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That makes me giggle. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
Knox walks off into the dark early morning. I watch him go back up the road toward the direction of his house. I can’t wait to see his animals. I can’t wait to see his sister. I can’t wait for Mommy to wake up and see I got water for her.
I can’t wait to be best friends with Knox.
Chapter One Flick
Eleven Years Later
I adore the co-op system.
I could be sitting in AP Chemistry right now learning how to make atom bombs or whatever they do in those classes; instead, I have a three-legged bunny in my lap eating celery out of my hand. Her tiny nose, still sniffling from morning sleepiness, tickles my palm as her whiskers brush my wrist.
“What a good girl, Thumper.” I give her a light scratch between the ears.
In my hand, Thumper eats faster with my encouragement, and I smile to myself. Trying to get her to eat has been a challenge for the last three weeks. Rowen, my boss, spent four patient hours coaxing her out of her crate when she was first brought in. So eating out of my hand is a massive deal.
The doorbell chimes out front, and Thumper jumps right out of my lap and onto the pillow that she’s been sleeping on the last few nights. Well, it was a massive deal anyway.
“Welcome to Happy Tails,” I call out as I curve around the corner to the front. “How can I—” I pause as I look up, and my words are cut off as Odelia Waters shuffles to the desk with a massive box in hand.
“Hi, Flick!” she calls out from behind the box covering her face. The only reason I can tell who she is is due to the yellow Bug parked outside and her pink polka-dot tennis shoes.
I rush around the corner and help her lift the heavy box onto the counter. “Whoa.” The cardboard lets out a loud whoosh as it slams down. “What’s all this?”
Odelia brushes a long brunette tendril out of her face and smiles up at me. “Flyers for the Winter Formal—this year’s theme is…” Her hands stretch out in the air for emphasis. “Ice Carnival. So like a fair got frozen by an evil witch and we’re the innocent town folk. I think Edith is going to volunteer as the heroine who comes to our rescue in the end. She even has a blue wig.”
“Oh…” I nod slowly. “Very cool.”
Seriously, who is in charge of these things?
“Yup.” She bounces around, possibly more than Thumper. “I was put in charge of flyer distribution, so I thought you and Knox could spread some around?”
“Yeah, of course.”
It wouldn’t be the first time my best friend and I have jumped around Oak Ridge with brightly colored papers and a staple gun; Knox has helped me on countless occasions prepping for different events for the shelter. He can reach all the high-up places that Officer Scott can’t without a stepladder, so the flyers stay up a lot longer when he’s with me.
“Well, I’ve got to stop by Lottie and Walker’s and ask them the same, but I’ll see you later. Make sure you RSVP if you’re bringing a date on the link.” Odelia smiles and practically hops her way back to the yellow car.
Between the topic of a date and Odie’s Bug, I feel a massive jab in my stomach. I use a box cutter to open up the sealed cardboard, and sure enough, right on top is a light-blue flyer with a frosted carnival tent silhouette. Icicle edges around a carousel made of snowflakes and twinkling lights.
I read the large font aloud to myself. “Dance beneath the carnival lights and let the winter magic sweep you away. RSVP for you and your special one below.”
There’s a commotion of feathers ruffling behind me until Nigel lands by the box. He pecks it once.
Squawk. “Useless as an umbrella in a tornado!”
“Nigel,” I hiss. Unlike Thumper, Nigel has yet to grow out of his old home’s bad habits and I think will forever be the grump he is.
Though, he has a point. It probably would be useless for me to RSVP for a plus-one. The closest thing I could possibly manage to a date is Knox pitying me so much that he wears a matching tie to my dress and sings karaoke duets with me—which is basically our average Tuesday night.
I could simply just not go, but then what does that say about me? In a town this tightly knit with a senior class as small as ours, it would be kind of a big deal to not show up. Plus, the Winter Formal here is a whole ordeal—hence, Edith’s extravagant planning—and it’s treated more like prom than a casual get-together.
Prom is nice but the Winter Formal is only for seniors, and it’s usually a connection kind of thing. There are local business owners and politicians that show up to talk to you about opportunities to squeeze into future positions.
People like Rowen or my aunt Riley that owns the tavern downtown show up, and you can form an apprenticeship out of it. People say that one year back in the early 2000s Nick Saban came and recruited a bunch of guys for their football team, but then again, people also say there’s a haunted mansion at the top of the mountain, so I take it with a grain of salt.
