A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram #1) - Darynda Jones Page 0,116
been that way ever since.”
“It’s because you’re not afraid of anything. And you don’t care what anyone thinks of you.” She looked down to study her shoes, adding, “You’re kind of amazing.”
He seemed surprised. He studied her a long moment until she asked, “What happened to the girl?”
“What girl?”
“The one with the crutch?”
“Oh, she fell.”
A bubble of laughter escaped despite her best efforts. He was dead serious. And utterly charming.
“You beat up Liam Eaton yesterday, didn’t you? Lynelle’s BFF?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Only a little. He deserved worse, but he’s shitting himself now, I guarantee it.”
“He’s scared of you?”
He lowered his head. “Everyone’s scared of me. They’re only my friends because they think it keeps them safe. It’s not like I go around beating the crap out of people every day.”
She ran her fingertips along the scabs on his knuckles. “I’m not scared of you.”
Without looking at her, he said, “You will never have to be.”
Before she could say anything else, like a marriage proposal, her mom stormed out of the office and into the hall. “No way,” she said, livid.
The principal followed her. “What am I supposed to do, Sunshine?”
She took one look at Auri and Cruz and got that look on her face. The one that said someone was about to be very unhappy.
“Fine, Jacobs. Go ahead and bow down to the elite in this town. To the pricks and the ass-kissers.”
“And the superintendent. You know, my boss?”
They were drawing a crowd. Students stopped and either laughed behind cupped hands or gaped. Either way, it was a good show.
“I get it, but if nothing is going to happen to those privileged little fucks—”
Auri gasped. Her mom just didn’t do that. Not in public, anyway.
Her mom looked past him toward the secretary, a.k.a. Lynelle’s mother, before she continued, “Then nothing will happen to Cruz.”
“Now, Sunny—”
Cruz’s dad and the interpreter came out. The interpreter looked flustered just trying to keep up with the conversation.
“Don’t even,” she warned Principal Jacobs.
Auri had never, in all of her fourteen-going-on-fifteen years of existence, seen her mom that mad. She gaped at her wide-eyed while Cruz looked on approvingly.
“Nothing happens to these kids.” She pointed to both Cruz and Auri. She turned to Cruz’s dad. “Mr. De los Santos, it was a pleasure to meet you.”
He took her hand and nodded a thank-you.
She turned to Cruz. “And you . . .” She bent down and kissed his cheek. “You are a rock star.”
“Come on, Sunny,” the principal said. “Don’t encourage him.”
“And you . . .” She knelt down in front of Auri and took her hand. “You give ’em hell, bug bite. And remember, it’s okay to stab a bitch in the face with a pencil.”
She heard a unified gasp.
“Sometimes you have to use what’s in your environment.”
“Um, Sunny,” Jacobs said. “I’m not sure—”
“If you have no other choice, resort to hair pulling. It isn’t pretty, but it’s effective.”
Auri’s mouth thinned into a huge smile. “WWLSD?”
“WWLSD.”
Her mom stood then and strode out of the building like she owned it. And in a way, she did. Auri prayed she would have an ounce of her strength, her flair, when she graduated high school. Her mother set the world on fire. She wanted to at least light a candle in it.
“Quincy, don’t laugh. You didn’t see me. It was like Sunshine had left the building and something evil had taken over her body. I went crazy. In front of the entire student body. Or, well, a fraction of it, anyway.”
“Let’s just pray there’s not a new viral video in a few hours.”
“Oh, holy crap.” She sat down at her desk.
Price came in, looking more disheveled than usual. “Hey, Sheriff.”
“You okay, Price?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Dogs got out. I chased them all night.”
“Oh no. I’m sorry.” He had a nasty scrape along his temple. “Is that how you got that?”
He touched his temple, including what looked like a small cut, but there were no visible signs of injury surrounding it. “Probably. Freaking bushes attacked me.”
Sun laughed. Price had only been on the force for about six months and came highly recommended by Detroit PD. He had probably been in line for detective, but he told Sun during their get-to-know-each-other lunch he just wanted to see that yellow bright orb in the sky more often. To feel the warmth on his face instead of the ice-cold wind that blew in from the Great Lakes.
She could understand that. Even with the snow, the sun shone almost every day of the year