Page 73 of Mind Games

“No such thing! A boy goes around having some sex, they say how he’s sowing his wild oats. Well, girls got oats, too. I’ll sow mine when I want to. But not till I’ve dated—just dated—at least half a dozen.

“Now school.”

Maddy flipped subjects so quick, Thea’s head spun.

“We’re going to eat lunch together every day. Plus, we’re going to have some classes together. And you’re going to know everybody by the first week. You’re going to make friends, but you’d better not make a best best friend. Because that’s already me.”

Thea knew lunch period equaled the Great Humiliation Zone without friends.

“You’ll eat lunch with me every day?”

“Promise. Now kick that homeschooling idea in the ass, and let’s pick out what you’re wearing the first day.”

* * *

Since Thea couldn’t stop time, the first day came. With her stomach churning, she dressed as Maddy decreed. Denim skirt, white tee, her pink Converse sneakers. She wore her mother’s pink studs, and did her hair—Maddy approved—in a side braid that fell over her left shoulder.

Rem tossed on shorts, a tee, tied his new shoelaces, and considered it done.

“Look at the pair of you! You’re going to indulge your grammie and let me take pictures. I want to memorialize your first day. I swear I don’t know what I’m going to do with all the quiet around here until you get home.”

When the school bus rolled up, Lucy kissed them both. “You have a good first day, and I want to hear all about it.”

Thea clung a little; she couldn’t help it. Lucy murmured in her ear.

“If you’re worried about taking the bus, I can drive you in.”

Thea understood the meaning of gauntlet now. Maddy lived in town, and didn’t ride the bus. Rem already ran toward it, thrilled to embrace the experience.

She couldn’t let her little brother be braver than she was.

“No, Grammie, it’s fine.”

She walked the gauntlet as the bus driver waved and called out to Lucy. To the bus, onto the bus, down the aisle between mostly empty seats. They rode the winding road, climbing up, heading down, making more stops. Kids piled on; the noise level rose.

Two girls sat behind her and giggled together.

They’d nearly reached town before someone sat beside her. The girl said, “Hey,” then immediately shifted to talk to other kids.

Thea suffered the thirty-five-minute bus ride without speaking a word.

When they reached the school, she filed off. Rem deserted her for a group of boys. She started the second gauntlet while around her kids greeted each other, laughing, talking, mock groaning about school.

Maddy came up behind her, hooked an arm around Thea’s waist.

“God, it was awful! Nobody talked to me the whole way.”

“Did you talk to anybody?”

“No, but—”

“Social anxiety,” Maddy said wisely. “We don’t have homeroom together because of the alphabet, but I asked Mama to check, and we have first and third and sixth period together. Hey, Julianne!” she called out as she steered Thea through the heavy front door. “Like the new do! This is my friend Thea.”

She called out to others as they walked, and explained the layout to Thea as they went.

The offices, the doors to the gym, the auditorium where they had assemblies and the concerts.

Compared to her school in Virginia everything here was smaller, older. At least she’d never get lost.

---