since Dogwood didn’t have one. They had been trying desperately to introduce Penny to more modern music. Her taste in music, old rock ‘n’ roll and classical, quite frankly disturbed them.
Jenny, Susan’s only employee at Sullivan’s, arrived just as Susan was loading one of Penny’s new CDs into the living room stereo. She parked and approached the house slowly, shading her eyes with a hand and scanning the growing crowd around the front of Penny’s house. As if unsatisfied by her brief search of the partygoers, she turned her scrutiny to the cars and bikes parked around the edge of the driveway.
Penny waved and stepped down to greet her.
She was young, only a few years out of high school, plump, with brown hair and thick glasses that magnified her wide eyes. She reminded Penny of a cheerful owl.
“Who are you looking for?”
Jenny gave up her search with a shrug and a grin at Penny. “I thought Susan’s boyfriend might show up.”
Boyfriend ? Penny thought, then said. “Boyfriend? Susan doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
“Well, not yet ,” Jenny said. “Is that Adele?”
Jenny danced her way up to the porch, depositing her gift into Penny’s hands before going inside to dance to Zoe and Katie’s attempt at bringing Penny’s music collection into the twenty-first century.
Jenny’s gift was, of course, a book, but still one of the biggest surprises that day. The Aikido Student Handbook , a volume Penny had owned a few years before when she still lived with her mother in San Francisco and her runty size had made her a favorite target of neighborhood bullies. Her brief lessons had not turned her into the Karate Kid, but she’d learned to defend herself, and more importantly, as far as her mother was concerned anyway, to control the hot temper that would never let her walk away from a fight. She supposed that Susan had known about the lessons and told Jenny.
“Aikido,” Chelsea said, almost sneering at the book in Penny’s hands, then at Penny. Her expression seemed to say, right … as if .
At Chelsea’s words, the others gathered around to see what was up.
“You never told me you were a kung fu master,” Katie teased.
“Aikido,” Penny corrected, blushing all the way from her neck to her forehead. “I was a novice.”
She’d never mentioned it to Zoe or Katie because it was a part of her past life in the city and not something she’d planned taking up again. Her learned skills were rusty now, and the self-control she’d gained had gone out the window after her mom had died and Child Protective Services stuck her in that lousy children’s home.
“Oh yeah, I knew that,” Zoe said, tipping Penny a not-so-sly wink. “She beat Rooster up in the park the day I met her.”
“Fun, isn’t it?” Trey said, and nervous laughter filled the awkward silence that followed Zoe’s fond reminiscence. “I shoved him in a trashcan once.”
They were gathering trash and seeing off the first of her guests — Trey, Jodi, and Chelsea — when Penny felt the little mirror in her front pocket begin to warm and vibrate slightly, someone trying to speak to her through it. She wondered who other than Zoe and Katie, standing only feet from her and perfectly able to speak directly to her, would try to reach her through the mirrors, then remembered Ronan’s advice to always keep one handy.
Penny excused herself, ducked into the downstairs bathroom, and answered it.
“Ronan?”
Ronan’s face swam from a brief, obscuring mist, grinning his foxy grin at her.
“Didn’t have time to give you your gift before you ran off,” he said.
“What?” Of all the people, or non-people, she expected a birthday gift from, Ronan was not one. Not that he wasn’t a giving or generous … uh, whatever he was, but he couldn’t just trot into the Centralia Mall’s Hot Topic and buy her a gift card.
Ronan rolled his eyes, which was quite something to see a fox
Jenny, Susan’s only employee at Sullivan’s, arrived just as Susan was loading one of Penny’s new CDs into the living room stereo. She parked and approached the house slowly, shading her eyes with a hand and scanning the growing crowd around the front of Penny’s house. As if unsatisfied by her brief search of the partygoers, she turned her scrutiny to the cars and bikes parked around the edge of the driveway.
Penny waved and stepped down to greet her.
She was young, only a few years out of high school, plump, with brown hair and thick glasses that magnified her wide eyes. She reminded Penny of a cheerful owl.
“Who are you looking for?”
Jenny gave up her search with a shrug and a grin at Penny. “I thought Susan’s boyfriend might show up.”
Boyfriend ? Penny thought, then said. “Boyfriend? Susan doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
“Well, not yet ,” Jenny said. “Is that Adele?”
Jenny danced her way up to the porch, depositing her gift into Penny’s hands before going inside to dance to Zoe and Katie’s attempt at bringing Penny’s music collection into the twenty-first century.
Jenny’s gift was, of course, a book, but still one of the biggest surprises that day. The Aikido Student Handbook , a volume Penny had owned a few years before when she still lived with her mother in San Francisco and her runty size had made her a favorite target of neighborhood bullies. Her brief lessons had not turned her into the Karate Kid, but she’d learned to defend herself, and more importantly, as far as her mother was concerned anyway, to control the hot temper that would never let her walk away from a fight. She supposed that Susan had known about the lessons and told Jenny.
“Aikido,” Chelsea said, almost sneering at the book in Penny’s hands, then at Penny. Her expression seemed to say, right … as if .
At Chelsea’s words, the others gathered around to see what was up.
“You never told me you were a kung fu master,” Katie teased.
“Aikido,” Penny corrected, blushing all the way from her neck to her forehead. “I was a novice.”
She’d never mentioned it to Zoe or Katie because it was a part of her past life in the city and not something she’d planned taking up again. Her learned skills were rusty now, and the self-control she’d gained had gone out the window after her mom had died and Child Protective Services stuck her in that lousy children’s home.
“Oh yeah, I knew that,” Zoe said, tipping Penny a not-so-sly wink. “She beat Rooster up in the park the day I met her.”
“Fun, isn’t it?” Trey said, and nervous laughter filled the awkward silence that followed Zoe’s fond reminiscence. “I shoved him in a trashcan once.”
They were gathering trash and seeing off the first of her guests — Trey, Jodi, and Chelsea — when Penny felt the little mirror in her front pocket begin to warm and vibrate slightly, someone trying to speak to her through it. She wondered who other than Zoe and Katie, standing only feet from her and perfectly able to speak directly to her, would try to reach her through the mirrors, then remembered Ronan’s advice to always keep one handy.
Penny excused herself, ducked into the downstairs bathroom, and answered it.
“Ronan?”
Ronan’s face swam from a brief, obscuring mist, grinning his foxy grin at her.
“Didn’t have time to give you your gift before you ran off,” he said.
“What?” Of all the people, or non-people, she expected a birthday gift from, Ronan was not one. Not that he wasn’t a giving or generous … uh, whatever he was, but he couldn’t just trot into the Centralia Mall’s Hot Topic and buy her a gift card.
Ronan rolled his eyes, which was quite something to see a fox
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