Sherryl Woods - Catching Fireflies

“You don’t get it,” Misty responded. “I’d love to be grounded. Suspension would be great, too.”

“You don’t mean that,” Katie protested. “Did you talk to Ms. Reed?”

Misty nodded. “It didn’t help. She just asked a bunch of questions I wouldn’t answer. If I’m not in class Monday morning, it’s all over. She made that pretty clear. She’ll tell Mrs. Donovan.”

“So, you’re coming to class, right?” Katie pressed.

Misty felt tears welling up in her eyes. “How can I?”

Katie looked alarmed. “Misty, you don’t have a choice. You’re probably out of second chances.”

“You saw those new posts online. I don’t want to show my face at school ever again. Maybe I should just drop out, maybe even run away.”

“No!” Katie said, looking shocked. “You can’t do that. You’d be letting Annabelle win.”

“She’s already won. She’s making my life miserable, which is exactly what she wants to do.”

“You could fight back,” Katie suggested. “She’s not the only one who can post online. Turn the tables on her.”

“A part of me would love to do that,” Misty admitted. “Payback sounds great, but you know I’d be the one who’d wind up in trouble. Annabelle would claim I started it.”

“But there’s proof that she did,” Katie insisted. “The posts are dated.”

Misty shook her head. “I can’t do it,” she repeated. “It would all come out. It would kill my mom and dad. I don’t want them to ever have to read that filth.”

Silence fell as the waitress returned with their food and their diet colas. Thankfully, Grace Wharton, who seemed to be everywhere at once and heard everything, was at the game tonight. This waitress was fairly new to town and barely said two words to the customers.

“Thanks for meeting me here tonight,” Misty said eventually. “I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have at least one friend I could talk to about this.”

“You have plenty of friends,” Katie reminded her. “They’re all just waiting for a signal from you that you want them around.”

“I guess,” Misty said. She couldn’t help wondering, though, if real friends would have been waiting for some sign from her. Katie hadn’t. She’d been in her face, outraged on her behalf, from the moment the first post had gone up online. If anyone else had reached out, maybe she wouldn’t be feeling so isolated and alone. She had a hunch even the people who claimed to be on her side were wondering if what Annabelle was posting was true.

“What are you going to do this weekend?” Katie asked.

“Hang out at home, do my homework, nothing special,” Misty said with a shrug.

“There’s a fall festival close by. We could go to that. We probably wouldn’t see anyone from here.”

“How would we get there? Neither of us has a car.”

“But Kyle’s home and he does. I’ll bet I could talk him into taking us.”

Misty shook her head. She’d always had a secret crush on Kyle. She knew he wasn’t half as hot as Katie’s other brother, the sports superstar, but he was cute and smart and sweet. She was terrified someone in town would blab to him about the posts online, and he’d be totally disgusted with her. “No way,” she told Katie.

“Okay, then you could come to my house for a sleepover tomorrow night,” Katie suggested. “Mom wouldn’t mind.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think so,” Misty said. “Your stepdad knows about me skipping class. You said so yourself. I don’t want him to start asking questions.”

“Well, you can’t spend the whole weekend stuck at home all alone,” Katie protested. “How about I come over to your house? We could make popcorn and watch a bunch of romantic comedies.”

“Absolutely not,” Misty said, then blushed. “I didn’t mean that like it sounded, like I don’t want you there. It’s just my mom and dad. If they’re in the same room, they fight. You don’t want to be in the middle of that. Heck, I don’t want to be in the middle of that.”

“We could take our books and go study by the lake,” Katie suggested, clearly determined to be Misty’s social director. “That could be fun.”

Misty shook her head. “We might run into other kids from school.” She gave Katie a look filled with regret. “I’m sorry I’m such a downer. I know it’s no fun being around me right now.”

“You’re my friend, no matter what kind of mood you’re in,” Katie said loyally. “I learned all about what it means to be a good friend by watching my mom, Dana Sue and Helen. They were way younger than us when they first got to be friends, and they were our age when they started calling themselves the Sweet Magnolias. To this day nobody hurts one of them without answering to the others. I figure you and I are going to be just like that our whole lives.”

Katie held up a hand, and after a few seconds, Misty actually managed a watery smile and gave her the expected high five. Maybe her life didn’t totally suck, after all.

* * *

“Where’s Katie tonight?” Dana Sue Sullivan asked as she and Ronnie joined Maddie, Cal and the kids in bleachers at the high school.

“She met her friend Misty at Wharton’s for a burger,” Maddie replied.

Dana Sue regarded her with surprise. “I thought family football nights were a command performance, especially these days.”

Maddie shrugged. “Cal has me convinced that Misty needs a friend right now, and Katie’s apparently appointed herself to that role.”

“Leave it alone,” Cal murmured from beside Maddie.

Dana Sue studied her two friends, who rarely showed any signs of dissension, at least in public. “What am I missing?” she asked.

Ronnie gave her a warning look. “Did you not just hear Cal indicate we all need to stay out of this?”

Dana Sue cast a dismissive look at both men. “When a teenage girl is in some kind of trouble, I’m sorry if my antennae go up. Since we almost lost Annie to anorexia, you’ll have to pardon me if I’m concerned.”

Cal leaned across his wife and lowered his voice. “Not the place or the time, okay? This doesn’t involve an eating disorder, I can tell you that much.”

Just then the play-by-play announcer introduced Annabelle Litchfield, who was going to sing the national anthem.

“Now, there’s a girl who looks as if she has an eating disorder,” Dana Sue murmured. “I hope Mariah is paying close attention to her.”

Maddie smiled. “I think you can count on that. Mariah is counting on Annabelle taking them to the top of the country charts in Nashville with that voice of hers. She still hasn’t stopped talking about the American Idol judges who didn’t give her a pass for Hollywood. She complains to everyone who’ll listen that they must be tone-deaf. That won’t stop her from pushing Annabelle front and center for the next auditions.”

“I almost feel sorry for Annabelle,” Dana Sue said. “That’s a lot of pressure for a kid. And you know why Mariah’s doing it, don’t you? It’s all because she lost her own big shot at stardom when she got pregnant with Annabelle and had to get married. Now she’s living vicariously through her daughter.”

Cal gave her a wry look. “Maybe Mariah is pushing her for her own selfish reasons, but I don’t think you need to feel bad for Annabelle. She has more than her share of self-confidence. It’s a little unnerving, actually, to watch all the kids at school circle around her like she’s some diva with an entourage. I worry sometimes what will happen to her if that big break never materializes.”

“Oh, it will materialize,” Ronnie said. “Mariah’s the kind of woman for whom failure’s not an option. Not for her little girl. I’m not sure how Don Litchfield puts up with her.”