Chapter 1: End of the Year Party
“Arabella, Arabella!” Ami Felps called. “Are you going to make a move? I mean, he’s right there . . . just waiting.”
It was the End of Year party at Greenwood Elementary, a small public school in Gallipolis, Ohio. The new principal, keen to make an impression in her first year, had promised a spectacular party if the students met an attendance record of 90% or higher throughout the year. The promise of a party moved mountains amongst the student body, and this year’s attendance was a record high of 97 percent. Sick students, sleepy ones who’d rather stay home, and even video game addicts who’d stopped caring about school all came daily to be counted as present.
Now this very day, at this awesome party, Arabella Everest, a proud fifth grader, was planning on revealing what seemed like a lifetime crush to the school stud, Tyler Mega. Tyler, prince of the school football and soccer team, with flowing dark hair that he kept flicking back and grinning at whoever he was looking at. His face lit up when he smiled, which was often, and he never had a bad word to say about anyone. Arabella’s crush had started in third grade when he’d walked into her math class and sat to her left. She had spent the rest of the class desperately trying to look at him while staring ahead at the teacher. By the end of the class she had a headache and a heartache. After two years of suffering in silence, she could take it no more. She had to tell him how much he meant to her.
Arabella was a renegade of sorts. She was a popular kid because of her athletics; she was one of the best soccer players in the school, boys included. A self-confessed nerd, she enjoyed the academics that she flourished in a lot more than fashion. She was especially proud of her grades in math, science, and geography. She wasn’t with her nerd friends at the party though, and she had also relegated her tomboyish ways for the night. The three friends she was with that night, Ami, Mary, and Sophia were way cooler than her, and were wary of her nerd friends, especially if they started talking schoolwork. Arabella was an outsider in the gang of four; a plus-one the other three were sometimes willing to tolerate, and sometimes would embrace fully in their clique. The tension between them all would ebb and flow, but never fully disappeared. Today Arabella wore her most fashionable clothes, wanting to be glamorous so that Tyler would take note of her.
“Arabella?” Ami jabbed her in the arm, forcing her to make a decision about what to do next.
“Yes, of course. I’m just waiting for the right time.” Talking to Tyler had seemed like a good plan until Arabella was actually in the school gym, staring at him. She tried her best to hide behind her friends.
Ami scoffed. Ami had smooth caramel skin, a tall lithe body, and beautiful shiny dark hair. She was African-American and Indian and had spent a few years of schooling overseas. You couldn’t not look at Ami, and she knew it, and she walked even taller because of that confidence.
“That’s easy, the right time is always now. Go!” Mary pushed Arabella, who stumbled forward. Mary was the unspoken queen of the gang. As much as Ami had the looks and confidence, she wasn’t a natural leader. Mary, skinny with blonde hair, would do anything for her friends, and you could see that in her angelic face whenever she spoke about them. Cross her though, and she had the fiercest look Greenwood Elementary had ever seen. When her team was losing, she could practically incite riots just by staring at the other team’s cheerleaders with a look that could burn through the stadium bleachers on a freezing game day.
As Arabella tripped and tried to right herself before falling, Tyler looked her way, and gave her the cutest smile. She felt her heart thudding against her chest and scratched at the tight top she had picked, the most fashionable she could find amongst her wardrobe of t-shirts and jeans. Tyler scraped his hair back, displaying the deep dimples in his cheeks, his bicep rippling against his plaid shirt as he did so. Arabella took a deep breath. She had to do this.
She turned and looked at her friends, watching their encouraging faces. “I’ll buy him a drink.”
She marched across the room toward a smoothie counter that had been set up especially for the party.
“Arabella! He’s allergic to grapes!” Mary yelled, Arabella only barely hearing her above the music and din of excited voices in the room. She stopped, turned and walked back into earshot again, glad to have caught it.
“How do you know that?” Sophia asked. Sophia was the sweetest girl in the group; she never made a fuss or demanded attention, and sometimes you would barely know she was there. Her mother was a fashion designer, as a result, Sophia always had the most on-point clothes and rarely wore the same outfit twice. All the girls in the school looked to Sophia for the trending fashions before even thinking about picking up a magazine.
“I know everything,” Mary said, which was true. She made it her job to know about all the kids in the school, and held a giant scorecard in her head, moving kids up and down whenever she gleaned some new information.
