On a blisteringly hot afternoon in early July, Ronnie Anne Santiago sat in the air conditioned waiting room of the Great Lakes City Greyhound station with a duffle bag at her feet and her hands thrust into the pockets of her purple hoodie. The plastic seat was hard and uncomfortable, and the stale air blowing from the overhead vents was too cold, but only in certain spots; everywhere else it was hot and stuffy. The floor tiles were cracked in places and the walls were papered with thick layers of fliers, notices, and posters. To her left, a woman sat behind a sheet of plexiglass and typed on a computer. Every so often, someone would come up to the window to ask a question or to buy a ticket, and she would help them with the practiced and artificial cheeriness of a servile robot in a science fiction movie. Her smile never touched her tired eyes and her movements were stiff and slow, like those of an old woman even though she couldn't have been more than thirty. Aside from being phony - which is kind of to be expected from someone who works with the public - she gave off strange vibes. Ronnie Anne spared her the occasional glance from the corner of her eye just in case she tried something.
Though strange, the ticket lady by far wasn't the strangest person at the bus station. An old lady with a baby stroller filled with aluminium cans sat by the door, and a balding man in a black trenchcoat talked on the payphone. Yes, there was a payphone. Ronnie Anne had heard whispered rumors about them but had never seen one before. The concept made total sense but it was hard to fathom a world where everyone didn't have a phone in their packets. Like, what did you do when your car broke down? Walk to a payphone? How would you even find one? If you didn't know the area, did you walk around until you stumbled across one?
The idea of not having a phone on her, of not being in constant contact with the outside world, was so weird to her. And it wasn't just cell phones, it was computers and stuff too. In the olden days, when you went home, you were isolated from everyone and everything else. If you wanted to know what was happening in the world, you just had to wait until the paper turned up the next morning, or catch the hourly newscast on TV. Now everyone's always linked to the web, and to one another. It's not something you think about, but it's almost like you're never alone. Back in the day, you were always alone.
Kinda scary, to be honest.
Ronnie Anne looked around the waiting room, her legs kicking restively back and forth. -A TV screen mounted in the corner announced arrival and departure times and Ronnie Anne scanned it looking for hers. She found it and squinted to see better.
1:55.
She glanced at her phone.
1:50.
A rush of excitement came over her and she looked out the window overlooking the platform, hoping her bus would be idling at the curb. It was not, and Ronnie Anne heaved a frustrated sigh. Her mom told her that the bus would probably be late and that showing up an hour early was a dumb idea, but Ronnie Anne didn't care; she was staying with an old friend in Royal Woods for a week and she was super excited to see everyone again. It had been almost six months and she really missed the place.
Ronnie Anne was born in East Los Angeles but spent most of her childhood in Brownsville, Texas, where her father's family lived. She and her family lived in a little house with a red terra cotta roof on the corner of Desert Street and Scrubbrush Ave. The parcel lawn was tiny and brown with perpetual thirst and there were bars on the windows because Scrubbrush was on the outskirts of the ghetto. She made many fond memories in that house and when she, Bobby, and her mother left for Royal Woods after her father died and Ronnie Anne, almost ten, was so broken up that she laid on the carpeted floor of her empty bedroom on that final day and wept. This was her home and leaving it forever, to move half way across the country to a town that she had never been to and knew nothing about, was literally traumatizing. Brownsville was full of good times, high hopes, and lofty dreams, and her little mind could not comprehend actually leaving it. It was her world, her life, adjusting to the idea of leaving it was as difficult as adjusting to the idea of crossing over to the other side. She vowed that she would never love anywhere else the way she loved Brownsville.
It didn't take long for her to break that promise.
She didn't realize how much she loved Royal Woods until her mother announced that they were moving to Great Lakes City to be closer to her family. She had lived there for a year and a half and in that time, Royal Woods had become her home just as much as Brownsville had. The streets and buildings were all comforting in their familiarity and she had built a solid friend group at Royal Woods Elementary. Brownsville was a big place and Ronnie Anne thought she would hate living in a much smaller town, but she quickly fell in love with Royal Woods' small town charm. Everyone knew everyone else and life moved at a much more relaxed pace than in Brownsville. There, the elementary school was three stories and packed in 1,500 students. Royal Woods Elementary was smaller, the atmosphere more personal. In Brownsville, she could go weeks or months and never see the same faces in the hall. In Royal Woods, she learned almost everything about everyone.
Maybe it sounded dumb, but in Royal Woods, she felt like she was part of a community. Here in Great Lakes City, and back in Brownsville, it was easy to get lost; everything was so big and unfeeling, the buildings blank and indifferent, the streets busy with activity but non one noticing you even exist. It was different in Royal Woods. In some ways, it reminded her of her grandmother's house: Warm, cozy, and safe.
