A Season Bound in Shades of Friendship
an excerpt

a collaboration with John Peters

Sarah Jane sat in the cool shadows of the cave entrance. She took a long drag on the cigarette she had stolen from her mom's purse, then took a sip from the can of beer she had taken from her sister's car.

She coughed, wisps of smoke rolling from her mouth..

The cigarettes had taken some getting used to, but now, six months after smoking her first one, Sarah Jane could go through a whole pack in a single day if she really tried, not that she wanted to. She still hated the stench that hung in the air around heavy smokers, and the smell and taste of tobacco did little for her. Smoking was just something to do.

Drinking was a different matter. Today was the third, maybe the fourth time, she had drunk beer, and Sarah Jane found she hated the taste. The only thing that kept her from gagging on each swallow was to follow it with a deep drag from the cigarette. Sarah Jane did like the buzz she got after drinking a beer – she felt a little like her head was floating.

She leaned against the wall of the cave and looked out over the meadow, toward the mountains. Sarah Jane knew she should be in school, but it was the last day, so who would care if she cut classes?

Who would care if I quit? Who would even notice?

Her step-mom would scream at her every time Sarah Jane said she wanted to quit school, tell her she'd grow up to become trailer trash without an education Sarah Jane always wanted to scream back "you have an education and look what it got you." But, she never did.

One more year.

That's all Sarah Jane really needed. When she finished tenth grade, she planned to quit. Virginia law said she had to go to school until she was 18, but she had found one out – a sixteen-year-old who is working fulltime, and can pass a ninth-grade proficiency test doesn't have to return to school.

Sarah Jane was already smarter than half her teachers. Next summer, between her tenth and eleventh grade years, she would turn sixteen. She would move away from home, get a job, and that would be that. As long as she held a job, at least until she was 18, school would be a distant memory. Then she was going to move up into the mountains she was staring at now and never return.

She took another swallow of beer, then a long drag on the cigarette. She exhaled slowly, releasing a stream of smoke that reminded her of a train engine's smoke stack.

That's when she noticed movement on the other end of the meadow. Some of the scrub brush under the trees wiggle back and forth. Sarah Jane smashed the cigarette into the dirt floor, scrambled to her feet and watched as the brush parted and two figures slipped from the forest.

Two familiar figures.

Vincent and Josh.

Sarah Jane stepped further back into the cave. If she had any friends, it would be Vincent and Josh, but she didn't cut school to hang out with them. She wanted to be alone.

Still, she was curious.

What are they doing here?

Sarah Jane had been coming to her cave for a year now, it was her place to hide from the world. Sometimes she'd sit here and cry. Other times she'd pull out an artist pad and draw out images that reflected her mood. Sometimes she'd have enough money to buy a couple of pencils, other times she'd use pieces of coal left from the fires she's burn here, in her cave, when she hid here during the winter.

Most of the time, though, Sarah Jane would just sit at the entrance of the cave and stare at the mountains, and dream of living there, in an old cabin, on her own, not having to listen to her step-mom complain about how lazy Sarah Jane was, or how grateful she and her sisters should be that she hadn't put them all in an orphanage when their father was killed, though Sarah Jane knew that would never happen because the monthly social services allotment would go away.

She had never seen Vincent or Josh, or anyone else, around here. Vincent was like a little brother, kind of stupid in a funny way. He was thirteen, short and skinny, but he still acted like a 10-year-old, believing everything anyone ever told him. Some of the older guys at school would tell him stories, or make him do the dumbest things, just to get a laugh at his expense. He never seemed to care. A minute after being embarrassed he'd be off on some other tangent, laughing or running down the hall.

Josh was the exact opposite. He was large, not fat, just big-boned as his mother always said. And strong. Vincent once got his head stuck between the railing on the front steps of school -- another joke by some of the older kids who tricked him into sliding his head between the bars. Josh grabbed the bars with his meaty hands and with a grunt bent them far enough apart to free Vincent. Everyone tried to act like it was no big deal, but Sarah Jane saw a couple of the football players later that day, trying to bend the bars, and they couldn’t budge them an inch.

