Burning

Chapter SEVEN

Gabby waited for the verdict. She swore he was taking forever on purpose. Teddy stroked his chin and tutted, flipping through the flash cards. He glanced up, frowned, and repeated the process. She definitely had seen the blue card earlier.

"I know you've gone through the whole deck Ted! How many did I miss?"

Teddy sighed with the patience of a concerned grandpa and patted her shoulder with a ruler. Gabby closed her eyes.

"92 right."

"You little shit." She reached across the table to flick him. He shrieked like she punched him in the face.

Their mother's voice came from the other room. "Both of you knock it off!"

Teddy grinned.

She huffed a laugh. He had been helpful the last two days. Of course, she'd promised him a ride to Max's (ugh) house and to buy him a blended coffee drink which her parents would be pissed if they caught him with. She didn't know why they cared though. If she tried to do half the things he did she would have spent most of her life grounded in her room. Little brat.

She stretched her arms above her head and stood. "Thank you. Let me go change out and I'll take you."

"Yesssss." He tried to run past for the phone to let Max know the afternoon playdate was on but she caught him and planted a kiss on his cheek. He screamed again in disgust and flailed. This time her Dad appeared in the hallway, reading glassed on top of his head and a pamphlet in his hands.

"Kids. You heard your mother. Stop. I can't hear myself think."

"Sorry..." they chorused as Gabby released Ted.

Her parents were in the little 'dinning room' which was more like a small indent in the wall off the kitchen trying to put together some kind of carrier for them to stick on the top of the car tomorrow when they went to visit Uncle Russel, her dad's newly- turned bachelor brother. Usually, he came to them with his family, but for obvious reasons they were coming to him this year for the pre-holiday celebrations and would return Christmas Eve. Gabby was left behind now that she had the last day at the library to deal with. Her dad had fretted a little at first but Mel had planned to stay with her a few of the days now that she wasn't going to Seattle and she had Marshmallow. As cute as she found her fluffy white shepherd-Pyrenees mix mutt, Marshy's bark was enough to make stop most people. Cookie would stay too of course, but the tabby cat was a better lap warmer than deterrent. Honestly, Gabby was in the mood to be alone for a while. Her English test Tuesday had gone so-so. Bre was giving her the cold shoulder for missing shopping on Saturday especially when she tried to explain that she had something important but had to be vague. She couldn't really tell her she going to be at the library waiting to catch a run-away kid. She understood Breanne's anger. She felt the same about Daniel whose attempts to apologize she'd shrugged off, even going as far as to carry her heavy books around all day to keep him from catching her at the locker. On top of that, Chris hadn't reappeared making her missing shopping on Saturday for naught. She'd hoped Monday he might be in to take a look at the final book they'd been waiting for but at 7pm she locked up alone. Maybe that's why her test was less than stellar. Her sleep had been filled with the reoccurring dream of catching a news story on the radio when she was driving to school about a missing kid found dead.

Teddy sat in the front seat sipping his chocolate-chip whatsit which probably mostly sugar with one pinky in the air. He offered her some as they turned into Max's driveway.

"I'm good. Thanks though."

"Are you ok?"

She raised her eyebrows. "I'm fine. Why?"