The Color Of Grace (12 page)

She smiled. “Really? See, you’re making friends already.”

I smiled too, a forced, stiff smile. “Yeah. And I really
need my curfew to be extended to midnight if you don’t mind.” I rushed my last
request so it all sounded like one, big jumbled word.

Mom’s smile died flat. “Absolutely not.”

“Mom,” I cried. “They all get to stay out that late. I’ll
look like a total dork if I have to go home at ten. Do you want me to be a
dork? Do you want me to be friendless for the rest of my high school career?”

She closed her eyes and rubbed at her forehead with a sigh.
“Dear Lord. Why do high school girls have to act so dramatic?”

If she wanted drama, I could easily deliver, but I held my
patience and said, “If I can’t go to Hillsburg, fine. But if you’re going to
force me to continue attending Southeast, then I’m going to have to somehow
make friends or I’ll be a social pariah. You don’t want your only child to be a
lonely outcast, do you?”

Rolling her eyes as if she still considered me to be overly
dramatic, which, okay, I might’ve been a little, she muttered, “What in God’s
name do you plan on doing until
midnight
?”

“Honestly, Mom. What’re you so worried about? There’s
nothing I couldn’t do after ten that I can’t do before it.”

Across the table from me, Barry laughed. “The girl’s got you
there, Kate.”

Mom shot her new husband a glare. “Do you mind?”

He lifted his hands and eyebrows in surrender. “I’m just
saying. Maybe if you give her a little space, she won’t feel so constrained.”

Eyes narrowing, Mom charged, “You think I’m
constraining
her?”

Barry shrank back in his chair, his throat working as he
gulped down a nervous swallow. “I just meant— Geez, darling. Grace is a good
girl. I think she can be trusted to
remain
a good girl.”

“Fine,” Mom muttered, shoving back her chair and jerking to
her feet. Focusing her glare on me, she hissed, “Stay out as late as you want. Far
be it from me to worry about my
only
child
.” Then she stomped from the room.

Humph. And she’d just called me dramatic.

As soon as she cleared the exit, Barry turned to me and
grimaced. “I stuck my foot in my mouth again, didn’t I?”

My shoulders slumped. Great, I just caused trouble in
paradise to add to my list of mistakes for the day. Giving my new stepdad a
grateful wince, I answered, “Thanks for sticking up for me though.”

“No problem. You really are a sweet girl, Grace. You deserve
a little more freedom and trust. I’m not blind; I see how much Kate limits
you.”

For some reason, I wanted to defend Mom. She’d been a single
parent for so long, so many responsibilities heaped onto her shoulders with no
help from a husband for thirteen years. Could anyone blame her for setting
stricter rules on me to avoid as many complications as possible?

I didn’t think so, but I held my tongue.

“Do you need to borrow my car?” Barry asked.

The question perked me to attention, but he’d already stuck
his neck out far enough for me for one night. So I smiled gratefully as I
answered, “Thanks, but I can walk.” Through the freezing ice and snow. Ugh.

Chapter 10

Depressed and cold, I shiver,
remembering my friends I left and my mother who seems to have left me. I feel
so blue. Blue, like the deepest part of the sea with all those billions of
water droplets pressing down on top of me or the highest stage in the sky where
oxygen runs thin and I can no longer breathe. Honestly, who can survive in so
much blue?

* * * *

The game had already started when I entered Southeast’s
sports complex and paid my fee at the door before getting the back of my hand
stamped. They were almost finished with their first quarter and beating the
opposing team twenty-four to sixteen.

Popcorn and body odor permeated the air along with shouting
from coaches and players, while the cheerleaders led fans in stomping their
feet and clapping out a chant. I stood awkwardly in the doorway for a solid
minute, watching the game, looking for Ryder.

He was currently benched, but I spotted his friend Todd on
the floor just as he made a basket, nudging their score up to twenty-seven.
When a family needed to enter behind me, forcing me to step fully into the
arena, I had no idea where to go, so I dragged my feet toward my new pep club
section, where Barney was whooping as he cheered for Todd’s basket.

It felt strange to approach the purple and white students. I
was an outsider invading their home turf. I half-expected them to throw me out
as soon as I breached their section.

I wished I had someone I knew with me, someone familiar by
my side, holding my hand. But I marched alone. Clutching my dad’s lumber jacket
tighter across my chest—though it was actually warm in the gymnasium—I neared
my new classmates.

Southeast scored two more points by the time I reached the
bleachers. The cheerleaders screamed and shook their pom-poms. I spotted Kiera
twirling to grin at one of her co-cheer friends before saying something.

Okay, I finally admitted to myself as a lump of doom obstructed
my windpipe; I couldn’t do this. Primed to whirl around and book it out of
there, I heard someone call my name, making me pause.

“Grace! Hey, Grace. Up here.”

I blinked, lifted my face, and was shocked to see a girl
waving. At me.

“Come sit by me,” she called and patted the free, two-foot
section of bench beside her.

I remembered her face. One of the girls in Todd and Ryder’s
group that Todd had introduced to me, she had a basketball player boyfriend.
He’d been wearing a nice outfit at school, which told me he was a player. I
guess they all dressed up on game days. Yeah, I could remember
that
, but for the life of me, I could
not remember this girl’s name.

“I’m Mindy. Cory’s girlfriend. Remember?”

Cory? Had there been a Cory in the introductions? I had no
idea. But Mindy was talking to me, so she became my new best friend.

I sat beside her. “Looks like we’re doing great,” I noted.

“We’re doing totally awesome. You just missed seeing Cory
making a three-pointer right before Todd did.” She grinned at me, pride
glittering in her eyes. “He can sink ’em like they’re layups.”

