Meadowview Acres (13 page)

Clara inwardly groaned. “Why, why, why, does he have to act like that? What a jerk,” she thought. She tried to eat quickly, so she could maybe make an excuse and leave. It was in vain, though. The next minute he was squeezing his bulky way onto the bench beside her.

“Hey, Babe. Did ya miss me?” He said and leaned over to try and kiss her.

She fake giggled and turned her head away from him acting like she had a mouthful of food. Hansen decided he didn’t like to be denied in front of an audience. He grabbed the back of her blonde hair and forced her head toward him. He repeated maliciously and slowly, “I said, Hey, Babe. Did ya miss me?” and smashed his lips onto hers.

Clara was surprised. She knew he could be a jerk, but he never had been to her. He certainly had never laid a hand on her before this. She kissed him back dutifully and vowed that the kiss would be the last he would ever get from her. She could put up with his stupid and mean actions toward other people if it meant securing her popularity, but there was no way she would let him turn that meanness in her direction.

As soon as he released her hair, she started gathering up the rest of her uneaten lunch. She had caught Mr. Just’s eye as he stood monitoring by the cafeteria door. That had given her an idea. She would tell everyone that she was supposed to take a make-up quiz for his class, but before she could make her excuses, Hansen had decided that the lunchroom was too quiet. He and his goons had chosen a victim and were busy emptying packets of ketchup into a milk carton.

Clara, about to serve her freshly prepared lie, rose from the table when Hansen grabbed her arm – hard. “Sit down, Babe. You’re not going anywhere until you see my latest show.” He pulled her arm down forcing Clara to sit.

The poor kid across the room never knew what hit him. Clara didn’t know his name, but she had smiled at him in the hall. She thought he looked nice. Hansen launched the ketchup filled carton in a perfect arc that caught the poor schmuck directly in the back of the head. The carton burst open and the ketchup splattered him from his head down the length of his back.

Hansen and his crew busted out laughing as the rest of the students in the cafeteria looked in horror at the boy soaked in the red sauce. No one else seemed to think it was funny.

Mr. Just was beside Hansen in an instant. “Get up and get to the office!” He yelled. His face was full of fury. “NOW!”

Hansen started to open his mouth and spew some kind of lie, but Mr. Just knew him too well. “Hansen Reynolds,” he said with a steely tone. “If you don’t get to the office now, I am going straight to Coach Ripley and telling him that you are off the team. Move.”

Hansen seemed to take Mr. Just’s threat seriously and got his wide load off the bench. Giving Mr. Just a “No harm done, Dude” look, he sidled past him and out of the cafeteria.

By then, the laughter from Hansen’s table had subsided and the guy (Jeremy, Clara learned later) was being helped by friends to clean up. Mr. Martin, the Counselor was on his way over to Jeremy’s table, too.

Mr. Just looked at the other guys at Hansen’s table and said, “You’re just as guilty; detention for each one of you for the rest of this week.” The guys shifted their eyes around trying hard not to look at him. They weren’t so brave without the main instigator around.

Clara felt really bad for Jeremy, but she was glad that Hansen was gone. Angie and Emily started talking about the party again, so Clara decided to stay and wait for the bell. She looked around the cafeteria as she talked and finally she found him. He was sitting at the table by the doors to the gym with Eli. Hunter looked great today. He had on a moss green shirt that matched his eyes. He was nodding at something Eli had just said. As she watched, he glanced in her direction, and she shot him a big smile. He looked a little confused at first but then smiled back. Clara’s tummy did a little flip. “Hansen is history,” she thought.

By late afternoon, Clara was using a key while grading papers in Ms. Leezil’s classroom. She was having trouble concentrating, however. Her mind kept wandering, coming up with ways to break-up with Hansen. She thought the best idea was to do it when she was close to her house. Since he lived down the street, he would walk up to her house sometimes to see her. She could just tell him and go inside the safety of her home. Clara kind of hoped he would come over today. She was finally ready to pull the trigger. She hadn’t seen him after school and nobody knew what had happened after he had gone to Principal Harrison’s office.

Ten minutes later she found out. Her phone chimed an alert that she had a new text. It was from Hansen. “Had to stay after for detention. Can’t go to football till next week. Give me a ride home.”

