excerpt
Picking up a dry twig, she started to draw lines and figures in the
dirt around her. Her childhood did not seem as far away now as it
had just last week. Maybe Lyssa was right, maybe she was still a baby,
and maybe she needed to grow up. But if growing up meant going out
with guys and drinking and making out in the back seat of a car like
Lyssa did … well, did she really want to?
Rachael had overheard a group of girls from her church talking in
the school corridor. She had been about to close her locker door and
go over to join them when Julia spoke in a voice that carried further
than she probably realized.
“Well, I don’t think she should be hanging around with her cousin
so much. Everyone in school knows that Lyssa’s fast.”
Rachael knew they were referring to her and her cousin. Who else
would they be talking about? Fast? What exactly did that mean? She
wished there was someone she could ask. She could hardly broach the
subject with Lyssa, her closest confident. She’d like to ask her mom,
but then she would have to reveal what she’d heard, and that would
only add to her parents’ already poor opinion of Lyssa. Maybe she
should ask Ronnie; he wouldn’t squeal on her even if he guessed the
reason for her asking.
She heard a sudden thump on the wooden bridge. Looking up she saw
Tim Buckley striding in his lumbering gait from his side of the stream.
She sat up straight and waited until he was within hailing distance.
“Hi, Timmy. Whatja doin’?”
“Lo, Rachael.” He grinned as he lowered his large frame to the
ground beside her. His big face registered delight as he looked at her
then shifted his gaze to her schoolbag. “Comin’ home from school?
Whatya doin’ here then?”
Rachael shrugged and looked across the creek where two crows
danced among the debris from fallen branches. “Just thinking.”
“Yeah? I think all the time.”
She turned to look at him, smiling at his boyish naivety. “What
about, Timmy?”
Manolis Aligizakis 