"I have papers from your grandmother's attorney assigning guardian rights to your great-aunt. Frances Wilkens," she added, tapping some papers on her desk. "So, unfortunately for her, she will have this. She will have to face something terribly unpleasant immediately."
"What will she face? Why did you contact our parents? Why are we here?" Alanis demanded firmly.
Slowly. Mrs. Browne turned to her.
"Oh, don't worry, Alanis. I'm getting to it, to all of it." She took a deep breath, sat and leaned back. "Last night, a student at our school named Stuart Gavin drove his father's gas delivery truck off the road and hit a tree. He wasn't wearing a seat belt, and he was thrown from the vehicle and broke his left arm in two places. He was fortunate that nothing more serious happened to him.
"A passing motorist noticed the accident and called the police. It seems young Mr. Gavin was intoxicated. The police discovered that the level of alcohol in his blood was way above what is acceptable when driving. Do you know what that means?"
"He was drunk," Alanis said as casually as someone might say he had a cold." It didn't sound bad at all when it came from her lips. "So?"
"So? SO?" Mrs. Browne sat forward. "I imagine that you might see so many people in that condition that it means little to you anymore. However, driving under the influence of alcohol is a serious, very serious, crime. He will probably lose his license for a considerable period of time, and his father depends on him to help with their company's gas deliveries."
"I still don't get why you called our parents about it, and why did you call us to your office? We didn't do anvthing," Alanis pursued. undaunted.
I didn't know whether to admire her courage or criticize her stupidity.
"Oh, you don't?" She panned all of us slowly and returned her gaze to Alanis. "Young Mr. Gavin has told the police that he drank all this alcohol at a party you girls had at Jordan March's great-aunt's home," Mrs. Browne responded and turned toward me. I pressed my lips together quickly. He has named each and every one of vou."
"He's a liar," Alanis said without hesitation. "He came to Jordan's great-aunt's house, but he was already drunk and we told him to go home. He nearly threw up in the driveway. He had those sweet alcopops that can make you sick to your stomach," she added. "He wanted us to drink them, but we wouldn't." She turned to Nikki and Raspberrv. "Right?"
They both nodded. but Nikki looked surprised.
Mrs. Browne sat back again, then slowly turned her gaze on me.
"As I understand it, you haven't been living with your great-aunt very long, have you. Jordan?"
"No." I said. My throat threatened to close and smother any other words.
"In this case adults can be held responsible. She could be in very big trouble. You're all underage. I'm sure you don't want to get her in any trouble, too, do you?"
"Oh, no," I said. The tears were building under my eyelids so fast that I was positive now that I wouldn't be able to keep them from spilling out and down my cheeks.
The softness she pretended evaporated as she leaned toward me sharply.
"Then you had better tell the truth, young lady. Did you have a party at your great-aunt's house and give young Mr. Gavin alcohol to drink?" she questioned. With her gaze firmly on me, I felt like I was in a spotlight.
I glanced at Alanis. What would Ian do? I wondered. He would answer correctly, but also exactly to how the question was asked. I hadn't given Stuart any alcopops and I hadn't had the paid'. Nikki. Raspberry and Alanis had had the party.
"Well?"
"No." I said.
She stared at me. I wasn't lying, but I wasn't sure I didn't look like a liar.
She smiled coldly. "Why would he tell this to the police?" she calmly asked all of us.
"Simple," Alanis said, shrugging and sitting back in her seat. "To get himself out of trouble," Then she sat forward quickly. "We ain't getting into trouble because of him," she added more forcefully. "He got no right telling that story and causing you to call our parents. He's stupid. There's going to be hell to pay. Maybe we should sue him or something." she told Nikki and Raspberry, who both sat wide-eyed.
"Sue him? You haven't exactly been an angel here. Alanis King," Mrs. Browne countered. "I wouldn't press my luck.'
"It's not luck. It's the truth. You can't put the blame on us just because we done something bad once."
"Once?"