“That’s nice,” thought Clara. “No hi, how are you. No please, no thank you. Well fine, I’ll give you a ride home. To
my
house. Then I’ll tell you it’s over and go inside. You can walk home from there.”

When it was time to quit for the day, Ms. Leezil and Clara walked out of the classroom. As Ms. Leezil locked her door, she said, “Thanks, Clara. Have a good night, Hon.” Then she walked over to where Mr. Just was waiting for her.

Hansen was there in no time. As they walked to the student parking lot, he gave Clara a play by play of his conversation with the principal. Clara didn’t care and only half listened. They made it out to her car and climbed in.

“Yep! They’ll be sorry when my dad calls the school tomorrow! He won’t stand for this! The coach’ll be mad, too. The team has NO defense without me.” Hansen’s tirade was unending.

Clara was more interested in why her car wasn’t starting. When she turned the key, a series of little clicks sounded instead of the purr of her little VW Bug’s engine. She tried it again only to hear the same little, “click, click, click, click, click”.

“Oh, great! Your piece of crap car is shot! That’s just great, Clara! What’d you do, flood it? Don’t you know how to drive? Geez! Women drivers!” Hansen railed at her.

“I did not flood it; it sounds like the battery to me.” Clara’s dad was serious about his little girl driving. Before handing her the keys, he had taught her how to change her own oil, fill the wash fluid and made her watch a DVD titled
Automobile Care and Maintenance.
She remembered the same sound coming from a car on the DVD that was having battery trouble. “And if you want to get out and walk home, be my guest!”

Hansen was about to respond when there was a tap on Clara’s window. It was Mr. Just. Clara opened her door since she couldn’t roll down the window. “Hey, Mr. Just. I think my battery’s dead.”

“Yeah, that’s what it sounded like to me, too.” He had just said goodbye to Julie and was walking to his car when he had heard Clara’s VW refusing to start.

“Can you call someone? I don’t keep jumper cables in my Jeep.” He looked over at Hansen’s angry face and was immediately reluctant to leave Clara alone with him. There were very few cars left in the lot at that time of day, and he didn’t see anyone else around. Julie had just pulled out, too.

“I don’t think so. My dad’s flying until Friday and Mom works at the courthouse in Glovercroft. I’m not supposed to call because she might be in the middle of a trial. She does the court reporting.”

Mr. Just looked over at Hansen and asked, “What about you?”

Hansen sneered and replied, “It’s not my car. My dad’s not gonna come over and fix it.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Mr. Just said. “Hansen, you’re really a piece of work, Man.” He was not about to leave Clara alone with that beast, so he did the only thing he could. “Come on, then. I’ll ride you both home real quick. Where do you live, Clara?”

“Oh! Thanks, Mr. Just! We live really close, just in Meadowview Acres. We both live there.” Clara was relieved not to be stuck alone with Hansen.

They walked together to the staff parking and got into Phillip’s Jeep. Clara got in front with Mr. Just, and, Hansen shoved his bulky self into the back. The top was off, and the fresh air felt nice. Clara closed her eyes on the way home and felt the wind in her hair. She knew Hansen was pissed in the back seat, but she didn’t care. She felt free. She hadn’t realized how trapped she had been feeling.

They arrived at the subdivision too soon. Clara could have ridden around in Mr. Just’s Jeep for hours, but reality came crashing back when she heard Hansen say, “I’ll just get out at her house. We have things to discuss.”

Mr. Just’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked squarely at Clara. “That okay with you? I can take him on to his house if you want.”

Clara said, “No, it’s alright. Really. Thanks a lot for the ride, Mr. Just. I’ll tell my mom about the car and we’ll handle it.”

“Ain’t nothin’ but a thing,” he replied. The kids were both getting out of his Jeep when his phone rang. Looking at the screen, he saw that it was Julie. He put the Jeep in park and took the call while still in front of Clara’s house. They had talked about getting together for dinner that night, and he wanted to know the plan.

Hansen was walking with Clara to the sidewalk in front of her house when she stopped. Turning to look him square in the face she said, “So here’s the thing. I’m done with you. I’m done with your stupid pranks, I’m done with your mean comments and teasing and most of all I’m done with kissing you. It’s gross. And if you ever try to grab my hair again, I’ll kick you in the crotch. Don’t think I won’t. So that’s it, we’re over.” She stopped talking and stared right at him. She could tell that he was furious, but he was shocked as well. She was a little afraid, but she knew that Mr. Just was still parked in his Jeep a few feet away, and she knew lots of her neighbors were home. When Hansen didn’t say anything, she turned to go into her house. That’s when he blew.

