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BURNWOOD

  The Dragon Arum

  By Sarah La Rose

  Copyright © 2010 by Sarah La Rose

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  www.sarahlarosebooks.com

 

  For my best friend Andrew Gray for your unshaken belief in me, for my good friend Andrew Erdman for taking the risk that started this all, and for my three beautiful children for being a constant reminder of how blessed I truly am.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  CHAPTER ONE

  Not again! Why is this happening to me?

  I turned to my side and hid beneath the cover of my thick, feathered pillow, but it wasn’t enough. The sound pierced through the fluff only slightly muffled. I sunk further into my teal-covered duvet, still holding the pillow tightly against my ears. It was useless- nothing could stop this torment.

  “Uncle Felix!”

  It was a few seconds before the door swung open and his freshly shaved face appeared. He always looked so handsome in the mornings when he was preparing for court. His brown hair fell just short of his chin and was combed back into a low ponytail, which always seemed to get caught in one of his numerous dress shirts. This particular morning he wore a light blue shirt and the shiny grey tie I had bought him last Christmas.

  “Annabelle, you’re awake,” he said with mock surprise. He propped himself against the door frame with his arms folded, and a grin only morning people could wear this early in the day.

  “Well, that is precisely what your off-key singing will do to a person,” I grumbled. “So if you wouldn’t mind…”

  “Tone it down? Not a chance.” He crossed the room, carefully dodging the array of boxes standing in his way, and snatched the blanket from on top of me.

  The cool air felt like ice against my skin. I shivered and used my giant body pillow as a poor substitute.

  “What are you doing?” I shouted.

  “Annabelle, you’re acting like you’ve never endured a Monday morning before.”

  “You don’t mean…” I couldn’t bear to say the words. They were simply too horrifying to think of. He couldn’t possibly mean…

  “That’s right! It’s your first day of school.”

  He smiled and it made me want to launch across the room in full-on attack mode.

  “But you always give me three days to adjust to a new town before I have to go to school. We just got here last night. I need more time.”

  “I know that’s what we usually do, but today’s the first day of school for everyone, and I think it would be better for you to start alongside the rest of the kids here. You will be able to start the year just like everyone else.”

  I hated the first day of school, usually because it was never the first day for anyone else but me. The awkward silence and wavering stares were enough to make anyone dread such a day, and I was no exception. At least this time I could blend right in with the masses and avoid the uncomfortable introductions that usually commenced the humiliation.

  I sighed. “Okay.”

  But it wasn’t okay. How could he expect me to be ready for my first day at school already? I had a routine, a system, a list of things to do before my first appearance. Without that routine, the success of my first day was in the wind. As if moving for the zillionth time wasn’t enough!

  “That’s the spirit!” he said, ruffling my hair with his fist. “I’ll let you get dressed, but be quick. I need to be in the city for court in a couple hours.”

  “Why didn’t we just move to the city then?” I rolled to my side and flung my feet over the edge of my bed, propelling myself up. “Why did we move to this shabby little town if you have to be in the city anyway?”

  “I don’t work in the city,” he said. “Like I said yesterday, I work here, in Burnwood. I just have court appearances in the city.”

  I pulled open the window curtains and peered out at the row of Victorian-style homes lining the street, and then at the vast space covered only by trees and bushes as far as the eye can see.

  “I still don’t see why we couldn’t live in the city. Surely there has to be a greater demand for lawyers there than there is here.”

  He ran his hand through his hair and briefly looked away. “Just get ready for school, okay?”

  I stared at him, unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong. There was something very off about his behavior, and it had started the second we drove into this ancient, little town.

  He left the room and I went to work getting ready for school. Most of my stuff was still packed away in boxes and I had to scramble through my suitcase to find something suitable to wear. Finally, I settled on a navy blue, high-waist pencil skirt, and a thick-strapped white striped tank top. It was plain, so I added the red belt to my waist to add some color. The heels would have to do the rest.

  I maneuvered around the stack of boxes scattered around the house until I found the little kitchen at the back of the house.

  The house was old, so it creaked with every step I took. It had a simple Victorian style, but modern and newly renovated fixtures. The three bedroom, two-story house was small, but it was more than enough for just the two of us.

  “Ready,” I announced entering the kitchen.

  “Great!” He carried two paper plates to the dining room table. “There’s not much to cook with so this will have to do.”

  “I really hate these seedy things on the top but I’m guessing there’s not much better kicking around, is there?” I bit into my bagel, ignoring the crunchy feeling of the seeds in my mouth.

  “I’ll have the refrigerator full for you when you get home,” he said as he held the front door open for me.

  I nodded and followed him to the car.

  “If you want we can stop at the town square and get you something else.”

  “I’m not so sure we should trust the culinary abilities of anyone in this...” I scrunched up my nose distastefully and continued “in this town.”

  I meant it as a joke, but the way his face dropped made me wish I hadn’t said anything at all.