When Mom told her that they were moving again, Ronnie Anne's jaw dropped. It was a Thursday night in late May and she had just gotten home from hanging out with Lincoln Loud. That day, they did their homework together at his house and then went to the park to skip rocks across the surface of a little duck pond filled with algae and lilypads. Hers and Lincoln's relationship was complicated, neither one able to explain exactly what it was. They were best friends but sometimes they were more like boyfriend and girlfriend. They kissed once (with tongue) just to see what it was like, and sometimes they would lay down and hold each other because it felt nice. Ronnie Anne didn't know if she necessarily like-liked him, but she couldn't say that she didn't like-like him. He was just as confused about their status as she was but like her, he didn't really care. Being together felt good so they did it, no need to complicate things by forcing feelings and emotions into neat little boxes.
As soon as she got home, Mom said she had an announcement to make, so she and Bobby sat at the dining room table, neither knowing wha to expect. Mom sat across from them and took a deep breath. "You both know that things haven't been...the best...lately."
Ronnie Anne's heart dropped a little.
Ever since Dad died, Mom had struggled to make ends meet. She worked the day shift at Sweeny Memorial Hospital and cleaned a bank at night; even with two jobs, they were just barely getting by. They were on food stamps, Bobby and Ronnie Anne got free lunches at school, and most of their stuff - from clothes to furniture - came either from thrift shops or church donations. To put it mildly, they were poor, a shameful fact that Ronnie Anne tried desperately to hide from everyone around her.
Two months ago, Mom lost her job cleaning the bank. It was through no fault of her own, but either way, there was less money coming in and Mom was so stressed that she barely slept and ate. When she wasn't biting her nails and worrying over what she could and could not afford at the grocery store, she sat at the dining room table with her head resting in her hand and a flood of unpaid bills before her like a banquet from hell. Things were tough and they were hardly making it, but they were making it.
Then, in a freak stroke of bad luck, Century 21 raised their rent by fifty dollars and that was it. Fifty little dollars was enough to sink the Santiago family's hopes and dreams. Fifty dollars was a lot of money to most of the households in Royal Woods, but to theirs, it was all the difference. Mom could no longer afford it and didn't know what she was going to do.
Ronnie Anne didn't know that last part until that day Mom called her and Bobby into the dining room. She explained all of this to them and Ronnie Anne's stomach twisted into knots.. "We're going to have to move," Mom said.
"Where?" Bobby asked. He looked just as nervous as Ronnie Anne felt.
The answer was Great Lakes City, a place Ronnie Anne had never been and knew nothing about. It was Brownsville all over again and though she didn't show it, Ronnie Anne was devastated. She didn't want to leave Royal Woods. She didn't want to leave the places and people she had come to love, she didn't want to leave this house or this street. Bobby felt the same way and did his best to console her. "Great Lakes City is nice," he said. "You'll like it there too."
"Yeah? How long until we have to move again?" she asked dejectedly.
He didn't know what to say to that, so he said nothing at all.
For almost a week, Ronnie Anne hoped and prayed for some last minute miracle like those that always arrived just in time to save the cast of a Hallmark movie, but none ever materialized. The following Friday, she got home from school to find the house filled with half packed boxes. The framed pictures and decorative hangers that had given life to the walls were gone, and without them, the house seemed naked. It hit home for her then that there would be no deus ex machina to save her from having to leave behind everything she had grown to love again, and the weight of the world came crashing down on her. She slumped her shoulders, let out a deep sigh, and dragged herself to her room. Her mother came down the hall with a box in her arms. She opened her mouth to say something, but Ronnie Anne cut her off. "I know the drill," she said heavily. She went into her room, sat on the floor, and dragged a waiting box close. She started tossing things randomly in. She heard the tinkle of breaking glass but didn't care.
A knock came and the door and she looked up to see her mother standing there, a look of concern on her face. "Ronalda, what's wrong?"
Ronnie Anne looked away. "Nothing," she said. It was clear from the sullen tone of her voice that something was, indeed, wrong.
Mom came over and sat beside her, drawing her knees to her chest with a weary sigh. "You don't want to move again," she said.
It was not a question.
As upset as she was, Ronnie Anne loved and respected her mother too much to put anymore of a burden on her. Day after day, Mom did everything she could to support her and Bobby. She worked herself ragged and went without so that her children could have. Ronnie Anne appreciated that and therefore never complained, even when she went to bed hungry because there wasn't enough food at dinner to fill her up. Mom didn't deserve bellyaching.
