NOW & FOREVER
Chapter Thirteen

Rose walked out of school, her head held high. Her friends stared after her, still whispering amongst themselves. They had been teasing her mercilessly since she had defended Jack that morning, their taunts growing more derogatory as the day went by.

Rose had never been so happy to hear the final bell ring. Walking slowly, trying not to show how much the teasing hurt, she headed for the parking lot, where her chauffeur was waiting.

She wondered where Jack was. She hadn’t seen him since he’d been led out of the gym that morning, and hoped that he wasn’t in too much trouble, despite the fact that Gary was probably right—Jack probably thought that she had turned him in.

Rose knew that she hadn’t turned him in, but after the way Gary had teased her, she had a strong suspicion that she knew who it was. Gary had been just a little too gleeful about Jack getting into trouble, leading Rose to suspect that it was Gary himself who had turned him in.

She scowled, thinking of it. She had never really liked Gary, but he was a member of her crowd, and she had no choice but to put up with him. Members of the upper class stuck together to keep the lower classes out. More and more, Rose was wondering why it was so important to maintain that exclusiveness, but it was the way the world worked, and there was nothing she could do to change it.

When she reached home, Rose dumped her belongings in her bedroom, then sat and looked out the window, at a loss as to what to do. She was still upset by the way her friends had taunted her all day, and she doubted that anyone else would have any sympathy with her. A rich girl like her didn’t have any problems that anyone would sympathize with. What was a little teasing? It just meant that she had stepped out of line and was being brought back to proper behavior.

Rose stared down at the yard below. The gardeners were clearing and clipping, cleaning out the remains of the summer flower garden now that autumn had arrived. She could faintly hear them through the closed window as they pulled up dead plants and cut back those that had completed their blooms.

Everyone has something to do but me, she thought, watching them for a moment longer. She knew that she should sit down and get started on her homework, but she was in no mood to sit and study. She didn’t even want to sit and watch television in her fancily decorated room, and she certainly didn’t want to talk on the phone with any of her friends.

Impulsively, Rose decided to go out. She had dismissed her chauffeur for the afternoon, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t go for a long walk. She could always call a taxi if she got too far from home and didn’t want to walk anymore.

Quickly, before she changed her mind, she hurried down the stairs and out the front door, her cell phone tucked securely into her handbag. She nodded to the gardeners as she made her way down the front walk, then stepped out onto the sidewalk, trying to decide which way to go.

Several of her classmates lived up the street to the left, so she didn’t want to go that way. In the other direction, the street met a main thoroughfare that eventually wound up at the lake.

Making up her mind, Rose started up the street to her right.

*****

Rose didn’t know how long she had walked, but it didn’t seem like that long before she reached the playground she had shown Jack two days earlier. There were a few kids playing, a few mothers or au pairs watching, but the place was largely empty. Making her way over to an empty swing set, Rose sat down, idly swinging back and forth.

Lost in thought, she didn’t notice anyone else approaching until the person spoke to her loudly and rudely.

"What are you doing here?"

Startled, Rose looked up to see Jack standing a few feet away, glaring at her.

"I came here to think—and to be alone," she added, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Well, too bad. I was here first."

"Excuse me? Who showed you this place? If you want to be alone, go somewhere else. I’m not moving."

"Leave, Rose."

"No."

They glared at each other challengingly for a moment before Jack leaned against one of the swing set poles.

"I guess you’ve come to gloat."

"What?"

"You came here to gloat about getting me into trouble. I wouldn’t kiss your feet like every other guy, so you turned me in."

"I did not!"

"Oh? Then why did you turn me in?"

"I didn’t!"

"Oh, come on, Rose. Don’t lie to me. You’re not very good at it."

"You’re not very good at seeing the truth! I didn’t turn you in!"

"Oh, yeah? Then who did?"

"I think it was Gary."

"Gary?"

"That boy who said you lived with the animals."

"How would he have known anything?"

"He was probably watching. He’s been taunting me all day for defending you when they came and took you away."

"You did?"

"Yes, I did, Jack! Is that so hard to believe?"

"After what you said the other day, yes, it is!"

