Chapter 1, Changes in the Air

Liv deals with the sudden changes in her life.

Chapter One 

"She can't take care of you right now, Liv," my dad said in that I'm-pretending-to-reason-with-you-but-you-really-have-no-choice voice of his.  

"I can't just leave her alone! You have another family. She only has me!" I argued. 

"You are sixteen. It's not your job to take care of your mother," Charlotte, my stepmother, chimed in.  

My mom had had too much too drink and gotten into an accident, and my dad and Charlotte had decided I needed to live with them. My mom was fine, the car was just crunched up a bit.  

"It will be a bit of an adjustment, but you'll be fine. We've wanted this for years. You'll be closer to your family. You can get to know your brother and sister better." I was sitting on the couch, and Charlotte was towering over me, all five foot ten of her, and I wished she'd just go away and let me talk to my dad in private.  

A 'bit of an adjustment' was the understatement of the century! I wasn't used to civilian life, or siblings, or Pennsylvania. Sure, I'd spent time with my dad's family during the summers and holidays, but it wasn't the same thing as living with them full time. 

I was probably going to have to share a room with  Mackenzie. I'd never shared a room with anyone before, let alone a six-year-old.  

Suddenly I remembered my dog, Jock.  

"What about Jock?" I asked anxiously.  

"Jock can live with us too," Charlotte said. "He's a good dog and does fine with the kids," she added. 

I wondered if that meant Jock had to go if he so much as breathed funny on Alex or Mackenzie. As far as I was concerned, Jock and I were a package deal. Jock was a shepherd mix that we adopted when he flunked out of military dog school.  

Buddy was permanently moved stateside when I was in eighth grade. We moved to the Joint Expeditionary Base East near Virginia Beach.  

Living there had been mostly awesome. Buddy's flashbacks had been terrible, and he started to drink way too much. But there were good times, too. Buddy and my mom and I camped on the beach, fished, and caught crabs. We'd boil the crabs at our campsite and dip them in melted butter. We made s'mores and listened to the radio and played cards.  

I met my best friend, Tori, there too. Tori showed me all the fun things to do, like go to Busch Gardens, Water Country, hit the stores in downtown Norfolk, and check out boys on the beach.  took dance classes with me and we went to Bayside High School together.  

I really, really wanted to call or even text Tori right now but I was stuck sitting here with Dad and Charlotte staring at me. I knew I really had no choice, they were just trying to make it sound good and trick me into thinking I chose to live with them. 

I threw my hands up in the air. "Okay, fine. Let's make plans to get my stuff, get Jock settled, and enroll me in school. Where am I going to school, anyway?" 

My dad and Charlotte glanced at each other. "St. Margaret of Academy," my dad answered.  

I should have known. Catholic school, the same as Alex and Mackenzie. I was baptized Catholic back when my parents were still married and I was a baby. After my mom married Buddy and we moved away, we belonged to United Methodist churches.  

* 

Two weeks later, my mom picked me up for an overnight visit. I was dying to call  and have a private conversation without Mackenzie or Charlotte listening in. My dad and Charlotte's house was tiny, and there always seemed to be someone hovering around.  

"We're going to have dinner and go to the county fair with Mike Derry," my mom told me.  

"Mike Derry, Buddy's old friend?" I asked.  

"Yeah, do you remember him? He went camping with us in Maryland?" 

"Sure, I remember," I said warily. Mike was probably biding his time to try and move in on my mom. I overheard my mom say he did it with her friend Missy in the bathhouse at our campground. Missy was dating Buddy's friend Dave at the time, but Dave hadn't been able to get off work to come with us.  

"That's the trip where Missy and her daughter Brittany came along. Remember Brittany was such a crybaby and Buddy stuck a crab on her back when she was bending over?" 

My mom laughed, probably for the first time in weeks. "Yeah, she was in hysterics over it!"  

We pulled up in front of my mom's new house. It's a double wide, in a fairly quiet neighborhood. My dad and Charlotte's house is older, in a neighborhood where the houses are all close together.  

We went in, and I glanced at the room my mom has set up for me. It's on the opposite end of the house from my mom's room. It had my old bed and bookshelf full of books. My old dresser and desk were at Dad and Charlotte's. I set my overnight bag in the room and headed to the kitchen, where my mom was starting dinner. She was making hamburgers, homemade French fries, and corn on the cob.  

Mike knocked on the door shortly before dinner was ready. My mom ushered him in and he and I reintroduced ourselves. He had a six pack of beer with him. He put the cans in the refrigerator all except one, which he cracked open. I didn't think alcohol was a good idea given my mom's recent accident, but I didn't say anything.  

