I have fabulous news that I can’t wait to share. I won 1st place in the Bartlesville Creative Writing Contest nonfiction category with my personal essay “The Long Walk”. I can’t believe I won 1st for a nonfiction story! Doing another jig!

The door behind her opened and Emma turned around to see Kimberly run in out of the snow.  “I can’t believe it’s snowing in April.  Who knew Mother Nature would take Snow Ball literally.”

Emma smiled.  “I know, the theme was supposed to be a snow globe, not an actual blizzard.  You look great.  Are you flying solo tonight?”

Kimberly blushed as she smoothed out her navy halter dress.  “Not really.  You look nice too; silver looks great on you.”

“Thanks,” Emma cocked her head.  “What did you mean by ‘not really’?”

Emma was glad to have someone take her mind off Emery’s arrival.

“I’m meeting Mica Johnson.”

“Cool,” said Emma.  “I didn’t know you two were an item.”

“We’re not,” answered Kimberly.  “I kinda made a deal with Lola.”

“Lola?  You mean that emo chick?”

“One really shouldn’t judge, library girl.”

Emma spun around to see Emery standing by the door.  She smiled and let out a breath she felt she’d been holding in for ages.  Her stomach flip-flopped as Emery approached holding out a small wrist corsage.

“You look awesome,” said Emery, as he slid the delicate flower over Emma’s slim wrist.  “Sorry I’m late. Mom’s car broke down and I had to catch a ride with Peter.”

Emma giggled as she blushed.  “You look pretty good yourself.”

“Should we go upstairs?” Emery asked.  “Sounds like the party’s already started.”

Emma looked at Kimberly.  “You want us to wait till Mica gets here?”

“I’m here.”  Mica stood in the doorway, brushing the snow off his broad shoulders and shaking out his curly hair.

Fixing his stare on Kimberly, his mouth dropped open as a single word escaped from it.  “Wow.”

*Can’t wait for part 25?  Go to http://bvilleteen.blogspot.com.

“Why don’t you take Mica and get to know each other?” she whispered.  “That way the dance isn’t way awkward.”

Kimberly blushed as she looked at Mica.  “My mom will be here in a little bit, but do you want to go over there and talk till she gets here?”  Kimberly pointed to a small table by the window.

Mica glanced from Kimberly to Zeb and shrugged.  Kimberly sighed and grunted a little as she heaved her large backpack over her shoulder.

“Can I carry that for you?”

Kimberly looked up, startled.  It was the first time she had heard Mica speak.  His voice was deep and warm, and flowed over her like syrup on hot pancakes.  “Yeah, thanks,” she muttered back.

Mica lifted her bag with ease and started towards the table. 

“So, what do you do besides lift weights?” asked Kimberly.

Mica let out a light laugh.  Kimberly liked the way it floated in the air.

“You’ll laugh if I tell you.”

“Try me.” She smiled.

“Lego robotics,” he said, folding a small scrap of paper.

“Wow,” said Kimberly.  “I’ve seen those online.  Very cool.  I know I couldn’t do it.”

“I bet you could do anything you put your mind to,” said Mica handing her a small paper flower.

*****

Lola waited till the couple was seated before she turned to Zeb. 

“Let’s go outside and talk.”

Zeb nodded and followed.  Once outside, he swooped her up and kissed her hard.  “I’ve been waiting all day to do that.”

“I can tell,” said Lola.  “Now put me down, you big lug.”

Zeb sat her on the metal bench before sitting beside her.  “Kimberly seems like a nice girl, are you sure you want to go through with this?”

Lola raised an eyebrow at Zeb.  “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, it’s just that you don’t have any girl friends.”

“She deserves what she gets.  Don’t forget what she and her friends did to me.”  She ruffled his hair.  Besides, you’re way more fun than any girl.” 

“Don’t you think we should let Mica know?  I don’t like keeping things from him,” said Zeb.

“It’s better if we don’t.” Lola kissed him gently.  “Promise me you won’t tell.”

“As long as you keep doing that, my lips will be too busy to talk.”

*Can’t wait for part 24? Go to http://bvilleteen.blogspot.com.

“We’ll have more privacy in here,” she said, handing Kimberly a t-shirt.

“I really appreciate this, Lola.” Kimberly grabbed the t-shirt and began to take off her slushy-stained sweater.

Lola lifted up her phone.

“What are you doing?” asked Kimberly, hiding herself behind the t-shirt.

