Chapter Three
It was Doug’s driving shift and there were four hours left to go. They drove in shifts, one person to drive and another to keep them company. Right then it was Raven’s turn to keep Doug company.
“Rave?” Doug asked tentatively.
“What?” Raven asked distractedly.
“That thing you told me when I wanted to stay behind...” Doug trailed off.
Raven glanced back at the others to make sure that they were sleeping. “What about it?” she asked, turning back to Doug.
“I won’t tell anyone about it if you don’t want me to,” Doug said quickly. “Did it really happen?”
“Yeah, it did,” Raven answered flatly.
“Oh.”
There was silence for a while.
“Did you ever tell anyone?” Doug asked finally.
This was the most human conversation anyone had ever got out of him, but with Raven it was a dangerous subject.
“There’s one other guy than you who knows, but he’s out of my life,” she answered.
“I see.”
“You want to change soon?” Raven asked. It was four in the afternoon and pretty normal for a bunch of teenagers to be out driving on a Saturday afternoon, but most of the Circle was still in their formal clothes. Only Raven had got out of those clothes. She had a few spare outfits that Deborah and maybe one of the other girls would wear, but most of them had had little or no sleep or were messed up in their sleeping schedules and they all just wanted to stop. But they had to make it into Orlando. Raven was tense, waiting for cops to show. She
got nervous every time she saw a police cruiser near. All her fears came alive when she saw lights go on and a cop waving for then van to pull over.
“What do we do?” Doug asked.
“Pull over,” Raven said through her teeth. She waved to Melanie who was driving Adam’s jeep and both cars pulled over.
“Act tough,” she called to the others in back who are awakened by the commotion.
“What can I do for you, sir?” Doug asked innocently, rolling down the window.
“I just wanted to know where you kids are going this fine Saturday afternoon,” the officer answered.
“Yo, cop, is this routine? ‘Cause if it ain’t, then we don’t got to answer,” Raven drawled in an accent that they’d never heard before.
The officer shot her a look and turned back to Doug.
“Answer, please?” he said, beginning to sound impatient.
Doug looked lost – he had no idea what to say. Raven, unable to think of anything else, was about to mouth off again when help came from the most unexpected source.
“To a concert, duh,” Suzan said from the back.
The officer peered into the van to look at her. Raven prayed that he wouldn’t notice that they were wearing formal clothes.
“Which concert, miss?” he asked.
Suzan rolled her eyes in an impression of Cher from ‘Clueless’.
“The Backstreet Boys, duh, ‘cause they’re, like, the only guys who could, like, sell out in Orlando,” she answered. “Right Chris?” she added brightly, digging an elbow into his ribs.
“Yeah,” he agreed, oblivious to what was happening.
The officer surveyed the group and nodded. “All right, you can go,” he said.
Doug rolled up the window and heaved a sigh of relief. Then both cars pulled back onto the highway.
“That was a great job, Suzan,” Raven congratulated her.
Suzan twisted a strand of strawberry-blonde hair around her index finger and smiled modestly.
“Long live bubble-gum pop,” she said. Doug and Chris razzed her. A cold look from Nick shut them up, and pretty soon all of the passengers were asleep.
“So this is Orlando?” Suzan asked.
“There goes another one!” Sean cried eagerly as a girl wearing a bikini and short shorts walked by.
“Get used to seeing them – we’re in beach zone,” Raven told him. “I can get us checked into a cheap motel for a couple of nights, but we’ll have to go out as soon as we can to get jobs.”
“Jobs?” Suzan echoed.
“We can’t live in a motel forever, and there are always drug raids, and we’d get busted, but we can rent a college apartment for about two hundred dollars a month even though it would be a real tight squeeze,” Raven answered. She turned the van down a street and drove to the dingier side of town. She cruised until she found a motel with rooms for eighteen dollars a night. She pulled into the parking lot and Adam’s jeep followed.
“I don’t like this place,” Cassie murmured as they headed to the front office to get checked in.
“Don’t go throwing your weight around. We ain’t in that little town anymore,” Raven said. The person at the desk was a skinny little guy with black beady eyes and a leery smile that none of the girls liked. He was even checking them out but a warning look from Raven put him in his place. He handed her the key and they went to the room.
There were only two beds and the guys agreed that it was only right for the girls to have them. The room smelled damp and there were things that darted in and out of the shadows – bugs that they tried to ignore.
“It’s not heaven but it’s all we can afford,” Adam told them.
“I have four more outfits that some of the girls can wear, but we’ll have to go out and get everyone some new clothes,” Raven offered, hefting her duffel bag.
“We’ll try to get casual,” Adam said, and the guys began taking off their ties and untucking their shirts.
“So what should we do?” Chris asked.
“I say we sleep,” Doug replied, sprawling out on the floor. Nick kicked him aside and sat on the little wooden stool in the corner, but then he let Diana have it.
We’ll need a place to stay and we’ll need jobs,” Adam said logically.
“That’s what Raven said,” Doug agreed.
“We should get some sleep, and then we should go out and get some easy jobs,” Adam said.
“We should get jobs at the some place or something so that we can contact each other at all times,” Cassie suggested.
“A grocery store in a nice neighborhood,” Raven said. She
was curled up in a corner of the room, half asleep. “Those jobs pay nice.”
“Just how do you know all this, anyway?” Melanie asked, studying her.
Raven opened one eye and stared at her. “Do you think this is the first time I’ve done this?”
No one answered.
