Strangely Normal

chapter 2


I wasn’t two steps into the long, crowded hallway when Chandler, my on-again, off-again boyfriend grabbed me and pulled me into the boy’s restroom. The unfortunate guy standing at the urinal glanced toward us and blanched.

“That’s right, Dude, give it a shake and get the hell out of here,” Chandler barked, and the guy zipped up and sidled past us with a red face.

“Why do you do stuff like that?” I tried to pull my arm from his grasp, but it only made him tighten his fingers. “It smells like piss in here.”

He lifted his chin in the air. “You know, you’re right. I think we should mention that to the principal.” His blue gaze floated hungrily over my lips and down to my tight t-shirt. When Chandler Rockmore had first shown interest in seeing me, I’d been over-the top thrilled with my luck. I’d managed to catch the attention of the richest, most popular guy in the school. But when it became obvious that Chandler wanted to see me, but only in private and out of view of his equally rich and brutally opinionated friends, the shine wore off of the whole damn thing.

Chandler leaned down to kiss me, but I moved my face aside. His blue eyes went dark with anger. “What the hell, Eden? First you don’t return my messages and now I can’t even kiss you.”

“You can kiss me but not in here.”

“Come on, baby, you know I don’t like to attract attention.”

“You mean you don’t want to disappoint your friends by letting them know that you’ve been seeing me.”

“That’s not true.” He attempted the kiss again, and as I pulled my face away, his grip tightened painfully on my arm.

“Let me go, Chandler. I’m late for an appointment with the counselor.” Two guys opened the bathroom door.

“Get the f*ck out of here! Go shit in your locker or something,” Chandler yelled. They backed out quickly.

The interruption gave me a chance to pull free and I fled out the door. Chandler followed me to my locker. Icy rage came off of him in waves. He leaned next to the lockers and glanced around casually as a group of cheerleaders strolled by.

“Hey, Chandler,” they twittered in unison.

“What’s up,” he replied casually. Once the coast cleared, he turned back to me. “Come on, Eden, don’t be mad at me. You know I care about you.”

I grabbed my book and slammed shut the locker door. “Then walk me into the quad right now and kiss me in front of your friends.”

His mouth dropped open but he was speechless. It was all the reaction I needed.

“Good bye, Chandler.” I spun away from him and headed to Mrs. Vickers’s office. I could feel Chandler’s heated stare on my back as I walked away, but truthfully I felt relieved to be done with him for good.

I knocked on the office door. “Come in.” Mrs. Vickers looked up from her computer with the thick glasses that made her eyes look huge. Her face flattened to a frown. “Eden, come sit down. I’ve heard word from the scholarship committee.” Her tone made my stomach clench up in a knot.

She removed her glasses and her eyes shrank back to a normal size. Her chair squeaked as she leaned forward and rested her forearms on the desk. “I’m afraid the news isn’t good. Your qualifications were stellar, but the committee felt that your history of poor school attendance makes you too much of a risk. You only qualify for a small scholarship. And since your parents neglected to file their taxes on time, you just won’t be able to get any financial aid. You could attend community college for a few years and then doors will open up for you.”

I stared at the woman and blinked. She’d just pulled the curtain shut on my dreams, and somehow, I was certain that once I walked out of her office she’d continue calmly on with her morning, stopping into the teacher’s lounge for a donut, coffee, and a dose of gossip before returning to her endless paperwork. And Eden Saxon would just be another number in her computer.

“I’m so sorry, Eden.”

I pushed to my feet and picked up my backpack. Not wanting her to see my tears, I faced the door as I pulled the straps onto my shoulder. I took one step.

“Hold on, Eden.” Her tone had sharpened from sympathetic to authoritative.

I turned back to face her but she circled around to my back. She walked back in front of me and held up her fingers. “What is this?”

The mystery of the lost joint had been solved.

“Mrs. Vickers,” I blurted, “I don’t smoke pot. That’s not mine.”

She walked back to her chair, sat down, and rubbed her forehead. She was silent for several torturous minutes. “This is very serious, Eden. I’m afraid I’m going to have to report this to Principal Edwards. You can explain things to him.” She rose again from her chair, holding my mom’s joint like she was holding a vial of deadly bacteria. “Follow me.”

“Holy crap,” I muttered as I trudged behind her through the office, past a stream of curious onlookers, and down the hall to the principal’s office.

She pointed to the bench lining the hallway wall. “Sit here.” She went inside and shut the door behind her. Definitely one of those times when I wished that my mom had been more like a real mom.

A few minutes later, Mrs. Vickers poked her head out. “Come inside, Miss Saxon.” Apparently showing up to school with pot on your backpack elevated you to surname status.

Principal Edwards was a tall man with a shiny, bald head and a welcoming smile but that smile did not make an appearance as I stepped into his office. He glanced down at the tiny stub of a joint on his desk and then looked up at me. “I must say I’m puzzled, Eden. You’re an honor student, and you’ve never been in this office for anything but accolades.”

