Chapter Fourteen

I gently scooped the little frog into my hand, an eyedropper cocked in one hand. Grey held the camera out, zoomed in. He smiled the way that someone smiles when they take a picture, the way he'd smile if the picture was of him. The camera clicked. I pushed the eyedropper into the frog's mouth, hand feeding him as I'd been doing since he'd come home. His cage was small, to restrict movement so that his little leg would heal.



I put the frog back in his cage, and moved towards Grey, leaned over his shoulder. The picture was just one of my hands and the frog, nothing big. He had a red shirt on, a Product Red. I leaned over his shoulder studying the picture, and as I was there, a foot away, his smell drifted toward me. It was sharp yet gentle. It smelled good. I backed away from him, pretended I was finished looking at the photo. Grey was a boy, I was a girl. But to me, that didn't mean a thing.

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Chapter Twelve

I strolled home, the sun slowly fading behind a horizon of trees. My head shot up, the sound of rackety wheels on concrete shooting through my ears. Pushed by his mother, a small boy rode in a plastic toy car. He beat his fists against the steering wheel. The mother, her brown hair cut short around he shoulders, smiled at me, an understanding smile. I stared at her blankly.



With a dull thud it settled in me, the gravity pushing it down into me, ignoring anything in it's way. The pain, the dead weight of this thing that had been snatched away from me threatened to open up, to leave me sobbing on the street, my eyes red and my face blotchy.



I weaved my hand inside of me, groped the stone, grasped it, and chucked it as far away as I could. This was better. There was no pain, no tears. There wasn't anything.

Chapter Eleven

"Grey Fortin and Alice Hayes," Mrs. Darvis glanced up, then looked back at her paper and called out the next pair. Grey looked over at me, raised an eyebrow. A small smile played at the edge of his lips. I looked away.

At Grey's house the next day, we laid out the rubrics for the projects. Science fair. A month and a half to do it. Three days to determine our subject and have it approved. Grey yanked a few library books out of his backpack. Electricty, 101 Science Projects for Kids, The Sun and You.



"So." He paused. "What are you intrested in?"



"I don't know."



"Cummon."



"Whatever, you can pick. Tell me what to do, I'll do it. I really don't care much."



He leaned forward, "So how about I do all the real work but let you do something small and stupid, so that you still get the grade?" Wow. He sounded sincere. No one ever made that offer.



I accepted his offer happily.



"Well if that's what you want, get over it," he smiled as he talked, joked. I sank back against the wall.



"Whatever."



Mrs. Fortin poked her head into Grey's bedroom. The room was painted a deep green, his brown bunk beds giving a forest look. Selves lined the top of the walls, and various toys and booked collected dust upon them. Mrs. Fortin asked if we would like some snacks, nachos, crisps, anything? We accepted, and five minutes later munched away on a bag of BBQ crisps.

Grey started quizzing me, trying to pull out a subject that I would find interesting. I replied to each one with a careless, 'sure,' 'if you want to,' 'whatever.'

"What about the frog?" He smiled slightly again. "You know, we could study how it heals over the next month."

For the first time that day, I smiled and agreed wholeheartedly.

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Chapter Ten

"Should we go in?" I quizzed.

"She's fine, she likes company, but not when she's working, if she can help it," Grey replied. I glanced again at the examination room door. I stacked my fists on my knee, switched the bottom one to the top. "Did you see the new Bean movie?" Grey asked.

"No, is it good?"

"Haven't seen it, just wondering if you had."

"Oh." Conversation terminated.

He started up again thirty seconds later, "Do you have brothers or sisters?" I ran a hand through my hair and nodded.

"Brother or sister?"

"Um, brother," I bit my lip, uncomfortable. "And you?"

"All alone," Grey smiled. "Do you want to play a game of cards?" He pulled a deck out of his back pocket. I smiled quietly and suggested Slam. We moved onto the floor, poised over the coffe table. Our hands flew, back and forth. Here, there. Card, card. I darted my hand in, whacked it onto the smaller pile. Game over, I grinned.

The door swung open. Dr. Fortin held a cardboard box, air holes punched in the top. "All yours." She handed it to me. "Bring him back in a week for a checkup." I thanked her. "Grey'll be going into ninth grade this year, same as you, right?" I nodded.

"See ya around then," I said bye to Grey and thanked Dr. Fortin. They watched me out to the road, then closed the door. I started the walk home.


Ten minutes later, sitting in my room, I pulled open the cardboard box, decided that I would get a bus down to the pet shop later on. The little green thing had a splint and bandage on it's leg. It looked so pathetic, so vunerable. Just like Jimmy. He could be dying right now. He could be dead. Maybe he too has a broken leg, but no cast. I checked myself. Alice, stop this! You are not to imagine. Don't think about it, Alice.

Chapter Nine

I paused at the gate. Grey's house was small, a cape cod with a white picket fence. Classic. A swinging sign read 'Fortin Animal Clinic.' The front door swung open, revealing a petite woman, her blonde hair pulled up in a messy bun. She wore a white jacket, a vet's jacket. "Oh my!" she exclaimed, quickly scanning me, the frog, and Grey. "Who've you brought home?"

"Alice. She has a wounded frog that needs some help." Grey smiled. The lady stepped confidently toward me and gently took the frog from my hands. "I'm Dr. Fortin. Grey's mother." I wiped the frog juice off on my hand onto my jeans and introduced myself. "Come on in," she invited as she turned toward the door.

I gave up on my doubts and headed inside. Grey followed. I glanced around the room. It was neat, tidy. Beautifully decorated, I felt as if I was in a shore house, vacationing. A stack of magazines rested on a coffe table. Grey inturupted my thoughts, "Doubles as a waiting room on weekdays," I nodded my head knowingly. Dr. Fortin turned to a brown door on the right. A sign reading, 'Patients This Way!' I glimpsed an examining room. She turned around, halfway through the door. "Oh, there's a phone on your left, why don't you give you're mum a call? I don't want her worried."

"Um, sure," I mumbled. I glanced around, spotted the phone.

"Hello? Mum?"

"Alice? Where are you?"

"Urm," I glanced at Grey, "a friend's." Grey raised his eyebrows.