“BEN!” Mr. Pertino bellows my name. He resembles a bullfrog on his best day and right now he’s become a furious bullfrog with a bright pink face, blinking at me in disbelief as I rip my quiz paper into tiny pieces.
Heads swivel around to stare at me. A few of them snicker.
“Sorry.” I sweep the pieces into my palm and stand up. “There was a spider on my paper.”
“A spider?”
“Afraid so.” This makes no sense to anyone in the room. “Can I get another copy? I know the answers. It would only take me a minute to write them down.”
Mr. Pertino frowns. In this class I’m a decent student and I don’t usually cause trouble. Still, tearing up a quiz comes across as a dick move and Black Mountain Academy doesn’t have much patience for dick moves.
“No, young man. You may not have another copy. You may take your garbage to the trash can and you may also take a zero for this quiz.”
This isn’t great news but it’s not the end of the world either. I don’t argue. I spend the remainder of the class sitting at my desk with my arms crossed and staring out the window at the snow-topped peak looming over the town.
Camden
Frankie is hunting through the junk drawer in the kitchen when I walk into the room. He quickly shuts the drawer and sits at the table while I pour a glass of orange juice for myself.
“What were you looking for?” I ask him when I take a seat.
My stepbrother pulls the strings of his faded red hoodie and averts his eyes. “Nothing. Just thought maybe there’d be some spare change in there.”
“You don’t need lunch money. It’s Saturday.”
He sighs. “The strap on my wrestling headgear is broken. It’s thirty bucks including tax for a new one. I’ve been skimping on lunch lately so I have twelve. I guess it was dumb to hope there might be eighteen bucks worth of quarters sitting in the drawer.”
I set my glass down. If my dad knew about this he’d hand over the money in a heartbeat but he left for work at the crack of dawn. He’s been picking up all the overtime weekend shifts he can get.
“Wait here.” I hurry off to my room and return with a twenty dollar bill.
“Thanks, Cam.” Frankie is happy to pocket the money at first and then he takes a closer look at the bill. “Did you write on it?”
“No.”
He’s no longer smiling. “It says ‘Happy Birthday, Camden’. This is the money that came in the mail from your grandma the other day.”
“My birthday isn’t for another two weeks. She sent it early because she gets confused.”
He pushes the bill at me. “I can’t take it.”
I push it back at him. “I want you to take it. Just promise me you won’t go without lunch anymore.”
He cooperates but looks miserable. “I’ll pay you back. I was going to try to get a job.”
“You’re only fifteen. Besides, I saw your last report card. You’re barely passing as it is and you won’t be allowed to stay on the wrestling team if you fail. No, I’ll be the one getting a job.”
Frankie raises an eyebrow. “Are you going to work in Black Mountain?”
I roll my chair over to the counter and grab the box of cereal sitting there. “I’d rather find something here in town.”
Frankie looks doubtful. Devil Valley isn’t exactly swimming in employment opportunities. I know I’d have more luck in Black Mountain. In fact the other day I saw a ‘Help Wanted’ sign at the diner a few blocks from school. But the thought of bussing tables for my over-privileged peers makes me want to gag. If I can’t get a job around here then I’ll have no choice. With Adela sick and out of work we don’t have a spare penny. My dad has been valiantly trying to shoulder the burden alone. The one time I brought up a part time job he became upset. He said that I need to stay focused on school and the newspaper and my future rather than working a dead end job for minimum wage. I should have disobeyed him sooner.
Frankie leaves on his mission to find new wrestling headgear. I eat several handfuls of sugary cereal right from the box and think about how Ms. Allen, the guidance counselor, called me down to her office yesterday to remind me that college application deadlines are approaching. Last spring I supplied an impressive list of my dream schools and Ms. Allen is unaware that things have changed. I can’t imagine moving to another state next year. She instructed me to get all my applications submitted by the end of winter break. I promised I would do exactly that. I was lying. The only school I’ve applied to is Eagle State University. It’s not even close to a top tier university and was never on my list of safety school possibilities. It’s a joke at Black Mountain Academy. “You failed the test? HAHA! Say hello to ESU.” But Eagle State has one vital quality in its favor. It’s only sixty miles away from Devil Valley.
The house is quiet and I tiptoe down the hall to look in on Adela. The bed is rumpled and there’s a light underneath the bathroom door. I knock softly and the running water stops.
“It’s me. Frankie had to go out and I’m about to leave too. I’ve got some errands to run.”
Her tired voice floats out at the end of a sigh. “All right.”
My hand is on the worn brass knob. “Are you okay?”
Stupid question. A person is not okay when she has cancer.
“I’m fine, Cam.”
The sour lump is my throat is familiar. “Can I get you anything before I leave?”
“No.” The water begins running again.
Normally Adela would be curious about my plans, not because she tries to be intrusive, but because she’s a devoted parent. I’m a daughter to her and always have been. She told me so on the day she married my father and she meant it.
On my way out of the room I glimpse a framed family photo on my father’s dresser. It was taken two years ago. Frankie is making a funny face and I’m laughing but it’s our parents who catch my attention. My father’s arm is draped over Adela’s shoulders and her gleaming black hair falls past her shoulders. Her eyes are on the camera lens but my father gazes at her with an expression of love and pride. After suffering the heartbreak of losing his first wife in a car accident sixteen years ago and then raising a daughter on his own it must have seemed to him like he’d finally found his happily ever after. Not just for him, but for us. All of us. Frankie’s father has never been part of his life. Like any other family we’ve had our struggles but we’ve always been happy. And then Adela discovered a lump in her left breast shorty after her thirty-fifth birthday. After that came the surgeries, the rounds of chemo and radiation, the anguish of watching her fight back tears because she’s so exhausted. Nothing about it is fair.
I pause at the mirror beside the front door to straighten my long ponytail and ensure that I look presentable. I’m wearing jeans and a thick white cable knit sweater and while I don’t appear ready to take on Wall Street I think I’m worthy enough to qualify for a low paying job in Devil Valley.
The sun is shining and the air is far warmer than it was a few days ago, although this is only temporary. December always carries the bite of winter on its shoulders. But for now it is nice to be outside and I commit to a positive attitude as I make my way to the squat business sector in the middle of Devil Valley.