Nora Ray (Ray Trilogy) - By Kelley Brown Page 0,2

to her meal.

She felt her mouth hanging open. She reached for the plate, and muttered, “Thanks.” A slight smile merged from her lips totally on its own.

Chapter Two

Nora walked into her first hour of class on Monday morning. She sat in her desk hoping that she aced her Trigonometry test on Friday. She put her books in her desk but kept out her math book, a pad of paper and pencil.

“Elenora,” Jeremy sang in a sing-song voice because he knew that irritated her.

She glanced over at him and said, “What do you want?”

He snickered to the boy next to him and poked her in the shoulder with his eraser.

She realized he just wanted attention. She slapped at his hand and eraser playfully hoping he would leave her alone.

The bell rang and saved her from any further bother from Jeremy for a while. After a while the teacher handed the tests back to each student. Nora had received a 100%. “Thank you,” she whispered to herself. She liked math and would have been unhappy with anything less, but she couldn’t help but worry until she received her paper back.

She put her best effort into her school work, especially now. After Jordan’s diagnosis, she had reached a decision to help her family. The only way she knew how was to study as hard as she could.

The first class after lunch was Biology 2. This was another class that intrigued her but she struggled to make the grade she demanded of herself. Today the teacher assigned a science project due two weeks from today.

She rubbed her hand across her forehead to help relieve the stress. This was going to take some time to complete and she had no idea what direction to take with the project. With all the work at home to do and Jordan being sick was also taking a toll on their family because her mother was spending time at Aunt Betty’s house to help her as much as possible.

After class, Mrs. Jenkins called Nora to her desk to talk to her. “I see you seem to be struggling, is there anything I can do?

“No, Ma’am,” Nora replied quietly.

“Is everything alright at home?”

“Yes, Ma’am,”

“I heard about your little cousin, Jordan, being diagnosed with polio. How is everyone at home taking that?” She asked concerned.

“We’re doing fine, except Mom spends a lot of time helping my Aunt Betty.”

“So you’re trying to fill in and do extra to help at home, aren’t you?” Mrs. Jenkins answered intuitively.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“I want you to know that if there is anything I can do to help you, please let me know.”

“Yes, Ma’am, I will.” Nora was edging away wanting to go to her next class.

Mrs. Jenkins didn’t feel satisfied. She was sure that there was something that could be done to help this family. She would take this up with the women of her church who when they for Ladies Night.

Nora left school that evening to get on the bus, there was pesky Jeremy waiting to aggravate her all the way to the school bus.

He sang at the top of his lungs in his sing-song voice, “Eleanora, oh my Eleanora, what can I say to my Eleanora.”

“Go away, Jeremy,” she said like she would like to shoo him away.

She climbed on the bus and sat in her favorite seat. Sometimes boys act like flies, you either want to shoo them away or just swat them.

Saturday morning the family started their chores as usual. Nora watched Laura struggle to keep up with the work so she tried to take on a little more of the heavy lifting. Her dad seemed to slip away to clean the barn which was work but she could really use some help. When she was almost finished separating the cream she stopped to rub her back.

John stopped outside the barn door to watch her. She sensed someone watching her and turned around. Just the fact that he was watching her made her angry. She wanted to yell at him. She had been taught to not be disrespectful to her parents, but how much should a person take without saying something?

When you get finished, I want to talk to you.

“Sure,” she retorted feeling her cheeks hot with anger.

Nora quickly finished her work and walked out where her father was sitting on the bench under the tree between the barn and the house.

He patted the bench beside him. “Sit down, Nora; I have something to tell you.”

“I want you to know that I am