The Heart Will Lead You Home

by Kristin Leedy

  It was nothing but a bunch of hicks, anyway. So why did she need to be friends with them? She didn’t. It wouldn’t be long, she just knew it, until her father realized what a terrible mistake he’d made by bringing them to this place and he’d pack them all up and move them home.

  She couldn’t wait to see the look on Sarah’s face when she popped back in to school and gave her a big hug. They’d laugh so hard at all those stupid hick kids from

  Edenville and all the ways they made fun of her.

  She pretended like she couldn’t feel the carrot slices being tossed at her back. Or the nasty comments about her accent. And she didn’t even want to think about what that one boy just said.

  The rest of the day she sat in the back of each class and stared at the teacher instead of at the curious faces that watched her. She hated feeling like she was the freak show act in the no name circus passing through town, but that was exactly how she felt. She didn’t know how she was ever going to make it in this new school, and it depressed her to realize it.

  She couldn’t quite figure out how she’d gone from being the girl in her previous school that was neither the big fish nor the low man on the totem pole, but somewhere in the comfortable middle to being the absolute scum on the pond floor at this place. But somehow, in a matter of one day at this school she’d managed to do it.

  She wondered if her sister was having any more luck than she.

  By the time the school bell rang at the end of the day, Lizzie was beyond ready to get out of there, but she wasn’t exactly ready to get back home. Nothing was right in this town, nothing seemed familiar. The kids weren’t nice, the house was run down and smelled like an old person, and she wanted to go back to Chicago.

  Lizzie was too busy scuffing her feet on the concrete sidewalk as she trudged home from school feeling sorry for herself, and she didn’t notice the older woman sitting on the front porch of her house, swaying back and forth in a rocker as she knitted.

  “Good afternoon to you,” the woman called. Lizzie started at the sound of the voice and turned to find its source. There was an elderly woman sitting on the porch, and Lizzie’s tense muscles eased when she saw the woman smiling back at her.

  “H-Hi.” Lizzie returned. She hadn’t even seen anyone sitting on that porch when she’d walked past, but that was most likely because she’d been so focused on her misery. Lizzie focused on the woman for a moment, taking in the soft white hair that framed her wrinkling face and the ball of colorful string that she held in her lap. She looked like a nice woman, and for the first time all day she smiled.

  When the woman waved at her, Lizzie waved back and turned to head back to the ugly old house that she hated to call her home.

  She fell across her bed crying when she got home from school. Her mother tried to console her, but she just turned her head away and closed her eyes. When her father came home from work she felt the weight of his body as he sat on her mattress. For the first time since she’d come home, she rolled over.

  “Why do you hate me so much, daddy?” His face went white with shock.

  “What? Sweetie, I don’t hate you. Why would you ever think that?”

  She started crying, and he reached out a tentative hand to stroke her hair. She could feel the warmth of his hand as he held it over her and paused, trying to decide, she knew, if she would pull away when he tried to touch her. When she felt his hand finally settle on her shoulder she didn’t jerk away. Instead she curled up in his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “I hate it here, daddy. I miss home, and I miss all my friends. No one likes me here, and they say I have a funny accent.”

  “Oh, baby.” He gently stroked her hair. “I know it’s hard right now, but give it some time. Things will get better… they have to.”

  Lizzie sniffled and wiped a tear on her father’s shirt. “Promise?”

  “Promise. Now come on, mama’s made dinner for us, and then after I thought we’d play a game or something.” She sniffed and eyed him suspiciously.

  “What kind of game?”

  “Your favorite- any game you want, we’ll play.”

  The smile she wore grew from a reluctant twitch at the edge of her lips into a small toothy grin that had her eyes sparkling again. When he reached out a hand to pull her off the bed, she took it and held on to it all the way to the dinner table.

  Chapter Four

  The next day at school didn’t go well either. In fact, as she thought back on it later she decided it had gone considerably worse than the first, though she wasn’t quite sure how that was possible. For the next few weeks she dreaded waking up each morning and heading down the street to school. She knew when she got there she’d just be ridiculed and have the vegetable of the day thrown her direction at lunch.

  It was awful being the biggest loser in school.

  The only thing she had to look forward to each day was her walks home when she’d stop and talk for a minute to the sweet woman who sat on her porch, knitting in her rocker. Lizzie had discovered that her name was Mrs. Thornton, but the woman had told her to call her Granny because that’s what all the kids in town called her.

  She liked that. Granny. It was almost like instantly having connections in this small town, having roots to this place like she’d been here her whole life. Only she was still happy that she’d lived in Chicago because at least there the kids were nicer than they were here.

  When she’d come home from school the first day and noticed that MC’s start in the new town had gone almost as disastrously as hers, she’s hugged her younger sister and they’d cried together. It was horrible what they were going through, but inside Lizzie was almost relieved she had someone to go through it with her.

