Playing Through the Turnaround by Mylisa Larsen

Author:Mylisa Larsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-07-19T00:00:00+00:00

Cassie

What Cassie Sees

“WANT A RIDE TO SCHOOL?” Cassie’s dad asks, standing at the door, tossing his keys. And she says yes. Because the printer didn’t work right this morning while she was trying to print out more petitions. Took her a superlong time to fix. It’s 7:42. She is definitely going to be late unless she gets a ride.

Cassie hates being late. Also, she has seventy-two pounds of homework in her backpack and it’s raining. So, yes, she wants a ride.

They’re driving down Laurel with the fwush, thump of the truck’s wipers and the hiss of the tires on the wet asphalt being the only sounds. Neither of them wants to try a conversation. Everything starts a fight lately. The light turns red.

Wonderful. They’re cutting it close as it is.

But as they’re sitting at the stoplight, Cassie sees Quagmire Tiarello come out of a little house farther down the street. Wow. He is definitely going to be late. Except he isn’t even turning toward school. He’s coming this way. Opens up a cartoony umbrella that is so not him. Turns around to wait for someone coming out of the house. A woman in a green raincoat. He holds the umbrella over her head. They both walk toward the Metrobus stop.

Cassie notices all this. But the thing she really notices is that he’s different than usual. Just different. Like, he’s with this kind of older lady—his mom? Or his grandma maybe? Hard to tell. One of those ladies with the dyed red hair that doesn’t look good on older ladies but they can’t seem to give up on. She has a face that looks like life’s been hard. Tough to tell her age.

But the strange thing, the strangest thing, is that Cassie gets the sense that Quagmire’s the adult here. Not sure why. Okay, he’s the one holding the umbrella. He’s got her big purse tucked under his arm. What’s up with that?

Then, when they’re partway to the bus stop, he hands over the umbrella for a minute and stoops down and ties her shoe. It’s weird. Just kind of off in some way. Like he’s steering her to the bus stop. Like you’d see a mom steer a little kid who might go wandering into the street without supervision. Or forget where they were going if the mom weren’t there.

The light changes to green. The truck turns left and moves on. But the rest of the way to school, as the rain streaks down her window, all Cassie can see in her mind is Quagmire Tiarello standing on a street corner next to a tired, old woman, holding an umbrella printed with orange and pink kittens over her head.

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