Savannah Burning

Chapter Nine

The persistent buzzing of my phone woke me up a solid ten minutes before my alarm would. “This better be good,” I growled into the phone, my face pressed up against my pillowcase.

“I just wanted to make sure to remind you that I will be picking you up today,” Robbie said.

“Roberto,” I growled. “I’m going to kill you.”

“See you in a half hour!” Robbie hung up on his end and I chucked my phone – cautiously – across the room. It landed softly on a pile of dirty clothing and so I pulled the covers over my head and tried to fall back asleep.

He showed up ten minutes later than usual. Before I could yell at him for a) waking me up and b) now making us late, he handed me a bagel with scallion cream cheese with an apologetic look on his face. “I just hate feeling left out,” he muttered, restarting the van.

“And I hate you,” I replied between bites. I held back a moan of pleasure as I savored my first bite.

Robbie rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. “So what happened in the car yesterday.”

“She called me cute,” I said, trying to hide my grin.

“Dude!” The van swerved slightly on the road. “Like ‘yo that boy is fine’ cute or ‘aw look at the widdle puppy’ cute?”

“I’m not sure. I asked Daisy the same thing.”

“What did she say?”

“She said I sounded like you.”

Robbie beamed, reaching over to tousle my hair. “I’ve taught you so well.” I glared at him, flattening my hair back down. Yesterday Daisy’s hair tie broke and she had to borrow mine. Needless to say I hadn’t gotten it back from her.

We pulled into the parking lot and I halfheartedly waved to the officer who glared at us as we screeched by. I ducked my head, suddenly embarrassed as Robbie hummed happily beside me.

We grabbed our things and headed towards the school. At the top of the stairs Daisy was sitting on the railing, drinking a cup of tea and talking to Savanna, who had her leather jacket on and one hip c****d to the side. My eyes slid to her back pockets – how could they not? Her jeans looked as though they had been painted on, curving over her backside and down her legs.

Daisy spotted us over Savanna’s shoulder and waved. Savanna turned around, giving me hardly enough time to avert my eyes. I tried not to blush as she raised an eyebrow. I failed.

“Good morning.” Daisy sang.

“Morning, Daze,” I replied. “I like the hair.” Overnight Daisy had bleached the ends of her hair to a lighter shade of red, almost a pinkish hue.

“I needed more happy in my life,” she stated, hopping off of the stair’s railing.

“You are my happy,” I told her, kissing the top of her head. She grinned up at me and I poked her dimple. Family didn’t always mean flesh and blood.

“It’s not fair y’all have homeroom together,” Savanna pouted as we wove our way through the crowd to our lockers. By now, most people had gotten used to Savanna’s presence, but there were still a few people who insisted on openly staring at her.

“Now you know how I felt yesterday,” Robbie grumbled.

“Yeah, yeah,” Savanna said, waving him off with her hand. “See you guys at lunch. Bye, Daze. Thanks for the ride!” She called out before slipping into her homeroom right before the warning bell rang. The three of us hurried to our homeroom and managed to sneak in right as the final bell was ringing and I could feel myself already counting down the minutes until lunch.

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“God,” Savanna groaned, sitting down in the seat next to me. “I can’t get over how awful those two girls are.” She opened up her lunchbag and pushed a pudding snack towards Robbie.

“Who?” Daisy asked, opening up her Tupperware of hummus.

“Heather and Emily,” Savanna growled. She took a bite of her sandwich and then said, “Actually, just Heather. Emily doesn’t really talk, does she?”

We all shrugged. “What did they do?” I asked, pushing a homemade cookie in her direction.

“Really?” She asked and I nodded.

“d**k,” Robbie grumbled.

“Are you a pretty girl?” I asked him. “No. Therefore you don’t have a right to my food.”

“Don’t make me swoon,” Savanna said, nudging me. She took a bite of my cookie, closed her eyes and moaned softly. “Oh, my God. This is delicious,” she sighed dreamily.

“Thanks,” I said, the back of my neck burning from embarrassment. That moan was going to stick with me for the rest of my life.

“So what happened?” Daisy asked.

“They’re just mean,” Savanna shrugged. “Like, did you know that they have an anonymous Twitter account that just Tweets mean things about the people in this school?” I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I knew about the Twitter. We all did. Daisy had been the victim of a few of those mean Tweets Savanna was going on about a few years back. “They wouldn’t stop showing it off to me as if it was something to brag about. Don’t these girls believe in karma? Although, I guess I must have done something super shitty in a past life to deserve getting kidnapped.”

The k-word still sent a shudder through me. I glanced at Daisy, whose pale face agreed with the state of my stomach. She glanced up at me, shooting me a tense smile before turning her attention towards Robbie, who was now doing what Robbie did best – finding the humor in an awkward situation.

“Maybe you were a notorious bank robber,” Robbie said, scooping up the last of his pudding snack with his pinky finger.

“You think?” Savanna asked, pausing in her chewing to think it over.

“Yeah, like Bonnie Parker,” I chimed in.

“Who?” Robbie asked.

“Bonnie Parker. From Bonnie and Clyde,” I explained. “We watched the movie together last year, remember?”

“Nope.”

“Are you two brothers?” Savanna asked.

Robbie and I glanced at each other. “Nope,” I said at the same time he said, “why yes we are.”

Savanna laughed. “Anyway, I have some things to take care of in the library. I’ll see y’all after school!”

“D’you need a ride?” Robbie asked hurriedly.

“No practice?” Savanna asked.

“It’s Friday,” Robbie shrugged. “We don’t have practice on Friday’s.”

“Well, then, a ride would be fan-f*****g-tastic.” Then, to me, “will you be in attendance of this car ride?”

“Sure,” I said and Savanna smiled before waving goodbye to us.