Even so, while Ronnie Anne could lie, she couldn't hide her disappointment. "No," she admitted. In an attempt to soften the blow, she added, "Not really."
Mom sighed. "I don't want to either. I like it here and I was hoping we could stay, but we can't." Maybe Ronnie Anne was hearing things, but she imagined there was a hint of shame in her mother's voice. "I'm sorry. I tried so hard to make things work."
"I know, Mom," Ronnie Anne said, "it's not your fault. Things happen."
"I never expected to raise you and your brother alone," Mom said. Her voice trembled with emotion and tears flooded her eyes. "I thought your father would always be here."
Ronnie Anne's heart broke and she hugged her mother fiercely. Mom hugged her back and for a long time, they held and comforted each other. "Things are going to be better in Great Lakes City," Mom said, wiping her eyes, "I promise."
Would it be? Ronnie Anne didn't know. Maybe things would be better in some way because they would have family to help them out, but there was no way that Great Lakes City could be better than Royal Woods.
They were set to move out the following Sunday, giving Ronnie Anne a little over a week to say her final goodbyes. She wanted to put it off as long as she could because to her, it wouldn't be real until she told her friends.
And that was something she didn't want to do.
She could keep in touch with them through texting and social media, but once she moved away, the friendships she had cultivated over the last year and a half would die. They might continue on for a little while, but like a plant denied the life-giving light of the sun, they would eventually fade away. The same thing had happened to the friendships she made in Brownsville. She texted and Facetimed with some of them for a while, but those calls came fewer and farther between until they stopped altogether. People grow and change, and that's just a fact of life. It's possible to stay friends with someone even after they've ceased to be exactly the person they were when you met them, but that requires a deep bond that you just can't get from talking on Facebook. You have to make memories together, talk to one another, spend time together - friendship is a fragile candle flame that you must protect, for the moment you walk away, it snuffs out. As Ronnie Anne packed up her bedroom, a heavy feeling of dread swelled in her stomach because she knew that her new friendships were about to die.
If she was a little smarter, or maybe not so stressed out, Ronnie Anne might have known that Bobby would tell Lori and that Lori would tell Lincoln. That didn't even occur to her, however, and on a Wednesday morning, she got to school to find Lincoln standing by her locker. "You're moving?" he asked.
Her stomach crept into her throat and for a full ten seconds, she was too shocked to speak. How did he find out? He told her that Lori came home crying from a date with Bobby last night and curled up in a ball under her bed to weep desolately. He and his sisters managed to finally drag the story out of her and Lincoln was thrown for a loop,
"Yeah," Ronnie Anne said and flicked her eyes to her shoes, "Sunday."
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked after a moment of grasping for a response.
Ronnie Anne shrugged. It was too complicated to explain, and she wouldn't have wanted to even if she had been able. "I just didn't want to make a big deal about it, that's all."
They were talking through the hall now, kids rushing past on either side of them to get to their lockers before the final bell rang. "Well, you're moving, that is kind of a big deal."
"I know," she said.
Just then, the bell rang, and Ronnie Anne let out a sigh of relief. She wasn't ready to talk about this right now and was more than happy to put it off for a little while longer. "We'll talk later," she said. She scurried away before he could protest, and spent the rest of the day dreading what she knew was coming. She ducked Lincoln at lunch and didn't return any of his texts, and when Clyde approached her with a faux casual "Hey, I need to talk to you," she told him to piss up a rope. She was going to tell him to hang from a tree, but that was really messed up even for her. He was kind of annoying and his voice made her brain bleed, but he didn't deserve all that. She was just in a bad mood, and when she got into a bad mood, she was extra vicious.
When school let out for the day, she met Lincoln at the flagpole out front. She wanted to duck him but she didn't because she knew she would have to face the music sometime. They walked to the park and sat on a bench. "So...what's going on?" Lincoln asked seriously.
Ronnie Anne took a deep breath through her nose and let it out evenly. Haltingly, she told Lincoln everything; she revealed to him just how her family was doing, and her face burned with humiliation even as a black weight seemed to lift from her chest. Lincoln listened sympathetically, and when she was done, he rubbed the back of his neck, obviously uncomfortable and not knowing what to do or say. "I'm sorry," he said. It wasn't much but it was genuine, and Ronnie Anne appreciated it. "I didn't know. I guess it makes sense. My mom and dad both work and even they struggle a lot. It must be really hard for one person."
"It is," Ronnie Anne admitted. "I don't really want to go, but part of me is happy that Mom won't have so much stress on her. I guess in that way, us moving is a good thing."
