… So Grows the Tree

Content Warning: Contains domestic violence, as well as implied alcohol abuse and indirect references to anti-homosexual behavior.

Author's Note: This is a first for me, not only a second submission in the same contest, but the first time I've written multiple stories about the same character. I don't have room with "… Not as I Do" to make this comment, but both stories stand on their own in my opinion. I wrote this one as a prequel to the other, but I believe that the order doesn't matter. I hope that both are good. Please let me know what you think.

* * * * *

The dust cloud rising from the distant end of the driveway indicated a visiting vehicle starting the mile-long approach to the Dark house. Joan Dark flipped the lever on her Marlin 336, ejecting the spent cartridge and loading the next, before she saw it. She glanced at her watch: 5 p.m. Why couldn’t it be tomorrow?

She raised the butt of the rifle to her left shoulder and braced herself. “Pull!” From behind the rusted and rotting barn in front of her, a glass bottle arced across the sky, followed by a second. Her first shot shattered the lead bottle at its zenith; she pushed the lever down and back up in a single fluid motion, and the second bottle vanished with a blast and a shower of glass fragments.

From behind the outbuilding, “Good shots, Sis!”

She set the rifle down on the table next to her, the sedan appearing as it closed the distance to the farmhouse. “Junior! Get back here! Company!”

Her teen-aged brother came running up to the house from where he’d been tossing the bottles for her target practice. “Who is it?” he gasped.

“If I’m lucky, Mrs. Reynolds.” She sighed, and finished off her Pepsi.

“Your vice principal? If you’re not… oh.” He stared at her, in a knowing sort of way. “How bad?”

She shrugged. “Today, does it matter?”

He shook his head. “I’ll get Pa and Ma.” He left her behind as he ran into the house, the screen door slapping shut behind him.

The blue Cadillac pulled up alongside the half-dozen other vehicles parked around the side yard. Only three still operated, but Pa (and Junior) would sometimes dabble when the mood struck. In the driver seat she recognized Principal Howard. Welp….

As he climbed out, her father ambled through the door, careful to climb down the stairs. She knew he’d be annoyed, interrupted from his daytime sleep cycle. Her mother stepped out of the house too, wiping her hands on her apron. Junior did not appear behind them, but Joan saw one of the drapes shift, so she knew he watched within.

The adults approached each other enough to engage. “Mr. and Mrs. Dark? I don’t believe we’ve met yet. I am Dr. Michael Howard, principal of North Davie Middle School.”

Her father grunted. “Steven Dark. Why they got a doctor running a school?” His eyes had widened on his baggy face.

“Yes, well, I’m a doctor of education.” The principal smiled at Joan’s mother. “And you are?”

Her father spat a wad of tobacco juice out to the side, toward the barn. “What brings you out here this late, Mr. Howard?” Joan could see his neck starting to bulge and redden. She wished she could go inside before it got any worse.

Principal Howard cleared his throat, as if about to correct the other man, then thought better of it. “There was an incident at school today. Involving Joanie.”

Joan sighed. Of the long list of things she hated about her life, that nickname ranked near the top.

Steven Dark turned toward his daughter, and looked at her with raised eyebrows. “What happened, girl.” A command, not a question.

She looked at the ground instead of answering. Her one word response failed to be audible to anyone, even her.

“I said, what happened!” His voice went to maximum volume in a single step.

“Got inna fight.” She still mumbled, but knew better than to make him repeat any more.

Deborah Dark moved away from her husband and stood behind Joan, putting a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t say a word. Steven, however, was not happy. “A fight?” He looked at the principal. “What kinda fight?”

Dr. Howard began to realize that this might not have been the best approach to this situation. But he plowed on anyway. “She beat up one of the cheerleaders today in the locker room. Along with… other allegations.”

Joan looked up at that one. “What other allegations?” Her voice rose to match her father’s in volume and tone.

The principal regarded her. “They said you beat Amy-Beth up because she refused to kiss you.”

The silence after that statement was palpable. But it didn’t last for very long, as the two loudest people present spoke over one another.

“That’s a goddamn lie! She kissed me!”

“You goddamn harlot, trying to ruin us!”

Deborah’s hand yanked Joan back before she could take a step. Ma said nothing, but her fingers dug in to Joan’s collarbone.

Joan still tried to defend herself. “I didn’t do nothing!”

