"Man is the measure of all things."
Chapter Eleven
Vanessa smiled as she opened the package to reveal the pants for her from Sarah. She was excited to get them. Especially since her and Craig were going to be hanging out today. There was something about these pants that always gave her courage, especially around Craig. She ran down the stairs and saw Craig and Frank laughing about something. She didn't really know what they were laughing about, but she sauntered up to them and said hello.
"You look great," Craig complimented her as he looked down at the pants, a smile on his face as he remembered the history of the pants, "Are you ready to go?"
Vanessa just nodded and said good-bye to Frank and followed Craig out the door. Once they hit the sidewalk, Craig turned to face Vanessa with an excited look on his face.
"So, guess where Frank is from?" Craig asked her, smiling down at her.
"Atlantis," Vanessa sweetly replied as they continued to walk.
"No, he's from the same town my college is in," he laughed, "He is the best journalist at the paper there. How crazy is that?"
Vanessa nodded, confirming that it was crazy. She wondered if she visited Frank there, if Craig would come and see her or if he would consider himself too good when he was in college to even think twice about her. That was how she had felt first semester had went down. He had gone to college and come back a changed person.
"You should come and visit him and then sneak out to see me," Craig informed her, breaking her train of thought.
"I don't think I would have to sneak out to see you," Vanessa pointed out to him, "Frank seems to like you enough."
"Now, but when he realizes that his biological daughter and I …," Craig suddenly stopped talking, but continued to walk as he chose his next words very carefully, "I am very sorry about how things ended between us at Christmas. And even more for letting you take the blame."
"You already apologized for that," Vanessa reminded him.
"For the blame thing, but not for the breaking up with you thing," Craig reminded her, smiling a little at her, even though she was not meeting his gaze.
"You find someone else you like, and that is the way things go," Vanessa tried to shrug it off, "It happens all the time in relationships. I should have realized that ours would be no different."
"I thought that I was too cool to date a high school kid," he shook his head at his own stupidity, "But, you were far more mature than any girl I could have dated at college. Not to mention you were far more mature than me. After I did it, all I could think about was how I could keep everybody in the families from finding out so that they didn't hate me."
"And I helped you with that," Vanessa gently reminded him of that, "Because you are a good guy, you just made some mistakes."
"Probably the biggest one of my life," Craig agreed.
99999
Bailey looked around her, noticing that nobody in the cabin was exactly meeting her eye. After Beth had been sent home for her part in helping them not get in trouble for being out after curfew, Bailey and the
other girls had become outsiders in their own cabins. Nobody else knew about it yet, because the girls still did not feel safe talking about it when they thought they could get in trouble at any moment.
Scott did seem to be very confused as to the nature of Beth's getting kicked out of the camp, because he said that she would make an excellent leader. Bailey did not have the heart to tell him that it was her fault Beth was gone and figured he would find out when everybody decided to not keep their mouths shut any longer anyways.
"I can't take this anymore," Maddie said dramatically to Bailey as she flopped down on her bed. Maddie, who was used to being popular everywhere she went, was not used to people ignoring her like they were in the cabin. Beth had been a dearly loved part of their cabin, and they had been stupid to try and come between that by making her promise not to turn them in.
And they were on probation because they had tried to cover up their mistakes. The counselors were now watching them like hawks. Bailey was pretty sure they were even watching them sleep at night so that way they could not try and sneak out again. Bailey hated being watched like this. With Beth gone, Maddie mad, and the rest of the girls not talking to her anymore, this summer was kind of turning out sucky.
"I'm still talking to you," Shannon assured her as she joined them, "You guys look as if nobody has ever hated you before."
"Nobody ever has hated me before," Maddie said through clenched teeth, however, Bailey could tell that she was a little excited about the fact that somebody was actually paying attention to them, even if it was just to tease them, "I am not you."
"And I thank God for that," Shannon told her coldly, "Beth shouldn't have stuck up for you guys. I would not have."
"She thought she was doing what was right!" Bailey protested, "I should have told them myself. All I could think about was myself."
"What made you even think of that idea in the first place?" Maddie asked, suddenly turning on her friend, "You were never the one for adventures before, but now we are on probation because of your master plan."
"I …," Bailey started to say, but was interrupted coldly by Shannon.
"I think it was because she was trying to take her mind off of the whole Scott thing," Shannon coldly replied. Bailey didn't even ask what the whole Scott thing could possibly be. She knew what it was, and she knew that Shannon was right. She had only done it so that she could spend some time thinking about something other than Scott, and hopefully having fun while doing it.
00000
Sarah looked around at all the children that were there for afternoon cheerleading camp. She hated being here in the afternoon with all the other cheerleaders. Who knew that just agreeing with Susie would be the most difficult part of teaching these little kids? Susie kept asking her to agree with her on everything. The other cheerleaders looked at Sarah as if they were worried about her. Plus, rumors had been circulating about the fact that her and Rebecca had gotten in a fight, so all the cheerleaders wanted to know about that.
