Charly's Epic Fiascos
By Kelli London
Dafina KTeen Books
Copyright © 2012
Kelli London
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7582-6358-2
Chapter One
This is going to be easy. Simple. "Turn. Turn. Turn!"
Charly said, grabbing her little sister, Stormy, by the
forearm. She shoved her hip into Stormy's side, forcing
her thin frame to round the corner of the schoolyard. Her
feet quickened with each step. They were almost home-free.
"Ouch!" Stormy hissed, cradling her torn backpack to
her bosom like an infant in an attempt to prevent her
books from falling onto the cracked sidewalk. "All this
for Mason? Serious? Let go of my arm, Charly. Let me
go. If I had known we'd be up here mixed up in drama, I
wouldn't have come to meet you. I need to get home and
study."
Charly rolled her eyes. Being at home is exactly where
her sister needed to be. She hadn't asked Stormy to meet
her. In fact, she remembered telling her not to come.
She'd had beef with one of the cliques over nothing—not
him, as Stormy thought. Nothing, meaning the girls were
hating on Charly for being her fabulous self and for
being Mason's girl. She held two spots they all seemed to
want but couldn't have. She was the It Girl who'd
snagged the hottest boy that had ever graced her town.
"Go home, Stormy," she said, semi-pushing her sister
ahead.
"Do it again and I'm going to—" Stormy began.
"You're going to go home. That's all you're going to
do," Charly said matter-of-factly, then began looking
around. She was searching for Lola, her best friend. If she
had to act a fool, she'd prefer to show out with Lola
around, not Stormy. She had to protect her younger sister,
not Lola. Lola was a force to be reckoned with and
she wasn't afraid of anyone or anything.
A crowd came her and Stormy's way, swarming around
them as the students made their way down the block. A
shoulder bumped into Charly, pushing her harder than it
should have. Charly squared her feet, not allowing herself
to fall. Quickly, she scanned the group, but was unable
to tell who the culprit was. "If you're bad enough to
bump into me while you're in a group, be bad enough to
do it solo. Step up," Charly dared whoever.
Stormy pulled her as some members of the crowd
turned toward them. "Come on, Charly. Not today,"
Stormy begged. "Remember the school said if you have
one more incident you'd get suspended."
Charly grabbed Stormy's arm again, preparing to jump
in front of her in case the person who pushed her stepped
forward.
"Hey, baby," Mason called, pushing through the crowd.
"Everything good?" he asked, making his way to her and
Stormy. "Or do we gotta be about it?" he asked, then
threw a nasty look over his shoulder to the group. " 'Cause
I know they don't want that." His statement was a
threat, and everyone knew it. Just as Charly was protective
over her sister, Mason was protective over her. His
lips met her cheek before she could answer him.
"We're fine, Mason," Stormy offered.
Mason nodded. "Better be. They're just mad 'cause
they're not you. But you know that. Right?"
Charly smiled. Yes, she knew.
"Good. Listen, I need to run back into the school for a
minute," he said, reaching down for her book bag.
Charly hiked it up on her shoulder. "You can go
ahead. We're good. I promise."
He stood and watched the crowd disperse and start to
thin before he spoke. "All right. I'll catch up to you two
in a few." He disappeared into the crowd of students still
on school grounds.
"So really, Charly? You were going to fight whoever
over him?" Stormy asked again.
Charly ignored the question as she focused on parting
the crowd. They needed to get down the block.
"Hey, Charly! Call me later. There's something I want
to talk to you about," a girl shouted from across the
street.
Charly looked over and nodded. She couldn't have remembered
the girl's name if she'd wanted to, let alone her
number. Obviously the girl knew her though, but who
didn't?
"Catch up with me tomorrow," she answered, then released
her grip on Stormy and sucked her teeth at her sister's
questioning. Stormy had no idea. Mason was the
new guy around and the guy of her dreams. They'd been
dating, but she couldn't let him know just how much he
had her because then she'd be like every other girl in their
town. And she refused to be like the others, acting crazy
over a guy.
