Chapter 1
November 2016
“You’re too young to be hanging around with a bunch of old ladies. You need to be with girls your own age,” Daniel Greenwood explained to his eleven-year-old daughter, Holly.
“Well, you work around those ‘old ladies,’ and I think you need to be around women your own age. You will never find a girlfriend at The Upside, now, will you? And I do have friends my own age,” Holly countered as she spread Skippy extra-crunchy peanut butter across a slice of bread. “I’m getting bored with peanut butter sandwiches, too. Can’t you get some turkey or ham at the grocery store next time? Besides, Miss Carol asked me if I could help out with their Christmas musical production this year.” Holly slipped that last bit in because she knew that her dad wasn’t very hip with her participating in The Upside’s Christmas anything, especially since it involved music. He was worse than Scrooge, and she’d told him that every time she thought she could get away with it.
“Holly, that’s enough. The subject is closed. Finish making your lunch before you miss the bus. Again.”
Tears welled up, but no way, José, was she going to cry in front of him. He would just tell her to toughen up and get over it. He was mean sometimes, and she wished she had someone she could talk to about her dad. She knew he loved her, but he wasn’t a very nice dad the way her friends’ dads were. All he did was work and come home, read the papers, throw something in the microwave for dinner, then shut himself up in his den for the rest of the night. He didn’t even bother telling her good night on most nights. She tried her best to be cheerful and nice to her dad, but he would always come back with something snotty like, “Don’t you have homework or something to do?”
“Get a move on, Holly. I don’t have time to drive you to school today. And make sure you come home as soon as school is out. No stopping at The Upside.” He gave her that dad look over his shoulder.
She rolled her eyes as soon as he looked away and stuffed her peanut butter sandwich and an apple in her lunch bag. Remembering that she’d forgotten something to drink yesterday, she grabbed a bottle of water and tossed it in her backpack.
Hoping he might be in a better mood this evening, she smiled, then said, “Sure, Dad, see you tonight. Have a good day at work.” She had every intention of getting off at the bus stop three blocks from The Upside. She’d promised Miss Carol she would bring her a list of songs they could practice.
He waved her off without saying a word, his usual form of good-bye.
Holly slung her backpack over her shoulder and headed out the front door, making sure to slam it behind her. This was her way of letting her father know he had failed her again. She never said that to him, but it was exactly what she thought. She ran the two blocks to the bus stop, where Kayla and Roxie were waiting for her.
“We thought you were gonna miss the bus again,” Roxie said, when Holly all but skidded to a stop.
She leaned over, her elbows on her knees, as she tried to catch her breath. “Almost, but I ran all the way. Dad’s gonna kill me if I miss it again. That’s, like, five times in three weeks.”
Holly had been friends with Kayla and Roxie since kindergarten. They were always together at school, and this year, for the first time since first grade, they were all in the same classroom together. It was Ms. Anderson’s fifth-grade class. When they had learned this at the beginning of the school year, they had made a pledge to never, ever let anyone come between them. They’d termed themselves the three girl musketeers.
The orange-yellow bus ground to a noisy stop. Holly was the first to hop on the bus, and she hurried to the much-coveted seat in the rear before anyone else noticed it was empty. She slid all the way over to the window, making room for Kayla and Roxie. They dropped their backpacks on the floor, using their feet to keep them from rolling forward when the bus took off.
“So,” Roxie said after they were settled in their seats, “did you tell your dad about the Christmas musical?” Five-foot-four Roxie was the tallest of the trio. Holly thought that with Roxie’s long blond hair, which reached all the way to her waist, and her clear blue eyes, Roxie was the prettiest girl in their fifth-grade class. Kayla, on the other hand, was a tiny little girl with short, curly black hair and eyes to match. Holly thought that both of her best friends were extremely pretty, and told them so often.
Holly was polite, friendly, helpful to anyone who asked her. She did her best to make good grades in school and succeeded pretty well except for math, where she barely managed a B minus. Ms. Anderson told her she would do better if she studied harder at home, and she’d even offered to come over to her house and tutor her, but her dad went into a rage when she told him what Ms. Anderson had offered. And she really tried, but math was never going to be her best subject.