They were both quiet for a long time. When the silence between them began to grow awkward, Lincoln said, "We can still talk on the phon."
"And video chat," Ronnie Anne said.
"We can also see each other sometimes," he said. "Great Lakes City isn't that far away."
"Only two hours," Ronnie Anne pointed out. "We can take the bus."
Lincoln nodded eagerly. They both felt their friendship already slipping through their fingers, Ronnie Anne would think later, and they grasped desperately at it from every angle, coming up with anything they could to save it. Even then, Ronnie Anne didn't think they would see each other very often, if ever. She wondered if Lincoln felt that as well. He was sincere about coming to visit her but life would inevitably get in the way. The same would happen for her.
And just as she thought, it did.
She and her family settled in at the Casagrande bodega and began a routine. Ronnie Anne met new friends - Sid and Nikki chiefly among them - and began to readjust to life in the big city. The most jarring change was the noise. In Royal Woods, you could hear crickets, the breeze, and children laughing two streets over. In Great Lakes City, the constant wail of sirens, honking of horns, and yelling voices was enough to drive you crazy. Then there were the people: They were everywhere. Ronnie Anne was used to having breathing room, but here, that was as foregin a concept as not blowing things up was to the Taliban. No matter where you went or when, there were always people around, often packed shoulder to shoulder like sardines in a can. Ronnie Anne's cousin Carlotta once told her that there were 400 people per square mile in Great Lakes City, and though Ronnie Anne thought that sounded fake, the real total couldn't be all that far off. Her school was bigger than any other she had ever been to and it took almost a month before she knew the layout well enough to not stop and consult her map every five paces.
After a few months, Ronnie Anne grew to enjoy the hustle and bustle of the big city. Everything she could ever want or need was located within a ten block radius, and the few things that weren't were easily accessible by bus and by the subway. She worked in her family's bodega in the afternoons and on weekends and always had a little bit of spending money, something she never had back in Royal Woods. Her life was objectively better here in the big city, but sometimes she missed the wide open spaces and lush countryside of Royal County. The bland concrete and the sizzling pavement wore on her nerves and she would retreat to Abbot Park near Downtown, the only spot in the city with an abundance of nature: Trees, ponds, and rose bushes that had absorbed so much exhaust fumes that they smelled like the back end of a Honda. Her favorite spot was a patch of soft grass under an oak tree through which the rays of the sun filtered before reaching the ground in a smattering of golden coins. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine she was back in Royal Woods.
Almost...because the sounds of the city intruded into her fantasy. There was no escaping them, no -
A tinny voice crackled over the loudspeaker, startling Ronnie Anne from her reprieve. "BUS 63 TO ROYAL WOODS AND POINTS NORTH IS NOW BOARDING."
Ronnie Anne looked out the window; a bus sat at the curb, its doors open and a stream of people filing on. She grabbed her bag, jumped to her feet, anf rushed out to the platform. The afternoon sun fell over her and sweat instantly sprang to her brow. The low din of traffic on the nearby interstate found her ears and the smell of exhaust pinched her nostrils. The bus station was in the ghetto and as she made her way to the bus, Ronnie Anne ducked her head in case of gunfire. She didn't live in the best part of town herself, but the neighborhood around the bus station was infamous for drive-bys and gang warfare. Most of the people who got shot out here were innocent bystanders and Mom told her to be careful. In fact, now that she thought about it, Ronnie Anne kind of regretted sitting next to the window. A stray bullet could have punched through the glass and taken her head off like that. It wouldn't be the first time it happened; the walls, signs, and trees were all riddled with bullet holes and a lot of the windows of abandoned buildings were either broken or boarded up. Graffiti covered walls and, in some places, the very sidewalk, and just down the street, a pair of red Converse All Stars hung from a power line. That meant you were now entering gang country. Ronnie Anne didn't know if their color held any sort of significance. Bloods wore red so this might be their hood. Then again, the color might mean that they were taken off of a Blood and that this is actually Crip country. Or maybe it meant nothing at all.
Ronnie Anne fell in line behind an old man and waited. When her turn finally came, she handed the driver her ticket and took a seat at the back of the bus. In school, the back of the bus is where the cool kids sat, but the only people back here were the opposite of cool: An old white guy with a gray beard and a headband swigging something from a brown paper bag sat to her right, and though she half expected him to be pervy and leer at her or something, he didn't seem to realize she was there. The bottle was his entire world and nothing else mattered. For that, Ronnie Anne was grateful. She was really tired of being sexually harassed by grown ass men. So far, it had never been anything serious, but she had walked by more than one construction site where the men all whistled at her. You'd think they were Hollywood types with the way they acted about underage girls.
Freaks.
