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1. 6 JENNI WILTZ Via shrugged We were scared of this year too but were surviving Emma s eyes drifted back to the Mexican kids None of them brought their books to lunch They smiled and laughed like they were actually having fun She on the other hand would have an ulcer before she could vote I don t think it s supposed to be this way We shouldn t just be wishing it was over I don t wish that Rachel said Why not Because I m not valedictorian yet As valedictorian of her middle school Emma had been given a 25 savings bond and told to make a speech at graduation Before going on stage she threw up in the bathroom twice leaving a speck of celebratory pre ceremony canap on the hem of her dress The experience resulted in no net gain of which she was aware You have a4 0 she said You do lacrosse and tennis and youre on the yearbook staff and the leadership committee You volunteer at the soup kitchen Your transcript is perfect Tt s not enough Rachel said softly You know that Emma looked away Her own transcript was pockmarked with two B plusses in the first semesters of chemistry and pre calculus She pictured a pair of Old West gunslingers aiming for each other s hearts beneath the blazing sun of high noon She not Rachel was the one who fell backward clutching a gaping hole in her side Were sixteen Were supposed to be having fun2. Fuck fun Via said I m going to Amherst Rachel glared at her and took a deep breath Here Emma shoved her bag of apple slices toward Rachel Eat My mom gave me too many THEREDROAD 7 As Rachel reached for a slice a group of tall boys wandered into the courtyard There were five of them all on the water polo team The tallest Dan MacLeod wore knee length green shorts a black T shirt and black plastic flip flops Even when it was forty degrees outside Dan wore the same black plastic flip flops He had a weird backpack too a striped woven sack with thin rope straps He sat next to her in AP Chemistry but never seemed to have the requisite supplies At the beginning of the year she became his go to paper provider and he d agreed to be her lab partner Lucky for her he was the most precise measurer shed ever met and that included her mom who was like Attila the Hun with measuring cups Everything was fine until February 8 when he d leaned over their lab table and asked if she had a hot date for Valentine s Day Her pencil slipped and instead of entering NR for the cross of Pb with Pb NO3 2 she blistered through the page with the tip of her Ticonderoga What did you say she asked His dark hair flopped over his eyebrows almost reaching his cheekbones Here he said Let me do that You re messing it up again Since that moment she d been haunted by the implicat
3. THE RED ROAD ALSO BY JENNI WILTZ I Never Arkansas It Coming A Vampire in Versailles The Romanov Legacy The Cherbourg Jewels THE RED ROAD A Novel JENNI WILTZ Decanter Press PILOT HILL CALIFORNIA Copyright 2015 by Jenni Wiltz All rights reserved No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews This is a work of fiction Names characters businesses organizations places events and incidents are either the product of the author s imagination or are used fictitiously Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead events or locales is entirely coincidental Published in the United States by Decanter Press First Edition For more information contact us P O Box 277 Pilot Hill CA 95664 http decanterpress com Publisher s Cataloging in Publication Data Wiltz Jenni The red road a novel Jenni Wiltz 350 p 22 cm ISBN 978 1 942348 00 9 pbk ISBN 978 1 942348 01 6 eBook 1 Teenage girls Fiction 2 Family problems Fiction 3 Coming of age Fiction 4 High schools Fiction 5 Interpersonal relations Fiction I Title PS3623 148R43 2015 813 6 dc23 2014918224 DEDICATION or Mom and Dad CHAPTER ONE Wednesday March 26 OUR METAL SPEAKERS BLARED INTO the F courtyard Emma watched the perforated cones pulse in rapid succe
4. AP French AP European History AP Physics and maybe calculus Plus the SAT and finding scholarships She said the last part softly hoping he might not hear From the moment she d learned the alphabet he promised to put her through college Any school you want he said You get the grades and I ll handle the rest But that was before SeedCorp before unemployment before her mom started jotting down the phone numbers of bankruptcy lawyers The one time Emma had mentioned loans her dad shook his head Loans are for the kids who get Cs Yow ll do better than that What if I can t she wanted to say Can I have more milk Mattie asked This stir fry is spicy It s not spicy her mom said And we re almost out Mattie set down her glass a meniscus of milk resting at the bottom Being poor sucks We re not poor Her mom sat straighter than the rest of them holding the knife and fork with her fingertips the way rich people did in movies She held a pen the same way as if the lightest pressure was all she needed to produce elfin perfect 16 JENNI WILTZ cursive Emma a lefty clutched all pencils and utensils in a sweaty death grip Then what are we Mattie asked Lucky her dad replied Emma looked past her mom to the stack of bills sitting in the basket on the kitchen counter There were three unopened envelopes that hadn t been in the stack yesterday
