Throw Away Teen (42 page)

“
Not a bad idea,” Ted said. “Evelyn has her foster home license so Carol should be able to make it work.”

“
And Gabe would have forty horses to take care of,” I added. “He’d definitely be in Horse Heaven.”

Everyone laughed.

After we cleaned up the kitchen, I took Guard outside for his last walk. It was only eleven but I was wiped out. Liz had made up the downstairs guest room for Ringo so he wouldn’t have to drive home. Ringo came with me to stroll around the yard while Guard did his thing.

“
So, you’re staying now.”

I nodded. Little butterflies somersaulted in my stomach when he put his arms around me.

“
Are you all grown up now, B.J.? Or are you still scared?”

“
I’ll be scared sometimes.” But I wasn’t afraid when he bent down and kissed me. “Liz isn’t going to let me off on this one. I never thought she’d freak when I didn’t come straight home from school. Nobody else ever cared like that.”

“
She and Ted love you.” Ringo tipped up my chin with his thumbs. “And I’m here for you, too.” He kissed me again.

I wanted to tell him that I’d stick around, that I’d be there for him. But I couldn’t. What if Liz stuck a punishment on me that I couldn’t handle? What if I lost it and had another meltdown? Would it hurt him if I took Guard and ran away? If I wasn’t B.J. Larson, the tough girl from the streets of Seattle anymore, then who was I?

***

The next morning during breakfast, the phone rang and Ted answered it. He just said, “Yes” and “No” a couple of times, then hung up. “Gabe’s going to be fine. They sewed up the big cuts and kept him overnight for observation. He’ll be released today. I told Ike I’d pick them up this afternoon.”

“
Sounds good.” Liz brought over another stack of pancakes and flipped two onto my plate, giving the rest to Ringo. “Do you want more, B.J.?”

“
No. I want to know what’s going to happen to me.”

“
Happen to you?” Ringo asked. “’’What do you mean?”

“
Liz said I was in trouble for running off.” When she stopped and stared at me, I added, “Okay, Mom said. You know that’s going to be hard for me. I haven’t had a mother in years.”

“
You’ll just have to get used to it.” Ted rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Maybe, we could do what Liz’s mom did after the war. She had a cuss jar and any time somebody swore in her house, it cost them a buck.”

“
So, if I forget to say, Mom and Dad, it’d cost me?” I shook my head. “That would suck big-time.”

“
You’re telling me,” Liz said. “One week, it cost me fifty bucks. Every time I swore and lost a dollar, it ticked me off so much I swore again.”

I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair. “I thought it was Ted, I mean, Dad who had the potty mouth. After all, he was the Marine.”

“
Well, you keep working on the Mom and Dad thing.” Liz flipped more pancakes on the griddle. “Ted and I talked about you leaving yesterday. If you hadn’t gone, Gabe could’ve died. On the other hand, if you’d brought us up to speed, we’d have gone with you and we wouldn’t have been scared out of our minds. So, I just haven’t decided what to do with you yet.”

I’d have felt a lot better about that statement if Jocelyn and Zach hadn’t walked in just then. Jocelyn eyed me and then turned to Liz and Ted. “I thought you decided to send B.J. back. She’s a thief.”

“
No, Jocelyn. She’s not.” Ted leaned back in his chair and picked up his coffee cup. “Sending her away was never an option. We didn’t send you back or Jessie, did we? B.J. isn’t going anywhere.”

“
She took my ring,” Jocelyn snapped. “Stole it. And I want it back.”

“
The cops have it.” I looked straight at her, then at Zach. “I wouldn’t steal from you, so when I found it, I gave it to them.”

“
Where did you find it?” Zach took the cup Liz offered and sipped his coffee.

“
In my back-pack with my money. I’ve been saving every cent Dad gives me so if I ended up on the street, Guard and I would be okay.”

“
That was a lot of money. I thought you—” Jocelyn paused. “Why on earth would you take a puppy to live on the streets?”

