"You'll like it here, Dear." Mary, my social worker told me. Sure. The pudgy woman pulled into the parking lot of the diner, making my body tense. "Aren't you excited? Your Dad's right inside!"
You would have thought she'd won the lottery. This gal thought we had something special since we share the same first name. Since I haven't gone by 'Mary' since I was nine, I deny our connection. I replied by pulling on my hoodie while following her out of her SUV. We walked up the stairs of the diner and entered it, forcing myself to numb.
A man sat at a booth by himself, sipping coffee. He had a blond buzz cut but wore civilian clothes, as if afraid to let anyone know what he was in case this would scar his reputation. Mary smiled at him and motioned for me to come over, smiling.
"Major Sherwood, it's nice to meet you! How are you?"
The man stood up and looked at her, nodding. His eyes widened as they landed on me. I was tempted to flip him the bird but decided not to give him the satisfaction. This entire trade of my custody was really pissing me off but who cared? Not my grandmother, not NSS, not Mary, and especially not this ass.
"Good. How was your trip?"
"Long. Meridian to Charleston, whew. Mind if we sit down and get food. I'm sure Jordan's famished."
Mary motioned for me to sit between her and the window, as if afraid I'd run if she didn't corner me. I slid in as my phone went off and pulled it out, texting Emily that I was finally in Charleston. The Major watched me, unsure what to say. Mary smiled at me as the waitress came up as asked what we wanted. "I'll have coffee. Jordan, what do you want?"
"Herbal tea." I really wanted a beer but I didn't think it'd run over to well with a social worker and Army Major watching me like a Kennedy. "Danke."
"My wife's best friend, Claudia Joy, likes herbal tea too." The Major told me. "She also does yoga."
"Jordan does yoga and karate! What a coincidence!" Big God damn deal, Mary.
I looked at him, a brow raised. "And how is your wife taking the new addition to your family?"
He stared at me, off guard by my boldness. "Well, considering the circumstances"-
"Circumstances? You mean, the fact you were married when you knocked Bianca up?"
"Jordon, please." Mary scolded me as the Major tensed. I rolled my eyes, looking back out the window. "What would you like to eat?"
"I'm not hungry." This place wreaked of things I hadn't over indulged in since I was eleven.
"Dear, the doctor says you need to eat. You've lost to much weight in the past month."
"They make good French toast." The Major offered as the waitress brought us our drinks. "My son and I eat here once a month."
"How is he taking this?" I shot, receiving another glare from Mary.
The Major's face looked proud. "He's deployed until next week."
I sipped my tea, ignoring him. The rest of breakfast went by slowly and an hour later, we rose to transfer my bags to the Majors car. Mary actually cried as she told me good-bye, giving me her cell number if I needed anything. The Major and I stood by his car, watching as she pulled out. Once her brown SUV was out of sight, I walked around his vehicle and slid into the passenger seat. He followed my motions with the driver seat, sighing as he sat down.
"As soon as we get on base, you'll need to get an post I.D. I can get it tonight but don't try to go anywhere until then."
"Fine." I told him, popping my MP3 in. Where the hell was I going to go anyway?
"My wife, Denise, set up a room for you already. She was going to take you shopping for anything you need soon. School doesn't start for a few more months so that's not necessarily a worry. Do you, ah, like school?"
"I have a full ride stationed at MUW if I maintain a four-point-o."
The Major nodded at this, his face excepting. "Jeremy was academic also. I was never a school fan myself, but I bared with it. My parent's never excepted failure."
"Neither did Bianca."
The small talk the Major was presenting stopped instantly. We were in pure silence for ten whole minutes until we pulled into a line of cars in front of a military base. I pulled out my phone and Emily asked me what the Major was like. I replied back, commenting on how bitchy he was taking the subject of my mother.
"Major, good evening. Does your passenger have an I.D."
"Ah, no, she's a new resident. I have her temporary information on file already though."
The black man looked past the Major to me and spoke evenly. "Miss, state your full name, place of birth, and blood type."
As if I'd never dealt with this before. "Mary Jordon Richardson-Sherwood, Meridian Naval Air Hospital, 'O' positive."
The man acted completely robotic to any inquiry about my name. Just how the military liked them. "Information affirmative. Major, you may pass."
The base had a lot of people in 'ARMY' tee-shirts jogging around and civilian dressed persons walking around like their lives were perfect. I shook my head at the whole scene, wanting to barf. I though Meridian was bad. At least they separated their civilians from their officers during work hours.
