The Summer of Our Discontent, Jacquel May [e book reading free .TXT] 📗

Pilot - June 20, 2010

(Shara's POV)

 

"You can't move from here, Shara, you just can't," Jacquel Rassenworth said when I told her my family was moving from San Francisco, California to a small town in Oregon.

 

"Well, I don't have much of a choice in that matter," I said.

 

We were hanging out on Pier 39 eating giant ice cream cones and talking about why my family decided to move. There were three reasons why we were moving:

 

My grandparents are in their late 80s/early 90s; they're having a hard time getting around their house. (Being that old tends to slow you down.) So, mom decided that she'd move back to her old home to take care of them. Dad's job decided to shut down instead of hiring people who weren't Indian. That incident happened when a black woman raised a stink when the company dad worked for (Boar Microsystems) refused to hire her because she didn't come from India and her ancestors were slaves. She sued Mr. Thaker, claiming that he was racist and only hired Indian men. Mr. Thaker, in a fit of anger that she insulted his company and him, shut down the company. (I don't blame him, as you don't insult people who make products that you use every day. I wonder if Olishia Blake realized what she's done by filing that unnecessary lawsuit, as she angered many people who use products produced by Boar.) Dad's not too happy about that, as he's worked at Boar since before I was born. The apartment building my family lived in since my parents married and had me is scheduled to be demolished, as the mayor of San Francisco heard enough complaints about "that eyesore that's destroying our city". He told the residents of the apartment that they had 15 days to pack their things and leave.

 

Well, this sucks.

 

Now, as my family is packing everything they have (and selling everything that could be sold), mom sent me away to spend one more day with Jacquel before I leave. As we all know, Jacquel is notorious for making memes out of pictures of people she didn't like. That, and making funny YouTube videos that get over 1 million views per hour when it takes me three months to get 10,000 views on my YouTube channel.

 

How is she so talented and I'm not?

 

Anyway, Jacquel continued, "I can't imagine why your family's moving to Oregon out of all places."

 

"I know," I said. "I half expected we would move to Fresno, Irvine, or even Monterey. In any case, why would we want to move to Harrison Creek? Who on earth would name a city Harrison Creek?"

 

"I don't care for small towns," Jacquel said as we walked down Pier 39. "The people there are gossipmongers and the women have extramarital affairs with each other's husbands."

 

"To make things worse, you could disappear and nobody would find you until it's too late," I said. "Makes you not want to live in a small town, am I right?"

 

"Of course you're right, Shar," said Jacquel. "There's nothing worse when you deal with a missing person and nobody in that small town knows anything about that person. If that happens while you're there, leave."

 

"I'll try to remember that," I said while thinking about what would happen when I get to Harrison Creek. I knew my Uncle Raven and my cousins Arthur, Spenser, Jamie, Trevor, and Tallulah were there. I also knew Uncle Raven would force me to hang out with my cousins, as he always does whenever they come to visit us. I never got along with them because Spenser, Arthur, and Jamie were boys and Tallulah preferred to hang out with Aaliyah. Trevor and I never got along for reasons that I can't say.

 

"Oh, and make sure to slap Trevor across his face for me," said Jacquel. "I'm still stung over him making fun of me for not being Hispanic. He has a white mother, for crying out loud!"

 

"I’ll do that," I said. "He'll learn that his behavior toward you is unacceptable. Plus, he doesn't have the right to insult you, not where it counts."

 

"And I'll make a meme out of him as well," said Jacquel.

 

"Can't wait to see his reaction to it on Facebook," I said.

 

At this point, we saw the family van driving by, with mom, dad, and my siblings Aaliyah and Rufus piled inside, with bags filled to the brim with junk crowding the trunk and the back seat. Mom said, "There you are, Shar. We were hoping you'd be at Pier 39."

 

"Mom," I began, but dad said, "We've got to leave now before the 5 o'clock traffic jam begins." To Jacquel, he said, "Can we give you a ride home?"

 

"Nah," said Jacquel. "My dad's coming to get me in a few seconds." To me, she said, "You better take care of yourself, Shar."

 

"Don't worry, she will," said dad as I climbed into the van. "We'll see you in a few months."

 

After I was tucked in, dad drove the van onto the highway, driving over the Golden Gate Bridge over the San Francisco Bay for the last time. The kids fell asleep after the city of San Francisco became a blip on the horizon. I pulled out my copy of "The Legend of Arastforth" by T. Y. Clarence and began reading. Mom and dad didn’t talk much, with mom going to sleep and dad using most of his energy with the driving.

 

You’re wondering why I didn't say anything about the move, but I’m not one to protest, as fighting with adults doesn’t get you anywhere, am I right? What I knew was the moment we reached Harrison Creek, I would be involved in something bigger than myself, something I didn’t understand…

* * * * *

 

(Normal POV)

 

While Shara was on her way to Harrison Creek, Trevor Shinnok, Grace Gifford, and Jacalina Gilmore were at Trevor's house. Actually, they were in Trevor's perpetually dirty room. They weren't happy because they were the cause of yet another Tanya Shinnok-related incident. Now Tanya had written about their latest bullying attack on a disabled boy on the popular social networking site TheChitChat.com. Due to that post, Trevor, Grace, and Jackie were banned from the school library for the remainder of the school year.

