C I N: Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin. You never come out the way you went in. (The C I N Series)

by Christina Leigh Pritchard

  “This is awful,” I pushed against his chest.

  “Stop moving, this stuff is really tough to get out.” Michael squirted my face with more hairspray.

  “You could warn me before you sprits my face!” I smacked him in the shoulder.

  He laughed. “Even when I’m trying to help you, you still hit me. Hold still,” he directed, rubbing my cheeks with the cloth. “Hmmm, I think you look better now; a little red but much better.”

  I opened my eyes and stared at my reflection. Most of the ink was gone. It looked like I had some gray eye shadow on my lids and you could barely tell there was ink on my cheeks. My lips were still completely black.

  “I kind of like the black on your lips. It looks cool.”

  “Well, it’s coming off,” I decided, grabbing the hairspray. I rubbed my lips until they burned. “I can’t believe Ally would do something like this. What happened to her to make her so mean?”

  “I think she is just a bad seed. She’s never done anything this horrible before, though, at least not to my knowledge, but I guess none of the girls at C I N would ever admit to having been painted with magic marker to anyone.”

  “I certainly won’t be telling anyone.”

  Michael chuckled.

  I rolled my eyes at him. “You wouldn’t be laughing if this stuff was on your face.”

  “No, probably not; it’s a good thing it was you she did this to. I would have a hard time explaining to my mother why I was putting make-up on.”

  I laughed. That would’ve been funny.

  “I think maybe you should meet Donna this Saturday at the Bonfire by the ocean. All that ink should be gone from your face by then. Don’t worry; I’ll keep this a secret.”

  “You are just too kind. Want to stay for breakfast?”

  He shook his head. “It’s noon. You’ve slept the morning away. I have to go meet Donna and let her know you can’t join us. We were going to take you into town, to the mall.”

  “Are you trying to make me jealous? The mall? If I didn’t look like a clown I’d so be there.”

  “Sorry about your face, Lisa.” Michael smiled and I beamed. It was a good thing I didn’t run him off the first day I met him. He wasn’t so bad after all.

  I sat down in one of the recliners and turned on the television. Michael waved before disappearing through the front door. I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. On the news there were reports of three hurricanes forming near Florida. I leaned up and squinted to read the small print. California suffered a slight earthquake and a tropical storm had devastated Puerto Rico’s coastline.

  Eight

  The Big Wake

  Millie sat down in the opposite recliner. She sighed loudly. What did she want? Was she going to lecture me about being honest about her horrible students?

  “Yes, Aunt Millie? Is there something we need to discuss?” She nodded her head and twisted her chair to face me. She wore a blue dress shirt buttoned all the way up today and her hair was in a tight bun.

  “I spoke with Ally and she said she would like to make amends.”

  I didn’t believe it for a second. Ally, sorry? That would be a first. She’d just said that to stay on Aunt Millie’s good side.

  “I really don’t wanna speak to her right now. She’s not a nice person.”

  Millie tapped her fingers on the armrest. She looked irritated. Was I disrupting her life? “I would appreciate it very much if you let her mend the mess she has caused. I think that if you gave her a chance, you’d find her to be a very darling girl. (Let her do YOUR make-up then…) Most girls at the school are jealous of her because of her grades (I don’t think it is jealously…) but you never have to worry about competing with her academically. As friends, you and Ally would be a perfect match.”

  I hated Aunt Millie. She was just like Alex and Ally. They thought I was stupid. My ignorance amused them. I’d show them dumb, all right.

  “Okay, Aunt Millie, I’ll be a naive idiot and go next door. A smart person would take last night’s incident and realize great caution was needed when around Ally, but since I’m intellectually stunted, I’ll do the unwise thing of allowing myself to be exposed to her tyranny again, for a second time.” I got up from the chair and slammed the front door.

  Ally sat on one of the sofas with her feet propped up. She did not look up when I entered the room. She kept her face buried inside a thick book.

  “Writers aren’t as original as they used to be. Why do you think that is, Lisa?”

