Marbles went through the day in a bit of a daze. She was supposed to have seven classes, but one didn’t have a teacher at all, and three more had substitutes. None of her classes were filled up and barely anyone showed up to gym. She saw Tray briefly before he walked off behind what she discovered was the cafeteria building. As she walked the halls, there was graffiti on many of the lockers, but it was faded. She got leers from some of the students, but in class, most of them were diligently paying attention. She gave up on trying to figure this place out, deciding to ask Tray the next time he talked to her, she patiently waited for the final bell to ring.
“The day is finally almost over.” Marbles thought to herself. “Just one more trip to the principal’s office and you’re done.” When she entered Principal Murphy’s office, she was surprised to see Mr. Alex in one of the chairs in front of his desk. They seemed to be arguing a bit, but stopped when she entered and took her seat. She looked down at her hands in her lap and said, “You wanted to see me, sir?”
The principal cleared his throat, “Yes. I spent some time rounding up a work packet from all of your classes that you will need to finish in order to catch up. It may not seem like it, but we take education very seriously here, and I expect you to rise to the occasion. You see, this school is going through a bit of a revival! It may take some time, but before you know it, we will be one of the top schools in Texas...”
Marbles quickly learned that Principal Murphy got off topic quite easily. Before she knew it, he was musing about running for senate, founding a college, and maybe even retiring within the next fifteen years. She looked over at Mr. Alex through all of this, to find him rolling his eyes behind his glasses, and barely containing his sighs of boredom. At some point he had enough and cleared his throat, sitting forward and uncrossing his legs.
“You did ask her here for a reason, right Mr. Murphy?” Mr. Alex said.
“Ah! Oh yes. My apologies, I’m sure you want to head home.” He pulled the homework packet off of his desk and handed it to Marbles. It was heavier than she expected for being only two months into school. “Right, so you just need to finish the packet before tests are due, but the sooner the better. I’ve asked Mr. Alex to be your tutor, to make sure that you succeed. We need students that will achieve great things! Students that can…”
There was a loud sigh from Mr. Alex, and then he turned to look at her. “Marissa.”
“Yes, sir?” She asked, trying not to make direct eye contact. His presence seemed to take up the whole room. His eyes seemed so indifferent…and so icy blue.
“We can either go over the packet in the mornings before school, or you can stay after school. Decide now please.” he said, sitting back in his chair.
“Oh…” she thought to herself for a moment. She didn’t have anything in particular to do after school besides the chores she’d been given, but the idea of staying late unsettled her. “I prefer the mornings, if that’s okay, sir.”
Mr. Alex tilted his head to the side and gave her an odd look. She cast her gaze back down, worrying she’d somehow made the wrong choice. “Excellent. I’ll see you at 7am in my classroom. Don’t be late.” he said, before standing up and walking out of Principal Murphy’s office. As he walked past, Marbles could smell some of his cologne. It was almost more like a perfume. It smelled of vanilla and spices. She heard a sigh come from Principal Murphy.
“Please forgive Mr. Alex. He’s…well I guess you could say he doesn’t like to waste his time. Have a safe trip home Marissa.” he said, giving her a weary smile.
“Thank you, sir.” she replied, placing the packet in her backpack. She walked out of the office with butterflies in her stomach. She was already thinking about how much earlier she would have to get up in the morning and what she would have to talk about one on one with Mr. Alex. She has never been good with people. “I just hope I don’t make a complete fool of myself.”
As she walked toward Juanita’s house, the butterflies didn’t go away. She tried to focus on other things. The sun was shining brightly but luckily the humidity wasn’t as bad as recent weeks. She ignored the other people walking by and focused on her feet as she walked.
“Heeeyyyy! Young lady!” Mr. Aspens voice rang out loud and scratchy. He was a very old neighbor that was friends with Juanita, her newest foster mother. “Smile! It’s a beautiful day!”
Marbles let out a soft sigh and lifted her head to smile his direction. There was no point in letting him think she was grumpy, he would just prod and ask what was wrong. “Good afternoon, Mr. Aspen.”
