Private School Kings

The Ball: Part 1

This is Part I of a two part update so make sure to read both parts!

It's 3:05 in Lamoni, Iowa. I'm thirteen years old and standing on the curb outside my school. Normally I would have started my walk home by now, but today something is keeping me here. My brother's car, a 2003 Hyundai with scratched white paint and a broken mirror, idles across the street. Charlie sits hunched behind the wheel, scanning the student body as we exit the building. He's changed so much in the last year. His hair is too long, hanging into his face and down his neck in a raggedy shag. His face has thinned and hardened, and he's developed a nervous energy that has him twitching almost constantly.

When Charlie's eyes find mine he waves me over, a desperate twinge on his face. I cross the street without looking and jog over, leaning in through the window to get a better look at him.

"What are you doing here?" I ask peeking around the car for clues. There aren't any. Charlie has always kept his personal spaces mercilessly clean, and even today the suede seats are near sparkling.

"Murph, get in the car." He says. His gaze scans the space behind me, but I don't know what he's looking for. "I don't want you home alone." It had been three months since our mom left with her most recent boyfriend. It's not the first time it's happened but before she always came back within a couple weeks. Still, Charlie knows I can take care of myself.

"Since when?"

He grimaces, still looking behind me."Since Petey Mack decided he wants to fucking kill me." His voice is matter of fact, but the news sends a shiver down my spine. Everyone knows you don't cross Petey.

"Why?"

"I don't want to talk about it. Get in, I'm running late."

"For what?" I lean towards him, trying and failing to read something on his face.

"Murphy, get in the damn car." Charlie hardly ever gets angry, especially not at me. So I cross to the passenger side and get in without any further protest.

He shifts the car into drive and we both sit in silence until he pulls up to a house I've never seen before. I keep quiet because I don't want to draw out the anger again. He leans across me, popping the glove compartment open with a quick tap. I have to stifle a gasp. Inside, there's a wide array of pills, I recognize some, adderall, xanax, pain meds, but others are unfamiliar. There are bags of white powder too.

"I thought you just dealt weed."

Charlie doesn't say anything. He just takes a small sample of the pills in his hands and starts toward the house.

Afterwards, he keeps driving. We stop outside of parking lots and houses as Charlie exchanges those pills and powders for crumpled bills which he flattens, carefully rolls, and wraps in thin brown rubber bands.

He doesn't say anything until we pull up outside our own house. "We have to survive somehow Murph." He tells me. Then, he closes the car door and goes inside without another word.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Juliet, my roommate, had broken her apparent vow of silence. She was staring at me, and I could understand why. I was dressed in a floor length white ball gown with shining gold accents. It wrapped around me in a perfect fit, accentuating my best features and concealing my imperfections. In my opinion, it bore an uncomfortable resemblance to a wedding dress, but I couldn't deny that I looked amazing.

"I'm going to a thing." I answered evasively. I had received the dress in my po box a week ago, along with a wax sealed letter. If the presentation hadn't been enough to let me know then the swooping calligraphy would have. This was a present from the lords.