OOOO
Ch 6
The next day was not a good day for Cathy, who woke up to find
Jim passed out, drunk outside her door. She wasn't on the ball in
her classes, having gotten almost no sleep the night before
and got into trouble in almost all of them. In Geometry, she
even let her crankiness get the better of her and she walked out on
the teacher after yelling back at him. By the end of school, she was
a nervous wreck, a fact that was exacerbated by coach
Manning, who had gotten firsthand accounts of the day's events
from her teachers. Relentlessly, he tried to get to what was
going on with Cathy, who was at a complete loss as to what to
tell him. Finally, his anger got the better of him and he gave
her a final ultimatum.
"Look Cathy, either you sort out what is going on with you or
you are off the team. And I mean every sports team. Softball,
soccer, gymnastics, the lot. I've already spoken to Mrs.
Tanner, who wants you out of the dance club. Your teachers will not
put up with this kind of behavior."
Unable to deal with any more, Catriona simply walked off,
leaving the coach standing in the middle of the playing field.
OOOO
A little while later, Mac scanned the playing field, searching
for Cathy. Recognizing her from the day before, Rick
introduced himself to her and told her about his concern for
Catriona. Mac could hardly believe that he was talking about the same
kid, Cathy had seemed fine the day before. They talked through what could possibly be causing her behavior, going over her extensive, rather troubling history.
"I just thought that she had moved past all that," Mac told
Rick, "her social worker told me she was doing so well."
"Is there any way I can get hold of this social worker? Perhaps he
might be able to give us some insight on all this," Rick
asked her.
"Chris has been out of town for the last week, I think she's
getting back to D.C. next Friday," she supplied.
As it began to rain, they broke the meeting up, promising to
contact each other if they learnt anything significant. Mac
climbed into her car and decided to confront Cathy once and for all,
at the house, where she would have Jim to help her find out what was
going on.
OOOO
Mac was now about a mile away from the house and the rain had
still not let up. Mac was caught up in her thoughts when she
saw Cathy walking along the side of the road, obviously on her
way home and completely drenched from the rain. As Mac pulled
up next to her, Cathy never looked up, but just continued
striding purposefully down the road.
"Cathy, just get in the car," Mac told her.
"No," Cathy insisted firmly, paying Mac no notice.
"Cathy, just tell me what is going on!"
"It's not your problem, you wouldn't understand."
"Then make me understand, why are you doing this?"
The remaining distance to The House was spent with Mac
beseeching Catriona to get into the car so that they could talk.
But Cathy steadfastly refused and when they got to the empty
front drive, Mac realised that Jim wasn't home. She got out of her
car as Cathy climbed the front steps and went to open the
front door.
"Catriona, talk to me!" Mac implored, in a last ditch effort,
"What in heaven's name is going on!"
Finally, Cathy turned round to Mac and answered in a tired and
defeated tone, "You know, Mac, I just can't do this anymore..."
She disappeared into The House, letting the door slam after her.
Mac, realising there was no more to find out there, got back
into the car and drove back to town. If Catriona wouldn't talk to
her, then she would find someone who she would talk to; Jim.
OOOO