Читать книгу The Prized Girl - Amy K. Green - Страница 16

THE SWIMMING HOLE was a twenty-minute walk from school grounds. Jenny wasn’t allowed to go to the swimming hole, but not because of one of Linda’s overbearing phobias, just good parenting. Most kids weren’t allowed to go. There was actually a town ordinance preventing kids under eighteen from swimming there. A rock formation caused the river to pool in one spot, and the rumor around school was it was a hundred feet deep.

Jenny followed JP through the tall grass on a thin path matted down to let them know they were going the right way. The blades tickled her legs, and she couldn’t help but swat at them, just in case there was even a chance it was a bug.

They hadn’t spoken much since they started on their way. Being new to town, JP had just learned about the spot, and his curiosity dwarfed any attempt at patience. They left right after his lunch period. He waited by her locker and extended her the offer to come along. Jenny exhausted a few subtle attempts to decline. She explained they were both under the allowed age, quickly realizing that only fueled his fire. She tried suggesting they wait until after school, but when he showed zero hesitation in going without her, she gave in.

The river became audible at the same point the flat ground turned to a steep decline and the tall grass gave way to a dark dirt, more defined by the thick and mangled roots dipping in and out of it than the trees they belonged to.

Jenny was methodic in her steps, more like sideways shuffles at this point. The last thing she needed was to trip and fall down the hill, rolling by JP like a total spaz. The first time he reached up to take her hand to help her through a spot of loose dirt that he himself had skidded through, she wasn’t sure if she should take it. Would he be more impressed if she waved him off?

“C’mon,” he insisted, in one word convincing her she was over-thinking it.

She didn’t hesitate again to take his hand, three times total before the dirt ended and the smooth surface of the massive rock began. They walked together to the cliff’s edge, laying eyes on the water below. The thin river poured into a still pool, a circumference of roughly fifty feet, before spilling over the back side and continuing on its way.

“It’s pretty cool,” JP announced, bestowing it with the rare approval of a teenager.

“Yeah,” Jenny agreed. It was cool. It was beautiful and quiet, and its perfection was only interrupted by several warning signs threatening all sorts of deathly peril.

JP allowed another second of romantic silence before pulling his shirt over his head and kicking off his boots. “It’s gonna be cold as shit,” he said, sliding his socks off as he undid the button on his jeans.

Jenny looked away as he undressed, unsure of the protocol here. She slowly removed her own boots to feign shared enthusiasm.

He was oblivious. Down to just his boxers, JP took two steps backward, rubbing his hands together, and crouching into a runner’s stance. He made eye contact with Jenny, throwing her a wink, before sprinting forward and leaping off the edge.

“Woo-hoo,” he hollered out while midair, waving his arms and legs, reminding Jenny he was just a kid too, before hitting the water and slipping below the surface.

The splash subsided and the water calmed. Jenny slid off her sweatshirt, waiting for him to reappear. It was taking too long. Was he messing with her? She moved as close to the edge as possible, staring down at his point of entry. Her breathing stopped. This was her punishment. Rules weren’t just to ruin her day; they were in place for a reason and now this guy was drowning.

The water began to ripple, and there he was, coming to the surface. She exhaled. She could see the pale skin of his back and the stripes on his boxers, but something wasn’t right. He breached the surface flat and facedown.

Jenny panicked. It might not be as deep as everyone said and he had just jumped right in. Did he break his neck? On instinct she moved to the less severe slope of the rock, sliding on her butt down to the water’s edge. She could feel the sharp rocks stabbing her, but she didn’t slow down. She crawled over the final rock and into the water, deep immediately and the bottom unfathomable to her searching feet.

The second she started splashing toward him, his body moved.

JP rolled onto his back, then upright, taking in a huge breath through his grin.

“I’m touched,” he teased.

“What the heck?” Jenny asked.

“I knew you were gonna be too chickenshit to get in, so I thought I’d give you a little motivation.”

