The Heart Will Lead You Home Read online

  She flopped a hand over her eyes and tried to fall asleep, but couldn’t. So, she plugged her ears with her fingers and thought about all the things she had started to like about living here in Edenville. For one, her parents had almost finished fixing up the house, and she was amazed at what a little paint and some lacquer on the hard wood floors could accomplish. Her mother, thank God, was on the brink of returning to her old happy, loving, healthy self, and Lizzie could hardly wait till she was at one hundred percent. She supposed that a large part of it had been because they moved here, so she felt another lick of resentment toward the town fading away.

  What else did she like? Well, she supposed being in the middle of so much nature had its advantages. She liked the way the crickets would lull her to sleep at night with their soft serenade through her open bedroom window- which was much more than she could say for the racket the football team was making over at the Hauser’s place. And she would never forget the day she’d walked out to the back pasture and seen a cow- a real, live cow! - standing in the middle. She’d gone running into the house, her eyes wide with surprise and her father had chuckled. It was the neighbor’s he explained, and yes, she could touch it if she wanted. It was a little too big and intimidating for her, but watching it had been kind of nice.

  There were more things than she had expected, she realized, as she rolled in her bed and tried to drown the bass from the radio bouncing through her bedroom. Like the fact that she could always count on Grannie to be sitting on her porch every afternoon when she walked home from class. And that the bells at the top of the church steeple always played short hymns every Sunday morning, as if calling all of Edenville to praise the precious Lord.

  The music once again pulled her from her thinking so she rolled out of her simple single bed and snuck across the room, hoping none of the floorboards would creak. She knelt down in front of the moonlight and tried to see what was happening over at her next-door neighbor’s barn, but she couldn’t see anything through the distance.

  She remembered that her father kept a pair of binoculars stashed in the big oak desk in the hallway, so she crept to the desk and snuck the pair out. A quick glance over her shoulder told her no one was awake, so she tip-toed back into the room and knelt back at the window.

  She had just finished adjusting the binoculars to her vision when she spotted the crowd going into and out of the barn. Just as she’d suspected- all the football team, the cheerleaders, and who else but the most popular gang in school. One day, she vowed, one day she too would be one of the lucky ones who got their chance to hang out in a barn with all the coolest people in school.

  Chapter Eight

  Today was the last day of Lizzie’s first year at DixieAcademy and it really stunk. Big time. Here she sat, on her birthday no less, reading a book in detention. Again. If only she could be on time to school every once in a while, she admonished herself. It was only a five minute walk from her house to the school, for crying out loud, but still she couldn’t be on time to save her life. Her father had offered a million bribes, and even threatened a time or two to try and get her there on time.

  She supposed it was just her way of rebelling.

  Lizzie licked her finger and flipped the page of her current favorite sci-fi novel, when the door opened to the vacant classroom the school used to hold detention after school.

  Oh, great, she thought with a little disconsolate sigh. Here comes “the gang”, as she had not so affectionately termed the popular kids. She had done pretty well the past few months at ignoring their repeated attempts to bug her. Just be strong, she commanded herself as she ducked her head back behind the pages of the book, just missing the last person to enter the room and shut the door quietly behind him.

  It took quite a while- much longer than Lizzie thought necessary- for the gang to readjust the desks to their liking and get seated to start their detention time. She felt it quite revolting that the detention teacher barked at her every time she turned a page, yet she didn’t say a word as the gang noisily slid the desks from one side of the room to another.

  Was there any justice in the world?

  Apparently not, because as soon as the gang got settled, Mrs. Fleming left the room to go check on something down the hall. The gang wasted no time in using her absence to their advantage.

  She could hear whispering among the clustered desks, but she refused to look up from her book. Be strong, Lizzie, be strong. Then there were giggles, and she itched to see what it was they found so funny. When Billy, the male equivalent of Lou Ann in character and rudeness, burped as loud as he could, Lizzie felt absolutely like begging to spend the rest of her summer scraping gum off the bottom of desks rather than remain in the room with these people.

  Finally, since she saw no reason to hold back her scorn, considering everyone in the school hated her anyway, she looked up from the book and gave her most insulted glare in their direction. As it turned out, that was exactly all the prompting they needed.

  Billy- later she termed him Billy-bob because it helped her to imagine a more backwoods, redneck kind of guy- burped even louder, and the gang was fit to be tied. The only one in the group, who didn’t seem to find it quite as funny as the rest was Payton, even though he was at least smiling. Since, as yet, Lizzie hadn’t realized he was in the room; she quickly pulled the book back up in front of her face and pretended she was deeply focused on the novel.

  “Hey, New Girl.”

  She ignored the taunt, but she could feel the little twitch she got in her eye when she was beginning to get mad start kicking in to overdrive.

  “I said, Hey, New Girl.”

  “My name’s not New Girl.” She said it through clenched teeth still buried behind the book.

  “Oh, somebody’s a tough girl.” Oh, somebody wants a black eye. She put the book a fraction lower and glared at Billy over the upper edge.

  “Hey, man, I’d watch out if I were you. She’s got something funky going on with her eye.” Colin wasn’t interested in watching his friend get beat by a girl.