"Mason, Charly? That's what this is all about?" Stormy
asked again.
"Shh," Charly said, shushing her sister. "What did I
tell you about that? Stop saying his name, Stormy."
Stormy shook her head and her eyes rolled back in her
head. "Serious? What, calling his name is like calling
Bloody Mary or something? I so thought that Bloody
Mary thing only worked with Bloody Mary's name and
Brigette's generation. Who believes in such stuff, Charly?
You can call anyone's name as many times as you like."
Charly got tense with the mention of their mother.
Brigette refused to be called anything besides her given
name, and Mom, Mommy, and Mother were definitely
out of the question. That she'd made clear. On top of
that, she insisted her name be pronounced the correct
French way, Bri-jeet, not Bridge-jit.
"Please don't bring her up. My afternoon is already
hectic enough. I don't wanna have to deal with Brigette
until I have to," Charly said, her quick steps forcing
rocks to spit from the backs of her shoes. "Just c'mon.
And, like you, I need to get my homework done before I
go to work. Mr. Miller said if my math assignment is late
one more time, he'll fail me. And I can't have that. Not
right before we go on break for a week. And I don't want
to do any sort of schoolwork while we're out. Oh!" She
froze.
A dog ran toward them at top speed from between two
bushes, then was snatched back by the chain leash
around its neck. It yelped, then wagged its tail, barking.
Charly, a little nervous, managed strength and pushed
Stormy out of harm's way. Looking into the dog's eyes,
she was almost afraid to move. She'd distrusted dogs
since she was five, when her mother had convinced her
they were all vicious, and now her feelings for them bordered
on love/hate. She'd loved them once, and now
hated that they made her uncomfortable, but was now
determined to get over her fear. A pet salon near her
home was hiring, and, whether she liked dogs or not, she
needed more money for her new phone and other things.
The wind blew back Charly's hair, exposing the forehead
that she disliked so much. Unlike Stormy, she hadn't
inherited her mother's, which meant on a breezy day like
today, her forehead looked like a miniature sun, a globe
as her mother had called it when she was upset. On her
mom's really peeved days, which were often, she'd refer
to Charly as Headquarters. Charly smoothed her hairdo
in place, not knowing what else to do.
Stormy grabbed her arm. "C'mon, Charly. We go
through this at least twice a week. You know Keebler's
not going to bite you, just like you know he can't break
that chain." She shrugged. "I don't know why you're so
scared. You used to have a dog, remember? Marlow ... I
think that's the name on the picture. It's in Brigette's
photo album."
Charly picked up speed. Her red bootlaces blew in the
wind, clashing against the chocolate of her combats. Yes,
she'd had a dog named Marlow for a day, then had come
home and found Marlow was gone. Charly had never
forgotten about her, but, still, she'd believed her mother
then, and now couldn't shake the uneasiness when one
approached. Especially Keebler. He'd tried to attack her
when he was younger, and she still feared him. So what if
he'd gotten old? Teeth were still teeth, and dog's fangs
were sharp. "How do you know he won't bite, Stormy?
You say that about every dog."
Stormy laughed, jogging behind her. "Well, Charly.
Keebler's older than dirt, he doesn't have teeth, and that
chain is made for big dogs, I'm thinking over a hundred
pounds. Keebler's twenty, soaking wet. What, you think
he's going to gnaw you to death?"
Charly had to laugh. She'd forgotten Keebler was
minus teeth. "Okay. Maybe you're right. We only have
two more blocks," she said, slowing her walk. Her pulse
began to settle when she caught sight of the green street
sign in the distance, and knew she'd soon be closer to
home than barking Keebler. "Only two more and you can
get to your precious studying, nerd," she teased Stormy,
who laughed. They both knew how proud Charly was of
Stormy's intelligence. Stormy didn't hit the books because
she needed to; she had to, it was her addiction.