 

Trevor, Grace, and Jackie were known throughout Harrison Creek Middle School as the Bullying Trio. That was because an incident involving a girl named Tara Schindler ruined their reputations and made them enemies of many kids living in Harrison Creek. No one wanted to hang out with them or talk to them, let alone be in a classroom with them. Tanya Shinnok (their most hated enemy) saw to it that they would never change their ways. She and her friends Mara Llewellyn, Stuart Greer, Irene Haughton, and Pearl Tanner promised to stop the Bullying Trio from hurting other people.

 

"I say it's time for us to get rid of her," Grace snapped as she sat on Trevor’s desk. "She’s degraded me long enough."

 

"Not yet," said Jackie. "We agreed that we're going to humiliate her at the promotion."

 

"You do know the Teen Rebels will be there," Trevor warned them. "They won't go for that! They'll tear us into pieces before we can even blink."

 

"You do know it's only four of them and over 75 other kids who don't like Tanya," said Grace. "If we can get Tanya away from those Teen Rebels long enough, we can humiliate her and publish the video of us humiliating her on TheChitChat. When the rebels see the video, they'll drop Tanya like a junkie quits antihistamines."

 

"You can dream," said Jackie. "If they find out about the video, Mara can find and erase the video in less than five seconds. She’s that good."

 

"She’s a geek," said Grace. "We don't mess with geeks. She’ll ruin us faster than we can say "Dick Robertson". As for Stuart, he'll claim that we're terrorists seeking to blow up his homeland. Plus, Irene can get her dad to put a restraining order on us so we can't get to Tanya…"

 

"Wait," Trevor cried out. The girls stared at him. "Did I tell you my cousin Shara’s coming here in two weeks?"

 

"I didn't know that," said Grace.

 

"Wait, who is Shara?" Jackie cried out.

 

"Why do you ask?" said Trevor.

 

"Because I remember her for some reason," said Jackie.

 

"Yeah," said Grace. "Jackie and I saw her while we were on that trip to D.C. last spring."

 

"Yeah," said Trevor. "What of it?"

 

"She was rude to us," said Grace. "She and her friends wouldn't let us join them. And that one girl insulted us."

 

"She said we had no class," said Jackie.

 

"Typical Shara," said Trevor. "She always judges people on sight."

 

"So, do you think she’ll want to hang out with us when she gets here?" Jackie said with a hopeful look on her face.

 

"Don’t get your hopes up," said Trevor. "Once you've seen her, you'll wish you never met her. She doesn’t want to mingle with the commoners and she doesn't hang out with bullies. You two should give up any idea of befriending Shara before you end up hurt."

 

"Aren’t you her cousin?" Grace cried out.

 

"Well, that doesn’t stop her from rejecting me," said Trevor. "As far as I know, Shara and I never got along. Sure, she gets along with my brothers and sometimes Tallulah, but never with me. I keep praying that everything would change since she's coming here, but God doesn't answer all prayers like you want him to."

 

"Yeah, there is that," said Jackie. "God does things in his own time. He might not answer your prayer regarding Shara because you're going about it the wrong way. It's like I have to deal with Sterling, Austin, and Drake, and they have autism. Every night, I ask God to make them normal, but He doesn't. So I had to accept that they will never be normal, as you'll have to accept that you and Shara will most likely never get along."

 

"Sad but true," said Grace as she stared at Trevor. "It’s like Irene Haughton and I were friends once when we were younger. Thanks to that bitch Kara Roehm-Marchske, Irene and I are no longer friends. It's sad that God tore our friendship apart and threw in someone who I don't like, but that's how it is sometimes. Friends come and go, but family always stays. I'm sure you and Shara will have it figured out soon."

 

Trevor nodded, knowing that the moment Shara came to Harrison Creek, his life, as well as the lives of Grace and Jackie, would change forever...

 

* * * * * *

 

As the Bullying Trio plotted to get rid of Tanya Shinnok, Tanya and her friends Mara, Stuart, Irene, and Pearl were having their end-of-middle-school impromptu party in an old camper behind a house by the end of the lane. They were excited about finally leaving Harrison Creek Middle School for good.

 

"Can you believe the graduation is happening in ten days?” Stuart said as he, Irene, Mara, Pearl, and Tanya gathered around the table in the middle of the camper.

 

"I know," said Mara. "We're finally leaving this place! Isn't it great?"

 

"It is," said Irene. "But I can't help but wonder if we're really ready for high school. As far as I know, everyone here knows about our friendship with Tanya. If it's anything like what happened when Jackie got Tanya expelled, I don't see how we're going to survive."

 

"Don't worry about high school," said Mara. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

 

"Besides, we gotta think of the graduation," said Stuart. "Eyes on the prize, remember?"

 

"Promotion, Stuart," Irene corrected him. "We’re being promoted to the ninth grade. Graduation is for high school. You know that."

 

"So you keep saying," Stuart muttered as he pulled out another slice of pizza and ate it. He had a list of things he planned to do at