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After Mrs. Greer and the mutt loaded into her Impala and drove away, Jude grew angrier by the second. “Why do you take crap off people, Jon? That bitch ain’t shit!”
• • •
In the middle of the night, Mrs. Greer’s scream could be heard two blocks away. Jude lay in bed grinning while Mr. and Mrs. Pierce turned on all the lights in the house as a bang came at the door. Fifteen minutes later, they came into the bedroom where Jude still lay amused and sat down on opposite sides of the bed. Jude didn’t want to be bothered with the bullshit so she let Jon take back over.
Jon was stunned to see both her parents sitting on her bed. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Jonquinette, someone poisoned Mrs. Greer’s dog, Shadow,” her daddy said. “Do you know anything about that?”
“Shadow? No, I don’t know anything about it.”
Her parents both eyed her suspiciously.
“Are you sure?” her father quizzed again.
“I’m sure. Why would someone do something like that, anyway?”
Her mother said, “Mrs. Greer said you two had an altercation earlier today. Something about you climbing over her fence to get a ball.”
“Yes, I did get my ball and she did yell at me but that was it.”
“She said you yelled back at her later when she was on the way to the store.”
“No, I didn’t,” Jonquinette said on the brink of tears. “I didn’t see her at all after that.”
Her parents eyed each other with confused expressions. Finally, her mother patted her on the hand. “Go back to sleep. Everything will be all right.”
• • •
The next morning, Jonquinette headed back upstairs after breakfast to get dressed for the day. There wasn’t much to do but she figured she could ride her bike around the block. She entered her room to find both her parents standing there. Her father had an empty can of rat poison in his hand. “I found this under your bed.”
Jonquinette fell on the floor and cried. “I didn’t do anything!”
5
April 1991
Seventh Grade
Jonquinette sat in the bleachers, faking a muscle spasm as usual. She hated to participate in gym class. It was ironic because at home, she had become obsessed with physical fitness. All of the baby fat was long gone and she had an hourglass shape. Many of the boys that used to tease her in elementary school were now sweating her to go out with them. She was too nervous to even think about the prospect of dating.
Sheila Vale hated Jonquinette but no one truly understood why. Jonquinette kept to herself, tried to concentrate on her studies, and went directly home from school every single day.
Sheila came over to the bleachers, dressed in her gym uniform, and folded her arms over her chest. “So what’s supposed to be wrong with you today?”
Jonquinette eyed her. “I have a muscle spasm.”
“Again? You don’t look like you have a damn thing wrong with you.”
Jonquinette didn’t respond. She waited for someone to come to her rescue and a few seconds later, someone did.
Mrs. Yates, their teacher, yelled toward them. “Sheila, what are you doing? Leave Jonquinette alone. She’s not feeling well.”
Sheila smacked her lips and walked off.
After class ended, Jonquinette was in the locker room organizing her locker when she heard several people approach her from behind. She turned to find Sheila and a few of her flunkies staring at her.
Sheila stepped forward. “I don’t believe there’s a damn thing wrong with you. Take off your clothes.”