  “Yeah, Billy,” chimed in Lou Ann. “I’d hate for you to be the next on her list of black eye recipients.”

  “Why? I’d just send in your mama to take care of it,” Billy shot back.

  “Ouch!” The entire gang cried out in unison. The only one who seemed to be taking part as spectator rather than participant was Payton. He was more focused on playing kissy-face with his girlfriend, Leena, to really worry about the rest of the gang, Lizzie thought with an edge of depression settling over her heart.

  Not that it mattered to her in the slightest. Nope. She could care less about boys, particularly the ones who did disgusting things with their mouths like what Payton was currently doing. Yuck- how could anyone enjoy that? But, apparently the two of them found it pretty interesting.

  And thank the dear Lord above, about that time the detention teacher came back in, and the gang was quiet the rest of the hour. It was blessed relief when their time was up and she could pretend to finish reading the last part of the chapter, then quietly slip out long after all the rest of the gang had split school for the summer. She’d even heard one last disgusting burp from Billy-bob on his way down the hall.

  Over the summer, Lizzie had grown accustomed to the laid back lifestyle of the South. She had a strong hunch that the reason people in small towns in the South were so laid back was because it was so blasted hot and humid all the time. That was another bit of information she’d just keep to herself.

  Her favorite part of each day was pulling a Popsicle out of the freezer and following Skipper down to the cattle pond behind Grannie Thornton’s house. The pond was actually owned by Grannie, but anyone that wanted to could use her pond anytime. Everyone called it a cattle pond, but it hadn’t really been used to water cattle since Grannie got rid of her last herd five years ago. She complained that they made too much noise for her, but Lizzie suspected it was mainly because they reminded her too much of her late husband, Earl.
r />   Lizzie didn’t really have any fond desire for the pond so much, but she liked the old hardwood trees that surrounded it. She’d take a good book with her, and she’d climb up onto one of those strong branches, and read for hours. Yes, these were the times that made her realize she was beginning to like Edenville very much- there weren’t many opportunities to sit in old trees by a cattle pond in Chicago.

  She loved dangling her legs down from the limb and leaning back against the big, sturdy trunk as she read her favorite novel. She had come to understand that a good book could take her places that she had never seen before, and it certainly helped her to forget about her lack of friends.

  It was as she was sitting there, way up in the branches of an oak tree, that she saw the bushes rustle along the edge of the overgrown path that led down to the pond. Skipper hadn’t come with her to the pond that day because he’d been too fascinated with the baby goats at the neighbor’s farm to notice she’d left without him. Lizzie was curious to see what was rustling in the bushes.

  About that time she heard voices, male voices, and she froze where she sat, praying she might go unnoticed. And wasn’t it just her luck? Payton and his sidekicks Colin, Bud, and Hank following after him, had come to the pond for a little afternoon swim. Lizzie could feel her blood freezing in her veins.

  What would she do if they found her sitting in the trees above them? Would they think she had been spying on them? A million horrors and an equal number of rationalizations flooded through her mind, but nothing seemed to help her absolute misery at the moment. She wished she had her own magic rubbing lamp to get her out of this mess.

  She resigned to the fact that there was nothing she could do at this point, but sit still and pray like crazy that the boys never noticed she was there. It might be kind of fun, she heard her brain say, being a fly on the wall so to speak. Lizzie seriously doubted anything about this ordeal would be fun.

  Payton had stripped down to his swimming trunks and was into the pond quick as a flash. He swam a few strokes across the pond, and then waited for his friends to join him.

  “Come on in, boys! The water’s fine.”

  “Yeah, yeah. We’re coming. We’re not as skilled at removing our clothes as some people apparently are.” A pointed stare was cast in Payton’s direction, and he let loose a carefree childish laugh with a grin as wide as the Grand Canyon.

  “You guys need to get some action more often.”

  Lizzie thought she might die.

  “By the way, Payton, you promised to fill us in on the details with Leena.” Payton ducked under the water and Lizzie could feel her face turning red. She really hoped the boys didn’t see her now.

  “Now, now, boys. A man doesn’t kiss and tell.”

  By this time the other three had joined him in the pond, and they slam dunked his head under the water for that one.

  “Come on, Payton, you promised. Apparently she’s been spreading the word with the eighth grade girls that our friend here has the moves of a god.” Payton liked that one.

  “Well, what can I say? Not only am I talented at football, but I’m talented in all of life’s athletic endeavors.” Oh, please. How pig headed could a guy be? Lizzie had been holding on the limb where she sat, trying her hardest not die of mortification, but she felt her arms nearly slip and her body almost slide from the limb with that comment. Her heart was slamming into her ribs. Was she really hearing this conversation? Oh, the boys would really have her head if they found this out.

  “At least give us a few pointers then,” Colin wailed.

  “Yeah.” Bud and Hank barked in unison.

  Payton studied them as if they were sick. “Okay men,” he said after a slight pause. His voice got a little lower. “Gather ‘round. Now, what you need to do is …” Lizzie leaned forward, aching to hear what it was they needed to do, wanting desperately to know for herself, even though she promised herself she really didn’t.