“
Well, I certainly can’t take him to the youth center,” I said. “They’d try to send him to the animal shelter.”

She thought about that for a moment then moved over by Ted. “Well, she ran away. B.J. deserves to be punished.”

“
I am, Barbie-Doll. You’re here,” I shot back. “What did you do with Chance? Drop her off at the dog-pound?”

“
No, she’d enjoy that too much.” Zach came over and sat down next to me. “She’s visiting my parents. Of course, if she tells them she needs a puppy, we may have a dozen by the time we pick her up.”

Even though it was Saturday, Zach still wore his usual lawyer clothes, a nineteen piece dark suit and a white shirt. I wondered if he took it off at bedtime or just slept in it, but I didn’t ask. Liz brought him over a plate of pancakes and bacon. He proceeded to eat breakfast with us and ignored Jocelyn’s sniping. So I did too.

Ringo looked at me, then at Jocelyn and back to me again. “I thought Dally and I were the only ones who squabbled like that.”

“No. My brothers and I did, too.” Zach cut his bacon into little pieces.

“I thought you were adopted,” I said. “Weren’t you separated from your real family?”

“The judge brought home a lot of us,” Zach said. “So, we all figure we’re related by legal decree if not by blood and they are my real family, B.J. Like you’ll be my sister-in-law when the adoption goes through.”

“That’s cool,” I said. “So, if Chance gets a baby brother which she wants as much as a puppy, can I have a real sister?”

Zach sputtered into his coffee. Jocelyn turned beet red and I concentrated on my pancakes while Ringo totally lost it, choking and laughing into his food.

“We’ve been thinking about that,” Liz told me. “And we’ve also talked to Carol about it.”

“You haven’t talked to me about it yet,” I said.

“Well, that’s the hard part about being a kid in this house,” Ted explained. “Your mom and I make decisions. Then we tell you. We don’t ask you because you’re a k—”

“Kid.” I shook my head. “Nobody’s ever done that before. It’s totally weird. I was just hassling you, but are we really getting somebody else?”

“Of course not,” Jocelyn said.

“Yes,” Liz and Ted said.

I ignored Jocelyn. “Who?”

“Terry,” Ted said. “She needs somewhere to stay for a while. We’ll paint a room and fix it up for her. Annie will represent her in court and Terry will be visiting a counselor nearby. You’re going with her.”

For a moment, I stared at him, wondering if this was his way to get rid of me. “What? Why?”

“Because you have a lot of baggage, B.J. and you need tools to help you deal with it,” Ted said. “Being able to kick butt is one answer, but there are others.”

Was he for real? Or did he have a hidden agenda? I looked at him, then at Liz. She had told me that trust was a two-way street and it was past time I started trusting them for real. “Terry’s awesome. I think she should be in the bedroom on the other side of mine. Then when she has nightmares, I can wake her up.”

“Sounds fair,” Liz said. “Should we get her a flashlight to keep under her pillow?”

“Yeah.” Wait, how did she know about that? “She won’t need it here but if the judge sends her back to her mom’s, she will.”

“Okay,” Ted told me. “When we go to the hardware store for paint, you can pick one up for her.”

“Another girl with problems?” Jocelyn sniped. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Not much,” I said. “Her step-father messed with her. She just needs somebody to tell her that all men stink except Dad. And after she takes karate, she can punch out the next creep who tries something on her.”

Jocelyn gave Zach a nasty look. “I suppose you’re going to tell me you knew that sort of stuff happens in foster homes?”

“Sure and not just to girls.” Zach winked at me. “Guess I should’ve gotten a flashlight when I was a kid. I just kept a hammer under my pillow.” He glanced at Ted who sat at one end of the table. “Jocelyn and I have agreed to try counseling with Father John. We both have some issues we need to work out.”

Personally, I thought it was more her than him, but I didn’t say so.

Zach looked at me again. “And you already have an attorney. Do you need me to come to court with you on Monday?”