5. Soy sauce You haven t even tried it For a moment no one moved Then her mother sighed got up and grabbed the bottle from the pantry Unperturbed her dad picked it up and turned the bed of rice and broccoli into something that resembled an oil spill He scooped up a drip ping mouthful and nodded in approval as he chewed One drop trickled out the side of his mouth and he tried to lick it up with his tongue You have a napkin her mom said Oh He faked surprise when he picked up the folded paper napkin beneath his knife and spoon That s what these things are for Mattie giggled Dad youre funny What did you do in school today Matt Her sister pushed a piece of broccoli to the side of her plate We had a debate in English class about John Steinbeck and whether his representation of farm workers was fair 14 JENNI WILTZ Emma s father nodded Which book did you read In Dubious Battle He looked to Emma You ve read that one haven t you No I thought you read it a few years ago her mom said You complained about it That was The Pearl Mom We read it in eighth grade What didn t you like about it her father asked I don t remember I was thirteen Tt must have been different for Steinbeck Not like it is now Her parents eyes met across the dinner table Sometimes one or both of them would slip a
6. what they were having The culprit had to be stir fry Her mom was obsessed with stir fry Somehow she d been fooled by the labels on the frozen bags that claimed there were different flavors Spicy Szechuan Veggie Delight Mandarin Lo Mein They all tasted like sawdust Emma turned back to Mr Lopez s study guide There was a lot of ground to make up on tomorrow s chem test her last quiz scored a seventy three percent There was an English paper due on Friday plus a French vocabulary quiz and her nightly batch of pre calculus problems If she devoted an hour to pre calc and three hours to chemistry the rest could be dealt with tomorrow night Three hours of chemistry felt like a death 10 JENNI WILTZ sentence but she had no choice That seventy three was entirely due to partial credit for showing her work She remembered the Mexican kids dancing in the court yard at lunch What did they do after school She didn t even know Three years on the university prep track meant that she and normal kids were developing into two different species like Darwin s finches Separate them for too much longer and they d lose the ability to communicate let alone produce viable offspring Emma shoved her study guide away in disgust Everything okay over there her dad asked He sat in his recliner a threadbare pile of rust colored velour her mom tried to throw away when they moved out of the old house He held a sh
7. with red strawberries it was a souvenir of her father s days at SeedCorp Here It s bad luck to start a test with a dull pencil Says who Confucius He held the pencil beneath his nose Is it scratch and sniff Tt is now You re mean today I like nice Emma better THEREDROAD 21 She thought of the English paper she had to write that night the French quiz tomorrow afternoon and the long ass book she had to start reading for her history report Nice Emmas gone away for a while Anything I can do to help bring her back Emma shifted in her seat the plastic creaking like the floor of a haunted house If she actually asked him for something he might say no If that happened she wouldn t be able to look him in the eye until June She knew who she was and what she looked like No There s nothing Hey Highlander one of the water polo boys called All the team members had nicknames just like the pilots in Top Gun her mom s favorite movie Paper me Shit Dan said turning to her Can you help me out Emma passed him a piece of paper He leaned back and passed it to his teammate one long arm stretching across a desk and a half I m smaller than that desk she thought I d fit inside so easily Mr Lopez cleared his throat to get their attention and she banished all thought of Dan s arms in light of the coming ordeal o The test co