I nodded, mentally reminding myself to research and discover
what a layup was.

“So Todd says you’re hanging out with us tonight after the
game.”

Glancing up, I stared hopefully at my new best friend. “Are
you going too?” I asked. If she said yes, I figured maybe I could get through
the rest of the night after all. She grinned and nodded.

Whew. My relief bloomed.

Until she added, “But it’s not all that exciting. We usually
just head over to Ryder’s house and hang out.”

“Ryder?” I echoed, my voice small as my chances of making it
through the evening plummeted.

“Yeah, he’s number, umm…” Mindy trailed off, squinting as
she scanned the floor for him. I almost muttered
forty-two
for her, but managed to hold my tongue another three seconds
until she pointed and said, “He’s number forty-two. He’s dating Kiera, that
cheerleader over there.”

Yes, that part I remembered.

But I acted clueless as Mindy rolled her eyes my way and
explained, “He’s one of those rich kids whose parents couldn’t have more than
one child, so they spoil him rotten. I swear his bedroom is bigger than my
whole house. There are two different levels with a couch and entertainment
center and fancy surround-sound speaker system with, like, fifty million game
systems, private bath, and his closet… Oh, my God, Grace. His closet is bigger
than my bedroom.”

As she spoke, I sought Ryder with my gaze. He looked intent
on watching the game. It kind of hurt to stare at him. He looked just as he had
that first night in Hillsburg, decked out in his purple and white number
forty-two jersey. But so much had changed since then.

For a moment, I wished I could go back in time so I could
relive that moment and feel the charged thrill of a stranger—a very handsome
stranger—acting interested in me. Who knew learning so much about him would
ruin my magical memory?

Mindy prattled on beside me, trying to bring me up to speed
on everyone, but she really only confused me more, throwing forth so many
different names I tuned her out as I watched the game.

Ryder didn’t play much, only a handful of minutes here and
there. But he didn’t seem to mind. When he was in the game, he participated one
hundred and ten percent. His friend, Todd, on the other hand, was an excellent
player, without even trying. Mindy mentioned something about how Todd wanted to
get a basketball scholarship to some college, but I really didn’t listen to
that either.

I copped a few peeks at Ryder’s cheerleader, wondering what
he saw in her—well, besides her pretty face, her peppy attitude, her awesome
ability to do a back flip, and—okay, okay, so I know what he saw in her. It was
just depressing to admit the truth, so I amused myself by finding faults.

She played with her blond hair too much, always checking to
make sure the ponytail was tight and smooth.

She plucked her eyebrows too thin.

She paid no attention to the game, only cheered when the
other girls around her did.

Once the final buzzer went off, I jumped and ripped my gaze
away from her. For the first time since I’d entered high school, I was able to
clap for my team over a victory. It felt super strange sitting on the winning
side for once. I sympathized with our opponents, knowing too well how crushing
defeat could be.

But Mindy quickly sucked me into her enthusiasm as she led
me outside to wait with her and a couple other girls for their boyfriends.
Kiera showed up a few minutes later, surrounded by two of her cheerleader
friends.

“Hi, again.” The one to her right waved at me. Her face,
like Mindy’s, was familiar, but I had no idea what her name was, so I smiled
and waved a friendly hi back.

When an outside door, opening straight from the guys’ locker
room, emitted a somewhat familiar face, Mindy brightened and popped to her
feet. She rushed to her boyfriend and threw her arms around him, kissing him
and telling him what a good job he’d done.

I hung back, wishing she’d return to my side and emotionally
hold my hand some more. But the door opened again, and this time Ryder exited,
once more dressed in the nice clothes he’d worn to school.

He was so utterly beautiful.

I could tell he’d just gotten out of the showers because his
hair was wet, the damp moisture making his locks darker so they finally matched
the hue of his eyebrows. When he glanced over and saw me, he slowed to a stop,
making his halt look really obvious because it caused his duffle bag hanging
over his shoulder to bump against his hip and shuffle him a step off balance.

Our gazes held, but he wasn’t granted a long stare because
Kiera appeared in front of him, hugging and kissing him and ripping his
attention away from me.

Embarrassing as it is to admit, I was so busy watching them
kiss I didn’t notice Todd until he stepped in my line of vision, beaming.

“Hey, you
did
make
it.”

I managed a tight smile, not sure why I felt so uncomfortable
around him. Since the moment I’d met him, Todd had been nothing but nice,
polite, and welcoming.

“Good game,” I said.

“Thanks.” His grin grew. “So you’re going to hang with us
tonight, huh?”

I forced myself not to glance toward Ryder as I nodded. He
didn’t want me around, and since everyone was going to his house, he had every
right to refuse my presence. But would he? I kind of didn’t think so.

“My stepdad talked my mom into letting me stay out until
midnight.”

“All right,” Todd whooped. “Do you want to ride with me or
do you have your own set of wheels?”

My eyes flew open wide. Ride with him? No, no, no,
everything inside me rebelled. I did not want to ride anywhere with anyone.
But…

“How far away is it?” I hedged.

He shrugged. “Only a couple of blocks from here.”

I bit my lip, thinking I should just say I’d walk. But I
didn’t know where I was going, I didn’t want to offend Todd, and it was really
freaking cold outside.

“Okay,” I relented, bundling myself deeper into my red and
black coat, silently telling him I had agreed only because of the weather. But
honestly, this was going to be majorly weird, riding in a foreign car with some
foreign boy I’d just met hours ago. My mother would totally not approve. Heck,
I
didn’t approve. But I felt sucked into
something I couldn’t escape. The whole day felt like one big suction, dragging
me deeper and deeper into actions that were growing irritatingly out of my control.