Brigitte -Chapter One

Indian Summer

Chapter ONE - Thieves and Liars

Brigitte walked to school barely noticing the beautiful Oregon spring budding all around her. Wallowing deep in self-pity even the twittering of a large blue-jay couple scourging for nesting materials didn’t distract her from her misery. She missed her best friend, Teena Long, with her whole heart.

As she walked slowly along, she remembered with aching sadness, every spring from their first to sixth grade years, the two of them skipping up the sidewalk making up silly songs and playing as they joyfully made their way to school. And, every afternoon throughout all those years, the two of them studying together at Teena’s house, eating cookies and having fun while they challenged one another to better and better grades. Those were the best times. Then, at the end of sixth grade, Teena’s family moved all the way to Nebraska, leaving Brigitte to face seventh grade alone.

At first Brigitte tried to make other friends, but none of the kids were interested in things like reading and discussing Newberry award winners or making time-line cards from history books or memorizing algebraic formulas like she and Teena were. Without Teena, she still found herself, academically, at the top of the class, but, now very alone.

That’s what she was thinking about that warm April lunch hour as she sat on the swing drawing figures in the dirt with the toe of her left shoe. Emily and Melody startled her when they approached. “Hey there Brigitte, what’s up?”

Like Brigitte, both Emily Jones and Melody Parker were in the seventh grade, but, up until earlier this week they’d never really spoken to her. In fact, they usually only talked to one another, standing back away from the rest of the class, they hung out in the shadows and corners whispering and giggling only to each other.


“Not much, what’s up with you?” She shielded her eyes from the sun to look up at them and answer.

“We just noticed you hanging out alone. How’d you like to hang out with us today?” The bigger of the two, Emily, invited.

Half way through the school year these two girls earned the distinct title of ‘toughest girls in seventh grade’ when they fought an eighth grade girl in the bathroom at school and even though the fight wasn’t fair, two against one, they won. Wearing blue-jean jackets rolled up at the sleeves, black t-shirts and dark make-up made them look tough and mysterious. Every one avoided them. But, Brigitte wished for a friend, and by three-quarters of the way through seventh grade, even they would be better than nothing she decided.

“Alright.” Brigitte said hesitantly as she stood from the swing to join them.

Without saying much they led her back to the school building where they in their dark clothes, she in her pink Capri’s, finished the lunch hour in the shadows of the brick building just standing together, thumbs in their belt loops, doing their best to look tough.

On Tuesday the two girls were leaning against a brick wall near the school entrance waiting for her when she arrived at the school. It felt good when she saw them waiting for her like she meant something to them. For the rest of the week they met her at the front of the school in the morning, hung out with her at lunch and walked her out of the school at the end of each day.

Even though they didn’t share her academic interests, and in fact, didn’t really say much at all, she liked having someone to hang out with. She started wearing her blue jeans and darker tops to school to be more like them and noticed that others looked now when she walked by. Guys and girls sometimes even stepped back to let the new trio by. She took pride in this new-found recognition and respect. Imitating Emily, she sometimes even threw an intimidating look to ward off the meek.




On Friday the two cornered her at her locker as she prepared to leave school for the weekend, “We’re going to the mall after school, want to go?” Emily asked her chomping noisily on a big wad of gum with each word.

“Yeah, come with us. You’ll have fun.” Melody piped.

“Uh, I don’t know if I can. I’ll have to ask my mom.” Brigitte told them.


“Oh come on. You’re almost thirteen years old. Your mom’s at work isn’t she? If we just ride the bus, we’ll hang out there a little while and you’ll be home before your mom knows you even went anywhere.” Emily assured her.

She knew she shouldn’t, but, after-all, she would soon be thirteen years old and she was plenty big enough to ride the buses and hang out at the mall like her friends did. She decided they were right; her mom wouldn’t even have to know. Using the dollar she carried deep in the pocket of her bag for ‘just in-case’ to buy a one-day bus pass and went with her new friends, to the mall.

When they got to the mall and started going in to shops, Brigitte tried to show them things she liked, but neither seemed to care. They kept giggling like they shared some secret, but they weren’t talking. They were only giggling like they were sharing some private joke between only the two of them.

“What’s going on?” She finally asked Melody at the door to the third store.

Melody looked at her with big round innocent eyes and shrugged. “We’re just having fun, aren’t you?”