8. Are we she thought After dinner Emma carted the dishes to the sink where her mom scrubbed them and loaded them in the dishwasher It seemed weird to Emma that her mom washed the dishes before putting them inside a machine designed to do the exact same job but adults did things that made no sense all the time Just yesterday Mrs Evans wore pantyhose with sandals If it were up to her Emma decided she d never own a pair of pantyhose and she d never wash anything twice She watched her mom s quick fingers swipe food scraps from the plates to a mesh grate set over the drain The garbage disposal had stopped working a year ago and there was no money to fix it Every night her mom cleaned the grate with her hands and a sponge Mom Mattie called from the couch What channel s Wheel of Fortune on You know what channel her mom replied Tm going to check on the roses her dad said A minute later Emma saw him through the back window carrying a spray bottle and a pair of shears Six manicured bushes lined their backyard all with finger width thorns ready to inflict grievous harm on any cats that fell off the fence THEREDROAD 17 Em her mom said wrist deep in lemon scented suds Do you need the table to study tonight Chemistry test remember Mom Would it help if there was pudding Emma smiled It always helps if there s pudding Mom come on Mattie call
9. Before she could duck into his embrace the Mexican boys passed behind him A thin boy with sharp cheekbones and two gold chains said something in rapid Spanish The only word Emma understood was madre As he passed the other boy shoved Tim s raised elbow out of the way Tim s elbow jerked forward catching Rachel on the side of her head Ow Rachel said What was that for Tim spun in a half circle fists balled in front of his chest The Mexican boy stepped back and mirrored Tim s posture Emma saw four tattooed dots at the base of his thumb and forefinger She knew what it meant before her mom cancelled cable she used to watch Lockup on Friday nights Watch where you re going homes the Mexican boy said His friends fanned out and stood with their feet spread One THEREDROAD 25 was tall with pale skin and acne scars one had a widow s peak and one had a moustache Tm talking to my friends Tim said You got a problem with that Maybe I do the Mexican boy said Tim come on Rachel said wrapping her fingers around his bicep Suddenly Emma s skin fit too tightly over her pulsing veins She backed into the wall and touched it with her fingertips Her mom would have said not to that the germs on its surface out numbered students in the school but she had to know there wasn t anyone behind her She glanced at the boys surrounding Tim their jaws loose and smiling They we
10. andma The minister asked everyone to find a particular sentence in the Bible which she d tried to do and failed There was something inherently dishon est about a book with no page numbers or table of contents That depends Tim said Will I see you there You will if you give me a ride Via crossed her arms over her chest What happened to your car It s Missing Vanished Gone tojoin your sense of self respect Broken Rachel s glare reminded Emma of a gum commercial the kind where invisible things like breath and wind sprouted ice crystals 24 JENNI WILTZ Let s go Emma said nudging Via with her shoulder We have to get ready for PE Over Tim s shoulder she saw a group of Mexican boys turn the corner into the hallway They wore saggy black jeans and T shirts with stacks of gold chains twined around their necks She wondered if they were actually in a gang or just dressed like it Three years ago a gang initiation left eight innocent bystand ers dead Five of them died at Samaritan Hospital less than a mile from her house The mug shots they showed on the news looked like two thirds of Emma s freshman class After that night even white reporters learned to roll their r s when they pronounced a suspect s name I should go too Rachel said TIl walk you to class Tim replied He raised his arm to put it around Rachel s shoulders
11. as because she was afraid In that moment her grades went from a present to a penance While Emma struggled with geometry and biology he struggled to update a twenty three year old resume Despite hundreds of applications and dozens of interviews no one hired him It s my age he said running his fingers through hair the color of fireplace ash One year went by and then another To keep the house they gave up everything that could be given up Her mom took on freelance bookkeeping work for a neighbor s daycare business and they limped along as best they could Then two weeks ago her dad had landed a job as a census taker It was temporary but better than nothing Tomorrow was his first day You ll do fine Em he said You ve never disappointed me yet 12 JENNI WILTZ Her mom came out of the kitchen with a dish towel clutched in her hands She smiled and swept long golden brown bangs behind her ear In direct sunlight her hair looked almost red Her eyes were like that too changing from brown to hazel depending on the light You guys ready for dinner Tm always ready her dad said Her mom s eyes traveled down his arm to the shoe in his hand You re not wearing those tomorrow are you Tam Roger youre going door to door Your feet will be killing you Just wear tennis shoes like everyone else He looked at the shoe carefully shined to help camouflage the worn patc