“Chill, pickle, I’m just texting Zeb.  He’s supposed to meet me here after weight practice.  I don’t want him to think I left.”  Lola looked over her phone.  “What did you think, I was taking pictures of you half naked to plaster all over the school?”

Kimberly looked at her feet.

Lola sighed.  “Just because you’re-,” Lola made air quotes, “-’friends’ did that to me, doesn’t mean I’m going to do that to you.  I know you didn’t take the picture.”

Kimberly slid the shirt over her head.  “I should’ve stopped them.”

“Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve, didn’t,” said Lola.  “It’s in the past Kimmie, stop worrying so much.  Come on, the boys are here.”

Opening the large door, Lola skipped out and launched herself into Zeb’s big arms.  “Hey baby, you’re out of practice early.”

“Yeah,” said Zeb, “the gym flooded.”

“What? How bad?” asked Kimberly.

“Pretty bad, had to call in the fire department to turn off the main water line.”

“Tragic,” said Lola, picking at her fingernail polish.  “Does that mean no dance?”

“I guess they’re gonna have it here,” said Zeb smiling.  “Upstairs in the big meeting room, so you still have to go Lola.”

“Rats, I thought karma was on my side with the gym flooding.  Guess I’ll have to change religions again.”  Lola looked at Kimberly.  “You want to tell Mica the good news?”

Kimberly tried to smile.  “I’ll go to the dance with you.  If you don’t mind being seen with a narc.”

Mica nodded a quick ok.

“Cool, we can finally have some alone time,” said Zeb, nuzzling Lola.

“Down boy.”  Lola pushed Zeb back.  “Remember you now have protection duty for Kimmie, too.  And she’s going to need it.”

*Can’t wait for part 23?  Go to http://bvilleteen.blogspot.com.

“I don’t know,” Kimberly said to Lola.  “No offense, Mica.  I just don’t know you and, Lola, we haven’t hung out since the 6^th grade.”

“And whose fault is that?” asked Lola.

“Mine, I know,” answered Kimberly, “I never meant to hurt your feelings, you know.”

“It’s all water under the bridge, Kimmie.” Lola threw her arm over Kimberly’s shoulders.  “Now you can make it up to me.”

Kimberly still didn’t answer. 

“Why don’t you sleep on it?  We’ll meet here tomorrow and you can tell me then,” said Lola, turning to exit.

Kimberly shook her head.  “OK.  Um, Lola?”

“What’s up?” Lola said, turning back around.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”  Kimberly looked at the floor.  “What I helped do to you was awful.  I knew it when it was happening, I just didn’t have the guts to stop it.  I’m so sorry.”

“Kimmie, I’m being nice to you because we were best friends.  I don’t take the term lightly.  I think we can get back there.”

“Thanks, Lola.  See you tomorrow.”

*****

Lola sat on the library steps and waited for Kimberly.  She squinted as a figure appeared behind the trees and beckoned her to come over.  She stayed planted on the steps.  She had fallen for that trick once before.

“Lola!” the figure yelled.

“Kimmie?”

“Shhhh!  Come here.”

Lola walked around the tree to see Kimberly drenched in purple goo. 

“Let me guess, Darcie and Amber?”

Kimberly nodded.  “It’s purple slushy.”

“Somebody’s been watching reruns of Glee,” said Lola, taking off her hoodie.  “Come on, I’ve got an extra shirt in my bag.  Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Lola turned to head towards the library, when Kimberly grabbed her arm.  “I’ll do it.”

Lola looked at Kimberly confused.

“I’ll go to the dance with Mica,” said Kimberly.

“I’d say you made a wise decision.”

*Can’t wait for part 22?  Go to http://bvilleteen.blogspot.com.

“Oh, isn’t that cute,” Lola said to the boys, “she’s delusional.”

“I’m not delusional.” Kimberly crossed her arms. “Darcie and I have been friends for a long time. Sure she’s mad at me now, but it will blow over.”

Lola leaned in close. “Don’t fool yourself, Kimmie. You narced on the meanest girl in school. She’s had a crush on Emery for ages, and now she has zero chance with him, thanks to you. Think about it, she put porn on Emma’s thumb drive and thought nothing of it when her psycho uncle went postal.”

 Kimberly bowed her head. Lola was right. Emma wasn’t even seeing Emery and Darcie had sought to get her banned from the library. She was probably trash-talking her right now on Facebook.

