“All right.” Aunt Cathy reached into her purse for the cell phone she carried everywhere. She called Doctor Conway’s office and arranged for him to see me right away, before she turned back to the chiropractor. “Thanks, Kyle. I’ve got to admit I’ve been at my wits’ end with this mess. It doesn’t help when I email Adam and he tells me to handle it. He says he has enough on his plate in a different war-zone. He doesn’t even take it seriously when Helene Nelson, the C.P.S. investigator contacts him.”

  “Hey, kids will do it to you.” Doctor Kyle ushered us to the door. “Sarah, I’m sure your aunt’s told you this already. But no guy hurts a girl when he loves her. He needs help. I don’t know who your stalker is, but turn him in to the authorities. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for him.”

  “I’ll think about it,” I said. The whole thing with Jason reminded me of the song I’d learned in grade school. Freedom isn’t free. You’ve got to pay the price. You’ve got to sacrifice for your liberty.

  Hadn’t I paid enough? Suffered enough? When would all this trouble end? I shuddered as another thought came. What if they pushed enough of Dad’s buttons? Would he make me move to California? Or would he enroll me in some boarding school?

  Surprisingly, Mom caught up with us at Doctor Conway’s office. She and Aunt Cathy had a short confab about me. Mom wasn’t happy with the idea of me seeing a counselor, but my aunt told her that Dad insisted in his latest email. Either I got my head straight or I was headed to California until I turned eighteen. An Army lawyer would be in touch. Before Mom exploded, Aunt Cathy left for the clinic and Mom stuck around. We didn’t talk, which was okay with me. She couldn’t hassle me about leaving Book City when she was supposed to be running the store.

  Three hours later, it seemed like everybody was home when we finally arrived, although it was barely after lunch. Bruce’s car was parked in the drive next to Warren’s Mustang, and Timber’s pickup. Jason was there, too. He got out of his sports car when he saw me.

  “Hi, Mrs. Masters. Hey, Sarah. Let’s go have a soda,” Jason said, coming toward me.

  I took a step back and shook my head. “No. I’ve got a ton of homework.”

  Mom frowned thoughtfully. “Sarah got hurt at school again, Jason. Is there any way you can walk her from some of her classes?”

  “No way!” I hoped I didn’t sound panicked. As Grandma would say, it was like asking the fox to guard the hen house. “It’d be majorly un-cool.”

  “Get used to it,” Mom said. “And I don’t see what’s so un-cool about it, Sarah. My boyfriends and I used to neck in the halls between classes.”

  “Gross. We’d get suspended for that,” I said. “SFA has rules that public schools don’t enforce about public displays of affection.”

  “Well, that’s a dumb rule,” Mom said. “Will you watch over Sarah for me, Jason?”

  “What’s so dumb about respecting our academic environment?” I tried to distract her with the headmaster’s favorite lecture on PDA. I didn’t want Jason around me. Period! No exceptions!

  “I’d rather have my daughter neck in the safety of the school, than out at the Lake Mary overlook,” Mom said, and repeated her question. “Will you watch out for Sarah, Jason?”

  She was unstoppable. I glared at Jason as he agreed.

  Mom started for the house. “Now, your stalker will have to leave you alone, Sarah.”

  “Great,” I muttered. “Just great.”

  I looked at Jason after Mom left. “Why are you here? Do you still need a punching bag?”

  “I came to apologize.” His voice was as stiff as he was.

  “That makes me feel a lot better. Did you bring another crapload of presents? Throw them in the garbage because that’s where anything you give me goes. I’ve told you more than once that I’m done.”

  “It’s your fault.” He loomed over me. “If you watched your mouth and didn’t act like a slut, I wouldn’t have to hurt you.”

  “We broke up, remember?” I lifted my chin. I wouldn’t back away or run from him, regardless of how scared I got. “You said you wanted a second chance and that you wouldn’t try to control my life anymore. You agreed I could have other friends, too and you lied.”

  “Don’t push it.” Jason reached for me.

  I ducked away. “Back off. You don’t get it, do you? My real dad wants me to move to California and if he finds out you hurt me again, he’ll send me there or to boarding school.”