"It ain't right to blame us for his stupidity," Alanis insisted. "My mother ain't going to like this. You just taking his side right away. None of our mothers will," she added, nodding at Nikki and Raspberry, who still looked frozen. "I bet Jordan's family really won't like it, and they could afford big lawyers. We all probably have the right to a lawyer or something, don't we? I know my mother's going to call a lawyer and I bet yours does, too. Nikki. Her sister works for a lawyer, don't she?"
Nikki nodded, and Alanis smiled and turned back to Mrs. Browne, "Maybe she'll get him to do it for nothing or part of the money we'll win against the school and the Gavins."
Mrs. Browne thought a moment. Her firm demeanor seemed to crack a little. I could see it in the way her eyes shifted. She nodded softly.
"Yes, you all might very well need to have lawyers." She cleared her throat with a low growl, "This matter will continue under investigation. If it results in proof that you're lying, you will be in even more serious trouble. I will turn the matter over to the police to handle and it won't be a school issue. You'll all go to court. Is that understood?"
Alanis shrugged again. "What's to understand? He's lying. We didn't do it. I ain't afraid of going to court."
How could she be so strong and unafraid? I wondered.
"We'll see," Mrs. Browne said, but her voice didn't have the same confidence and authority it had when we first entered. I could see she wasn't sure who was telling the truth now and she had gone as far as she could.
My respect for Alanis grew instantly. She looked at me with a smile around her eyes.
"In any case, young lady. I would hope you improve your grammar this year. 'Ain't' is not proper."
"Yes, ma'am, I will certainly try my best." Alanis replied.
Her tone was so obviously false that it made Nikki and Raspberry smile. Mrs. Browne snapped herself back in her seat. She glared at her, and then she looked hard at me.
"I know it's difficult to start at a new school. but I would be very careful about whom you choose to be your friends. Now all of you return to your classes. We'll see where this ends,"
Alanis stood quickly, and so did Nikki and Raspberry. I slipped off my seat and followed them out the door. Alanis didn't turn to me until we were in the hallway. Then she put on her hat again and embraced me.
"You did real good in there. Jordan. You are my sister now," she said and squeezed me to her.
"Damn. I was sweating in there." Nikki said.
"You're always sweating," Alanis told her. "You almost gave it all away, trembling so much and looking so gaga-eyed. Don't say anything to anybody, hear? Let's keep all this to ourselves until lunch. See you soon," she told me, and they headed for the stairway.
I returned to my classroom, where everyone was busy writing his or her biography. They all looked up curiously when I entered. Mrs. Morgan didn't say anything. I wondered if she could see how I was still shaking. She nodded at my desk. and I sat and began again. My hand trembled as I picked up my pen to begin writing. I wrote about all the terrible things that had happened to our family when my parents had their accident. but I didn't write about Ian and Miss Harper, All I said about him was that he was very, very smart and wanted to be a medical research scientist someday. Of course. I explained why I had come to live with my great-aunt Frances.
Afterward, Mrs. Morgan collected our biographies. Then she passed our textbooks and workbooks to us. We began reading aloud so she could evaluate how we all read. I thought I did as well as anyone else. By lunchtime, we had been introduced to our English, math and science books. We would start our history book af
ter lunch, and then she said she would give us our homework assignments. Tomorrow morning, after she had read our
biographies to be sure there was nothing offensive in them, she would circulate them so we could all get to know each other better. but I thought they all knew each other well enough. They were all going to learn about me mostly.
She then went into a lecture about class behavior. She told us that everything we did that was wrong carried what she called negative points. She explained that at the end of the quarter she would subtract those points from our class averages and we could actually fail even though we'd passed all the tests. Everyone looked frightened about it. especially Gary. The chubby boy who had come unprepared. I thought she was looking hard at me the whole time.
When the bell rang for lunch. Mrs. Morgan called me to her desk as the class began leaving the room. She waited until everyone was gone.
"I have been told by the school nurse that she has been informed you have had menarche, is that collect? I assume you know what it means."
"Yes. Mrs. Morgan."