  “I apparently do not think, so why bother asking me?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Millie says you want to apologize for what you did.”

  Ally turned a page of her book. She read quietly for a moment. “I don’t think you’re dumb,” she whispered. “Just too hopeful.”

  What in the world did that mean? Was she trying to make me miserable and negative just like her?

  “Everything you say ends with a slap in the face.”

  She looked up from her book. Ally placed the novel in her lap and stretched. “I’m going to take you kayaking. You can borrow something of mine to wear since you packed for a two day weekend getaway. Did you think your mother was going to miss you and come right on back that fast?”

  “There it is again; another slap in my face. Thanks, Ally,” I growled, twirling around.

  “Oh, you’re welcome. You’re so silly.”

  “How am I the silly one?”

  “You’re full of ideas on how people are supposed to be. Let me give you some advice, Lisa Brown. What I say is what everyone else just thinks. I’m the most honest person you’ve ever met. That is why you hate me; because I don’t lie to you like everyone else.”

  “You put permanent marker all over my face. How is that honesty?”

  “You were painting me like a clown. So, I painted you back.” Ally sneered. “Hurry up; we need to make Millie happy. Let me get you something to wear.”

  “What? A paper bag?”

  Ally came out of her room with red shorts and a black tee shirt. “Here, this should fit you.”

  I tossed them on the sofa.

  “Would you prefer to wear something else?”

  “I’m not going out of this house with marker on my face. This is your fault, Ally, so don’t roll your eyes at me.”

  “Alex!” Ally pounded on his door. “Lisa is being difficult again.” She looked down the hall at me and giggled. Was this fun to her? Did she enjoy making my skin crawl? What could Alex possibly do to make me cooperate?

  Alex trudged down the hall. He held something in his hand. It was an old bottle with the words scratched off. He shook it and applied it to a cloth. “Don’t move,” he ordered gently pressing the cloth against my face.

  Even though his fingers did not brush my skin, he still winced as if in some horrible pain. His eyes watered and he peered up, glancing at my face. Why did a rush of calmness come over me? Alex hurt all over. I could feel his pain straight through the cloth. Was that normal? I’d never been able to feel anyone else’s pain before. He brushed the rag over my lips softly. My heart jumped. I could feel intense emotion coming from him. The worst part of all was that I didn’t want him to remove the cloth from my face—ever.

  “There, go look in the mirror.” He tightened the cap and placed it on the table. “I’m going to go with you so that Ally won’t play anymore practical jokes.”

  I nodded and went to the bathroom. All the ink was gone. “Why didn’t you do this before I went out and embarrassed myself in front of Michael?”

  Alex covered his mouth with his hand. “You called me obnoxious and blunt. I figured I was the last person you wanted help from.”

  I wanted to slug him.

  I put on Ally’s clothes and borrowed some flip flops. It was warm outside and felt good. At least she shared her things. Ally was cruel-hearted but not stingy.

  Pig stayed home. It was probably a good thing because the odds were good that Ally was going to try and
drown me. Alex would hold down my head while she hit me with an oar. I was so going to give my mother a lecture for leaving me with this crazy group. I should just check myself in wherever she was. Amber still hadn’t called. Maybe they wouldn’t let her make calls. Sometimes doctors did that, right? She hadn’t forgotten about me that fast, did she?

  The ocean was different from Florida’s. There wasn’t a very wide sandy beach and the sand wasn’t warm. It was gritty, and the water clearer. Ally and Alex paid a vendor that sat on the beach and motioned for me to come help carry the kayaks. It felt nice to sink my feet into the sand again. I had to admit that it made me homesick. I wanted to be in my bed, in my house… But, we’d lost our home; even with me working, too. I didn’t have a home anymore.

  Alex took his own kayak and Ally and I got a double to share. It was pretty light; made of some sort of plastic material. “I haven’t done this in years.” Ally admitted. “Do you remember when we last went this far out into town?” Ally asked her brother. He shrugged his shoulders and crawled into his kayak. “The beach is beautiful—different but still lovely.”

