The Crimson Brand by Brian Knight Page A

Riggs climbed from the car and approached the porch in a stiff-backed march, as if someone held a gun to her back and was forcing her to be there.  She was dressed more casually than Penny had ever seen her, crisp new blue jeans and a pink western-style shirt, but her hair was pulled back into its customary, painfully tight bun.  She carried a small package under one arm, which shot down Penny’s hope that she was only there for something quick and entirely unrelated to Penny’s party.
    Susan saw her and excused herself from conversation with Katie’s older brother, who then turned his attention to Trey.  Trey, looking All-American with his crew-cut hair and football letterman jacket, was trying unsuccessfully to flirt with Zoe.
    Zoe, already rather red in the cheeks, went even redder and slid down a few more inches in her chair.
    Susan smiled and waved at her sister, but the smile was considerably lower-wattage than usual.  “Hi, June.”
    When her classmates saw the dreaded Miss Riggs approaching, their enthusiastic chatter became subdued, as if they were afraid of being told off for talking too loudly out of class. 
    Susan offered her standard hug, which Miss Riggs accepted with obvious bad grace and broke too quickly, then, seeing her sister’s effect on the party, led her inside.
    Nervous eyes watched the two pass, and obvious relief filled the crowded porch when the door closed behind them.
    “What is she doing here?”  Katie and Ellen flanked Penny, Katie looking darkly amused, Ellen a little startled.  Chelsea stood next to Jodi, her arms crossed and looking as if she were planning her escape route. 
    “She’s here to lead us in a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday,’” Michael said, sliding in smoothly on Katie’s other side.
    Zoe flicked her nervous eyes from the closed front door to Michael and giggled.
    “Penny’s just lucky I guess,” Chelsea said, favoring Penny with a look that was almost sympathetic.
    Katie ignored them.  “Seriously … who invited that killjoy?”
    “Shhh … not so loud,” Jodi moaned.  “She’ll hear you.”
    “I can hear them fighting,” Zoe said in a low voice, and made room for Penny to stand beside the kitchen window and listen.  Katie and the others kept a distance from them, but waited with curiosity. 
    Whatever the fight was about, it was a short one.  Penny heard only retreating footsteps from her side of the kitchen window, and a moment later Miss Riggs was striding past them again, toward her car, and without the package.
    “What…?”
    Zoe cut Penny’s question off with a quick shake of her head, and then Susan was behind her. 
    “Everyone ready for some cake?”  Susan carried a knife and a short stack of paper plates, but not her sister’s package.  Her good cheer was definitely forced now.
    Later , Zoe mouthed at Penny, and jumped up to help serve cake.  
    Afterward, Susan led them in a single, lackluster chorus of “Happy Birthday,” and Penny opened her gifts.  There were only two on the table, one from Susan and, though Penny had told her friends no gifts , one from Zoe and Katie.  Penny was relieved that Miss Riggs’s mysterious package wasn’t on the table.  She had no idea what Miss Riggs would consider an appropriate gift for a fourteen-year-old, and didn’t want to find out. 
    Susan’s was a laptop computer, the tiniest one Penny had ever seen.
    “I’m having internet installed this afternoon,” she said as Penny tore open the box.  “I’m always thoroughly sick of computers by the time I leave work, but I thought you might like to join the twenty-first century.”
    Penny liked it so much she gave Susan another hug, which seemed to cheer Susan up a bit.  Her smile as Penny moved on to her second gift was less brilliant than usual, but also less fake than the one she’d offered after her sister’s quick exit.
    Zoe and Katie’s gift was a pair of CDs, from the new/used music store in Centralia, Penny guessed,