How I Fly by Anne Eliot Page B

normally do, I simply wink back.
    Harrison raises his brows as if that response really surprised him, and the way he loses a bit of that sassy twinkle in his eyes and turns slightly red, like I’ve called some sort of huge bluff on the guy, makes me laugh out loud. The peals coming from deep in my belly rattle through my chest and echo down the hall. Patrick and Laura freeze in their tracks and look back at both of us as though they’ve seen a ghost.
    “What? Did you forget something?” I ask, still laughing while pausing to catch my breath, knowing full well why they’re gaping at me like two open-mouthed fish.
    I’m equally surprised. I haven’t laughed like this since…well…since forever.
    I meet Patrick’s perplexed gaze with a grin I can’t seem to erase, wishing I could shout out that he and Laura were right all along. He smiles softly at me, and for the first time in months, he’s lost the worried glint that’s been housed in the back of his eyes since the first day he saw me in my hospital bed. Laura cracks me up even more, because she’s obviously holding back some sort of dancing leap-hug that would be really awkward and misplaced if she launched it right at me here and now.
    It is time for me to move on, and I think, thanks to Harrison Shaw, I just crossed the threshold. After lunch I’ll applaud my friends’ self-control.
    I don’t think it’s going to be a difficult sell when I tell them we’re keeping Harrison Shaw as our new friend for the entire summer.

 

 
    Cam
     
    My social worker, Tom, comes into the holding area where the juvenile court system keeps us as we wait for our monthly meeting with the judges. His eyes are positively sparkling. This is notable, because Tom has never sparkled about anything in his life.
    “Camden Campbell, you’re up first. First!” He smiles at me, still with this strange look on his face.
    “Hey now.” I frown, looking at the other kids. “That’s out of alphabetical order. What about Andrew Adams? Isn’t that going to mess up the entire computer system for our entire nation? On behalf of the taxpayers, I protest, because I’ve only just started reading this chapter.” I hold up my Digital Photography book, but Tom’s face is so strangely cheerful he makes my throat go sort of dry. I try to joke again: “Does this mean we have to go back early? Court day is my only day off to read, you know?”
    A couple of the other guys laugh.
    “Don’t joke, Cam, today of all days. Please don’t joke. And I’m happy you brought that book along. It’s going to help your case, so try to use it as a prop to show you are both studious and serious.”
    “My case? Why?”
    A flat-faced, blue-uniformed security guard comes to the door and calls through a buzzer, “Camden Campbell. Number 4567. Camden Campbell, please report to Courtroom Four with your assigned social worker.”
    She buzzes the door to unlock it, and Tom drags me along with him while the others curiously stare.
    I’m muttering, but it’s coming out way too quietly for anyone but Tom to hear me. “No one ever goes out of alphabetical order. Wait. Wait. Shouldn’t we be talking about why? Or what’s going on? Something’s going on, isn’t it?”
    My heart starts beating way too fast, and my feet have suddenly turned to lead blocks.
    When we’re in the hallway and out of hearing range of the other kids, Tom leans down while we’re walking and locks my gaze. “Kid, listen. Your family isn’t famous for self-control. As a matter of fact, in this courtroom, your parents are now infamous for their lack of control as the first people to ever actually throw things. So…whatever you see and whoever might be in that room, I need you to stay completely and absolutely calm. No. Matter. What. Give me calm. Got it?”
    “Who is in the room? Who? ” I choke out, almost in full panic now, praying down to my core that it’s not my dad. But I know it’s him. Dad’s got more money and attorneys