12. assing this class because of partial credit Via shrugged The real world doesn t give partial credit This isn t the real world Rachel said This is high school What was number nine Via hoisted her backpack and shrank visibly beneath its weight I spent ten minutes on that fucker and still don t know if I got it right Out of the corner of her eye Emma saw Dan s woven back pack as he left the classroom and walked down the hall in the opposite direction He didn t want to be seen with her not even to return a pencil 21 6 grams she answered Rachel bit her lip Are you sure THEREDROAD 23 Pretty sure Goddamn it Rachel swore Via grinned Say it a little louder I don t think Tim heard Rachel whirled her red curls twirling like maypole ribbons Tim stood behind her one hand tucked into the front pocket of his skin strangling Wranglers His face was darker than his blond hair or green eyes Emma didn t see how you could trust anyone that tan Rachel s voice flew up an octave Hi Tim Hey girl he said What are you up to Just got out of chemistry What do you have next Spanish How about you Shop Are you going to PathFinders this week That was the name of Rachel s youth group Emma was secretly glad Rachel never asked her to go When she was seven she d gone to church with her gr
13. at Emma s brown bag You know I eat vicariously through you Rachel s parents had divorced sophomore year She and her mom lived with an aunt and uncle but were thinking of moving in with her grandma instead If they did it would be the third place Rachel had lived in less than a year Her mom worked two jobs one at a motel and one at a gas station because Rachel s dad a lawyer had all the money Emma wondered what he did that was so bad Rachel s mom couldn t stand to be married to him anymore She opened her sack lunch packed with a turkey sandwich a sliced Granny Smith apple two oatmeal cookies a can of lemonade and a paper napkin folded in half lengthwise Her mom had wrapped the refrigerated soda can in foil so its condensation wouldn t liquefy the napkin Your mom is so cute Via said Mine gives me loose change and tells me to go to the cafeteria She nudged the cardboard THEREDROAD 3 tray that held soggy fries a plastic cup of apple juice and a ham burger They don t even have pickle relish in there Via s family was in even worse shape than Rachel s Her parents split up before she started kindergarten when her dad left to join a group of fellow Ethiopian expats in Washington D C He sent a postcard with a picture of Kennedy s grave for her tenth birthday She had no idea if he was still there Every time the subject of fathers came up Emma was the odd man out Her dad ta
14. d her father s Texas Instruments from college The buttons were as yellow as a coffee taster s teeth and the plastic cover split like a fat man s pants but the original user s manual still lay in the inside pocket She could have cheated and written notes to her self thumbing through the pages during the test but she didnt 20 JENNI WILTZ Things she believed carried some essence of their owners On her right Dan MacLeod twirled a dull tipped yellow pencil in his fingers He wore his usual black plastic flip flops board shorts and black T shirt Today his hair looked gelled It created a perfect arc over his eyebrows swooped down at the end of his brow and curved up again over his ear His long legs stretched halfway beneath the desk in front of him They were smoother than hers So not fair she thought You ready for this he asked No You always say that when you ve spent like a thousand hours studying Then how come you re the one who gets the A He shrugged his wide swimmer s shoulders Natural talent Your talent is dull she said pointing at his pencil It needs sharpening I like doing it in the middle of the test Gives me an excuse to get up and stretch More like cheat off Angela Hong in the front row That hurts You know I only cheat off you Emma reached into her backpack s front zipper pouch and pulled out her spare pencil White
15. ed Wheel of Fortune s starting Her mom pulled out a metal bowl and a hand mixer older than Emma She poured a package of store brand pie filling into the bowl and added the rest of the milk Now Emma knew why her mom didn t let Mattie have a second glass at dinner Im such an asshole she thought All I do is complain and all Mom does is think about how to make it better for us Thanks Mom she said slipping away into the dining room Her chemistry book was right where she left it spine flat on the linen tablecloth I hate you she said Everyone hates you You know that right The chemistry book unperturbed flashed its cover art at her red yellow and green molecules with white swoosh marks behind them intended to make it look as if they were zooming across the cover You re not even that fast she said CHAPTER THREE Thursday March 27 cc SOTONIC MEANS EQUAL CONCENTRATIONS I solute Hypertonic means high solute concentration Hypotonic means low solute concentration Emma chanted it like a mantra as she walked into class and sank into her plastic seat This was it the last chemistry test before the final Mr Lopez erased the board his arm swiping right to left When he finished the tops and bottoms of numbers floated dismembered on the vacant field of green Emma took a deep breath and pulled out her scientific cal culator They didn t have the money for a new one so she use
