Save Me
by Lisa Scottoline
Chapter One
Rose McKenna stood against the wall in the noisy cafeteria, having
volunteered as lunch mom, which is like a security guard with eyeliner.
Two hundred children were talking, thumb- wrestling, or getting
ready for recess, because lunch period was almost over. Rose was
keeping an eye on her daughter, Melly, who was at the same table
as the meanest girl in third grade. If there was any trouble, Rose was
going to morph into a mother lion, in clogs.
Melly sat alone at the end of the table, sorting her fruit treats into
a disjointed rainbow. She kept her head down, and her wavy, dark
blond hair fell into her face, covering the port- wine birthmark on
her cheek, a large round blotch like blusher gone haywire. Its medical
term was nevus flammeus, an angry tangle of blood vessels under the
skin, but it was Melly’s own personal bull’s-eye. It had made her a
target for bullies ever since pre- school, and she’d developed tricks to
hide it, like keeping her face down, resting her cheek in her hand, or
at naptime, lying on her left side, still as a chalk outline at a murder
scene. None of the tricks worked forever.
The mean girl’s name was Amanda Gigot, and she sat at the opposite
end of the table, showing an iPod to her friends. Amanda was
the prettiest girl in their class, with the requisite straight blond hair,
bright blue eyes, and perfect smile, and she dressed like a teenager
in a white jersey tank, pink ruffled skirt, and gold Candie’s sandals.
Amanda wasn’t what people pictured when they heard the term
“bully,” but wolves could dress in sheep’s clothing or Juicy Couture.
Amanda was smart and verbal enough to tease at will, which earned
her a fear- induced popularity found in elementary schools and fascist
dictatorships.
It was early October, but Amanda was already calling Melly names
like Spot The Dog and barking whenever she came into the classroom,
and Rose prayed it wouldn’t get worse. They’d moved here over
the summer to get away from the teasing in their old school, where it
had gotten so bad that Melly developed stomachaches and eating
problems. She’d had trouble sleeping and she’d wake up exhausted,
inventing reasons not to go to school. She tested as gifted, but her
grades hovered at C’s because of her absences. Rose had higher hopes
here, since Reesburgh Elementary was in a better school district,
with an innovative, anti- bullying curriculum.
She couldn’t have wished for a more beautiful school building,
either. It was brand- new construction, just finished last August, and
the cafeteria was state- of- the- art, with modern skylights, shiny tables
with blue plastic seats, and cheery blue- and- white tile walls. Bulletin
boards around the room were decorated for Halloween, with
construction-paper pumpkins, papier-mâché spiders, and black cats,
their tails stiff as exclamation points. A wall clock covered with fake
cobwebs read 11:20, and most of the kids were stowing their lunchboxes
in the plastic bins for each homeroom and leaving through the
doors to the playground, on the left.
Rose checked Melly’s table, and was dismayed. Amanda and her
friends Emily and Danielle were finishing their sandwiches, but Melly’s
lunch remained untouched in her purple Harry Potter lunchbox.
The gifted teacher, Kristen Canton, had emailed Rose that Melly
sometimes didn’t eat at lunch and waited out the period in the handicapped
bathroom, so Rose had volunteered as lunch mom to see what
was going on. She couldn’t ignore it, but she didn’t want to overreact,
walking a familiar parental tightrope.
“Oh no, I spilled!” cried a little girl whose milk carton tipped over,
splashing onto the floor.
“It’s okay, honey.” Rose went over, grabbed a paper napkin, and
swabbed up the milk. “Put your tray away. Then you can go out.”
Rose tossed out the soggy napkin, then heard a commotion behind
her and turned around, stricken at the sight. Amanda was dabbing
grape jelly onto her cheek, making a replica of Melly’s birthmark.
Everyone at the table was giggling, and kids on their way out pointed
and laughed. Melly was running from the cafeteria, her long hair flying.
She was heading toward the exit for the handicapped bathroom,
on the right.
“Melly, wait!” Rose called out, but Melly was already past her, so
she went back to the lunch table. “Amanda, what are you doing?
That’s not nice.”
Amanda tilted her face down to hide her smile, but Emily and
Danielle stopped laughing, their faces reddening.
“I didn’t do anything.” Emily’s lower lip began to pucker, and
Danielle shook her head, with its long, dark braid.
“Me, neither,” she said. The other girls scattered, and the rest of the
kids hustled out to recess.
“You girls laughed,” Rose said, pained. “That’s not right, and you
should know that. You’re making fun of her.” She turned to Amanda,
who was wiping off the jelly with a napkin. “Amanda, don’t you
understand how hurtful you’re being? Can’t you put yourself in
Melly’s shoes? She can’t help the way she is, nobody can.”
Amanda didn’t reply, setting down the crumpled napkin.
“Look at that bulletin board. See what it says?” Rose pointed to
the Building Blocks of Character poster, with its glittery letters that
read CARING COMPASSION COMMUNITY, from Reesburgh’s
anti-bullying curriculum. “Teasing isn’t caring or compassionate,
and—”
“What’s going on?” someone called out, and Rose looked up to
see the other lunch mom hurrying over. She had on a denim dress and
sandals, and wore her highlighted hair short. “Excuse me, we have
to get these girls out to recess.”
“Did you see what just happened?”
“No, I missed it.”
“Well, Amanda was teasing and—”
Amanda interrupted, “Hi, Mrs. Douglas.”
“Hi, Amanda.” The lunch mom turned to Rose. “We have to get
everybody outside, so the kitchen can get ready for B lunch.” She
gestured behind her, where the last students were leaving the cafeteria.
“See? Time to go.”
