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Slowly, he turns his head.
When our class went to the Emerald City Zoo last year on a field trip, one of the big lions was watching us all, standing on the other side of a tall fence behind a wide ditch. It made me nervous, the way his unblinking yellow eyes kept staring at me. He looked like he wanted to get over to our side really badly and was angry that he couldn’t.
Micah’s eyes are blue, not yellow, but he still reminds me of that lion.
And not in a good way.
He stares at me as he rips the rose apart but he doesn’t throw away the crushed petals.
“He’ll never be right after this.”
I really shouldn’t have yelled at him. Micah must feel the same way I feel when I wake up from nightmares about the screaming angel.
Maybe he feels even worse.
Anyway, Micah and I are alike now. We both have dead parents.
And suddenly I want to cry for a different reason. Not just because the boys are being mean but because I really am sorry for Micah.
He’s still standing there with the crushed rose petals and his angry lion eyes. I give him the only thing I have to give him. Micah moves closer and looks down at the little dandelion in my hand.
Then he opens his own hand that holds the ruined rose petals and smashes them hard into my chest. He rubs his palm to make sure my dress gets stained by the rose petal juice.
I don’t even have time to pull my hand back before he rips the dandelion out of my fist, tears the flower in two and throws the pieces at me.
My face gets hot and my throat feels funny. I look down and see the ugly red streaks on my dress.
I feel the tears coming. I’m losing self-control.
“Micah, you are terrible.”
I can’t stop myself from saying this.
Anyway, he is terrible.
Being sad doesn’t make it all right to be mean.
Micah doesn’t care. He pushes me out of the way and starts walking across the grass. He still hasn’t said a word.
Gage gives me a dirty look before he chases after Micah. “Just leave us alone, Tess. We don’t like you.”
Conner seems like he might want to say something to me but he doesn’t. He just looks down and follows his cousins, leaving me all alone with broken flowers and a stained dress.
My father will be furious. Even if I tell him what the boys did he won’t listen.
We are Ballerinis.That’s what he’ll say.
We are Ballerinis and we don’t let anyone get the best of us.
We have self-control. No one can make us cry.
From here I can’t see my father or Uncle Josh. I hope that means they can’t see me either.
A tear trickles down my cheek and I rub it away. Tears always show up when they aren’t wanted. I have to make sure they are gone before I go back out there or my father will see.
With my shoe buckle still broken, I leave the rosebushes and walk slowly through Matilda’s lemon grove. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of small green lemons growing on the leafy branches.
The more I keep taking deep breaths the more I’m sure my tears are leaving.
