Winners (26 page)

The principal came out of her office as Lily rolled past and hurried to catch up with her to say hello. Lily was wheeling her chair as quickly as she could in the swirl of students on their way to class, and she didn’t want to bump into anyone and look like a klutz. No one could see it, but she was shaking.

“Hello, Lily. Welcome home!” the principal, Miss Davis, said with a warm smile, and Lily had to stop to talk to her in the middle of the hall. She couldn’t avoid it, but hated stopping, and she felt like everyone was looking at her.

“Thank you very much.”

“We’re so happy you’re back!” She spoke for no one but herself, Lily knew, since she had heard from no one else. She’d had a get well card from all her teachers in the first week after the accident, and heard nothing from them since, other than the homework assignments they sent to Craig. She had been the forgotten person, and felt like it now in spite of Miss Davis’s bright smile, which looked phony to Lily.

“Thank you. I’ve got to go,” Lily said as the bell rang, and whizzed past her toward her class. She had history first period, and had already turned in the required paper, before its due date. She was all caught up. And the history teacher was a young woman who had graduated from Duke the year before and was relatively new to the school. Lily liked her, although she hardly knew her. Her name was Barbara Bailey, and she had a wild mane of red hair and wore clogs summer and winter.

She nodded acknowledgment when Lily rolled in, and then approached her in a matter-of-fact way. “Would you rather sit in the front or the back or on the aisle?” she asked her as though she’d seen her the day before, and Lily loved it because it made her feel normal and not as though she had just landed from Mars because she was in a wheelchair. She didn’t treat Lily like she was sick, which Lily was grateful for and thought was cool. Miss Davis had spoken to her in a tone that made her feel seriously impaired. Barbara Bailey didn’t.

“I’ll sit in back,” Lily said quietly, and Barbara Bailey went back to the front of the class to wait for the rest of the students to come in, so she could start. And Lily rolled to a spot in the back row on a center aisle and looked out the window. She could see the last stragglers hurrying into school and saw Veronica laughing between two boys who Lily knew were also on the ski team. Their school was sympathetic to the odd schedules of kids on the Olympic teams, who needed time off to practice and travel to other cities for races and games, and they accommodated them when necessary without penalizing them for it. Veronica hadn’t even called to ask what day she was coming back, or if she could be there to help make it easier for her, which would have been nice. And Lily also knew that without her on the team, Veronica was the star now, and probably the favorite to win the gold. It was hard to swallow, but she didn’t hold it against her. The really hard part was that she seemed to have no room for Lily in her life. It had been a crushing blow.

They were studying the industrialization of America in history class that day, which Lily found incredibly boring, and her attention kept drifting away as she tried to listen, but she kept staring out the window and wishing it were over. The teacher had just written several things on the blackboard, and when she turned around, she looked straight at Lily with a direct gaze.

“Isn’t that right, Lily? Is there anything you’d like to add?” Lily blushed and looked embarrassed in the clutches of the teacher’s eyes.

“I—I’m sorry … I didn’t hear what you said.”

“Try to pay attention, please. I know this period in our history is a little boring, but let’s try to get through it, shall we? It’s almost the end of the year,” she reminded all of them as her eyes swept the room, while the students sat slumped in their chairs, looking as uninterested as Lily. She had singled Lily out, but Lily smiled as soon as she turned her attention to the others. She loved that Ms. Bailey hadn’t given her a pass, or treated her as someone special who didn’t need to pay attention. She had treated her like everyone else. Lily wanted to hug her, and a boy in front of her turned and made a grimace of acute boredom, and Lily tried not to laugh at him. And finally the bell rang and they were free. Lily smiled at the teacher as she rolled out of the room, and the teacher returned the smile as she put away her papers.

Three girls Lily knew well came up to her in the hall then, and started chattering about how happy they were that she was back, and she didn’t remind them that she hadn’t heard from them since January. She knew she couldn’t let herself be bitter about it, but she had noticed.

