Three Times the Charm Read online

  I heard a car pull up beside me as I came out of the woodsy copse of trees next to the river. For a moment I felt a familiar sense of panic, and I kept my eyes straight ahead. It wasn’t the first time someone had driven up next to me and leaned out the car to talk to me. Older guys had started hitting on me as early as middle school, and it had only gotten worse as I’d entered high school. Pervs!

  But when I saw it out of the corner of my eye, I knew that car. I stopped walking to be able to lean in through the passenger door and smile at Raine. She was wearing the jacket, and my stomach fluttered. “Hey. You look great today. I love your makeup.” I couldn’t tell her she looked pretty. I hated that word, and it made me queasy to hear it directed at me. I couldn’t use it with another person. God. I wanted to eat her up in that jacket.

  “Get in, hot stuff.” She flashed me a sweet smile.

  I slid in beside her and was glad she had already dropped off her brothers. I didn’t mind them, not exactly, but I was an only child and having to share my best friend with her siblings wasn’t something I was good at. When I was with Raine, I gave her all of my attention, and I wanted all of hers too.

  I reached over and touched her hair. She had it pulled back with a headband but some of her dreads draped over her shoulder and I twisted one of them through my fingers. She hated it when other people touched her hair, but she always let me do it.

  I let go of her hair. Lingering touches might give my feelings away. I wasn’t sure why knowing that I was the only one who was allowed to touch her like that gave me little butterflies in my stomach, but it did.

  “Did you get enough sleep?” Raine asked.

  “Sure. It’ll probably end up being the best night of sleep I get for a while since the homework and last-minute papers are about to start up. How come?”

  Raine pulled into the school parking lot and maneuvered into the student section. It put us right near the cafeteria. Since we had off-campus privileges our senior year, I hoped that a space so close to the main exit would give us extra time to go out and get back to class in time. I had my carrots, but I knew Raine would be happy to grab something better than cafeteria hot dogs and limp nachos.

  “Your eyes are a bit red. I thought either you didn’t get much sleep or….”

  I bit my bottom lip. I wasn’t missing sleep, but I knew what made my eyes so red. Puking always took a toll on me. Maybe I needed to start using eye drops afterward. But she couldn’t possibly know what I was doing. I hated keeping secrets from her, but I’d always been super careful not to let her know anything about that part of my life. How could she possibly understand? She was so comfortable in her skin. Unlike me. “Or?” I asked with a smile, masking the fear and uncertainty squeezing my empty stomach and twisting it into a knot.

  “Or maybe you’re getting high and not sharing any with your best friend,” she joked. “It’s not like I’d care if you were. Maybe I’d even sneak some with you. We’re in Colorado. It’s totally legal to indulge a little.” She gave me a mischievous little wink. She knew I knew it was illegal for kids under twenty-one. Still, she and I had tried it once and had both gotten super paranoid. As far as I knew, she hadn’t tried it again. I certainly hadn’t. I couldn’t afford the munchies.

  I scrunched up my nose. “No way in hell. Ugh. I can’t stand the smell of that crap.” Not to mention what my mom would do to me if she ever found out I was doing drugs, even something minor like pot. I hadn’t even smoked a cigarette, ever.

  Raine shrugged and laughed. “Use some eye drops or something next time. We can’t have you looking high while going around school. They might start doing random drug tests or something. You know I can’t pee in front of anyone except you. C’mon, I want to go get a soda before school starts. The vending machine in the art classroom has that orange soda, and I can’t start the first day of school without one. It’s tradition.”

  Laughing, I followed her as we headed inside. This year was going to be great, and it was going to be the last year either of us ever had to deal with in this school or in this town. We were going to be home free in a few short months, and I couldn’t wait for that to happen. No rules, no parents, just us doing our own thing and being great at it.

