The Pine Hollow Chronicles: Chapter 1

It was COLD.  Not a silly, "wear a hat and you will be alright" cold, but a ridiculous capital letter COLD.  One time, Em had had a kitten crawl up her leggings.  Its tiny claws pricked her skin on its way up her leg.  That was how this cold felt, but worse.  It poked itself into her bones until she couldn’t even FEEL her hands.

 “Well,” she thought to herself, attempting to bend the frozen nubs that had once been her fingers.  “I guess I can feel them a little, but it doesn’t feel good.”  She hated Minnesota already.

                Emily took a deep breath and attempted to act like the cold wasn’t so bad.  Her mom, walking past her, gave her one of those sideways looks she always gave.  The look that said, “See, I told you so,” but only for a second.  Then it pretended it never said anything at all.  Em despised that look.  It was probably because her mom had told her to wear her gigantic coat to school. Right before they headed out to the car, she had decided not to wear it.   Lugging her backpack with millions of school supplies that she needed for her new school was hard enough.  Why add the extra weight of a coat?  It turned out to be a potentially life threatening decision.

Em’s little sister, Jillian, hunkered down in a massive coat-armored ball.  She looked like a blue blob with arms and legs.  Em was sure Jillian was giving her a know-it-all look too, but she couldn’t see her face.

                That morning, when Em had woken up, it was still dark outside.  She had already been in a bad mood because she knew it would be her first day at a new school.  Since her parent’s divorce, she’d developed a love/hate relationship with school.  Mostly hate.  Right after the divorce, there had been some mornings when her mom didn’t want to get up.  Those mornings, Em was forced to be on Jillian “duty.”  That meant helping her younger sister eat breakfast, get dressed, and get to the bus.  Often, Em would then crawl back into bed herself, hating world. 

But suddenly one day, her mom hopped out of bed, dusted off her college diploma, and found a new teaching job in the frozen north.  Minnesota.  Practically an alien planet, as far as Em was concerned.  But, it was where her mom had grown up, and Em figured the place was comforting to her mom in some way.  “Some weird, frozen way,” she grumbled to herself.

                “You’re going to love your new school,” her mom had chirped, as she shoved the Cheerio box her way.  “The eighth grade class only has 7 students in it.  Can you imagine how much learning time you’ll get?” 

                “Yay,” she said.  She hoped her sarcastic enthusiasm showed.  Her mom ignored her.  “Plus,” she said, “You’ll get extra one-on-one math coaching in the mornings-if you need it.”

                “Why isn’t Jillian going to private school?” Em asked, annoyed as usual about the topic.

                Mom paused.  “Emily, we’ve been through this.  I think this school will be a good fit for you.”  That was her Mom’s way of saying that Jillian hadn’t freaked out after her dad left.  Em had basically failed every subject, and had refused to talk to everyone.  On the days she did make it to school, she found a paper clip and carved disturbing symbols on her hands. 

                “Yeah.  She doesn’t deserve to be punished,” sighed Em.

                “Emily.”  Her mom was exasperated.  “This isn’t punishment.  You just need to see the world from a different perspective right now.  I don’t think a public school has that to offer…” she paused again.

                “But Mom, It’s… a Christian School.  We don’t even go to church!  What if these people are cult members?”

                “You were the one carving devil symbols on your hands,” piped up Jilly from the seat next to her.

                “Shut up!” Em growled at Jilly.  In fairness, she hadn’t known it was a devil symbol exactly, (although she had an idea).  The fact that it was made her seem angrier at society, and she was okay with that.

                “Girls,” her mom said, her voice tinged with exhaustion.  “I wish I could make things right.  I wish I could change what happened.  I can’t.  This is the best I can do.”

                Em looked at her shoes.  She hated when her mom talked like this.  The pain in her stomach bubbled up and turned into an anger that felt like a knife, cutting her heart in half.   It was impossible to talk when she felt like this.  The rest of breakfast continued in silence.

                It was after breakfast that Em had made the awful decision to forgo her coat.  As her family headed to the car, Emily thought about her new school, and her stomach flip flopped.  “Pine Hollow the Private School” was how she thought of it, even though it was just called Pine Hollow.  The school was about a twenty minute drive away.  Jilly would head to her school after Em was dropped off.

 It turned out that her mom had forgotten how chilly Minnesota mornings could be.   She hadn’t started the car ahead of time to warm it up.  Even after they had been on the road several minutes, the car was still COLD.  Em looked at her fingers.  They were bright red.  She bunched herself up in the backseat and looked out the window.  Snow was floating down from the sky, which was still dark.  “Does the sun ever shine here?” Em thought gloomily.  She watched as the snowflakes landed on the window.  They didn’t even melt- the windows were too cold.  She couldn’t help but be amazed at the glittery, perfect designs that made up each flake.  Something about them made her feel smaller.  Almost safe.  Almost normal. 

                “Here we are!”  Her mom’s voice interrupted her snowflake trance, and without warning the familiar pain came somersaulting back in.  Pulling inside herself, Em grabbed her backpack off the floor and jumped out of the car door.  “Bye!” her mom yelled.  Em slammed the door without answering.  She didn’t even bother looking up as she ran through the razor blade cold and through the school doors.