"Sarah is that your phone?" Susie asked, annoyed a second later. Sarah had not even realized her phone was going off and ran to go answer it, muttering an apology as she did so.
"Sarah?" a meek voice said on the other end. Sarah knew that it was supposed to be Rebecca from the caller id, but she sounded so different that Sarah knew automatically what was wrong.
"I will be right over," she instructed her before beginning to run out of the gym, but Susie got in her face with a cold look on.
"Where do you think you are going?" she asked, "This doesn't end for another fifteen minutes."
"You have four other cheerleaders here," Sarah said, furious, "Boss one of them around. Now, if you don't mind, I'm leaving."
"Suit yourself, but if you do, you can kiss your position on the cheerleading squad good-bye," Susie told her coldly.
"I really don't care right now about that," Sarah honestly informed her as she charged out of the door, leaving an open mouthed Susie behind her.
00000
Lainey kicked the ball into the soccer goal, ignoring her room mate's cheer of congratulations as she did so. She couldn't believe that she was rooming with a girl who had given AIDS to a trainer last year. How promiscuous did she have to be to give AIDS to this other person? And why did she not tell him before it had happened? And then getting pregnant? Lainey would never have pegged Riley as irresponsible, but now she knew why everybody had been laughing at her room mate all summer.
"Way to go," Sherilyn told her as she came back to the sidelines, her turn on the field over. Tomorrow they were playing the number one ranked team in the tournament and they needed all the help that they could get from their players. Lainey could tell that Sherilyn was happy that Lainey had finished talking to Riley and was now as disgusted by her as everybody else.
"Thanks," Lainey breathed. She couldn't wait until the competition tomorrow. She really did not want Riley to know her feelings about the whole situation and that she had made her other friends tell her, so all of this pent up energy was needing to go somewhere. There was a small voice that was telling her that she was being judgmental again, feeling like she could control everybody's lives. But that was masked by the bigger voice that was telling her about Riley's past last summer. About how Riley had returned this year even with all that had happened.
"What is your problem?" Riley suddenly asked her as she appeared by her side. Lainey bit her tongue so that she would not say anything, "You practically begged me to go out with you last night and now you aren't even talking to me. I don't get you."
"Nothing's wrong with me," Lainey tried to assure her, "Just having a rough day is all."
"Or, you know, someone could have told you about me last year," Riley said coldly, "And you are not comfortable admitting it because it makes you seem worse than you ever care to think of yourself."
"As I recall, you are the one with AIDS who got pregnant, how does that make me the bad person?" Lainey asked her with a cold voice.
"Because you are the one who told me that you didn't care about my past, and here you are, flinching away from me as if I am some form of leper," Riley informed her, "You will not contract AIDS from being room mates with me."
"You had sex with that guy when you knew you had AIDS," Lainey reminded her, "You passed AIDS onto him. That is dishonest and cold. I can't believe you would do something like that."
The Coach, who had heard the last few words that had been exchanged came up to them, "You girls need to keep it down. Your personal problems need to be saved until after practice. Got it?"
"Got it," they both muttered, but refused to look at each other.
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Sarah ran upstairs to where Rebecca's room was. She wondered if this was anything like Vanessa had felt last year when she had known and come just to have her worst fears realized. She knocked on Rebecca's door and quickly went in to see her friend in much the same state that Sarah had been about a year ago. She crouched down by the bed and looked up at her friend.
"Are you okay?" she asked gently, not really knowing how to start the conversation.
"I should have listened to you," Rebecca said, through tears, "He was nothing but a jerk that I shouldn't have dated. Why didn't I listen to you?"
"Because you thought you knew better," Sarah smiled at her, "Trust me, I did the same thing. I really thought I knew better too. I told my friend to get lost. She did and this is the exact same way we ended up last summer, just I was in your spot."
"And he just keeps on hurting girls," Rebecca let out a little laugh, "Probably because they never have the courage to stand up to him."
"Maybe," Sarah smiled, "But, maybe you could be the first one to have that courage. And I understand if you say no, because when I was in your shoes last year, I just wanted to get as far away from it as possible."
"I just want it all to go away," Rebecca said through tears, "When does it all go away?"
Sarah closed her eyes, remembering the dream that she had about that situation just last night. Knowing that she could not lie to her friend about when it would go away by telling her that it would go away in a couple of months, she decided to just be honest.
"I still have nightmares about it," she started slowly, when she saw her friend flinch she continued, "But, it did get better. At first, I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror I was so terrified of what I could have done to deserve it. I couldn't be in a room alone with a boy, even my own father. Then, my mom was there for me. Vanessa was there for me. Seth was there for me, even after I yelled at him. And I'm here for you. It will get better, and trust me, the anger that you are sure to experience towards yourself will eventually evaporate and turn towards him."
