Wishing Pearl Read online

  Even Olivia had to admit that Donna made sense from the standpoint of the Diamond Estates program. But this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And a once-in-never chance for someone who didn’t even attend the academy. They had found her a loophole to slip into the spot because homeschooled students were afforded the opportunity to participate in some extracurricular activities at area schools—Diamond Estates qualified—but Olivia would be the first Diamond girl ever to have the chance to do something like this. It was a miracle. If they said yes. Which, knowing Olivia’s luck, they wouldn’t.

  “Tammy, you know Olivia best.” Ben cleared his throat. “I’m going to leave this one up to you.”

  Yes! Olivia punched the air and leaned a little closer to the door, her chair wobbling as it almost dumped her on the floor.

  Tammy chuckled. “I had a feeling it was going to come to that. I’m not sure what’s right, but I do know this kid needs a break, and she definitely has a God-given talent. If it’s really up to me, I want to let her do it.”

  “Okay. I’ll support your decision.” The rollers on Ben’s chair squeaked as he scooted backward and stood up. He poked his head out of the office and beckoned for Olivia to come in.

  She moved to the empty seat in Ben’s office and waited, sitting on her hands to contain her excitement.

  “You heard all of that, right?”

  “Yeah, I did. I really appreciate this opportunity, Ben.” She turned to Tammy. “I know you put your neck out for me. I won’t disappoint you. I promise.” Olivia touched her finger to her lip and then pressed her flattened palm over her fist.

  “I know.” Tammy grinned. “I’m really proud of you and think you deserve this chance. It would be sad if you had to pass it up.”

  “There is one other issue we have to figure out though. How are we going to get her back and forth to practices and scheduled events?” Ben pulled out his calendar. “According to Sean … er, Mr. Gables … you’ll have to get to orchestra practice three times a week and concerts once or twice a month. I think we can cover the concerts because the schedule is lighter on the weekends, and since her promotion, Alicia doesn’t work weekends at the hospital so she’d be available to help, too. But the practices are in the middle of the afternoon, which could be a problem.”

  He tapped his fingernails on the desk as he thought out loud. “We can’t really let a counselor leave at those times on such a regular basis. Paying a taxi would be a ridiculous expense.” Ben put his fingertips together under his chin and spun on his chair. “Maybe we can have someone run you down the mountain, and then we’ll have to ask Justin to bring you home. He can find an empty room to do his homework or study after school while he waits.”

  “Are you sure that’s wise? They really shouldn’t spend time alone like that. It’s inappropriate, don’t you think?” Donna sat up straight. “Not to mention against the rules.”

  Oh wow. Kira wouldn’t like it one bit. Why did that thought thrill Olivia to no end?

  “I hear you. I’m concerned about that aspect, too.” Ben shook his head. “We really could be asking for trouble, but I can’t think of an alternative.” He blew out his air with a loud whoosh. “I’m open to other suggestions….” He looked around the group.

  “I think it would be fine as long as there’s someone else with them.” Tammy signed even though they could hear her. “Maybe one of the more senior girls could ride down with Olivia and then hang out at practice until Justin picks them up.”

  Ben nodded. “Yeah. That’s what they’ll have to do. Maybe we could rotate girls—ask for volunteers who are far enough along in the program. They could do homework while they wait there. It would give them each a chance to get out a little more, too, and experience some culture.” He looked at Tammy and Donna. “Anything else?”

  “Nope. That sounds like as good of a plan as we’re going to come up with.” Donna sighed. “I’m not sure I like it though. Just for the record.”

  That was fine with Olivia. She only needed Tammy in her corner. “Thanks so much, you guys.” Olivia jumped to her feet. “You’re not going to regret this!”

  Olivia plowed out of the room, right into Kira.

  Kira stumbled back a few steps from the impact. “Hey! What’s your problem?”

  “Sorry!” Olivia backed away from Kira’s glare. Boy, she was good at that. “I … I … oh, never mind.”

  Olivia scurried away to find her friends. She ran full-speed up and down several hallways before she finally found them right outside the game room. “You guys are never going to believe this.” She skidded to a stop right before barreling into Skye, who was down on one knee, tying her shoe.