"I told you I was being sarcastic. You think you’re so smart, but you can’t even tell sarcasm when you hear it!"

"Whatever."

"Fuck you!"

"Well, well, well…that’s not very ladylike."

"I don’t care about being a lady, you idiot! I’ll think as I please, and neither you nor any of my crowd can tell me otherwise!"

Jack stared at her for a moment, then laughed appreciatively.

"What’s so funny?" Rose snapped.

"You do speak your mind, don’t you?"

"Yes, I do! Do you have a problem with that?"

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "Not at all."

"Good."

They were silent for a moment, avoiding each other’s eyes. Finally, Rose spoke again.

"What happened, if I may ask? They didn’t expel you or something, did they?"

"No. They just suspended me for a week. I will be expelled if it happens again."

"I’m sorry. I swear I didn’t turn you in."

"I guess I’ll try to believe you." Jack was silent for a moment. "My cousin’s real mad about my getting suspended, especially so early in the school year. He didn’t want me here in the first place, but now…"

"Where would you go, if you didn’t live with him?"

He shrugged. "Back to the United States, I guess, and into a foster home unless I could find a way to support myself."

"Don’t you have any relatives there?"

"A few, but none of them can afford to keep both my sister and me, and our parents didn’t leave us much. It’s James or nobody."

"How awful," Rose murmured. "My father died a couple of years ago, but I’ve still got my mother—even though we don’t always get along."

"I’m sorry to hear about your dad." Jack came and sat down on the swing next to hers. "My cousin didn’t want to take me in…he said that kids who lose their parents are really hard to deal with, and I guess he was right. Like with Mr. Richardson. I’d never pulled such a stupid stunt before."

"I did some stupid things after I lost my father," Rose admitted. "I was fifteen, and liked him much more than my mother, who is so straight-laced and proper that she hardly ever cracks a smile. Anyway, after he died—he had cancer—I just wanted to stay in my room and cry all the time, but Mother wouldn’t let me. She insisted that we keep up our social activities, keep up that perfect façade that people of our class are supposed to have. One night, I was just sick of it, and when we went into a restaurant for a fancy dinner, I threw a tantrum and dumped a glass of red wine all over my mother’s dress before smashing the glass on the floor." She sighed, looking down. "Mother was more embarrassed than anything else. She pulled me aside and yelled at me, and got even more angry when I wouldn’t stop crying. Then we went home, because she couldn’t stand to stay there at dinner with that wine on her dress—even though her dress was the same shade of red and it didn’t really show—and because she was so embarrassed by me."

"Didn’t she understand how sad you were?"

Rose shook her head. "I don’t think so, Jack. Mother isn’t a very understanding person. Most of the people in our society aren’t. It’s—it’s very shallow, Jack. You aren’t supposed to get upset and show emotion, or let anyone know that life isn’t quite perfect. My parents married for money, so when Father died Mother hadn’t lost much. She inherited everything, except for what Father had put into a trust fund for me. That money will be mine when I’m twenty-one."

"What will you do then?"

Rose shrugged. "I don’t know. I’ll probably be married by then…a marriage of convenience, just like my parents’. What else is there to do?"

"What else…plenty. You could do anything you want. Canada is a free country, you know."

"Yes, but I don’t live in a free society."

"So? You could always leave it."

Rose shook her head. "No, I couldn’t, Jack. Once you’re a part of my society, you’re in it forever. There’s no escape."

"Why not?"

Rose opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. She didn’t know the answer to that question.

"You could do anything you wanted, I’m sure."

Uncomfortable, Rose changed the subject. "You almost sound like you approve of me."

Jack ducked his head, looking at the ground. "Well…you’re not as bad as the rest of them, anyway."

"Yeah…you’re nothing like what my crowd thinks of poorer people. You’re not lazy, or dirty, or a drunk…although, come to think of it, some members of my crowd are like that."

Jack swung slowly back and forth before looking at Rose again. "Truce, then?"

Rose nodded slowly, looking at him and offering her hand. "Truce."

Smiling tentatively, they shook hands.

Chapter Fourteen
Stories