“You’re a jerk,” she said through shortened breaths as she kicked her arms and legs to stay afloat. Relieved and mad, but more relieved.

“Get on your back, you look like you’re going to drown.”

“I’m not going to drown, I’m tired from trying to save your life.” Jenny stopped treading water and swam closer to him. “I would have jumped in. You didn’t have to be an asshole.”

“Forgive me?” he asked, splashing a little water at her.

“Hey!” she yelled, splashing even more back.

They laughed and splashed like two typical teens, short on words and high on hormones. She was convinced the consequences, whatever they might be, would be totally worth it.

JENNY SAT DIRECTLY in the center of the couch. It was a stiff couch. All of the furniture in her house was. Her parents were trying to impress, but she wasn’t sure who. The only houseguest they ever had was Virginia and they couldn’t care less what she thought.

She wondered what her father’s place in New York City looked like. Small. That was the only detail he volunteered freely. So small it barely fit a bed. Just a flophouse for him to sleep. Jenny had never been; neither had her mother. It had been that way since Jenny was born, and it was only as she got older that Jenny started to realize how unusual it was. Occasionally her mother would make vague comments about her and Jenny visiting, but her father would only tolerate it in the abstract. He would reference “perhaps in the fall” or “perhaps in the spring,” whichever “perhaps” was at least three months away. Her mother seemed content just pretending they’d visit. Linda didn’t like being out of her comfort zone. She could keep it together enough to drag Jenny to every hotel ballroom in the Northeast for pageants, but she hated strange crowds and might implode if she ever set foot in Times Square. The city was Dad’s thing.

Her father pulled his Mercedes out of the driveway before sunrise every Monday and returned the following Friday night so late it was technically Saturday morning. Most of his coworkers worked six to seven days a week, but he worked seventeen hours a day, five days a week, so that he could spend the weekends with his family.

He stood before Jenny, rubbing his jaw, preparing his words. Linda sat on the edge of the chair to the right of the couch, her hands folded across her flawless white blouse.

“I want to know where you went,” he finally spoke.

The school had called Linda when Jenny left school to go to the swimming hole. Jenny had anticipated the call, but didn’t care. She was desperate for independence. She crossed her arms and leaned back, defiant.

“Please just tell him,” said Linda.

“Nowhere,” said Jenny.

“Nowhere?” he repeated.

“I didn’t feel well, so I left.”

Linda perked up. “Are you OK? You didn’t tell me.”

“She isn’t sick, Linda. I don’t know what’s going on with you, Jenny. Do you think I’ve been too lenient with you?” He stared hard at her.

“No,” she said, looking away.

“I think maybe I have. I let you walk away from the pageants. That was a mistake. I know something unfortunate happened to you, but it’s not an excuse to waste your life.”

“Nothing happened to me.” Jenny shot forward. “Mom is a lunatic.” She flopped back down, recrossing her arms and pouting.

Linda sighed.

“So, what’s your plan now?” he asked. “To be a degenerate like your sister? Isn’t it obvious? It’s right in your face what this behavior leads to.”

“I’m thirteen. I just want to go to school. Isn’t that enough?”

“You don’t want to go to school. You want to skip school.”

“It was one time. I won’t do it again.”

“I don’t go through all of this …” he said, waving his arms to encompass this, “so that you can just be a waste. Things won’t just work out because you’re special. You’re not special. No one is special. People work for what they achieve. We’re nipping it in the bud before it goes too far. Do you know what happens to little girls with no plan, no motivation, no goals?” he asked.

“They die?” Jenny spat back.

Her father whipped his face toward her, finger pointed. “Don’t you ever take that tone with me, do you understand?” His finger remained pointed at her, teeth clenched. This was how he spoke to Virginia, not her. She felt her lip quivering.

“I’m sorry,” she said as tears started to run down her face.

“You’re going to see the guidance counselor again, figure out something to do with yourself. You don’t have to do pageants, but you aren’t going to embarrass yourself.” His phone buzzed in his pocket, stealing his attention.