  “Whoa.” Tricia laughed and held up a hand to block Olivia. “Hold on or we won’t hear your news because we’ll be in the hospital or something.”

  “Okay.” Olivia raised one finger and leaned forward with her hands on her thighs, trying to catch her breath. “You’ll … never believe … this,” she panted.

  “So you mentioned.” Ju-Ju smirked.

  “Remember my audition yesterday?” Olivia waited until they nodded. “Well, they offered me a spot in the academy orchestra.”

  “Oh, is that what all this is about?” Tricia waved her hand. “We all knew you’d make it. This isn’t big news.”

  “Yeah, really. Oh, I mean, congratulations!” The corners of Skye’s mouth fought against a grin as she tried to get serious.

  “No. Hang on. I’m getting to it.” Olivia squinted down the stairs and peeked around the game room door to make sure no one was trying to eavesdrop. “Guess how I’m going to get home from practices three times a week.” She wiggled her eyebrows up and down and gave a flirtatious grin.

  “No way.” Skye squealed. “Justin?”

  Olivia pressed a finger over Skye’s lips. “Shh. No need to alert the enemy to my attack.”

  Ju-Ju laughed. “Well said, and well played.” She shook her head. “Kira’s going to throw such a fit she’ll split her leopard leotard.”

  “Well, I certainly didn’t set out to make this happen. And it’s not like Justin offered. His dad’s going to make him do it. Oh, and we won’t be alone. Someone else has to be with us at all times.”

  “Somehow I don’t think those tidbits of information are going to be of any comfort to Kira.” Skye grimaced.

  What was the deal with Kira? Something was going on that Olivia didn’t know about. “Okay. That’s it. Someone is going to have to tell me the story of what happened between those two.” Olivia held out her arm to usher the girls to a private table in the game room. They all took a seat and eyed each other. No one seemed too eager to speak.

  Olivia drummed her fingernails on the table. “Someone start talking.”

  Chapter 23

  Skye looked at Tricia. Tricia turned to Ju-Ju. No one opened her mouth.

  “I’m waiting.” Olivia sat back in her seat with her hands behind her head like Ben.

  Skye covered her mouth and giggled. “All right. You win.” She sighed. Her face grew serious, and she glanced in every direction. “You just can’t tell a soul, y’hear? There aren’t many people who know the whole story, and they forced us to promise we wouldn’t tell anyone. I think they hoped it would just go away.”

  “Hoped what would go away? I’m not just anyone off the street. Start talking.” They were so close to spilling it. If Olivia backed down even an inch, they’d chicken out.

  Tricia picked at her fingernails.

  “Look, something happened, and I think I deserve to know what it was. I mean, I’m sort of involved, if only by default. Kira hates me because I’m the new girl … because Justin pays attention to me … because … why? Why does she hate me?”

  Skye looked at Ju-Ju and shrugged. “You want to take it from here?”

  Ju-Ju leaned forward. “Okay. Here’s the deal. Kira moved in a few months ago. And oh boy, she was an even more delightful young lady than the one you know today.” Ju-Ju rolled her eyes at Tri
cia, who laughed.

  “Boy, ain’t that the truth?” Skye nodded.

  “Well, right away she started in on Justin—like day one. Every time he came around, she pretended to be weak, like she needed him to help her with something. She played poor helpless girl to a big strong man. Kira sucked him into her little web—flirted, teased, made up reasons to be near him. You know what I’m talking about.”

  Olivia nodded. Yeah. Keep going.

  “He seemed to like it—to like her. I never understood why.” She shuddered. “But they became sort of a thing—as much as two people could be at this place anyway.”

  Ju-Ju cleared her throat and leaned farther across the table. “Well, then she tried to … um … you know, with him.” Ju-Ju opened her eyes wide and implored Olivia to catch on. “You know.”

  “Oh? Really?” Olivia’s volume rose enough to make several girls turn and look. How could Kira have thought something like that even could have happened here? The girls were never left alone with Justin or anyone. She dropped her voice back to a whisper. “Here? At Diamond Estates?”