When dinner was over, Mike got up and parked himself in front of the TV. He didn't even take his plate to the sink, which I thought was rude and sexist. I offered to wash the dishes since my mom made dinner, and she went to the living room to watch TV with Mike. After I did the dishes, we went to the fair. 

We walked around and looked at the games and booths, and checked out the animals. My mom won a goldfish. She's really good at getting the ping pong balls to land in those tiny bowls. She gave me the plastic bag holding the goldfish. 

"Are you going to take it to your dad's?" my mom asked me.  

"Can I leave him at your house? That way we have a pet there, too," I said. 

My mom nodded. "I miss Jock," she said.  

"I'm sorry you miss him. I don't know what I'd do without him, though." 

"Well, he always was your dog," she said.  

Mike dropped my mom and I off after the fair. He didn't come in or stay over, much to my relief.  

"Well, I’m tired," my mom said. "I'm going to go to bed now. Goodnight, love you, see you in the morning."  

"G'night, love you, see you in the morning," I echoed. 

I didn't feel like watching TV, so I went back to my room and texted Teri. 

You back from soccer practice? Call me.  

My phone rang and Teri's name came up on the screen. 

"Tori?" 

"Liv? Oh, my god! What is going on? Tell me everything!" 

So I told her about how I was going to start Catholic school and about Mike the Creeper. I pictured Tori sitting on her bed, unlacing her shin guard, wavy blonde hair spilling to the side as she did so.  

"I miss you so much, T.  I can't stand it." I started to cry. 

"Hey, you okay?" Tori said. 

"I guess I've been holding it in a lot," I said, but it came out a blubber. 

"School is going to suck this year without you," Tori said.   

"I can't even believe this is happening," I said.  

"Maybe you can visit over Thanksgiving. My mom already told me you can visit anytime." 

"That's months and months away. It will give me something to look forward to, though."  

We talked for awhile longer, and I could sense Tori started to get tired. 

"I'll let you go. Do you have a game tomorrow?" 

"Yeah. Love you, Liv." 

"I love you too, T." 

* 

The week before school started, Charlotte took me shopping for school. I had to wear a polo shirt and khakis as part of the St. Margaret uniform, but I needed shoes and stuff. The school polos were maroon with a gold emblem, mirroring the school colors. We weren't allowed to wear sneakers, and I had no idea what kind of shoes to wear. I needed something that would last the entire year, and something I hopefully wouldn't get sick of wearing every day. Charlotte had taken me to Wal-Mart. I'd been in the stores before, because I didn't live under a rock, but I was used to shopping at the base commissary.  

"What about these?" Charlotte held up a pair of black flats. They were made out of fake leather and would probably fall apart by November.  

"Don't you think I need something sturdier, if I'm going to be wearing it every day?"  

"Well, what do you mean sturdier?" Charlotte said. She sounded really irritated. "I'm not spending fifty dollars on shoes like Bonnie Smithfield spent on Julia's." Bonnie and her husband Mitch were friends of my dad and Charlotte and had a daughter named Julia who would be in my class at St. Margaret. I'd met Julia a handful of times and she seemed nice enough.  

I figured Charlotte had no idea what to do to get me ready for school since Alex and Mackenzie were seven and ten years younger than me, so she'd called Bonnie for advice. I also got the impression that the Smithfields were somewhat more well off than my dad and Charlotte, and therefore Charlotte planned to scale back on whatever Bonnie told her. Still, I didn't understand why Charlotte seemed so irritated. It's not like I said I wanted more expensive shoes, or a brand name.  

"I don't know what kind of shoes private school kids wear," I said. "Did they give you any kind of guidelines, other than 'no sneakers?'" I said. 

Charlotte sighed. "Not really." 

"I guess we can't really wait until after I start school." One thing I learned by moving around was how to be observant and blend in. I tried to think of any movie or TV show with a kid in private school. The only one I could think of was Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls and I think she wore saddle shoes. There was no way I was going to wear saddle shoes.  

"There's a girl from St. Margaret who lives up the street from us. Maybe you can ask her." 

"That sounds okay. I still need sneakers for phys ed," I said.  

Charlotte pursed her thin lips together. "I didn't even think of phys ed. Don't you have a pair from last year you can wear?" 

"They are in pretty bad shape." 

"All right. Try on a few pairs while we're here." 

I found a pair that wasn't terribly ugly that Charlotte was willing to buy. I got underwear and socks, and I told Charlotte I needed a new bra too. She sighed and took me to the bra section. My mom took me to Victoria's Secret the last time I needed bras and underwear, but I didn't dare complain. I was just glad Alex and Mackenzie were at Charlotte's mother's for the afternoon. I couldn't imagine shopping for bras with Alex in tow.  

