The Ghost of Lizard's Rock (3 page)

Riding the bus really
sucks.  If you’ve never had to ride a bus to school you
wouldn’t understand.  ‘Walkers’ always think that riding the
bus is fun.  Class trips with bus rides are what they hope
for. 

For those of us that have
to ride the bus every day – it’s no fun!  It takes at least 5
times longer to get anywhere than it should.  The drive to the
school would only take about 10 minutes if they went from our house
to the school, but the scenic route all over Tiny takes closer to
40 minutes.

Out of habit Eric and I
smiled at Judi, who had been our bus driver since forever, and
headed to our seats.  Seating was not officially assigned on
the bus but everyone knew the unofficial rules.  The young
kids and the troublemakers had to sit in the front.  The older
you were the further back on the bus you could
sit. 

I’m not sure if the rules
in the cities are the same but in Tiny, every kid in town rides the
same bus from the time they start elementary school until they
graduate from high school. 

High school kids have the
back third of the bus with the exception of
9
^th
graders, who tend to sit near them, but not too
close.

Those of us in grade 7 and
8 sit in the mid-section of the bus - a kind of ‘no-man’s land’.
We’re constantly dreaming of the day we get back there or have our
own cars.

I paused in the middle for
a moment glancing down the bus aisle at all the familiar
faces.

Eric grabbed my shoulders
from behind without warning, scaring me to death. He laughed at the
shriek I made, which resulted in everyone near me laughing as well.
“Did you think the ghost of Lizard’s Rock had you?”

I looked back over my
shoulder at Eric, “Very funny.”

As kids, we had all heard
stories of the ghost of Lizard’s Rock that came out at sunset each
night from the forest and roamed the Tiny countryside. The ghost
was said to be a young girl about my age in a long white summer
dress, searching for the people that had hurt her over a hundred
years ago. It was a great story which was often told late at night
during sleepovers and ended with a bunch of screaming kids burying
themselves in their sleeping bags.

Eric moved past me toward
the back, giving me a brotherly shove as a chorus of football guys
called for him to join them at the very back of the bus, which was
unheard of for a 9th grader, but that was Eric.  He was
naturally likeable and people were drawn to his wonderful
charm.

I slid into an empty seat
on my left and looked around, suddenly remembering that the Kati of
yesterday was gone.  I became hyper-conscious of my new dark
wash skinny jeans and fitted t-shirt.  I tucked my hair behind
my ear and stared at my white Puma ballerina style sneakers with
their metallic silver details. 

It was oddly quiet in the
middle of the bus. I glanced sideways across the aisle to see
Maddison staring back at me.  Our eyes locked on each other
for a moment before she looked away and pulled out her new
iPhone.  She made a point to make sure that everyone near her
saw it.

Maddison gave me another
quick sideways glance and an almost half smile before she looked
down again and began texting. It was one of those smiles that said,
“Look at what I’ve got!”

I sat back in my seat and
began to think about Maddison as my mind went back in time. I’ve
known her for as long as I can remember, although we were never
really close friends. Back then, everyone called her Maddy. We were
total opposites! I had traded my dolls and My Little Ponies for
playing sports and hanging out with the boys; Maddy was still
interested in looking ‘cute’ and talking about everything her
parents had given her.

Maddison has always had
everything a girl could want and more. To the rest of us kids,
Maddison’s life couldn’t be more perfect. They lived in the biggest
house on the ‘right’ side of town. Her dad is a big time doctor and
chief of staff at the hospital where my mom works. Anyways, my mom
says he is really nice and often works in the emergency room
helping them out when there are too many patients.

Maddison’s mom doesn’t
work. She seems to be always in other people’s business and showing
off everything they have. I thought, “Hmm… sounds suspiciously like
– Maddison!”

I rolled my eyes
inadvertently as I thought of the summer we both turned six. 
It was a day in Tiny that no one will likely ever
forget.

Somehow, I got invited to
Maddison’s birthday party. The party was held in a large grassy
area of the city park. A whole section had been blocked off with a
temporary plastic fence so that only invited guests could walk in
through a covered entrance. All along the fence were carnival tents
lined up next to each other to block anyone from the outside seeing
inside. Brightly colored flags on the tops of the tents gently
waved in the summer breeze.

Each of us walked through
an entrance between two tents and showed a lady our invitations.
The lady carefully looked at the invitation and welcomed us. She
directed each little girl to walk into a tent directly in front of
us and change our clothes.

Everywhere around the
inside of the tent were beautiful dresses of all colors. Each dress
had our own name on it. I guess Maddison’s mom had called our
mothers to get the right size for us. No matter what, each dress
was designed to make us look just like a little
princess.

As soon as everyone was
dressed in their outfits, Maddison walked into the tent and joined
us. She looked absolutely perfect in a beautiful pink dress, a
small crown upon her head, and a silver wand in her hand. We all
stared at her in disbelief. She actually looked like a real live
princess – or at least we thought so.

Maddison pointed her wand
toward the other end of the tent and said, “Follow me!”

As I walked through the
opening of the tent, it was as if we were in the midst of a
gigantic fairy tale. Everywhere around us were people dressed in
fairy tale costumes.

“Welcome my ladies,” said
a tall man in a bright red costume as he bowed to us. I noticed he
was holding a shiny gold trumpet in his left hand. He straightened
back up, pressed the trumpet to his lips and created the most
beautiful sound that I had ever heard.

All the people standing
around in front of the tents stopped what they were doing and bowed
toward us.

