Grace remembered saying the same thing to her mother when Justin had left the note on her car. She caught Macy’s eye and knew, without a doubt, that her thoughts were going in the same direction—how could Neal do that to her when she had been so good to him? Then she shifted her gaze over to Sarah, and the expression on her sister’s face said the same thing—how could Joel treat her like he did?
Thank God we’ve had each other to get through the tough times,Grace thought, then turned her attention back to Audrey. “You will make other friends—and maybe this time, you’ll think more about real friendship than popularity.”
“But, Mama, I want to be popular,” Audrey moaned.
“Then you have to pay the price for it, and it’s high dollar,” Raelene told her.
Audrey raised her head and shot Raelene a dirty look. “What do you know about it?”
“I’ve never been popular. Don’t want to be,” Raelene answered. “So I don’t know much about it, but I sure don’t want to be if I have to sell my soul to be in with that crowd. If you would have been sitting with me on the bus, I would have told you what they said before now.”
Grace had had a few close friends as a child and up into junior high school, but when Justin came into her life, she’d done the same thing that Audrey had—spent less and less time with them and devoted more and more to Justin. Then he left, and her old buddies moved on, and she had no one except Sarah and Macy.
Sarah spoke up. “Friends can be and often are fickle... but, honey, family is forever.”
“And sometimes family is just as fickle as friends,” Raelene whispered.
Audrey set her jaw and narrowed her eyes. “I’ll get even. Maybe not tomorrow or even next week, but they will pay for pulling this mean prank on me.”
“The best way to get even is to ignore them. Just pretend that they don’t exist,” Macy advised. “Don’t let them bait you into an argument. Ignoring them gives you power over them and takes away all the power they have built up over you this year.”
Audrey nodded, but the look in her eyes said that she would take care of it in her own way. Grace had seen the same determination in Sarah’s eyes more than once when they were teenagers, and it never involved ignoring someone who had been hateful. One time when she and her sister had been in junior high school came to her mind as clearly as if it had happened just yesterday.
“You are thinking about...,” Sarah whispered and poked her in the arm.
“Yes, I am—and thank you again.” Grace grinned.
“What?” Audrey sat up straight and raised an eyebrow.
“A girl was spreading rumors about me when I was a freshman. Sarah was in seventh grade, and she took up for me,” Grace explained.
Audrey stood up and began to pace the floor. “I wish I had a sister. What did you do, Sarah?”
“I took care of the problem, and then I was suspended for a week for fighting and had a devil of a time getting my grades back up to passing since I had to take a zero on every assignment that week,” Sarah answered. “Then Mama made me work at the shop all week. I had to get up and be there by three in the morning. She told me I needed to learn to use my brains instead of my fists, to think about that every morning when my alarm went off while it was still dark outside.”
Audrey stopped in front of the fireplace and popped her hands on her hips. “Raelene, if you hear anything else, will you tell me?”
“Depends,” Raelene answered with a shrug.
“On what?” Audrey asked.
“On whether you are my friend or not?” Raelene asked. “At home, you treat me like maybe I’m one, but you still think you’re better than me. Around your so-called school friends, you treat me like they do. I don’t want a half-time friend, Audrey, and I don’t want to feel like I’m someone you wipe your feet on, either. It’s either all in or all out.”
Grace could almost see the wheels in Audrey’s head spinning. Evidently, Raelene did, too, because she stood up and went nose-to-nose with Audrey. That reminded Grace of the times when she’d done the same thing with Sarah, back when they were both about the same age as these two girls.
Finally, Raelene shrugged and stepped back. “It’s a simple question, but I can’t think of a better way to get back at Crystal and Kelsey than to ignore them and be friends with me. You don’t have to make up your mind right now, but could we please go have some cookies and milk in the kitchen? I miss the days when y’all brought home leftover doughnuts from the shop.”
“So do I,” Grace said as she stood up, “but we’ve still got some of those really good peanut butter cookies you made, so I’m not complaining too much.”
Raelene led the way to the kitchen. “I love to cook. Granny let me stand on a chair and help her when I was little.” She took a gallon of milk out of the refrigerator and set it in the middle of the table. “Y’all just go on and sit down. You’ve served people all morning. Let me take care of this.”
“I’ll get the glasses while you get the cookies,” Audrey said.
Grace could hardly believe that her daughter was offering to help do anything. Usually, she had to be told—sometimes half a dozen times, and then results came only after an argument about how she was treated like hired help. Maybe the days of Crystal and Kelsey using her were coming to an end.
“This is really nice, girls,” Macy said as she pulled out a chair and sat down. “It’s not often that we get to be the ones who are waited on.”
“You are welcome, but it’s the least I can do,” Raelene said.