  “Then behave yourself.” Jason caught my shoulders. “Stay away from Watkins and stop running off at the mouth.”

  “Let her go, Phillips.” Timber came at a run from the house.

  Fear slammed into me when I saw the rage fill Jason’s face. I didn’t want Timber in trouble or hurt like he had been last spring. It wasn’t as if Jason fought fair.

  “It’s okay,” I squeaked.

  “Somebody hurt Sarah at school,” Jason said. “She just has to be more careful, not hang out with the wrong people.”

  Timber nodded and held out his hand to me. “I couldn’t agree more.”

  That shocked Jason. His grip loosened. I slipped away from him. But I didn’t take Timber’s hand. I just stopped in front of him. I felt so safe with Timber behind me, like a giant protective shadow. “We’re through, Jason.”

  “What?” He started toward me, pasting on the charm. “Come on, Sarah. You don’t mean that. You said you’d go to Homecoming with me.”

  “No. We’re done. I never want to see you again.” I pushed by Timber and ran for the house.

  Once I was safe on the porch, I looked back. With measured steps, Timber stalked toward Jason, but my ex didn’t stick around to see what happened next. Jason bolted to his car. He raced out of our drive and was history. Relief swept through me.

  Timber stared after him, then turned and came back to the porch. “What happened today, Sarah?”

  “I’m not going there with you,” I said. “It’s over.”

  “You’re a mess.” Timber nodded at the sling. “You were barely over that fall down the stairs. The guy deserves a beat-down.”

  “But you’re not giving him one,” I said. “I don’t want you arrested. Jason will call the cops and press charges.”

  Timber took another step forward. He framed my face with his hands. “I can’t take you to Homecoming.”

  “I didn’t ask you to.” It still felt as if my heart shattered in little pieces on the wooden deck. “I didn’t dump Jason to be with you.” I twisted away from Timber and opened the front door. “I dumped him for me.”

  I couldn’t be around anyone. I ran into my room. It looked different.

  My stuffed animals were all over the bed. Board games were stacked on top of the dresser. The dolls I hadn’t been able to find stood on shelves behind the desk. And a bunch of my paperbacks were in the bookcase. Bruce had made Priscilla come through with a lot of my stuff. So, why did my heart hurt?

  Slamming the door behind me, I flung myself on the bed and burst into tears. I cried myself to sleep. Things couldn’t get any worse.

  Of course, they did.

  Several hours later, Warren knocked on my door. “Hey, shrimp-bait. You awake?”

  “Yeah. What’s up?”

  Warren opened the door and looked at me. “Ms. Olson’s here.”

  “Oh, my Gawd! I forgot all about practice.” I got off the bed. After a quick stop in the bathroom to wash my face and comb my hair, I headed for the front room. Tall and blonde, Ms. Olson still looked like the cheerleader she’d been in college.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I can’t believe I blew off today.”

  “No worries.” Ms. Olson came over and gently hugged me. “You’ll be there tomorrow, won’t you?”

  “Yes, but I can’t do the stunts or baskets before Friday.” I might as well get the bad news out first. “Doctor Kyle wants to see me that afternoon.”

  “It’ll be fine.” Ms. Olson smiled at me, but I knew she was faking it the same way she taught us to do when one of the teams was losing again. “Enrique Fernandez told Rita to tell me you were hurt. I wanted to see how you are.”

  I bit my lip hard so I wouldn’t cry. I couldn’t cry, not here in Priscilla’s Palace. I’d never hear the end of it from Mom or Bruce. “You’re dropping me from the squad, aren’t you?”

  “Not yet.” Ms. Olson smoothed my hair back from my face. “But if this keeps up, I won’t have a choice. You know that don’t you?”

  I nodded and swallowed hard. “B.J. would be a good flyer to replace me. She needs more training, but she can do it. And she and Dallas can help you pick someone from JV to take her place when I’m off Senior Varsity.”

  “And what will you do?” Warren demanded. “You love cheerleading.”

  “Maybe I could go back to the J.V. squad for a while.” I took a deep breath. “Or I could do what Dad wants and go to that boarding school. I don’t think I want to be at the academy if I can’t cheer.”

