6.

~ Norma was astounded by Christine's energy in theater. She'd never met anyone like her before. Someone who so warmly welcomed her to a group and who seemed to know everyone. It was like theater class was a garden party and Christine Helden was the hostess.

"Now I don't want you to worry about parts, Norma." Christine said quickly. "Everyone is going to be on stage for something. We're just going to do a run through of the script today and then you'll decide what part you want to audition for."

"Oh." Norma said feeling worried. She'd been hoping to work as more of a stage hand and maybe costumes. She didn't like the thought of acting in front of the whole school.

"It's required for our grade; everyone has to perform." George said quickly seeing the look on Norma's face.

It was soon clear Christine and the rest of the class had been planing the entire theater schedule all summer and they were basing their play on the newer incarnation of Dracula from the movie.

"Since we have more girls than boys in class, I think we should consider one of the girl's playing a traditional male role." Christine said brightly. "So I want everyone to try out for Dracula. It would be stunning."

Norma found herself getting excited about the play and wondered if it wouldn't be so impossible to be friends with Christine and her little group after all. None of them had been off putting and they had all welcomed her. All seeming to agree she belonged with them if Christine said so.

Christine possessed a magnetic presence as she recruited everyone to help her with her campaign later that week.
"I just need some extra hands to make posters and banners." Christine quickly explained. "You can come to my house this weekend and we can make a day of it. It'll be fun."

Norma reluctantly promised. She had no plans for the weekend.

"Do you have a car?" Christine asked suddenly concerned.
"I can pick her up." George volunteered eagerly.

"Oh good!" Christine said as if she'd laid an intricate plan and gave her brother a knowing look.

~ Dance and theater class had been so exhausting, Norma felt the rest of her day slip by without effort. She didn't feel as overwhelmed as she had in lunch. She would finish reading "The Glass Menagerie" tonight as well as her history assignment and math. Her school had a block schedule for some subjects so they studied history and math one day and government and science the next. So, she had plenty of time to get everything done as well as read her script for theater. It was sometimes easier to not have a tv on days like this. When there was literally nothing else to do but read.

Norma was selecting which books to take home from her locker when Alex found her.
"Hi." he said suddenly appearing when she closed her locker door.

Norma jumped. She wasn't sure why she was so on edge lately. The day had left her unnerved in a way that no other school had before.
"What are you doing here?" she asked him more aggressively than she meant to. She felt as if he had sneaked up on her in some elaborate game just to torment her.

Her ire had drawn unwanted attention to both of them. It made several students pause and look at them together.

Alex's eyes went wide but he quickly recovered.

"Well, I was hoping I could give you a ride home." he said with some embarrassment.

Norma moved away from him slightly. George had just offered her a ride home as well and she'd politely rejected it. She didn't like the idea of being in a car alone with a boy she'd just met. She'd envisioned all kinds of horrible scenarios of what might happen to her if she was alone in a car with a stranger. George was harmless, but Alex wasn't George.

"I can walk." she told him hefting her heavy book load to one hip.

"I know you can walk." Alex said with a smile. "It's why I'm offering to drive you."

"It's not a long walk." Norma said briskly moving past him and feeling her cheeks flush. Everyone was looking at them; and little smiles were curling their lips.

"Well, can I walk you home then?" Alex asked.

"The sidewalks are for everyone." Norma said as they both escaped the interior of the school and were met with a gloomy afternoon.

"Great, I'll just walk you home. Then I'll walk back here… and get my car." Alex said in a deliberate attempt to be funny. "Because that makes… more sense."

He was keeping pace with her and she avoided looking at him.

"I don't know you." she said. "I don't get into stranger's cars. You could be a psycho killer."

Norma was thankful she only lived a few blocks away. Hopefully Alex would get the hint and stop trying to use her to make his girlfriend jealous.

"That's smart." Alex agreed as they walked passed the small parking lot and towards downtown. "My dad's a cop, he would agree with you. You can't be too careful. He's always telling me not to get into cars with strange men no matter how cute and charming they are."

Norma sensed he was trying to be funny but didn't buy it.

She let an uncomfortable silence pass between them before speaking.

"Won't your girlfriend be upset you're walking me home and offering me rides?" she asked petulantly.

"Who told you I had a girlfriend?" Alex asked furrowing his brow.

"Everyone." Norma said lazily. She didn't want him to think she'd asked about him, but blaming the gossip on 'everyone' implied she'd asked a lot of people.
"Want me to carry those for you?" Alex asked nodding to the stack of books she was holding.
"No." she said and clutched them to her chest.

"Well, everyone is wrong." Alex told her shifting his backpack and looking perfectly comfortable.

Norma didn't say anything.

"So, you're from Florida?" Alex asked.
"Who told you that?" Norma said harshly.
"Everyone." Alex laughed. "You're the new girl. You're big news. We had a few new students in last year and it was exciting. We don't get a lot of new people here in White Pine Bay."

"My parents are divorcing." Norma said coldly.

"You're a long way from Florida. It's a big change." Alex told her.

Norma had to nod in agreement.
"Is it always this cold and cloudy this time of year?" she asked with a sigh. The weather was already making her depressed.