  Her father told them that all the other kids were just jealous of them because they’d lived in a big city and had so many other “life experiences” as he liked to call them. She was pretty sure her father was full of malarkey, but if that’s what he had to tell himself to feel better about bringing them all then she wasn’t going to stop him.

  Each night she and MC lay at the foot of either her or her sister’s bed and they’d talk. It was usually about school and how awful they thought it was, but every now and then they’d change it up and talk about something new. That was another thing she looked forward to in her day: hanging out with her kid sister.

  The only other thing that had come close to making her day nice was being able to watch from a distance that curious boy in the last row of her first period class. It turned out that he had several other classes with her as well, but his seat in the first class gave her the best opportunity to watch him unnoticed.

  She’d learned from listening to the teachers call on him that his name was Payton. And she’d learned from watching how the other kids in school treated him that he was one of the untouchables: one of the most popular kids in school and way out of her stomping grounds. Not that she cared a lick about boys, anyway, but still it would be nice if the boy she’d noticed would at least notice her.

  It was funny the things she noticed while she passed the time each day. She’d grown accustomed to people watching- observing the different personalities and groups of friends that made up this school- because, let’s face it, she had no friends, and no one would talk to her unless it was to poke fun in her direction. But people watching she could do and she found she could learn a lot that way.

  For instance, Lizzie had noticed that even though this Payton was the most popular kid in school he didn’t necessarily act like it.

  The popular kids were some of the cruelest kids in school, taunting the more lowly kids with their cruel jokes and humor. She’d watched because she knew how much it hurt, and she’d been surprised the first time she really noticed that Payton didn’t join in with the others. He never did anything to stop them, but he never joined in their taunting and he didn’t laugh when they did.

  And she liked the way he actually gave the teachers his attention in class instead of rude
ly talking and passing notes back and forth like the majority of the popular kids did. He was more aloof than the others, but that didn’t matter because everyone in school loved him for who he was and for the bright promise of athletic power he held inside of him.

  She’d learned from listening to the boy-crazy girls in school that his father had been a big time quarterback for FSU during his college days, and that it was looking like Payton Cartwright was heading right down the path of his father’s footsteps. And if his father was any indicator, he’d be just as gorgeous as the man as well. Lizzie wasn’t too impressed by his looks quite yet, at least not like the other girls who kept saying odd things about his butt, but she sure was impressed by his personality.

  But it didn’t make any real difference she reminded herself. She was a nobody, and from the looks of things, she always would be. She doubted sincerely that Payton had ever even noticed the new girl in school, and she was pretty certain that he never would. The dark cloud that had been lingering over her for weeks seemed to be growing darker by the day.

  After school that day, she went to the pasture behind their house that her father had recently taken upon himself to mow. It had become one her favorite spots to sit and finish her homework, or play with Skipper, or just think about things. Today as she lay on the fresh cut grass looking at the clouds above her, she could feel the hot trickle of tears begin to run down her face. Skipper whimpered beside her and tried to lick the tears away but she grabbed him up in a big bear hug and wouldn’t let him go.

  Nobody cared about her. No one in the school liked her. No one wanted to be her friend and she hated the feeling that she would go through her life without a friend to confide in. She had her family of course, but she wanted more. She wanted at least one someone to talk to each day while she had vegetables pegged at her during lunch.

  The cold wall of ice slipped in while she was crying and it left her feeling numb and emotionless. It didn’t matter what she did or how she acted, she was Lizzie the biggest loser in school, and nothing would change that. She resigned to the position that all the other kids wanted to put her in.

  The only people in the school who did care were her teachers, she thought sadly. They actually smiled at her and encouraged her when she answered questions in class. And it felt so good to actually be smiled at by somebody. It hit her as she lay there, and she decided then and there that if getting attention by at least one being in school meant being the smartest in class, then by God that was what she would do. After all, it wasn’t like she could be picked on any more than she already was for trying to be the class genius. What else could she possibly lose if she tried?

  Payton Cartwright did indeed have his father’s athletic genes. He’d started to show potential when he was five and playing in the little league sports games. And now that he was thirteen and in the eighth grade, his potential had grown even more. Payton’s coaches had been so impressed by his abilities that they’d moved him up to the Junior Varsity football team- a team that was reserved normally for ninth and most of the tenth graders, and a few of the worst eleventh grade players as well.

  But even though everyone knew, including Payton himself, that his talents were likely to grow even more, his mother had cautioned him frequently about the disadvantages of getting a big head, and the boy had taken it to heart. He would never forget the day he turned seven and his mother had sat him down on the edge of his bed that afternoon and said, “Now, Payton, you listen and you listen good. Nobody wants to be around a whiner, and nobody wants to be around somebody who’s always bragging. You’ve got a beautiful head on your shoulders and a lot of talent in your body. That means you’ve got a big responsibility to live up to. You make sure you use that handsome head and body in just the right way, and you’ll always have friends to share in the good times with you.”

  He felt like he’d just received his induction into manhood and he had walked from that bedroom with a smile from ear to ear. And ever since, he’d made sure that he did just what his mother had asked of him that day.