"I don't want anyone else to ever have to have this experience," Rebecca suddenly said in a very harsh tone. Sarah looked at her surprised.
"Sweetheart, I don't think you can stop everybody from being raped," Sarah told her lightly.
"No, but I can stop people from being raped by him again," Rebecca suddenly jumped up, a new fire in her eyes, "It just happened last night. I haven't showered since then. They tell you not to shower afterwards, right? You will go with me, won't you?"
"I … I don't think I'm following," Sarah said quietly.
"I'm going to turn him in," Rebecca determinedly said, "Please come with me."
And Sarah got up and walked out the door with her.
99999
The words that Craig had spoken were still ringing in Vanessa's ears as she entered her grandparent's home. It could not have been the biggest mistake he had ever made. But, it felt so good to hear him say that he had made a mistake. She wondered why the house was so silent until she realized that was because until she realized that there was a note on the dining room table.
Hey Vanessa. I tried to call your cell phone before I realized that you left it here. Anyways, your Grandpa was rushed to the hospital and that is where we are all going. Please join us as soon as you can. If you need anything else, just call me. Love, Mom.
Vanessa couldn't believe what her mom told her in the letter. Nothing could be wrong with her grandpa. He had to be okay. She ran upstairs to grab her phone and then began to rush out the door before realizing that she didn't have enough cash to pay a taxi and she didn't have a car to drive. She frantically dialed Craig's number, praying to God that he answered.
"Want to see me again already huh?" he asked jokingly as he answered his cell phone. She took a deep breath.
"I need you to take me to the hospital," she said in a rush, "My grandpa's there."
"I'll be right over," he promised, hanging up his phone without a good-bye. She smiled at the phone before hanging up also. She almost went back upstairs to change her clothes, but decided that the magic of the Pants could still definitely have something to offer tonight. When Craig pulled up a few moments later she hopped into his rental car.
"Do you know what happened?" he asked as he began to drive off, trying to pay attention to her as well as the road.
"I don't know …," she said, trying to hold back the tears. Her and her grandfather had never had the closest of relationships because they had not been near enough to each other, but she remembered Christmases and Easters and family reunions were he would talk about how proud of his granddaughters he was and would always slip them money despite their parent's warning not to.
"I'm sure he will be fine," Craig assured her, grasping her hand with his free hand. She didn't even think about the touch and what it could possibly mean, she was just glad for that little bit of comfort that he could give her at the moment.
After pulling up to the hospital, Vanessa ran in, Craig right behind her. She was wondering who to ask where to go when she saw her mom coming out of a bathroom. She quickly accosted her, hugging her and asking her what was going on.
"They still won't say everything," Carmen said, tears in her eyes, "He had a heart attack and now they are trying to decide if he needs emergency surgery or anything. I can't get a hold of anyone. Paul and Lena are not answering their phones, Bridget and Tibby aren't either. I just don't know what I'll do …,"
"Everything is going to be fine mom," Vanessa firmly told her, under any other circumstances she would have laughed at the irony of her being the parent while her mom was acting like the child. She knew it must be bad though, because her mom had always had problems with her relationship with her dad and it was only the last few years that they had become as close as she had always wanted, "Craig will try and get a hold of his mom, I'll try and get a hold of Sarah so she can find her parents. And we'll find Tibby. I promise your friends will be here for you."
99999
Sarah looked down at her hands while Rebecca continued to talk to the police officer with a calm tone in her voice. She wondered if there was something wrong with her. Something wrong with her because she couldn't do last year what this girl was doing now. She wouldn't have even thought about it. But here Rebecca was, trying to act calm and natural and doing what she knew was right. What Sarah had known was right last year, but was unable to go through with it.
Rebecca had said that she was going to turn him in. She thought that she would be comforting Rebecca, not helping her turn in the rapist. Not that she did not want it to be that way. She just expected Rebecca to be too scared to do so also.
What made Rebecca so much different than her? Why was she strong enough to do this? Sarah had even had the problem getting it out to her friend who had a very likely chance of something bad happening to her, and it seemed like Rebecca was going to tell the world.
"Are you ready to go?" Rebecca asked her a second later. Sarah finally looked up and did notice the weary expression in her friend's face. She may have done what she felt she needed to do, but she still needed a friend.
Sarah was about to reply, but then her cell phone rang. She hurried up to answer it, seeing that it was Vanessa on the line, "Hey Vanessa what's going on?"
A few seconds later after Vanessa filling her in she said, "Oh my gosh. No, I will totally find my family right away."
She hung up the phone and looked at Rebecca, saying, "I have to go home, now."
