Death's Little Angels

Death’s Little Angels

A novel

By Sylver Belle Garcia

Death’s Little Angels

Copyright © 2014 by Sylver Belle Garcia

Cover art by Paul Beeley

This ebook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This book is a work of fiction. The names,
characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s
imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be
construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead,
actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental
and unintentional. All rights are reserved. No part of this book
may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission from the author.

Your respect and support is truly
appreciated. Thank you for downloading. I hope you enjoy this story
as much as I enjoyed writing it.

**********

Grateful to my savior for giving me the
ability to write.

A special thank you to my mommy.

You can never hide from death.

It will always find you, one way or
another.

The day was bleak and windy at Stoney
Central Middle School. The hot, crisp, summer spell was nearing an
end, as hurricane season shined at its brightest being early
September. Stoney Central Middle School was located in the heart of
Wiggins, Mississippi, an ordinary quiet rural town, where it was
not uncommon to see cows, chickens, or coyotes roaming around in
your front yard. Wiggins was nestled in between the retirement city
of Hattiesburg and the coastal city of Gulfport, Mississippi. It
was unknown by many but held some of the brightest students that
the state of Mississippi had to offer.

Twelve foot, barbwire fences surrounded the
middle school. One: protection from flying debris in the event of a
hurricane or tornado. Two: safety from the local prisoners who
labored around town on several work duty programs. There were two
padlocks that secured the gates at the school, one at the entrance
and the second at the back where the car riders and buses entered.
The gates also deterred any students who had the idea of skipping
school.

Hurricane Angel, which was
downgraded to a category one, threatened to hit the small town and
the entire Gulf Coast. The school was currently in the process of
initiating the hurricane drill that was reviewed and executed
countless times. The principal, Dr. Bradford, came over the
intercom instructing students that they would be dismissed
momentarily into the hallways to take cover. He was a light skinned
black male in his early thirties with a squeaky
Mister Clean
baldhead, as the pupils
would refer to him. Dr. Bradford was very personable with each of
his students. He even made his personal cell phone number available
to all of the parents. Therefore, when Dr. Bradford made his
presence over the intercom or in person he had the entire student
body’s undivided attention. The students sat solemnly in their
tight wooden desks listening to the announcement as the school
began its lockdown. Fortunately for this particular classroom the
window that led to the outside world gave partial view to the
street, the car rider lane, and the football practice field. So it
was not uncommon for students in Math class to gaze off into the
window and daydream.

It was the beginning of second period. The
eighth grade students sat rigidly in their seats as Mrs. Westwood,
the seven-month pregnant math teacher, reviewed the worn drill.
Hardly any of the students listened. Some wrote letters while a few
sneaked whispers amongst each other and only one like Drew Jacks….
dozed off. His head hit the desk like a hammer.

WHAM
!

The students immediately fell out of their
seats with laughter.

“
Class! Settle down!” Mrs.
Westwood squawked. She rubbed her enlarged belly. “Did you have a
long night, Drew?”

“
Um…” Drew drowsily opened
his eyes.

“
You are always sleeping
in my class. I am going to need you to stay after school today if
you can’t stay awake, to make up your work. That is if the weather
permits.”

“
Ugh…”

Drew rubbed the newly red knot that began to
form on his forehead. He studied the classroom blinking his crystal
blue eyes. His tussled dark brown hair fell to the side of his face
and covered one eye. He licked his full pouty lips, an asset that
drove all the girls mad. Most of the girls were crazy about Drew’s
picturesque face. The chiseled chin, full lips, and defined
features were all to perfect. Unfortunately, he came from a broken
family, which made him an outcast amongst his better to do
peers.

Drew glanced over at his crush since the
first grade, Sue Ellen Lee. She stared at him with a crooked smile
at the corner of her mouth. Drew watched as the love of his life
tightened her messy ponytail and winked her eye.

You’re so
beautiful,
Drew thought as he marveled at
her dark hair and eyes like milk chocolate, his favorite candy. Her
pale skin glistened underneath the twinkle of the classroom
lights.

He snapped out of his daze
as the snickering continued. Drew despised some of his
classmates.
Do gooders.
They were so immature. Nobody cared why he did
not get sleep last night. He spent his fourteenth birthday looking
for his deadbeat mother. No one knew that he had been up
babysitting his two younger sisters all night, on his birthday,
because his mother decided not to come home again. Maryann was the
middle child. She was in the fourth grade and had toffee brown hair
with light brown eyes. Drew always argued with his sister Maryann
because of the pranks she consistently played on him. Grace, the
kindergartener, was the youngest of Drew’s siblings. She was the
fair haired, blue-eyed child. It was rumored that Grace looked so
different from Drew and Maryann because her father was someone that
their mother met at a bar in Alabama. Nevertheless, Drew loved and
cared for his little sister just the same.

