Finding Hope in Texas by Ryan T. Petty Read Free Book Online Page B

lost and I had no clue on where to pick up and start my way
out again. Was the path down to Texas a good one? So far, it didn’t
seem so. Maybe I should back track; go home to where I knew a few
people who cared for me. I wouldn’t stay at my house and would
actually sell it as soon as I got the opportunity. There were too
many memories that would keep me in limbo. I had to start over and
that’s why I came here. I can do this . Maybe this track I
was on was the right one, but the journey was just difficult. God, why can’t I find a Tom to help me, lead me in the right
direction?
    The bell sounded and I took flight again.
Each class was the same, I had to get going before Jody and her
doppelgangers could assemble, get to my next class and in front of
the teacher’s eye, out of the battle-royal known as the hallway.
Now I could see how prisoners would get shanked in the
middle of a riot. The pandemonium of it all as the classes
intermingle was like herding cats. Don’t dare get out in the
middle, you could get caught between the passing hordes or you
might get trampled. Quickness and power-walking was my only
restitution.
    Finally, I made it to lunch and today it was
hamburgers and crusted-over tots. I found my way over to Lizzy. She
immediately smiled up at me until she noticed the dark red eye.
    “What happened to you?” she sounded
worried.
    “Oh,” I had forgotten about my eye for the
most part. “I...I fell yesterday.” It didn’t even sound convincing
to myself.
    “You fell? And got that? Hope, what really
happened?”
    “Nothing. Really.” Except I got the crap
knocked out of me by some lunatic cheerleader . “It doesn’t even
hurt.” Jeez, I sounded like a battered wife making up excuses for
her drunken husband. I could tell she wasn’t going to drop it. When
I looked at her, I couldn’t see any resemblance to her dad,
nothing. They could have been strangers. She was also so sweet and
he seemed on the brink of telling everyone around him what he really thought of him or her. She leaned forward to me.
    “Look, if someone is picking on you on your
third day here, you should tell a...a teacher or something.”
    I couldn’t control my eyes. They darted over
to Jody’s table to see what they were doing. It seemed like many of
them weren’t there, including Jody. I breathed a sigh of
relief.
    “I can handle this myself, Lizzy. Can we drop
it now?”
    “Okay, but let me know what I can do for you.
It’s not right that someone did that to you.”
    I gave a small smile to the girl for being so
friendly, but the irony fell over me like a cloud, how Lizzy wanted
to help me but seemed either to have put herself in seclusion or
was placed there by her peers. I wanted to find out which one it
was.
    “Can I ask you something?” I opened up,
quietly.
    “Sure.”
    “Don’t take this the wrong way, but why do
you sit here, alone? I mean, don’t you have friends you like to
hang out with, even at lunch?”
    Lizzy looked puzzled for a moment and I was
hoping I hadn’t overstepped my bounds. Lord knew being thrown off
the “loser” table was the last thing I needed now.
    “Yeah, I have a few band friends and others,
but I don’t know. I could sit with them or over there with the
science crew, but I just like to be alone sometimes, away from all
of this...mess. And this is the one time of the day that I’m not
expected to be doing something or be involved. I can relax, clear
my mind, read a book, whatever. It just helps me cope with the
craziness of high school.”
    “Well,” I smiled, “I guess I should feel
lucky that you invited me to sit with you.”
    “Oh, I don’t know about lucky, but if you got
that black eye from the Brown-Nose Squad over there, then you’re
all right in my book.”
    I couldn’t help but giggle. There was the
sardonic response that would have come from Mr. Peet. “I
accidentally talked to Brad. Jody threw a he’s-mine hussy
fit and socked me in the eye.”
    Lizzy