“Nice gloves,” one of them said to her when she saw the double Cs on them. And she was wearing one of the pink nail polishes Carole had given her. Lily looked as pretty as she always had—she was just sitting in a wheelchair. And she had watched what she ate, so she hadn’t gained weight from being sedentary. If anything, she was thinner from the healthy diet, and thanks to Phil Lewis, her upper body looked sleek and toned.

“It’s good to have you back, Lil,” one of the other girls said, and looked as though she meant it, and then she lowered her eyes in shame. “I’m sorry I never called you. I guess I felt awkward about it. I didn’t know what to say.”

“Yeah, I know,” Lily said, embarrassed, but touched by her honesty. “I guess it must have been weird.” She didn’t know what else to say to make her comfortable about it now.

“Were you in Squaw this whole time?”

“No, I’ve been in a rehab here since February, a place called Craig.” There was no reason for them to know about it and the services they provided—she’d never heard about it till she was there either. But it told her immediately that Veronica hadn’t bothered to tell anyone where she was, so they might have come to visit. Maybe she just didn’t care, or had always been jealous of Lily in some way.

“Ah, finally off drugs!” a tall boy from the basketball team said as he started to speed by, and stopped when he saw her. They had been lab partners in chemistry first semester. He had blown up their project and made her laugh so hard, they got thrown out of class for the rest of the day. His name was Walker Blake. “You didn’t fool anyone here, you know,” he said in a booming voice as Lily grinned at him. She had always liked him and they were friends. “I always knew you had a drug problem after you blew up our chem project. They told us you were in rehab. I’m not surprised at all. Heroin or crystal meth?”

“I did
not
blow up our chem project! You did, you jerk,” she said, laughing, as the whole mood of the group relaxed.

“I did not. I saw you combine the lethal ingredients to blow the place up! So okay, you can tell us, what were you in rehab for? Smoking crack? The minute I heard you were in rehab, I figured that’s what it was about. And it won’t do you any good hiding in that shopping cart you’re using. You’re not fooling me for a minute,” he said, grinning at her, obviously happy to see her, and she was grateful to him for lightening the moment. “So what have you been doing while we’ve been working our asses off all year?”

“Actually”—she smiled at him—“I’ve been skiing.” His eyes widened as she said it and he thought she was kidding, in the vein of the banter he had started, and she could see he didn’t believe her. “Seriously, downhill at Winter Park, on a monoski with a chair. It’s pretty rad.” The others listened with interest. She knew he was an outstanding skier. They had gone on ski trips together with the ski club at school when they were younger, before she was on the Olympic team and had to train with them, and had no time to ski with her friends. “I’m training for the Paralympics,” she said proudly, and Walker shook his head in disbelief and amazement.

“You’re insane,” he said, but he was impressed by her. He always had been, and he was glad to see her looking so well. He had wondered just how badly damaged she was, and if she had a head injury too, and no one had seemed to know. “I’ll go with you sometime if you want. I’d really like to see that,” he said admiringly, as the bell rang again and they all had to get to their next class. “What do you have next period?”

“Math,” she said, and made a face. It was her least favorite subject.

“I’ve got chem—not with you, thank God,” he said, and she laughed. “See you at lunch.” And then he left. He didn’t offer to help her, carry her books, push her wheelchair, or get her to the elevator, and she was grateful to him for treating her as he always had, with irreverence.

She left the others and got to the elevator on her own. After a double math class that she hated as much as ever, she had lunch in the cafeteria and everyone flocked around. One of the girls carried her tray for her, although she could have balanced it on her lap, but it was easier not to. Walker stopped by to joke with her, others stopped to say hi, and realized that she hadn’t changed as much as they feared, she just couldn’t walk, but was managing fine. And finally, halfway through lunch, Veronica showed up and threw her arms around her, and acted like her long-lost friend. Lily was cool to her, but she didn’t want a war with her, so she didn’t say anything.

And she finished the afternoon without event. She called her father after her last class and waited outside for him. No one paid any attention to her—she was just one of the kids again, even if she was in a wheelchair now. The worst was over, she had survived her first day, and she was happy to go home. She had a lot of homework to do that night. No one had cut her any slack, and she hadn’t wanted them to. She was still disappointed in Veronica, but she had been for the past four months. She just wasn’t able to make the adjustment to what had happened to Lily. It was too much for her. At Craig, they had said that some people just couldn’t handle it, and Veronica was one of them. It was sad for Lily, but she would make other friends, and people like Walker Blake made it easier for her.