"And I can knock out this assignment," she added.
"Yo, Chi-town Charly! Hold up!" Mason called, his
footsteps growing louder with each pound on the concrete.
Charly picked up her pace. She wanted to stop but she
couldn't. Boyfriend or not, he had to chase her. That's
what kept guys interested. Stormy halted in her tracks,
kicked out her leg, and refused to let Charly pass. "What's
going on now? Why are you ignoring Mason? Oops, I
said his name again." Stormy sighed, pushing up her
glasses on her nose.
Charly rolled her eyes. "I'm not really ignoring Mason,
Stormy. Watch and learn—I'm just keeping him interested,"
she said, failing to tell her sister that she was trying
to come up with an explanation for disappearing the
weekend before. She'd told him she was going to visit her
family in New York, and now she just needed to come up
with the details. Her chest rose, then fell, letting out her
breath in a heavy gasp. What she'd hoped to be a cleansing
exhale sputtered out in frustration. "He may be a
New Yorker, but we're from the South Side of Chicago. I
got to keep the upper hand." She repeated the mantra she
used whenever she had to face a problem, but it was no
use. The truth was, yes, they had been born on the South
Side of Chicago, but now they lived almost seventy miles
away from their birthplace in an old people's town. She
couldn't wait to leave.
Mason's hand was on her shoulder before Charly
knew it. She froze. Turning around was not just an option;
she had to. She knew that he knew that she'd heard
him now. Summoning her inner actress, she became the
character she played for him. Charly switched gears from
teenage girl to potential and future Oscar nominee. She
erased the glee of him chasing her down from her face
and became who and what he knew her to be. Cool,
calm, self-assured Charly—the girl who seemed to have it
all. Seemed being the operative word since she lacked
teen essentials like the Android phone she was saving for
and a computer.
"Hey! I said hold up. Guess you didn't hear me.
Right?" His voice was rugged and his words seemed
final, as if he had nothing else to say. His tone spoke for
him. It was sharp and clipped, yet something about it
was smooth. Just hearing him speak made her feel good.
She smiled when she turned and faced him. "Hi,
Mason. I'm sorry. There's so much wind blowing that I
couldn't hear you."
Mason smiled back and did that thing with his eyebrows
that made her melt every time. He didn't really
raise or wiggle them, but they moved slightly and caused
his eyes to light. "Yeah. So ..." he began, then quieted,
throwing Stormy a
please? look.
"Okay. Okay. Personal space. I get it," Stormy said,
then began to walk ahead of them. "You high schoolers
are sickening."
Mason smiled at Stormy's back, and Charly grimaced
behind it. She hadn't asked Stormy to give her and
Mason alone time, and wished that her sister hadn't. The
last thing she wanted was to be alone with Mason because
every time she was, her lies piled. They'd stacked
so high that now she couldn't see past them, and had no
idea how to get around or through them.
"So, I've been trying to catch up with you to see how
New York was last weekend when you went to visit your
pops. You did fly out for the weekend, right?" he asked,
his eyes piercing hers like he knew she hadn't gone.
She scrunched her brows together. It was time to flesh
out her partial untruths. She thought of her semi-truths
that way because to her they were. She'd done and been
and imagined it all in her head, so, in a way, her not-so-trues
were kind-of-trues.
"Uh, yeah."
Here comes the hook, she thought while
she felt the fattening lie forming on the back of her
tongue, pushing its way out her mouth. "Right. But it
was no biggie. I wasn't even there a whole two days. I
was in and out of Newark before I knew it. I visited my
dad and my aunt. She works for a television station—
where they film reality shows. One day I'm going to be
on one. That's the plan—to become a star."
"Newark? That's Jersey. I thought you said you were
flying into Queens." He looked at her, pressing his lips
together. He'd totally ignored her star statement.
"Queens? Did I say Queens?"
Dang it. She shrugged,
trying to think of a cover.