A few minutes after the last passenger boarded, the bus driver pulled a lever, closing the doors, and put the bus in DRIVE. They pulled away from the platform and turned onto Washington Street. A right brought them onto Martin Luther King Blvd, and the interstate lay ahead, an overpass defining the near skyline. Ronnie Anne settled into her seat and stared vacantly out the window.
As she had expected, hers and Lincoln's relationship had cooled somewhat. After being away from him for so long, she no longer had complicated feelings for him, and she doubted he had complicated feelings for her. That special connection - the maybe like-like - had cushioned their fall and absorbed the impact, leaving their friendship intact. He was still one of her best friends and she would always cherish him as such, but the flame between them - if there had ever been a flame at all - was gone now. She looked at him the same way she looked at Girl Jordan: As just a friend. A special and beloved friend, but just a friend nevertheless. Was it possible that she and Lincoln rekindled that strange and special feeling? Eh, maybe, but she wasn't in any rush to do so; there were a couple boys in Great Lakes City that she liked and her mind was on them, not Lincoln.
But who knows? That's the great thing about life. It's full of surprises. If you follow a set path, checking off predetermined boxe...that's boring. It's like walking down a long and straight highway. The real fun of the trip is going into the weeds and finding cool new things that you didn't anticipate. She wasn't closed to the idea of something unexpected happening, but like most people, she did have vague expectations.
Falling in love with Lincoln, as it were, was not one of them.
Anyway, she was just happy to see all her old friends and to visit her old haunts. She had been dying for a Chocolate Cherry Flipeez and every so often, she got an almost painful craving for pizza from Gus's. There were bigger and better arcades in the city but there was something about Gus's, something magical. Was it nostalgia? She figured it probably was but she didn't think nostalgia would kick in so soon. She had been gone from Royal Woods for less than a year.
Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out to find a text from Bobby.
Give Lori a kiss for me.
Ronnie Anne stuck out her tongue. Ew, gross, she replied.
Bobby couldn't come this weekend because he had to work, but he had just seen Lori a few weeks ago, so it wasn't all that sad. Whenever they had the chance, they would meet either in the city or in Royal Woods. The last time, she and Lincoln came down and Ronnie Anne bullied him to impress her new friends. She kind of regretted doing that, but she was afraid her squad would reject her for being a bumpkin loving hillbilly or something. She didn't know, it didn't make much sense and looking back at it, she was ashamed of herself for selling out one of her friends.
Anyway, Bobby and Lori got to see each other a lot and their relationship was just as red hot as it had always been, so no, she was not going to give Lori a kiss for him. He could do that himself in a week or two.
For the rest of the trip, Ronnie Anne gazed out the window at the passing landscape. The crumbling buildings on the outer bands of Great Lakes City eventually turned to suburbs with strip malls, fast food joins, and parks. Soon, that gave way to blankets of farmland that spread out in every direction for as far as the eye could see. Cows grazed from fenced in pastures and big white farmhouses glinted in the sun. She saw red barns, brown grain silos with silvery tops, and dirt roads that crisscrossed the barren countryside. The bus stopped at a station attached to a general store and everyone had ten minutes to use the bathroom, buy refreshments, and stretch their legs. Mom had given her fifty dollars and Ronnie Anne used some of it to buy a Pepsi and a bag of Skittles. She walked around the building and stood in tall grass to look at a babbling creek that snaked its way past. She sae frogs and tadpoles and other things she couldn't name. Maybe if she paid better attention in biology class she'd know what they were, but she didn't and it didn't feel like a great loss.
Back on the bus, she sat in her seat. She ate her Skittles and dran her Pepsi as the bus made the last fifty miles to Royal Woods. The farmland bled into dense pine forests, and Ronnie Anne started recognizing familiar landmarks: That gas station with the ancient pumps, that big rock shaped kind of like a sofa, that clearing with the tumbledown shed in the middle. Her excitement grew and she pressed her face to the window. A few miles later, the bus turned left at a crossroads. A green road sign with white writing proclaimed ROYAL WOODS: 11. The road twisted and turned through rugged foothills peopled by tall trees, and Ronnie Anne whipped out her phone to text Lincoln. Almost there lameo, she said.
A few minutes later, he replied with Cool. It will be a little while I have chores to do.
Don't worry about it, she said, I'll just walk to your house.
Ok.
The road curved to the right and dipped. The trees along the guardrail parted and Ronnie Anne caught a glimpse of Royal Woods below, The Royal River defined its far northern border, its surface twinkling like silver, and closer, church spires and red brick buildings soaked in the mid-summer haze, lending the scene an almost sepia toned hue that made Ronnie Anne's heart ache with love and longing. After the city, Royal Woods was shockingly small, but it was more beautiful even than the neon city lights at night.