16. hes near the ball of the foot I m wearing these You don t work for SeedCorp anymore I know where I work Sharon Her mom tossed the dish towel over her shoulder lips moving in silent retort Emma glanced at her dad to make sure he hadn t seen her moms gesture Come on Last one to the kitchen has to clear the table Her thirteen year old sister Mattie waited for them at the small table in the breakfast nook Thin blonde and blue eyed she already had a boyfriend Martin Rodriguez a basketball player who lived two blocks away presented her with a new stuffed animal every week Hey Em Mattie said Can I borrow ten dollars I don t have ten dollars I told you not to ask your sister her mom said What s it for Emma asked The girls are going to the mall on Friday after school THE RED ROAD 13 So go but don t buy anything T have to No you don t Her mom carted four plates to the table two in her hands and two balanced on her forearms Who needs milk I do said Mattie and her dad at the same time Her mom filled each glass halfway before sitting down When they were all seated hands folded in their laps her father began to say grace Come Lord Jesus be our guest they chanted Let these gifts to us be blessed Amen When he finished he looked around the table What her mom asked
17. ins Via zipped up her hoodie We have a chem test tomorrow you guys Rachel groaned T ll lose four hours of study time at work A few hours of slave labor at the Falafel Hut isn t worth failing this test That s slave labor plus tips I have a car payment you know Tm not taking any chances Via shoved her chemistry binder at Emma Quiz me Via s loopy letters filled every college ruled line from edge to edge exhibiting a reckless disregard for margins Emma scanned her notes and tried to think like a teacher The change in potential energy of a chemical reaction is a reflection of what Are you trying to fucking kill me Give me a warm up question first Rachel sighed and rolled her eyes Sorry Via said I forgot you joined the morality patrol It s a youth group You mean it s where Tim hangs out Like Rachel Via had a car and an after school job She also had a CV two letters of reference four art shows under her belt and this past Halloween she d driven to Santa Barbara by herself just to go to a party On the scale of bravery Emma topped out at killing small spiders Moving on Emma said turning the page in Via s binder What is a coulomb THEREDROAD 5 A unit of electric charge Correct Okay now ask me a harder one Emma looked at Via s drawing of an electrochemical cell and blanked on the differe
18. ions of his question No one had ever asked her out and she d assumed no one ever would not while she had baby fat and bad skin One day during sophomore year class president Javier Benavides flung an arm around her after biology class Javier s friend said Hey is this your new girl Javier raised both hands quicker than a cowboy in a calf tying contest No way hed said These are the ones you save for marriage Emma had no idea what that meant aside from the fact that it was mortally 8 JENNI WILTZ embarrassing for Javier s name to be linked with hers in any romantic context She was dating kryptonite until February 8 at 11 42 a m when Dan joked about her having a date on Valentine s Day This was no small thing She watched Dan and his friends walk toward her table They were heading for the main hall its doorway just behind her She liked the way he walked with slightly turned out legs that weren t bowed but definitely weren t straight He had very smooth lips while hers were always chapped It didn t seem fair She tried to smile in case he looked at her The boys shuffled by talking about the match on Saturday He didn t see her He didn t even look in her general direction Story of my life she thought CHAPTER TWO Wednesday March 26 HE SMELL OF WARM SESAME oil wafted from the kitchen to the dining room It reminded Emma of Chinese food even though she knew that wasn t
19. nce between electrolytic and voltaic cells Tomorrow s test covering electricity voltage and half cell potentials was going to be hell The whole year had been hell She d already suffered through seven and a half months of Honors English AP Chemistry AP US History third year French pre calculus and PE She did homework every weekday until bedtime and all day Sunday It still wasn t enough On the university prep track getting straight A s was the equivalent of treading water in a shark infested sea You used up all your energy maintaining the status quo and the sharks still got you in the end The good schools expected perfect grades Unless you also led a successful crowd funding campaign to build a girls school in Uganda discovered the cure for cancer as part of your science fair project and spent weekends teaching foster children to read you were average borderline disposable Some days it was all Emma could do to remember to bring her math book home Maybe the students who get accepted are all mutants she thought With adamantium skeletons that can stand up to the weight of all those expectations You guys she said I m scared Of what The SAT college scholarship applications all our regular homework Emma brushed her fingertip over a word carved in the table s wooden surface NORTE Her nail slipped easily into the shaft of the z Tm signed up for five AP classes next year
