Saving Grace

Chapter Fifteen: The Underground Riot

The next week passed by in a blur. Charlie and Gracie were virtually inseparable, spending as much time as they possibly could away from the Madelyn. But Clara was having none of it. She could be an extremely spiteful lady when she wanted to, and having power over the two of them seemed to have made her worse than Gracie could've imagined.

When it was obvious the kids were avoiding her, Clara cornered them in the hallway refusing to let them go anywhere, or she'd call the cops to report them as runaways, and it was clear in her sparkling inky dark brown eyes that she wasn't bluffing. Not only was she their current legal guardian, she was a force to be reckoned with. She owned them.

"Where are you two going?" she snarled, crossing her arms and tapping her foot against the thin, stained carpet. She stared them down with an air of confidence floating around her as she clenched and unclenched her jaw, attempting to be intimidating even though she was far shorter than both of them.

Gracie opened her mouth to let loose a string of insults, but Charlie spoke before she could. He had a knack for interjecting at the most vital moments. "My track meet is today," he answered, refusing to look directly at her. He wore his school track uniform and had his gym bag slung over his shoulder, but it didn't appear that Clara was in an observant mood that day.

"Let me grab my coat and keys, I'm coming with you," she insisted, and Gracie had half a mind to drop kick the woman. She would probably ruin Charlie's big day with her crappy attitude. She had wanted to protest vehemently, but Charlie made it impossible. Despite everything, he wanted her to be there to cheer him on. It always felt good knowing there was more than one friendly face in the crowd wanting him to win.

So as much as Gracie wanted to bitch the woman out, she had to sit back and remain silent, for Charlie's sake. Which was exactly what she did for the entire seven-minute car ride, sitting in the backseat thinking how much better their lives were going to be when she turned eighteen in less than a week's time. She didn't quite know how to file for parental rights of the kid, but she sure as hell would find a way. Or they'd just run like she'd always planned. In fact, the way things were looking it would probably be their safest option.

The crowd that showed up at Charlie's track meet was far greater than Gracie had expected. He'd tried telling her a multitude of times that it was a popular sport, but she'd never believed it until that very moment. There must have been eight hundred people milling about waiting for the events to start, and almost as soon as they stepped onto the field, Charlie was whisked away, leaving Gracie alone with Clara stuck right in the center of it all.

"I'm thinking about quitting at Visionary," Clara declared as they followed the stampede toward the bleachers that lined both sides of the massive school field. She'd never before stepped foot onto West Larkspur High School's campus, despite having been invited to almost every single sporting event starring a McQueen kid, but she now knew why West kids were so stuck up. All the neighborhoods around East, South, and North Larkspur High Schools were just as poor as hers was, they never could've afforded the type of competition paradise West had created; it baffled them.

"What was that?" she asked taking a seat in the seventh row, tuning back in to the woman as she searched the kids below for her tall, lanky little brother. She found him off to the side talking to a girl that looked to be about his same age and stretching.

Clara clicked her tongue in irritation and her dark eyes flashed with a hint of malice. "I'm quitting Visionary," she repeated with more confidence, breathing heavily as a result of climbing the bleachers. "I'm putting in my two week's notice on Friday."

Two thoughts simultaneously crossed Gracie's mind, and she voiced them both. "Why? And why are you even telling me?" her voice came out a lot more hostile than she'd meant for it to sound, but it didn't bother her in the slightest. She had a feeling that trusting Clara would come back and bite her in the ass, hard.