This Town Is on Fire by Pamela N. Harris

Author:Pamela N. Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

IT’S STRANGE. CLEO AND I BARELY KNOW EACH OTHER ASIDE FROM OUR DMing, but it’s like she knows when I need a life raft. I’d been underwater after my confrontation with Connor, chewing through dinner without really eating. Nodding along to conversations with Eric and Mom without really listening. By the time I make it to my bedroom Monday night, I’m drowning. But then Cleo sent me a message:

We showin up and showin out at the NNPS board meeting Tues night. You in?

ME: Hell YEAH. But . . . I need a ride.

I bit my lip while I waited for Cleo to respond. I already looked desperate from my too-quick reply. And now I had to throw in needy. Cleo responded two minutes later:

I got you.

She picks me up Tuesday afternoon, right from the school parking lot. She drives an older-model Nissan Rogue, with zebra-print seat covers and a tiger-print steering wheel. Inconsistency never looked cooler. She sings along to some neo-soul song I’ve never heard before while she drives, stopping her harmony only to vape out her window. She doesn’t have the best voice, sharp when the singer is subtle. But she doesn’t care. She sings like she recorded the song herself.

It’s only when we reach Hampton city limits that Cleo turns down her stereo to chat with me. “This your first protest?”

“Yes. Wait, no. I mean . . . maybe?”

Cleo glances at me with an eyebrow cocked.

“I did this thing in tenth grade to get the school cafeteria to incorporate Meatless Mondays. A few of us passed around a petition and boycotted the cafeteria for like a week.” That was one of the longest weeks in my life. I still remember sneaking pretzels and granola bars in the bathroom stall just to stop my stomach from rumbling.

“Well . . . did you get your Meatless Monday?”

“We did, actually.”

“Cool. You a vegan?”

“I was for like a minute.” I crack my knuckles just to have something to do. “But then my mom’s boyfriend brought home Five Guys for dinner one night and . . .” I just shrug. Embarrassed that I’m telling Cleo about my weakness for bacon cheeseburgers.

“And you tore that motherfucker up. I get it. Five Guys be lacing their patties with crack or something.” She takes another hit from her vape pen. “But there are other vegans and vegetarians at your school. Good for them. Good for you.”

I lean back in my seat and smile. Yeah, good for me.

We make it to campus and head straight for Cleo’s dorm, where a group is already in the residents’ lounge getting their signs ready. A few faces I remember from Wingstop, but most of them are new to me. Faith and her friends didn’t come, because they had Wolverine things to do, and since I hadn’t heard from any of them, I assumed I didn’t make the cut. Being here, with Cleo, feeling like a grown-ass woman doing important things, takes some of the sting out of Faith and Ms.

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