“I got it covered, Zach. Thanks. But if Annie goes dumb on me, I’ll call you.”

Zach chuckled.

Ringo stood and carried his empty plate over to the counter. “I can teach you more advanced moves when Terry gets here, B.J. Then, you won’t have to worry about creeps either.”

He knows
, I thought. And I hadn’t told him. “How did—”

“Yeah, I may be a guy, but I’m not an insensitive clod.”

“I never said you were.”

Liz finally came to join us at the table, carrying her own cup of coffee. “Well, I’ve decided. B.J., you’re grounded.”

“What? Not again! Does that mean I can’t go out with Ringo?”

“No. You just have to be home when I expect you. And if you’re staying over with a girlfriend, you’re home by noon the next day.”

“And if you have a problem, you’ll call us on your cell phone,” Ted told me. “We’ll pay sixty dollars a month, but if you go over, then you pay the difference.”

“No way. I get a phone?” I tilted my head to one side. “And karate, cheerleading, tutoring, a horse, my own studio and everything else in the contract?”

“Yes,” Liz said. “Honey, you certainly seem to respect the rules here most of the time.”

“Well, they’re not that tough,” I said. “And this place is a hundred times better than any of the other places I lived and like heaven compared to Detention.”

“Then, you won’t complain about being grounded until you’re eighteen.”

I stared at Liz while Jocelyn cut loose. “Mother, are you serious? At eighteen, she’s out of the house and the foster care system.”

“Twenty-five.” Liz didn’t smile, but I still heard it in her tone.

“You don’t want me that long.” My voice shook.

“Forty.” She wasn’t smiling now. “Do you want to try for your fiftieth birthday?”

I shoved back my chair and jumped to my feet. “What do I have to do to get grounded past forever?” Liz held out her arms and I ran into them. And I did something I’d sworn I’d
never
do again. I cried.

Finally, I was all the way home.

THE END

About the Author

As a child, Shannon Kennedy loved to dream away the days in an old cherry tree on her family’s pony farm. In her imagination, the tree became a beautiful Arabian stallion, a medieval castle and even a pirate ship. She got into trouble for making her bratty little sisters walk the plank, but hey, they never broke any bones. On rainy days, she headed for her fort in the hayloft. While the rain thudded on the cedar shingled roof, she’d read books, eventually trading Carolyn Keene for Georgette Heyer.

Today, she lives on the family ranch/riding stable in the Cascade foothills of Washington state in what was once a summer vacation cabin. It’s been modernized and even has indoor plumbing – woo-hoo! She shares it with her two cats—or maybe, they share it with her and her Catahoula. She still reads a lot, and the walls are lined with bookshelves. Her favorite shopping trip is to Barnes & Noble at the Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood.

She reads everywhere, so there are books on the kitchen table, by her rocking chair in the living-room, next to her bed, and even in the bathroom. Often, she reads more than one at a time, so it’s lucky that she can multi-task. However, when she writes, she only does one project at a time, because she wants to know everything about her characters and their lives.

Kennedy usually writes at night once the barn chores are done, after a long day on the ranch. Some days are longer and harder than others, so she’s happy when she manages five days of writing in a week, but she continues to try for every day. As a substitute school teacher, she loves the summer break but she’s just as busy, since that’s when they do horse day-camp during the week at the family riding stable and trail rides, lessons, and leasing on weekends. Of course, then she gets to spend every day with her own Guard-dog, the newest canine addition to the family and the model for the puppy in this book.

Genre: YA/Drama/Romantic Elements

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, businesses, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental. All trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, and registered service marks are the property of their respective owners and are used herein for identification purposes only. The publisher does not have any control over or assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their contents.

THROW AWAY TEEN

Copyright © 2012 by Shannon Kennedy

Cover Design by Jackson Cover Designs

All cover art copyright © 2012

All Rights Reserved

eBook ISBN: 978-1-937329-76-1

First Publication: December 8, 2012

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