“What do you mean by protection?” asked Kimberly.

“My fellas here,” she pointed to Zeb and Mica, “will make sure no one bullies you physically and I will make sure everyone knows what a tool Darcie is.”

“How much money are we talking? I don’t get much of an allowance.”

Kimberly grabbed her wallet out of her purse. “I think I might have a ten in here.”

Lola pushed the wallet down. “We don’t want your money, silly girl.”

“Then what do you want?”

“Well, Zeb and I are going to the dance.” Lola rolled her eyes. “I know its lame, but Zebby wants to sweep me off my feet or something, and I was feeling all mushy so I said yes.” Lola looped her arm in Zeb’s and laid her head on his shoulder. “He has that power over me. But Mica, here, doesn’t want to be a third wheel. So we double and you go to the dance with him.”

Kimberly looked Mica over. “We don’t even know each other. What’s to say he even wants to go to the dance with me?”

“Mica’s a man of few words, but he’s cool with it if you are. What do you say? Do we have deal?”

Kimberly hesitated.

“Come on, girly,” whined Lola. “It’s a small price to pay for friendship, and I may be the only friend you have.”

*Can’t wait for part 21? Go to http://bvilleteen.blogspot.com.

“I never thought I’d see the day that you’d finally stick up to that übersnob, Darcie.  Why you started hanging out with her, I’ll never understand,” said the girl, adjusting the hot pink bow against her raven black hair.

Kimberly peeked at the girl over her book.

“You don’t recognize me, do you?  I can’t believe it, Kimmie.  I’m so hurt.”  The girl pretended to wipe away tears.

Kimberly’s mouth fell open.  Only one girl had ever called her Kimmie.  “Lola?”

Lola jumped out of the chair and bowed. “The one and only.”

“What did you do to your hair?” asked Kimberly.

Lola ran her hands over it and posed.  “It’s called Widow Black.  Do you like it?”

“Are your eyes purple?”  Kimberly leaned in for a closer look.

“It’s called Violet.  I so don’t live a blonde hair, blue eyed lifestyle.”

“I can see that.”  Kimberly glanced at the two boys standing behind Lola.

“Oh, silly me,” said Lola, “I didn’t introduce you to my bodyguards.”

The two boys smiled and cross their arms, showing off their bulging biceps.

“They’re power lifters,” Lola continued, pointing to the boy on the right.  “That’s Zeb.”  She put her hand over her mouth and mouthed “he’s mine”, then pointed to the boy on the left.  “And that’s his brother Mica.  They’re brothers, a year apart, but they might as well be twins.  They do everything together.  Zeb wouldn’t even start kindergarten till Mica could go with him.”

“Why do you need bodyguards?” Kim asked.

“Cause school sucks,” said Lola.  “These two fellas saw a couple of girls picking on me after school one day.  All they had to do was walk up behind me and the girls split.  Not too tough once they were the ones outnumbered.  Your girl, Amber, was one of them.”

“She’s not my girl.”  Kimberly looked at the table.  “Not anymore.”

“That’s right.  You’re my girl now.  You need protection and I’ve got it.”  Lola jerked her head in the direction of the brothers.  “But it’s gonna cost you.”

*Can’t wait for part 20?  Go to http://bvilleteen.blogspot.com.

“I hope I didn’t get you in trouble,” Kimberly said to Natalie, breaking the silence.

Natalie shrugged.  “It won’t be the first time someone has been unhappy with my decisions.  I’m sure it won’t be the last.  I’ll explain the situation to our director in the morning.  Everything will be fine.” 

Natalie looked at Emery.  “I think it’s time we head home.”

 “In a sec.”  He walked over to Emma.  “Do you have a cell phone?”

Emma giggled and reached into her bag.  “Who doesn’t have a cell phone, nowadays?”

She handed him her phone.  He opened it up and started pushing buttons.  “Here’s my cell number.  Will you call me after you read my work?”  He glanced at Emma’s father.  “You know, after you spend time with your dad.”

“Sure,” said Emma, blushing.

Mr. Thatcher rested his hands on Emma’s shoulder.  “We should get going too.”

Emma nodded and looked at Kimberly.  “Do you need a ride?”

“No, thanks, my brother’s supposed to pick me up after his basketball practice.”

“K,” said Emma. 

She waved to Emery as she left with her father.  Emery turned to leave with his mom, but hesitated. 

“Thanks again, Kim,” he said and then followed his mother out.

