A Missing Peace by Beth Fred Page A

that we aren’t citizens. She is. Abrahem painted the door without reporting it.
    â€œThey don’t know that. I doubt they’d believe me.”
    â€œYou called the police, didn’t you?”
    â€œNo, my brother repainted the door.”
    â€œLet’s go.” Morgan grabbed my hand.
    â€œWhere are we going?”
    â€œThe library to print her profile pic. If she threatens you again, threaten her back.”

Chapter 12
    Caleb
    After a week in the hospital, I got to go home. It would be a couple of weeks before I could go back to school. I couldn’t take stairs or do anything more than walk. Even walking was limited, because standing hurt like hell. No running or jogging for a while, and I might need physical therapy to get my right leg functioning correctly again.
    My first day home, the guys came over with pizza. It was the second day that things started getting interesting.
    I was lying on the couch, because I couldn’t take the stairs to my room yet. I was willing to throw this piece of medical advice out the window, but I couldn’t figure out how to get up the stairs dragging my leg behind me.
    There was a knock at the door, and I yelled, “Come in,” expecting to see Josh or Matt or both come through the door. Instead, Mirriam burst in like a stick of dynamite. She didn’t say anything. She held her body so tight every breath looked painful. She wore a straight face, but the effort she put into not glaring at me was obvious. She was more than angry. We were back to the first day I saw her, and I had no idea why. I hadn’t even been around for a week. I wasn’t sure what I could have done.
    â€œYou wanna sit down?” I asked.
    She moved almost robotically to a chair across from the couch. She stared at me, and the silence we were captured in bothered me. Mirriam was not the kind of girl to go quiet when she was mad.
    She knew about the bet. That had to be it. Why else would she be sitting across from me too mad to speak?
    I broke the ice. “Thank you.”
    â€œFor what?”
    â€œPulling me out of the road that night.”
    â€œIt was the decent thing to do.”
    It may have been, but it was more than that, too. She proved it the way she hovered over me until the ambulance got there and then sat in the hospital until my mom came. But I didn’t say anything yet. If I waited a little longer, she would tear into me. I would feel better when she did, and she would get over it.
    She reached into her grey and pink backpack and grabbed a book and a few sheets of paper. She tossed them onto the coffee table that filled the space between us. “I brought notes and some books, so you can prepare your side of the debate.”
    â€œI don’t get a vacation after being hit by a car?”
    â€œI need an A.”
    â€œRight.” She stood, but before she could turn for the door I said, “Leaving so soon?”
    She took a step toward me. “You got me out of the house that night.”
    â€œWhat?”
    She laughed. “Caleb, let’s face it. The way you just randomly started walking home, volunteering to be my partner, suggesting Friday night study sessions—none of it ever made sense. I’m not the kind of girl that attracts football players, and I’m definitely not the kind of girl that attracts wannabe jarheads. I should have been the only person home that night, and you made sure I wasn’t there. You gave her free reign, and then since she accidentally ended up at Pizza Hut, she has a solid alibi.”
    â€œWho? What are we talking about?”
    Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Goodbye, Caleb.” She left.
    The first day I met her, seeing Mirriam cry might have been impressive. It would have made her human. But since then, I’d seen so many things that proved she had a good heart. I didn’t want to see this. I’d rather get hit by a car again than see Mirriam cry, and I was kind of