After moving into a new town and new school, Mina finds herself alone, forlorn, and resistant to making new friends.
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Mina pushed her tray along the cafeteria lunch line counter, absently following the large jersey numbered "86" in front of her. The whole student body was littered with the black and red shirts that day, commemorating the home football game that evening. Mina frowned at the red number on the black shirt before her, wondering why this one looked different from all the others. She shook her head. Maybe it wasn't even a football jersey. She looked back at the selections of plastic-wrapped salads.
"Hey, heard your brother got picked for County All-Stars," said a voice from behind her.
An arm came over her shoulder and pushed the guy in the red and black jersey in front of her, bumping her into the lunch counter between them. She grabbed her plastic spork as it fell off the tray onto the counter and her juice bottle wobbled.
"Dummy. Watch it," came from ahead of her, actually her side now.
Instinctively she ducked lower as a return shove reached across her shoulder from the boy in front of her. Her juice bottle toppled off her tray and fell into the tub of gelatin packages in the counter. The boy righted her bottle of juice and put an apple, a sealed fruit cup, and a chocolate pudding cup from the counter selections on her tray.
"Sorry." He glared at the other boy behind her. "And he's an alternate. Not even second string."
Mina ignored both of them, vaguely recognizing each of them from different classes, but that was where any familiarity ended. She put the pudding and fruit cup back on the counter with the other selections. The apple she was going to get anyway, but she didn't need any help picking out her lunch.
"Sorry." The guy in front of her had turned, his attention on her; Mina could tell by the angle of his voice, but she didn't look at him. His hand chose another fruit cup and put it on her tray. "I thought it was pears. Pineapple?"
"No, thanks." She shook her head as he put a different pudding cup on her tray, studying her. She still didn't look up at him.
"Not vanilla either?"
"I didn't have pudding or a fruit cup."
"Oh. Thought you did."
She put the pudding back and picked out a packaged salad and pouch of dressing from the scant selection. She paid for her lunch, relieved to get out from the cross-fire of the much taller classmates and into the relative quiet of a corner table. She settled and began inspecting her lunch. Simple fare for a simple town, she decided.
"Hey! Do you mind?" asked a girl's voice.
Actually, Mina did mind, but it didn't keep Kelli and her bookish friend from taking the seats across from her.
"Mina, this is Melanie, from our debate class. She's the one with the half-wit Scott as her partner."
Melanie shrugged, her short dark hair bobbing as she moved. "He's smart, just ill-adjusted."
"Yeah, and I'm fast, just late for the finish line." Kelli shook her bottle of juice. She glanced to Mina. "That's a track metaphor, if you're wondering, Mina."
Mina nodded, hoping the conversation wouldn't lapse into an impromptu session of what she had begun to call Argumentative English rather than debate class.
"Jared got picked for the county team," Kelli said, opening her juice slowly. "Another notch in his belt."
Melanie blushed from behind her granola bar. "Like he needs another notch."
Kelli grinned. "Mellie has a crush on Jared."
Melanie kicked the blonde girl beneath the table. "The whole freshman class does."
"Well, he's good. Very athletic." Kelli turned to Mina. "Do you do any sports?"
Mina didn't want to share, but after a few minutes of their coaxing, she consented. She wished she hadn't. Neither Kelli nor Melanie knew much about archery, except that bow-hunting season came before gun season in the county, and she let them curb the conversation back to Jared.
Jared, it seemed, was the all-around golden boy of sports, who was competed over in the spring by the coaches for baseball and track, and had more slots on the sports record boards than any athlete in the past two decades at Morrow High.
"Kind of makes Jason just disappear," Melanie said with a giggle.
"Oh, Jason is good; just in the shadows, that's all," Kelli said with an attempt at fairness. "And he'd wipe the ice with Jared in hockey."
Mina ignored the ensuing dispute over which brother was the better hockey player and resorted to eating her apple. The apple was worth the attention. She was happy to discover it was not the wax-coated, cakey-type she hated, and wondered if it was one of the locally grown, hand-raised and lovingly picked kind that small towns liked to sell at their farmers markets. It sure tasted like it.
But it was going to take more than an apple to sell her on staying in Morrow.
The next day Mina found herself staring at the score circled in red on the paper before her in math class. At least she hadn't slacked off too much in Algebra. She looked at the second paper she held. Not bad, either. She frowned at the name, unsure why it didn't seem right to her. She had certainly heard it enough on the morning announcements touting yet another sports game victory over the last week and a half. Suddenly she became aware of the dark-haired head hovering over her shoulder.
"Just what we need," he said from behind her. "A steeper grading curve. Nice job."
Mina handed Jason's paper over her shoulder and he disappeared from her peripheral view. She let herself smile at his half-compliment. His test score was good, too, but she knew she had one of the best in the class. She sighed and tucked the paper into her folder. The desk chair already seemed cozier knowing she was at the top of the class.
She thought back to Aunt Gretchen. The email hadn't been what she was expecting. Aunt Gretchen was only remarking that she'd accidentally deleted Mina's message without reading it and could she please send it again. Mina traced the edging on her math book, considering her options as Mr. Mansmith outlined their homework assignment. Her mother would have a fit if she knew Mina was thinking of moving without her approval. Maybe Aunt Gretchen's mistake was a godsend.
But how can I not want to move back? Mina thought. If she stayed in Morrow another week she'd go mad. Aunt Gretchen may let her live with her for school, but her mother would be severely offended. Mina knew it, but right now, sitting in yet another claustrophobic classroom without any outlet for archery in town, she just wanted out. She couldn't go a winter without shooting. Even the YMCA twenty miles away had no archery clubs to join. And she couldn't shoot in the tiny yard behind their house.
She pushed her dark hair out of her eyes, chiding herself for having forgotten a clip that morning. No, there was no way to go back to Chicago without insulting her mother, but she desperately wanted to go.
The subject was still on her mind—as it had been for two days—as she made her way into town later that day. At least Morrow did have a decent book shop; not large, but with a speedy special order service that many bigger shops would have envied.
That was, if she could get there before they closed at four o'clock. Why so early? she thought. It was only on Tuesdays they closed early, which was today, but she wanted her book.
She waited at the street corner of what was an exceptionally crowded afternoon intersection. She was the only one crossing from her corner, but kitty-corner from her was a group of junior high students, laughing and poking at each other. The light turned and she started into the crosswalk.
Maybe her mother would understand her finishing out the year in Chicago. She'd come back in the summer. She'd promise her mother that. Just one more year, she thought.
"Mina!"
Mina slowed in the street in response to the male voice, then turned.
A truck horn blared.
The noise seemed to be right on top of her and she made a dash for the opposite corner as a two-ton truck bore down on her. Brakes screamed as the truck skidded.
There was a heavy shove from behind, and then the impact of glass, metal, and pavement, followed by an encompassing pain that took Mina's breath away and left her senses dark.
PG13, saga; teen, fantasy, non-Sci-Fi world travel, teen romance, clean romance, realm, magical realism, shadow world, school/new school, high school. #ReadFree for free subscribers. ♫♪
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Thanks to P.G. Waters for the use of her story!