by the school

on the street

you were dropped off with a sign,

"this piano is free"

you didn't look free to me 

12 months earlier 

Raina walks down the hallway to her locker. She passes a group of girls who are laughing obnoxiously loud. 

“Raina!” one of them yells out in their unusually high pitched voice. 

She stops walking and turns to see what they want. She’s never talked to them, well maybe once, but that was in grade school. This is a fairly small town so most kids have been in school together for a long time. Grace Montgomery is the most popular girl in school and she just called out for Raina. 

Raina stands there confused and looks at the group of girls who all look the same. Straight blonde hair, polo shirts, and plaid skirts. 

“My mom wanted me to ask if you would babysit for my little brother tomorrow. She and my dad are going out and I’m going to be at a party.” Grace says while flipping her hair over her shoulder. 

Raina notices the perfectly manicured fingernails and Coach purse that Grace has, not so discretely, hanging from her shoulder. 

“Yeah, what time?” Raina asks quietly. 

“I don’t know. My mom will call your mom tonight.” Grace says and then walks away without even a nod bye or a thank you. 

“Bitch,” Raina mutters under her breath and continues down the hall to her locker. 

cast aside

obsolete

since they cancelled music class

you've been a refugee 

She finally reaches her locker, but can’t get to it because a group of junior guys are standing in the way.  

“Excuse me!” she yells and they look down at her. 

“Wow, she speaks!” one says with a laugh and the others join in. “Thought you were mute.”

She doesn’t say anything, just grabs her books and goes to her next class. English, her favorite. 

but now I'll give you a home

corazon

Raina sits in the front, next to her best friends Peter and Miranda. 

“Hey,” she says as she sits and smiles at her friends. She gets out her books and and organizes herself while her friends gossip about something. 

“I heard she slept with him.” Miranda whispers to Raina and Peter.

“Eww, she did not!” Peter says with a shocked face. “That’s so nasty!”

Raina turns to her friends. “Who slept with who?”

“Grace slept with Mr. Felds.” Miranda says with wide eyes.

Raina just shakes her head in disgust. “No she didn’t.”

“Yes she did! I heard it was after she was done babysitting for his kids and he was taking her home. They did the deed in the back of his van.” 

Peter laughs, “why don’t you just say sex.” 

“I don’t want Sister Jean to hear me. She’ll go apeshit if she hears that word.” 

“So you can say apeshit , but not sex.” he mutters and all three of them start laughing. 

“Settle down children.” Sister Jean says as she walks to the front of the room and starts class. 

Raina stares out the window and wonders if what Miranda said is true. Would Grace actually sleep with Mr. Felds? Why would she? She has a boyfriend. Unless it was like extra money, but still, it’s so gross. Raina shivers at the thought and tries to concentrate on class. 

so I pushed

and I heaved

but your weight bore down like I could not believe

had you accepted defeat?

: : : : : 

“Mom, I got my report card.” Raina says setting the envelope on the table. She wasn’t worried, more excited.

“Let me see it.” her mom says excitedly.

Raina always got great grades and made it a purpose to get straight A’s every semester. 

Her moms reads the grades off. “Chemistry: A, Algebra: A, Religion: A, Music Appreciation: A, and English: A.” she gets up and pulls her daughter into a hug. “I’m so proud. Let’s hang it up on the fridge.”

“I’m not 5, mom” Raina says as she laughs while her mom hangs up her report card. 

“I’m still hanging it up. It’s too good to not be hung up.” she says with a smile. “Oh, that reminds me, Mrs. Montgomery called earlier and said to go over tomorrow around 4:30. You’ll be there until 8:00 so make sure to take your homework along.”

Raina nods, “ok” she says quietly. 

“What’s wrong?” her mom asks as she rubs Raina’s shoulder. 

“Nothing, I’m just tired. I’m going to go do my homework.” she says walking away.

“Ok, I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”

Raina walks into her bedroom and closes the door gently. She flops down on her bed and groins as she thinks of all the homework she has to get done before tomorrow. She hears her cell phone ringing in the distance and she starts to rummage through her backpack looking for it. 

till the crowd

gathered round

put away their goings on and hunkered down

“Hello?” 

“Hi Raina, this is Jamie Timberlake. I called Mrs. Montgomery looking for a sitter tomorrow night and she said Grace was busy and you are going to be watching Trevor for them. I was thinking I could drop Hannah and Kendell off at the Montgomery’s house and then you could just watch them too. Is that ok? We really need a sitter, sorry it’s so last minute.” 

Raina can hear Kendell crying in the background and she smiles. She hasn’t seen both Kendell and Hannah since they were just babies. “Yeah, I love those two.”

“Thank you so much! Either Justin or I will pick you and the girls up at the end of the night and take you home, so that Mrs. Montgomery doesn’t have to.” 

“Ok, see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks again.” Mrs. Timberlake says and hangs up. 

Raina hasn’t seen or heard from them since she was around 10. They used to live a few blocks away, but just recently got divorced and Jamie, Mrs. Timberlake, moved an hour away. It will be nice to see them again.

Raina sighs as she turns back to her homework. “It’s going to be a long night,” she says to herself as she starts on the large pile of papers. 

and the expert

with his tools

said to bring it up to pitch would snap the sucker in two

I guess we're tuning to you

so I pulled

up a seat

and I swear I felt a pulse beneath your keys

I was caught

I was stuck

and my thoughts kept on deepening the rut

until your first chord struck

now I search

I'm a chore

but my god you've given me another chance to learn