I eyed the pair of them. “What’s going on?”

  Helene sat down next to the bed. “Well, let me summarize. You got hurt Saturday night at the Homecoming Dance. Bruce found you. Because he offends almost everyone he meets, the cops figured he beat you up.”

  I blinked and shook my head. “Helene, I may have a concussion, but I know all that. I want to know what’s going to happen next. Do I need Annie Kincaid here? She’s my lawyer.”

  “Well, that was fast,” Helene said with her quick smile. “Okay, we’ll make sure we keep her in the loop. You kids are something.”

  “It’s like what Ms. Olson says,” I said. “We are a team and we help each other, whether we’re on the squad or not. Bruce isn’t in trouble, is he? He insulted me lots of times, but he’s doing better. He sees Bernice, my counselor.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Helene said. “It’s a point in his favor. Anyway, your police chief called my office. Since I have an open investigation going, I took away Warren and Priscilla.”

  “To Grandma’s. She said they stayed with her.” I closed my eyes. “I hope they weren’t scared.”

  “It would have been worse if your grandmother didn’t have her foster license,” Helene said. “As it is, Bruce and I are planning for Priscilla to return home. Warren will be staying with your grandma for a little longer. They could be in foster homes and we want to avoid that if possible.”

  “Gross. They’d have been really pissed at me if that happened.” I sighed. “I guess I should have told the truth sooner and not tried to cover it up when somebody else was doing something wrong.”

  “That would be a good idea.” Aunt Cathy moved and sat on the bed beside me. “And if nobody else listens, you can always talk to me. I’m sorry, Sarah. I thought you knew I’m on your side, no matter what.”

  “I did, but I think I forgot for a while,” I said. “I want Bruce back. He keeps me safe. He made Jason apologize to Missy when he hurt her. And Bruce loves me better than the puppy, even if I did screw up and get him in trouble with Rocky.”

  “It wasn’t all you,” Helene said. “Own what’s yours to own, girl. When you feel better, I’ll have a ton of questions to ask and a lot of paperwork we have to do. Okay?”

  “Yeah. It’s cool.” I blinked back the sleep crowding my eyes. “I don’t want to go to California. Tell my dad. I want to stay in Stewart Falls at the academy. All of my friends are here. I’d have to give up too much if I left here, and I’m not Hailey Collins. I won’t run away from Jason. The squad’s going to district and we’re gonna rock.”

  “We’ll do our best if it’s the right thing for you, Sarah.”

  Helene and Aunt Cathy shared a look.

  Then, Helene said, “We both agree it’s best if you don’t go back to your mom’s house for now, so you’ll be going to your Aunt Cathy’s to stay for a few months and I’ll be talking to Hailey, too.”

  Shaking, I felt a tremendous relief wash over me, but I had to ask, “Did I do something wrong?”

  “Oh no, honey,” Aunt Cathy said. “We just think it’s best for you.”

  “Can my friends come visit?”

  “Whenever you want,” Aunt Cathy said. “Whatever you were planning for your birthday last Sunday, you can have at my house instead.”

  “I wasn’t planning anything. I never do. I just have cake and ice cream at Grandma’s during the costume party on horseback.” Tears stung my eyes. “Oh no, I forgot. That was last Sunday. I missed it and we won’t get to go to the party at the bowling alley tomorrow night either.”

  “You didn’t miss anything.” Aunt Cathy covered both of my hands with hers. “Mom rescheduled the Horse Heaven shindig so you could be there, and Warren said he’d arrange for you to have your party later at the bowling alley.”

  “What about at home?” Helene asked.

  “Birthdays are for little kids,” I said. “What Princess Priss wants comes first so I haven’t had a party in years, not when it’s Halloween—”

  “And birthday presents?” Helene’s voice was casual, too casual. “Are they for little kids too?”

  “Well, yeah. Of course. That’s why Warren takes me bowling and comes up with something special. Grandma and Aunt Cathy give me gift cards to spend.”

  “But what would you like if you could have anything for a present?” Helene leaned back in the chair. “You only turn sixteen once. A car?”