Arabella continued to the smoothie counter and examined the options on the giant poster board menu that had been taped to the wall above. It was covered with writing, there were so many options. Other kids were shuffling and digging elbows into each other, attempting to get served. It was hot in the gym; after an hour, most of the kids were sweating and starting to think about taking a break from the dancing.
“What do you want?” snapped the girl behind the counter. “Make it quick, there are four in line behind you.”
“Uh, the number two, please, Orange Surprise.” Arabella said, squinting at the menu in the hope that would make it less fuzzy. She had seen Tyler drink smoothies at lunch before, so she knew he liked them. She just hoped he’d like the Orange Surprise.
The girl turned, poured a variety of things into a blender, and switched it on. Arabella wasn’t paying attention though, she was breathing in and out, trying to settle her heart before she approached Tyler. She could do this. She could do it.
The server took Arabella’s cash, shoved the shake into her hand and swiveled around to talk to the next customer without a single word. Pretty rude, but Arabella was more focused on her next job—to approach Tyler. She could see him through the crowd, standing alone and taking a break from the dancing. Now was the time, Mary was right. She walked over quickly before she had a chance to change her mind.
“Hi, I got you a shake. Orange Surprise,” she said, thrusting the shake toward Tyler. He turned to see her, looked surprised, flicked his hair and then burst into a grin.
“Thanks Arabella, I’m crazy thirsty. It’s so hot in here, right?” He took a huge gulp, and Arabella stood still, her mouth open as she watched him, barely able to believe she had pushed through her fear and approached him. He lifted the cup further, drinking it all down, then let out a loud belch. He didn’t cover his mouth, which would normally have grossed Arabella out but for some reason delighted her. This was going well. Now onto stage two, which would be much harder; telling him how she felt.
“I’ll take that,” Arabella said, reaching for the cup. Anything to buy herself a little time. Tyler smiled at her. She smiled back, frozen on the spot. What was she supposed to be doing? Oh yeah, taking the cup to the trash. He smiled at her again, but then the smile froze on his face, his eyes bulged, and he started to choke. He grasped at his neck with his hands, his face turning deathly red. Gasping, he fell to the ground, clearly trying to speak, but Arabella couldn’t make out any words. In shock, Arabella fell to her knees next to him. Before she knew it, the girls were kneeling next to her, as were several teachers.
Mary pulled the cup from Arabella’s hand. “I told you he was allergic to grapes!” Mary hissed, sniffing the cup.
“I got him the number two.”
“The Grape Surprise? Were you trying to kill him?” Mary hissed, pulling Arabella’s arm to try and move her back from the circle of adults surrounding him.
“Call the nurse, get his EpiPen,” his teacher, Mr. Smith, yelled while pulling at Tyler’s shirt to open it further around his neck. “Make sure his head is tilted back and elevated, so he can breathe, he’s having an allergic reaction. And someone, call the paramedics, now!”
Arabella stood, leaning against Mary, watching as the nurse ran in and stabbed the EpiPen into his thigh. Tyler still didn’t move, and several of the kids who were close enough to see started to cry. Arabella was only vaguely aware as most of the kids were herded out of the room by the other teachers. A few minutes later, a paramedic team appeared with a police officer alongside them. The paramedics used a defibrillator, and Arabella watched in horror as his chest was flung violently up and down. Finally, the adults around him started to move back, and Arabella could see he was breathing, even starting to cough.
“Miss Everest? We need to have a word.”
Arabella turned, wiping her eyes, to see the police officer standing next to her.
“I’m told you bought Mr. Mega a drink which included grapes, and that he has a severe allergy to grapes. And that you had just been told of the allergy. Can you explain yourself?”
Arabella looked up in wonder at the police officer, a tall, broad man, who was several feet taller than her. “I don’t . . . I mean, I bought him the Orange Surprise.”
“No, you bought the Grape Surprise. The deadly ingredient is even in its name, so you knew exactly what you were ordering. You’ll have to come to the station with me, I’m afraid, so we can investigate this further. I know what you kids are like, the bullying at this school is out of hand. But this is not a joke, he could have died. It’s lucky I was here, picking someone else up. This is attempted murder, young lady. You kids think you get to set the rules, but you have to follow the laws, just like anyone else.”
“What, I wasn’t . . . you can’t . . .”
But before Arabella could add any more, the officer pulled her by the arm toward the gym exit. She turned and stared at her friends in horror, their mouths wide open in shock, getting smaller as Arabella was pulled to the door.
