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EVERY BOY IN COAL CREEK, WEST VIRGINIA WANTED A PIECE OF DAWN HARPER, BUT SINCE SHE NEVER GAVE THEM THE TIME OF DAY THE RUMOR OF HER BEING A CHRISTIAN PRUDE SPREAD LIKE WILDFIRE THROUGHOUT THE HALLWAYS OF THE OUTDATED HIGH SCHOOL. That didn't stop her from being popular among her peers. Every guy wanted to be with her, and every girl wanted to be her. It was no surprise the school still treated her like an actress on the silver screen. Really, who could blame them? She was beautiful.
Arvin hated the attention she received. He hated how she would take the boys' comments in their class and not do anything about it. He hated the looks she would receive when her back was turned in the cafeteria. It killed him to know that he couldn't do anything unless he wanted the girl to get mad at him.
No one in the school knew about Arvin and Dawn's little friendship. Maybe if they did, they would all leave her the hell alone. All of them knew what Arvin was capable of.
It was towards the middle of the fall, and Dawn moved in with her grandmother the summer before. Her father sold their house in Tennessee before he was shipped to some training camp for Vietnam.
She remembered the day her father and her became residents of the small town. Reminiscing the moment the weather was cold for a summer day, though the humidity from the rain they had just received was not helping. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail with a scarf tied around it to keep her neck cool as she moved boxes from her father's car up the stairs to her newfound room in her grandmother's home.
To say she was exhausted was an understatement. They spent the whole morning driving, and the rest of the day, they were unloading and unpacking their things. Dawn's arms were sore, and she wanted nothing more than to be sitting in the cafe down the street from her apartment and sipping a strawberry milkshake, bopping her head to the Beatles playing from a jukebox.
As soon as she set the box onto the bed, she fell back next to it, letting out a deep sigh. Her eyes followed the beams of light; the sun was portrayed on the ceiling from the lace curtains that blew in the wind in front of the open window. Dawn played with one of the buttons on her sleeveless flannel shirt, thinking of nothing but her mother. If she genuinely was happy where she was and if she would be proud of the decision she and her father made when moving in with her grandmother.
Creaks from the old wood echoed in the hallway, diverting Dawn from her thoughts. She sat up propped on her elbows, searching for the sound source that came closer to the doorway of the room. She knew it was her father from how heavy the footsteps became as they trailed closer.
"You seemed to have no problem moving boxes," Jonathan stated as his eyes explored the cluttered room the young girl now called home.
Dawn rolled her eyes at her father's playful comment, "Might as we'll unload everything at once."
He raised his eyebrows at her obvious statement, "I can see that."
His hands were in the pocket of his plank trousers, and his white sleeves rolled up his arm. Even though he should be used to the heat due to his endless training days, he still died from the heat. "Don't you have to train on days when it is hotter than Hell outside? I think Grandma is going to be cursing you and your sweat stains when it comes to her doing your laundry."