  I laughed so I wouldn’t start crying again. “No way. I’m not ready for that. I haven’t even done Drivers’ Ed yet. No, if I could have whatever I wanted, it’d be the same thing I’ve asked for since I was nine. One of Grandma’s puppies.”

  “I see,” Helene said. “That new litter’s a bunch of fluff-balls, and they’re almost ready for new homes, aren’t they?”

  A tear streaked down my cheek. “Has Grandma started selling them yet?”

  “No. All eight are still there,” Aunt Cathy said. “Six girls and two boys. Which one do you want? Three of them are gold like their papa, two are tri-colors and the other three are black and white like their momma. I know you play with them whenever you have the chance. Which is your fave?”

  “The little, male tri-color,” I said instantly. “He’s adorable.”

  “And you want him,” Helene said. “Right?”

  “Yes, but it doesn’t matter.” I shrugged. “It never happens, but I can deal. I’ll get a dog when I graduate from high school and move into a place of my own.”

  Aunt Cathy and Helene looked at each other again. Then, Aunt Cathy said, “We’ll tell your grandma that we’ll be over to pick him up this week. You can take him to Aunt Liz’s on Friday afternoons and learn how to train him.”

  “Mom will never let me have him,” I said, struggling to swallow the lump in my throat. “It won’t happen, Aunt Cathy.”

  “You’ve already forgotten what we said. You’re living with me now, Sarah,” Aunt Cathy told me. “And you know how that works. My house, my rules. Now, what about a party?”

  “But my birthday isn’t until tomorrow. On Halloween.”

  “Well, we couldn’t have a party here, now could we? The nurses would freak out if they had to deal with a bunch of teenagers running wild.” Aunt Cathy grinned at me. “Come on, kid. Get serious. What about a party for all your friends next Saturday with a sleepover for the cheerleaders?”

  And that’s when I knew everything was going to change. And for the better.

  * * *

  THE END

  Turn the page for a preview of Book Three in the

  Stewart Falls Cheerleaders series,

  Because I’m Brown

  Rita’s story.

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  BECAUSE I’M BROWN

  STEWART FALLS CHEERLEADERS #3

  ONE

  Saturday, November 3rd, 2018

  * * *

  “Margarita, qué pasa? What are you doing? I told you to put the history books on the shelves next to the door. The Spanish ones go here.”

  “Come on, Dad,” I said, standing by the long row of shelves below the windows of the classroom. “It’s no big deal. Mellow out.”

  That got me one of his stern looks. Dad folded his arms and waited for me to explain. I was just as stubborn as he was, so I mirrored his stance. It’d totally piss him off but wasting my day at the academy when I wanted to be with my friends on Varsity Cheer was a no-brainer.

  In my new campaign-style khaki pants and three-inch, spiked heel boots, I was six-foot-two, the same height he was, so we were eye to eye. I kept my black hair long and let it grow almost to my waist. He hit the barbershop on a regular basis, going for the short and sharp look since he hated curls, claiming they weren’t for guys. We both had dark-brown, almost-black eyes. He had on a T-shirt and blue jeans, but he didn’t have to worry about impressing anybody and I did, so I opted for a lacy black blouse tucked into my pants. I’d add a bright red corset later when he wasn’t around to give me evil looks or one of his long lectures about being a good Hispanic girl.

  Dad was a teacher at my private high school, Stewart Falls Academy. Under protest, I was helping him decorate his classroom for the Day of the Dead, the Mexican version of Halloween. He got the fun jobs, hanging sugar skulls around the room and a donkey piñata from the ceiling. I got the girl jobs of filling the rest of the papier-mâché critters with candy, doing the actual cleaning, setting up the bulletin boards, scrubbing the desks, and on and on and on.

  In our classes next week, he’d spend hours talking about Hispanic culture. He’d convinced the Home Ec teacher that we should cook traditional foods for our trip to the town cemetery and the headmaster thought it’d be good community service if we cleaned up the place. These people so needed to get a life and quit wrecking mine.