  Right now, though, he was in the mood to play a little bit of some rough football. Each day, JV football practice started during eighth period and carried on, usually, until the sun went down. Payton was thinking about the new plays the coach had put together as he crossed the gym and headed toward the locker room. He nearly made it to the door when he heard two girls from the PE class that was in session yelling at each other. He turned to see what was happening.

  A ring of girls formed around the two girls taunting each other in the middle, and Payton edged closer to see what the taunting was about. As he closed in on the group, he realized it was Lou Ann Hendley doing most of the talking while another girl he couldn’t clearly see edged around the opposite side on the center ring from Lou Ann, holding her hands up into clenched fists. He remembered who she was the moment he heard her talk.

  It was that new girl. What was her name again? He flipped through names in the back of his head until his mind settled on Lizzie. He hadn’t paid much attention to the girl since she’d shown up two weeks into school, but from what he did know he certainly didn’t remember her ever looking as fierce as she did right then.

  Lizzie’s eyes- that Payton could clearly see were a brilliant emerald green all the way from where he stood- shown bright and fierce as they glittered with rage. Her dark, curling mane of hair which she had obviously pulled back into a ponytail that day, was partially back and mostly tumbling wildly around her shoulders as if someone had intentionally tried to rip it out. He watched as she clenched her fists even tighter, and didn’t even realize it was because Lou Ann was picking at her until he heard Lou Ann say, “What’s the matter Lizzie? Can’t deny the truth?”

  “It is not!” Her voice was thick with emotion that Payton suspected might blow out at any moment.

  “It’s the truth isn’t it? You’re mama’s so crazy that you had to move here to hide her from everyone.”

  And Payton felt his eyes nearly bulge from his head as he witnessed Lizzie in the next second land a blow so hard to Lou Ann’s right eye that she should have been placed into the heavyweight boxing championships sheerly for her effort. Only, he had no idea that such a fragile looking little girl could punch that hard. Or as good as she had, he added, as he watched Lou Ann sink immediately to the ground.

  He didn’t try to stop the girl, but he watched her as she took off in the direction of the girl’s locker room, apparently wasting no time in using the awkward silence that occurred as her exit cue. He shook his head, still shocked that a girl could hit that hard, and headed off to the locker room as well.

  He had already forgotten all about the cat fight when he strutted from the locker room fifteen minutes later and jogged across the gym to catch up with his buddies.

  “Hey guys! Wait up!” He smiled the smile that already at his thirteen years of age was a lethal weapon in some circles of the female population at the school, a mouth full of barely crooked gleaming white teeth, and waved a lean arm in the direction of his friends.

  Colin, Bud, and Hank paused where they were and let Payton catch up. They exchanged the customary high five slap as he jogged past and took his spot in the lead of the group. The four guys had been friends since before they ever knew how to walk, as their mama’s liked to say, and that was something they planned to keep until their dying day.

  Payton had always like his three best-friends, ever since he had known them, and he made it a point to keep them as close to his side as possible. For some reason, the four of them were different. They didn’t find it quite so fun to laugh at someone else’s expense as apparently everyone else in the school did. And not that he was bragging, but he honestly felt like he and his friends had been taught a few manners by their parents. Even at his young age, that went a long way in his book.

  Payton looked around at his friends and smiled.

  “Hey, Payton, did you hear about the fight that broke out in the gym while ago?” Bud looked at his fri
end with such amusement on his face, as if he had such a great story to tell.

  But that was old news to Payton. “Yeah. I saw it actually.”

  “Cool!” All three of the others yelled in unison.

  “I heard it was Lou Ann and that fat chick from second period” Hank chimed in. Payton rolled his eyes.

  “Come on. Lou Ann wouldn’t have stood a chance against her.”

  “Well, you were there. Who was it?” Colin looked as annoyed at waiting for an answer as he always did.

  “It was Lou Ann and the new girl.”

  “New Girl?”

  “Yep.”

  “You’re telling us that New Girl stood up to Lou Ann “the banshee” Hendley?”

  Payton turned and curved his lips up at the edges. “Yep.”

  “Whoa.” All the others stopped and stared at their ring leader in disbelief.

  “Come on, boys. Would I lie to you? New Girl’s got a fist on her that I’m betting would land any one of you flat on your back.”

  “Nuh-uh.” Bud denied it. “Not me.”

  “It’s the God’s honest truth, boys. And believe me, Lou Ann’s gonna have the black eye tomorrow to prove it. Speaking of which, I believe the coach promised to hand out a few black eyes of his own if any of us were late to practice again. Let’s move.” The leader had just offered his ultimatum, and the rest of the gang spent no time disagreeing.

  Lizzie wiped the back of her hand across her eyes in a failed attempt to remove the evidence of her tears. She hadn’t meant to hit Lou Ann, really she hadn’t. It had all happened so fast; one minute she was standing there in the middle of the crowd, and the next thing she remembered she was running for her life, praying that Lou Ann didn’t follow.