20. nd say something about gang members or farm workers both code for Mexicans Before she was born Malo Verde was a coastal farm town where they grew lettuce and broccoli and artichokes and strawberries Now it was a stronghold for drug smugglers gangs and former inmates of the nearby state prison Locking them up had little effect since the gang leaders they wanted to impress were all in prison anyway On the wrong day or sometimes the wrong week the headlines made Malo Verde sound like Iraq but with fog Dad Mattie said Are you excited about tomorrow Tam What do you have to do They ll hand out our assignments in the training session T hope you get a good one It s going to be a big day for you too Em Oh Her mom tilted her head one golden earring sparkling in the light Chem test she answered THE RED ROAD 15 Her dad carted another forkful of soy soaked rice to his mouth Have you given any more thought to Cal Poly Dad they require two years of a performing or visual art But everything else you have is so good They can t turn you down They can Those are the rules Can you do something this summer And then next year No Dad I can t Her schedule for high school had been full since eighth grade Just thinking about it liquefied the contents of her stomach Pll already have AP Government AP English
21. ntained multiple choice fill in the blank and free form problems that ranged from difficult to apocalyptic In Emma s experience teachers who wrote their own tests under estimated students ability to see through their strategies For multiple choice questions the right answer was always there as was a diametrically opposite wrong answer There was usually a long shot or humorous answer thrown in because the teacher was tired 22 JENNI WILTZ The fourth answer was the one to be careful with It made sense and distinguishing it from the right answer required the ability to remain confident in one s first impulse Confidence wasn t Emma s strong suit which meant she had to rely on deduction induction reduction and a plea to the non denom inational patron saint of AP Chemistry By the time Emma carried her test up to Mr Lopez there were only two minutes left in the class period When the bell rang she picked up her backpack and headed into the hall How was it she asked as Rachel and Via shuffled out of the classroom behind her Brutal Via said She dropped her backpack and reached inside for a hair clip With deft fingers she wound her fluffy black strands into a bun My brain s so fried my hair hurts But you were done way before both of us Rachel said T left some stuff blank Why I didn t feel like begging for partial credit Emma shook her head I m only p
22. oe in one hand and a brush with no handle in the other Yeah It s just chemistry He pushed back his gold rimmed glasses What are you studying Hal cell potentials I don t even know what that means Dad you took chemistry She glanced at his textbook still sitting in the oak bookcase in the living room She d con sulted it in December when her shitty book failed to explain orbital diagrams in plain English That was a long time ago I think they made it harder just for you Do you remember anything about half cells osmosis and diffusion You ll ace it You always do THE RED ROAD 11 Something hot and bright crept up from the pit of her stomach a rush of panic she d been feeling for two years now It started right after they moved into this house Before the sliding kitchen chairs put the first scratches in the hardwood floor her dad s boss at SeedCorp announced the company was moving to Tennessee They offered to hold his job but the Malo Verde housing market made a quick sale impos sible and they couldn t afford to sell at a loss At least that s what he told his boss Dad she d said please don t make me leave my school I like the teachers and the counselors and the university prep program here is so strong The problem was she d never met her guidance counselor and had no idea what other schools programs were like The only reason she said it w
