Bentley Little - The Store

"You're right," he said. "We should spend more time together."

"It's almost summer. It's warm enough to sit on the porch."

"You want to go outside? Look at stars?"

She kissed him. "There's hope for us yet."

"Did you ever doubt it?"

"No," she said slowly, and her voice was surprisingly serious. "I never did."

2

They all had to attend Sam's graduation.

As a family.

Shannon had wanted to sit with her friends, who were clustered in the right front corner of the bleachers, near the gate through which the graduates would walk, but her parents said this was a family event and the family was going to celebrate it together.

Her grandparents had come over for the occasion, and she sat between her two grandmothers on the hot metal bench. Her father was manning the video camera, and she had been given the Nikon and assigned to take still photographs.

At least it gave her something to do. She loved her grandparents and all, was glad to see them, but it was kind of uncool to be hanging with them while her friends were on their own and had the run of the field.

She saw Diane hop over the rail of the bleachers and dash over to Zona Marsden, who was in the band, seated to the right of the empty folding chairs set up for the graduates. The two girls talked for a moment, heads huddled together, then both burst out laughing. Diane sped back across the athletic field and disappeared around the side of the bleachers.

Shannon thought of asking her dad if she could go with Diane, prepared to argue that she'd be able to get better pictures of Sam if she was down there with her, but at that moment, the band started up, playing some anonymous march, and red-jacketed ushers began leading teachers and school administrators to the first row of folding chairs.

"Make sure you get Sam when she steps onto the field!" her dad called, moving to the bleacher aisle and starting down the steps as he turned on the video camera.

"I will." Shannon stood, moved past her Grandma Jo and Grandpa Fred, and followed her father down the metal steps to the edge of the bleachers in order to get a better shot.

The adults were seated and the first graduates filed onto the field. They were doing it alphabetically, and the graduating class wasn't very big, so Sam would be near the beginning. Shannon took off the lens cap and adjusted the focus on the camera so she'd be able to just point and shoot when Samantha walked out.

"Here she comes!" her dad called.

Shannon snapped a photo as soon as Sam and her paired partner stepped through the gate, another as she approached the folding chairs, another as she sat down.

She'd be going through this herself next year. She wouldn't have the extra yellow tassel probably -- her grades weren't as good as Sam's -- but she'd be graduating. She glanced back at her grandparents. All four of them were smiling, and she knew they were happy, but the smiles seemed strained, as though they were in pain and had to force themselves to be cheerful. It suddenly hit her how old and frail her grandparents were, and the thought crossed her mind that they might not all be here for her graduation next year. She instantly pushed the horrible thought away, afraid to even think it, worried on some superstitious level that simply acknowledging the possibility might make it a reality.

She moved back to her seat for the remainder of the ceremony, putting warm hands on her grandmothers' cold, thin arms as prayers were said and speeches were read. Her dad remained in place, videotaping.

She went back down to the edge of the bleachers with her father when they started issuing diplomas, and she took a picture of Sam rising from her chair, another of her standing at the head of the line waiting to receive her diploma.

When they announced the name Samantha Davis over the loudspeaker, she couldn't resist, and even as she snapped a photo of Sam accepting the diploma from the principal, she whooped loudly, screamed.

Quite a few other people screamed and clapped as well. Sam was one of the most popular seniors in school, and while Shannon often found herself somewhat annoyed by that, she experienced a surge of pride today, and she was proud to be the sister of Samantha Davis.

After the ceremony, they were taking pictures in front of the Juniper Union High School sign, Samantha posing with both sets of grandparents, when Diane, breathless, came running up. She waved to Sam, nodded to her parents, then stood directly in front of Shannon. "They need two people to work the punch bowl at Grad Night," she said. "You want to do it?"

"What?"

"Smith and Jimmy got caught trying to smuggle a bottle of scotch into the gym. I guess they were going to spike the punch. It's supposed to be a sober grad night, no alcohol, so they were automatically kicked out, and now they're looking for two replacements. Mr. Handy said it's ours if we want it."

Shannon looked hopefully at her mother.

"Go ahead," her mom said, smiling.

"Yes!" Diane pumped a fist in the air and grinned. "I'll tell them we're in." She started running back down the sloping grass toward the gymnasium.

"Where and when?" Shannon called.

Diane turned around, running backward. "Meet me at the gym when you're through here!"

"We're going out to eat!"

"Eight o'clock, then! The gym!"

Shannon nodded, waved, and Diane disappeared into the crowd of still milling parents.

Dinner, Shannon thought, was somewhat depressing. They went to the Castle Creek Steakhouse, the closest thing to a decent restaurant in this area of the state, but so did half the graduating class. And although Sam spent most of the meal visiting with friends, talking to other kids, it was conspicuously obvious that she didn't have a boyfriend. Most of the other girls in the restaurant, except the losers, were eating out with their families and their boyfriends.

Shannon knew for a fact that at least six boys had asked Sam to Grad Night although she had decided to go stag -- but it wasn't the same as having one special person to share this special night with.

She missed Jake.

That's what it came down to, really, and she found herself wondering if she would have a boyfriend by the time she graduated or if she would end up going out to dinner with just her parents and her sister and her grandparents.

Maybe not even all of her grandparents.

God, this was turning out to be a depressing night.

Things improved greatly after dinner, though. They all went home, she and Sam quickly changed into party clothes . . . and then changed again into party clothes that were acceptable to their parents, and their dad dropped them off at school.

After he drove away, Shannon shyly gave her sister a special graduation present she'd bought herself. She'd contributed to the PC and printer that the whole family had chipped in on, but she'd wanted to get Samantha something more personal, less practical. Something that was just from her. So she'd gone down to Ellen's Attic and, with the allowance and baby-sitting money she'd saved all year, bought her sister an antique brooch.

"I know you like those things," Shannon said. "And I thought it would be a good graduation present."

"It's a wonderful present!" Sam hugged her, awkwardly yet gratefully.

"Thank you so much." She immediately pinned it to her blouse. "What do Mom and Dad think?"

"I didn't tell them. It's from me to you, so I wanted you to see it first."

Sam smiled. "It may not seem like it sometimes, but I really am glad you're my sister."

Shannon looked away, embarrassed. "Me, too," she said.

They split up after that, Sam walking over to where her friends were congregating for the last time at Senior Corner, Shannon heading straight to the gym, where Diane was already filling paper cups with red fruit punch.