I

Rachel was staring at the clock hanging at the head of the blackboard, while the teacher still dictated the last words of the lifeless class. She was looking forward to ringing the blessed bell once and for all, so she could finally see her little sister.

It was usual for elementary school children to leave earlier than those who already attended advanced classes, and her sister Julie was in the tenth grade, therefore, her school closed at least an hour before Rachel's. It was fortunate that Julie's teacher offered to wait for her every day, but she didn't want to abuse that trust by arriving too late to pick her up.

"Chely? You are with us?" A hand waved vertically in front of his eyes. "You look distracted."

"As usual." Thom sneered, eating reluctantly from a packet of cookies while still in class.

"Are you okay, Chely?" Rachel turned her face and tried to differentiate Melissa's concern in her eyes, but as much as she tried, she couldn't find it true.

"I'm sorry... You know, troubles at home," she replied. "What were you saying?"

"I was telling you about promo's dance..." Melissa's eyes now sparkled with real enthusiasm.

"It's still two weeks away, Melissa," Thom said, meaning to annoy her. "I think there are many other things you should think about before dancing."

"Like what?" Melissa replied, offended.

"Like your subjects, for example." The boy chuckled. "Can you summarize this class?"

"It's math," said the challenger. "The numbers cannot be summarized. Also, I will be an actress, so this class doesn't add me to anything."

"And think of an event that'll happen in fifteen days either. And I don't think Rachel has enough time to think about it, either." Rachel felt both gazes on her, but hers was still planted on that stupid clock, which, because it was going so slowly, seemed to be in reverse.

"Well, I think you're jealous." Melissa giggled, as she adjusted the chestnut and long waves that she wore in her hair, and delicately tossed them on her back. "You're jealous that Michael Patton is interested in going with Rachel, when, well... you'd like to."

"Melissa..." Rachel fixed her eyes on her friend's angular, thin face and shook her head heavily, reproaching her for the hateful comment.

The sound that Rachel was waiting for suddenly vibrated from the small speaker hanging in the middle of the school's main hallway, and caught the attention of everyone in the classroom.

The teacher looked toward the door, peered back at his sleeping students, and nodded at them, letting out a sigh that no one could tell if it was from fatigue or relief. Probably both.

Rachel hurriedly got up from her folder, put the scattered things on top of her, and slung her loaded backpack over her left shoulder, said goodbye to Melissa and Thom with a fleeting 'See you guys later', letting them argue as they walked towards the exit, heading quickly to the bike parking area of the school.

It was the same path as theirs, but with Melissa for company, short distances turned into long conversations, and she had no time to give away. Her little sister should already be waiting for her outside the Wisconsin elementary school, along with Professor Shepard.

Since the Sweet arrived here two weeks ago, they still hadn't fully gotten used to the streets and nearby places. Little July still couldn't go back home alone, and her mother can't find the space in her busy schedule to play her part. Since the divorce, she has been very distracted, with them and with her job as a receptionist at Wilderness. Luckily, her supervisor likes her so much, otherwise, she would have been fired only in her first work week.

The handover had been very tedious. Things in San Gregory, a small community in Rennes, had been more than simple. They would always have their Aunt Louise to defend them and take care of them at all times, and by all times it means, whenever their parents were fought over some nonsense, as the girls saw it. Too bad that in Dells, her Aunt Louise was nothing more than a nostalgic memory.

Rachel hurried to the bike rack, stumbled before she got there, and hit the ground with her nose. She felt the saltiness of the blood on the tip of his tongue, the one beginning to flow from her lower lip, savored it for a moment before passing it, then wrinkling her nose and twisting her smile.

She got up without looking at the gossipers around, ignoring distant laughter, wiped the dust from the elbows of the black shirt she wore, and brushed off the little dirt impregnated in her baggy dark jeans, took a small key from her right back pocket, unlocked the hook that belonged to such a peculiar trinket, and unleashed her 2004 purple Argon. It was a gift from her father for her twelfth birthday, a holiday he would not attend, along with a few more. Other days of no importance to her, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years', or her birth... Not even her sister's.

Rachel didn't hate him for missing the moments that the other families she knew in a less superficial and more personal way, considered important, she hated him for missing all of her life.

She mounted the now somewhat small bike for her body, which was beginning to show the first curves of puberty; and pedaled furiously down the empty sidewalk. The rest of the students, the vast majority, left the place in cars, and even though they were second-hand, she wouldn't mind having one.

She wasn't a die-hard environmentalist to prevent ozone depletion using her current vehicle, and while she liked to contribute, the need for speed in recent days was essential to her.

Rachel Sweet didn't like being left owing favors to family acquaintances, much less to strangers she had just met, such as Veronica Shepard, the attractive and spinster Dells elementary school teacher.

The little that Rachel knew about the teacher was that she lived alone and near the elementary school. Well, not alone. She had heard, a few days ago from Melissa, on one of those days when she was wondering who her little sister was spending time with, that Professor Shepard raised cats in droves. Thirteen. The rumors threw thirteen cats into the house, but those who really know her, know that it is pure gossip, that that number is totally incorrect. That there were actually at least twenty-two animals inside of the house, and that they weren't just felines.

Sweet was relieved to know that the person her little sister was waiting with was nothing more than an animal lover. She knew from her own experience, or rather, from her aunt's experience, that people who love animals have too much to share with those around them, especially with the children they teach, if at all. They are teachers, and from what her Aunt Louise told her, there were many teachers with the same case of love-kitty.

Engrossed with the task of arriving early enough to pick up her younger sister, with the intention of not being embarrassed in front of the spinster, she occupied much of her thoughts along the way, without noticing what fate has to wait for her.