"Most of the time." Alex admitted. "You'll get used to it. It rains a lot to and it's always cold."
"Great." Norma said feeling sour about the whole thing. "When it rained in Florida it was always a warm rain."

"I bet you used to go to the beach a lot." Alex said with a slight smile.

Norma shook her head.

"We didn't live near the coast." she admitted shyly.

"Well, we have bonfire nights on the weekends. It's a beach, and it's always cold, but we have a lot of fun. You should think about coming. It would be nice." Alex offered.

"Oh, drunken teen parties." Norma said sarcastically.

"Sometimes." Alex admitted. "But we can leave early if they get too rowdy."

"We?" Norma huffed.

She spotted the tall newspaper building that she called home. 'White Pine Bay Current' was painted on the front, but the weather had faded out the colors till it looked washed away.

"Well, thanks for walking me home." she said wanting to move away from him.
"Norma!" Alex called after her. She turned and fully expected there to be a group of boys laughing at them. All of them snickering at the joke of someone like Alex walking someone like her home, but when she turned around, he was alone on the sidewalk.

"What?" she asked wanting to hurry up to the safety of her apartment. A place where no one would judge her.

"Well, it's going to rain tonight and tomorrow morning." Alex said shyly. "Maybe I should pick you up for school. You're not used to the weather here, you might catch a cold."

"I'll be fine." Norma said without thinking. "I… have an umbrella." she lied.

"Well, I'll be here at 7:30 in case you change your mind." Alex offered.

Norma felt herself nod awkwardly and fled inside the building.

~ Fanny had left the apartment a disaster. She'd cooked a little that day and then wandered away to parts unknown; leaving dirty dishes in the sink and a pile of dirty clothes in the bathroom.

Norma sighed, picked up the dirty clothes and cleaned up the apartment. It was already starting to have an odor. One that always permeated every place they'd ever lived. Mostly of food stuff gone sour, dirty clothes and things left to rot.

Norma opened the windows to let fresh air in and could smell the rain coming that Alex had warned about. She checked the fridge and saw Fanny hand't bothered to do any grocery shopping that day.

She fished out more cash from the back of the toilet and made a quick run to the store. She needed almost everything but couldn't carry everything back on the walk home, so she sensibly decided on dish soap, an umbrella and food for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. They even sold backpacks so she wouldn't have to carry her books so awkwardly anymore. She'd have to provoke Fanny into going to the store soon though. They couldn't live like this.

~ After she made herself dinner and washed all the dishes, Norma felt better again. As if she could erase her mother's legacy with dish soap and properly sorted dirty laundry. They'd have to go to the laundromat soon. Something Fanny wasn't keen on. The older woman hated having to clean like that and house work never ended.

Norma didn't think too much about where her mother had gone. It was nice to have the apartment to herself again. The massive space feeling like it was all her own. She read her school assignments by the large windows until it got dark, took a shower and then read the Dracula play. She hoped Christine was kidding when she said everyone would be on stage. There was a scene with seductive female vampires that made Norma shudder slightly.

'Alex will tease me forever if I played that.' she thought and then scolded herself for even caring about what he thought at all.

Still, he was being very sweet to her today.

'He's just trying to get a rise out of that Rebecca girl.' she told herself miserably. The thought made her sad. Sad that he wouldn't want to talk to her unless he had another motive. She wasn't someone the boys would flock to. At least not back home. She didn't dress pretty, she wasn't smart or charming like Christine. She didn't have money and confidence. So why the interest?

Deep down, she knew. Knew why a boy like him would invite her to a bonfire party with his friends. He was just looking for a conquest and she would do.

The whole idea made her feel angry at him for even talking to her at all.

~ Fanny came home long after midnight. Norma had gone to bed and noticed the time was almost 3am on her alarm clock when she burst in turning on all the lights.

"I got a job!" her mother said with a happy smile. Norma wiped the sleep from her eyes and noticed Fanny's hair was messed up and her clothes were sweaty and stained.

"Where?" she asked suspiciously.

"They have a bar here." she sighed. "I'll have to get a special certificate or something to serve alcohol. It's not like it is in Florida, but they let me start right away."

"You're a bartender?" Norma asked.
"Yeah, I'll be making good money with tips and everything." Fanny told her.

"You've been drinking." Norma told her mother.

"Yeah, they buy me drinks." Fanny told her. Norma noticed Fanny had bought some new clothes. Tight black pants and a see through red top. She also noticed a white fur jacket, that was still not suited for the weather here, thrown on the bed.

"You bought new clothes." Norma accused.
"Yeah. We're starting our new life." Fanny said happily.

"I started school today." Norma said wondering if her mother would even care.

"Ugh." Fanny said and made a face. "So soon? I was hoping you'd get a job to."

Norma shook her head.

"Well, I have to be up at noon; so go to bed." Fanny told her turning out the lights to their apartment. She'd breezed in liked she'd arrived late for a party that couldn't start without her. Now, Norma noticed she'd already tracked in a mess of dirty clothes, leftover pizza from her new job and wasn't about to pick up after herself. Fanny undressed to her panties, threw on an old T-shirt and dove under the covers.

As if on cue, the rain started to fall. A heavier rain than Norma was expecting and sent a chill through the entire apartment.