“It’s basically just tutoring other kids, right?” He chuckled. “I’m not as smart as you, but I could at least point someone in the right direction.”
Today would be her fourth time at Community Hope, and she’d been enjoying it. None of the students there cared that she was a straight A student or star athlete. None of them cared about The Plan. They only knew she was one of the few people trying to keep them from failing out of school. She wasn’t too sure she wanted to risk David coming in and changing that.
“You have to fill out a volunteer application.” She pushed open the door at the end of the hallway and stepped outside. “You can download it from their website and bring it on Monday.”
“Don’t they have any applications on hand?”
She pictured Mark’s clipboard. “Maybe.”
David smiled. “Then I’ll tag along and see if I can find one. If that’s all right with you.”
She didn’t know if that was all right with her actually, but she could hardly turn away a willing-and-able volunteer. Not after complaining to Mark about the lack of help.
“Okay.”
They skirted the crowd of students waiting to be picked up, slipped between two buses, and jogged across Fallow Drive.
“You got Driver’s Ed. tonight?” David asked.
“Yes.”
It had started Monday. Seven to nine every weeknight for three weeks. The first two days of class had been uneventful, boring even, but that hadn’t prevented her recurring nightmare from getting worse. The one where she’s driving down a hill out of control toward two people shrouded in shadow.
They reached the front door of the church, and David rushed to open it for her. “How’s it going so far?”
She held back a shudder. “Fine.”
The incident on Friday with Mr. Laninga, which had ruined an otherwise happy day, hadn’t helped with her nightmare situation. Now, in her dream, the two people were surrounded by mailboxes, and she could hear them crying out as she careened wildly down the hill. Lovely.
Mr. Laninga had assured her his neighbor’s mailbox would be fine, but she hadn’t been back to his house to check on it. She was nervous about facing him again.
She led David to Room F, where Mark was scrambling to set eight chairs around each table. David jumped in to help while she got to work on the snack table. Other students would arrive any minute, and they always went for the snacks before doing anything else.
A small group of middle-school girls, including Taylor, came in first.
Rae waved. “Hey, Taylor. How’d your English test go today?”
They’d spent the whole session on Monday studying for it with little progress. Taylor kept spouting wrong answers even after they’d gone over the material a hundred times, but Rae suspected this wasn’t because she didn’t get it.
Taylor shrugged. “Got a D.”
Rae frowned. Taylor was capable of more. She was sure of it. But why wouldn’t Taylor apply herself? Why didn’t she care about school? She didn’t seem to care about anything except maintaining the protective attitude she wore like a bulletproof vest.
Taylor walked away, and Rae dragged David back over to Mark and asked if he had any volunteer applications printed out.
He grinned. “Sure do.” He took one from his clipboard and handed it to David. “Here you go. But there’s no time to work on this now. We’re swamped.”
Rae looked around at all the kids waiting for help. “But he can’t volunteer without the application.”
“Rules are the difference between order and chaos,” Dad always said. He had taught her to ignore them at her own peril.
Mark wagged his unkempt eyebrows. “Can you vouch for him? Just for today?”
He must assume she knew David pretty well. Her cheeks warmed. “I guess so.”
“Great.” Mark held out his hand for David to shake. “Welcome aboard. Let’s get to work.”
Rae watched Mark lead David to a table of rowdy middle-school boys and leave him there to fend for himself. She felt a little guilty for getting David into this, but it had been his choice to jump right in. Now he’d have to sink or swim.
She made her way to the table where Taylor sat and plopped down beside her. “What happened with that English test?”
Taylor shoved some pretzels in her mouth and rolled her eyes.
“Did you study last night?”
She shrugged. “I was busy.”
“You need to make schoolwork a priority, Taylor.”
How many times had Dad told her that?
“Yes, Mother.” Taylor smirked.
“I’m serious.” Rae hated to nag, but this was important. “You could fail seventh grade.”
“Ugh, you keep saying that.” Taylor finished off the bag of pretzels and took a swig of Gatorade. “I got a D. I passed.”
The Gatorade left a red mustache on her petite, waifish face. Rae couldn’t hold back a smile.
Taylor scowled. “What’s your problem?”
It was Rae’s turn to shrug. “Nothing.”
“Can we get to work already?” Taylor pulled a couple of books from her backpack. “You’re being weird.”
WITH TWENTY MINUTES left in the session, Taylor’s homework was finished, including three makeup assignments.
Rae clapped her hands twice and grinned. “See? I knew you could do it.”
“Whatever.” Taylor put everything back in her pack. “Can I get my phone out now?”
The rule was no phones until all the work was done. When Rae nodded, Taylor pulled out a new-looking iPhone.
Rae leaned in to look at it. “Wow. Sweet phone.”
Taylor waved her away. “Steve got it for me. My mom’s boyfriend.”
She said the name Steve as if it were a curse word. Rae had never heard that hollowness in her voice before.
“That was nice of him.”
Taylor shrank into herself, her already tiny frame nearly disappearing as if engulfed in shadow. “It’s just so I’ll stay out of his hair.”
Rae knew she had no right to make a snap judgment, and she had nothing to go on aside from the look on Taylor’s face, but she decided she didn’t like this Steve guy.
She waited for more of the story, but Taylor was done sharing. With a barely suppressed sigh