"If you should have any problems while you are in my classroom. I don't want you blurting it out. understand? You simply raise your hand and ask to go to the nurse. If you need to go to the nurse, go there. If you can handle yourself on your own, go to the girls' room. I can tell you that I've never in all my years had a girl in my class with this problem." she added.
I don't know why she told me that. It made me feel even more terrible.
"Now go to lunch and be sure you obey all our school rules. I'm sure," she added as I started to turn away. "that I'll learn the reason for your being called to the principals office only minutes after you began here. This is a very busy school year for everyone in this class. I have absolutely no time or tolerance for interruptions."
I said nothing. I guess her husband's not home, I thought, recalling what Alanis had told me about her. I lowered my head and hurried out of the room. The hallway was already cleared, because the students were in the cafeteria. When I arrived there. I found the line was long at the counters. but Alanis appeared quickly and seized my right arm. She was still wearing her hat. Apparently. only Mrs. Browne took the time to tell her not to wear it in school.
"Where were you? We're all waiting. We sorta talk and make sure we're all on the same page."
"Mrs. Morgan kept me back to tell me things," I said. "What things?"
"About what to do if I should have a period while I'm in her room. She said I was the first girl she had in class with the problem."
"I bet she's lying."
"Why would she lie?"
"I don't know. Teachers lie, too. Don't be surprised. C'mon." she said and took me by the hand to cut us in front of some younger students who were too afraid of her to complain. "Pick anything you want. You have more than enough money," she said. "We'll keep the change in our own private bank."
"We're not going to have another party, are we?"
"Sure we arr. Don't let Mrs. Dart-face scare you." "Dart-face?"
"Mrs. Browne. Doesn't her face look like someone used it for a dartboard?"
"Oh. Yes," I said. "It does."
We ordered our food, then took our trays to the table where Nikki and Raspberry were sitting. I saw the way some of the students from my class were looking at us. They were probably wondering how I'd come to be sitting with older girls. I was sure that now they would all firmly believe I had been left back and these girls I was with were not all that much older than me.
Chad was two tables down right, glaring angrily our way and mumbling something to his friends. Alanis pretended she didn't see him.
"Okav, listen up. We just stick to our story." Alanis advised us all at the table. "It will be Stuart's word against ours.
Remember. He came drunk and we got rid of him. Anyone see you two in his truck afterward?'" she asked Nikki and Raspberry.
"No, there was no one around when he dropped us off,"
Raspberry said. "Good."
"What about the bottles in the basement?" Nikki asked. "There's all those empty ones and some more full ones."
"Yeah. Right after school, I'll take care of it." Alanis said.
"Crashed into a tree and broke his arm in two places," Raspberry said, shaking her head. "And arrested for drunken driving. That sounds very serious,"
"Didn't you two see how drunk he was when he let you off at the corner?" Alanis asked her.
"Sure we did, but what could we do about it?" Raspberry asked. "I feel sorry for him. His father probably will break his other arm.'
"Forget about him. He was a creep for getting to let us in trouble,' Alanis told her. You don't tell on your friends," she added, glancing at me. "Never."
"Maybe he just doesn't know how to lie," I said. "I'm not too good at it," I added, and they all stopped eating and looked at me as if I had said the weirdest thing.
"Everyone knows how to lie. Jordan. He just didn't care about us. He tried to push off his own blame on us," Alanis said.
"Raspberry's right. He's probably afraid of his father," Nikki said. "I've seen him. He's a really big man."
"Doesn't matter. I'm not afraid of his father." Alanis told her and then turned to me. "Look. Jordan. Here's how you do it. First, you tell yourself you're not lying. You force yourself to believe what you're saying and then when you say it, everyone else will believe you if you do it that way, understand?"
"I suppose," I said.
"We're just lucky she didn't say too much in Dart-face's office," Nikki said.
"What'd ya mean? She did better than you did." Alanis told her. "You were nearly in tears and getting ready to throw yourself on the floor and beg for mercy until I came up with the story."
"Shut up. I was not."
"Just make sure you're the one who shuts up," Alanis said. "For your information. Jordan could get into the most trouble. It was her great-aunt's house. They might send her away to some institution like they sent her brother.'