  Chapter Three

  Mel

  I WANTED things to go right today. Dad and I had gotten me registered at Dove Valley High School two weeks ago, the time we were told transfer registrations would be open for the fall semester. After making sure things were in order, it wasn’t a major problem to get my transcripts moved from Lubbock, Texas, to Denver, Colorado. Actually it was Aurora, Colorado, but Denver was where my dad’s job was and where I told my friends I was headed so I didn’t have to explain. It wasn’t like they’d be visiting or mailing letters, anyhow. Dad had found the house after his job had sent him to Denver. I hadn’t seen the house until we drove up to it a few weeks ago. It was okay. Nothing fancy, but good enough for me and my dad. Unfortunately, the housing in Denver was more expensive than we had the budget for, so Dad had found us a place in Aurora, which was a bit of a drive for him but kept the cost of the house down.

  Dad’s big worry with the move was if I’d still be able to find some good friends for my last year in school. I don’t think he stopped to realize that most of my friends were online anyway. Most I had never even met in person since we only talked on the gaming sites. But it didn’t matter. I was going to be a senior. I’d already started applying to a few colleges. With any luck I’d be heading toward the East Coast. I had plans for MIT. Computers were awesome and less troublesome than most people. I had the grades for it, but I needed the scholarships.

  Pulling on my Doctor Who trainers, I made sure the laces were just right before I stood. I realized most people wouldn’t notice, but I hoped something subtle, like my Whovian trainers, would be an obvious message to the kind of kids I liked to hang out with—the ones in the know—that I was a self-identified geek. It might give me an opening into the geek club. If they had one in Dove Valley, that is. So far, all my research into the area had revealed more about the Denver Broncos than I ever wanted to know, but not much about the high school social stratus.

  “Melody!” Dad called from the kitchen. “You about ready? I need to get going but wanted to drop you off at school on my way to the office. It’s only a couple-of-blocks detour. You’re lucky I only have to put in a few hours at the office each day so I have time to take you and pick you up.”

  There was no way I was going to tell Dad no. He had always driven me on the first day of school. It was our tradition. Since Mom had died in a traffic accident—a cattle truck ran a red light and T-boned her Mini Cooper—he’d always taken extra care of me. Like he was making up for her being gone. I took care of him too. That’s how we managed, he and I. It had been five years, but he still wasn’t dating. When we moved, I decided I wasn’t going to try and push him about that anymore. Maybe when I went to college, he’d get lonely enough to go find himself somebody. Since we lived in the middle of Bronco Country, maybe he’d go find himself a hot cheerleader.

  As I headed down the stairs, I grinned as I thought about hot cheerleaders. Most of them didn’t give me the time of day, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the way their short skirts swished around their muscular thighs. Not in that gross guy slobbery way. But in a respectful appreciative way. I couldn’t figure it out, but I had a thing for muscular thighs. Skinny girls didn’t do it for me. I liked girls with a bit of meat on their bones. But then, nobody was ever going to call me skinny, and I didn’t really care. I was who I was and I liked me, always had. My mom and dad went out of their way to make sure I never regretted my appearance. Mom had told me all the time that as long as I was happy with me, she was happy with me.

  “You’ve got lunch money?” Dad asked as I grabbed my TARDIS backpack, another little hint to the on-campus geek girls that I was there, and more than willing to talk nerdy to them.

  “Yep, still got the ten you gave me last night.” I gave h
im a quick hug, and he gave me a kiss on the cheek.

  “Okay. I just want to make sure. You’re my Mel, and I do my best to take care of you.” He grabbed his messenger bag from the table near the door and slung it over his shoulder.

  “Nobody is ever going to accuse you of neglect.” I slipped around him and had the door open before he could.

  “Good.” He clicked the lock before he closed the door. I was surprised he didn’t double-check to make sure I had my key in case he didn’t make it to school in time to pick me up and I had to walk or bum a ride.