  “Yep.” Skye jumped in. “At that time it might have been a possibility, actually. There were ways to get off alone if you really wanted to. Go for walks. Hike in the woods—stuff like that. The rules got a lot stricter after Kira’s junk happened. Justin used to hang around here much, much more than he does now.”

  “Okay …?” Olivia squinted, confused. “So what happened? Did she and Justin—”

  “No. Justin turned her down flat, and she stormed off mad as a hornet. End of story.” Tricia averted her eyes.

  “That’s it? That can’t be it.” Olivia waited. There had to be more to it.

  Ju-Ju shook her head. “No, the story isn’t finished. Hang on. So the day after that happened, I found her in the downstairs bathroom—the one off the main hallway.”

  “Yeah, that’s where I had my first encounter with her, too. Was she crying?”

  “Nope. She was taking a pregnancy test.”

  No! “What? You have got to be kidding me.” Kira couldn’t be pregnant. If she was, that would mean …

  “Hold on.” Ju-Ju held up her hand. She checked behind her and to both sides before dropping her voice to a whisper. “This is where the whole thing gets crazy. Not that it wasn’t already. The test was positive. I could see the big blue plus sign all the way from the doorway. They never did find out how she got a pregnancy test into the house.”

  Exactly how I got the cigarettes in here, that’s how. But who cared about the stupid test? Get on with the story. Olivia scooted to the edge of her seat and leaned in. “Then what happened?”

  “Turns out, Kira had been pregnant since before she came to Diamond Estates, and she’d been trying to set things up to name Justin as the baby’s daddy. Luckily he didn’t fall for it, or things might have turned out much differently. If he’d had sex with her, he’d never have known the baby wasn’t his.” Ju-Ju raised her eyebrows and waited.

  It sounded like a soap opera. “Wow. I can’t wrap my brain around how someone could be so cold.” Olivia closed her eyes. “So Kira is pregnant?”

  “Hang with me a little longer. I’m about to wrap it up.” Ju-Ju glanced around her. “So later that day—after I found her with the test—I overheard her tell one of her friends that she planned to try to get an abortion without telling anyone, since she couldn’t snag Justin. I have no idea how she would have pulled it off, but that was her plan. She probably would have found a way, knowing her.” Ju-Ju snapped her gum. “So I told Ben.”

  “You did?” Olivia’s mouth fell open.

  “I had to. I might not like Kira, but I don’t want anyone to have to go through the aftereffects of an abortion—even her.” Ju-Ju’s eyes clouded, and she clenched her fists. “Trust me, you never get over it. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. Not to mention the fact that there was an innocent baby whose life was on the line.”

  Hmm. Did Ju-Ju know that from personal experience? Olivia would have to revisit the abortion issue with her some other time. “So it’s true? Kira is pregnant right now?”

  “No. As luck would have it—”

  “More likely divine intervention.” Tricia looked around the room.

  “Right on, T.” Ju-Ju nodded. “Kira had a miscarriage before it went on much longer. She lost a lot of blood and was in the hospital for a few days. But, physically, she’s fine now. Emotionally, not so much.”

  The hospital? “That must have been when I came for my first visit. Justin said someone was in the hospital, and Ben was bringing her home that day.”

  “Yep. That would have been Kira.” Ju-Ju smirked. “Great timing, huh?”

  “Yeah. That explains why she was sobbing in the bathroom. I caught her in a private moment. Explains a lot, actually. But wait. I thought you had to, quote, ‘want to change’ to be allowed to come here. How could someone who really wanted help do something so devious?”

  Tricia sighed. “There’s no telling what goes on in someone’s head. She convinced herself that her situation was special, and she would have done anything she could have to get out of it or make it okay somehow. It’s easy to justify bad actions when you’re under fire like she felt, you know?”

  That was the most Olivia had heard Tricia say at one time. “I guess. But seduction, abortion, deception? That’s pretty huge. And she’s only, what, sixteen?”

  “She’s seventeen as of a few weeks ago. Not that age matters. She’s a troubled soul.” Skye’s face softened. “I try to remember to pray for her every day. We all should.”