“I know, but Amanda was teasing my daughter, Melly, so I was
talking to her about it.”
“You’re new, right? I’m Terry Douglas. Have you ever been lunch
mom before?”
“No.”
“So you don’t know the procedures. The lunch moms aren’t supposed
to discipline the students.”
“I’m not disciplining them. I’m just talking to them.”
“What ever, it’s not going well.” Terry nodded toward Emily, just
as a tear rolled down the little girl’s cheek.
“Oh, jeez, sorry.” Rose didn’t think she’d been stern, but she was
tired and maybe she’d sounded cranky. She’d been up late with baby
John, who had another ear infection, and she’d felt guilty taking him
to a sitter’s this morning so she could be lunch mom. He was only ten
months old, and Rose was still getting the hang of mothering two
children. Most of the time she felt torn in half, taking care of one
child at the expense of the other, like the maternal equivalent of robbing
Peter to pay Paul. “Terry, the thing is, this school has a strict
zero-tolerance policy against bullying, and the kids need to learn it.
All the kids. The kids who tease, as well as the allies, the kids who
laugh and think it’s funny.”
“Nevertheless, when there’s a disciplinary issue, the procedure is
for the lunch mom to tell a teacher. Mrs. Snyder is out on the playground.
These girls should go out to recess, and you should take it up
with her.”
“Can I just finish what I was saying to them? That’s all this requires.”
Rose didn’t want to make it bigger, for Melly’s sake. She could
already hear the kids calling her a tattletale.
“Then I’ll go get her myself.” Terry turned on her heel and walked
away, and the cafeteria fell silent except for the clatter of trays and
silverware in the kitchen.
Rose faced the table. “Amanda,” she began, dialing back her tone,
“you have to understand that teasing is bullying. Words can hurt as
much as a punch.”
“You’re not allowed to yell at me! Mrs. Douglas said!”
Rose blinked, surprised. She’d be damned if she’d be intimidated
by somebody in a Hannah Montana headband. “I’m not yelling at
you,” she said calmly.
“I’m going to recess!” Amanda jumped to her feet, startling Emily
and Danielle.
Suddenly, something exploded in the kitchen. A searing white
light flashed in the kitchen doorway. Rose turned toward the earsplitting
boom! The kitchen wall flew apart, spraying shards of tile,
wood, and wallboard everywhere.
A shockwave knocked Rose off her feet. A fireball billowed into
the cafeteria.
Chapter Two
Rose woke up lying on the floor against the wall. She opened her
eyes. Overhead sprinklers poured water, like cold rain. Acrid black
smoke clouded the air. She rolled over onto wet debris and broken
glass. Her head pounded. Her ears rang.
what happened what is going on
She propped herself up to a sitting position, in the water. Her face
hurt. She touched her cheek. Fresh blood covered her fingerpads.
Dust caked her polo shirt and khaki capris, getting drenched from
the sprinklers. Her legs splayed out in front of her, with a bloody cut
on her ankle. She shook her head to clear her brain. She couldn’t
hear anything but the ringing in her ears.
She looked through the water and smoke. An inferno raged in the
kitchen. Fire blazed from its doors. Hot orange flames spread upward.
A jagged hole gaped in the kitchen wall. Rebar twisted from it
like black tentacles. Wood studs lay splintered and broken.
Rose couldn’t process what she was seeing. The perfect suburban
cafeteria was a war zone. Acoustic tiles hung from the ceiling. Shattered
skylights rained glass shards. The air felt furnace- hot. A burning
smell filled her nostrils. Bits of flaming material blew around like
a nightmare blizzard.
The kids!
Rose looked wildly around through the smoke. Amanda sat
stunned on the floor nearby, then got up stiffly. Her mouth formed a
terrified circle. Tears ran down her face. A cut bled on her arm. Emily
lay near the door, crying in a little heap on the floor, like dirty laundry.
Only Danielle was in motion, fleeing toward the door.
Suddenly, Rose could hear everything. Amanda was screaming.
Emily was sobbing. Alarm bells were ringing. Fire roaring, sprinklers
whirring, water whooshing. Flames billowed from the kitchen.
Whoever was in there would have been killed. She had to get the
kids out before they were, too.
Oh my God. Melly.
Rose stumbled to her feet, unsteady. Her knees buckled. Her
head thundered. The room whirled. She struggled to get back up.
The handicapped bathroom was across from the kitchen, where the
explosion had been. Fear gripped her heart. Melly could have been
killed in the blast.
Please God no.
Rose raced through the other possibilities. Melly could be trapped
in the bathroom. If she hadn’t gotten out, no one would come to save
her. No one knew she was in the bathroom. Even if she got out of the
bathroom, she wouldn’t know how to get out of the building.
Rose staggered to her feet, panicky. She didn’t know what to do.
The smoke was getting thicker, the air hotter. Flames licked from the
kitchen doors into the cafeteria. A skylight popped, showering glass.
Amanda and Emily were slowly moving around. Screaming. Crying.
Stunned. They needed help. They were right in front of her.
They were just kids. They couldn’t save themselves.
Melly was in the bathroom, far away. Out the opposite side of the
cafeteria and down the hall, at the very end.
Rose’s mind reeled. If she got Amanda and Emily out of the cafeteria
to the playground, she wouldn’t have time to go after Melly. If
she went to save Melly, she’d have to leave Amanda and Emily, who
were right in front of her. She couldn’t do that, and she couldn’t leave
her own child to die.
It was the choice from hell, in hell.
Rose could save Melly, or she could save Amanda and Emily.
She had to choose.
Now.
Excerpted from Save Me by Lisa Scottoline. Copyright © 2011 by Lisa Scottoline. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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