by Jessie Lane
As I looked over the shades of pencils in my kit, my eyes got stuck on red, and my mind went back to a time when things weren’t so complicated, back to where it all began.
Once upon a time, Ginny DuBois’ life had started anew, free from the four walls of fear and thrust into a world where she could be a normal young girl. Once upon a time, Ginny DuBois had been able to believe that fairy tales could come true.
Chapter
3
Lucas
Nine Years Old
I hated mowing the stupid yard.
It felt like a million degrees outside, and sweat was constantly dripping off my face. Dad said I had to because I was the oldest, and my two little brothers were too young to do it, which didn’t make sense to me. Michael was eight, and Noah was seven. If I could mow the grass at nine, why couldn’t Michael mow when he was only a year younger than me?
My little sister Olivia was six, so I could understand why she couldn’t mow, not that Dad would make her. My parents treated her like a freaking princess. Last time I checked, princesses did not play with G.I. Joes, and Olivia wouldn’t leave mine alone.
As I turned the riding lawnmower and made my way down the side of the house to mow the front yard, I saw a flash of brown out of the corner of my eye. Looking over, I saw my neighbor and friend, Johnny Whitmore, throw a football to his dad, making me sigh in disgust. I would much rather be playing football than doing stinking chores.
Shaking my head, I looked back to the grass in front of me.
While I cleared the front of our house, I turned right and started the box design my Dad had showed me how to do. When I reached the end of that row, I turned right again and started moving down the side of our driveway toward the road.
Moving along at what felt like a snail’s pace, I caught sight of a flash of shiny blonde hair walking up our street. I turned my head and saw a little girl about the size of my sister holding hands with a lady who looked like her. The girl wore a white dress, and the sun glared off both her hair and the dress.
As they moved closer, I could see that neither of them looked very happy. The little girl looked kind of scared as she turned her head back and forth to glance around the neighborhood, as if she were looking for someone. Her mom looked really tired, making me wonder if she was sick or something.
By the time the mower reached the end of the row again, the girl and woman were at the edge of my yard. When I turned right, it put us going in the same direction. I knew I should be watching where I was driving because Dad always said that was really important, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the girl.
She was … pretty.
She turned her head in my direction and caught sight of me then stared right back. I could tell her eyes were light, but I couldn’t tell if they were blue or green. She sort of reminded me of the angel my mom put on top of our Christmas tree every year.
I had never really thought girls were pretty before, maybe because I thought they were silly with their giggling and their dolls. No matter how much I knew girls had cooties, I still thought this one was the prettiest girl I had ever seen, not that I would admit it to anyone. My brothers and Johnny would make fun of me for, like, forever if they heard me say that.
The girl pointed her finger at the area in front of me, and I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. Looking at where she had pointed, I saw the lane of grass I was mowing coming to an end, and Johnny’s dad’s bushes were right in front of my path. Holy crap!
Jerking the wheel right, I managed to get the mower turned before crashing into the bushes and breathed out a sigh of relief. Dad would have gotten so mad at me if I had messed up the Whitmore’s bushes. Adults were so weird about the plants in their yard. Who cared? The green stuff always grew back!
Glancing behind me, I watched the girl and her mother as they walked into the house right across the street from mine. I’d had no idea anyone had moved in there. Maybe now Olivia would have someone to play with instead of bugging me. That would be so cool.
I turned back around and focused on where I was driving then eyed the rest of the yard. Seeing how much I still had left to do, I sighed in disgust. This was the never ending yard of doom. I wished the stupid mower would go faster. Could you attach a rocket-fueled jet pack to a riding lawnmower? I bet that would be the fastest mower on the planet if somebody did that. And, if I had the rocket-fueled mower, I bet I could mow this stupid yard in half a minute. That would totally leave plenty of time to play football with Johnny, which would be awesome.
Looking back up at my house’s front door, I watched my mom as she swept off our front steps. Then a wicked cool idea popped into my head as I thought of our new neighbors across the street. Maybe, if I told Mom that they had moved in, she would bake cookies to give them. I had seen her do it once when people moved in down the street. What was more, if she baked cookies, I could totally steal one when she wasn’t looking. Now that sounded like an awesome plan.
I went back to concentrating on mowing the grass. The faster I got this stupid yard mowed, the faster I could go on to Operation Cookie Snatch and Run. My dad was in the Army and always told me he was lucky to go on all of these cool, top secret missions. Well, this could be my first top secret mission.
When I grew up and joined the Army, I could tell the generals I worked for that I had already successfully completed a mission. They would totally be impressed with me and stuff.
By the end of the long day, I had mowed the lawn and devoured two chocolate chip cookies I had managed to sneak. Operation Cookie Snatch and Run had worked as a double bonus, because I got cookies and learned the name of the little girl across the street.
Virginia DuBois, better known as Ginny.
Boy, I hoped Ginny kept my sister busy so she would stay away from my GI Joes.
Ginny
Six Years Old
Mom said we were safe now. I hoped she was right. I was tired of seeing Daddy mad and mean. I wished and wished and wished he wouldn’t yell so much or hurt Momma. Well, I guessed wishes did come true. This just wasn’t exactly what I had imagined.
