Chapter Five

Mac closed her history textbook and rubbed her eyes. She’d promised to have a cuddle with Lil and wondered if she was still awake. She got up from the kitchen table and stuffed everything into her pack and went to check on her sister. She peeked into Lily’s room, but it was too dark to see, even with the hallway light streaming in. She walked closer to the bed, but Lily wasn’t in it. When Mac went to her own room, she found her sister cuddled up with her blankie, fast asleep.

“Again, Lilybean?” Mac whispered. She quietly got ready for bed and then slipped under the covers. Lily moaned in her sleep, and Mackenzie put her arms around her and pulled her close, murmuring to her.

“Kenzie?”

“Do you have another big sister I don’t know about?”

Lily gave a sleepy laugh.

Mac asked her, “Don’t you like your own room anymore?”

“I like yours better. Please can I stay? I promise I won’t kick you like last night.”

“Or the night before?” But Mac put both arms around Lily and held her tight, and they both fell asleep without another word.

* * *

“C’mon, we have got to get some zees.” Frankie reached over and turned the clock toward her. “Groan, sob, and gasp. It’s two o’clock in the morning, Mac. How are we gonna to do thirty miles tomorrow?”

Mackenzie looked up at Frankie’s ceiling from her traditional sleepover spot on the trundle. “Thirty? Doncha mean sixty?”

“You know,” Frankie said, “there is such a thing as overdoing it. You can get too strong.”

“Funny, Franks. We’ll catch up on our sleep in the morning, skip breakfast.”

“You’re the one who always tells the club to eat right so we don’t bonk out.”

“True … but we’ll be so hungry we’ll forget about being tired, and we’ll crank to get a bite at The Stand. By then we’ll be halfway done and can come home.” She curled her hands under her hair at the back of her neck and flipped it up, making it fall over her pillow above her head.

Frankie leaned over the edge of the bed and looked down at Mackenzie. “You look like you’re scared stiff, with your hair standing on end. Make a face like you’re scared, Mac.”

Instead, Mackenzie stuck out her tongue. “Is it a plan? Shoot, I forgot. I have to stop home and give Lily her new kiss. I promised.”

“Okay, fine. And yeah,” Frankie said. “We’re good. But I’m turning the light off now, or we’re going to want to sleep until after dinner, and I hate riding in the dark, all those potholes waiting to bite my butt.”

* * *

“Wait here,” Mac said the next morning as she and Frankie stood outside her house. “I think they’re all out doing errands, but just in case, I’ll sneak in, dump my backpack, and be right back.”

“In case?”

“You know, the usual. Do chores, blah, blah, blah. I just don’t want anyone to see me.”

Frankie folded her arms and raised her eyebrows.

“What?” Mac said.

“You shouldn’t worry about being seen, since you’re practically camouflaged in that kit. Love the subtle shade of fire engine red.”

Mackenzie looked down at her Bike Geeks shammy and shorts. “Heh, heh. Well, I’ll just be extra quiet then.”

Mac peeked in the window, opened the kitchen door, and stuck her head in, checking to see if anyone was around. A few moments later, Mac burst out the front door, her eyes filled with tears, fighting to spill.

Mackenzie brushed past Frankie and said, “C’mon. Let’s get out of here.” When Frankie didn’t move fast enough, Mac yelled, “Hurry up!”

Stan appeared in the doorway as the girls got to their bikes. “I warned you, young lady. You don’t like dances? Well say goodbye to the Spring Fling!”

Frankie hesitated. Mackenzie took a running leap and mounted her bike while it was moving. She sped away as he slammed the door shut. Frankie grabbed up the helmet Mac had left on the grass and raced after her.

Mackenzie finally slowed after turning down the next street. She stopped, waiting for Frankie. “Thanks,” she said as she accepted her helmet and snapped it into place. “Let’s crank.”

“Wait a second, Mac—” Frankie said, catching her breath. “What the hell happened back there? You’re grounded for Spring Fling? Grady’s going to be so pissed.”

“Can we just ride, Franks?”

Frankie sighed but got on her bike and started peddling, making Mac catch up with her for once.

They rode hard, with Mac quickly pulling ahead to lead the way. Pounding her body, owning the pain, gave Mackenzie strength. She rocketed through the ride, not thinking, not hearing anything, even when Frankie hollered to stop at The Stand. Mac powered on.

When she finally stopped, Mackenzie propped her bike near the side of the road as a signal to Frankie. She knew she’d pick up their food and meet her at their usual rest stop. At this hour The Stand would be deserted, and the kid at the counter wouldn’t have to make Frankie wait for long.