Drew leaned back and let
out a big yawn. He was extremely exhausted. He had been watching
the clock all night medicating Grace, for her head cold,
with
yucky purple juice,
as Grace would call it. Drew was thankful that
Grace did not have to go to school today. That meant he only had to
help Maryann get ready, before they walked to their grandmother’s,
also known as
Mee-maw
, house to catch the bus in the gloomy weather.

Drew’s mother had managed
to rent a run down trailer that was not fit for a dog to live in.
There were holes all throughout the floor and there was no running
water in the mobile home. This meant nightly baths at his
grandmother’s house, which meant late nights and early mornings.
Drew and his sisters felt the seasons every year in the trailer.
Due to the lack of insulation and exposure to the elements, when it
was cold it was
ice cold
and it when it was hot it was
scorching hot
in the trailer. Having
food in the trailer was always an issue and hunger ran rampant.
However, walking to the grandmother’s house for late evening meals
was more than sufficient to keep Drew energetic for the game of
baseball.

Drew studied each of the
classmates. He wondered if both parents, a single parent, or no one
was raising them at all. Drew’s mother had so many boyfriends that
it was hard to keep up with them. The so called
uncles
were brought home after many
drunken nights at the bar and they were many nights that the fights
kept the children up. Drew’s grandmother had fought a many of years
to take custody of both him and his sisters but the social worker
always had the excuse that their case was backlogged due to lack of
staff. Unfortunately, Drew and his sisters were lost in the system
just like every other poor kid in the state.

His grandmother…
his
Mee-maw.
Thinking of her brought sweet pleasure to his heart. She was
a decorated veteran that had served many years in the military and
was the first woman during her time to be a part of a special
operations unit. It was his Mee-maw that encouraged him to play
baseball, an outlet, to channel all the anger he had built up
against his mom. The weird thing was…. he was actually good at the
sport and enjoyed playing first base. It was no secret, when Drew
was up to bat, he would hit a home run every single
time.

Why me?
Drew thought as he sleepily rubbed his eyes. He
thought of his non-existent mother.
Why
Maryann and Grace? We don’t deserve this.

His mom did not come home
last night. Drew was not sure if his mother was holed up in some
bar or had finally landed a spot on
America’s Most Wanted.
No one
understood why he stayed in trouble at school so much. It was
because someone always had something smart to say about his family.
Drew’s peers never understood his struggle because they never had
to parent their younger siblings. No one at school knew what it was
like to go to bed hungry or worse dodge flying fist from one of
their mother’s many boyfriends.

He had a flippant attitude and enjoyed
fighting the rich, spoiled, popular jocks. Drew’s attitude was the
only way to get back at his mom and it got him suspended off the
baseball team for the entire school year. What was the coach going
to do without the best first base player that Stoney Central Middle
School had ever seen?

Probably lose every
game,
Drew bitterly thought.

Drew took note of the ones
laughing.
Losers
.
They were not going to be in the yearbook or newspaper this year.
With Sue Ellen, being the editor in chief, he would convince her to
do that. Or best yet, bribe her with his lunch money. Sue Ellen was
a hard to please girl and very firm with her words. Many of the
popular kids, because of Sue Ellen’s harsh attitude, disliked her
even though she came from a middle class well to do
family.

We will see who is
laughing once I make it pro baseball,
Drew
thought silently as he glared at some of the students.

McKenzie Ward, a dark haired girl, who sat
in front of Drew, raised her hand anxiously. She leaned forward
towards Mrs. Westwood in an attempt to get her attention. Mrs.
Westwood ignored McKenzie’s hand and stared at Drew. McKenzie
narrowed her almond shaped eyes at Drew then smacked her thin lips.
She was from a prominent family who owned most of Wiggins, the only
child, and was accustomed to getting her way. McKenzie began
drumming her fingers loudly on the desk.

“
Drew Jacks?” Mrs.
Westwood continued to ignore McKenzie’s fits and widened her eyes
as she waited for an answer. “We are in the midst of a
hurricane—“

A loud piercing scream that sounded like
someone was being tortured erupted outside of the classroom. The
snickering immediately stopped and the students sat rigidly in
their desks as an eerie silence fell over the classroom. Drew
immediately glanced over at Sue Ellen who was currently trying to
get the attention of her best friend Mattalie “Mater” Butler.
Mater’s mouth was wide open and frozen in an expression of the
letter O.

Mater had an olive complexion, lengthy legs,
and long dark brown curly hair that she kept French braided in one
plait. During the cold winter months, there was a many a night that
Mater walked over to the small trailer where Drew lived to bring
left over firewood that she and her younger sister Marley had
chopped for the day. Drew considered Mater a good friend even
though she had taken a major liking to him. It was to bad that
Mater went out of her way to do extras for Drew and his sisters. It
pained him to know that she was head over heels for him.

Mater rose up in her seat in an attempt to
look out the classroom door.

Mrs. Westwood immediately stopped drilling
Drew and quickly walked to the classroom door and opened it. Her
neck crooned around the corner as the students sat stilled in their
desks. She stepped back inside and closed the door softly.
McKenzie’s hand rapidly flew up again, accompanied by squiggling
movements in her desk. She looked like an earthworm.