Page 22 of September Lessons
“Definitely the afternoon. Everyone’s half asleep, even if they loaded up on caffeine and sugar during lunch.” Ms. Tichenor changed the subject before Leigh-Ann had the chance. “Have you started thinking about what colleges you might want to apply to? Or are you thinking community college to start with?”
Leigh-Ann couldn’t maintain eye contact with her teacher. “I haven’t thought about it. I don’t really think college is in the cards for me.”
Any other teacher would have berated her for thinking so “lowly” of herself. The guilt trips and shaming that came along with any discussion about college – whether it was guilting a girl into going or shaming her for picking expensive schools nobody could afford – had Leigh-Ann on the defensive before she said anything else. Yet Ms. Tichenor wasn’t the kind to bother a student if they decided it might not be for them. She’d go to bat for any boy or girl hoping to get into a tough school, but when Leigh-Ann said her peace, Ms. Tichenor merely nodded and stared into the distance, as if it held any answer for her to echo.
“That’s fine. If you change your mind, though, the deadlines for early admissions are in January. Ah, well, I make you all write personal essays starting in November, anyway. Learned that lesson the hard away after I started working here.”
“You’re not gonna lecture me about going to college?”
“What’s the point of doing that? When I was a kid, I knew it was stupid to force a kid into going. Besides, you can start community college at any time. They want us to give you this horror story about how if you don’t immediately go and instead enter the workforce straight away, you’ll never go. But that’s silly. You can always go. It’s always there waiting for you. Now, if you havekids,maybe that will make things more difficult…”
“I don’t know what I want to do.”
“That’s all right. You’ve got plenty of time to figure it out.” Ms. Tichenor finished her lemonade and stood up. “The only warning I give kids your age is that this is the time of your life when your decisions start to make a real difference. Obviously, I don’t mean to scare you, but deciding to do things one way or hang out with a certain person could, in fact, affect the rest of your life. Not that it’s a good or a bad thing. It’s simply the way it is. Domino effects, and all that.” She stepped past Leigh-Ann, silently implying that the girl should take her time drinking her lemonade. “Excuse me, Leigh-Ann. I have to go talk to Sunny about something. It’s always nice seeing you out of school, though.”
Leigh-Ann remained sitting on the porch for so long that she forgot about the lemonade. She also simultaneously forgot to get back to her chores, not that she had any left.
The decisions I make now will affect the rest of my life…Ms. Tichenor wasn’t the type of teacher to inflict the fear of God into her students. She preferred that subtler, more passive-aggressive approach, didn’t she?God help her kids if she ever became a mom.Leigh-Ann stood up around dusk, when her parents would expect her to be home.The decisions I make now will determine whether I stay here to make a life, or if I move on somewhere else.
The thought had honestly never come to her before. Leaving Paradise Valley made as little sense as staying there, a place that was okay enough to live in, but didn’t afford many economic opportunities for a girl with only a high school diploma. Unless she had the entrepreneurial spirit, maybe. Or knew someone willing to take a chance on her.
That’s what every kid who decided to stay behind hoped for, though. Everyone wanted to change their lives without hardly lifting a finger.
People like Carrie also exist…Girls who bent over backward simply to finish what they had started. Carrie had moved across the country to get her diploma. She wasn’t thinking about college or moving back to Alabama yet. Her #1 goal was to get her diploma. Everyone else might as well have been a whole league ahead of her.
Even after realizing that amazing thing about her new friend, Leigh-Ann still couldn’t help but wonder what Carrie had done to get kicked out of her old school – and her old life.
Chapter 11
CARRIE
Monday morning at school was exactly what Carrie expected. Everyone talked, and nobody knew the facts.
“I hear that she was the one who called the cops on the whole operation,” Amanda scoffed, only lowering her voice when Carrie passed by to access her locker. “Made sure that the deputy got there assoonas she would see her standing there looking all innocent.”
That was too much of a garbled mess of pronouns for Carrie to properly understand.Probably talking about me, though.She’d be more surprised if they talked about someone else.
“The fire was so bad,” Digby said across the hall, “that they had to bring in the fire brigade from Hillsboro. Can you believe it? They bothered people up in Hillsboro about a fire.”
His friend, a guy name Jake, replied, “Those Southern gals be crazy, I hear. My dad says that he used to date a girl from Atlanta and she wastotallynuts.”
“Atlanta?”
“Georgia, Alabama… same difference.”
Carrie almost dropped her math book.Are you kidding me…No, she didn’t expect these rural Oregonians to know the core differences between Georgia and Alabama… let aloneurbanGeorgia andruralAlabama. Then again, if these boys thought Southern girls were “crazy,” let them! Maybe that meant more distance between them and Carrie!
“All I’m saying is that these fires didn’t happen like this last year. Those wererealacts of God.” Carrie turned her head when she realized the computer teacher was muttering in the science teacher’s direction. “Some kid from here is going around starting those fires for their own twisted pleasure, if you ask me.” He caught Carrie looking in his direction.
“…Real rager of a party, man.” Carrie didn’t know the name of the junior saying that as she passed him, but she knew what he was talking about. “That new girl was there. The senior? Yeah, she’s kinda hot, but I ain’t touching that. I hear she’s gay, anyway. She looks like she’ll chop off your willy.” Everyone around him burst into laughter. When he realized they were laughing at him because of the word “willy,” he said, “Bet that’s what they call it in Alabama. Bunch of prudes down there, I hear.”
“Christina says she hit on her.” What was this lovely lady’s name? Chrystal?With a Ch… I’ve seen some pretty messed up spellings of a simple word before, but that one’s new to me.“When she was drunk at the party, no less. Came right up to her and said they should go bone in the master bedroom. Can you believe it? Chris isn’t like that. Everyone knows that!”
“Leigh-Ann Hardy sure knows that…”
Chrystal and her friend fell into a fit of giggles. Soon, they saw Carrie walking by, but unlike everyone else, the girls held her gaze and silently dared her to say something.
I won’t give them the satisfaction.Carrie walked into her homeroom and sat down at her desk. Nobody said a thing to her all first period. Including Mrs. Cooper, who kept her eyes turned away when she returned Carrie’s math quiz from Friday morning. A solid B. Instead of commenting on the improvement from the week before, however, Mrs. Cooper moved on to the next student and asked Elaine Jackson to please see her after class.