  “You’re too smart to behave like this,” Dad finally said, when the staring contest didn’t work. “Why didn’t you listen to me and do what I wanted? What’s your problem?”

  I shrugged and tried to act like the mistake was a joke, the way I did with “real” teachers. “I thought it’d look better if the books were arranged by color. Ariel told me everybody coordinates their outfits these days. School would be a lot better if it wasn’t so boring.”

  That did it! Dad exploded into one of the fierce lectures about appropriate behavior for good girls, complete with the macho glare he’d practiced on me for years. I knew I was supposed to take him seriously. But after years and years of hearing him go on and on whenever I messed up, it was easier to tune him out. Besides, I was American, and I had rights, something he tended to forget when he was ranting and raving. Sometimes, I wondered if that was why he and Mom divorced. Did she forget how to laugh when they were married? Or was she born without a sense of humor?

  Dad kept complaining about me, but at least he did it in Spanish. I understood him. He’d talked to me in what he considered his language since I was a baby. Because I spoke Spanish as well as I did English, most teachers didn’t know how dumb I really was. Of course, those same teachers told me I didn’t work up to my capacity. Then, they told my parents I was precocious. Dad said I was brilliant, which was why I could outsmart the other teachers, but I couldn’t outsmart him. I had sense enough not to tell him different.

  The whole time Dad scolded, he sorted through the books. “Now, put these in the bookcase by the door.” He gave me an armload. “Do it right, Margarita. I want them in chronological order. Start with the Native Americans, then the discoveries made by European explorers, and work up to contemporary culture.”

  “Yuck! Why do you have all these awful books? Nobody else has this big a library in their classrooms for their students. Are you trying to torture us?”

  “Students in the academy earn their grades,” Dad said. “You’re a sophomore. You know that.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Oh, come on, Dad. You know the truth about school. We’re here to look at the guys and they’re here to look at us. Classes come second.”

  “Not in my room. Not in this school and you know that too.” Dad pointed to the bookcase across the room. “Get to work, Margarita.”

  I already knew I’d mess up his precious books again. That would mean another lecture. I acted tough around my father, but it hurt when he was disappointed in me. Ever since my mother remarried, I came fifth or sixth with her. She had her new husband, Aaron, and his two kids. The three of them were even more important than her job as the manager of the local bank. I never was.

  “Dad, can’t I have time off for good behavior?” I asked. “I’ve been working here all day. And Sarah’s party is tonight. I’m supposed to help the rest of the cheerleaders decorate her aunt’s house and it’ll take forever to walk there. It’s clear on the other side of Stewart Falls.”

  “Tell you what,” Dad said. “Put those books over there and I’ll run you to Dr. Tiernan’s.”

  “Really?” I stared at him. “Are you sure?”

  He ran a hand through his black hair and studied me with thoughtful, dark eyes. “Hija, I couldn’t have done this much without you. And I’d like to see how Sarah is doing, too. I know she’s been released from the hospital, but she hasn’t come back to school yet.”

  “She’s doing great, considering how badly Jason beat her up, but Dr. Conway wants her to rest for a few more days.” I carted the books across the room, put them on the table in front of the shelves, then grabbed my backpack by the door. “She loves staying with her aunt, and she’s actually going to get what she really wants for her birthday this year. Besides a slumber party with us for the first time in forever.”

  “What is that?” Dad asked, stopping to lock his classroom door. “What does she want?”

  “A puppy,” I said. “One of the heeler-border collies that her grandma raises.”

  “Is that what you want for your birthday?” Dad asked, following me down the hall.

  “No. I want my quinceañera,” I said. “I didn’t get to have one for my fifteenth birthday because Mom was so busy with her wedding last spring. And I also want my own horse.” I probably wasn’t going to get either one, but I figured if Dad admitted that I was almost sixteen, I’d be allowed to date. Of course, I really did want Laird, the gray Arabian stallion I’d loved forever. I didn’t know if that was going to happen, either. I’d keep asking. Or, as Dad put it, I’d keep nagging!

