Chasing Hope Read Free

has. Nana does like to talk about her family.”
    “You count that as a blessing is what I’m saying. There’s lots of people who wish they could say the same.” For just a split second the look of weariness encompassed her entire face, all the way to her eyes. She turned to look over her shoulder. “Brandy, hurry on up, now. Sabrina’s standing here waiting to meet ya.”
    Sabrina peered into the darkness, searching for the young girl who needed a nice older friend. Maybe she could be a kind ofmentor, the same way a couple of college girls had taken her under their wing several years ago. It would be nice to pay it forward.
    Mrs. Jenkins shook her head. “We walked over here. You’d think it would be the old lady instead of the teenager that was lagging, wouldn’t you?” She glanced over her shoulder then nodded with satisfaction. “Oh, here she is. Sabrina, I’d like you to meet my granddaughter, Brandy. Brandy, this is Sabrina.” She held out her arm toward the driveway, just as the girl walked into view.
    “What’s up?” Brandy nodded her head back slightly.
    Sabrina found that she was unable to respond in any way. Absolutely could not speak.
    It wasn’t the tiny loop earring that pierced the girl’s nose, or the thick line of dark black eyeliner, or the cold hard eyes that left Sabrina unable to speak. It was her hair. Shoulder length, white in front, black in back. There could be no mistaking who this girl was or where she’d seen her before.
    “Oh, please do come in, you two.” Nana picked just the right moment to arrive at the door. Sabrina took a step back so that the two could enter, but she still couldn’t find her voice to speak as Nana ushered them inside. “Now, Brandy, you come right in here and tell us all about yourself. How are things at the high school? You’re a junior, right? Is old Mrs. Monroe still teaching chemistry and physics? How is the basketball team doing this year?”
    Sabrina attempted to work through her shock and at least fake some interest in Brandy’s answers. It proved to be harder than she’d imagined. Be a good role model. Set a good example. At the very least, be polite.
    In spite of Nana’s insatiable list of questions, Brandy managed to answer most everything with a single syllable, two at most. She made no attempt to be sociable or to even appear that she was remotely interested in having a conversation.
    Sabrina’s initial shock at seeing this girl was soon replaced by a deep and growing dislike. Did she have no concept of manners, or common courtesy? And then Nana asked her the question whose answer sealed Sabrina’s dislike into a deep and permanent state. “Do you play any sports at school?”
    “No.”
    “Oh really? I thought I remembered Maudie telling me that you ran track.”
    Brandy shrugged. “Used to. Not now.”
    “Oh right, since you just moved here, you probably haven’t gotten the chance to get started in all that. I’ll bet you’ll be involved soon, huh?”
    “Nah. Don’t much like it. Coaches are a pain.”
    The circles under Mrs. Jenkins’ eyes seemed to darken by the second. She shook her head and stared off in the distance. Nana glanced at her, then back to Sabrina, her eyes wide with panic, and Sabrina swallowed the “somehow I don’t think it’s the coach who’s a pain” retort that’d been on the tip of her tongue.
    This Brandy girl might be a spoiled, selfish punk, but Nana was a wonderful lady, and Sabrina would do her best to help. She forced herself to work up a friendliness she most certainly did not feel. “Brandy, have you thought about what you want to do when you graduate high school?”
    Brandy looked at her, green eyes cold and hard. “Well, I can tell you what I won’t be doing. I won’t be living at my grandmother’s house while my mother and father are paying my tuition at some lame college. I’ve never been much of one for freeloading, or for freeloaders, as far as that goes. I’ll be doing