The new house was scary at night, but I was doing my best to be brave like Momma had asked. She’d said Daddy wouldn’t find us here. I just had to be strong and trust her. I wasn’t brave like Prince Charming when he rescued Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. I told Momma that, and she said I didn’t have to be that brave, just brave enough to let her protect me.
Momma trying to protect me from Daddy had gotten me thinking: who’s gonna protect Momma?
I had asked her, and she had given me a sad smile and told me not to worry about her. She didn’t need a prince to rescue her like Sleeping Beauty did. I thought that was sad. My momma was definitely pretty enough to be a queen, and every queen should have a nice, strong king who loved and protected her. I had told her that, too.
For a minute, I had been scared I’d said the wrong thing because Momma had cried a few tears.
My daddy had always gotten this really mad look on his face any time someone said the wrong thing. He also had gotten really, really mean and scary to anyone who’d made Momma cry. I wasn’t scared Daddy was going to yell at me again for making Momma cry, because she had told me he was far, far away from where we were, and we were safe from him. That didn’t mean I liked seeing my momma cry, though.
When I had told her I was sorry I had made her cry, she’d cried a little more and hugged me. Then she had whispered in my ear that she might not have a king, but she just knew I would find my prince one day.
Momma had it all wrong, though. I didn’t want a prince. They were too stuffy.
No, I wanted a knight in shining armor. They were the best. They fought dragons and rode pretty horses. They rescued princesses and fought with swords and lances. Knights were way better than a prince, even though they didn’t get to wear a cool crown.
I saw a little boy riding a lawnmower today when Momma and I had gone for a walk. I had totally pretended he was a knight riding hi
s trusty steed. He was going to have to learn how to drive his lawnmower, though, because he almost crashed into those gigantic green bushes on the edge of his yard. That would have been just silly since knights couldn’t crash their trusty steeds!
After dinner, Momma and I had been able to meet the little boy’s mother. She had told us her name was Mrs. Young and had given us a plate of chocolate chip cookies. While I ate one of the cookies, Mrs. Young had told us she had four children, including a little girl named Olivia who was my age. Then she and Momma had started talking about me going over there in a day or two to meet Olivia.
I had been super excited at the idea of finally meeting another girl my own age and wanted to jump up and down in excitement, but I’d made myself sit very still. Daddy had always said a lady had to be “composed.” I didn’t know what “composed” meant, but I’d figured out I couldn’t jump, shout, or get too excited about anything, because anytime I had before, Daddy had gotten mad. So, I had sat very, very still in my chair so Mrs. Young would think I was a lady. I didn’t want anything to ruin my chances of meeting Olivia.
When I had grabbed my second chocolate chip cookie, I’d asked Mrs. Young the name of the boy who had cut her grass today. She had given me this funny kind of smile when she’d told me it was her eldest son, Lucas.
I didn’t know why Mrs. Young had given me that funny look, but I did know I should totally tell Lucas he needed lessons on how to be a knight. Maybe he would be able to drive his lawnmower way better after his lessons.
Chapter
4
Lucas
Fifteen Years Old
“Lucas, go across the street and tell Ginny and her mom that we’re ready to start up the grill for the cookout.”
Giving my mom a polite “yes, ma’am,” I walked out of my house and started across the street to the home of my little sister’s best friend. While I kicked a rock in the road, I grumbled to myself about having to follow Mom’s orders. Why couldn’t Olivia walk over to get Ginny and her mom?
Ginny was a nice girl and all, but I had been avoiding her like the plague for months now. I had overheard her and my sister talking about me one day as I passed Olivia’s bedroom door. Specifically, I’d heard about Ginny having a crush on me.
How embarrassing was that? A twelve-year-old girl had a crush on me. My sister thought it was hysterical and started singing, “Lucas and Ginny, sitting in the tree.” I didn’t find it funny. Ever since then, Olivia had practically shoved Ginny at me every chance she got. What the heck was she thinking?
I shook my head in disgust. Ginny was a freakin’ kid. No way did I want anything to do with her like that. She was practically a sister to me. Besides, I had better things to do than be annoyed by little girls, like play football on my high school team, chill out with Johnny after practice, or if I were really lucky, spend time with my girlfriend Amber in one of the empty classrooms.
Last week, we had ducked into the music room that wasn’t being used during the free period we shared, and she had let me stick my hand up her shirt and feel her boob. I was hoping she would let me get under her bra next week.
I walked up to Ms. DuBois’s door and was about to knock on it when a flash of blonde caught my attention. Off to my right, there sat Ginny on her bench swing under the giant maple tree in her yard, her head bowed down in concentration on the pad of paper in her lap and her hand moving around as she drew. I wasn’t surprised to find her there. If Ginny wasn’t with my sister, she could be found drawing. In fact, I would say she probably spent half of her life with a pad of paper and a pencil in her hands.
Instead of knocking on the door for Ms. DuBois, I left the doorstep and walked over to where her daughter sat. She never once lifted her head, and I knew she didn’t notice me approaching. Typical Ginny, she was lost in her own little world, forgetting about everything around her. Her head seemed to be in the clouds anytime my sister wasn’t talking her ear off.
