The Dollhouse

Chapter 6

But really, I knew she was terrified.

"Oh my god," she said under her breath. "There's every class of man in this ride. Hillbillies, Mediterraneans, Negroes - the whole spectrum. D'you think they go to the public school?"

Even in my wretched state, I couldn't help but sneak a look behind us. Violet wasn't wrong - a few darker faces could be seen towards the back seats of the bus.

Even though segregation in schools was no longer legal, our middle school in Seattle was predominately white. We'd never been to school with colored folk before.

I had no idea what to comment. The kids were around our age, and appeared ordinary enough in jeans and t-shirts. Black people didn't seem too different from ourselves really, and it hardly bothered me.

But for some unspoken reason, a voice in my head whispered that it should.

"Our stepbrother didn't want to sit with us, then."

"No," I was grateful for the change of subject. "Too immersed in his novel."

"Knock it off, Edgar Allan Poe," Violet glared at me again. "You need to quit with all that intellectual speak. Other kids don't want to be friends with a walking dictionary."

For a brief moment, tears glazed over my eyes, and I was forced to blink them away furiously. I hated her when she was mean. It wasn't just an object for her to dump her frustration on.

Through the window, I could see the scenery. The bus was passing the flower fields. Outside of Haverbrook Hollow, there were a few spaces of land owned by the farmers. They were beautiful.

Basking in the glow of the morning sun, I could imagine myself lying in a flower bed. The breeze on my skin, the familiar warmth of a leather-bound book in my hands. The bright buttercups weaved into my long hair. I could create a crown, become part of nature, be the mother of...

Screeech. The bus halted to a stop. I was jolted out of my dream.

A colored boy thundered up the stairs. "Sorry for being late."

Everyone looked up to stare. Even Rudy. I could see him a few seats ahead of us, a thick paperback novel open in his hands.

As the engine rumbled to a start, I dared myself to study him properly. In most instances in the Dollhouse, I stopped myself from staring, as he was intimidating in the strangest of ways. He wasn't rude, or crass, but he had a quiet observant nature that made him even more unnerving.

Rudy, as expected, dressed expensively for school. Today he wore a sweater with the collar his shirt protruding over the top. The contrast of his black hair was alarming against his skin.

Even now and then, his pale fingertips would turn the page.

I wondered if he had any friends.

Haverbrook Hollow District School was everything I had come to expect. The whole place clearly had a low budget and stretched funding. The school consisted of a yard and a few poky classrooms, and according to the secretary, we had been shoved in the same class.

"There's been a mistake, you've given us the exact same papers," Violet insisted. Her mood had not made any improvement.

"No mistake, sweetie. Any student above the age of thirteen is in with Mrs. Appleby. We're quite the small community. I know you girls aren't used to the country," the woman laughed pleasantly. "Your mother told me on the telephone."

Violet stiffened. "She isn't–"

"Thank you for your help," I cut in.

The classrooms didn't have many students. It was a dingy room with an absence of warmth or color, with rows of desks with scratched surfaces, each seating a bored-looking teenager. I tried not to make eye contact with any of them. However, Mrs. Appleby forced me up the front.