  Ju-Ju shook her head and gazed at Skye then patted her hand. “Sweet, simple little Skye.”

  “What? Are you saying we shouldn’t pray for Kira?”

  “Nope. I just think you put a little too much stock in the hope of answered prayers and too little trust in your own common sense. But that’s just my opinion.”

  “Whatever. I’d rather have extra faith and believe in people than be tough as nails.”

  “Okay. Now’s not the time to fight. I need you to stay with me here.” Olivia shook her head. It didn’t make sense. “I don’t get it, you guys. I wasn’t here for any of this. I’m the new girl. What did I ever do to make Kira hate me besides catch her crying?”

  “Ah!” Skye held up her finger. “It’s not what you did, sugar. It’s what Justin does every time he sees you.” Tricia giggled.

  “Huh? What does he do?”

  “Come on, chica.” Ju-Ju tilted her head and squinted. “You can’t seriously be trying to tell us that you don’t see him look at you differently than he looks at the rest of us. Really?”

  “Differently how?” If they saw it, too, then it might actually be real. Don’t blush. But what if Ben or Tammy—or worse, Donna—saw it?

  “Like the sun’s coming up behind you.” Skye’s face softened, and she batted her long eyelashes. “Like you’re the first woman he’s ever seen. Like … like he could devour you.”

  “Giiirl. From the looks of things, you read a few too many of those contraband romance books your daddy tried to hide from you.” Tricia fanned Skye’s face with a notebook.

  Ju-Ju stared at Skye then turned back to Olivia, shaking her head. “Anyway. He looks at you like you’re special. He watches you. If we see it, Kira must see it, too. But who cares about her?”

  “Did I hear my name?” Kira peeked around the corner and flashed her dimples as she came through the door. She posed with her hands on her hips like she’d just completed a gymnastics routine.

  “I don’t think you did.” Ju-Ju didn’t exactly lie.

  Oh no. What had Kira heard? It couldn’t have been much because the door just opened. “Ju-Ju said, ‘Who cares.’ Maybe that’s what you heard.” It wasn’t really a lie, was it? More of an evasion.

  “Okay. Well, if you decide to talk about me, let me know.” She grinned. “I’ll join you—I’m my favorite subject.” Kira sashayed away.

  “Ugh. She grates on my last
nerve.” Ju-Ju gritted her teeth.

  “Yeah. That girl’s meaner’n a snake.”

  “But you think we should pray for her, right, Skye?” Tricia snorted.

  “‘Course we should. It’s the Christian thing to do.”

  “But you guys, she’s had it in for me since I had a little clash with her when I visited a few months ago. She didn’t like me then, and that couldn’t have had anything to do with Justin.”

  Ju-Ju nodded. “Fresh meat—new competition. That’s all the reason Kira needs to start hating someone. Time only makes it worse.”

  Olivia threw her hands up in the air. “So what do you think I should do about Justin?”

  “Don’t do anything. Keep being yourself.” Ju-Ju peered around the room. “And watch your back.”

  Chapter 24

  Cool. Nap time.” Ju-Ju dove into the backseat. Olivia climbed into the front seat beside Justin. “Hey. I thought Marilyn was going to be driving me down to practice.”

  “Oh, you’re stuck with me today.” Justin’s eyes sparkled. “I had a half day.”

  Stuck? Hardly. “What are you going to do while I’m at practice, Ju?”

  “Probably more sleep. If not”—she wriggled her arms out of her puffy coat and balled it up beneath her head—”I brought a book.”

  “How about you?” Olivia turned to Justin. What if he said he planned to just wait in the van? She’d feel horrible.

  “I have a grocery list for Mom and stuff Marilyn needs for the center. That will take me at least as long as your practice.”

  “Okay. I just—I feel bad taking up so much of everyone’s time.” Olivia looked down.

  “Don’t think anything of it. If I wasn’t driving you, I’d be shoveling manure in the barn or something.”

  Eww. “I’m curious, do you ever get tired of helping so much? Do you ever get to have fun?”

  Ju-Ju let out a big snore.

  Olivia giggled.