For two miles, the road descended from the highlands before curving gently to the right and crossing into town. Ronnie Anne craned her neck to see as much of Royal Woods as she could; everything looked the same, but felt somehow different. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it was definitely a feeling rather than an observation. Towns like Royal Woods change only infrequently, and when they do, those changes are never extensive. She had seen pictures of Royal Woods from the seventies and eighties, and aside from the clothes people wore and the cars they drove, it looked the same as it did today. She didn't know why Royal Woods seemed different but that didn't matter, she was finally back and she had a whole week to enjoy it.
The bus station was on Front Street just down from the old high school. The building looked a lot like the one she had left back in Great Lakes City; same plateglass windows, same Greyhound sign, same platform. For a second, she could almost believe that she had gone in a giant circle and arrived back at her starting point. The bus pulled in, rolled to a stop at the curb, and threw its doors open. Beng in the back, Ronnie Anne waited for everyone else to file off before getting up. She slung her bag over her shoulder and glanced at the drunk white guy. At some point during the trip, he had passed out with his arms crossed over his chest and his head bent heavily to one side. Ronnie Anne briefly considered waking him but decided not to. It wasn't her business and you're better off not getting involved in things that aren't your business.
Outside, the temperature was almost ten degrees cooler than it had been in the city. Ronnie Anne walked through the bus terminal and then out the front door. A set of concrete stairs led down the street. Ahead, an overgrrown lot surrounded by a slanted chain link fence festered with trash and refuse. A man in dirty rags pushed a shopping cart down the opposite side of the sidewalk and stopped to rummage through an overfull trash can probably for plastic bottles. Michigan had the highest return rate in the country for plastic soda bottles, ten cents to most other states' five cents. You could easily make a couple bucks picking up Coke cans and stuff. Ronnie Anne used to do that before she moved to Great Lakes City. In fact, now that she was looking at him, she was pretty sure that she recognized that hobo. Was he the one she used to fight with over cans and bottles near the highway? She thought he was but she couldn't be sure, that was a long time ago, at least two years.
For a moment, Ronnie Anne looked left and right, not sure which way she should go. Now that she was thinking about it, she wasn't sure how to get to Lincoln's house from here. She did, however, know how to get to Flip's, so she started in that direction now, hands in her pockets and her bag slapping lightly against her lower back. In minutes, fat beads of sweat coursed down the back of her neck and her body overheated. She stopped, stripped off her hoodie, and wrapped it around her waist. Beneath, she wore a white tank top that was already saturated with sweat in places. She dragged the back of her hand across her brow and took a deep, panting breath. She finished off the last of her Pepsi and chucked the bottle over her shoulder; it hit the sidewalk, bounced, and rolled into the gutter, where it came to rest against a pile of dead leaves. No one else respected this neighborhood, so why should she?
She stole a look around to make sure no one had seen, then carried on. She crossed a rusted set of train tracks and the buildings gave way to dilapidated rowhouses with peeling paint, missing shingles, and sagging front porches. Cars sat on cinderblocks in overgrown front yards and gravel alleys ran between the houses. A group of kids walked down the opposite side of the street in skinny jeans and jerseys, and an old man sat on a stoop blasting old school rap. Ronnie Anne was fairly certain she had heard the song before but she didn't know what it was called or who sang it. Snoop Dogg, maybe? Probably not. She only said that because Snoop was the only old school rapper she new. Except for that other guy. The one in the dinosaur suit. What was his name? '
By now, she had reached Main Street, a bustling thoroughfare lined with shops and restaurants. She knew exactly where she was now and how to get to Flip's. From there, it was only about a mile or a mile and a half to Lincoln's house. She readjusted her backpack because the strap was biting into her shoulder and set out for Flip's. On the way, she ran into people she knew, mainly grown-ups. They all greeted her and she greeted them back. Outside the video store - yes, Royal Woods still had a video store - she literally bumped into Ms. Johnson, her old teacher. The redhead's arms were laden with DVDs and VHS tapes, and she looked harried as always. "Ronnie Anne," she said happily.
"Hey, Ms. Johnson," Ronnie Anne said.
"Are you back?"
Ronnie Anne shrugged one shoulder. "Just for a week. I'm staying with the Louds."
"Class hasn't been the same without you," Ms. Johnson said. "I miss your thoughtful essays. They were always such fun to read."
