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“I want you to be sure to come directly home after school today,” she said, still looking down at the table. “Do not permit Kiera to talk you into coming home with her and sending Grover back without you.” She raised her head. “She wants you to go back and forth to school with her, but I refuse to permit it. In fact, I don’t want you riding with her anywhere unless I specifically say. Understand, Sasha?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know what went on here exactly while I was away, but I’m not pleased,” she concluded.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Kiera sauntered in and poured herself a cup of coffee. “They’re still making the coffee too weak,” she told her mother after sipping some.
“I think you have more important things to think about than the strength of your coffee, Kiera.”
“We just went to Disneyland, Mother. Don’t make it into a federal case.”
Mrs. March narrowed her eyes. “Rein yourself in, Kiera. You’re heading for another major disaster,” she warned.
Kiera smirked and nibbled on a pastry.
Then she just threw it down, got up, and left. Mrs. March didn’t say anything, even to me.
I finished, got my things, and hurried out to the limousine. After being with Kiera and her friends, hearing their laughter and seeing their joy, it was even more depressing to be alone in the big vehicle. If anything, it made me feel as if I had shrunken again and was back to being the mousy little girl with a limp.
After homeroom, I dreaded walking into Mr. Denacio’s class. The moment I took out the clarinet, his eyes shifted with suspicion. I hadn’t played for more than thirty seconds before he stopped me.
“You didn’t practice at all, did you?”
“No,” I said.
He didn’t say anything. He nodded and went to the next student, but that sort of quiet reaction of his was worse. I felt his disappointment and his conclusion that I was finally like most of the others and would not be anyone special after all. It was like almost getting to the top of a mountain and then sliding all the way back down. I wanted to cry. I tried to be enthusiastic for the remainder of the period but couldn’t get my energy level up and was happy when the bell rang.
I wasn’t as alert in any of my morning classes as I usually was and actually went into a daydream during math. I missed the entire explanation of a problem, and when called upon, I didn’t know where we were in the lesson. There, too, my teacher didn’t reprimand me. He just looked at me as if I had let him down and went on to another student. By the time lunch period came around, I felt as if I had stepped in quicksand and was nearly in it above my head. I certainly had no appetite.
But before I could settle into my funk and cry to myself, Ricky grabbed my arm. “We’re eating outside,” he said.
I looked at him with surprise. It was one thing to do things with Kiera and her friends on the weekend, but for them to want me with them at school, too, was quite another. My classmates and the girls with whom I usually sat looked up with as much surprise as I had when I filled my tray and followed Ricky out to their table.
He made a place for me, and I sat beside him.
“Why so sad a face?” Margot asked immediately.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but my mother gave us a hard time for missing dinner with her and my father last night,” Kiera said quickly. “I suppose that’s still bothering her.”
“Hey, don’t mope, Sasha. It was worth it,” Boyd said. “It was the best time I’ve had there.”
That started us all reviewing the day at Disneyland. Before I knew it, I felt upbeat and happy again, especially with the way they were including me in everything they said. When the bell rang, Ricky helped me with my tray, and we walked out of the cafeteria together. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the way Charlotte Harris, Jessica Taylor, and Sydney Woods were watching us. When Ricky and I parted in the hallway, they approached me quickly before I entered class.
“How come Ricky Burns is so interested in you?” Charlotte asked.
“Did you go out with him?” Sydney followed before I could answer.
I looked at the three of them. When I first came to the school and met them, I was of no interest. They mocked my limping and never thought to invite me to anything once I didn’t invite them to the March mansion. They rarely said a word or sent a smile my way.
“Who’s Ricky Burns?” I asked, and went into the classroom, leaving them stone-faced behind me. I laughed to myself.
When I sat and looked back, they were in deep conversation among themselves and Lisa Dirk, my first-day big sister who had had nothing much to do with me thereafter. They all looked my way, and I smiled at them.
I did much better in my afternoon classes. Before my last class, Kiera tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I wanted to go with her after school. “We’re heading to the Century City Mall.”
I hadn’t told her that her mother had forbidden me to ride with her without her specific permission and didn’t want to do it now and start her on some tirade.