  “What are you talking about?” Mom came out of the kitchen. “I thought we had a deal. If Sarah made all the practices and helped the new girls, everything would be okay.”

  “She missed practice today,” Ms. Olson said. “And I can’t pull the Senior Varsity squad out of the rec cheer competition circuit this late. I won’t pull them out after they did car washes, candy sales, and bake sales all spring to raise money for the season. Either Sarah deals with whoever is hurting her and it stops, or she’s back to J.V.”

  “Anything else?” Mom demanded, glaring at my coach.

  “You’ll be sixteen at the end of October.” Ms. Olson looked at me again. “Abbie and Marcie told me you would be interested in working at the espresso stand.”

  Mom beamed at us from the kitchen doorway. “I think it’s a wonderful idea. Sarah wants to get a job and this will teach her responsibility.”

  “No way.” Bruce came up and stood behind her. “No daughter of mine will be a bikini barista.”

  TWENTY-TWO

  I was still mad the next day when Warren drove us to school. “Who does Bruce think he is?” I scrolled through my text messages, deleting the ones from Jason. “A bikini barista? Where’s he coming from? This is Stewart Falls, not Skanks R Us Espresso down in Marysville.”

  I didn’t mention that Bruce might have a point. Of course, I was also pretty sure Ms. Olson didn’t know how Marcie and Abbie dressed to make tips. Then, again, I wasn’t sure our cheer coach would freak out about their clothes either.

  Warren shrugged and signaled for the turn through McDonalds.’ “I’m starting to think he’s not all that bad.”

  “What?” I gaped at him and then scraped my jaw off the floor. “Get serious, will you? Dad would let me work for Ms. Olson, and if he doesn’t have a problem with it, neither should Bruce.”

  “Grandma always says a guy can pretend to care, but he can’t pretend to be there.”

  “So?”

  Warren pulled in the drive-through. “Think about it, Sarah. Where’s Dad when we need him? If you ended up dead, I’m beginning to wonder if he’d even make it back here for the funeral.”

  I gaped at him. “He cares. I know he does. He says it whenever he calls.”

  “Then where is he?” Warren waited for the car ahead of us to move past the speaker. “I’m doing the best I can to look after you, but it’d be great to have some back-up once in a while. And I know he has to go where the Army sends him, but couldn’t he fix it, so we had reliable adults to help us? Why doesn’t he arrange for Aunt Cathy to have someone on her side instead of just dumping everything to do with us on her shoulders?”

  Tears stung my eyes. “Well, Mom talks a good story, but she’s not gonna step up either, is she?”

  “No, but Bruce has arranged for you to take karate. Soon, you’ll be able to take care of yourself.”

  “I can’t believe he did that. Doesn’t Dad pay for enough?”

  “I heard Bruce say he’d pay for it when you start as soon as your shoulder gets better.”

  That was a major surprise. Bruce had cheap down to an art form. I considered what I should do about Mom, Bruce, cheer, and breaking up with Jason. Toby Keith’s I Wanna Talk About Me began to play. Once. Twice. I watched Jason’s number come up on my phone.

  Time to block it, and I did. Now, none of his calls would come through and I wouldn’t have to deal with his texting either. It was time to cancel his ring-tone. We were so done. I texted Abbie that we had filled the car with my stuff and to round up the cheerleaders. There was no way I’d leave anything in Priscilla’s Palace to disappear when she started acting up again. And she would. After living there for six years, I knew that for sure.

  At the window, Warren gave our usual order—an Egg McMuffin for him, a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit for me, along with hash browns and my regular mocha. He glanced at me, but didn’t say a word about the phone or the calls from Jason.

  I tried to distract him with the karate stuff. “Why did Bruce call your karate school?”

  “He’s worried about you. He called Sensei Nichols when Mom phoned from Conway’s office. When are you going to tell them the truth about Jason?”

  I eyed my brother warily. He pulled forward to pay for and pick up our order. “Did Timber tell you?”

  “We kind of told each other,” Warren said. “It’s gotten real obvious, Sarah. Every time you’re alone with the guy, you get hurt. He comes near you and I’m kicking his butt.”

  “He’s bigger than you are.”

