Savannah Burning

Chapter Five

On Monday she showed up to school. It was one of those days when the whole island smelt like low tide – it trickled its way into the hallways and classrooms. By now we were all used to it, but every now and then a student would cover their nose with their hand, as if just realizing the intensity of the stench. It was one of the little charms about living on an island; when the tide was low, everyone knew.

Robbie was the first one who saw her. He rushed into homeroom, panting like a dog.

“What?” I asked, suddenly on edge. “What is it? What happened?” Next to me, Daisy was pouring over the town’s gazette which featured a picture of Heather and Emily being interviewed by the police. Emily’s dark eyes stared straight into the camera, her expression stony and callous.

“Ridiculous,” she huffed, pushing the paper in my direction, ignoring Robbie’s urgency and my panic. “Have you seen this?”

“She,” he panted, “is in school . . . and . . . looked at me.”

“Dude, aren’t you supposed to be an athlete?” Daisy asked, looking up for the first time. “You’re in terrible shape.”

He glared at her. “Did you not hear what I just said?” He gasped. I rolled my eyes to distract myself from how tightly I was gripping the edge of my desk. As soon as he said the word she my entire body went on red-alert. Saturday night had been on repeat in my head all weekend.

“I saw the Skye’s bring her in early,” Robbie was saying. “She walked right past the gym where we were practicing this morning. We totally made eye contact.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Daisy interrupted. “She’s already back in school? She just got found like, not even a week ago. How is anyone ready to go back to school?”

Robbie shrugged. “I don’t know any details except that she’s a fox.” Daisy smacked Robbie’s shoulder.

“Excuse me, boys and girls,” Mrs. Lucas was saying from the front of the classroom. “I have an announcement and am going to need your undivided attention.” The conversations drifted off one by one as we tuned in to Mrs. Lucas. “As many of you know, Katie Skye has returned home to her family.”

Clapping erupted from the classroom. “Settle down!” Mrs. Lucas yelled over the noise. When we were all quiet, she started again. “Today is Katie’s first day of school. She and her family have asked that you give her space. Anyone seen harassing the girl will be sent to In-School Suspension immediately. Please, no pictures, no rumors, and no drama. And lastly,” Mrs. Lucas said, glancing down at a piece of paper on her desk, “she prefers to be referred to as Savannah, not Katie. That is all.”

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The first time I met Daisy’s Uncle Dan, I was completely starstruck. It was the first time Buck had brought me to Mermaid’s Song. Robbie and Daisy had been going there their whole lives, but it was my first time, right after I first moved to town. Buck pulled his truck right up to Dan’s old R.V. Dan was building a sea turtle sand sculpture outside of his R.V., his back to us as he hunched over the creation. Daisy, Robbie and I walked right up to him, watching him work. They were used to Dan’s creations. I, on the other hand, was witnessing the magic for the first time. I don’t remember much from that time – I had been so young when my parents adopted me. There were a lot of things that stand out to me like, for instance, the sheer size of the house I was to grow up in was insane to me. I had come from a trailer park community on the other side of the island. A backyard, my own room, a dog . . . all of these things didn’t feel real to me at first. But out of all of those things, out of everything I was adjusting to, everyone I met, Dan was by far the most interesting thing about Oyster Point.

I had never met anyone with so many tattoos. Patterns and pictures covered his neck and arms and I stared at them, wondering what kind of picture-book story they told. When Dan caught me staring at them, he crouched down in front of me.

“And who’s this guy?” He asked, peering into my face.

“He’s the Baucher’s boy,” Buck explained.

“Do you live there?” I blurted, pointing to the R.V. which, at the time, looked more like a castle to me than my new home. A weather-beaten, barnacle-ridden one on wheels, but a castle nonetheless.

“Sure do,” he grinned. One of his incisors were missing and the tip of his tongue poked through it. I was mesmerized.

For the rest of the day I stuck by Dan’s side. I was too shy to talk to him; I just sat next to him, staring. He taught me how to fish and how to make sculptures using a paste of wet and dry sand. You could find photos of his creations from local photographers hanging in restaurant bathrooms and hotel lobbies all throughout the island. Uncredited, of course, but Dan didn’t seem to care. He lived off the grid for a reason that he kept to himself. He was the most fascinating person I had ever met up until that point.

That’s exactly how the student body reacted to Savannah Skye on her first public day back from the dead. Despite Mrs. Lucas pleads, rumors flew throughout the hallway.

“Why did she change her name?” Daisy asked between third and fourth period. I didn’t know why Katie requested we call her Savannah, but I couldn’t stop saying it in my head. Savannah Skye. Sav. Van. Nah. I thought of her wildly curly hair, her freckles, her bow-shaped lips and technicolor eyes and thought that, yes, Savannah was a much better name for this wild girl.

“It’s the name she grew up with,” a voice chimed behind us. We turned and there was Emily Sage, alone for once.

“What do you mean ‘grew up with,’” Robbie asked.

Emily shrugged. “It’s the only name she’s ever known.” She waved a goodbye to us as she slipped into her classroom.

“That was weird, right?” I asked Daisy after a beat.

“Totally,” she nodded solemnly, staring at the classroom Emily had disappeared into.

“I wonder if we’ll have a class with her,” Robbie sighed, referring back to Savannah as we slipped into psychology.

“Me, too,” I admitted, resting my chin on my hand, slipping into my daydreams.

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We didn’t have to wait long to see her. Robbie, Daisy and I walked out of class together and started towards the English department when Heather walked out of a room, cutting us off, slamming her hip into Daisy’s side.

“Hey!” Daisy snapped. Heather turned around, glaring at us, but Katie – Savannah – floated out of the classroom, distracting everyone. She stepped out of my hazy daydreams and right into the space between Daisy and Heather. She glanced at me, then to Daisy, and then her eyes immediately snapped back to mine, widening. I froze, staring back at her. It occurred to me in a moment of complete and utter idiocy that Savannah Skye was real.

She was taller than I expected. I was always one of, if not the tallest in the class and this was the first time a girl could look me in the eye without standing on her toes. I drank her in, her hair, her lips, the slope of her nose, her freckles, which were ten times as much than I originally thought now that I was face-to-face with her. I tried to get a grasp on my voice, to hit the unmute button, to say anything but before I could find my voice Heather slipped her arm through Savannah’s and pulled her away from us. Savannah stumbled forward, throwing a glance over her shoulder at me before the current of the crowd took her out of my sight.

“s**t,” Robbie said, running his hand through his hair.

Shit, indeed.