After another ten minutes of driving, we pulled up into a cozy and nice little house with the perfect garden and yard. I wanted to snort at the clique setting. A pretty woman woman with black hair and tan skin walked out, waving at us. I looked at her and instantly tensed. It was scary how much she looked Bianca.
"You okay, Mary?"
"It's Jordan." I corrected the Major.
"Your file says Mary." He informed me. The traditionally, simple minded always annoyed me.
"If you lean my way on this, I won't mention how much your wife looks like my mother."
The man tensed his jaw, catching my eye. "Watch the mouth. This is my roof, my rules."
He exited his vehicle before I could respond. I followed his action, unsure of what else I could do. His wife pecked him on the mouth and then turned to me, walking around the car as I pulled my headphones out.
"Hello Mary, I'm Denise. It's nice to have you here!"
What the hell was I? A foreign exchange students? She went to hug me but I held out my hand to her, making her face drop for a second before she returned to her chipper expression and shook it. Her hands were smooth, not like Bianca's calloused palms had been. "It's nice to meet you too."
Major pulled my bags inside and Denise stayed by my side as I walked in. They had a nice, little home. It fit for a Major's salary. I looked around the house and saw pictures of a boy around nineteen. He looked more like Denise but wore the Army like the Major.
"Dee, did anyone call while I was out?" The Major appeared back from the hallway, watching my observations with panic. And they try to say the military makes a man out of you.
Mrs. Beaver smiled. "No. Are you two hungry? I could make some sandwiches up if you wanted."
"That would be wonderful. Neither of us ate much at breakfast."
"I'm going to go unpack." I announced, hating how rehearsed these lines sounded.
"Your room's second on the left." Denise told me. "There's a shelf cleared for you in the bathroom too, Dear."
"Danke." I nodded, walking down the hall.
The room was nice. It had white walls, purple sheets and oak furniture. I pulled open my bag and grabbed a hair-tie, pulling my blond curls up as I opened the window and looked out. The birds were chirping and a dog across the lawn was barking. I rolled my eyes at the normality and proceeded to pull Lord of the Flies from my suitcase.
Half an hour later, Denise knocked on my door. I hadn't even started unpacking but she didn't comment.
"I didn't know what you liked on your sandwiches so I left it out for you to make. Interesting read?" I shrugged. The woman sat down on the edge of my bed, making me focus harder on Simons attack on Piggy. "I know how hard this must be for you. It's a lot to take in. If you"-
"Dee, Pamela's here!" Major, thankfully, cut her off.
"Come and get food whenever you feel like it, Jordan." Denise smiled as she rose and closed my door, leaving me alone. I sighed and leaned back as Emily texted me back. I snorted as I replied, indeed, Denise was a servant of her husbands and the military's will.
***
I woke up around six that morning. I was sweating and shaking like a junkie on withdrawals, though I couldn't remember what the dream had been about. When I was with my grandmother, she made me move to the room farthest from hers because I used to talk in my sleep and wake her. A migraine began to make my head throb and I rose, heading for the bathroom. After fifteen minutes of throwing up, the bloody nose started. My doctor said this happens when I'm stressed but I think he said that to make Mary leave him alone. I've had spells like this when I was completely rested and comfortable and think it's just another fluke in my dysfunctional genetics.
I held a rag to my face and walked out to the back yard lanai, holding my head back. The sticky humidity of the heat was already coming on and I knew before the day was out my hair would frizz like an Afro worn by the Jackson Five. An hour passed and the bleeding stopped. I rose and walked back inside the house to find Denise and the Major at the breakfast bar, flirting. They looked up at me and saw blood on my face and demanded an explanation.
"They happen all the time." I assured them.
"You need a physical for the Army too. Dee, can you take her in and see if the doctor can get her some medication for that?" I rolled my eyes, wanting to smack him. "Get dressed, Jordan. You and Dee are going to spend the day with the Holden's."
His house wife smiled when she saw my face. "Claudia Joy has a daughter, Emmalin, that's your age. She's excited to meet you."
I closed the door to my room and grabbed my phone, texting Emily. She told me not to go all preppy on her. I sighed, deciding to go along with this little entourage for now. I pulled on a green tank top and a yellow halter, knowing I wasn't going to get away with just one of those two here. I pulled on my jeans and pulled my hair into twin French braids, deciding not to deal with curling the mess today. I grabbed my Kicks and walked out to find Denise cleaning up, a plate sitting on the counter for me. I saw the bacon and almost vomited again.
The woman turned around from the sink and raised a brow. "Are you okay, Dear?"
"Yeah. Fine."
