I am a compulsive liar.
I own iCarly and The Virgin Suicides! MWAHAHAHAHA!
Okay, here's the chiz. The characters are like that Wendy is Cecilia, Sam is Lux, Melanie is Bonnie, Carly is Mary, Shelby is Therese, and Freddie is Trip.
The last 5 of the Puckett sisters to make their demise was Carly, by slitting her wrists, the three paramedics arrived at the house.
Wendy had gone first, by drinking cleaning supplies, while she was supposed to be doing her AP Calculus homework, and when the paramedics found her lying on the kitchen counter, her deep green eyes slowly losing their usual sparkle, they were so frightened by her tranquility that they all stood, motionless. But then Mrs. Puckett ran in, yelling, and the reality of the room came back: a drunken bottle of Clorox Cleaner lying on the marble floor. The paramedics lifted Wendy of the counter and thumped her, and the the thumping worked, for some of the liquid came pouring out of her mouth. Wendy's eyes blinked slightly, she sputtered and coughed, and then closed her eyes sleepily.
This was in June, fish-fly season, where our town (Grosse Point, Michigan), is covered with the annoying pests called fish-flies. Mrs. Harlinsonchester, who lived down the street, saw Wendy the day before her suicide attempt, staring at a Volkswagen Bug that was covered in fish flies. "You better get a broom, dear," said Mrs. Harrison, but Wendy replied blankly, "Fish flies live only for a day. They don't even get to eat." And then she stuck her hand in and printed her initials: W.P.
We've tried to arrange photos in correct order, but through so many years has made it difficult. A few are fuzzy, but luckily revealing. Photo #1 shows the Puckett household shortly before Wendy's suicide attempt. Ms. Clare Dartmouth, the Puckett real-estate agent had taken. As the photograph shows, the slate roof hadn't begun to shed its shingles, and the patio was still visible beneath slightly overgrown bushes and trees. A comfy surburbia home. The upper-left second story window contains a blur that Mr. Puckett identified as Carly Puckett. "She used to tease her hair because she thought it was too thin.", he said. In the snapshot her head appears to be on fire, but it was only a trick of the light, for she was actually blow-drying her hair.
It was June 3, eighty-one degrees out, under sunny skies.
When the paramedics were satisfied that they had thumped most of the poison out of her, they put Wendy on a stretcher and carried her out of the house to the EMS truck. Mrs. Puckett burst out onto the porch, holding onto Wendy's flannel pajamas, and let out a long wail. Under the tall trees, the two paramedics holding onto the stretcher, the mother waving and wailing, and the drugged virgin, who almost died from drinking cleaning supplies.
Mrs. Puckett rode in the EMS truck, but Mr. Puckett rode in his Thunderbird. Two of the Puckett daughters were away from home, Shelby at a science gathering in Chicago, and Melanie at music camp, trying to learn the saxophone. Carly and Sam, upon hearing the siren, ran home from voice lessons at Ms. Benson's house across the street. Running into the large kitchen, they had the same shock as their parents, looking upon Wendy, passed out, a cleaning bottle on the floor, empty.
Outside, Carly and Sam clutched a tree branch, watching the EMS truck and their father's Thunderbird drive off. The Puckett's old elm tree, also visible in Photo #1, had on it fungus from the Dutch elm beetles.
The paramedics took Wendy to Bennett Rail Hospital on Cherrywood and Gostil. In the emergency room Wendy watched the successful attempt to save her life strangely. Her green eyes didn't flicker at all. Dr. Miller declared her danger-free and said, "What are you doing here? You're not old enough to know how bad life gets."
Wendy rolled her eyes and said, "Of course doctor. You've never been a thirteen-year-old girl."
The Puckett sisters where thirteen (Wendy), and fourteen (Sam), and fifteen (Melanie), and sixteen (Carly), and seventeen (Shelby). They were tall, covered in denim and tube tops, with round, soft cheeks.
No one ever understood how Mr. and Mrs. Puckett had produced such pretty children. Mr. Puckett taught high-school biology. He was thin, boyish, and had gray hair. He had a soprano voice, and Gibby Larson told us how Mr. Puckett had cried when Sam was later rushed to Bennett Rail during her own suicide attempt.
Mrs. Puckett was too thin, had straight blonde-gray hair, and cat-eye glasses. We saw her rarely, in the morning, dressed, although the sun hadn't come up, to get the milk. And on Sundays, when the family drove to St. David's Catholic Church on the lake. On these mornings she resumed a queenly iciness. Holding her good purse, she checked each daughter for signs of makeup before they could get into the car, and it was usual for her to send Sam back inside to put on a less revealing top. It was funny to watch, the two parents with no color, and the five glittering daughters sparkling in the sun.
Only one boy was ever allowed in the house. Shane Sissen had helped Mr. Puckett set up his classroom, and in return Mr. Puckett invited him for dinner. He told us the girls had kicked him under the table in every direction. They gazed at him with their green eyes, and smiled, showing him their crowded teeth. Melanie was the only Puckett sister who didn't kick him, she just said grace and ate her food, lost in the piety of a fifteen-year-old girl. After the meal Shane asked to go to the bathroom, and because Shelby and Carly were in the downstairs one giggling, he had to use the girls', upstairs.
He told us stories of bedrooms filled with underwear, stuffed animals lying about, a crucifix draped with a pink laced bra, of canopied beds. In the bathroom, Shane found Carly Puckett's secret stash of makeup: tubes of strawberry pink lipstick, blush and green eyeshadow. We didn't even know whose makeup it was until we saw Carly with a shiny pink mouth two weeks later.
He talked about deodorants and perfumes and pads for rubbing away dead skin, but most enchanting of all, was that Shane had found one Tampax, still fresh from the insides of one of the Puckett sisters, and that he had counted ten boxes of Tampax in the cupboard. It was then that Sam knocked on the door, asking him if he died in there, then she laughed and pushed past him and said, "Do you mind? It's private." And then Shane Sissen rushed downstairs, and after thanking Mr. and Mrs. Puckett, hurried off to tell us that Sam Puckett was bleeding between the legs, while the fish flies made the air dirty and streetlamps turned on.
When Jonah Baldino heard Shane Sissen's tale, he said that he would get into the Puckett's house and find even more incredible things than Shane. "I'm going to watch them taking their showers." He said, bravely. Already, and the age of fourteen, Jonah had the gangster gut and the face of his father, Toby "The Whale" Baldino. He moved slowly and we were scared of him. He had circles under his eyes, mammoth hips and shiny black shoes. He would sneak into forbidden places. In sixth grade, when the girls went to the auditorium to see a movie, Jonah was the one who snuck in. Later, he came to us and said, "I saw the movie. It said the when girls are about twelve or so – their tits bleed."
So one day, Jonah Baldino wandered into the Puckett's sewer grate. He approached the door to the kitchen. He heard gurgling, coughing, gasping, and then finally a thump. And then Jonah told how that he stepped into the kitchen, and saw Wendy passed out on the kitchen counter, with a Clorox Cleaner lying, empty, on the ground.
Thanks for reading! Review! Chapter 2 coming soon!