  “Margarita, we’ve talked about the horse, and you know the deal. You get a B average at the end of the semester, and I’ll buy him. As for the party, your mom said she’ll arrange it under the same conditions. Many Mexican-American girls wait until they turn sixteen before they have their quinceañeras. If you want more rewards, you have to take on more responsibilities.”

  I tuned him out as we crossed the parking lot to his SUV. It was always the same story with him and Mom. Give them what they claimed to want and then they’d come up with a thousand reasons why they didn’t have to follow through with their promises. If I got all Bs, then it’d be a case of I should have all As and everything would wait until I did. It so wasn’t happening. No matter how hard I tried, I never pleased them. And to be honest, it wasn’t worth the effort, so I’d stopped busting my butt a long time ago.

  Stewart Falls was a string of communities around three separate lakes in the Cascade foothills of Washington State. SF had its share of groceries, gas stations, restaurants, and other stores. The post office, library, bank, and town hall clustered in one strip mall near Lake Charles. Most of the people who lived around Lake Mary had estates with private docks. Gated housing developments with narrow streets surrounded Lake James.

  Dr. Cathy lived near Lake Mary in an old Victorian style farmhouse on forty acres that originally belonged to her grandparents. The gravel drive curled up toward the house, rolling lawns on the left and white-board fenced paddocks on the right. When we pulled in the driveway, an old bay Quarter Horse mare trotted over to the pasture fence to meet us, followed by her adopted son. I reached into my pack and pulled out a pound of organic carrots for the equine duo.

  Dad walked around and opened up the back of his SUV to grab the rest of my stuff.

  Six carrots later, we headed up the brick walkway to the house, me with my backpack and Dad with my sleeping bag, duffel, and nacho makings. Even before I rang the doorbell, I heard dogs barking. That must be the fun part of being a veterinarian, bringing your work home with you.

  Once upon a time, becoming a vet had been my dream, but I gave it up ages ago. If high school about killed me, there was no way I’d be able to deal with college and all the stuff they threw at me, much less graduate as a large animal vet.

  More yapping and deeper barks, then the door opened into a foyer. BJ Larson, a petite redhead, stood there, her half-grown, blue merle heeler mix, Guard Dog sitting next to her. He opened his mouth in a collie smile, showing his teeth. His tail swept the floor in big wags. BJ rested one hand on his head. “Hey, it’s about time you got here, Rita. We need somebody tall to hang streamers and Abbie’s still at the espresso stand.”

  “I’m glad to help.” I glanced behind her. “So, where’s Sarah?”

  “Napping on the couch in the Great Room. It’s on the other side of Dr. Cathy’s study. You’ve got to see this place. She has more rooms here than my folks do in their house, which I thought was ginormous.” BJ pointed toward the door on the left-hand wall behind her. “It’s through there, but we’re trying not to wake Sarah up.” She took the bag of groceries from my dad. “I’ll put these in the kitchen. The other stuff goes in the dining room. We’re sleeping downstairs. Wait ‘til you see the room that Dr. Cathy put together for Sarah. She’s got everything, a new computer, a TV, and even a mini-fridge.”

  “Sounds amazing,” I said. “Maybe we could all move in.”

  Beside me, Dad laughed. “I don’t think so. Since Sarah’s asleep, I’ll see you later, Margarita. Call me tomorrow when you’re ready to come home.”

  I glanced up at him, puzzled. “But I’m supposed to go to Mom’s. I’m there Sunday night through breakfast on Tuesday and then back at your place for the rest of the week.”

  Dad shook his head. “No. Your mom called this morning while you were in the shower. She and Aaron took Austin and Ariel to Victoria, BC. They’ll be back Monday morning so you can go there after school.”

  I nodded and bit my lip, determined not to dissolve into tears in front of BJ. I knew how my mother honestly felt about me, so why did these rejections always hurt so much?

  Dad stopped and gave me a long look. “She said she’d mentioned it to you last week.”

  “No, but that’s okay.” I shrugged as if it was no big deal and hoped I didn’t sound as disappointed as I felt. My mother had gone off to Canada with her new family and hadn’t even bothered to invite me. “I have things to do here.”