Her drive to her own high school was very quick. She thought again that she should convince her husband to buy her son a car, so she didn’t have to drive him to school. She was almost late every day to work and just thanked God that she was so well respected by her principal and her peers. But she liked the time in the morning, and didn’t get much time with Richie later in the day. She parked her car and rushed into the school, she looked at the clock immediately upon entering and saw that she cutting it quite close. She ran into her classroom and saw that a few students were already seated for homeroom. She knew that her hair was in disarray and could tell that the boys liked her slightly disheveled look and it made her a bit uncomfortable. She straightened her hair and then found a note on her desk stating: “Meet me in your classroom at 4:00 p. m. It is important.” She didn’t recognized the hand-writing and it wasn’t signed. Very strange.
*****
Rachael had awoken that same morning when her mother, Emma, stuck her head into her room and yelled at her to wake up. She heard her younger brother and sister already awake and talking in the hallway. Her mother always woke her up last and did extra little things for her because she was the oldest, a great deal older than her half-siblings. She suspected that it was also because her mother had a special love for her as the only child of her first husband. A man who’d died early. Not that Rachael’s stepfather was a bad man or unpleasant but Rachael was the only member of the family who was just Emma’s.
“Come on, I know you are lazy but you are going to be late,” Emma Farmer said, smiling at her beautiful daughter. Everyone said they were very much alike in looks and manners. Both were bubbly and sweet and both were gorgeous. Emma was a bit taller at 5’5 and 135lbs, which was not bad at all for a 40 years old woman and mother of three. She had once been as thin and wispy as Rachael but she had filled out with age to a 36-C breasts and gently flaring hips. She looked in the face like she could be Rachael sister and had her dirty blonde hair cut into a short bob. She still looked like a beauty queen.
“I am up!” Rachael said and then groaned and stretched out. She slowly got herself out of her bed and went to the bathroom and got a quick shower. By the time she went downstairs her stepfather had already left to take the two younger children to school on his way to work. It was the ten minutes each day that Rachael had with her mother while she waited for Cindy to come pick her up.
“You get prettier every day,” her mother said as they sat at the kitchen table. Her mother was wearing her robe and was resting her head in her chin. Rachael rolled her eyes.
“I am not going to do it mom. I like cheerleading,” she said.
“Do what? I just said you looked pretty,” her mother said in a very innocent voice.
“You want me to be a beauty queen and you know I am too old to start anyway.”
“You are too pretty NOT to start,” Emma said in all seriousness. It just seemed to Rachael that her mother had just decided to stay at home for the rest of her life and now that she was too old to do her beauty contests that she wanted to do nothing but make her kids do them. Her half-sister was already doing it. But Rachael had always refused.
“I think Cindy is here,” Rachael lied and headed out to the front door. She loved her mother but was tired of the pressure, tired for feeling guilty for not being exactly like her mother.
“Love you honey,” Emma said and leaned forward and gave her daughter a kiss on the head. She wasn’t in the mood to fight either.
Rachael went out to the front stoop and sat down and waited. She was thinking about Kitty. Wondering what her mother would say if she knew about that. She had said something once, at a parent-teacher meeting about how beautiful Mrs. Lowell was, but she doubted her conservative mother would like it. She wondered too, for a moment, what she thought about it. But she chose not to. Sometimes it was easier to ignore something that was bothering you rather than tackle it head on. If she had to really decide whether or not she was a lesbian, whether she was in love with a teacher at her school… she couldn’t imagine the implications of that.
“You awake!” A voice called and Rachael looked up to see her friend Cindy leaning out the window of her little Honda Civic smiling at her, “We’re going to be late.”
“Sorry,” Rachael said smiling back and ran and got in the front seat of the car. She looked back and waved at Cindy’s little sister Tess. They were Irish twins, with Cindy just ten months older than her younger sister. They were both 18, and both seniors. It was strange that Rachael and Cindy were close friends, but Rachael and Tess never really became close. Tess seemed less mature than just ten short months would indicate and Cindy definitely treated her like a younger sister. But beyond behavior, they were a lot alike in appearance. They both had the same deep, dark red hair but none of the freckles usually associated with it. They both had youthful features and big white smiles. Both looked underdeveloped for their age with small 32-A breasts and slim builds. The only difference was that Tess was three inches shorter at 5’0 and a bit lighter at 95lbs. She also had braces, which was pretty much the only way to tell them apart if you saw them.
“Turn it up!” Rachael said and soon the music was blaring loud and all three girls were singing along. The girls didn’t talk on the way to school, just sang and giggled. It was part of their morning ritual and it was nice. They parked in the senior parking and split up their separate ways.
Rachael walked quickly to her locker, she was running a bit late and she had a lot of stuff to unload form her backpack. However, suddenly Cindy caught back up with her and grabbed her arm and looked at her with concern.
“What’s up?” Rachael asked.
“Do you know Brad Stewart?” she asked in all seriousness. Rachael had to work hard not to roll her eyes.