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Young Adult
(Fic)
A Test of Loyalty: Mechanicsville book 1
by Laurie Stewart


I highly recommend you have your teens read A Test of Loyalty by Laurie Stewart." Gale S. Isolation... you can feel alone in the most crowded places. Change... it's the only thing you can count on. Loyalty.... who deserves yours? Told in first person, this is the story of three teenagers growing up in Mechanicsville, a bad neighbourhood in Canada's capital. Surrounded by drugs, sexual assault, poverty, and peer pressure. Separated by race, religion, and distrust, they must learn to trust each other. When the unthinkable happens, what changes can they survive? "Sounds interesting!"

Part 1
Samantha

Beginnings

Samantha
We moved on a Saturday in late August. I hated the place from the moment the U-Haul pulled up. I couldn’t believe how filthy it was; there was graffiti everywhere, even on the steps. At the bottom, they sunk into the ground leaving a quarter step on one side and a half on the other. I imagined they kept going down past the ground all the way to hell.
The nightmare continued when my Mom and I went up to see the apartment. It took up half the second floor but the ...



Part 2
Ashleigh

Ashleigh
I was eager to see who’d be moving into Snake’s old apartment. Of course, I couldn’t let the others see; I’d look stupid, as eager as a little kid looking for someone new to play with. But the truth was, I was sick of my friends. Sick of this street, sick of being tough all the time, sick of being poor, sick of everything.
I was especially sick of Jeff, my mom’s druggie boyfriend. It beat me how a smart woman like her always picked such losers. But this ...



Part 3
Faraj, and Samantha

Faraj
I couldn’t believe those stupid girls. Standing around the porch stairs like they were the only ones who needed to use them. It was bad enough to see them smoking and drinking in public, like common whores, but then to force me to talk to them, by standing right in my way...
Wait a minute, who was the girl who’d been in my way? I didn’t remember seeing her before. But it didn’t matter, she was drinking beer. The Mullah had been very clear about such things.
Your b...



Part 4
Ashleigh and Samantha

I snuck in the house as quietly as possible. Mom was on late shift, she’d left by four. That meant Jeff and I were alone.
I turned the key silently; I kept it rubbed with Vaseline just for this. My room was just past the living room, maybe twenty feet away. If I was quiet enough, or lucky enough, Jeff would be out looking to score, and I’d be safe behind a locked door in a few seconds.
I wasn’t that lucky.
“Hey little girl, where you been?” His voice was slurred...



Part 5
Samantha

Samantha
For the last eleven years, school started in September, the day after Labour Day. Starting in August seemed like such a cruel thing to do. Yet here I was, knowing that I had to get up at seven for the first time in two months. I should have been sleeping but my ears were filled with Ashleigh’s mother and her boyfriend’s voices. They’d been drinking, I could tell. They didn’t always make sense, but you couldn’t stop listening. The wall was like cardboard for on...



Part 6
Ashleigh and Samantha

Ashleigh
Seven o’clock in the freaking morning. Whose idea was it to have a seven in the morning, anyway? Some sadistic government clerk probably.
My eyes felt like sandpaper, and my hair was plastered to my neck with sweat. Mom and Jeff had argued half the night, and now they were both sleeping in, while I had to get up for school. I was tempted to say to hell with it and go back to sleep. But welfare was never going to pay enough to get away from here, so I had to find a job. And unless ...



Part 7
Faraj

Faraj
“A decent man understands the difference between being friendly to his neighbours, and acting like a whore.”
She seemed angered by my comment, and here I was trying to help her see what she was doing wrong. Since she’d only just started hanging out with those loose women, she might still be saved. I was trying to help her!
I looked her over, realizing that she was dressed modestly, or at least with what passed for modesty in this sinful culture. And she was carrying a f...



Part 8
Samantha

I couldn’t believe it. He’d stolen all my papers. How was I supposed to finish registration if he took off with all my…. Oh no, I realized that I could be losing marks big time if I couldn’t get those papers replaced.
I had pretty much figured out what classes I wanted and so headed back to the office to see if I could register without the forms. I was starting to panic, what if they insisted I hand in the originals? Why did that rude, smug, little jerk have to steal my paper...