  The drive to school was quick, faster than it had been when we lived in Lubbock. The building was busy with other parents dropping their kids off and some of the kids bringing themselves either by foot or car. I’d never seen so many SUVs in a school parking lot. And Broncos bumper stickers were on every other one. I wasn’t a huge football fan, so I could see I was going to have a lot of fun trying to fit in. If the whole school was Broncos obsessed, there might not be a geek contingent. There might be a few here and there, but they probably kept their heads down to avoid all the overly testosterone-prone boys and the stuck-up bitchy girls.

  Dad must have sensed my sudden reticence. He patted my leg as I got out of the car. “You’ll be fine. I bet you’ll have a sexy girlfriend by the end of the week.”

  “Daaad,” I moaned. Him referring to anything as sexy made me squirm. But I gave him my best smile anyway. “Maybe.” I couldn’t explain to him how good it was that he understood and supported me better than most of the other parents of the out kids I knew in Lubbock. But then our family didn’t have a lot of the hang-ups so prevalent in Texas. I hoped by moving to Colorado, we’d be able to leave a lot of the BS behind.

  “Okay. Have a great day. I’ll see you later.”

  “Bye.” I shut the door and gave him a quick wave, then turned to head up the crowded walk toward the school.

  There was a cool breeze, enough that I wished I’d thought to grab a jacket, so I hurried past the other kids who appeared to be in all sorts of clothes in various fashions. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to how they were dressed. Some of the kids were in shorts and capri pants, others were in long dresses with long sleeves. There were a few in leather jackets. I pulled out my phone and checked the school map I’d downloaded and used to plot my way to homeroom where they’d give us the rest of our schedules. I cleared the front door and headed toward where the map sent me.

  I got to the first corner and stopped. I glanced at the phone and then the hallway. It didn’t look the same. According to the map, there should be three hallways fanning out from that point, but there were only two. Around me kids were moving in a confident flow like they knew where they were going. A few young-looking ones I assumed were freshmen appeared as confused as I was. I stepped out of the traffic by putting my back against one of the gray concrete walls and my shoulder against the blue metal lockers.

  Across the hall from me was room 200. I glanced at the map and it said the room should be 400. That didn’t make sense. My homeroom was supposed to be in room 503. The intersection had a hallway without any doors or lockers and one with both. I went down the one with doors and lockers. It was the 100 hallway. I slumped my shoulders and wished I had some magical way to make my way to the class without having to deal with all the other students in the halls. Not seeing any point in going down the wrong hall, I took off down the one without the doors or lockers.

  The next hall I came to was the 300 hall, but there was only one more hall down the one I was in. It didn’t make any sense. I looked at the map again.

  “Hey, are you lost?” a sweet voice asked.

  I looked up at one of the prettiest girls I’d ever seen. Her long black dreads cascaded around the shoulders of the leather jacket she wore over a Black Lives Matter T-shirt. Her dark brown eyes sparkled with a creative intelligence that appealed to me. Beside her was another girl in a cheerleading uniform. Her classically beautiful features and red hair were a striking contrast to the first girl. She was a little too skinny for my taste, but there was something appealing about her too. The cheerleader looked like she’d either been crying—or getting high. It was Colorado, after all.

  “Embarrassingly, yes,” I admitted. I showed the map I had pulled up on my phone to the girl in the leather jacket. “I downloaded the map so I could find my way around without help, and it’s not helping.”

  The girl looked at the map, then chuckled. “Yeah, that’s not going to help. Since we went all high-tech security a couple of years ago, they put up the wrong map of the school online. They say it’s for our own protection, but they don’t realize how many kids it messes up, particularly the new ones.”

  I nodded. “That would be me. New Kid. I’m trying to find my homeroom. It’s number 503. Do you know where that is?”

  “Sure, that’s Ms. Grimsburg’s class,” the cheerleader said. “Looks like we have homeroom together. Follow us.”

  “Sweet,” I said. I hope I didn’t sound too excited about it, but I couldn’t believe my luck. I was already meeting people. People who happened to be cute girls. The one in leather had an artsy feel to her, but that might’ve been the scarf and headband. Back in Texas, some of the arts girls were also some of the geek girls. I hoped that would carry over to Colorado.