  Ally climbed up front and put me in the back. I had on a life jacket and held an oar in my hand. We both took our oars and dug them into the sand so that we could push off. Together we cut through the water like a knife slicing butter; in perfect unison. It was as if we both had one brain, knowing when to paddle and how hard.

  “This is great, thanks Ally,” I said. I sure hoped she didn’t tip us or something.

  “Is this something you would’ve done with Katie, that ex best friend of yours?”

  “Yes, but without the fear of drowning. Let’s just sit for a second and take in the scenery.” She stopped paddling and so did I. We let the current take us wherever it wanted to. I could see fish swim underneath us and Alex shined in the sunlight. He held his oar behind his head and faced the sky with a nice smile on his face. He almost looked peaceful. There were two small kids making sandcastles at the shoreline.

  “Have you ever had a friend before? I’m sure you have; I was just wondering if something happened to make you not want a best friend.”

  “I had a few friends in my lifetime.” She was seventeen not sixty. She made it sound like her years surpassed my own. “It’s easier to not have them, I think.”

  “You think?”

  “Well, it’s just that when you have to watch them grow old—”

  Alex banged his kayak into ours. “Ally, what nonsense are you rambling about now?” She shook her head and blushed. “We better get back to shore,” he decided. “Our rentals are about to expire.”

  “Let’s rent them a little longer,” Ally pleaded, “Lisa you want to stay too, right?”

  I nodded.

  It was the best time I’d had so far since coming to Lynn.

  Alex paddled away from us and Ally and I let the current continue to take us out farther. There were sailboats and jet skis. Someone in a motorboat whizzed by, causing little wakes that rocked our kayak. It was nice to be rocked back and forth by the ocean. The waves that crashed us splashed up and sprayed our faces. Ally laughed. I smiled. It was nice to see her happy. Maybe she could change, or was she just being good because her brother was here, watching her every movement? Why did he concern himself with my safety?

  Two jet skis pulled up to Ally and me. Michael was in one of them. He was with a tall, skinny boy with spiked black hair. His nose was long and so was his face. “Hi, Lisa; hello, Ally,” Michael smiled. “What are you doing here? I thought you were going to the mall with Donna?”

  “I decided to just enjoy this beautiful day. The weather is perfect, don’t you think so?”

  I nodded.

  “This is my friend Kurt. He goes to C I N too so you will see him on campus next week when school starts.”

  “Hi, Kurt, I’m Lisa.” I waved, holding my oar in the opposite hand. He smiled and waved back.

  “Ally, do you know Kurt?” Michael’s face was filled with caution.

  She did not respond. “Let’s go, Lisa.” Ally tapped me with her oar. “The ocean is getting too crowded now.”

  “I wanna stay. Hey, Michael can I climb on your jet ski and hang out with you for a while?”

  Michael’s face beamed. “You bet! There’s a whole bunch of other kids from school a few sailboats out. I’ll introduce you. Ally, you’re more than welcome to come, too.”

  “Ally, come on,” I whined. “Let’s hang out with them. It won’t kill you, will it?”

  She turned sharply. “No, it will not. I thought we were having fun? Did something change?”

  “No, just the more people the merrier. Besides, I want to meet the kids from our school. How else do you make friends unless you socialize?”

  “Alex is not going to like this, but, let’s go.”

  I took a deep breath. Why would Alex care? “We’re taking the kayak. I am not touching those creeps.”

  “Fine, Ally, whatever you say.”

  Michael led us to a nice white sailboat with pale green sails. There were maybe fifteen other teenagers around sixteen to maybe eighteen years old in the boats.

  Some of the girls on the boat stopped talking and stared at us with wide eyes. “Is that Ally?” One asked, “Who is that girl with her?” They were in bikinis, sunbathing. I looked down at myself in my shorts and tee shirt. I’d be the nerd at C I N for sure. Before I came to Lynn I’d always thought that geniuses were geeky and not very attractive but almost all of the kids from C I N were good looking, making me look all the more average; average looks, average brain…

  Ally glared back up at them. “They’re looking at us!” She complained.