Her dad was really good with numbers, and she’d asked him more than once to help her, but he’d told her no, she’d have to learn on her own or else she’d never get it. She wanted to tell Ms. Anderson that her father wouldn’t help her with math no matter what, or any homework for that matter, but she didn’t want to make her father look bad. He had never been really friendly to her, and she still didn’t understand how her own dad could treat her like she was nothing more than a piece of yucky old furniture. So many times, she had wanted to tell Kayla and Roxie, but she suspected they knew that she didn’t have the nicest dad in the world because they had been to her house lots of times, and her dad rarely acknowledged them when they were there. Sometimes she thought he was mad at her because of her mother, but she figured she was too young to understand that part of her dad. She wished her mother were still alive. It would make her dad happy again, she assumed, though she didn’t actually have any real memory of his being happy. Every time she asked him about her mother, he would get so angry at her, so she had decided never to ask about her mother again. There was no one else to ask, either. Her dad had no brothers or sisters, no living parents. His parents had died when he was only a teenager. Holly’s mom wasn’t even thirty when she died. She kinda thought she remembered her mom, but she wasn’t really sure. She had one picture of her mother that she’d sneaked from beneath her dad’s pile of underwear when she was seven. If he missed it, he’d never said anything, and she wasn’t going to tell him. Her mom was so pretty, with deep, reddish-gold auburn hair like hers. Her eyes were a clear gray, and Holly sometimes thought they kinda twinkled back at her whenever she took out her picture, even though she knew that pictures didn’t smile or twinkle at people. It was wishful thinking, and she was smart enough to figure that out.
“I told him Miss Carol wanted me to help out with the music, but all he heard was The Upside and music, then told me I needed to hang out with girls my own age. I told him that I would come straight home after school.” Holly hated dishonesty. “I crossed my fingers, you know, just so I could, well . . . lie.” She smiled, and she knew that her best friends would get what she meant.
She had another secret that was ready to burst from her mouth, but she had promised Maxine she wouldn’t tell a living soul. Still, it is the coolest thing ever. If it really does happen. She quickly pushed those thoughts aside before she revealed their secret.
“I don’t see why it’s such a big deal. It’s not like you’re hanging on the street corner with drug addicts,” Roxie said with all the knowledge of a street-smart eleven-year-old.
“She’s right,” Kayla added. “Your dad should be glad we’re such nerds.”
They all laughed.
“I don’t think he even knows what a nerd is,” Holly said with a bit of sadness in her voice.
Roxie wrapped her right arm around Holly. “He knows, he’s just mad at the world. At least that’s what my mom says.”
Holly jerked to attention. “How would your mom know? She hardly knows my father,” Holly said.
Roxie seemed slightly uncomfortable. “I know, but she told me once that she knew your mother.” She’d never said anything about this to Holly because she knew it would just raise more questions that she probably wouldn’t have the answers to.
“How come you’re just telling me this now?” Holly asked.
“I didn’t want to hurt your feelings is all,” Roxie said quietly.
Holly nodded. “Sure, I know. I’m sorry. I just . . . Well, I’ve never really talked about my mother. It just seems weird, you know? Maybe someday I could talk to your mom about her.”
“Maybe,” Roxie replied.
Kayla spoke up. “You guys are way too serious today.”
“Sorry,” they both said at the same time, and they all laughed.
“Two more stops,” Roxie said, as though Holly and Kayla were suddenly clueless. They had been riding this same bus, the same route, with most of the same kids who’d lived in the same houses, since they were born.
Billy Craydell and Mandy Simpson hopped on the bus at the next-to-the-last stop, followed by Terri Walker, whom most of the fifth-grade boys called Street Walker. Holly felt very bad for her because she was a nice girl, just shy. She’d make a point to say hi to her today. Ms. Anderson once told the class that it took little effort to be nice; every Friday in class, she’d ask if anyone had had occasion to put her advice to use. Holly would this week.
The bus clanged to a stop in front of the two-story redbrick building that housed grades one through five. Kindergarten classes were held in the cafeteria, and Holly never really counted that as a real grade, though she supposed she should. Holly remembered attending kindergarten classes in the cafeteria and thinking she was so grown-up. If only she was an adult, she thought now as she waited to exit the bus.
Inside the school, the hallways were packed with kids lugging backpacks and lunch bags. Most of the older kids deposited their cell phones in their lockers. A new rule required that they not be carried. She had never given much thought to that rule, since neither she nor Kayla nor Roxie had one. She’d planned to ask her dad for one this year for Christmas. She knew he’d tell her no, but she thought it was still worth a try. Kayla and Roxie were asking for cell phones, too, though their parents would probably decide it was time for them to have cell phones, since both girls were about to turn twelve.
Holly spent the morning in Ms. Anderson’s class, and at noon they broke for lunch. She found her table and saved places for Roxie and Kayla. She couldn’t wait for this day to end. She had so many things to tell Miss Carol when she stopped at The Upside on her way home.
Just the thought brought a huge grin to her face.
Roxie plopped down beside her. “What’s so funny?”
“Yeah,” Kayla parroted, “why the humongous smile?”
Holly’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”