  Warren laughed. “I could throw him through his sports car, shrimp-bait, and we both know it. Now, when do you plan to ‘fess up about the jerk?”

  “It’ll be tough. Mom’s so impressed with Jason being the son of the mayor.” I grabbed Warren’s arm. “You can’t tell them. Promise me.”

  Warren put an arm around my shoulders. “How long are you going to take that bum’s crap, Sarah?”

  “We broke up,” I said. “I’ll tell everybody after the last football game, at Homecoming. Then nobody can think our problems caused Jason to stress out and be a crappy quarterback.”

  “He’s just a lousy human being.” Warren hugged me. “Hey, maybe Aunt Cathy could delouse him when she does some farmer’s cows or pigs.”

  “Or Grandma’s horses,” I teased. “Don’t tell, Warren. Please.”

  “I won’t.” Warren kept his arm on my shoulders. “It’s been you and me for too long to go back now. You can trust me, Sarah.”

  When we arrived at the school, Warren carried my backpack for me. I picked up Jason’s letterman’s jacket off the back seat. I carried it up the front steps, handed it to him where he obviously waited for me, and kept walking. Luis let out a low whistle and Dave grabbed the front door and held it for me to enter the main office.

  At lunch, I sat with Kaitlyn and Rita. I’d barely started my salad when Timber strolled up. He looked fabulous, with his black hair curling around his shoulders. “Okay if I sit here?”

  “It’s fine.” My heart felt like it leaped to life and I couldn’t help but smile back at him.

  He sat down and opened his lunch sack. “This is pretty pitiful, kid. I’m totally out of chocolate chip cookies.”

  “So, that’s why you’re here,” I teased. “Anyway, it’s all Rita’s fault. She’s the one who absolutely pigged out on the cookie dough.”

  Without being asked, Timber twisted the cap off my chocolate milk and put it back in front of my tray. “Then she could help you make more, right?”

  Rita and Kaitlyn both cracked up. I laughed too, and the hurt from yesterday when he bailed on Homecoming melted away. I knew the real reason he couldn’t take me, and it was a good one. It wasn’t like he had a date with someone else. He needed to follow through with other promises he’d made and stay sober for a year. I didn’t want him to start drinking again or fighting in the bars in Pine Ridge. He needed to take care of himself and follow through on his goals. He was too good a guy to fail at life. Maybe I should think about taking my own advice.

  Later, Timber walked me to my science class. “Saint Pat’s team is fast, lethal, and smart. I hope Jason’s ready for them. Next Friday’s game could be bad. They’ll run over the Highlanders without any trouble.”

  What Timber didn’t say was that our arch-rivals would be out for blood this time around. When he was the quarterback last year, he’d made them earn each and every touch-down. Defeating them last season had paved the way for Stewart Falls to go to State.

  I appreciated the warning. Jason would be totally pissed when the Highlanders lost to Saint Patrick’s Prep Academy. And we would lose. It was just a question of by how much.

  “We broke up,” I said. “He better leave me alone.”

  Timber caught my left arm. “Sarah, talk to me. Tell me what’s really happened with Phillips. I can’t do anything to him on guess-work.”

  “No. I’m not ratting on him.” I pulled free and hurried into class. No way was I the kind of girl who’d set up her brother and boyfriend-to-be. Jason wouldn’t be pounded into the ground because I told them to do it. No way. No how!

  Rain misted the parking lot when we came out of the gym after cheer practice. If I’d paid attention to the weather report this morning, I’d have brought my coat to school, but I hadn’t. Jason came over to me and put his jacket around my shoulders. I ducked away.

  “Come on, Sarah.” He jerked his head toward the parking lot. “Everybody’s watching. You promised to go to Homecoming with me. You know, I need you.”

  I hesitated. I felt so sorry for him, but I didn’t want to be with him. How could he do this in front of the other cheerleaders and the football team?

  I wished Timber was here. Where was Warren? I felt like an absolute idiot when I wore Jason’s letterman’s coat, but I didn’t know what to do.

  Mayor Phillips waved at us, and I headed toward him. “I saw part of your practice. Great cheerleading again,” he told me. “Coach should send you gals out next Friday against Saint Pat’s. You could kick some serious tail.”