Chapter 7
"Good morning," Jackie sang brightly in a voice Faith only heard when she'd done something right to please her mother.
Sometimes she found it annoying, but today Faith giggled. "Good morning, mommy," she sang back in the same tone, using her old childhood endearment.
Triumph, Jackie thought. She had made her daughter smile, laugh even. Maybe she was a good mother after all… She made her daughter fried eggs with the yolks still intact and buttered toast, one of her favorite breakfasts.
The two didn't speak of anything too important….went over the weather, how school was going, how proud her parents were of her last progress report… But they didn't dare mention knees, surgery, or sadness, pleasing Faith even more.
Faith waved to Jackie as her father's old '66 Ford pick-up came to take her to the bus-stop. Since they lived in the back of the woods, she had always had to drive to her grandmother's house out by the street. It was one of the only times Faith got alone with her father, and she generally enjoyed it.
Once inside, Faith asked if the old truck was an antique yet, just to prompt her father to animatedly tell about how he'd had the truck since he was a kid, even learned to drive it when he was just eleven years old. Faith always listened gladly, though the story was about as boring as stories could get.
Then why did she ask him to tell it?
It was the way his eyes lit up, like he was telling the most important and dear-to-heart story of his life. Cars and trucks were his life, all he knew mostly. It wasn't that her father was uneducated - far from it. But he had a simple way to life that Faith admired. He knew what he loved. He knew what he was good at. He knew what he believed….and he never had the urge to question it.
"Ooo, here comes your ride."
Faith arched her neck to gaze up at the highway on the hill to see her yellow school-bus popping over the brim.
"Here, sport, give me a hug."
Obediently, Faith quickly put her arms around her dad. She took in his scent. Sawdust and burnt leaves…she probably shouldn't have found it appealing, but somehow she did.
"Bye, daddy." There was that endearment again.
Her father, Russell, smiled, causing the lines that broke from the sides of his eyes to crinkle. "Have a good day, kid. Don't do anything I wouldn't, and make me proud."
Faith grinned, slinging her book bag over her shoulder. "I always don't, and I always do," she answered.
With that, she trod across the street to the bus and took her usual seat in the dead center of the bus. Staring out of the window, she smiled.
It was going to be a good day.
* * * * *
The bus took a different route, and a new kid got on, wearing the blue and white boys' OLRA uniform. Noticing that she too wore one, he sat across from her. His name was Ali. He was African-American, and he was new to the area. He winked at her twice, and Faith had even made a joke that he laughed at.
When they got off the bus, she directed him to the principal's office, and they went their separate ways. But Faith smiled throughout the rest of the day, something she had not done in a long, long time.
Aside from that, she got back an A paper in her Biology class. She was sitting there, when all of a sudden, a girl next to her named Genevieve said, "Hey, let me see your paper."
At first, Faith was reluctant, but giving her best apologetic smile, she handed it to her.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Genevieve said aloud just as the teacher left the room.
One of the girl's in the back wrapping gum around her artificial nail looked back. "What? What is it, Gen?"
Faith panicked. She was about to be ridiculed, and once again she was powerless to stop it.
Another one, a little chubbier, with her skirt rolled up to her thighs and shirt tail carelessly hanging out, sat up. "Hey, would you stop with all this raucous?" she said, seriously but really jokingly.
"Hey, why don't you sit down and shut up before I tell your pimp you're going out of line," Gen sang, a sideways grin on her face.
"He doesn't care. I make him good money," she replied.
Faith found herself laughing along with the rest of the class. It was obvious they'd done this skit before.
The gum girl (Faith found out later she was named Brooke.) put her hands on her hips. She was a skinny little thing with dyed blonde hair. "What IS it, Gen?" she demanded.
"Oh!" Gen held up Faith's paper, causing the girl to inwardly panic as her Scarlet "A" was held up to the class to see. "Look at this! I can't pull a C in this class. Kid's got brains coming out from places I didn't even know existed!" Gen leaned over dramatically, playing around. "Can't you share a little, please? I will pay you. I will pay you anything you want, just give me some brains!"
Faith laughed out loud, unable to stop herself.
"And they said money from the corner wouldn't get us nowheres in school," Skirt-rolled-up said.
Gen laughed, along with the rest of the class, and she handed Faith back her paper.
"Hey, what's your name?" she asked.
Faith was late in answering, and Genevieve let out a loud, honking laugh as she looked down at the paper. "Clarky! Her name's Clarky!"
"Clarky, is that it?" Skirt-rolled-up joined in.
Brooke cackled in the background. "Clarky…Clarkster. Ooo! That's what we should call her from now on."
Faith's label for the rest of her high school days was set. "Clarky", really her last name, became a growing trend in their small Catholic school, and Faith allowed it. Though at first she feared it, it brought her popularity, and she grew to connect with it. It was an identity, and as she'd lacked one up until that point, Faith embraced it.
And soon, while within the OLRA building, it was all she answered to.
With the identity came several roles she had to play, but we'll get into that
later. For now, Faith packed up her bag, a small grin glowing on her face and
went to her locker. It was lunch-time….