Ronnie Anne blushed. She liked to write sometimes and Ms. Johnson had encouraged her to keep at it. You might become a novelist one day. Ronnie Anne didn't know about all that, but she did like to tell herself stories sometimes. She hid her interest in creative writing from her friends because she didn't want them to think she was a nerd or anything. She'd rather they think she was pants-shittingly retarded. She got good grades across the board but sometimes intentionally got a few questions wrong just to spare herself the humiliation of getting a perfect grade. If she did that, she could kiss her social life goodbye. Her friends back in Great Lakes City might forgive her for being a redneck but they would not forgive her for being a lowly brainiac.
"Thanks," she said, "I still write sometimes but I've been really busy."
"You should definitely make time," Ms. Johnson said. "You're so good."
After exchanging a few more pleasantries, they went their separate ways, Ms. Johnson home to watch her movies and Ronnie Anne onto Flip's. She got there almost ten minutes later, hot, sweating, and out of breath, She rounded a corner and walked up a hill, leaning slightly forward to cut down on resistance or something. At the top, Flip's waited like a shining beacon of hope. Like everything else in town, it looked the same as it did when Ronnie Anne lived here right down to the yellowing advertisements in the windows. FLIPEEZ 1.99!
Those things were not 1.99. They were 4.99. Someone told Ronnie Anne once that the last time a Flipeez had cost 1.99, the Twin Towers were still standing. It was just like Flip to be too lazy to take down an old sign, so Ronnie Anne believed it whole-heartedly.
Shifting her bag to her other shoulder, she crossed the parking lot and went inside. As soon as she opened the door, a blast of icy air washed over her, and the sweat coating her body instantly dried. One thing about Flip, he was cheap af but he did not skimp on the heat and A/C. Flip's was probably the coldest spot in town during the summer and when she used to live here, she'd come down, sit at one of the booths along the wall, and spend half the day sipping soda and buying gum so that he wouldn't yeet her into the street.
The cash register was off to her left and to her right was a bank of coolers filled with drinks and other freezable items. Rows of merchandise occupied the middle of the floor and beyond them, hidden from sight, was the soda fountain, the Flipeez machine, and the booths leftover from when Flip's was a sandwich shop back in the eighties. Ronnie Anne went to the Flipeez machine and instantly noticed a group of kids sitting in one of the booths; they were huddled together and whispering excitedly like a football team going over plays at half time. Ronnie Anne ignored them, went to the machine, and grabbed a large cup. She thrust the cup underneath one of the spigots (if spigot it was called) and pulled a lever; brown, frozen goodness poured out and filled the cup. She got it right to the rim, took a drink, and topped it off. Chocolate Cherry, how I've missed you.
She put a lid on it and shoved a straw in. She started to turn away but someone called her name. She turned, and that's when she realized that she knew everyone at the booth. There was Girl Jordan, Stella, Clyde, and Cristina. "Hey, guys," she beamed and walked over.
"Lincoln said you were in town," Jordan said as Ronnie Anne sat across from her, Cristina and Clyde moving to make space.
"Yeah, for a week," Ronnie Anne said.
"That's really cool," Jordan said. She glanced at Clyde and Ronnie Anne could have sworn she saw something like anger. "We were gonna meet you at the bus station but apparently Clyde got the times wrong."
Clyde hung his head in contrition.
Turning back to Ronnie Anne, Jordan smiled. "Anyway, it's really good to see you,"
Something about Jordan struck Ronnie Anne as artificial. They had never been great friends and Jordan's reaction to Ronnie Anne being here was a little...well, extra. Suddenly, Ronnie Anne's street smarts kicked in and she knew, as clearly as though she had been told, that Jordan wanted something from her.
"You're staying with Lincoln, right?" Jordan asked.
"Yeah," Ronnie Anne said guardedly.
Jordan winced.
"What?" Ronnie Anne asked.
Clyde, Cristina, and Stella looked at each other. "It's probably nothing," Cristina said.
"Yeah, just a misunderstanding," Clyde said.
"But, well…" Stella trailed off.
They were intentionally leading her on. Ronnie Anne knew that as surely as she knew when someone was trying to con her out of a dollar at the bus stop. Even so, she was intrigued. "What's going on at Lincoln's house?" she asked.
Jordan took a deep breath and let it out evenly. "Like Cristina said, it's probably nothing, but we have...uh...reason to suspect that Lincoln is, um…"
The atmosphere grew awkward and everyone looked uncomfortable. Clyde stared down at his hands, Stella's face turned beet red, and Cristina nervously twisted a napkin in her hands. Ronnie Anne looked around the table and a frown touched her lips. "What? What about Lincoln?" Her chest squeezed as a thousand terrible possibilities occurred to her. Lincoln was being molested by a neighbor; Lincoln was stricken with cancer and had only months to live; Lincoln was depressed and suicidal; Lincoln was losing his mind and preparing for an epic school shooting. Each thought was more terrible and outlandish than the last, but none were as terrible and outlandish as what Jordan said next.
