The next morning Savannah’s mom
offered to give her a ride to school since she would have to stay home with her
brother for the day of suspension. It wasn’t until Savannah walked through the
school doors, the first bell ringing in her ears, that she remembered she had
promised to meet Trudy early to work on homework together. Oh well, she mused. At least
I won’t have to worry about keeping to myself. No way Trudy will talk to me now.
She adjusted her heavy backpack higher on her shoulder and headed straight for
her classroom. No time to stop at her locker since the first bell had already
rung.
Savannah walked into the classroom, head down and lost in
thought when she ran right into Eileen.
“Excuse you!” Eileen huffed, picking up the books that
had fallen in the collision.
“Oh, sorry,” stammered Savannah. “I didn’t see you.”
“Well, obviously! Maybe you should come out of your
little dream world and join the rest of us here in reality!” Eileen emphasized
her last words with an elbow in Savannah’s side as she pushed past.
Savannah’s shoulders slumped and she stared at her feet
as she continued to her desk. This mistake almost ran her right into another
student. This time she swerved quickly and looked up to see Trudy.
“Hi.” Trudy smiled at her. Savannah was confused. She was
certain Trudy would be mad at her for not meeting up to do homework together.
But here was Trudy, smiling at her.
“Hi.” Savannah moved past her to set her backpack next to
her desk. “Sorry about this morning,” she said without looking at Trudy.
“Oh, it’s OK,” Trudy said with a shrug of her shoulders.
“Mrs. Hale was able to help me with my math since I was here early.” She paused
before asking hesitantly, “Is everything OK at your house?”
Just then the second bell rang signaling that class had
begun. Savannah made a face and whispered, “I tell you later,” as she sat down.
Savannah’s mind was far from Mrs. Hale’s math lesson that
morning as she imagined Josh at home hauling rocks from one side of the yard to
the other, her mother keeping stern watch. Instead of working out the problems
for the assignment they had been given, she tried to work out in her mind how
she was going to help her brother sneak a rat into the house for the weekend.
No great ideas came to Savannah during the social studies lesson either, and
she found herself wishing she hadn’t promised her brother she would help.
After lunch outside on the blacktop, she shared her
concerns with Trudy who was shooting baskets while Savannah sat on a nearby
bench, arms wrapped around her legs and chin resting lightly on her knees.
“If it were a hamster, I’d suggest you could keep it at
my house,” Trudy offered. “But my mom would freak out if she knew I brought a
rat home.”
“That’s my problem exactly,” said Savannah, brows creased
in thought. The hollow slapping of Trudy’s ball bouncing on the asphalt and
occasional ringing vibration of it hitting the backboard and hoop made Savannah
think of her dad. She and Josh had often gone to the park with him to play HORSE
or Around the World. She remembered the last time they had played just before
he left for Iraq. When they returned home and stowed the basketball in the shed
in their backyard, she had wondered how long it would be before they would play
with it together again.
Savannah lifted her head off her knees and caught Trudy’s
rebounding ball as it flew towards her. “I’ve got it!” she said.
“I know! Great catch!” said Trudy as she jogged over to
take the ball from her.
Savannah smiled. “No, I mean I know what to do with the
rat! There’s a shed in our backyard that has a bunch of old sports stuff and
gardening tools. We can keep it in there! My mom hardly ever goes in there; she
hates gardening and sports.” Savannah laughed for the first time she could
remember since before her dad left. “It will be a perfect hiding place for the
weekend! Thanks for the idea,” she said to Trudy as she tossed the ball back to
her.
Trudy caught it and smiled, looking a little confused.
“Glad I could help,” she said.
The bell marking the end of lunch break had the two girls
hurrying back into the school. Both stopped at their lockers to get the books
they would need for the afternoon. Savannah grabbed her science book but after
a quick search realized her English book wasn’t in her locker. Then she
remembered coming in to class that morning as the bell rang with no time to
leave her backpack in her locker.
Savannah headed for the classroom door and saw two-thirds
of the Brat Pack – Jonetta and Shelly – standing just inside the doorway giggling.
Shelly noticed Savannah coming their way and leaned over to Jonetta,
hissing in her ear and pushing her back inside the classroom. Savannah
immediately got a bad feeling from the scene. Once inside the classroom, she
knew what was wrong. Her backpack, which she had left right next to her desk,
was gone. With a growing sense of dread, she walked around the classroom,
looking in corners and under tables to see if maybe it had only been moved out
of the way by someone. With no sign of the backpack, she returned to her desk
and plunked down into the seat with her science book. The bell rang for the
start of class and Eileen hurried in the door looking out of breath.
“Eileen, you’re late. The bell already rang,” Mrs. Hale
said.
“Oh, sorry, Mrs. Hale. I was just packing something up.” Her voice didn’t carry a hint of sarcasm,
but Savannah caught the emphasis on her words, as well as the pointed look
Eileen threw her direction.
“Alright, well take a seat so we can get started,” Mrs.
Hale told her.
“Yes, ma’am,” mumbled Eileen.
Mrs. Hale turned to the board to write the objectives for
the science lesson and Eileen passed Savannah on her way to her desk, elbowing
her in the arm on the way by.
Hot tears stung the back of Savannah’s eyes. She could
hear the Brat Pack whisper and giggle, but she refused to look at them. Instead
she looked at Trudy who was staring down the three girls, eyes narrowed and
mouth set. Trudy looked at Savannah and shot her a quick smile, mouthing the
words ‘ignore them’ before she turned to follow the science lesson.
Savannah wanted nothing more than for the day to end, so
when the final bell rang it was with relief that she headed for the classroom
door. Trudy quickly caught up to her.
“What happened? I saw Eileen bump you when she came in
after lunch. Did she say something to you?”
“I think she took my backpack,” said Savannah, the tears
threatening to come back.
“What? Why?” Trudy made a noise of frustration and grabbed
Savannah’s arm. “Come on. Let’s go find it.”
The girls searched the inside of the school first:
cafeteria, gym, bathrooms, even the trash cans. Next they searched outside
around the perimeter of the building.
Trudy pointed, “There it is.”
The backpack was between the wall and a garbage can that
was chained in place, one strap hanging out to reveal its hiding place.
Savannah ran over and pulled her backpack out from behind
the can. The tears she had held back all afternoon instantly fell. Underneath
the Army logo in black Sharpie was the word “BRAT” written in big, block
letters.
“I think she was referring to herself,” Trudy said taking
the backpack from Savannah. “Here, I’ll carry it home for you. We’ll have to
walk since the bus already left.”
Savannah only nodded, wiping the tears angrily from her
eyes. The two started walking home, neither of them talking.
Finally Trudy broke the silence. “Look, Savannah, you
have to stand up to her! You can’t just let her bully you like that.”
Savannah snorted, “What am I going to do? Tell the
teacher? I don’t have any proof she did it. No, I’ll just pretend it didn’t
happen. I have another backpack at home. Maybe if I just ignore her she’ll
leave me alone.”
“No, Savannah! That’s not how to handle this. I’ll help
you, OK? Eileen and her bratty friends have it out for me too. We’ll deal with
this together.”
Savannah looked into Trudy’s eager face. She wanted to
believe her. She wanted to think that she had a friend that would stick by her.
But the old nagging thought came back – “You’ll
just end up moving, or she will. You always end up leaving friends.” But as
much as she wanted to stick to her plan of not making friends and being
invisible, she knew that right now she needed a friend more than anything.