Steven raised an arm in the threat of a backhand, then remembered the other present company. “So she done it then, Mr. Howard?”

Principal Howard sighed, and nodded. “We have almost a dozen witnesses. Now granted, no teachers or staff, but,” his eyes turned toward Joan, “this is far from the first incident.”

Joan fumed. As did Steven, who asked, “What do you mean, not the first?”

His daughter tried to defend herself. “Papa, really. I didn’t do nothing. Honest.” She crossed herself. “Swear to God.”

That drew the backhand slap he’d already loaded. Dr. Howard winced. Her father refused to apologize for anything. “Don’t you dare take the Lord’s name in vain or bear false witness, child.” His voice had gone ice cold.

Deborah Dark broke her personal silence, a subtle attempt to defuse the explosive situation. “Dr. Howard, sir, what will the punishment be?” Her voice seemed soft and childlike, but clear. She wasn’t much older than her own children, and a similar gap existed between her and her husband.

The administrator shook his head for a moment, as if pulling himself from a daze. “Well, Joanie’s going to be suspended from school the rest of the week.” He turned to the girl, “You can ask your classmates for your homework assignments.”

“Can’t.” Her voice was tight, from the strain of holding herself rigid. “Don’t know anyone.”

This struck him as wrong. “You’ve attended North Davie for over two months. You attended elementary school with several of your peers. Your grades are almost perfect. You must know people, child.”

Deborah spoke again. Her husband had shut down, and Joan was on the verge of doing so as well. “Joanie doesn’t have many friends, Dr. Howard. She keeps to herself or with her brother. No one else that we know of.”

The principal nodded, looking between the three Darks. “Well, in that case, maybe….” He addressed Mr. Dark, but kept his voice level. “We’d considered her for Central Davie if any further issues arose. Perhaps we might go ahead and recommend that now?”

Joan’s heart sank. Fuck. Her father didn’t comprehend. “Central Davie, Mr. Howard?”

Dr. Howard cleared his throat and nodded. “Yes, sir, Central Davie Academy. It’s a school which both middle- and high-school students of your daughter’s caliber may attend in order to ensure that they reach their full potential.” Joan almost gaped, amazed at how thoroughly those words obscured the reality: it was the alternative school where delinquents and reprobates went, in order to keep them in school until the truancy laws no longer applied, isolating them from the “normal” kids.

Steven Dark rubbed his jaw, assessing his younger child. “Good luck getting her to do much of anything, Mr. Howard.” Without another word, he strode away, back to the house.

* * * * *

Joan went to bed with her supper after she and her mother returned to the house. Deborah had prepared her favorite, a pulled chicken sandwich with baked beans on the side. By the time Joan could eat, though, the beans had grown cold and the bread soggy. She ate about half of each, then sulked on her bed.

Her father’s truck drive off at six-thirty, going to his paid job at the jail. Joan felt sorry for whatever prisoners decided to test him tonight, what with the mood he carried with him.

Minutes after, Junior slipped in the bedroom door. “Ma’s cleaning the kitchen. Tell me what happened?” His voice was almost a whisper, even without their father around.

“Yeah, well, Amy-Beth Masterson pinned me against a locker and kissed me during free period.” She blushed, not wanting to talk about it, but knowing she needed to, since he’d get told a version the following day.

“She kissed you? Why?” Her brother sounded in awe. “Her sister’s beautiful. She look like Mary-Ann?”

Joan groaned at her brother’s lack of attention span. “I haven’t met Amy-Beth’s sister, so I can’t compare. And she did it because she figured out what today is.”

He blinked, surprised. “She kissed you for your birthday?”

She nodded. “They claimed it’s a thing, being kissed for your birthday. Except….” She blushed again and threw her face into her pillow. Not crying, just hiding.

“Except what?”

“Nothing! Go away!” Except it hadn’t been just any kiss. Amy-Beth’s hands had grabbed her. She’d been pressed hard and firm against the locker doors. It was violent. It was vicious.

It was totally awesome!

The problem was the other girls in the locker room, and their reactions. Some of them, like Amy-Beth, performed as cheerleaders, getting ready for the afternoon practice. Some, like Joan, played volleyball, cleaning out their lockers now that their season had ended. If it had just been Amy-Beth and herself, Joan could only dream of what might have happened next.