"What about her brother? You never told us what he did exactly." Raspberry said.
We heard the warning bell.
"She'll tell you some other time. Everyone just watch out. Dart-face could call us in one at a time and try to get one of us to say something different, Remember. Stick to the story or else," Alanis warned, standing. "C'mon. Jordan, Get your booty back to class and stay out of Mrs. Morgan's way, In her case her bite is worse than her bark."
"What's that mean?"
"It means watch out what you say to her. stupid," Nikki said.
"I'm not stupid," I said.
"Yeah. Don't call her stupid. She may look older than you, but she's not," Alanis told her. "Although sometimes I wonder," she added in a mutter.
Nikki's eyes flared. She pressed her lips together, then started away.
"Whatcha go take her side for over Nikki's?" Raspberry asked Alanis.
"I'm not taking sides."
"Right," Raspberry said and hurried to join Nikki before she left the cafeteria.
"Sometimes they act like they're the ones in the third grade, not you," Alanis said. "Don't worry about it. I'll take care of them."
We started out of the cafeteria,
"Everything's going to be all right. Jordan," she told me before we parted in the hallway. "Just hang tough."
I tried, but all the while I was in Mrs. Morgan's classroom, I expected the door to open and Mrs. Browne to send for me to do just what Alanis had predicted: speak with us one at a time, especially me, to get one of us to contradict Alanis's story. I even imagined the police would come and take me away. How would I hang tough then? I wondered, but thankfully no one came.
We went through the first chapter in our history book. then Mrs. Morgan gave us our homework. It seemed like a lot. There was something to do for every subject. I would surely have to get started as soon as I was home and not join Great- aunt Frances to watch some afternoon soap opera. I didn't want to make her feel bad. but I had never been given so much homework.
br /> When the bell rang to end the school day. I gathered my books and workbooks, stuffed them into my schoolbag and started out. No one in my class spoke to me, but I felt many looking at me. Alanis was waiting for me in the hallway.
"Nobody came back for you. right?"
"No."
"Good. We'll be fine. Let's go home. I better get down to the basement and get rid of that stuff quickly," she said. We headed out to the buses, but when we stepped outside. Alanis moaned. "Oh, no."
There, standing and waiting by his old car. was Mr. Marshall. Alanis's granddad, and it wasn't hard to see that he was fuming.
"Get over here," he called to her.
She paused.
"You go on the bus," she said. "I better deal with him myself."
I watched her walk to him and his car. He turned as she walked past him to get into the car, and he slapped her sharply on the back of her head. I could swear I felt it. too. She spun around on him, but he grabbed her shoulder and forced her into the car, slamming the door shut. He glared my way but got into his car quickly.
I hurried into my bus, my legs trembling so much that I thought I would trip on the steps.
One of the girls in my class was seated up front, and she put her hand out to stop me from going down the aisle. "How come you're in the third grade?" she asked.
"Because that's where I'm supposed to be,," I replied. She looked at her friend sitting beside her and they smiled. "It is!" I said. They both started to giggle. I walked all the way to the back quickly and sat by myself. Looking out the window. I saw Lester Marshall drive away. Alanis had her hand over her eyes and her head against the window.
It took much longer for me to get home because of all the stops along the way. By that time, almost three-quarters of the bus had gotten off. I hurried down the aisle without looking at anyone and got off. Then I charged up the driveway. I saw Lester Marshall's car. but I didn't see him or Alanis.
"Oh. Jordan." Great-aunt Frances cried as soon as I entered the house. She stepped out of the living room. I thought she was going to ask me to come in to watch the soap opera. "I had a phone call from the school principal today. She wanted to know if you had a party here last night. How silly, I told her. There was no party. You went to sleep to get ready for school. She asked me if I had seen Stuart Gavin here, the boy who delivers propane gas. I said no but I better see him soon. I think. Then she told me he was in an accident with his truck and he had been drinking alcohol. I told her I thought he was a nice boy and I was sorry to hear it. She said I should be sure to question you, but about what?"