  “You should try to be more open-minded to Burnwood. It has more to offer you than you think.”

  I laughed. I knew I shouldn’t have, but it just came out of me like a catapult.

  “I seriously doubt that,” I said, taking another bite of my half-eaten bagel.

  He didn’t reply
and part of me, that overactive conscious of mine, begged me to be quiet, but I never listened to that part of me.

  “Why are we even here?” I blurted out. “There’s nothing here. You have to drive into the city for court everyday…”

  “It’s not every day, Annabelle.” He was quiet for a moment. “I only need to drive into Portland once a week at most.”

  “The city would be better,” I said, hardly recognizing the desperation in my voice.

  He glared at me and then he blinked and his hazel eyes softened. “You’ll make new friends here. You’ll see.”

  “Doesn’t really matter, though, right?” I stared out the window with my arms folded tightly across my chest. “I mean, why make friends when another move is inevitably going to uproot me again.”

  He sighed. Like usual, the numerous abrupt relocations were clearly not something he wanted to talk about.

  “Things are different now, Annabelle.”

  “How?”

  “They just are!” He gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened.

  I pouted silently until we pulled in front of a three-story brick building. It was huge with freshly painted white windowsills across the entire front of the school, which glimmered so brightly I couldn’t look directly at them. The entrance had three sets of large wooden doors, which swung violently as students made their way inside. The yard surrounding the school was so large that it looked more like a park than a field.

  “This is it?” I said, staring up at the castle-like structure.

  It was far larger and in much better shape than I had anticipated. The windowsills sparkled under the sunlight and there wasn’t a single shingle out of place. Even the large rustic doors at the front seemed in good repair as a flood of students rushed passed them.

  “Oh no. No, no, no! Crap!”

  Felix looked over his shoulder and then the other, frantically scanning our surroundings. “What’s wrong?”

  “Plaid. That’s what’s wrong!” I twisted around and reached across the back seat until my hand felt a long leather strap. I yanked the duffle bag onto my lap and ruffled through it until I found my red flip flops.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Look around- jeans and plaid. That’s what they’re all wearing.” I kicked off my heels and slipped on my flip flops.

  He took one look at my outfit and burst into laughter.

  I narrowed my eyes. “I’m glad you find this so hilarious.”

  He coughed, trying to resume his composure, but even so a slight grin remained imprinted on his face.

  “You could’ve given me a heads up that everyone here dressed like… well, I don’t really know what to call that,” I said as my eyes followed a slim brunette girl dressed in the traditional plaid and blue jeans.

  He raised his hands defensively. “I didn’t know.”

  I unpinned my hair and shook it loose. I opened the tiny mirror on the car visor and wiped the shimmering peach eye shadow from my eyelids.

  He laughed. “I guess you’re going to need a wardrobe change and, dare I say it, new shoes.”

  The words hit me like a train.

  “New shoes. You don’t mean…”

  “I don’t think you’ll have any use for heels here.”

  I looked out the window to survey the crowd once again. He was right. There wasn’t a single student in the area with heels- just flats, sneakers, and flip flops.

  “Should I box up your collection and send them away?”

  “Don’t you dare,” I shot back. “I’ll store them in my closet.”

  “Your closet is too small for that many shoes.”

  “Then I’ll store them in your closet.”

  He raised his brow and all signs of humor drained from his face. His eyes trailed off to the massive brick building in front of us and mine followed. The herd of plaid had made their way inside the building, leaving the school yard looking vast and empty.

  “Want me to come in with you?”

  I whipped my head around and stared at him in disbelief.

  “You’re not serious. As if being the new girl isn’t bad enough. You come in there with me and the next thing I know I get labeled a gold-digging hussy and you a cradle-robbing perv.”

  He leaned back in his seat and ran a hand through his hair. “The Boston mishap of your freshmen year.”

  When I was a child no one ever questioned our relation to one another, but as I entered my midteens the age difference between Uncle Felix and I just wasn’t great enough to deter stares and rumors. He still looked like he was in his late 20s, and in my high-heels I could almost pass for 18. It wasn’t long before ill-informed assumptions made their way around the school. It was eventually cleared up, but not before a significant amount of embarrassment.

  “Well, I guess I better get going then.”

  I opened the door but my foot barely touched the ground before I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder.

  “Wait,” he said, grabbing my cellphone from my hand. “In case I’m not back by the time you finish here, use this to get home.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I know how to use Google maps.”

  “Yeah, but I bet you don’t remember the address.” He punched in the address and slipped my phone into my bag.

  “Thanks,” I said, managing a small smile.

  He winked. “See you later kid.”

  I nodded, but my feet didn’t move. I forced the lump in my throat down and closed the car door before I second guessed myself and jumped back in.

  He unrolled the window. “Hey, you’re going to like it here. It’s going to be a whole new beginning for you.”

  I sighed. A new beginning that would end like all the others.