“It’s not mine. It must have dropped on my backpack when I was walking down the hallway.” Tears streamed down my cheeks again. “You have to believe me when I say it’s not mine.”

He tapped his long thick fingers on his desk as he leaned back in his chair. It squeaked beneath the burden of his weight. “I have no reason not to believe you, Eden.” There was a long pause as he stared down at the joint. “I’m not going to report this to the school police.”

The tears flowed faster. “Thank you, Principal Edwards.”

“However—” There were few words in the English language as heart-wrenching as however.

“I’m going to have to revoke your privilege of walking in the graduation ceremony, and you’ll have to skip grad night at Disneyland. Are your finals finished?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll call your parents. Someone can come pick you up.”

I returned to the bench in the hallway, dropped my backpack to the floor, and plopped down hard. Closing my eyes tightly did little to stop the flow of tears. Of course, I’d never had the money to buy a ticket to grad night, but I’d looked forward to the graduation ceremony. Now I just wanted out of this wretched school. Now I just wanted this awful morning to end.

Principal Edwards poked his shiny head out of his office. “Your dad is on his way.”

I wiped the tears from my face, leaned back against the wall, and shut my eyes again. Then the bench moved as someone sat down next to me. Mrs. Vickers was sitting next to me with her thick glasses and a look of contrition on her face.

She held a piece of paper in her hand. “Look, Eden, I’m terribly sorry about all of this.” I guess my earlier assessment of her not really caring one way or the other might have been hasty. “I think I have a job for you this summer if you’re interested. It pays well and includes room and board. I know your family struggles with finances.” Her face blushed as if she was the one who was dirt poor.

“What kind of job is it?” My throat was dry and achy from the shitty morning.

“My cousin is Nicky King.”

It took me a moment to figure out why this piece of information meant anything. “Do you mean Nicky King, the singer of Black Thunder?”

“The very one,” she said with a beaming grin. “Our fathers were brothers.”

“My dad loves that band, but what kind of job is it?”

“Nicky has a nineteen-year-old daughter who needs a companion.” She looked down at her lap for a second. “Finley has some problems with anxiety, and she doesn’t really leave the house.”

“Do you mean she’s agoraphobic?”

“Yes,” she hesitated, “among other things.” Her face brightened. “But she is a wonderful girl. She loves animals, and she has a great sense of humor. Nicky would like her to have a companion— at least for the summer. He’s going on tour with the band, and her brothers are always in and out of town.” She tucked the paper in my hand. “Think about it. This is my cell phone number. Call me if you decide to do it and I’ll make the arrangements.”

I tucked the paper into my jeans. “Thanks, Mrs. Vickers. I’ll think about it. Is it all right if I go clean out my locker? It looks like I’m not coming back to school again.”

Her eyes watered behind her thick lenses. “Of course, Eden. And I truly am sorry.”

I hugged her briefly and plucked up my backpack. The hall was still crowded, but people were starting to shuffle to first period. The glass doors at the end of the hallway swung open and my dad stepped inside. The top half of his long hair was pulled back and tied at behind his head and he was wearing a silver hoop in each ear. It seemed like every face in the crowd turned to look at him. He was definitely different than most dads, and I was glad.

He spotted me and the silent apology on his face made me break into a full run. I ran into his waiting arms and cried.

***

I spent the rest of the day flopped on the couch between my two little sisters watching mind-numbing preschool shows. Sophie had recently learned to braid hair and she’d just finished her tenth braid in my hair when Mom came out of the bedroom. Her eyes and nose were red from crying, and she had a giant wad of tissue clutched in her hand. She picked up Janie and pulled her into her lap as she plopped down next to me.

Her head leaned against my shoulder. “I have to be the worst mother in history,” she sniffled.

“No, you’re not, Mom. Hamster mothers eat their own babies. Besides, it’s no big deal. I’ll still have my diploma.”

“You’re such a good kid.” She grabbed hold of my arm and squeezed. “How did I deserve such a good kid?”

“You raised me, Mom. I think you can give yourself some credit.” I’d been the one to suffer a nightmarish morning but instead of Mom comforting me, I was comforting her. Growing up, it was something I’d found myself doing a lot. And while my college dreams had been temporarily smashed, I’d managed to overcome the disappointment quickly. I’d had a lifetime of practice.

She squeezed my arm harder and sniffled again. Janie twisted around in her lap and pressed her tiny finger against Mom’s red nose.

“Mommy is Rudolph.”

We burst out laughing and a tickle fight ensued. As usual, the Saxon family luck had gone sour. My college dreams had been temporarily washed away by the morning’s tsunami of shitty events, and I was going to miss out on my high school graduation. We had a yellow-stained apartment, bare cupboards, and a family car that was ready for the junkyard, but we had each other and that was all we needed.