The man lowered his
trumpet, “Princess Maddison and her court!” He placed the trumpet
to his lips again and repeated the sound. The man stopped blowing
on the trumpet and looked down at us, “Your kingdom awaits
you.”

Maddison’s mom stood in
the center of the grassy area and motioned us to come to her. She
was wearing a beautiful white gown with a silver crown on her head.
It was definitely a tad over the top, but no one said
anything.

Looking back, I guess
Maddison’s mom thought she was the queen!

“Maddison,” shouted her
mom loud enough for everyone to hear, “a present for
you.”

The man by the entrance
blew on his trumpet again as Maddison’s father walked into the
court yard with a pure white pony!

I still remember my deep
sigh – it was every little girl’s dream to own a pony.

It was at this time during
the party, that I noticed two girls from our class at school
looking through the fence at all the neat things happening. They
had obviously not been invited. A moment later a man walked up to
them and told them they had to move on. I still remember the
sadness in their eyes as they looked back one last time through the
fence at all of us and the fun we were having. It just didn’t seem
right.

As it turned out, that
party was the last time Maddison and I would ever hang out
together.

The chirp of Maddison’s
cell phone brought me back to the present and I realized that it
was silent in my section except for the occasional giggling. 
I slowly became aware that not only was Maddison glancing at me
fairly consistently but so were Heather and Rebecca seated in the
seats beside her. 

I focused intently on the
non-existent lint on my jeans, just as a boy’s head popped up over
the seat in front of me and then ducked again.  I continued to
stare at the top of the seat until the head reappeared again. It
was Dan! A moment later and his head disappeared again in a split
second. 

The next load of students
came aboard and I saw the familiar faces of more of my classmates
as they found new seats in the middle of the bus. 

A new face looked around
before moving cautiously to the empty seat beside me.

“
Hi,” said the new face
barely louder than a whisper.  “Can I sit here?”

“
Sure.” I managed looking
at the elfish little girl standing uncomfortably in front of
me.

“
I’m Allie,” said the
little girl as she took her backpack off, stepped past me, and sat
down next to the window. Allie held the backpack on her lap. 
She was barely visible over the top of her
backpack. 

“We just moved in over the
weekend.” Allie continued as if an explanation were
necessary. 

In a town like Tiny it
wasn’t.  Everyone in town had been talking about it. Even my
mom, who never got involved in town gossip, had heard that there
was a new family moving in. 

I had tried to listen for
details when mom and G.G. were chatting over coffee the other
day.  G.G. had gone over to their house with sweet iced tea,
lemonade and fresh muffins mid-Saturday afternoon and was about to
go into detail until she saw my shadow move and stopped in
mid-sentence.  Instead of the details I’m sure she was dying
to share, she simply said that the new family was “just
lovely”.

“
I’m Kati.” I replied with
a smile.  “Welcome to Tiny. What grade are you
in?” 

“Seventh,” answered Allie
in just above a whisper.

“Me too,” I replied. It
was hard to imagine this little bitty thing and I were actually in
the same grade.

At that moment all the
quietness of the world disappeared as Oliver worked his way up the
bus stairs and down the aisle. He lifted up his sunglasses for a
moment as he grinned down at me, “Hey Kati”.

I broke out into laughter
at the sight of Oliver and gave him a ‘thumbs up’.

Oliver turned his
attention to Dan in the seat beside him. “DD” said Oliver in a firm
voice, “Let me see those fingers!”

Dan placed his hands in
front of himself slowly and then turned them over.

“That’s better,” answered
Oliver as he plopped into the seat next to him.

Oliver turned to look over
his left shoulder at Maddison across the aisle from Kati. He raised
his sunglasses up with his fingers and wiggled his red eyebrows up
and down for her to see.

Maddison scrunched her
lips tightly, rolled her eyes, and quickly looked the other
way.

Oliver looked back around
the seat at me again with rascally grin.

“Some things never
change.”

Allie leaned closer to me,
“Why did that boy in the red sunglasses call that other boy
DD?”

I whispered back, “His
nickname is Disgusting Dan.” I put one of my fingers up by my nose.
“He picks his nose.” I smiled as Allie’s dark eyes grew larger as
she thought about it and shivered.

Allie and I sat in a
comfortable silence for the rest of the bus ride with the chirping
sound of cell phones, giggles and some odd noises that came from
Oliver and Dan’s seat.

The bus came to a halt in
front of Archibald Hunter High School.  Hunter, as everyone
calls it for short, was named after the founder of Tiny and is
actually three schools rolled into one. 

Across the sports field
and the playground is the newest school building. It was completed
two years ago. The elementary school is housed in one wing and the
middle school in the other. 

The high school students
in the back of the bus worked their way up the aisle to the front.
Eric placed his hand on my shoulder and whispered as he walked by,
“Have a great day!”

Judi closed the door of
the bus when the last high school student walked away from the bus.
Eighth graders quickly scrambled to the back of the bus to take the
seats of the high school students – even if it were only for a few
minutes.

The bus pulled out the
driveway of the high school and pulled into the driveway of the
elementary and middle school.

The elementary kids were
the first to exit while the rest of us began to gather up our
things.

Allie smiled shyly at me
and moved silently into the aisle.  She slipped her backpack
onto her back and started toward the front of the
bus. 

Maddison and I both moved
forward into the aisle at same moment.  We both froze.
Maddison took an obvious moment to scan me from top to bottom and
back before gesturing with a slight movement of her head for me to
go first. 

I was clearly taller than
her this year.  This summer I must have shot up six inches and
become what Grandma Grace called “willowy”.