Mac climbed the apple tree at the top of the hill, thinking escape, escape.… She almost laughed at herself. What was she thinking, she’d get to the top of the tree and jump into the clouds? She couldn’t breathe and took ragged breaths, making herself dizzy.

Peeking between the leaves, she saw Frankie roll up and watched her scan the hill, catching a glimpse of Mac’s crimson kit in the apple tree.

The tree was in full bloom, and the fragrance was heartbreaking, as though it were warning everyone to enjoy it, as it planned to only sweeten the air for a fleeting springtime moment.

“Mac!” Frankie called, trekking up the hill. She stood under the tree, looking up into its branches. They were filled with the white and barely pink petals of the blossoms.

In her bright red clothes, she was like a giant wound in the center of the tree.

“You okay?”

Mackenzie shuddered but nodded. She climbed down and sat on her haunches at the base of the trunk. She hung her head and finally slid down onto her butt, her legs sticking straight out in front of her like a little kid.

“God. He’s such a freak,” she said, not expecting a response. Frankie didn’t provide one. “Now he’s always dancing with Lily. We have to practice,he says. Like he needs practice.”

Frankie said, “Maybe Lily wants to practice.”

“A six-year-old should not be forced to go to a dance.”

“Six? Shoot, did I miss her birthday?”

Mackenzie reached into the zippered pocket of her hydration pack and pulled out her embroidered case. She turned to look at Frankie, who’d taken their food out of the paper bag and was arranging it like a picnic on her lap. “Yeah, five. I meant five. Whatever.”

Frankie took a bite of her food. “Why shouldn’t she go? It sounds like a fun thing.”

Mac frowned. “It’s not.”

“Oh, you are harsh.” Frankie elbowed her. “Did you go?”

“The only thing I remember is dropping my food and ruining my dress. It was a long time ago.”

Frankie played with her napkin, peeling the two-ply pieces apart. “Was it around the time your mom died?”

“No, she died before that. Before I turned five.” Mackenzie reached over and took her four slices of turkey, half a wheat bagel, and the baggie with apple slices covered with cinnamon and sugar. “I like how they do this,” Mac said, holding up a piece between her chopsticks.

“Mmm, me too.”

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s like we learned in science when we did that chapter on psychology. Because I ruined the dress my mom gave me, maybe I, like, didn’t want to remember,” Mackenzie said, using her chopsticks as pointers, as though Frankie could see what she was seeing. “We went shopping because she knew she was sick. I remember hearing them talking about it one night when they thought I was asleep. The dress was huge on me, but she promised it would fit the next year, when it came time. I remember … I couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t just wait.…”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

They ate the rest of their food in silence and washed everything down with their energy drinks.

When they were done, and Frankie had balled up their trash into the paper bag and stuffed it into her pack, they rolled down the hill like little kids until they got to the bottom.

“Oh, I’m going to spew!” Mackenzie said, flopping onto her back in the soft cushion of new grass. It smelled fresh and sweet, though that could’ve been the apple blossoms. Frankie rolled onto her stomach and took a wide blade of grass between her thumbs and, bringing it to her lips, blew a loud farting noise.

Mac said, “You should join the school band.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to be doing our weekend ride all at once, Mac.”

“Yeah, I know. I guess staying up till God-knows-when wasn’t the greatest idea.”

“God doesn’t have to know when—when was two a.m. and you would not stop talking about Grady. Grady this and Grady that. You can lose sleep over the guy, but I’m losing sleep over him and I’m not even his girlfriend.”

Mackenzie elbowed Frankie, but she was smiling. “I can’t help it if I’m madly in love. Every time I see him, or think about him, or hear his name, I feel … like, I don’t know … like—”

“Like butterflies. I get it,” Frankie said.

“More like weight-lifting Amazonian uber moths.”

“Isn’t it so weird how just thinking something can make your body react like that?”

Mackenzie remembered the times that thinking something gave her a physical response, but she couldn’t bring herself to confide in Frankie about it. Every night she heard her door creak open, and as she thought of what was about to happen, her belly would tighten; but it wasn’t the fluttering of butterflies. More like poisonous spiders. Rattling snakes. Stinging scorpions. She learned how to get away from them, though. She ignored them all by escaping. Off she flew on a flying bicycle, where they never caught up with her. The faster she pedaled, the farther away she felt.

But no matter how fast or high she flew, she could never get far enough away to escape her father when he made his night visits.