“Come on you two. This one’s my favorite. Look at all the jewelry.” Emily called to the two of them.

Brigitte was getting irritated with the whole window-shopping deal and was wishing she had gone home where at least she could be reading her new literature book, or doing her algebra math problems. She felt left out and wasn’t comfortable with how secretive they were acting.

“Guys, I want to go home.” She told them as they gathered at a rack of cheap earrings at the back of the store.

“Not yet. We’re having fun.” Melody said.

“This isn’t fun. We’re just looking at stuff we can’t have.” Brigitte complained. “Anyway, I have homework I need to get done.”

“If you didn’t want to hang out with us, you should have said so.” The larger girl told her.
“Come on Melody, let’s go.” The two girls turned together and left the store.

She stood for a moment staring after them wondering what she should do.

Suddenly a strong hand grabbed her arm tightly from behind, “Hold it right there young lady. Mall security.” She froze. “You are coming with me.” He spoke closely in to her ear. “I don’t want any problems here, so come along nicely with me.” She thought about running, then realized, even if she could, she had no reason to. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She went with him.

He led her down the long busy hall past the three shops she’d just been in. They turned a corner and entered a small room that held only a desk and three chairs. He left the door open and invited her to sit down.

“What were you and your friends doing?” He asked her.

“Just looking around.” She meekly replied.

“I think you were doing more than that.”

She looked at him quizzically.

“You were shop-lifting, weren’t you?”

She held her head high, dark brown eyes sparking with pride and defiance. “What? No. I don’t steal.” She told him.

“Open your purse and empty it on to the table then.” He challenged.

“I didn’t steal anything.” She said as she held the bag open so he could look inside.

Something shiny caught her eye. Her eyes narrowed on it, a brand new pair of earrings, still in the package with the price tag boasting the store name loudly. They were from the store he’d taken her out of.

“I see. What else is in there?” Her face burned red as he used two long fingers to pick the earrings up and held them accusingly in front of her nose.

“I don’t know where those came from.” She told him weakly.

“No? Then how about these?” he said as he pulled another pair from the wad of things in her bag.

Her jaw dropped. “I honestly didn’t do it.”

“Then how do you suppose they got in there?” He tilted his head toward her and lifted his shaggy black eyebrows in question. She shrugged.

“We’ll just sit here and wait for the police. Maybe you’ll remember when they get here.”

To her humiliation, a half hour later, she was put into hand cuffs and taken downtown in a black and white cruiser by a rather large officer wearing a dark blue uniform. As the crossed town, she laid low on the back seat so none of her friends, or worse, her mother’s friends, or her mother, would see her.

The officer that put the cuffs on her at the mall now took her into a conference room and told her to sit at the big gray slate table while he asked her for her statement. She explained to him, “I didn’t steal anything. Someone must have dropped those things in my bag.” She pleaded with her eyes as well as words, but he wasn’t listening.

“Sure.” He said. “Sit down. I’m going to need some information before we book you. Ever been arrested before?” He pushed the plain green hard plastic chair toward her. Stunned she shook her head and slid into the seat. Tearfully she answered when he asked for her name, address and phone number.

While he wrote on the pages clipped to a white clipboard, Brigitte thought hard about what had happened back at the mall. She didn’t know how those things got in her purse. She didn’t see anyone put them there. Thinking hard, she tried to remember if anyone other than Melody and Emily had been near her.

Slowly it came to her, Emily and Melody didn’t really want her as a friend. They had intentionally set her up. They didn’t want her to join their group and hang out with them, they wanted to laugh at her and humiliate her, SHE was their private joke. The sting of betrayal and humiliation hit her like sand in a windstorm beating hot against her cheeks and the truth began to fill her chest with white hot anger.

While she sat there thinking she also realized, no matter what, she knew couldn’t tell on the duo. Even if the officer put her in the cell and threw away the key it would be better than having the two of them after her and better than anyone at school thinking her a nark. She looked down at her fingernails and worked to summon courage.

“Okay, fine, I did it. I took them.” She mumbled to the officer. “I stole that stuff.”

He looked up at her, kicking his feet out he leaned triumphantly back in his chair. Without speaking, his face told her it was the only truth he would believe and he won a silent battle in getting her confession. Her stomach churned.

Brigitte felt glad when they were interrupted by a woman dressed in the same dark uniform. “Officer Daniels, There’s a phone call for you.”