  “Be nice, Ally.” I rolled my eyes. “It won’t kill you to be nice. Think of it as an experiment.”

  “I will tolerate them, I suppose,” she snarled. “Michael, help me up.” He grabbed her hand and hoisted her into the sailboat.

  I tied the kayak to the side of the boat next to the bumper guards and Michael pulled me up next. Maybe Donna would be here and I could finally meet her. Most of the guys wore knee length swim trunks or skater shorts. A few wore wife beaters but most went shirtless. Michael was one of them. He was ripped. His arms were strong and his chest tight. He had the beginnings of a six pack too.

  “What are you staring at?” Ally followed my gaze. “Oh,” is all she said.

  “This is what best friends do,” I whispered. She actually giggled. We followed Michael over to a group of guys from the school. One was Kurt with his long face and there was one with a round chubby face (he wore a shirt) and another short, young guy with braces.

  “You know Kurt,” Michael pointed. “This handsome guy here is Big Al,” (chubby face) “and this little guy is Metal Head or as his mom calls him, Anthony” (guy with braces).

  “Hi, I’m Lisa and this is Ally.” The guys just stared. It was as if they were seeing a ghost. Ally crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. “We were out kayaking; do you guys hang out here often?”

  Metal Head grinned. “Sure,” (his voice was squeaky) “every Sunday. There really isn’t much to do in this town.” He stretched his hand out. “I’m Anthony.”

  I smiled. Ally turned her back to us. Was she nervous? Scared? Why didn’t she just try to speak to them? Maybe she wasn’t really as mean as I thought. Did she have a fear of rejection?

  “Hi, Ally,” Big Al grinned. “It’s nice to see you out. How’s your summer so far?”

  “It’s been wonderful. I’ve had company, as you can see.”

  What exactly was wonderful about her summer so far? Me?! I doubted that for sure. Maybe her summer was good before I arrived. What did I know? She was more complex than I’d thought. If I didn’t know any better I’d say she wanted friends. What was stopping her from trying?

  The sky grew dark. Thunder rumbled above us. This was the wrong place to be in a storm. I’d seen how violent lightning was here in Lynn. “We’d better go,” I decided. Ally nodded.

  “Yeah
, see ya Saturday. We’re having a bonfire here at the beach. A last big bash before school starts,” Big Al said. “A-Ally, you should come.”

  She took a deep breath, “I will try to make it.” I was so proud of her. She was really trying to hold back on her nasty remarks. If only she’d edit herself with me, too.

  We climbed back into our kayak. Michael held it steady for us and we began paddling back to shore. “What is it with this weather?” I complained. “It just rains whenever, without any warning.”

  “It’s temperamental,” Ally answered. I laughed.

  “I was really impressed. You weren’t rude to any of them. Ally, you were even civil.”

  “You asked me to be nice, so I was. I know how to be nice, Lisa Brown.”

  “Why do you always say my whole name?”

  “I don’t know. It sounds more dramatic, don’t you think?”

  Lightning flashed behind us. “Where’s Alex?” I surveyed the darkened waters. The water was rough and almost pushed us toward the shore.

  “He’s right over there.” She pointed at a lone kayak a few yards away. “Let’s get out of the water.”

  Waves rocked us. Our kayak swayed sideways, jerking furiously. I set my feet firmly on the floorboards to balance myself. “Good idea.”

  All of a sudden, a huge wave, three times our size, collapsed on top of us. The kayak tipped over.

  I was upside down under the water. My throat stung from the salty water and it hurt to hold my breath. I struggled to free myself but my legs were caught inside the seat. I swayed back and forth, trying to lift myself forward.

  I really was going to die in Lynn.

  Except it wasn’t Ally who was going to kill me.

  I was going to drown.

  My eyes burned and I slapped the side of the boat. I needed air in my lungs. They were about to burst from the pressure. What would my mom say when she came to get me? Millie where is my precious daughter? Dead?! You only watched her for three days!

  Who was I kidding? My mom wasn’t coming to get me and she wasn’t going to miss me if I drowned.

  I still didn’t want to die.