She texted Teddy while she waited for her father, and told him it had gone okay. She was tired, and she was about to text him that she had a lot of homework to do, and she would see him tomorrow, and then she remembered that it was the same excuse everyone had given her for months, so she didn’t say it. And when her father showed up and she got in the car, she asked him to stop at Craig. She picked up a pizza and a smoothie for Teddy, and she wheeled into Craig and found him at his computer class. He was practically a genius on computers, and he did art projects on them too. He was just finishing when she arrived.

“Well, look at you, after your first day of school.” He smiled at her and thought she looked really cute. “So, it went okay?”

“Not bad. I’m practically flunking math, and the history teacher caught me daydreaming and made an example of me for not paying attention, and I have about ten hours of homework to do tonight and a math quiz tomorrow, but I wanted to come by and give you a hug at least.” She put the pizza box on his knees, and tucked the smoothie into the back corner of his seat, and he smiled at her.

“No one kicked sand in your eyes in the sandbox?” he asked with interest as they smiled at each other.

“Nope. I thought they would, but they got used to the chair after a while.”

“How was Veronica?” He looked concerned. He knew how much she had meant to Lily and how disappointed she was in her.

“Fake. She gave me a big hug in the lunchroom, and I never saw her again.” She shrugged. “I missed you today.”

“Me too. This place really sucks without you at night. I got so bored, I played blow darts with the guy who laughs like a horse and talks about his hot girlfriend and how big her tits are all the time,” Teddy said with resignation. The boy he was talking about had been on the diving team at his school and had an injury similar to Teddy’s. They both thought he was obnoxious, but playing darts with him had been something to pass the time without Lily.

“I’ll call you when I finish my homework,” she promised, and when she hugged him and left, he knew she would. And then she hurried home. She had a lot to do before the end of the school year, and her junior thesis to finish. It was hell being back in school, and a little piece of Heaven too.

Chapter 20

Lily got decent grades in her last month of school, not as good as she usually did, but she was still in the top third of her class in spite of all the school she’d missed. There was a dance on the last Saturday before the end of school. Walker Blake invited her to it. He had a girlfriend, but he ditched her for the night, and she was a good sport about it, and they danced a fair amount anyway. It was the junior prom, and Lily hadn’t planned to go, but Walker talked her into it, and she had a good time. She talked to everyone she knew, and sat with the DJ for a while and helped him pick the music. And Walker spun her around the dance floor in her wheelchair a couple of times and she got so dizzy, she nearly fell out, but he caught her before she did. She caught a glimpse of Veronica with a new boyfriend, but she pretended not to see Lily and never came over to say hello. And in spite of the strangeness of being at her junior prom in a wheelchair, Lily was surprised that she had a good time. It had been nice of Walker to take her, and she told Teddy all about it when she visited him the next day.

“I wish I could go to school,” he said wistfully.

“You’re probably learning more here,” Lily said. He read constantly, he loved books about art history, and biographies of famous artists. His dream was still to teach art one day, and he was determined to apply to the University of Denver in the fall, in their fine arts program. Lily was still planning to apply to her favorite colleges in the East, and had avoided discussing it with her father recently.

Almost all her friends had summer jobs. Some of the girls were going to be junior camp counselors. One was teaching swimming, another one was working in her father’s office. She and Teddy were the only people Lily knew who had nothing to do that summer. And her father was going to be busy with The Lily Pad. She was planning to spend a lot of time visiting Teddy at Craig, and they had given her permission to use the pool. She was thinking about taking their scuba diving class. And her father surprised her a week after school got out. He said he wanted to make a quick trip to London and invited her to go with him. He was chartering a jet again, so it would be easy for her to go along. She had taken a travel class at Craig, which covered traveling on an airline, so she knew she could have flown commercially too, but her father didn’t like to. Chartering jets was an indulgence he allowed himself and could afford.