23. ren t scared at all Well maybe Tim said you need to keep walking Is that what youre going to do homes TIl show you what I m gonna do Tim put his arm around Rachel who stutter stepped under the weight That all right with you The Mexican boy grinned Keep walking then homes Maybe I ll be behind you The boys standing behind him laughed Maybe we all will You jaggers don t scare me The smile fell from the boys face The fuck you mean you jaggers Something tingled behind Emma s ears a whisper of hair dislodged by the beating of her pulse Stay away from me Tim said Stay away from all of us Or what The Mexican boy balled his fists and settled into his knees 26 JENNI WILTZ One of his friends the one with the moustache said Do it man Tim Rachel whispered A wave of heat crested inside her forcing sweat through the skin of her palms She remembered what her mom said after the city s seventeenth homicide of the year in March Never look them in the eye Never talk to them Just let them kill each other The Mexican boy pulled back his fist Tim pushed Rachel out of the way Emma shrieked and reached for Via s hand Via grabbed Rachel and they stood flat against the wall strung together like a daisy chain The Mexican boy s haymaker whooshed through the air Tim ducked aiming a punch at the other boy s
24. ribs The Mexican boy caught Tim under the chin as he straightened up Emma watched Tim s head snap back A drop of spit oblong like a galaxy flew out of his mouth Did I hear a scream Mr Lopez hurried to the door way of the chemistry classroom He stepped into the hallway arms held out from his sides and inserted himself between the fighters All right break it up come on Tim stood up straight one hand holding his jaw The Mexican boy laughed and retreated into the protective circle of his friends You two come with me Mr Lopez said pointing at each combatant and jerking his thumb down the hall You can explain yourselves to the principal But he didn t do anything Rachel said THERED ROAD 27 The Mexican boy s friends hooted and whistled Without turning around their friend held up his left hand and flashed a sign four fingers held straight up the thumb pulled back Come on Emma said Let s get out of here She pulled their human caravan down the corridor As she slalomed past cheerleaders and football players and gamers and gangsters she felt it the quick pang of panic now compounded by guilt A voice inside her head taunted her In Tennessee they got in trouble for moonshine not gang signs
25. ssion strained by the exuberance of a mariachi band She tried to remember how to describe the tempo of a piece of music Beats per measure Time signature She couldn t remember anything from the two years she d taken flute If pressed she could pick out Lean on Me on the piano but that was all She hated Lean on Me And she hated the ranchero music the school played during lunch A handful of Mexican boys got up to dance pulling their girlfriends behind them Emma picked one couple and watched their sensual sway The boy wore pointy cowboy boots and a lizard belt When he smiled his teeth shone cloud white against his brown desert face He danced with a girl wearing a midriff 2 JENNI WILTZ shirt the fingers of his right hand resting on the waistband of her jeans Half an inch up and they d be on her bare skin Emma sighed The only thing that touched her bare skin was the too tight elastic of her bra and underwear a situation unlikely to change anytime soon She swallowed hard to push down the pang of jealousy burning the back of her throat Emma and her friends occupied their usual table at the far end of the courtyard On one side Rachel Cooper sat with pale legs folded to her chest a waterfall of red hair shielding her face from the sun Emma sat on the other side Next to her Via Mebrete bounced her right leg with a rhythm that would have put a drummer to shame What s for lunch Rachel asked pointing
26. ught her to throw a football she sprained a thumb ride a bike she fell off mostly and put things on the grill there was a picture of her shirtless at age three using tongs to turn hot dogs over the flame He remarked on all unforeseen events by saying What are the odds It s like Lou Gehrig getting Lou Gehrig s disease She couldn t imagine life without him I don t know Emma said Sometimes I d rather have a hamburger I can t remember the last time my mom made me any thing Rachel said She keeps her purse in the oven Dont your aunt and uncle cook They like Hot Pockets At the far end of the courtyard behind a folding table draped in plastic a student council representative sold prom tickets Rachel s gaze drifted toward the line of people waiting to buy It happened every time there was a formal dance Rachel picked out a mark and found a reason to stand by his locker She twirled her strawberry curls put on two coats of mascara and waited for an invitation It always came She d been the only freshman to attend the junior prom 4 JENNI WILTZ On good days Emma tried to convince herself she could do the same Awake or asleep though the dream always ended when she saw her face in the mirror She lifted her hand and tapped the massive zit on her chin Yep she thought Still there A breeze whipped through the courtyard shuffling papers and stealing loose napk
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