Asterism

9. pink jacket

SURPRISE! & this is a long one too 😇.

Enjoy chapter 9, and Aiden's truth about A LOT OF THINGS behind the scenes. My heart broke a little writing this. 💔

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MARLEY didn't grow up with the fancy things in life.

In fact, she was lucky to have the bare minimum of things in life, so attending an elementary school of mostly upper middle to upper class students, was sticking out like a sore thumb.

There were always frays and tears in her hand-me-down, thrift store wardrobe. Her school supplies were random pens and pencils she managed to scrounge up on the hallway floors or in random places in her house.

From a young age, Marley knew her home like the back of her hand because she spent a lot of time playing alone.

She always knew when something was different. When there was a sudden treasure to be found. Like the sweet caramel that was in her father's pocket when she did his laundry, or the two dollars between the couch cushions she was able to purchase a whole candy bar with, that she didn't have to share half of. The little wooden owl carving under the love seat. The heart shaped stone by the entryway. The free samples of scented lotion she watched her mother throw away before taking them when no one was looking.

But those treasures she once thought were luxuries suddenly seemed so childish, so mediocre, when she began school and became surrounded by kids with full lunches and beautiful packages of single-serving snacks. The shiny shoes. The pretty clothes.

The jealousy was something that latched onto kindergarten Marley and refused to let go. It only disappeared when she discovered her escape in reading books and found belonging with Gabby later on, but until then, all she could do was envy all the new things. All the shiny toys. All the full stomachs.

A girl named Lara Thompson had a fluffy, warm jacket Marley found herself eyeing every morning when they hung around the schoolyard, and she shivered in her worn, faded parka.

Laura Thompson had the fluffiest, warmest jacket of them all.

It was pink like cotton candy, had a white fur hood she said was polar bear fur from the North Pole. Her cheeks always flushed pink with heat whenever she was bundled up in it.

The more Marley saw it, the more she wanted to feel that jacket so bad she couldn't think straight. She wanted it more than anything she'd seen in that whole school. She wanted it so much it was in her dreams. She wanted it so much that one day she absolutely had to have it.

The cubbies were always the walkway back into the kindergarten classroom. During quiet reading one day, Marley came back from the bathroom with her hall pass, fiddling with the little plastic watch someone threw out from their McDonald's meal. She couldn't believe she scored it. It was perfect. She was smiling at the sight of it, clicking the buttons just to hear the beeps, when the silence around her began to sink in.

And then Lara Thompson's pink like cotton candy, fluffy, polar bear jacket hung like the biggest bad idea in the world.

The next part was a blur in Marley's memory. All she remembers is gasping as she slipped her arms into it. Twirling in circles in the cubbies. Squeezing at the fur, hiding in the hood. Giggling gleefully at the zipper that never got stuck or fell off or was ripped. At the 'new' smell of the material. At all the feelings as her hands roamed the fabrics and seamless stitchings.

That was, until Keegan Roy came walking around the corner, caught Marley red-handed, and yelled for their teacher at the top of his lungs.

Every kid in the class ran to see her holding herself in tears with Lara Thompson hugging the jacket to her chest that she yanked away, upset and angry, while their teacher reminded the class that everyone's belongings were not a free for all, and to never take without asking.