Instead, it was mocking. It was hateful. She was pretty sure it was all just a joke to Amy-Beth anyway. There could be no way that any other girls, popular and beautiful ones like Amy-Beth, beloved by all, would ever think about such things, much less act on them.

And that was something she couldn’t tell her brother. He wouldn’t understand. He was normal, at least from how he talked about Mary-Ann Masterson.

She was glad he didn’t ask about the “first incident” either. Though that one was an honest and naive accident. It was her first time in the locker room and being around other girls. She didn’t mean to…. Well, Coach Jefferson caught her staring. Not just shy glances, like some of the other girls gave her. Coach let her stay on the team, and said she wouldn’t tell anyone, but it got around somehow. Or else Dr. Howard wouldn’t know. Amy-Beth wouldn’t know. None of the others would have known.

It’s just as well she was transferring to Central Davie. I’ll never be able to face those girls again.

* * * * *

A week later, Joan’s first day at the alternative school went far more different than she’d expected. Of course, rumors abounded about Central Davie Academy throughout the rest of the school district, causing Joan to imagine it akin to the Davie Detention Center, where her father worked as a guard on the night shift.

The reality of it was quite different. Her classes had just five students, and there was a single school security guard assigned to the facility, same as every other school she’d been to. In fact, the guard was the first woman she’d ever seen in uniform, excepting of course the ones on TV. Officer L. Maxwell was as unlike any law enforcement person she’d ever met as her parents were unlike each other.

In fact, she joined Joan at lunch, while about thirty other students lounged around the courtyard in small groups of twos and threes. “Joanie Dark?”

The young woman moaned. “Please, it’s Joan, Mrs. Maxwell.” She took a bite of the bologna sandwich that her mother packed that morning.

“Ok, Joan it is then. In that case, I’m either Officer or Miss, not Missus. Or Lily if you happen to see me off-campus.” Joan assessed the woman again, curious. She was a larger woman—about the same height and build as her father. Which made sense, in a way, given that she worked as a security guard. She had long curly red hair tied back, pale cheeks, and dimples.

“Yes, Miss Maxwell.” Joan smiled without intending to. “Though I’m not sure why you’d want to have lunch with me.”

“Because I know all about you, Joan.”

She blanched at that, her blood sinking all the way down to her feet. “You do?”

The officer nodded, “I have to know about all the students, to know which ones might be an issue.” She added, with a smile, “Don’t worry, you’re not one. I know.”

Joan gulped. “I’m not? But….”

The older woman shook her head. “I know a clique when I read about one. A dozen girls with the exact same story?” She rolled her eyes. “Please.”

“But… but… I’m the one being punished!” Joan argued. “Who do I need to talk to?”

Lily laughed. Loudly. “You know it doesn’t work that way. Besides, why?”

The girl scowled. “Because they lied about me!”

“Did they?”

Silence. Again, Joan went pale.

“There were five documented complaints about you making the other girls ‘uncomfortable.’ Did you know that?”

Joan shook her head. “Nobody told me about any except the first, I don’t think?”

“They don’t know how to deal with that sort of thing. Rumors and accusations like that can be worse than a witch hunt. Whether true or not. So they tried to sweep it under the rug.”

It all made sudden sense. The “issue” Dr. Howard had referred to wasn’t just that first time. “Was I that obvious?”

Maxwell nodded. “But it’s okay. None of the students here know. And they won’t, unless you tell them.”

Joan boggled. “Why in the world would I tell them any such thing?”

Officer Maxwell grinned. “Miss Dark, you need to learn to pay attention to your surroundings.”

So Joan cast a quick glance around the courtyard. And froze. Several couples snuggled together on benches at picnic tables. Most of them appeared… well, normal, by her old way of thinking. However, two boys-only couples and one that consisted of two girls sat among the others. All cuddled together, as if it were the most natural thing on Earth. Granted, they were all high-school-aged, not middle school like her. But… there weren’t any reactions or repercussions from the other students. Instead, it felt permitted. Accepted. Normal.

“More than kissing isn’t allowed, of course, same as anyone else.” The officer’s voice broke into her thoughts. “But not all of these kids are here to protect other students from them; some are here to protect them from the other students. Just like you are.”

Joan blushed again. “How…?”

“How did I know?” Lily Maxwell smiled vaguely. “Let’s just say I recognized the signs.”