“Oh I told you, you can just call me Bud!” Looking at him, Marbles could see he was in his typical white t-shirt and blue jean shorts. “You always have your hair in your eyes girl, how can you see?” He shook his head. “Tell Juanita I’ll talk to her later.”
“Yes, sir.” she responded, continuing past his yard and across the street. Finally she walked through the metal gate surrounding the front yard, opening and closing it behind her. Approaching the front door, she took a deep breath before walking in.
Immediately she was met with giggles and Juanita saying, “Boy! Hold still! Imma end up yanking out your hair with this rat-tooth comb!”
“I can’t help it Juanita! This show is so funny!” Stevie said before launching into another fit of giggles.
Juanita let out a sigh before putting down the comb in defeat. She was sitting on the couch with Stevie on the floor in front of her. She had about half of his head done in tight rows of French braids. Marbles quietly closed the door behind her as Juanita looked her way. “I see you’re home Mari…Marbles.” she said, giving her a kind smile. “Sorry, it’ll take me a while to get used to. How was your first day of school?”
Marbles set her backpack down by the door and walked over to the couch, which was distastefully covered in lavender flowers. The couch looked older than Juanita, but she had taken good care of it so it wasn’t so bad. “It was…okay ma’am.” she said, sitting on her hands and letting her hair hide her face. She could feel Juanita’s eyes on her, so she shifted her gaze up to look at the show Stevie was watching. It was some animated show about dogs in masks. Stevie still hadn’t acknowledged her, it always took him a while to open up to her when she was away, not that she really cared.
“Now girl. I know there’s more on your mind than that. Remember what your therapist said? You have to try to open up.” she said softly.
Marbles wanted to point out that the lady wasn’t a therapist, just a counselor, but didn’t. Instead she took a deep breath and tried to open up. “It was...kind of weird. The school is kind of weird. I don’t really know what’s going on there. It’s not full, and the principal said they were…revamping? I’m not sure, ma’am.”
Juanita looks surprised for a moment. “Really? Well I thought that the school closed down a while ago, but I read a nice article saying that it was bigger and better than ever!” she said. A frown overtook her face. “Hmm. Well let me know if you’re not getting a proper education and I’ll see if I can fix things, alright hun?” she smiled.
Marbles finally looked up at Juanita. She was in her sixties, with gray hair pulled in a big bun. There was a mole on the side of her mouth that actually suited her look. Her floral dress was tight in the bosom, and flowed down to her sandal covered feet. Marbles didn’t understand what the correlation was between floral patterns and older women, but whatever. “Thank you, Juanita. I’ll let you know if anything goes wrong.”
Juanita’s smile got brighter. Suddenly Stevie jumped up and screamed, “Marbles!! You’re home!” He then rushed and threw himself at her in a big hug. Marbles was thrown back on the couch and gently patted him on the back. Stevie was ten years old. He was wearing an oversized gray long sleeved shirt and blue jeans. On his face were high prescription circular glasses. He was oddly adorable, but Marbles did her best not to get attached. He wasn’t her brother or anything. And he could be temperamental since he had some kind of mental disability.
“Um…hi Stevie.” she said.
He then launched into a bunch of questions about her day and then started talking about his show and several art projects he and Juanita were working on. Eventually Juanita sat him back down to finish doing his hair and Marbles went to do some chores around the house. Later that night she ate dinner with Juanita and Stevie. They had lasagna, macaroni and cheese and collard greens. She told Juanita she was going to be tutored early in the mornings and therefore, leaving sooner than before. Juanita just told her to be careful and eat something before she left for school.
That night, lying in bed, Marbles cried. She cried thinking of how she had messed up her life, how she had lost Claire, and how she had no hope for her future. It seemed that every day she was just waiting to be cast away again. She felt that she would never have a home, no matter where she went.
She drifted off to sleep, dreaming of loud music, disturbing whispers, and a crying girl with beautiful blonde hair.
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