Some of the other girls looked shocked.
“You bitch!” Ruta cried, and swung at me. I caught her wrist in midair and turned it sharply. She screamed, and I stepped forward, my face in hers so closely that, as Shakespeare would say, our breaths did kiss.
“Don’t you dare make up any more stories about me,” I said in a cold, gruff whisper. I felt more like Ava, the rage in me rising to the top and spilling out like milk boiling over in a pan. Ruta wilted with the pain. “If I hear that you are, I’ll come see you in your sleep.”
I let go of her and returned to my locker. No one spoke. Ruta turned away, rubbing her wrist. Meg started to put her arm around her to comfort her, but Ruta threw it off.
“Stop!” she cried.
I smiled to myself. How quickly an innocent gesture would look telling to the others. She had tried to poison them against me but only poisoned herself. I couldn’t wait to tell Daddy all about this and how well I had handled it and Mark Daniels.
But Mark Daniels wasn’t as discouraged as I had thought. He was right, though. Despite myself, I still felt a longing to be with him, to have fun together. Pressing all that down was like smothering a starving baby.
“Okay,” he said, stepping up beside me as I made my way through the halls at the end of the day. “This is my final offer. Maybe they’re more to your liking and you’ll reconsider.”
He handed me a slip of paper and walked faster. I watched him head toward the exit to the parking lot, and then I looked at the paper. He had listed four more personal references: Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Madonna.
It was certainly difficult being hard with him, I thought, laughing to myself, but one thing I knew for sure, I couldn’t let Daddy know that.
“Well, what happened with him?” Marla asked me when we got into the car. “I saw him talking to you even after you told him off at the school entrance this
morning.”
“What, were you spying on me?” I thought for a moment. “Ava didn’t tell you to do that, did she?”
“Maybe Daddy told me to do it.”
“You’re lying. I’m going to ask him, and he’ll be enraged. You said it yourself. He wants us to look out for each other, not hurt each other.”
“Nobody told me to do it. I’m just trying to be a good sister and help you,” she whined. I had frightened her. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
I felt myself calm down. “It’s over, Marla. Stop asking me about him.”
“Good, but you don’t sound happy,” she said. “I’m just telling you as a good sister would. You’d better be careful.”
I didn’t speak for the remainder of the trip. When we arrived at home, Mrs. Fennel told me my father was waiting for me in the living room.
“Marla, you go to your room,” she added. Marla’s shoulders sank. She had so hoped to listen in on any discussion. Maybe she was afraid I would still tell Daddy what she had done and said.
“Tell me everything,” Daddy said when I entered the living room. Dressed in his ruby velvet robe, he was sitting in his armchair. He put down the book he had been reading while waiting for me and folded his hands.
I told him what I had said to Mark and his reaction and then how he had continued approaching me. “He kept kidding around about it, but I didn’t smile or laugh at anything he said.”
“Very persistent. Are you sure you were stern enough?”
“Oh, yes, Daddy,” I said. I repeated the words I had used and then told him what had happened in the girls’ locker room and how I had turned the tables on Ruta Lee. That brought a smile to his face.
“Very clever of you, Lorelei. But,” he added with concern, “I don’t want you getting into trouble at school. None of my girls gets into trouble like that and brings unpleasant attention to us. Ignore them from now on. Your days at that school are limited.”
The way he said that made me think we might be moving again very soon.
“Are we moving?”
“Soon, yes.”
“How soon?”
“I’m not sure yet, but don’t worry about it, Lorelei. Moving at short notice is not a problem for any of us,” he added. “Okay. You can go do your homework if you’d like.”