The Ending Beginnings: Clara (An Ending Series Novella) (The Ending Series) by Lindsey Fairleigh, Lindsey Pogue Page A

again, Clara often thought her mom was just an
uneducated hussy. At least, that’s what she’d heard other people say about her…when
they weren’t saying worse things.
    The
older Clara was, the more she heard and the more she understood. Part of her
knew thinking mean things about her own mom was wrong, but she couldn’t help
it. Eye rolling and hateful thoughts had become the norm for Clara when she was
around her mom.
    “Love
is for blind fools, Clara Bear, and blind fools deserve whatever comes to
them.”
    Clara
wondered if her mom had ever been in love. From the sound of it, Clara thought
probably not. She knew her own dad was nothing more than a handsome face
passing through town; her mom had said as much herself.
    Clara
resituated herself on the bench of the lunch table. The sound of squeaky soles
on the polished floor behind her drew her attention away from her book. Pushing
her glasses up on the bridge of her nose, she looked over her shoulder at the
cafeteria entrance. Patrick was heading her way.
    “Hey,”
he said, stopping at the end of the cafeteria table.
    “Um…hey.”
Clara smiled dumbly, her eyes darting to her beat-up lunch pail, the same Care
Bears one she’d been forced to use since elementary school. She shoved it into
her backpack.
    “You
working on Mrs. Larson’s homework already?” He hoisted his backpack up onto his
shoulder and pointed to the open book lying on the table in front of Clara.
    “Oh”—she
held up the book of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales—“yeah. Just trying to
get a head start on the book report.” Although it was partially true, she
really loved fairy tales, even if these versions were darker than the ones she
was familiar with.
    Patrick
smirked. “We still have, like, three weeks.”
    Clara
shrugged. She refused to tell him she had nothing else to do. “I think I might
be going on vacation next week,” she lied. “I don’t want to fall behind.” Clara
couldn’t bear for Patrick, the boy of her dreams, her very own Prince Charming—even
if he didn’t know it yet—to learn how boring and lonely she was. “Have you
started yet?”
    He
shook his head, his smirk turning into a smile. His eyes flicked down to her
book. “Any of it any good?”
    Clara
couldn’t hold back the grin that engulfed her face. “The one I’m reading now is
pretty good,” she said, not wanting to go so far as to admit she was enthralled
with The Little Mermaid. “But I love fairy tales, so…”
    Patrick
eyed her for a moment, then took a step closer. “Cool. Maybe there’ll be a
story in there that I’ll like.”
    Clara
wondered why he’d stopped to talk to her, but didn’t have the guts to ask. “Maybe.”
    “So…where
are you going on vacation?”
    “Oh,
umm, I’m not sure…somewhere with my mom’s boyfriend, I think.”
    Snickering
and cackling broke into the stillness of the cafeteria behind her, and Clara
and Patrick both started. Her heart began to race. No. Please ,
she silently begged. Not now …
    Patrick
peered over her head, his eyes narrowing. “What’s so funny?”
    Clara
squeezed her eyes shut, wishing Joanna Rossi, with her long black hair and
crystal blue eyes, would just disappear already…forever. She was the most
horrid girl at school and seemed to love torturing Clara more than anything
else.
    “She’s
not going on vacation,” Joanna spat. “She’s such a liar.” Her voice grew closer
with the sound of each footstep until she finally stepped around the lunch
table and planted herself beside Patrick. She looped her arm through his, and
her friends strutted up to the other end of the table to watch, like perched
vultures waiting to pick away at what was left of Clara once Joanna was
finished.
    Why
didn’t Patrick push Joanna away? Why wouldn’t he at least pull his arm out of
hers? They weren’t together ,
were they?
    Joanna’s
eyes zeroed in on Clara. “You’re so pathetic. We all know your mom
can’t afford to take you