Linda used the opportunity to move to Jenny on the couch, throwing her arms around her. “It’s OK. You just lost your way a little bit. We’ll figure this out and you’ll be just perfect again.” She rocked Jenny in her arms as the young girl sobbed.

Her father slipped the phone back into his pocket, seeing the tears pouring from his daughter’s face. He allowed Linda to continue to bear the brunt of the consoling, but rested his palm on the back of Jenny’s head. “You don’t need to be upset, honey. I’m sorry I raised my voice.”

Jenny heard his words, but they didn’t help. The tone of his voice was going to stick with her. She was sick of being compared to her sister, judged like somehow all the strikes Virginia had against her were on Jenny too. People talk about the pressure to live up to the firstborn; no one says anything about how hard it can be to live down to one.

JENNY STAYED IN HER ROOM the rest of the weekend, only emerging for the bathroom and meals she was ordered to attend. With no phone and no computer to entertain her, she managed to finish her homework for the week. She had spent the last twenty-four hours reading about World War I and photosynthesis and felt no more prepared for the world.

At thirteen, she was so far away from having any control over her life. Thoughts flooded her brain until she worried her ears might start bleeding. Could she sit in this room until she turned eighteen? And then what? College? Would her parents pay for an out-of-state school? Somewhere far away that they couldn’t drive to? She doubted it. She needed legal and financial freedom, two things she couldn’t even imagine on the horizon. She wanted to scream. She wanted to pound her fists against the door.

A KNOCK WOKE JENNY from her nap around six on Sunday night. She walked to the door, opening it a crack. It was Virginia, dressed in baggy clothes that looked comfortable but unflattering. Jenny could never understand her sister. She just did nothing for no reason. She wasn’t too stupid to have a real job. She wasn’t too ugly to have a boyfriend. She wasn’t too boring to have friends. She simply existed. It was maddening.

Jenny opened the door the rest of the way and went back to her bed. “What do you want?” she asked, flopping back down.

“Sunday dinner,” said Virginia.

The two sisters didn’t agree on much, but in recent months Jenny had developed a similar distaste for the formal family affair.

“Tell them I’m sick.”

“No way. With two victims, their powers are dulled. If you leave me alone, it will be too strong. I will be destroyed,” said Virginia. There was her sense of humor. Humor that could get her friends. Why didn’t she have any friends?

Jenny laughed. “I think I’m going to get it worse than you. They’ve been lecturing me all weekend.”

Virginia perked up at this. She closed the bedroom door behind her and took a seat in a white wooden chair next to Jenny’s vanity table. “What did you do?”

“Skipped some classes at school,” Jenny said, and shrugged.

“What for?”

“For fun. I don’t know. Whatever.”

“That does sound fun.”

“My mom says you quit another job.”

“I bet she did.”

“Why did you quit?” Jenny pressed.

Virginia just shrugged.

“What do you do all day?” Jenny asked, rolling to her side and propping her head on her hand like they were two girls at a slumber party.

“What’s with all the questions? You sound like Linda and Dad.”

“Just curious,” said Jenny. “Can I ask you something?” She sat back up and crossed her legs underneath her.

“You just asked me like fifty things,” said Virginia.

“Yeah, but you aren’t answering any of them.”

“Fine, what?”

“Were you always like this?” asked Jenny, keeping it vague and not sure what clarification to provide even if she wanted to.

Virginia tilted her head, staring at Jenny, as if debating whether or not to take offense.

“I didn’t mean it, like, mean,” Jenny clarified.

“Well, as long as you didn’t mean it like mean,” Virginia mocked her sister.

“Never mind,” Jenny grumbled, knowing better than to try to scratch the surface with Virginia. If it was some sort of genetic adult-onset dystopian misery, Jenny would just have to deal with it. Symptoms were already presenting themselves.

Jenny rolled off the bed and past Virginia. “Let’s get this over with.”