  “Oh, man! That is so cool!” What was so cool? What?

  “And you did that to Leena?” She could tell by his affirming nod that he had indeed done that to Leena. “And she liked it?”

  “Well, she said I had the moves of a god, didn’t she?” Lizzie giggled, slapping a hand over her mouth. Had they heard that?

  “What was that?” All the boys stopped talking and looked around. Fortunately for her, they never looked up in the trees. “Must not have been anything. Alright, now that that’s out of the way, what d’ya say about a game of touch football.”

  “You’re on!” All four boys were out of the water, their sleek, not quite yet developed bodies glistening in the summer sunshine. Lizzie breathed deeply when they had gone and tried to get her heart beat under control.

  What was the matter with her? Ever since that first, awful day of school, when she’d locked eyes with Payton, she been having these weird sensations floating around in her body. She hadn’t yet put a finger on what was happening inside her, but whatever it was she didn’t think she really liked it.

  She climbed down from the tree and sat against the base of the trunk. These… feelings. They really kicked into gear whenever Payton was around. Now why was that, she mused. It was probably because he was the only one in the “gang” that hadn’t bothered to chastise her in some form or fashion. Sure, that was it, definitely.

  It was absolutely not because she thought his green eyes matched hers perfectly. Wouldn’t they look good in pictures together? And it certainly wasn’t because she thought the way he smiled at all the other girls in the school was just a smidgen too cute.

  Wait a second. Her hand flew to her lips as she sucked in a ragged breath. Did she… could she… was it really possible that she…. No! She jumped up from her perch and took off running for home. She refused to believe that she had a crush on Payton.

  This was awful.

  It was just like her, wasn’t it, to pick a guy who was way out of her ballpark. He probably didn’t even know her name, so how did she expect for him to ever return the crush? He wouldn’t of course. Sure, he was blatantly nicer than all the rest of his cohorts, but that didn’t mean he would humor some silly little crush from the lowest kid in school. She could already see it now… Mr. I’m-already-a-stud-athlete laughing until he was blue in the face when she professed her crush on him.

  That would not do at all.

  That was it, and final. She’d just have to figure out some way so change her mind. That was easy, wasn’t it? Sure it was. First of all, she didn’t like boys anyway, so getting rid of a crush on a boy would be a piece of cake. Now all she had to do was figure out how.

  Payton slapped the baseball into the glove on his hand, then picked it up and tossed it against the wall of his house. He knew it was probably making his mother mad, but he was bored, and he had nothing else to do. He bounced the ball off the wood siding again, and winced when he heard his mother smacking the window in the kitchen with a spatula to get his attention. He hated that because it always meant he was about five minutes away from a good ear boxing.

  He scowled up at the kitchen window and stuck his tongue out at his mother after she turned away from the window. Since tossing his baseball was out of the question for a while, he tossed his glove on the ground, and lay beside it in the grass to catch some sun.

  He stared up at the clear blue sky above, and closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth on his skin. Summers were fun, he supposed, because he could be alone for a while and just think about life for a change. He was more of a loner, he’d figured out in the past year. He liked going to parties and spending time with his friends, but he also enjoyed just spending time by himself, not doing anything really important. It gave him time to recharge.

  Not that he didn’t love being in school. But when he was in school he was constantly being bombarded with stuff to do with his friends. His friends were great, he thought, and for some reason that got him thinking about all the kids in the world who weren’t lucky enough to have good friends like his. Or any at all,
for that matter.

  A pair of green eyes flashed through his mind, and he thought about Lizzie for a minute. He never had figured out why no one would give her a chance. She wasn’t completely ugly, he decided as he brought up a picture of her in his memory. But she definitely didn’t have all the curves and flares like Leena had, either.

  To be honest, he felt sort of sorry for her because of how the entire school treated her. She didn’t deserve- no one deserved- to have people call her names all day, or for the girls to pick on her during PE class. And he really hated the wall they threw spit balls at her during the pep rallies. That was just cruel.

  He always had had a soft heart for people that were hurting. Maybe to some people that made him vulnerable or wimpy, but in his mind he didn’t think so. He felt it made him stronger because he could be compassionate to those in need. There was nothing worse than a jock that treats people bad, his mother used to say. Maybe that was why he felt so strongly about treating everyone nice.

  Regardless though, he thought, he certainly hadn’t been doing anything to help stop the way his friends had been treating the new girl. He had always hated seeing the look of disgust in her eyes when his friends taunted her. It was just as bad that he let them do it as if he had joined in with them. And he knew that all he had to do was say the words and they would stop forever.

  So what was he waiting for, he wondered? He wasn’t quite sure.

  Chapter Nine

  It was time to start school again, already, and Lizzie couldn’t believe it was actually time for her to start ninth grade. She’d begged her mother to take her shopping in Clarkston, the “big city”- an actual city with a shopping mall about an hour away from where they lived. So now she stood in front of her mirror inspecting the way her pretty fall skirt swirled around her knees. It was one that she was assured was in the height of fashion. And she had to admit that the blouse she bought to go with it accented the tiny bud of breasts that she kept praying would spring forth at any moment.