Jay Everest sat back on his feet, watching the marshmallow slowly turn black, listening to the banter and laughter surrounding him. He had wound up black-listed for the End of Year Party, due to sleeping in music class the week before. But, the way he looked at it, this wasn’t so bad. He and the other fourth and fifth graders who had been denied entrance to the party, for all manner of misdemeanors, had camped out in the woods next to the parking lot of the school, and set a fire so they could toast marshmallows. Something they knew was against the rules, but hey, what more could the school do? The term had ended, and the only carrot dangling over their heads, the End of Year Party, had already been taken from them. Plus, Jay was quite happy to stay away from all the losers in the gym who thought this was the best day of their life. It was peaceful out here, no one to bother them, all the teachers were in the gym at the party, as were all the other students.
Jay watched the flames lick up the marshmallow and slowly crisp the shell. He could feel his mouth water at the thought of the gooey mess that was melting inside it. He turned to let a friend know the marshmallows were ready and blinked as he saw the kids scatter across the parking lot, running at full tilt. He looked down and saw several rivers of lighter fluid and the bottle, knocked over, still pouring fluid onto the ground. He stamped at one river that had already caught on fire as he followed their routes across the parking lot. One was heading straight for the assistant principal’s Porsche that was parked nearby. A security guard appeared from nowhere, running and wheezing, and holding a fire extinguisher up high. He blasted it at the Porsche as he came up to it, the white foam bursting all over the place, the acrid, chemical smell mixing with the smoke and assaulting Jay’s nose.
“I can’t begin to tell you how much trouble you’re in, son. Next time you decide to set a fire, don’t do it next to the most expensive car in the parking lot!”
“It wasn’t me!” Jay yelled, looking around. Where had everyone gone? And how had the lighter fluid spilled?
“Oh, is that right? Give me some names, then, of those boys who ran when I shouted over to you and asked what you were up to. And why didn’t you run, eh?” The guard said, grabbing Jay with one arm while making a call on his phone with the other.
Jay said nothing. All the other boys had vanished, and there was no way Jay was going to get them in trouble too.
“You’re in luck, son.”
“You’re going to let me go?”
“No, try again. The cops are already in the area, so I don’t have to drag you to Mr. Petty’s office to wait. He loves that car more than he loves his wife. Believe me, you’re getting off lightly if you don’t have to hear from him first.”
The security guard pulled Jay around the corner, towards a cop car that was parked at the side of the school. Jay looked around, confused to see so many kids milling around outside. Was the party done already? The guard opened the rear door of the car and shoved Jay into the back. He stared in shock as he fell into the seat. Arabella was sitting there.
“Jay, what happened?”
Jay looked at her, eyes wide. “We were just roasting marshmallows. A security guard came after us, I guess everyone ran, the lighter fluid spilled and . . . Mr. Petty’s Porsche suffered the consequences. I didn’t start the fire, though, or spill the fluid; it wasn’t my fault.”
Arabella arched her eyebrows at him. “Really? Why didn’t you run too? You’re going to get in so much trouble.”
Jay shrugged, swallowing hard. “I just . . . I don’t hear so well, especially in my left ear. I didn’t hear the guard coming until it was too late.”
Arabella laughed. “I know that, come on dude.” Jay laughed too, wondering who else had spotted it.
“And this isn’t like you, what are you doing in here?”
“It’s kind of ironic that you’re in trouble because of your hearing. My bad vision meant I ordered the wrong smoothie. Which sounds innocent enough, but I gave it to Tyler, and he had an allergic reaction and almost died,” Arabella said quietly.
“Bad vision?” Jay stared at her eyes.
“Yes, Jay, haven’t you, of all people, noticed? I squint my way through life. I sit in the front of class, but I still copy from others when my eyes get too tired to see the board clearly. Up close it’s even worse and gives me headaches. I guess this is what covering it up gets me. I mistakenly poisoned my D.G. today. The love of my life, what will he think?” Arabella started sobbing.
Jay wasn’t interested in girls, and all this Dream Guy chat Arabella had started up with recently was boring to him; he just didn’t see the big deal.
“You’ll find another Dream Guy. Let’s face it, Tyler’s not going to want anything to do with you after this.” Jay was laughing, but he stopped when he looked at Arabella, who was still crying.
“Hey, he’s still alive, right? You can explain it all to him later. For now, we need to figure out a way to get out of this mess.”