MY SOUL TO KEEP - YELLOWJACKETS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE — SOBER PARANOIA

1996

Isabelle Davis smiled nervously as her friends and teammates, Genevieve Roth and Melissa Clark, entered her trailer home. The trio had been friends since Isabelle and Melissa joined the Wiskayok High School girl's soccer team at the beginning of their freshman year, yet, neither of them nor any other girls on the team—not even the girls that lived in the trailer park, too—had ever been invited to her home.

"Why do you have so many crosses? I thought you were an atheist or whatever," Genevieve, who was always called Gen rather than her full name and the oldest of the three, said as she stared at the twenty-plus crosses nailed to the wall between the front door and the mustard yellow landline phone.

"We used to be, like, Laura Lee-level Christians," Isabelle said with a shrug. "We just never got rid of the crosses, and my dad didn't want to buy all new decorations, so..." She trailed off as her ten-year-old sister skipped out of their shared bedroom with one of her hands hidden behind her.

"Hi!" she beamed as she looked between the three high schoolers. She lowered her hand, revealing she was hiding their older brother Isaac's Gameboy, which she seemed to steal every other day. "I'm Sarah."

The only blonde in the room smiled awkwardly and walked closer to the elementary schooler while fixing her pink snapback. "Hey. I'm Melissa."

"Sarah, why are you here?" Isabelle asked before Gen could have a chance to introduce herself to the younger Davis. "I thought you were at Lindsay's."

"Her brother puked on their dog, so her mom made me leave," Sarah explained as she sat on the couch and went back to freely playing on Isaac's Gameboy while sighing tiredly. "Izzy, don't tell Isaac I stole his Gameboy. Please?" My Izzy...

"On their dog?" Gen repeated with a short laugh. "Is her brother Randy Walsh? He would totally do something like that."

Isabelle tensed as Melissa chuckled at the oldest girl's joke. "I won't tell him anything if you stop calling me that," she snapped at her sister, grabbing Melissa and Gen's hands and dragging them to her bedroom at the end of the hall. She let go of Gen's hand to close and lock the door, yet didn't bother letting go of Melissa's.

The blonde was staring at their intertwined hands when Isabelle finally let go. They looked at each other for a second—Melissa in nervousness and Isabelle in confusion—when Gen held up a baggie full of something green and said, "I found my brother's weed stash."

"Oh, shit. Is that why you wanted to hang out?" Melissa asked with a grin as Isabelle sat on the bottom bunk, which belonged to Sarah. The blanket had all nine planets in the solar system on it, including their names, and Sarah was obsessed. She loved anything to do with space, just as Isabelle did with insects and bugs.

"Well, I also wanted to talk about the party at Lottie's tonight. But, I really, kinda wanna get high." Gen sat at the Davis sisters' tiny desk while Melissa sat on the floor to Isabelle's left. While they were excitedly wondering how the drug would affect them and talking about the party they were going to attend, the Davis girl was quiet and kept glancing at the door like someone would burst in at any second.

"Hey, what's that?" Melissa suddenly asked as she stood and walked over to Isabelle's dresser, where she kept her terrarium. Gen stood and was about to follow her when the blonde gasped. "Holy shit, is that a tarantula?"

"You have a fucking tarantula?" Gen questioned in shock, walking over to the terrarium and chuckling. "Who knew you would have a cool pet."