Morgan Rice - Before Dawn

“So,” she said, turning cold eyes up to her younger daughter. “I’ve been looking at our bills since we moved into the new house, and it’s looking like college is off the table for you, Kate.”

Kate froze. Her whole body turned to ice.

“What?”

“You heard me,” her mom said. “This neighborhood is expensive and we can’t afford to send both of you. Madison will have to be our priority. You can work through your senior year, then take the next year out to help pay for Madison’s tuition.”

Kate felt her yogurt churning in her stomach. She was so devastated by the news she felt like she would throw up any moment.

“You…can’t do that,” she stammered.

Max hunkered down in his seat. Madison looked uncomfortable too, though Kate knew she wouldn’t stand up for her in any way.

“I’m your mother, and while you live under my roof I can do anything I want. Madison’s got into a great college and I’m not having you jeopardize her opportunity to excel.” Her mom’s expression was fierce. Her arms were folded tightly across her chest. “A congratulations would do, too,” she sneered. “I don’t think I’ve heard a single peep out of you since Madison got the letter. You didn’t even stick around for the cake.”

Her mom had thrown a celebration party for Madison on Monday when the letter had arrived. She’d baked a cake – though Kate had been told she wasn’t allowed a slice – and had even hung up a banner. Madison’s celebration party had been exactly like the birthday party Kate wasn’t going to get.

Kate’s heart was hammering. A red mist started to descend in her mind.

Suddenly, her mouth was running away with her.

“What about me?” she cried. “How about a happy birthday? You haven’t even acknowledged my seventeenth! Why does everything have to be about Madison? How about you caring about me for a change?”

Max’s and Madison’s eyes bulged with fear. Kate had never stood up for herself before and both were worried about what the fallout might look like.

By the expression on their mom’s face it was clear she’d completely forgotten Kate’s birthday was today. But she wasn’t going to admit her mistake – she never did.

“I’m not prepared to discuss this with you, young lady. You’re going to clean houses with me to help pay for Madison’s tuition and that’s the end of it.” Her tone was emotionless and cold. “If I hear any more lip from you, I’ll pull you out of school and you won’t even get your high school diploma. Got it?” She gazed at Kate with a look of pure revulsion in her eyes. “Now, aren’t you going to be late for school?” she added.

Kate stood there, fuming. Tears brimmed in her eyes. Other kids looked forward to gifts and parties on their birthdays. All she got was the news that her future had been taken away from her.

She slammed her yogurt carton down and stormed out of the house. It was May and the sun was burning hot, searing her pale skin. She grabbed her bike up from where she’d dumped it after school yesterday and began riding down the street, pumping her legs as hard as she could, trying to find a way to alleviate the anger pulsing through her.

She hated her mom. She hated her stupid new house. She hated her family. It was all a lie. The only thing that had kept her going all these years was the knowledge she’d one day escape from this place, from her awful, suffocating mother and her useless drunk of a father. That one day she’d be off to college. She wanted to go to the East Coast, to get as far away from them all as possible.

Now that dream was over.

Kate managed to bike to school in record-fast time. Usually she was overtaken at some point by Madison, but she’d been so angry she’d powered herself there in less than forty-five minutes.

Sweat prickled her back as she locked up her bike in the racks beside the parking lot. She knew, self-consciously, that her face would be crimson red and blotchy.

Just then, a car pulled up into the space just behind her and Tony jumped out.

“Oh God,” Kate muttered aloud.

Tony was her crush. He played on the football team, hung out with all the cool kids, and yet somehow, despite that all, he was a really lovely person. He was the sort of guy who had time for anyone. He didn’t see the kids at high school through the lenses of their cliques. Kate wasn’t a fringe girl to him – she was just Kate Roswell. Sometimes Kate felt like he was the only person who didn’t view her in comparison to her prettier, more popular, funnier sister.

“Kate,” he said, slamming his car door. “How’s it going?”

Kate couldn’t help but feel awkward. She wished she wasn’t standing there covered in sweat and looking exhausted.

“Good,” she said, the only thing that came to her mind.

“Hey,” he said with a slightly quizzical expression. “You look different today. You’ve done something to your eyes.”

“Mascara,” she replied, feeling even more awkward.

“It looks good,” he said in a matter-of-fact way. “I hadn’t realized how blue your eyes were before.”

Kate’s stomach swirled. If he wasn’t meaning to flirt with her, he was doing a pretty bad job.

“Hey, am I right in thinking it’s your birthday today?” he added.

She couldn’t help but swoon. How had he known that? She didn’t remember having told him.

“Uh, yeah, it is,” she said.

Tony smiled, showing off his gorgeous, pearly teeth. “Happy birthday.”

He leaned toward her and pulled her into a hug. Kate stood there stiffly. Her whole body seemed to buzz with electricity. She wanted to hug him back but was worried if she lifted her arms she’d expose sweat patches the size of China.

Tony let go and pulled back.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, feeling like the biggest dork in the world. She wished she could play it cool. She knew Madison would never have freaked if her crush had just hugged her.

“Hey look,” Tony said, his eyes darting over her shoulder as the football team sauntered into the parking lot. “I’ve gotta rush. Have a good birthday, okay?” He was already walking away, talking over his shoulder as he went. “If I see you at lunch I’ll get you a cupcake.” Then he was off, jogging away toward his friends.

Kate clutched her bag tightly, well aware she’d just made a total mess of that whole interaction. It had been the eyes comment that had thrown her. She couldn’t help but wonder if Tony had been flirting with her. Maybe there was a little part of him that had a crush on her, too.

“Kate!” someone shouted, and she turned around to see her three best friends rushing up toward her.

Dinah Higgins, Nicole Young, and Amy Tan had been Kate’s best friends since they all met in ninth grade. Dinah was African American and came from a big, warm family who seemed to have more time for Kate than her own did. She wore her hair in neat cornrows, with reds and white woven in. Nicole lived with just her dad; her mom had died from cancer when she was really little. She was Californian through and through, but tried to hide it under layers of black dresses and biker boots. Because her hair was naturally blond, she often went to town dyeing it all kinds of colors. At the moment, the ends were bright orange. Amy was the girl that Kate felt the closest to of all of them. Her parents were both Chinese and had moved to America to give her and her brother better prospects. As a result, there was a huge cultural difference between Amy and her parents. They viewed her as a bit of an oddity, with her love of pop culture, obsession with reality TV, and goofy personality. It was for those reasons that Kate and Amy were so close. Amy felt like an outsider in her family, too.