with my parents.
The rigid rules are posted in the kitchen for all to see:
1. No eating breakfast until your bed is made and room cleaned.
2. No taking food out of the refrigerator or pantry without permission.
3. No dinner until you fold and put away your laundry on your laundry day.
4. No phone calls to people not on your approved list.
5. No talking after lights out.
6. No TV if weekly school progress reports from your teachers are not perfect.
7. No sharing each other’s belongings.
I can’t call the Jerichos or Jason. I can’t see Sam for therapy. Something about insurance that George and Terry Lloyd, my foster parents, and Blake Sanders, my new social worker, refuse to fully explain.
Instead, I see Irving Abel in a large center with dozens of other therapists. Blake calls it a community mental health center. One more thing no one will explain. All I know is I sit in a large waiting room, over lit with fluorescent lights, full of other kids and their parents or guardians waiting to see their own therapists, before spending an hour arguing with Irving. I don’t intend to be belligerent with him, but he has a way of siding with Blake and the Lloyds that gets under my skin.
I hate Gillian.
I hate the judge.
I hate Blake.
I hate the Lloyds.
I hate Irving.
The bitterness grows like weeds, overtaking everything. I glare at Blake when he visits, wishing poison daggers would fly out of my eyes and bury themselves deep in his chest. I break the rules because they are absurd, even by my parents’ standards.
I don’t know if I’m trying to find my own breaking point or everyone else’s.
The worst part is being in a different school. No one wanted to do the paperwork so I could remain enrolled in Encinitas High. Krista, Cal, and Nick are much younger than me. I’m alone at La Costa High. I’m the quiet one again, sitting on my own and keeping to myself, surrounded by strangers.
I wait in the cafeteria line. Another lonesome lunch period without my friends. Another cafeteria meal I’m forced to eat.
Someone runs into me from behind and I lurch forward. I catch myself before falling into the guy in front of me, peeking back as I straighten up.
“‘Sup,” a blond skater boy says and grins. “Sorry ‘bout that.”
“Hi,” I say.
“You’re new here, aren’t you?”
“Kinda.”
“I’m Hunter Evans.”
“Sara Parker.”
A girl runs up behind him and throws her arms around him. She kisses his cheek and smiles. “I thought you were going to wait for me.”
He curls a hand around her arms. “I was hungry. Hey, meet Sara. She’s new here.”
Her blue eyes flicker to me and her smile fades. “Hi.”
Must be his girlfriend. “Hi.”
“Sara, this is Nicole.”
I face the front of the line. Her change in expression tells me she isn’t pleased with me. I’ll never understand judgmental teenage girls. At least I had friends to distract myself from them before. I don’t have that here.
“Hey.” He grabs my arm and I wrest it away. “Sorry,” he says, holding up his hands. “I just wanted to invite you to a party this weekend.”
“I—”
“You can’t invite her!” Nicole interrupts.
What did I do to her? I just met her. “Do we know each other from somewhere?” I ask.
“Did you transfer from Encinitas High?” She moves next to Hunter.
She doesn’t look familiar. How does she know? “Yeah.”
“You stole my sister’s boyfriend.”
Becky? If they’re sisters, what is Nicole doing here? Shouldn’t they be going to the same school? “I didn’t steal anyone,” I say and turn back around. A hand spins me around and Nicole’s face is in mine. I pull my head back. “What the hell?”
She pokes my shoulder like she’s trying to pierce through it. “You took Jason from Becky.”
I step back. “Jason broke up with Becky a year before we started dating.”
“Wait,” Hunter cuts in, “you know Becky and Jason?”
I nod.
“Cool.”
Nicole scowls at him. “Not cool. She’s Jason’s new girlfriend.”
If only she knew. I don’t know what we are anymore, since I can’t talk to him and I have no idea when I’ll get to go home. I move up in line and snag a tray, hoping to get away from her. She slams the tray out of my hands and yanks me to the ground by my backpack.
“Shit!” Hunter shouts.
Instead of my self-preservation instinct kicking in, I grab her legs, pulling her down. She screams, landing on her back and a capturing a fistful of my hair. I push her hand into my head