When the school bus pulled up in front of Joy’s little house with the tan siding and small picket fence, the three of us exited, laughing and happy to be together. I saw Joy watching us from her front living room picture window. Her expression was unsmiling. In fact, she had a frown on her face.
Great. I knew that look. Joy was mad at someone. There was no telling who. Maybe I’d have my mom come get me soon. Even though I wanted to spend time with my two best friends, I really didn’t want to hear any more gossip and negative talk from Joy. I’d had my fill this summer. On top of that, she was constantly yelling at her babysitting kids and especially at Collin, the cutest baby that ever lived. I admit that I had a real soft spot for Collin. He laughed and smiled, flashing dimples every time he saw me. He was also a baby, and I really only liked kids before they got old enough to start talking. After that, you could keep ‘em.
Joy opened the door. “Hey Brooke, I knew Savannah was coming, but you didn’t tell me that Kate was too.”
The words weren’t that rude, but her stare was icy. “Is it okay?” I asked. “I can have my mom come pick me up.”
“My door is always open to you kids.” She waved me inside.
The words sounded right, but they didn’t feel right. It was hard to explain the uneasy feeling I got when I was around Joy. However, I still thought she was overall a pretty good person. She said the right things. Did the right things. There was just something that seemed a bit off, but I swept it out of my mind, believing it was me and not her and that I was reading her incorrectly. One of these days I am going to learn to trust my instincts about people. If I’d only trusted them when it came to Joy.