She turned around to fully look at me, drying her hands with a towel.
"I can make you something else if you don't like eggs, bacon and hash browns."
"I'm fine. Just not hungry." I lied.
"You never did eat last night. Come on, I can make almost anything you can think of." Denise encouraged. "I have some leftover fruit salad in the fridge. You want to try it?"
I didn't answer but she served me a bowl, taking the plate of deep-fried trash away. I ate half of the fruit salad and a cup of milk to please Mrs. Beaver and then followed her to the car.
"Your doctors appointment's tomorrow at one. Are there any sports you do in school?"
"None that I want to continue." We stopped at a corner and she looked over at me, asking what I used to do. "Track, softball, gymnastics and some cheer leading too."
"Wow, you get around." Denise punned.
Claudia Joy Holden was a pretty housewife with charisma and brains. She was the type that could be partner at a major firm but decided to get married instead. Her daughter, Emmalin, was a little different. Though pretty, I could tell she was a little more socially awkward. When the miniature Holden came down the stairs, she stared at me with wide eyes. "Wow, you're prettier than Ashley Lynnette said."
I stared at her with disbelief. "Lax Lynnette's father works on this base?"
"What's 'Lax' suppose to imply?" The girl asked.
"She's never strict on using protection when the goes on her cherry poppin' sprees."
"Okay, that's enough for now." Denise told me, blushing as her best friends mouth dropped. "Her father works with yours and I think it's best not to start rumors."
"Jordan, you want to go outside? All they're going if FRG stuff." Emmalin offered, noticing her mother's still stunned expression. I followed her willingly. Bianca used to say the only thing FRG was useful for was to cheer on the base, as if they were in actual competition. The brunette walked out to the street and we began moving in silence. After a few minutes, the Holden girl smiled at me and spoke.
"So Lynette said you're a history nut."
"She would know." That bitch copied off of me during our fall final last year and convinced our teacher I was the cheater. I had to retake that damn class this summer. "What all has Lax said about me anyway?"
"Well... good and bad things." The girl stated, tensed. She looked at me and spoke cautiously. "I don't believe any of it."
"How would you know? I met you ten minutes ago?"
"Well... it's clique gossip. Mostly claiming your sleep around a lot, drink, smoke... the normal stuff."
Two outta three... Lynette's cutting back. We walked to a park where a group of boys were playing ball. I caught eyes with a shirtless red head who had possession of the ball, causing him to lose focus. Another boy with a shirt on stole it and dunked it. Another shirtless boy swore, looking up at us.
"Hey Holden, who's your friend? I think Tyler's found himself a new piece of eye candy." Emmalin blushed as he motioned for us to come over to them. I noticed he was five-nine with short hair and green eyes. "What do you go by?"
"Jordan." I replied back, pulling my phone from my pocket and replying back to Emily's text. "Who's losing?"
"Shirts." He told us, tossing the ball over the fence. I caught it as he lifted his arms over his head, flexing his taunt chest muscles as he breathed raggedly. "Ever played?"
"A little. Holden, go with the skins and see if you can simmer down their ego so they don't cry when shirts kick their asses."
"Dream on, Sweetheart." The boy laughed, dropping his arms. The sun radiated his tan skin.
Holden looked at me nervously, oblivious to my ultimatums. "Jordan, Jake's really good. He's trying out for the Varsity team next year."
"Then be sure to let everyone know the first day he was beat by a girl." I told her, pulling off my halter. I caught Jake's eye and walked onto the court with Emmalin on my heals, bouncing the ball. "Four on four, no tricks or trips. Just straight up dribble, defense and score. Questions?"
Two hours later, shirts beat skins fifteen to ten. Holden shook her head as she gasped, sweaty and red face. "You're not a hustler, that's for sure. Oh, Mom just texted me. We better head back."
I nodded and went to grab my halter from the court. Just as I did so, Jake walked up and placed two arms on the fence, pinning me to it. "Nice game."
"You didn't cry too much when you lost. Good sportsman ship." The brown haired boy smirked at me. I looked past his shoulder to see Emmalin staring at us with confusion. "I better leave or my guardians are going to hunt me down."
"That seems to be the way parents act around here." I glanced at his shoulder and noticed sweat on the muscled flesh and wiggled. He smirked at my flustered movement. "What's your number, All-Star?"
"You think I'm that easy?" I told him, catching his eyes. The dark orbs glittered as he smirked.
"You're going to have guys on your tail like a dog in heat when school starts. I don't think you want to walk through the halls with a fan club. The best way to do avoid that is to claim someone before then."
