Started with a Whisper

2

"Where were you yesterday?" I shouted at Yolande, yanking her back into the hallway as she tried desperately to escape my angry flare up, but I wasn't about to let my carrot-top friend off so easily. A few classmates sent startled looks in our direction, but I was only focused on the single reason that my best friend Yolande was about to offer up as the reason she hadn't come to school.

"The Jonas Brothers were in town?" She said with a shrug, staring up at me with a coy smile on her face. I didn't blink. "Okay, okay! Just stop looking at me like I murdered a puppy!" She covered her eyes and began a dramatic reenactment, dealing with her mom, the doctor and a lovely pointed thing known as a needle. "I had to get shots," she mumbled the ending begrudgingly. I tried to keep from laughing, I knew how Landie reacted when it came to shots, she was petrified.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't hear you the first time, what?" Instead of leaning closer, I leaned further away whilst cupping my hand to my ear and waiting for her repeated phrase of embarrassment. A large smile was tugging at my lips, and as much as I was trying to keep it from prevailing, my emotions won. She didn't pout, instead she smacked the back of my head and busted out into laughter right along with me.

"You are the biggest jerk..." I slammed into something hard and fell onto my butt, dropping my books. The unfortunate target of my unintentional crash dropped their items as well. Yolande's sentence had trailed off the moment I had started apologizing, while shuffling around to pick up my books and theirs.

"I'm really sorry," my apology fell flat, as I was face to face with a smug Levi Turner. "Oh, it's you." I snorted and dropped his books again, let him do a little labor and pick them up himself. He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. "What?" I snapped, getting ready to stomp on his foot or something to wipe the smile off of his disgustingly arrogant face.

"Apology accepted," he said blankly, his voice serious. I blinked a few times, not sure I heard him correctly. Did Levi Turner just apologize to me? It really couldn't be that easy... The buzz of the hallway was growing louder as more students migrated towards homeroom, and the roar of the announcements sounded through the school. His sugar-coated act turned bitter, "I understand that being uncoordinated and stupid is something you can't help. It's most likely a result of not enough oxygen at birth." I had heard him right; I just hadn't heard the whole story. His comment had struck a sore spot, and I was glad my mother hadn't been around to hear it. I felt suddenly sick looking at Levi's face, but no words would come out. I had no reply to that, I was still too stunned and a million painful thoughts filled my head. The tombstone....my mother visited him often, and always on his birthday she left flowers. It was too painful for dad to go, he had been so excited –

"Mommy! Daddy! Where is he?" I paid no attention to the red patches all over mommy's face, or the sad expression on daddy's. I was just too excited. Mommy started to cry, a lot.

"Darcy be quiet," mommy yelled at me, and daddy started crying right along with her. I started to cry too, and Pappy pulled me out of the room, but I didn't want to go outside, what had I done? Why did Mommy get mad at me?

"Pappy what did I do wrong?" I asked, a single tear sliding down my pink little cheek.

"Nothing honey, mommy and daddy are just very sad right now. Mommy is very sick," Pappy explained kindly, wrapping me up into a big hug, and pulling me outside away from mommy and daddy.

"Where is he?" Pappy's face got sore, he looked like he hurt his toe, and he was about to cry.

"Somewhere safe," he assured me, "With Grandma Wendy, and people who will love him."