Kimberly sat at the table and sighed.  “That was fun,” she said to herself.

She glanced around the library.  The cops had left and all the patrons had gone back to their normal routines.  The table felt huge as she sat by herself.  She tried to think positive about having Darcie and Amber mad at her.  Surely Emery would keep his word and Darcie would be the one out in the cold.

She pulled out her library book and tried to concentrate on the words.  A shadow loomed above her.  Kimberly glanced up to see three kids dressed in black standing surrounding her.

“It’s Ms. Grey,” Rebecca corrected.

“Ms. Grey, your daughter stole a thumb drive and replaced it with one filled it with indecent pictures,” Natalie explained.

“Did anyone see her allegedly steal this thumb drive?”

“Yes, Kimberly Adams,” answered Natalie.

Rebecca walked up to Kimberly. “What exactly did you see?” “I saw Darcie walk over to Emma Thatcher’s stuff and switch the drives.”

“Are the drives similar?” asked Rebecca.

“Yes,” said Kimberly.

“Then how do you know she switched the drives? Did you actually see her pick up Miss Thatcher’s device and replace it with her own?”

“Well,” Kimberly paused, “she told us what she was going to do.”

“That’s not what I asked,” said Rebecca. “Did you see her switch the drives?”

Kimberly looked at her feet. “No, all I saw was her back.”

“But, I gave Emma the drive and it didn’t have porn on it when I gave it to her,” said Emery.

Rebecca looked down her nose at Emery. “And why should we believe you’re telling the truth?” She turned back to Kimberly. “Did you see Darcie put the alleged pictures on the drive?”

“No, they went to the car. I stayed here to make sure Emma didn’t leave.”

“They?” Rebecca raised an eyebrow. “Who’s they?”

“Darcie and Amber.”

Rebecca turned to Amber. “Did you put inappropriate photographs on the device?”

“No, ma’am,” answered Amber, shaking her head innocently.

“Did Darcie put inappropriate photographs on the device?”

Amber continued to shake her head no.

Rebecca turned to Natalie. “So you called me because my daughter stole a thumb drive no one saw her steal and put indecent pictures on it that no one saw her upload?”

“She confessed,” said Natalie.

“Did the words ‘I stole the thumb drive and put porn on it’ come out of her mouth?”

“No, she said she was playing a joke,” explained Natalie. “A very cruel joke that almost resulted in one of our patrons getting banned from the library and possibly beaten by her uncle.”

“That sounds like a personal problem.” Rebecca glanced at Emma. “My daughter and I will be leaving now. I’ll be speaking to the director to file a formal complaint about your unprofessional handling of this situation. You can’t go around accusing innocent children of such hideous acts.”

*Can’t wait for part 18? Go to http://bvilleteen.blogspot.com.

“It’s ok, Kim,” said Emery.  “We’ll make sure everyone hears the whole story.”  He glared at Darcie before walking to Emma.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through all that.”  He handed her the real thumb drive.  “Here, I still want you to read my stuff.  That is, if you want to?”

Emma nodded and took the drive.  “I didn’t want to believe that you’d play such a horrible joke.”

“Does that mean you like me?” He smiled.

“Maybe a little,” she teased.

“Enough to go to the Snow Ball with me next Saturday?” he asked.

Emma looked at her father.  “How long are you on leave?”

“Hopefully, given the situation, I won’t have to go back.”  He smiled at Emery.  “But I can say for certain that next Saturday I’ll be busy, so you should make your own plans.”

“Well,” said Emery, “will you go with me to the dance?”

Emma blushed as she nodded yes.

A clap broke the silence; everyone turned to see Darcie standing and clapping. 

“Isn’t this just the Lifetime movie of the year?  The shy girl gets the popular boy, everyone is happy and the sky is full of rainbows.”  She looked at Amber.  “Come on, let’s get out of here.  All this mushiness is making me queasy.”

Amber glared at Kimberly as she slid past.

“You need to wait for your mother; she’s on her way,” said Natalie.

“A. You have no authority.  B. My mom will eat you for dinner,” said Darcie.

“She right on both counts,” said a nasally voice.  Natalie turned to see a tall blonde standing behind her, holding a black briefcase.

“Rebecca Grey,” said the tall blonde, holding out a business card.  “Attorney at law, and I believe you called me about my daughter.”

*Can’t wait for part 17?  Go to http://bvilleteen.blogspot.com.