Part 9
Ashleigh and Faraj

Ashleigh
“Stupid white bitch.” She just walked away, like she couldn’t see something was wrong. Little princess probably couldn’t see past her own blond perfect nose. Do I look okay? Do I look like there’s nothing wrong? No! But off she went, happy as a freaking lark. To hell with her.
I just sat there, wondering what to do. I didn’t dare stay here, it was too close to the apartment, but I didn’t know where else to go. I had been hoping to go up to w...



Part 10
Samantha and Ashleigh

Samantha
I couldn’t believe my mother! How dare she just brush me off like a five year old? Neither she nor Faraj’s grandmother wanted to hear anything I was saying about Ash. They’d rather keep talking about whatever stupid thing they were on about, than hear about some real problems. Well, screw them; I could look after it myself. Jeff wouldn’t dare touch me.
I stomped back through the downstairs hallway to the rear door. I hoped Ash was still there. She had to call th...



Part 11
Ashleigh and Faraj

Ashleigh
I jiggled up and down on my toes; my grandfather would’ve said I had ants in my pants. I grimaced, the thought of anything in my pants right now made me feel sick.
What was taking white girl so long; she said she knew where the money was. I wondered if she’d been lying to me.
What would Mrs. Hunter do if she came up and found me here? What if white girl took the money and went out the back door? Money missing and a native hanging out alone in the apartment meant only one ...



Part 12
Samantha and Ashleigh

Samantha

I was definitely not comfortable here.
Carrie Whitehorse wasn’t one of Ash’s two native friends that I’d met at the school. She was older, hard, cold. I instinctively disliked her, and didn’t trust her as far as I could throw her. Overhand.

Ash had taken the money from me as soon as we were out of sight of the house. I was a bit nervous that she’d disappear with it, and that my great experiment in disreputable behaviour would get me in shit for not...



Part 13
Faraj

Faraj
Fadi certainly looked relaxed. Sitting in the library carrel with his feet up on the chair beside him, reading the paper. He had a pile of books on the table in front of him, but wasn’t paying them any attention.
I had a couple of history books under my arm, just for show. I needed a reason to sit at the table next to him.
I walked over nervously, but as I arrived at the carrels, he just glanced at me and dropped his feet to the floor. That was it, not a sign of recognition. He w...



Part 14
Samantha and Ashleigh

Samantha
I looked at my watch again. What was taking so long? Were they growing the pot from seed? I started to feel certain that they had snuck out the back way, leaving me here.
I didn’t even know where we were. We’d followed the bike path for awhile, and then gone through a couple of alleys. I hated to admit it, I had zero idea how to get home. I didn’t even know if there was a working pay phone in this neighbourhood. Looking around, I had to admit it. I had thought nothin...



Part 15
Faraj and Samantha

Faraj
“We’re alone, I checked.”
“Did you check under the stalls?”
There was a shuffling noise. I imagined them staring at my stall as if they could sense me here. My throat got dry, I had to cough. My nose itched. My head was feeling light, and I realized that I’d stopped breathing again.
I thought about those men in London, barely older than me. Would they have been squatting here in fear, trapped in a toilet? No, they’d have been brave. They wou...



Part 16
Ashleigh and Samantha

Samantha
Somehow we made it back to the bike path. I had no idea where we were going; I had never been so lost in my life. How could we be fifteen minutes from home, and be so totally lost? I just prayed that Ash knew where we were. No way was I calling my dad to come get me, even if I did find a working pay phone.
After a few minutes’ walk, trying to keep Ash upright and moving, we came to the park behind Parliament Hill. Ash giggled as she gave the one finger salute to the House of Commo...



Part 17
Samantha and Ashleigh

Samantha
Ash pushed, then tugged on the piece of metal mesh fence that ran across the opening to the old mine. I felt sure this was a dumb idea, but it was easier to just go along with it. Besides, I wanted her off the public path, she looked really stoned. I wondered what she’d taken at Carrie’s. I felt insulted and left out. I felt relieved that I wasn’t about to smoke it.
“They must’ve made the hole smaller.” Ashleigh grunted, tugging hard at the wire mesh. ...




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