"We think Lincoln's...having sex...with one of his sisters."
Awkward silence fell over them and Ronnie Anne stared at her for a moment in disbelief...then burst out laughing. Jordan's brow pinched and Clyde drew a deep sigh. He may have said, "I told you so," but the sound of Ronnie Anne's own laughter drowned him out. Tears blurred Ronnie Anne's vision and her head started to ache, but she couldn't stop laughing. Lincoln...with one of his sisters? That was the most absurd abd outrageous thing she had ever heard.
When her laughter began to subside, Jordan asked, "Are you done?"
Ronnie Anne brushed a tear from her eyes. "Yeah, I'm done."
"We're being serious," Stella said soberly.
This was crazy. Ronnie Anne looked at Clyde. "You too? You're his best friend."
Clyde sighed. "I know it sounds crazy, but…" he shrugged.
Jordan made her case. Recently, Lincoln had been talking about having a girlfriend. When pressed for details, he got nervous and claimed that she lived in another town. At first, everyone thought he was joking, but then one Monday, he came to school with hickies on his neck. He told them that he went to visit his girlfriend that weekend, but Clyde was almost certain that Lincoln had not left Royal Woods on either Saturday or Sunday. When Clyde brought that up, Lincoln changed his story and said that his girlfriend came to visit him instead.
This scene repeated itself the next weekend, and the following week, Lincoln said he was going to visit his girlfriend again. Curious, Jordan and Cristina watched his house off and on all weekend.
He never left.
Even so, he came to school with hickies again. The only logical conclusion was that someone already in the house had given them to him. Cristina got involved because she thought Lincoln was a creep and wanted to prove it, and Clyde joined because he was worried that the mystery girl was Lori. Jordan admitted that she and Cristina hadn't watched the house every second of the weekend, but that, combined with other circumstances, led her to believe that Lincoln was "with" one of his sisters.
Ronnie Anne took a deep breath. "That's retarded."
"I know it sounds crazy," Jordan said, "but don't you remember how we used to make fun of him for being so close with his sisters? Like...that family is unnaturally close, you know that."
Well...Ronnie Anne couldn't argue there. The Louds were creepily close. They spent most of their time hanging out with each other and seemed to hate the prospect of being apart. Bobby told her that Lori's plan was to finish college and move back home. Luna, Leni, and Luan all had the same goal. We can't just leave each other, Lori told him. She, and the others, seemed to think that moving out and having their own lives separate from the others was some sort of betrayal or something. Whenever Ronnie Anne went over to the Loud house, the kids were always hugging, touching, and bickering like one big married couple. Ronnie Anne was the first one to start clowning on Lincoln and his incest cult but that was just a joke and it petered out pretty quickly. She didn't actually think they were doing anything wrong, they were just close. So what? Her extended family was close. A lot of Hispanic families had two or three generations living under the same roof. Before moving to Great Lakes City, she had never known her extended family. Now she did and suddenly, Lincoln's family made more sense.
"So what?" Ronnie Anne asked. "My family's close too."
"Not like Lincoln's," Cristina said. "They're creepy."
"You're just mad because he used to like you," Ronnie Anne shot back. "God forbid a boy be into you. You're probably gay." She shot Clyde a withering look. "And you...I dunno what your problem is. Lincoln's supposed to be your best friend and you're going along with this. You're an asshole." She got up. "You're all assholes."
With that, she paid for her Flippez and left.
She couldn't believe the shit they were pushing. Lincoln with one of his sisters. That was insane.
Taking a deep breath, she forced that thought away and walked the several blocks to the Loud House, getting there fifteen minutes later. She knocked on the door and waited, shifting her weight from one aching foot to the other. Finally, the door opened and Lincoln appeared. His face lit up and she smiled. "Hey, lame-o, here I am."
"Took you long enough," he said and stepped aside.
Ronnie Anne went in and he shut the door behind her. "How was the trip?" he asked.
"It was alright," she said. "I'm exhausted." She flopped onto the couch and let out a relieved sigh. Lincoln sat next to her and she briefly considered bringing up the strange meeting she had had with Jordan and the others, but decided against it.
It would only darken the mood, and her mood had been darkened enough for one day.
This was a happy occasion and she intended to enjoy it.
"Wanna play a game?" Lincoln asked.
"Sure," she said.
Unbeknownst to her, a seed had been planted, and for better or worse, she would never see Lincoln the same way again.