by Kate Brian
"All right, kids. Let's move it along," he said. "You got it, Johnny Fo!" my brother said, lining up for another rail slide. "I mean now, Brennan," John said. "Not after you break your neck.""Oh, you mean now. Like now now?" Scott said, earning some laughter from his boys. "Sorry. I misunderstood." Then he did the slide anyway, dropped down in front of me, and laughed. "Come on, loser. Let's go wake up Mom and force-feed her some Yuletide ham steak."
Yes. This was my life. I let Scott yank me to my feet by my wrist, then waved goodbye to the others before we headed for home. Adam Robinson, my ex- boyfriend, and Larry Shale fell into step with us. They lived on the next block. "So, what're you guys doing tomorrow?" Adam asked. "Wanna go to the mall?" Right. The mall on the day after Christmas to fight all the bargain shoppers. So what I wanted to do. "Reed?" he asked hopefully.
I was saved from answering by the trill of my cell phone. The one thing Noelle had given me that I had not trashed or stashed. The caller I.D. read RESTRICTED number. Color me intrigued. "Sorry. I have to take this," I said. "Oh, yeah. She's very important now," Scott joked. I stopped and waited for them to get ahead of me, then answered the phone. "Hello?" "Hey, Glass-licker." My heart thumped extra hard. "Noelle." "Got it in one. I always knew you were smart."
My mouth hung open. John Foley rolled by ever so slowly in his black-and-white car, eyeing me like he thought I might suddenly start shooting up the Wal-Mart. I started walking again and he zoomed off.
"What's . . . what's up?" I asked, because I couldn't choose just one of the thousands of questions crowding my mind. "What's up is I hear you're not going back to Easton," she said. My grip on the phone tightened so hard I thought it might shatter. "How did you hear that where you are? Where are you, by the way? " "They decided I was a flight risk, so I'm in what they call a juvenile rehabilitation center until my lawyer can figure out some kind of plea," Noelle said, sounding bored by it all. "They don't even have TiVo here." I laughed. Couldn't help it. This was all too bizarre.
"But enough about my lovely vacay. What are you thinking? Are you going to stay in Crass-ton and become a fry cook or something?" I stared at my feet as I walked. "There's no point in going back to Easton." "No point? No point in getting a world-class education that millions of kids across the country would kill for?" she asked. There was a pause. "Dear God, I think I'm turning into my mother." "It just doesn't feel right there," I said. "Oh, and it feels right there? Hanging out with the same lame- ass people in some parking lot somewhere?" Dear God. She really did know everything. "Reed, Easton is not the place you think it is," Noelle said. "It's not the place we made it for you."
The serious tone of her voice brought a lump to my throat. I tried hard to swallow it down. "You can still have all the things you went there for. An Ivy League education. A scholarship. A real life." I looked around at the Stop and Shop with the bird's nest built into the curve of the first S, the droppings splattered all over. I looked at the beat-up Ford in the parking lot with the orange FOR SALE sign in the window. I looked toward downtown and beyond, where Croton High sat like a giant, rotting gray mushroom atop a hill of brown grass. "You're better than that place you came from, Reed," Noelle said quietly in my ear. "Trust me on this. I know better when I see it."
There was a warmth growing inside my chest that surprised me. Up ahead, my brother and his friends turned the corner. They didn't look back. "Noelle, I appreciate what you're saying. I do. But--" "Don't let our mistakes screw up your life," Noelle said. I took a deep breath and blew it out. "And besides, if you don't go back there, that plastic robot Cheyenne is going to take over, and if that happens, Billings is going right downhill." I laughed. "Promise me you'll go back, Reed," Noelle said, her voice full. "I kept saying I was going to protect you, and I did a pretty heinous job of it. This is me trying to make up for that. Go back to Easton. You can have the life you've always wanted." I held my breath. Closed my eyes. Saw Billings House as it was the first time I walked through the doors. Saw Natasha and Rose and London and Vienna and Cheyenne. Saw Easton. Saw Constance. Saw Dash. Saw Josh. Josh. The warmth inside of me grew. When I saw these things, I saw home. When I opened my eyes, I saw Croton. I knew where I wanted to be. "Okay, Noelle," I said, smiling. "I'll go back." "Promise," she said. "I promise."
