Coming Home

Lacey stared blankly out the window as she rode along in the passenger seat of her mother's BMW. She fought hard to stifle the sigh that she felt rebelliously trying to come forth as her mother talked on and on about her expectations for the upcoming school year. Her sister Clara sat in the back seat, listening intently and nodding her head in agreement to everything Judy said. Lacey, though not at all interested in what her mother was saying to her, did her best to appear engaged. A few "Mmhmm"s, "Yes ma'am"s and "I understand"s was enough to satisfy the older woman that her daughter was hearing her. All Lacey could think about, though, was how things would be when she started school tomorrow.

Lacey had spent the entire summer before her senior year with her father in Seattle. It was an involuntary exile she had been sentenced to by her mother after a disastrous run in with the law at the end of the previous school year. Lacey and her friend Regina had attended a party after graduation that hadn't ended well. Lacey didn't remember much about that night except for how hot she and Reg both looked when they arrived at the party, and how not hot she looked as she was being dismissed from the hospital the following morning. The girls had gotten a little carried away with the alcohol and Lacey had suffered the worst of it. Her slight frame couldn't handle the copious amounts of alcohol her friends were partaking in, and she'd suffered from alcohol poisoning as a result of her attempts to try that night. She'd gotten her stomach pumped, and even had to be put on oxygen for awhile because her respiratory functions had become so depressed. It wasn't as if she were an alcoholic, and she was pretty sure someone had slipped her something, but that hadn't mattered to her parents at all. Even her longtime boyfriend, Archie, had broken up with her after that incident. He'd given her some excuse about "not being able to care about her more than she cared about herself"... please. It wasn't as if she got drunk often, or ever before that. It wasn't as if she'd done it on purpose... it was an accident, and something she never intended to repeat.

Her parents and sister, it seemed, had decided to make it their personal mission to make sure that she kept that promise to herself. And truthfully, Lacey didn't altogether mind it – although the attention was getting to be a bit much. She'd been a good girl all her life, all the way up until her junior year, anyway. She'd always done and said the right things, participated in the right activities, made the good grades. Even when she ventured into the world of stereotypical teenage rebellion, she'd still maintained that perfect image. In fact, if it hadn't been for that night, no one would have been the wiser. Lacey knew she could go back to that if she really tried – if it would keep her in town long enough to graduate.

"God, I can't wait until May," she thought to herself as they approached the town. Lacey could see the rolling hills with hidden cabins that distinguished this little place as the "Honeymoon Capital of New York". Soon they would be coming up on the lake, and then they'd cross the bridge that took them into town. She realized as she took it in just how much she'd missed home this summer. Living with her dad and Lawrence hadn't been very much fun – whoever said gay guys made the best friends clearly had never met her dad. Lawrence had been okay, she guessed, but it wasn't the same as being at home with her people. She was looking forward to going to school tomorrow and seeing Regina and Sarita and the rest of her friends. She hoped it wouldn't be awkward now that she and Archie were no longer together.

There was one other person she was really looking forward to seeing – maybe more than everyone else, if she were being honest with herself. Danny Desai – Green Grove's resident bad boy. Lacey bit her lip and closed her eyes as she thought about how sexy he looked with that perfect tan and jet black hair blowing long and loose in the wind. Danny had trouble written all over him, and Lacey had never wanted anyone more in her life. They'd had a brief but intense fling last spring while she and Archie were on the outs ("Were we ever not?" she thought sarcastically). Danny had been concerned about her the night of the party, too. She frowned a bit as she remembered the argument that they'd had earlier in the evening, something about him wanting to come clean about what they were doing and her not being ready to break up with Archie. Oh well, that ended that night anyway. She hadn't talked to Danny all summer, though. Between her phone being confiscated as part of her punishment and his adamant refusal to join everyone else in 2013 by creating a Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or anything – there hadn't been an opportunity for them to reconnect and mend fences.

"Maybe that's for the best" she thought, the sigh she'd been holding finally escaping. "Danny just makes being a good girl that much harder."

As they arrived at their home Lacey turned and looked at her sister.

"You ready for your first day of high school tomorrow, sissy?" she said, enjoying the smile that came to Clara's face as she used her special moniker for the girl.

"Yeah, I guess I am," Clara responded.

"What's up?" Lacey asked, noting that there was something short of happy coloring the younger girl's voice.

"It's nothing," Clara said, looking down as their mother popped the trunk and exited the car.

"C'mon Clare-bear," Lacey coaxed, "you can tell me – what's bothering you?"

"I'm just worried about you, Lacey," Clara said honestly. "After what happened last spring and... I just don't want anything else to happen to you."

Lacey sucked in a sharp breath, studying the concerned expression on her sister's face. Finally she responded, "What happened last year was an accident, Clara. No need to worry – it won't be happening again. I promise to stay out of trouble this year, okay?"

Clara broke into a smile as relief flooded her face, "Okay Lace!"

When she'd said it, Lacey had really just been trying to placate her little sister, but after seeing the broad smile the younger girl had shown her gave Lacey the resolve to actually try and keep her promise.

"This is going to be a long year," she thought as she headed into the house.