Chapter 4

Mike gave Sarah a job on Tuesday morning, he showed her a pile of cleaning supplies and a building they'd missed on the first tour.

"This," Mike explained, "is the activity counsellors accommodation and it's used as a rest area for all the other counsellors on their time off. Brace yourself," he warned.

Sarah was speechless as she walked in to the living room; it looked like the Somme with added beer cans.

"Some of the staff had a party the last night they were here. I fined them twenty-five dollars each and spent seventy-five on the cleaning equipment. The rest is yours if you want the job, there's two hundred and fifty dollars in it for you."

"Two hundred and fifty? Easy money," Sarah said confidently, never having been afraid of hard work.

She rolled up her sleeves and dove in.

At six that night she'd finished for the day, the living room, bathroom and two bedrooms were done but there were still two bedrooms and the kitchen left for the morning.

The following day at breakfast Sarah asked if she could borrow a tape deck from Jenny, as the batteries in hers were flat. With music blaring, Sarah went back to work in the first bedroom, an hour later Sarah paused to change the Blur's Parklife for some Oasis when Jason stepped in from the hall.

"What's that racket?" he asked listlessly.

"Parklife, by Blur," Sarah told him. "I was just about to swap it for some Oasis."

"Oh," he replied looking forlorn.

"Why, what do you like?"

"Garth Brooks, Terri Clark, Brooks and Dunn," he stated without much interest.

"Who, Who and Who?" was the reply. Sarah started talking about music and Jason started to perk up, expanding on his fondness for New Country and trying to explain the difference between New Country and 'old' Country. At the same time Sarah was trying to explain the attraction of Britpop, and even older British music by playing Paul Weller, The Smiths and The Cure to Jason who protested that he didn't have anything to play back at her.

After an hour Sarah realised she wasn't getting any work done and she tried to draw the talk to a close but Jason protested and kept talking animatedly whilst he helped her with wiping down the bedroom walls. They both giggled and blushed when Jason found a used rubber down the back of a bed. They stopped for lunch at Sarah's house and the conversation continued until Mike walked in on them, "Jason?" he asked, "what are you doing here?"

"Having lunch with Sarah?" Jason ventured.

"OK," he said uncertainly, "how's the mattress collecting going?"

"Ahhhh, slowly?" offered Jason sheepishly.

"Very slowly if you've been chatting to Sarah all morning," Mike grumped looking at Sarah with a shine in his eye.

"Sorry Mike, I'll get 'em done this afternoon, honest."

"You do that." Mike finished, winking at Sarah and grabbing a sandwich from her plate he left them to finish their meal.

After lunch they went to their separate jobs and each wondered why they missed talking to the other so much.

Thursday morning dawned and Sarah was nervous. She was due at school at ten thirty to sit the Grade Equivalency Test and meet with her teachers to 'assess her educational requirements'. Sarah felt that it was all 'teachspeak' for 'how dumb are you and which box do we put you in?'

"Empty schools are weird," Jenny said.

"This empty school is damn creepy," Sarah replied.

As Sarah and Jenny walked into the school office Jenny squeezed the younger girl's hand as if to say 'don't worry'. The night before they talked about the differences she'd see, which grade she'd be in and the variations in her lessons. They had also decided that after getting Sarah to the office Jenny would let her stand on her own feet.

Several long exams later Sarah was waiting in the office for her results. A blonde good-looking girl approached and introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Michelle but most everyone calls me Mitch. You're Sarah?"

"Umm ... Yeah," Sarah muttered nervously.

"Ok, come with me." Mitch said and after showing Sarah her locker and homeroom she elaborated.

"I'm supposed to show you around and answer questions about classes and schedules," Mitch smiled, trying to help Sarah feel at ease. "But let's just go for a walk and a chat. That'll probably be more useful and interesting."

"Alright, sounds good," replied Sarah following the taller girl down yet another hallway.

They wondered through the halls in silence for a few minutes until Mitch asked "how long have you been over here?"

"Two weeks."

"Ah; did your dad get a job over here or something?"

Sarah stopped and cleared her throat; she didn't want to trip or stumble over these words.

"ActuallymyfamilywaskilledinacarcrashandIhadtomoveinwithmyauntanduncle," she said without drawing breath. Sarah had answered questions like this from strangers before ... each time she worried about it, practised it and each time she fucked it up.

Mitch stopped walking and turned to Sarah. "Sorry, did I hear you right?"

"Probably, I'll try it again ... My family was killed in a car crash and I had to move over here to my aunt and uncles." She breathed again, "there, was that better?" Sarah finished with a fixed, nervous grin.

"Yeah, no, um I mean yes I heard you, but, I mean. Shit!" Mitch muddled her words in shock.

Sarah stood waiting for a coherent string of words, she waited for a few seconds whilst the blonde processed the information and came up with...

Mitch thought about lots of responses. Telling total strangers that you've been orphaned after only two months must be very difficult.

... Sarah was shocked when the American girl stepped up to her and gave her a big hug; she stumbled for a second and then melted into the embrace. "Wow," she said over Mitch's shoulder, "wish I got this reaction from other people, they normally just start asking questions or I get bogus pity."

Mitch leant back to talk to her face, "it's what I'd need after telling a complete stranger that. Do you want to tell me more or shall I tell you stuff about school?"

"School, for now," Sarah answered.

From what she saw, and Mitch told her, Sarah worked out the school was Very sports orientated. Football, baseball, Lacrosse, and basketball team banners proclaimed victories over other schools and exalted each team to new heights. Halls were painted in the school colours of red and green. The schools sports logo, a cartoon badger's head with vicious teeth and scowl was prominent on floors, walls and even the roof in the gym. After a tour of the halls the girls sat down on the gym bleachers and Sarah started.

"My parents went to a party one night. They called my brother to give them a lift home. A drunk driver killed them all."

"Wow that's really shitty, I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thanks;" Sarah moved on, "look, if school over here is like home the rumor mill probably runs on the redline almost constantly, yeah?"

"Redline?" Mitch queried.

"Flat out ... as fast as it'll go."

"Ok." Understanding dawned on Mitch's face.