“You should all get some sleep,” Diana said. They all found the most comfy place they could and lay down. Diana, Melanie and Laurel had one of the beds. Suzan and Deborah had the other one. Nick was asleep across the doorway. Adam had Cassie in his arms and they were sleeping peacefully. Chris and Doug were curled up against each other looking incredibly childish and cute. Sean was lying in the bathtub.
“Yo, get up!” Raven ordered, stirring Chris and Doug with her foot.
There were groans and yawns as the Circle began to wake up. The guys went into the bathroom to splash water on their faces while Raven gave Deborah, Melanie, Laurel and Diana some new outfits. The guys came out of the bathroom, most of
them muttering about needing to shave.
“Let’s go,” Raven said, and they filed out of the hotel room.
“Have a good sleep?” the guy at the desk asked in a way that made them all – except Raven and Nick – blush and look away in embarrassment.
They got into the two cars and headed into town.
“Follow me,” Raven called out the window to Adam. She led then through the streets to the nicer part of time and cruised the boulevard. The sun was down and lots of kids were out cruising and looking to party. Raven pulled into a Safeway and got out. They got out and clustered in a circle to close out the chilly wind.
“What’s the plan?”Cassie asked.
“We go in looking like we don’t know each other, one at a time, maybe Chris and Doug, you two go together,” Raven said. “We ask for jobs and if we score, we come out and report.”
“Why did you choose this place?” Adam asked.
“This place is in a nice neighborhood and there have been ‘help wanted’ signs all along them boulevard in different departments,” Raven answered. “It helps to observe.”
Adam nodded, looking impressed. Obviously there was a lot about Raven that they didn’t know.
Raven went in first and pretended to look around for a bit. Finally she stopped a cart boy and asked to see the manager. She observed the store and noted that there were only five other employees in the whole place. The boy pointed to an office in the back and Raven made her way over. The manager, a nice-looking man
in his thirties, was just coming out of the office.
“May I help you, miss?” he asked.
Raven glanced at his tag, which read ‘Dave’ and nodded.
“I noticed a few signs around town that said help wanted and I’m here for a job,” she said.
Dave smiled, a little tiredly Raven noticed, and nodded. “A lot of the kids who come in here pulled out right before Christmas because they have the money they want and right after Thanksgiving is when they usually pull out to be with their families.”
Raven nodded, digesting the information. “Well, I’ll work on Christmas if you want me to,” she said.
Dave gave her a questioning look. “You have no family?”
“We’re not Christian,” Raven answered, and Dave nodded.
“Well, you’d probably start at minimum wage and work whatever shift you want, I guess,” he said. “You going to school?”
Raven shook her head.
Dave looked surprised but nodded. “Can you work for, say, fourteen hours?” he asked.
Raven nodded. “Sure, I need the money.”
Dave unlocked his office and grabbed some papers off the desk.
“Fill out these forms and come in tomorrow,” he said. Raven nodded and left. Outside, she found the others who were waiting anxiously.
“Go in and see the manager. He seems all right. The place is pretty empty and it looks like it needs all the help it can get,” she told them.
“Let us see the form so we can get through the interview,” Adam suggested, and they crowded around it, using Melanie’s penlight to see.
“All done?” Cassie asked. The others nodded.
“Now we need to get some clothes,” Raven said.
“We don’t have any money,” Laurel pointed out.
“Leave it to the master,” Raven told her. They piled into their cars and Raven led them to a Salvation Army thrift store.
“Here?” Suzan wrinkled her nose.
“It’s store policy in this state that any clothes used in window displays are considered used so they bring them here. You can get all of the latest styles at a buck a piece,” Raven informed her as they went into the store.
She made a beeline for the back and began rooting for some khakis.
“Why do we need those?” Sean asked.
“If we’re going to get jobs we’ll need these pants for uniforms. The store will provide the shirts and tags,” Raven answered. “I say we each get three pairs.”
“How do you know we’ll even get the jobs?” Melanie challenged.
“It’s too good of an opportunity for this Dave guy to pass up,” Raven answered, her reply becoming muffled halfway through as she went into a fitting room. “A bunch of kids at right when all the other kids left because school break is out for Christmas who are willing to work Christmas Eve because they don’t celebrate Christmas - he couldn't ask for more.”
“How do you know all that?” Chris demanded.
“Well, the guy told me most of it,” Raven answered, coming out of the room. “These fit. Once you get these, get some casual clothes. Maybe some of who are dating should get some slightly nicer outfits...” At this she shot Adam and Cassie pointed looks.
"You should also get some jackets in case it gets cold at night,” Diana added.
Raven looked around at the others who were standing in their usual cluster.
“What are we standing here for? We haven’t got all night,” Cassie said and began pawing through the boxes of clothes.
“You can go a bit more casual,” Suzan told everyone. “If you noticed a lot of the guys go around in beach shorts and the girl in bikinis and stuff. Try to fit in.”
“And why would that be important?” Melanie asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Well, she has a point, we don’t want to make it look like we’re from out of town by dressing all preppy like they do up north,” Raven replied.
“Everyone got enough?” Diana asked.
Most of them had got enough clothes to last them for a week.
“When we get more money we can buy more clothes,” Suzan added happily.
“Right now, the most important things on the money list are rent and bills,” Adam said firmly. They went up to the cash register and Raven paid for everything.
“Let’s get some sleep,” Laurel urged, yawning and stretching. They drove back to the motel and collapsed as soon as they could find a space.
| NEXT | BACK | INDEX
| HOME |
©2002 Carlotta