“You bitch! Nobody breaks up with me! Who do you think you are? You’re a nobody! I MADE you! You’re nothing without me! And you think you can just dump me? Think again!” He looked like he was about to lunge at Clara.

Just then, the door across the street to Hunter’s house flew open, and he came running out. He ran across the street and was about to run past Hansen and Clara toward the woods when Hansen reached out and grabbed his backpack. He gave it a hard yank causing Hunter to fall backwards onto the lawn. “What’s this, Sissy Boy? Did you come over to save your little friend?”

“Give it back!” Hunter yelled at him. “I have to go! Give me that back!”

Realizing that he had found a perfect victim, Hansen pushed Hunter back down again and decided to toy with him. “Why? What’s so important, Pansy Boy?” He started to unzip the pack and Hunter yelled, “Stop, don’t unzip that! Give it back to me!”

Hansen was having fun now. All the rage he had toward Clara was now being directed at Hunter. He unzipped the pack while still holding off Hunter. “Stop! No!” Hunter was almost begging him now.

“Oh,” Hansen said. “It’s a pretty widdle rock! Does the widdle Pansy Boy like collecting rocks?”

Mr. Just had looked up from his cell right as Hansen had called Clara a bitch. “That kid just doesn’t know when to stop,” he thought. He was telling Julie that he’d call her right back when Hunter Massey had run across the street and been snagged by Hansen. Mr. Just jumped out of his Jeep and walked quickly over to the scene.

He could tell immediately that something was terribly wrong. Hansen’s face was turning bright red and his eyes bulged. The other two kids were just staring, not knowing what to do. Phillip didn’t know what to do either. He thought that maybe Hansen was choking and was trying to remember how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver. Hansen started to claw at his throat frantically as Phillip ran to position himself behind the boy. He was reaching around Hansen’s generous middle trying to get a hold, when Hansen bucked Mr. Just off of him and fell to the ground. He lay there on the grass convulsing – his face turning purple. Mr. Just ran back to his Jeep to retrieve his phone and dialed 9-1-1. She answered after the first ring.

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” Rachel’s voice was steady and calm on the other end.

“This is Phillip Just, I’m in the neighborhood of Meadowview Acres and there’s a teenage boy here having some kind of attack,” he relayed while his heart sped up.

“Meadowview Acres?” Rachel asked, stunned. “I just had another call not two minutes ago from there. “Is this about the Andrews girl?”

“The Andrews girl? No! This is Hansen Reynolds! He’s having some kind of problem breathing! Hurry, I don’t think he has much time,” Mr. Just said shakily.
I’m getting a little freaked out here, Man.

“We already have a crew on the way. I’ll radio and tell them your situation. Sit tight. It won’t be long.” Then she was gone.

Phillip Just looked over to where Hansen had been scratching his throat and rolling on the ground. He saw that the boy was perfectly still; his throat was raw and bloody where he had tried to scratch open an airway.

Shocked, Mr. Just shook his head and thought, “Karma, Man.”

CHAPTER 17

Peaceful Hearts

B
ug sat in an overstuffed chair in the foyer of the Peaceful Hearts Funeral Home. She was waiting for her parents. Unfortunately, they had two sets of families to console today. Since Peaceful Hearts was the only funeral home in Hallston, Hansen Reynolds had been laid out in one room, while Heather Andrews occupied the other. Practically everyone Bug knew had passed by her going to one viewing or the other as she sat. Most people went to both.

Bug had been curious about everything that had transpired the past week. It had all started with her decision to follow Eli and Hunter into the woods last Friday. She remembered the cold, clammy feeling that had come over her. She was sweating but still felt cold, and she remembered feeling weak. She also remembered Eli telling her about Mr. Jackson and the deputy driving them home. She didn’t remember fainting in his squad car, but they said she did.
Super weird
. She had never fainted in her life before that night.

Her parents had been so happy to see her that she didn’t even get in trouble for going into the woods in the first place. That was lucky. She knew Mr. Jackson hadn’t been lucky, though – Bug had read about brain hemorrhages in the same magazine that she had read about the migraine headaches. Her headache had gone away as soon as she had gotten home, though.