Rosaleigh, NY

“Did you hear Julienne is in town?” Mother says conversationally, as she’s preparing dinner in the kitchen. I glance up from reading the local newspaper and shake my head.

“She didn’t tell me she was coming,” I reply with a small frown. Julienne, or as I like to call her, Jules, is my closest friend. “Must’ve been an impromptu thing or something.”

“Her mother said she got a job offer in Rosaleigh and was asked to come down. I’m sure you’ll see her soon.”

A job offer in Rosaleigh? That sounds a bit suspicious to me, considering how small our town is. Hmm. I shrug and reply something along the lines of, “I’m sure I will.”

“Have you seen anyone else while you’ve been back?” Mother asks after a few moments. I look up to see her rushing back and forth between mixing whatever she’s got in the pots and cutting vegetables, so I decide to take over in the stirring section.

“Didn’t Levi’s mom tell you?” I snort. Those two are always on the phone, gossiping more than I did when I was in school. “Saw Levi at the coffee shop.”

There’s a silence before mother huffs. “Levi’s mother failed to mention that to me, actually. When did this happen?”

“Yesterday? It was just a brief thing, he knows about Mark. I’m a bit surprised he isn’t dating anyone but at the same time, it makes sense, y’know?”

“Levi’s always been a handsome boy,” Mother affirms in response. “I always thought him and Jessica would’ve looked great together.”

I wince. Ah, Jessica. She’s known between Mother and I to screw around with the Armstrong’s.

“And me and Ryan?” I reply, a hint of sarcasm present in my voice. “Mom, I’m with Mark now.”

“I know, honey.” Mother places a reassuring hand on mine. “But you can’t deny the chemistry that you two had.”

“That’s true,” another voice pipes up. I turn around to see Father, walking into the kitchen with a kiss to my mother’s forehead and a kiss to mine. “Did you know that some of the men even placed bets on when you two would, how you youngsters say, ‘get it on?’”

I groan. “Daddy! Really?”

Mother chuckles. “Don’t worry Sam, most of them lost their money. A few of them predicted something would happen on graduation night.”

The thought of our high school graduation night stirs up unpleasant memories in my mind, ranging from the words I said to the drunken moments to Jules crying and the lake. I shake the thoughts out of my head and try to focus on our current conversation.

“Honey,” Father says to Mother, changing the subject. “I hope you can manage with dinner. Samara and I will be going for a walk.” I nod, seeing as I don’t really have a choice in this, and follow him out of the door.

---

“Rosaleigh needs you, Samara,” is the first thing Father says to me as we walk along the footpath. It’s unsurprisingly quiet this time of day – six thirty is the general dinner time for the Rosaleigh community – yet there are some late birds, like us, who prefer to eat a little later. “There are some bad things happening and we need to save Rosaleigh before it’s too late.”

For a moment, I picture Rosaleigh gone, just an area of flat land being taken over and reconstructed by developers. There would be no high school (what a pity), none of my favourite cupcakes, no lake…I snap myself out of it before I can continue with this line of thought. Rosaleigh contains memories I’d rather forget, but it’s my home.

“You said we have a month, right? Until some developers are scheduled to tear down the high school?” I ask. “Who else knows about this?”

“Your mother, Nathan-” Nathan is Father’s brother, Levi’s dad. “- and his family, that’s it so far.”

“The first step is to tell Rosaleigh what’s going on,” I tell Father firmly. “We cannot keep something as big as this to ourselves. We need to inform the town and raise awareness, which is our first step.”

“Our first step?” Father asks, slightly amused by my choice in words.

“Yes,” I reply. “I think you should hold a town meeting and tell Rosaleigh everything, or at least what you told me over the phone. Rosaleigh’s a tight knit community and it would just be wrong to not inform them of what’s going to happen with their home.”

I can tell Father’s thinking about it, with the way he nods his head slowly as his eyes roll up in thought.

“Okay,” he decides. “If I tell Derek now, he can get it into the paper by tomorrow.” Derek is the head of our local paper and is friends with my father. “Friday, seven pm, in the town hall. Spread the word, Sammy.”

I nod. “Do you think we’ll be able to save Rosaleigh, Daddy?”

“I think we could,” he says after a moment. “But it’s going to take a lot of work.”

“Whatever it takes,” I respond with determination. “Rosaleigh is home.”