Luke's mouth fell open as he looked at Faith. "Where the hell do you hear these things?"
Faith looked at him with the best innocent expression she could manage. "Billy."
"I'm gonna kill that bastard," Luke grumbled under his breath.
Zeke just waved him down. "It's the girls at school," he explained. "They're always talking about who's going to get married and who's pregnant, and how they're gonna get married because they're pregnant, and things like that."
"Southwind can't open fast enough," Luke said.
"Yeah, but I heard you have to get the town's approval," Maisie pointed out. "Couple of people have been talking about how voting for Southwind means bringing criminals into town."
"Yeah, children," I explained. "The entire purpose of Southwind is to make sure that kids who made a mistake can learn how to do better and don't get trapped in the system, becoming lifelong criminals. That's why my grandmother wanted to do this in a small town, so that the children would be exposed to communities that they don't see in larger cities."
Maisie was nodding, taking in every word. "Well, I don't know how much help I'll be, but I'll try to explain that when I hear people talking about it. I mean, I know that Southwind helped you - and after what we did to you…"
"We were just stupid kids, right?" I said, trying to give her an out.
Maisie just shook her head. "I don't think that makes it right. Yeah, that's why I did it, but it doesn't make you feel any better. All I knew was that I just wanted to be cool at school. I knew that if I didn't go along with Jodi, then she would destroy me the exact same way she was destroying you. I didn't have parents that would stand up for me, and I'm pretty sure that a lot of these kids now are in the same boat."
"Even when the parents do try to stand up," Luke said, "it doesn't do much good. When the parents refuse to believe that their child could be the one bullying, the end result is that the target just gets picked on even more. I know, because Faith had some trouble."
"That's why we want her to go to school at Southwind," Cy said. "It's a smaller school, so kids don't get lost in the shuffle. Everyone up at Southwind right now went to school there. We're all examples of the kinds of criminals everyone is so scared of."
Maisie chuckled. "Yeah, criminals who give away lots and lots of free underwear. Oh! And speaking of that, Ash, I'm coming to the party at your place on Thursday, if that's okay?"
Ash turned and looked at me, making it clear he would support whatever I said, so I nodded. "Actually, that would be great, Maisie. Can't wait to see you there."
She thanked the guys and then made her way out, but it felt like everybody was waiting for something. Even worse, they were all looking at me.
"What?" I asked.
"She was your bully," Cy said. "To the rest of us, she's just a nice woman from town. You were the one who had to deal with the trauma of what happened in your childhood, which means it's okay for you to say no."
I thought about that for a moment, because every instinct in my body said to make her pay for what she'd done to me, but she already had. Time and time again, everyone had pointed out to me just how much Maisie had suffered after I had left and gone on to live my dreams. The bully had gone nowhere and the victim had succeeded. Now, my former bully kept going out of her way to make amends, and I just couldn't hate her anymore.
"People change," I decided. "I mean, if that's not the entire purpose of Southwind, then I don't know what is. People can change, and Maisie has made it clear that she's sorry for what she did. That doesn't mean I have to be her friend, but I also don't want to turn around and bully her now. Two wrongs don't make a right."
"No, they don't," Luke agreed, wrapping his arm around my shoulder to turn me towards the door.
The building had mostly cleared out, but people were still crowded in the parking lot, talking to their friends and making plans. Faith and Zeke ran ahead of us, apparently aiming for someone they knew. Emily and Berto had snuck out right after the service, but when we made it outside, I found Berto smiling professionally and shaking a whole lot of hands.
Then there was Emily, standing off to the side with her friend Helen. The woman was talking animatedly, gesturing with her hands like she was very excited. I tried to warn Luke, but he was guiding the pair of us straight towards Berto - which meant walking right past Emily and Helen.
"Hey, Violet?" Helen called out. "Do you happen to know about my car?"
Well, crap. I didn't exactly want to lie to the woman, but I hadn't intended to say anything either. The last thing I wanted to do was hold the gift over her head and make her feel indebted because of it. My goal had been to make her think about who might be interested in doing a nice thing - and hopefully have her come up with Southwind. Admitting to it would likely have the opposite effect.
So I decided to fake it. "The one that wasn't running?" I asked, because I had driven Emily over to drop off her car.
Helen all but dragged Emily over next to look at me. "Do you see the green one over there? Well, it's closer to silver, but it's a really silver-ish green color. The guy who runs the garage in town, Mike, brought it over a couple days ago. He handed me the keys and the title, and said it was mine."
"Wow, that's amazing. I know Mike has helped me out with my car before. He seems like a really great guy," I said.
"You don't understand," Helen insisted. "Someone bought it for me. They just gave it to me. I don't even know who!"
"You know," I said, "my grandmother always told me never to look a gift horse in the mouth."
"I never did understand that phrase," Emily admitted.
