All the time."

*************************************

At school, Fallon did manage to pass her failed Algebra quiz on the re-take, thus escaping the unwelcome prospect of a math tutor, at least for a while. She breathed a sigh of relief as she merged into the crowd of students at the lunch line with her tray. Her day was going moderately well so far. She was bone tired, but she hadn't made a fool of herself, and no one had tried to talk to her. She selected a deli sandwich and a banana and started to reach for a carton of milk.

"Hey."

Fallon stiffened and immediately pulled into her imaginary turtle shell. She kept facing forward, hoping the voice would just think she hadn't heard.

"I'm right here, okay? I know you can hear me."

Dang it.

Fallon turned, and there was Liv, with her long red hair braided over her shoulder, scattered freckles, and light blue t-shirt that read "WARNING, could break into song at any moment." The two girls faced each other awkwardly.

"So, are you coming to my party?"

"Uhh..." Fallon stalled, trying to think of all the reasons why the last thing she wanted was to go to this girl's house.

"It's just..." Liv fidgeted with the end of her braid. "I thought you might be ready to start doing stuff again, you know since it's been about five months..." almost the exact thing Fallon's mother had said. Fallon tried to get angry, but actually all she wanted to do now was go cry somewhere. Liv had every right to despise her, yet here she was trying to be a friend. How could Fallon explain that she just wanted to be left alone?

"No, I just, I don't think I'll make it..." she stammered, knowing she sounded like a jerk, and by the look on Liv's face, the other girl agreed. Things might have gotten ugly if they hadn't been standing in the middle of the lunch line and holding up about twenty other teenagers.

"Hey can ya'll move please?" said an irritated voice three kids back.

"Look, um, have a good birthday okay?" Fallon winced at her own words. They sounded so cheap and fake and completely failed to mask the fact that she was continuing to avoid her former best friend. She quickly grabbed her carton of milk and beat a hasty retreat out of line. She could feel Liv's eyes boring into her back so she navigated to the back of her room to get as far away from them as possible.

She risked a glance over her shoulder to see Liv sitting down at a full table with Carmen and three other girls she recognized from choir. They were all talking and laughing and trading their lunches around.

Fallon used to be a part of that world.

She shook her head to dispel any further thoughts. Then she sat down at an empty table and ate her lunch in silence.