Campfire part 3

Chapter

Seven Years Earlier at Georgia O'Keeffe Elementary School

Sheri turned to her friend when the teacher walked out of the study hall room. “I’m going to get that little bitch as soon as we get out of here.”

“Who?” Ashley bright blue eyes darted around the classroom and back to the door. Then she leaned down close to her desk and looked over at Sheri.

“Relax. Miss Martin is gone.” Sheri spoke loudly to prove to Ashley that it was safe to talk. “I’m going to get Missy. She’s the one that ratted us out?”

“How do you know?”

“She’s the only one who saw us leave. Remember she was in the hall when we ran out of the building on Friday. She’s going to regret messing with me. I’m going to kill her.” Sheri thumped her fist on the small wooden desk. “Are you with me?”

Sheri and Ashley almost got away with skipping school last Friday afternoon. All they did was walk up to the base of the foothills and spend the afternoon smoking cigarettes. Ashley had snagged a whole pack from her brother’s jacket pocket the night before. But somehow the principal found out and called Ashley’s dad. He insisted they be punished at school. Sheri’s mom was too busy trying to take care of Drew, Sheri’s Autistic older brother, so she just agreed with Mr. Masson. Sheri and Ashley were assigned one week in detention. Sheri didn’t mind detention so much; she was good at school and would catch up with whatever she missed, but she hated getting caught.

“Miss Gilbert would you like to add another week to your detention?” Miss Martin stood leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Sheri just stared back at the teacher without a word.

Finally, Miss Martin gave in and dropped her gaze, “Ashley, move up here in the corner so Sheri won’t be so tempted to talk to you.”

The rest of the day Sheri plotted out her plan for revenge. She even had drawings and checklists detailing every part of her plot. She didn’t look up from her notebook all afternoon. Miss Martin, who was expecting Sheri to be a problem, was pleasantly surprised and never even considered looking at what she was working on. Sheri had a way of making a teacher’s life difficult.

The second the final school bell rang, Sheri jumped up and throw everything in her book bag. She ran to the front of the room and grabbed her friend by the arm and towed Ashley behind her until they got to the edge of the school grounds.

“Hey what are you doing? I’m going to miss the bus,” Ashley kept trying to explain to Sheri. They were both supposed to ride the school bus even though their houses were close enough for them to walk. Their parents had scolded them for walking home in the past. It seemed they always managed to get distracted and get in some kind of trouble when they walked home. Once they had gotten caught stealing some candy bars from the Walgreen’s pharmacy on the way home. What most people didn’t know is they had gotten away with it about a half a dozen times before they finally got busted. All they had to do was apologies to the store manager and pay for the candy bars. The worst part was, they were not allowed in that Walgreen’s anymore, but fortunately, there was a CVS store across the street. It was a little harder to take things from that store, but they had managed a couple of times.

Today Sheri had no plans of candy bar theft, she needed to get home quickly, but she also had to talk to Ashley. Their houses were just on the other side of the school. If they took the shortcut through the arroyo, they would be home long before the bus would get them there.

“Not today, no bus. We need to talk. I got this all planned out. Are you going to help me?” Even at eleven years old Sheri knew exactly what she wanted, and normally she got it.

“What are you talking about?” Ashley was following willingly now having to jog every other step to keep up. It was too late to get back to the bus stop now anyway.

“I’m talking about Missy Ingram. I’m talking about getting revenge,” Sheri said revenge in a husky voice and opened her eyes wide. “You know…I’ve never liked her anyway. She’s like too perfect and always gets straight As. And she talks about stuff she doesn’t know anything about.”

“So…are you really going to do something to her?” Ashley moved away from Sheri and slowed to nearly stopping. “Sheri, we’ll get in big trouble.”

“We won’t get in trouble. We just have to fix it so she can’t tell on us.” Sheri raised her eyebrows as she thought about what she wanted to do.

Ashley and Sheri walked in silence the rest of the way home. They crossed the park and slid on hands and feet down the rough concrete side of the arroyo and helped each other up the other side. Back on the sidewalk and just two blocks from her house, Sheri looked at her cell phone to check the time. “I got to get home, Drew’s bus will be there in a like five minutes.” Sheri took off running and then turned and yelled back to Ashley, “call me tonight after supper; I’ll tell you my plan.”

Ashley waved back and walked slowly down the cracked sidewalk to her street.