I thought about saying her name to get her attention, but the last time I had done that while she was tuned out and drawing, she’d ended up screaming out in surprise, slashing across her picture with the marker in her hand and ruining it. I would stand here and wait. If I did it long enough, she would eventually realize someone was right in front of her. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take her too long, though. I would hate to miss out on the steaks my mom was preparing for the grill.
Looking down at her hand moving across the white surface, I almost snorted. Yet again, she was drawing some sort of fairy tale crap: a prince in armor, fighting off a dragon with nothing except a sword and shield.
On one hand, I had to admit Ginny’s artwork was amazing. So good, in fact, that she had received numerous awards and ended up in the gifted and talented program in her school. No one could argue that she didn’t produce awesome pictures.
On the other hand, all the girl drew was stuff like princesses, white knights, castles, and all that nonsense all underage girls seemed to dream of.
Would it kill her to draw something cool, like a sports car or a football player?
I stood there silently for a while, watching her shade in the dragon’s scales, before I heard the squeak of the screen door and her mom calling my name. Ginny’s head snapped up, and when she saw me standing right in front of her, she screamed in surprise.
If it weren’t for the split second that I caught a frightened look on her face, I would have laughed. That scared look had seemed a little more than being surprised, though, making me wonder what exactly Ginny had to be afraid of. This was not the first time I had caught her doing something like that, either. Like the time I had found her when she had accidentally locked herself in my mom’s linen closet.
Ginny had gone in there to get clean sheets to put on the air mattress she slept on when she stayed over. Our house was old, and the door sometimes got stuck. My family had gone out in the backyard for a cookout, and only I had heard Ginny banging on the door to be let out. She had been a trembling, sobbing mess by the time I had gotten the door open. I was pretty sure that terrified look would be burned into my memory, but I had never been able to get her to tell me what she had been so freaking scared of.
When she had been little and first moved into our neighborhood, she’d clung to her mom like she was afraid the woman might disappear or something. Olivia had mentioned Ginny had nightmares, and that was why she didn’t like to spend the night at our house.
All of that meant I was gentle with the girl who lived across the street, especially in times like now, which were often. I didn’t want to make her self-conscious to her reaction.
I pointed down to her paper. “You missed a spot on that scale.”
Immediately, her cheeks blushed, and she snapped her head back down to look at the non-existent spot.
Turning to look over my shoulder, I waved at her mom. “Hi, Ms. DuBois. Mom said the food was going on the grill, and you guys should come over.”
She gave me a warm smile as she called back, “Sounds good, Lucas. Will you walk Ginny across the street with you while I grab the cake I made?”
I almost groaned in despair. After all of that time avoiding her, now I was stuck with her until I could unload her on Olivia. I had finally gotten my sister to stop finding reasons to send her to my room or sing that stupid song. Walking over with Ginny might start it all up again.
Waving back, I told her mom sure and then turned back to Ginny, sticking my hand out to quickly ruffle her hair.
“Let’s go, kid.” Jumping back, I missed the swipe she made to slap my hand away, and I laughed at the annoyed look she shot my way.
Not giving her time to say anything, I turned and slowly started to walk away. The sounds of her shuffling her stuff around and then her footsteps as she raced after me let me know she wasn’t far behind.
Before I got halfway across the yard, she strolled up to walk slightly behind and to the side of me. I got that funny feeling like someone was watching me and looked at her out of the corner of m
y eye, only to see her bite her bottom lip and duck her head. She had been watching me … again.
Sighing, I wondered how I could nip this little crush of hers in the bud. I couldn’t have my baby sister’s best friend following me around, looking at me like she was planning our wedding. She was like the other little sister I never wanted. I didn’t mind it when she hung out at the house and kept Olivia company, but I got totally weirded out every time she blushed at me like that. The sad thing was, this obsession Gin had for me had been going on for years. I’d done my best to be nice about it all, but lately it was getting on my last nerve.
I didn’t know what else to do or say to get it through her head that I would never look at her that way. I sure as hell hadn’t bothered to hide my interest in other girls. Part of me had hoped that, if Ginny saw me talking to other girls, she would get the point that I wasn’t interested in her. No such luck. The thought of being a jerk to her sucked, yet I was starting to think it was what I had to do.
As I plotted the best way to set Ginny straight, a young, feminine voice calling my name caught my attention. I looked up to see my girlfriend walking toward me with a big smile. She had on tight jean shorts and a tank top that barely covered that bra I wanted into so badly.
I stepped onto the sidewalk, calling out to her, “Hey, babe.”
The final B sound was barely out when a small body crashed into my back. The push wasn’t enough to throw me off balance, but it did remind me I had a problem trailing me.
Reaching back, I grabbed one of her arms and pulled her fully onto the sidewalk by my side then waved toward my front door, telling her, “Go inside.”
A disappointed look came over her face as I turned back to face Amber, basically dismissing her.
Amber’s eyes looked at her curiously. “Who’s that?”
Shrugging a shoulder, I replied, “Just the kid across the street, my little sister’s friend.”
