Junior Year Box Set

I was up early to say goodbye to my trusty hound. I had to give him enough loving to hold him for the next several weeks. When I stepped out to put my bags in the back of my mom’s car, I was surprised to find Precious at my feet. She meowed, so I bent down, picked her up, and scratched her ears, making her purr. Precious was a typical woman: one minute, she seemed to like you, and the next, she tried to claw your eyes out. I put her down and called Duke into the house.

Mom and Dad were also up early because they were taking me to the airport. I made myself a hot tea and put it in a travel mug. Mom had made breakfast sandwiches, so I grabbed mine, and we left.

On the trip, Dad wanted to talk business.

“The accountant sent over your tax information. I forwarded it all to Caryn for her to review.”

“Good. Hopefully, she can make sense of all that. I realize I need to get a handle on my taxes, at least from a high-level perspective, so I plan to have her explain it all to me. I don’t want to end up letting my people rip me off because I didn’t know what to look for,” I admitted.

“Frank Ingram got Caryn’s background check back. She grew up in San Mateo, just south of San Francisco, and graduated in the top ten percent of her high school. She then attended Berkeley, where she excelled and received her MBA. Range Sports hired Caryn and put her into their entry-level management program, and she was assigned as Devin’s assistant. From everything Frank found, Caryn’s an upstanding citizen. She pays her bills, has never been arrested, and has had only glowing reviews at Range Sports,” Dad said.

“You had her checked out?” Mom asked.

“That wasn’t Dad; I asked for it to be done. You saw what kind of money we’re talking about moving forward. Caryn’s going to be involved with me closely, and if she was shady at all, I could be in a lot of trouble. I have to know I can rely on her. I realized I needed to check on the people who’re going to be close to me when Brook’s parents had me investigated. The whole debacle with Pam’s dad crystalized just how bad things could get. I’d rather ruffle some feathers and at least check up front than find out the hard way later.”

Mom gave me a sad look. I’d used Frank to investigate Cal, so I’d done the same with Caryn. I hoped moving forward Caryn could find someone else because Frank wasn’t cheap.

“My dad was the same way. He even had your mom investigated,” Dad said to me.

“He did not!” Mom growled.

“Oh, he sure did. Were you aware your mother has a juvenile record?” Dad asked me.

How the tables had turned! My mom gave my dad a look that almost caused us to have a car accident. He wasn’t talking, so I pulled my phone out.

“Hey, it’s me,” I said. “What was my mom arrested for?”

“David Allen Dawson! Who are you talking to?” Mom asked.

“I’m talking to Grandma Dawson.”

The phone was snatched out of my hand, and my mom talked to my grandma. She then called my uncle. I could see that I might never know what happened, and then I had an idea. My mom glared at me.

“If you have me investigated, I will end you,” she threatened.

So much for my good idea.

◊◊◊

Caryn had booked me in first class to LA. For a flight that long, it was worth the extra money. My seat was in the last row, next to the window. I put in my earbuds, turned up the music, closed my eyes, and relaxed.

I started when someone touched my hand. The flight attendant leaned over, and I pulled out my earbuds so I could hear her.

“We’re about to take off,” she told me.

I put my seat back up and noticed a girl about my age was seated next to me. She looked totally out of place in first class. The girl had orange, green, blue, and purple streaks in her hair, and she looked like she’d just crawled out of bed. I glanced across the aisle and one row up, and there were three other girls who looked similar to the one next to me. They had to be together.

My view out the window showed we were taxiing to the runway. The girl next to me looked like she was going to be sick.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She had wild eyes; that concerned me.

“I’ve never flown before.”

“It’ll be fine. I’ve done this a lot,” I reassured her.

It looked like we were third in line for takeoff.

“Why are you going to LA?” I asked to distract her.

“We’re going to sign with a record label,” she said and then leaned over me to peer out of the plane. “What’s taking so long?”

“Amy, settle down,” the girl on the aisle across from us said.

That girl was kind of hot in a messed-up way. She had this deep red hair that was obviously out of a bottle, but she had a cute face. The girl next to her had the blackest hair I’d ever seen. It was so black that when the light from the window hit it, you caught a glimpse of deep purple. Their bandmate one row up had pure white hair that reminded me of Suzanne.

Amy turned to me and latched onto my arm.

“Have you ever been on a flight that had problems?” she asked.

“Only when we didn’t go fast enough,” I said.

“We’re not going very fast now,” Amy whined.