"Yep. You said your pops was picking you up at LaGuardia
airport. That's in Queens. Guess Newark was
cheaper, huh?" He waved his hand at her. "Same difference.
Me and my fam do it too. Sometimes it pays to fly
into Jersey instead. It's about the same distance when you
consider traffic time instead of miles."
Charly nodded, pleased that Mason's travel knowledge
had saved her. "Yeah. I know that's right. And I got there
when traffic was mad hectic too. I'm talking back to
back, bumper to bumper. But it was cool though. Manhattan's
always cool, Brooklyn too," she lied about both.
She'd never been to Manhattan and she was only five
when she'd visited Brooklyn. But she'd gone to places
like Central Park and Times Square all the time in her
mind, and a mental trip to the Big Apple had to count for
something.
"Brooklyn, yeah, it's cool. Matter fact, I miss home so
much, I just got a puppy and named her Brooklyn." He
smiled.
Charly raised her brows. "Really? That's hot. I just
love dogs. In fact, I just applied for a gig working at the
pet salon." Another partial lie. She had planned on applying,
she just hadn't had time yet.
Nodding in appreciation, his smile grew. "That's good,
Charly. And it couldn't have come at a better time." He
took her book bag from her, then slung it over his shoulder.
"Dang. This is heavy. What'chu got in it?"
"Math," Charly said. "I got to ace this assignment, so
I brought home my book and every book the library
would let me check out to make sure I get it right. Because
I go to New York so much, I kind of fell behind on
the formulas," she added. She couldn't have him think
her anything less than a genius.
Mason nodded. "Good thinking. Knock it out from all
angles. Math is the universal language. Did you know
that?" he asked, but didn't give her time to answer. "Let's
walk," he said, clearly not letting up. "It must be nice to
have your pops send for you a couple times a month. So
what'd you do all weekend? Party?"
She kicked pebbles out of her way, wishing they were
her lies. She hadn't seen her father since she was five, and
it was something that was hard for her to admit, especially
since Stormy's dad was still on the scene for birthdays
and holidays. The truth was she had no idea where
her father was, so she imagined him still living in New
York, where she'd last seen him.
"So did you party?" Mason repeated.
Me, party? Yeah, right! My mom partied while I
worked a double to save for a new phone. Then I sat
holed up in the house on some fake punishment. "Yeah,
actually I did. Nothing big though. It was a get-together
for my aunt. You know, the one I told you about who's a
big shot at the network. Well, she just got promoted, and
now she's an even bigger big shot. She's got New York on
lock."
Mason nodded, then slowed his pace as Charly's house
came into view. "That's cool, Charly. Real cool. It's nice
to finally have a friend I can chop it up with. Ya know,
another city person who can relate. Somebody who gets
where I'm from. Not too many people around here can
keep up with my Brooklyn pace," he said, referring to the
almost-dead town they lived in. Their tiny city was okay
for older people, but teens had it bad. They lived in
a nine-mile-square radius with only about twenty-five
thousand other people. There was only one public high
school and one emergency room, which equated to too
small and everybody knowing everyone else and their
business. Nothing was sacred in Belvidere, Illinois.
Charly took her book bag from Mason. "Trust me, I
know. They can't keep up with my Chi-Town pace either.
I'm getting out of here ASAP."
He walked her to her door. "Speaking of ASAP. You
still gonna be able to come through with helping me with
my English paper this week? I have to hand it in right
after break, so I'd really like to get it finished as soon as
possible. Don't wanna be off from school for a week and
have to work." He shrugged. "But I know you're pressed
with school and getting an A on the math assignment.
Plus, with flying back and forth to New York to check
your pops, and trying to work at the pet salon, I know
you're busy. But I really need you, Charly," he paused,
throwing her a sexy grin that made her insides melt. "I
don't even know what a thesis statement is, let alone
where one goes in an essay."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Charly's Epic Fiascos
by Kelli London
Copyright © 2012 by Kelli London.
Excerpted by permission of Dafina KTeen Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.