"What makes you think I don't already have one?" I shot as Emmalin motion for me to hurry up.
"You don't normally checking people out for two hours and then report back to your claim." Jake smirked, lifting his right hand to roll the end of my left braid in his fingers. "With me, you win on both turfs. You're not stuck with a Generals son, but your not with an idiot who's parents have been Privates for the past ten years. Take it or leave it."
We stared at each other for the next few minutes, our eyes dueling. I pulled a pen out of my back pocket and turned to his left arm, writing ten digits on the muscled limb in red ink as he released my hair. "Work on your rebound, it's squeaky."
"I'm sure you'll be able to help me with that."
I ran to Emmalin, who insisted we needed to run all the way back to her house.
"What the hell were you doing? Mom doesn't like being late to lunch reservations and we still need to shower and change."
We arrived on the patio to find Denise and Holden going through tones of seating arrangements.
"Emmalin, I texted you twenty minutes ago! Denise, meet us there in half an hour. Hopefully we won't be to late."
I waved good-bye to Emmalin as Denise and I walked back to her car and I slid in. The woman wrinkled her brow, breathing out her mouth. "What exactly where you two doing? You wreak."
"There were some kids from the high school playing basketball and we joined them."
"You sweat worse thank Frank." The dark skinned woman complained, rolling down the window. I rolled my eyes as I received another text from Emily.
'How hot we talking?'
'Hotter than Darren Grover.' I replied getting a reply back seconds later.
'Damn... sign me up for enlistment!'
***
Bianca had never dragged me to dinner with her co-workers before. Then again, she wasn't exactly on good terms will all of them like Denise was. Emmalin and I watched as 'The Tribe', as I decided to call them, sat and chatted when we came back from the bathroom. Though 'co-workers' wasn't the politically correct term, that's how I described the relationship with everyone on a military base; even between married couples.
"Girls, everyone's here! Come and sit!" Claudia Joy ordered. "Denise, go ahead and introduce her!"
"Jordan, these are our friends. This is Roland Burton, his wife is a Kernel."- A fit, black man with a infant nodded to me, smiling.- "Pamela Moran, she's a radio talk show host on base;"- A woman with frizzy, red hair smiled at me.- "and Roxy LaBlanc, the owner of the Hump Bar right outside base."- the woman was blonde and wore more expressive clothing than the other wives. Bianca would call her the 'slut being converted into a housewife'.- "And everyone, this is Jordan."
"It's nice to meet you, Sweetheart. Denise has been talking about you all week." Moran told me. I was sure it wasn't me the conversing was focused on, but rather the infidelity Major had done that resulted in my birth.
"Yeah. Denise finally gets to escape from riding on bike's with Frank- oh wait, you started that." Burton teased her, smiling at me.
I tensed as he looked at me, converting my eyes to LeBlancs shirt. "I have a top like that in green."
"What? Damn, I envy you! They were out when I went to the store!" The blond's Alabama accent was thick. "Wanna trade?"
"You can have it for five bucks. I'm a size smaller than you but it's lose on me." The woman smiled, downing her arm in success as Moran and Claudia Joy burst out laughing. The waiter came with our drinks and I sipped my cold tea. When asking for our orders, I went with chicken soup and a salad.
"Get some dessert too." Claudia Joy told me encouragingly.
"No thank you." I told her quietly, focusing on a painting on the wall. "I'm not that hungry."
"We make a lovely chocolate and peanut butter brownies." The waiter offered, the entire table focusing on me. "Perhaps you can share it with someone else here?"
"Oh, I will!" Moran called. "I love those things, just not the price."
An hour later, I took a bathroom break to answer a text. 'What are you doing tonight?'
'Trying to avoid spending the night at the Holden's.' I replied back to Jake.
'My parent's are in Vancouver and my aunts staying with me. She checks in on me two times a day and spends the rest of her time shopping. Wanna play some ball tonight instead of dealing with 'Goody-Two-Shoes'?'
'She's not too bad, her mother's just a pain in the ass.' I told him, getting an 'lol' in reply. 'I'll try to come around Wednesday. When do your parents get back?'
'Next weekend. How about Monday?'
According to the work schedule in the kitchen, Denise was working from three to nine that day. Major would be off but the chances of him actually wanting to spend time with me were slim. At least, they'd stay that way unless he knew Jake's parents were gone for an entire week. I guessed he wanted to do more than play on courts and I didn't want the Army getting in my business.
'Alright. Where do we meet?'
'My place.' Screw guessing, I was positive this boy wanted in my pants.
'Okay.'