“You sit here and I’ll be back.” He told Brigitte, pointing the end of his pen at her as he left the room.

The small conference room he left her in was walled by big clean windows on all sides. She felt like a small animal in a zoo cage. Everyone that walked by could look in at her. Trying hard not to attract attention, she sat perfectly still fixing her eyes on a black dot in the otherwise gray table and absently chewed a strand of her thick dark hair while wondering what would happen next. She didn’t want to get her mug shot taken and she definitely didn’t want to put the orange jumpsuit she thought prisoners wore. A single tear trickled down her cheek.

Brooke Deveau entered the police station looking sleek and professional in her perfectly pressed gray business suit. She smiled at the officer behind the desk and accepted papers with a show of gratitude. From the windowed room, Brigitte watched her mother carefully. She saw the professional actions, the smile and nice words, but beyond that, Brigitte could see more. Slightly stiff shoulders and a tightness in her neck when she turned told Brigitte that her mother was deeply angry. She bit her lip and put her head down in her hand.

When the arresting officer escorted her mother toward the room, Brigitte’s heart pounded hard. She tightened her fingers around both sides of her seat wishing as hard as she could to disappear into the chair.

“Come on Brigitte, you are free to go with your mother.” The uniformed man said.

“You’re not booking me?” She shyly asked.

Without answering her question he gestured toward her mother. “Go on home now.”

Relief mixed with anxiety filled her. She thought about offering her mother a big hug but changed her mind when she saw the warning in her mother’s eyes. She put her head down and wordlessly followed her mother from the building.

Inside the car she tried, “Mom, I’m sorry.”

“I am so angry with you right now that I can hardly see straight.” The woman told her daughter, staring harshly at her through the rear view mirror of their Volvo.

“But, mom, let me explain.” Brigitte tried.

“No, young lady, right now I don’t want to hear a darned thing. You just keep your mouth shut until I calm down. When we get home, you are going straight to your room. What do you think you were doing anyway?”

“I was just going to the mall…”

“No! Don’t say anything!”

Brigitte never understood why her mom would ask her a question and then tell her not to say anything. She never knew if she should answer or not. Some times when her mother was really angry, not answering made it even worse. She guessed this was not one of those times. Hot angry tears trickled down her cheeks.


“Before you try to say anything, let me tell you a thing or two. I was in a meeting with a nice young couple who were just about ready to sign for their first house when the police called. Do you know how that felt? Well let me tell you. Brigitte Gabriel Deveau I was so ashamed!”

Brigitte sunk against the car door.

“I am just glad that security officer at the mall decided to review his tapes. He called the police station and told them that you didn’t put those things in your purse.” Brigitte looked up hopefully. “He saw the other girls do it. What were you doing hanging out with girls like that? No, before you answer, let me finish.”

Relieved that at least her mother knew she wasn’t a thief, Brigitte wiped her tears and blew her nose with a tissue from the box they carried in the car.

“I am glad you did not steal, however, you are not off the hook. You went to the mall without calling me, without letting me know where you were and without telling me who you were with. Then you got in trouble AND you ruined my real estate deal. For that, you are grounded for a week starting tonight. Got it?”

Brigitte didn’t really see grounding as a punishment. Grounding meant no T.V., no phone and no hanging out with friends. She didn’t like T.V., didn’t have anyone to call and (now for sure) no one to hang out with anyway. Her life was already grounded, calling it “grounded” made no difference at all she thought as she slunk off to her room.

Staring at her chubby blue-jean clad body in the tall mirror on her closet door she thought, not for the first time, that her body didn’t fit with her features. Dark reddish-brown skin, high cheekbones, thick wavy deep dark brown hair and a long thin nose didn’t go with a chubby belly and thick chest at all. She stuck her tongue out at herself.

She took a framed picture of her father from the wall near the mirror. Holding it at arms length next to her reflection, she compared. His dark eyes seemed to look right through her but, other than the color similarities; she saw no resemblance between her and him. He was tall and thin.

She sighed wishing he were there to comfort her on days like this one had been. But, because he died when she was a baby, she didn’t even know if he would have comforted her or been angry and mean like some fathers were. Sometimes she spent hours creating and imagining different personalities for the image, but, not tonight. She put his picture carefully back on the wall and dropped in to bed.


(Like it so far? Visit my port for Chapter Two and please don't be shy, leave a review. Thanks.)