  “So, what’s your name? You don’t sound like you’re from around here. Is that a Texas accent I hear?” she said, interrupting my thoughts.

  “Mel. Mel Carson. And yeah. I moved here from Lubbock, Texas.” I almost offered my hand to the one in leather but decided it seemed sort of formal. I always got a little socially awkward around pretty girls.

  “Raine Dresden, born and raised in Aurora, Colorado,” she replied, placing her hand on her chest. Then she gestured to the cheerleader. “This is my best friend, Amelia Yarmer, born in Seattle, Washington, but moved here when she was a baby, so she might as well be a native.”

  Amelia blushed, and for a second she didn’t look so tired as she briefly rested a hand on my wrist. “Welcome to Colorado, Mel. Is that short for something? Melissa? Melody?”

  “Melody,” I said. “But I go by Mel.”

  Raine seemed to look me over for a second before nodding. “Yeah, I can see you being a Mel. So where did you get those trainers? I’ve seen the TARDIS backpack in Hot Topic, but I’ve never seen the shoes before. They’re great.”

  My heart soared. Not only was she gorgeous, but she had enough geek in her to spot my Whovian gear. “Are you into Doctor Who? I found them online last year. A specialty site. I think all they do is custom clothes. I’m not sure if they’re official or not.”

  Raine shook her head and her hair danced around her shoulders. Amelia reached up and pushed a dread behind Raine’s ear, and Raine smiled at her as she answered me. “Doesn’t really matter, does it? They’re awesome. And, yeah. I love Doctor Who. I’ve watched every episode except a few of the lost episodes. I’ve read the transcripts, though.”

  “I’ve scoured YouTube looking for fan copies of the lost episodes. I’m not obsessed like some people, but I like to check out the chat rooms sometimes. There’s a whole subculture that some people are into.” I cringed inside. I said I wasn’t obsessed, but I was going on like I was.

  “Cool,” Amelia said. She looked utterly bored by the conversation. “We better get going to homeroom. We’ll get locker assignments there. It’ll be a little crazy.”

  “Yeah,” Raine agreed. She started down the hall, and Amelia and I followed. Raine looked over her shoulder at me. “So, Mel, if you get to the cafeteria today and see a cluster of green and white, that’ll be the cheerleading squad. Amelia and I normally sit on the far side with them, but I can keep a seat open for you, if you want.”

  A scowl clouded Amelia’s face for a moment and then disappeared.

  I wasn’t sure what to say. I wondered if Raine and Amelia were more than friends, but I always made a point to not ignore a beautiful girl who was asking me to have lunch
with her. “If I’m in there at the same time, that’d be great.”

  “I thought we were going to eat off-campus this year,” Amelia said. Something like jealousy tinged her voice.

  Uh-oh. I didn’t want to get between the two of them. It might make people hate me. With Amelia being a cheerleader, if she went after me, the whole squad and half the jocks would be on my case. “Hey, no problem. I can hang out here and get a feel for the place.”

  Raine led us down a flight of stairs. “This is probably why you couldn’t find the 500 hall. The numbers are inconsistent. Five, six, and seven are down here. As far as lunch goes, when we get to homeroom, let’s look at your schedule and see what it says. If you’ve got the same lunch as we do, we can all go somewhere close by.”

  “Soup or salad,” Amelia said. “Remember, I can’t do burgers and stuff.”

  “Right.” Raine glanced at Amelia as we continued down the hall. “No real food.”

  There was something unspoken going on. I wondered if Amelia’s thinness was something else. Anorexia? Bulimia? In the short time I’d known them, I felt something familiar about the situation. What was Amelia going through to be a cheerleader? Was she torturing herself, and by extension her best friend, just to be popular? A swirl of emotions rose in me. I’d lost a friend in Texas to bulimia. She’d been a gymnast, not a cheerleader, but I didn’t want to go through that again.