IN THE FULL MOON

chapter 4 legend run

I'd lived my seventeen years in Legend's Run

in an average American four-bedroom house with

my "still married" parents and snotty older sister,

Juliette. I had a decent upbringing in Legend's

Run and didn't have too many complaints about

the town except that it was full of social tension

from being divided into two parts - the affluent

suburbs on the east side and the blue-collar, rural

town on the west. The Eastside was built up with

new developments and rolling estates, while the

Westside, or Riverside, was more agricultural. The

Eastsiders felt their new homes were superior to

the country homes, and the Riversiders resented

that cornfields and silos were giving way to

concrete driveways and street lamps. Each

community had its own elementary schools, but

all the students were combined at middle school.

In high school, each side was reluctant to mix

with the other out of pride, ignorance, or habit.

The two sides were labeled by opposing student

groups as either "snobs" or "hicks," though the

truth was that neither label was entirely accurate.

I smiled at everyone because it was the right

thing to do. In addition, I always believed it took

more energy for the two sides to stay apart than

it would for them to finally come together.

Ivy Hamilton had been my closest friend

since elementary school and lived in an adjacent

subdivision in an estate home twice the size of

mine.

It was my first day of first grade when a

blond girl with a pale blue polka-dotted ribbon

headband boarded the bus. I was sitting alone,

watching the houses go by and wondering who

lived in them, and inventing stories of their grand

lives. Juliette had refused to sit with me and

instead giggled with her friends a few rows back.

The blond girl wore a tiny blue dress and

matching sweater and a sparkling pink bracelet.

The night before, my mom had brushed my

tangled hair. I think I still had puffy eyes from all

my bawling. I'm not sure what I wore, but I know

it wasn't something that was "dry-clean only."

She was the only girl that day to wear a

dress. She walked down the aisle of the bus like a

contestant in a beauty pageant. I noticed the girl

glaring at the boys and other girls. The boys were