Standing there, hidden in the cave, Sarah Jane smiled as she watched the two stumble across the field. Little Vincent, his skin as black as coal, and big giant Josh, as pale as a ghost.

Maybe that’s why Sarah Jane liked them so much. Because they were so different, and she fit in nicely between the two. Nearly as tall as Josh, with skin a light chocolate cream color revealing her mélangeon heritage, the three of them looked like a gradient scale from white to black, when they stood together.

More than that, though, was the fact that the three of them didn’t really fit in with any of the cliques at school, yet none of them were loners. She felt comfortable around them, even missed the two sometimes. But not right now. This was a day she wanted to be alone, after last night’s fight with her step mom. She just wanted to be alone in the one place she felt at home -- outdoors.

Still, a warming comfort seemed to fill her soul as the two trudged through the waist-high weeds. Truth was, she thought maybe both of them had a crush on her. It was hard to tell with Josh, because he said so little, but she was pretty sure with Vincent -- he was always staring at her, or following her through the school hallways, or holding a seat on the bus for her. And one day, when most of the bus had emptied, he took her hand. The action caught her by surprise, and when she turned toward Vincent he stared straight ahead, not saying a word, but he didn’t let go until the bus pulled up to the trailer park where he lived.

Sometimes, when things got too loud at home and she couldn’t escape to her cave, she’d try to remember that awkward peace she felt when he did that. It wasn’t that she had a crush on Vincent or anything. But still, it felt nice.

“Sarah Jane? Come on, SJ we know you’re out here.”

She watched from the shadows of her cave as the two boys moved ever closer, pushing tall grass this way and that. In some places all she could see was the scrub of Vincent’s black hair above it. She stifled a giggle. Stupid beer was making her too easy to find.

“Sarah Jane, we cut school to hang with you. Come onnnn. Don’t be such a draaag.” Josh let the words stretch and it sounded like her whiny kid sister when she wanted Sarah Jane to play Barbies with her. The sudden image of Josh in pigtails and a dress was too much and Sarah Jane couldn’t stop the laughter from echoing off the cave walls.

“There you are. Whatcha laughing at? Think it’s funny to hide on us? Can’t believe you were going to ditch and not even tell us. Sheesh.” Josh craned his head forward and squinted as he looked into the cool darkness of the cave.

Sarah Jane swigged down the last warm gulp of beer in the can and dropped it near the crushed cigarette. She stepped out of the shadows, a crooked smile hung on her face. She may not have wanted them here, but here they were so she might as well make the best out of it. “Hey guys. How’d you find me?”

Vincent stumbled up behind Josh, his face beamed as soon as he locked eyes with her. “I know you come out here. I’ve seen you. I don’t usually bug you though cause I figure you want to be alone, but it’s the last day of school SJ and it’s a kicker day.” He swung his thin arms at the sky. “We should be out doing something fun, not hanging out with those losers. Besides, it’s not like we do anything at school today.” Vincent’s too-white smile consumed the lower half of his face. “I hid something out here for us all last night. I’ll be right back.” With that he took off running up behind the cave entrance towards an old rock pile sprigged with long grass.

Sarah Jane looked at Josh, but he just shrugged his shoulders. The two of them stood and waited for Vincent to get back. The silence started to eat at Sarah Jane until she reached out and punched Josh in the arm.

“Ow! What the heck was that for?”

“You were there?” She punched him again and jumped back doing her best cat impression, ready to pounce.

“Ohhhh. So you think you can take me, huh? You’re not so tough.” He lunged towards her closing his arms in a scissor grip, but she bounded out of reach and gave him a shove.

“Hah ha! Toooo slow.” She bounced around him in a circle, taunting him. “Uh huh. Oh yeah. Who’s your mama now, boy? Who’s your mama now?” The little buzz in her brain fuelled the game.

“T’aint you.” Josh reached out again for her, almost getting a hold of the little track jacket she was wearing, but not quite. She jumped back and slammed into Vincent, knocking him to the ground and falling backwards on top of him.
“Oh!” She rolled over and looked at him. “You okay?”

He smiled wide. “I’m fine. Thank goodness these are cans and not bottles though. He lifted a sack up from his prone position. How bout you? You all right?”