Divine Blue [Book One]

Chapter Four

Taylor dragged her feet in the dirt as she sat on the swing set alone on the playground while the other third-graders played in groups. She saw girls on one side practicing their latest gymnastics moves and emulating the cheerleaders they had seen at the homecoming pep rally earlier that day when the high schoolers visited. There was a group of boys on the other side that were making bets with each other about who could master the monkey bars. Then, there were some kids running about in a game of tag, racing each other, and throwing rocks.

Another girl walked over to the swing that was open beside Taylor. Taylor had noticed this girl before. She had seen her talking with other kids. But like Taylor, she was more often by herself. She was a small Black girl, her hair tightly braided and a pair of glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose.

"Hey," the girl said as she sat down in the swing.

"Hi," Taylor said back to her.

"My name is Lindsey. What's yours?" Lindsey asked as she began moving her legs back and forth to propel herself on the swing.

"Taylor."

"Whose class are you in?"

"Mrs. White's."

"Oh. I'm in Mrs. Benson's class. Are you that new girl?"

"Yeah," Taylor said, guessing she was the only new kid. Her foster parents had recently downsized to a different house.

"I heard some of the teachers saying you don't have parents."

Taylor shrugged. "Anne and George are my foster parents."

"But they're not your real parents, right?"

"No."

"What happened to your parents?"

"I don't know." Taylor felt suddenly self-conscious. She didn't really want to discuss what she knew about her parents, or lack thereof.

"Oh. Well, that's OK. It's probably pretty cool not to have parents sometimes. Do you want to come play on the slide with me?"

"Yeah, sure," Taylor said, thankful she could get away from sitting on the swings by herself.

Lindsey brushed her feet against the ground to stop herself. "You know, my parents are really nice. I will share them with you if you want to come over sometime."

***

Taylor, Lizzie, Kelsey, Beth, Rhiannon, Grant, Adrienne, and Matthew all emerged from the restaurant and gathered in the parking lot by their cars. Grant and Rhiannon had been walking hand-in-hand and stopped at the back bumper of Grant's car and began kissing.

"Ugh! How do you guys even do that after eating all of that food?" Kelsey said to them, disgusted.

"It's called love, Kelsey," Lizzie retorted.

"I don't care what you call it. That's just nasty," Kelsey said laughing at the pair.

"You're just jealous," Grant teased her.

"Nope! Not even a little bit, man," Kelsey said.

"So Taylor, how was your first Taco Tuesday?" Beth asked her.

"It was really good! Thank you all for inviting me," Taylor responded graciously.

"We're super happy that you came with us," Lizzie told her. "Are you sure you're ready to be part of this monstrosity?" Lizzie asked, her eyebrows curling.