Page 17 of September Lessons
“Oh, you know it’s one thing for us to do it when we know what’s going on, hon.” Leigh-Ann’s mother joined them at the table. “It’s another when we have no idea what our kids are doing or how they’ll handle things.”
The more Leigh-Ann sipped her coffee, the more awake she became. Awake enough to understand that her parents had gone from the party, to the new teller at the bank, to the quality of the balsamic vinegar at Frankie’s Deli, to the barn fires plaguing that corner of the county. A bunch of things Leigh-Ann had no interest in.
Until a certain someone came up in conversation, anyway.
“That new girl, right?” Mrs. Hardy scoffed. “I don’t know anything about her, but I’ve heardmanythings.”
Leigh-Ann lowered her fork to her plate. “What new girl?”
“The one in your class, hon. I think she’s from Georgia.”
Sheesh, she might know more about Carrie than I do right now.Rumors really flew in a place like Paradise Valley. Didn’t help they lived in a congested trailer park where people often didn’t have anything better to do than congregate on their lawn chairs and talk about the second-hand news they picked up down at the supermarket. Practically a national sport, and Paradise RV and Trailer Park was the epicenter of gold medals.
“You mean Carrie? She’s the new girl in my class from Alabama.”
“Alabama! Now, there’s a place you don’t meet many people from around here.”
Was she kidding? Leigh-Ann could name a couple off the top of her head, and they were adults. “She’s nice. We have lunch together sometimes.”
Her parents exchanged a look Leigh-Ann could not interpret.
“What?”
“Now, don’t take me at face value, hon,” her mother said, “but I’ve heard some interesting things about that new girl. Through Sandy and some of the other mothers, that is. Oh, apparently she was at that party tonight.” That was directed to Leigh-Ann’s father. “Rumor is that Deputy Greenhill looked right at her and was prepared to cuff her for the fire!”
“No need to spread those kinds of rumors.” Mr. Hardy shook his head. “I’m sure she’s a nice girl, if our baby girl is talking to her.”
They both looked at Leigh-Ann, who shoveled breakfast into her mouth.
The concept of Carrie having anything to do with the barn fires made absolutely zero sense. For one thing, the barn fires started like… six weeks ago. Before Carrie moved there.Right?Leigh-Ann attempted to construct a timeline as she took her sweet time getting dressed in her room. Carrie said she had moved there “a month ago”, but that was on the first day of school. Who knew if she added or subtracted a week in her head?She might have moved here right before the fires started, but it’s crazy to think she would immediately start setting some! Shouldn’t a girl settle in, first?People were picking on her because she was from out of town. Probably because she was a nineteen-year-old repeating senior year. Most of the kids at school whispered that Carrie was expelled for this and that. Either she had brought a gun to school, sold drugs, or got into fights. Leigh-Ann’s favorite was the one about the “lesbian gang,” which went over about as well as suggesting she was politically affiliated with certain fascist regimes – that was not something people joked about in Paradise Valley, including teenagers. (Not without getting verbally clocked by their peers, anyway.)
Leigh-Ann had mostly forgotten about it until she hopped on her bike and rode a quarter mile out of town to Waterlily House, a place she did not expect to be perpetuating many of those same rumors.
“Can you believe it?” Sunny said to Terrence Cobb, the local landscaper who came by every other weekend to mow the lawns and make sure everything was properly watered around the property. “Yet another barn fire. I’m sure as hell glad we don’t have any barns adjacent to our property, because all it takes is the wind blowing the wrong way and this goes up in smoke.”
Terrence shook his head as he remained hunched over his riding lawnmower. “I used to do some work for the Gladsburys.” Was that the family hit this time? Leigh-Ann vaguely recognized the name. Probably because they had a giant sign along the highway announcing where to get fresh eggs. “That barn was built only twenty years ago, too. They didn’t keep much in there since focusing all their efforts on chickens, but I think they still had the one cow.”
“So many people are saying that a new kid in town has something to do with it.” Sunny happened to catch Leigh-Ann’s presence at that moment. Was it the bike smacking against the earth, or the scowl on Leigh-Ann’s face? “Is it already eleven? My goodness, you look like you’re hungover! Were you at that party last night?”
“No.” Hungover? Really? A girl stays ups until three in the morning reading guy on guy smut, and she’s hungover? “I wasn’t at that party. I’m just tired.”How does everyone know about a party that happened a little over twelve hours ago?Was it because of the police being called? The supposed connection to the barn fire? Leigh-Ann had no personal knowledge about these events, but she somehow felt partially responsible for them.
Carrie. I really hope she’s okay…
Before Leigh-Ann had the chance to pull out her phone and text Carrie, Sunny continued, “Probably a good thing you didn’t go to the party, Leigh-Ann. I’m hearing all sorts of things about what happened in there. Puts my own high school party days to shame!”
Both she and Terrence laughed as the nostalgic memories Leigh-Ann was much too young to appreciate.Thank God, too. Sounds really lame.She didn’t want to hear about how taboo it was to smoke marijuana back in the nineties, or how it was the age before cell phones and nobody knew where the hell anybody was. Driving home tipsy? Everybody did it! Kids today were too soft. Or they drank way too much. What was going on with today’s youth? They had absolutely no future, so they should do something about it. Not too much to upset the status quo of kids getting into stupid trouble, though. Or any status quo, for that matter.
Sunny commented on the blank look behind Leigh-Ann’s eyes. After excusing herself to start her chores, Leigh-Ann stole into the house and found the one spot in the dining area that had the best cell reception – always a gamble a quarter mile out of town.
“Everything cool? I’m hearing all sorts of crazy stuff about that party last night.”
Leigh-Ann left it at that. She didn’t want to come off as needy or weird to Carrie, the cool girl who might be setting fires.Yeah, right.Still, it didn’t hurt to ask the source, right?
Although Leigh-Ann intermittently checked her phone throughout the day, she didn’t get a single reply. Not until she left Waterlily House around four, bypassed the road leading to the trailer park, and headed due east for Paradise Pizza.
Chapter 9
CARRIE
