The Ruds

Chapter 20

It had been a week since Cash died and most things went back to normal. I was sitting on the couch in the Thorton's house with Mason and Dylan when Navvy came in. "Hey Faith," He gestured for me to come over. "What?" I asked, smiling. He was holding the mail and I looked at it. Right on top was a paper that said that Navvy was eligible to adopt me. "Oh my gosh," I smiled.

School had started up again and I was still working at MT's. I was pretty smart, so I got good grades, and all my teachers liked me. It was weird talking to people because the first thing anyone said to me was, 'Aren't you that girl who killed the Mod?' or 'Hey you where the one that killed our star football player, right?' or something like that. Pretty much all the Mods hated me or where scared of me and even some of the Ruds, well the ones that didn't drop out of school thought I was a little scary or something.

It was Thursday and I was walking home from school when I noticed Dylan at a bus stop. I walked over to him to talk. "Watcha do'n?" I asked. "I have to go. I feel like I need some time to think." He told me. "Where are you going?" I asked. "Somewhere nice, I hope." He joked. "I won't be gone long; I just need some time on my own." He said. "I understand," I told him. "Well, be careful and you better write or call or somethin, deal." I smiled. "I promise," He shook his head and we hugged shortly and then I left and he got on the bus.

That same night me and Mason were driving down the road when the truck stopped working. He tried to fix it, but had no luck. "We might as well start walking." I smiled. It was almost May, so it was pretty warm outside. "Faith," He said. "Yea," I looked at him. "You know your cute," He smiled. "Um... yea, I guess," I smiled. "I want you to have this." He pulled a ring out of his pocket, it was a silver ring with little glass diamonds in the center. "What is this for?" I asked. "Just a promise ring," He said. "Do you except?" He asked. "Uh... yea" I smiled and he put the ring on my finger. "So why don't we just sit in the truck bed and hang out for a while." He suggested. "Sounds good," I agreed, and we hopped in the back of the truck.

"You know I still need to teach you how to drive." He said. "I don't think you can do that with a broken car." I joked. "So you never told me, where did Dylan go?" He asked. "He left, he said he needed to be on his own for a while." I explained. "Was he just planning on leaving and not telling anyone?" Mason asked. "I have no idea; he probably was going to write or something." I told him.

Two days after Navvy got the letter that said he could adopt me we went to the court house to sign all the papers. "Congratulations, you are now the legal guardian of Faith Borden Thorton." The judge said to Navvy. "Thanks again Navvy," I said when we were leaving. "No problem, what about Ruth and Harold?" He asked. "What about 'em?" "What are they going to do?" He asked. "The judge is making them move." I told him. "Where?" "No idea, but I hope they move real far away." I said.

The next day at school I was in English for sixth hour and the teacher, Mrs. Brynn, asked me to come talk to her after class. The bell rang and everyone got up and left. "You wanted to talk to me?" I asked walking back to her desk. "Yes, I have been looking at your work in the notebooks and I think you could be quiet the writer." She started. "Thank you, ma'am." I said, a little confused at what she was getting at. "There is a writer's fest, where a lot of young writers go and present their stories to publishers." She continued. "I'm not sure I follow," I said. "I would like to enter you in that and see what works you come up with." She told me. "You want me to write a book and present it to publishers?" I asked. "That is exactly what I want to do." She smiled. "I would love to, ma'am." I smiled back. "Great, I will enter you in right now, and you need to have it ready by June twenty-second." She said to me handing me a paper. "I will be there," I took the paper and went to seventh hour.

I got back to the Thorton's and went into my room and went over to the desk to start writing the story. I got out a notebook and a pencil and started writing. I started like this,

It was a long drive from Green Woods, Mississippi to Dallas, Texasespecially with my 'parents'.