When we got back I found Julia on Facebook and sent her a friend request. I hoped she wasn't one of those people who never checked for friend requests. I really wanted to see who her school friends were and get the lowdown on my future classmates.  

At dinner that night, I asked Dad and Charlotte the name of the girl from St. Margaret who lived on our street.  

"Allie or something," Charlotte said.  

"Grimaldi," my dad said. The family's name is Grimaldi."  

It seems like my dad knows everyone in Laurel Falls. He's a physical therapy assistant at a practice that his cousin owns. Charlotte works there too, as a receptionist and appointment scheduler. She stayed home when Alex and Mackenzie were little, but started working about a year ago when Mackenzie started first grade. You'd think everyone in town needed physical therapy at one point. If I go to the grocery store with my dad, he has to stop and talk to at least six people while we are there. 

"They live in the yellow house on the corner," my dad added.  

"You should walk up after dinner and introduce yourself," Charlotte said.  

After dinner, I did just that. I knocked on the door and  a tall man with a beard answered. I realized I wasn't sure of the girl's name. Charlotte gets names wrong a lot.  

"Hi, I'm Nick and Charlotte's daughter from down the street. I wanted to meet your daughter, if she's home." 

"Oh, sure. Come on in. I heard you were going to be in Alice's class at St. Margaret Academy." He ushered me in and stood at the bottom of the stairs and yelled for Alice. I looked around the house. It seemed to have the same general layout of Dad and Charlotte's and many of the houses in the neighborhood. We live in a borough called Mapleton. The houses have a living room, dining room, and kitchen on the ground floor, and bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Most of them have attics that are mainly used for storage and unfinished basements. Most people have their washer and dryer in the basement, rather than a separate laundry room. The Grimaldi's house seemed to fit this pattern also.  

A tall, thin girl with short brown hair bounced down the stairs.  

"Hey, you're Olivia, right? I've been meaning to stop by and meet you. Do you want to go sit out on the porch?"  

"Sure," I said. "You can call me Liv. Most everyone does." 

We sat on outdoor furniture on the front porch.  

"So, you're going to be a junior, right?" Alice said.  

"That's right." 

"Cool. Me too. Do you want to walk together the first day?" 

"Definitely," I said. "I went shopping today and I realized I had no idea what kind of shoes to get for school.  What do you recommend?"   

"Well, a lot of the kids are preppy. They usually wear loafers, top-siders, or oxfords. Some of the girls wear flats. Toms are popular, but the principal was threatening to ban them. They also said we aren't allowed those slippers that look like moccasins. We also aren't allowed boots, anything open-toed, or sneakers." 

"I knew about the sneakers but wow, that doesn't leave a lot of options. Do you mind wearing a uniform?"    

"I'm used to it by now. I went to North Side Catholic from kindergarten to eighth and then to St. Margaret." 

"I've never gone to Catholic school before," I said. "You take a religion class, right? And go to church on holy days and stuff?" 

Alice nodded. Her eyes were a startling shade of green. "We have religious studies three days a week and church music once a week. There's an all-school Mass every first Friday of the month and on holy days." 

"I'm sorry, but what the heck is church music? Do I have to play an instrument or something?" 

Alice smiled at that. "No, you just practice singing hymns for church. It's kind of like a choir practice."  

"Oh, that sounds easy. I hope I'm not completely lost in religious studies. I've been to Methodist Sunday School, but that's about it." 

"It's not hard. This year is about church history. So it's just like a history class, only easier. You only have to really know about popes and saints and stuff. Nothing about wars and all that. Julia's mom told the other moms that you're really smart, so I'm sure you'll do fine." 

"Does everyone know everything about me already?" I knew it was a small school, but it still seemed weird that people were talking about me before I even met them or started school. Then again, if I didn't have to tell the story about why I moved back to Laurel Falls, that was probably a good thing. I still missed Buddy and cried a lot before going to sleep at night.  

"There was a booster meeting a few nights ago and Mrs. Smithfield told the other parents about you. That's all." 

"That's good. Is there anything else I should know? Any teachers to be careful around or anything like that?"  

"We have a new principal this year, Sister Martha May. She used to be one of the teachers. She has the biggest ankles you ever saw." 

"Um, okay. Anything else?" 

"You mean guys, right?" Alice hugged one of her knees to her chest. The cutest is definitely Justin Connor. He's the quarterback. He went to North Side until fourth grade, and then his family moved and he transferred to South Side." 

"Were all the girls upset when he left?" Football players weren't really my thing, but there's never too much information when you're the newbie.  

"It was a huge deal, yeah," Alice said. "So Mrs. Smithfield said you'll probably be in the honors group."  

"I guess so."  

She told me about a few more people, but the names started to run together. We put each other's numbers in our phones before I went home.