Christmas Daisy Read Online Free

arriving in town with nothing but a pack on their back.  Other families in the village took those stragglers in, trading a bed and meals for the willingness to help with chores, planting and harvesting.
    “ Why did you go there? Did you like it there? Why did you leave?” One student, giant, his dark arms folded tightly across his well muscled chest, was the first to talk.
    She sighed.  “I loved it there.  But I had to leave.  I had been there for a while, as a volunteer.  It was time to come home I guess.  And then I got sick, so that was that. I got sent home.”
    One of the girls, a tall, extremely thin girl with pale skin, and long red hair, began to speak in a voice that was only a little above a whisper.  “Do you miss it?  Do you miss those students? Are you sad?”
    Daisy closed her eyes for a minute, head tilted toward the ceiling.  Talking about the village had made the memories swirl again. 
    “Yes,” she answered honestly, looking the girl in the eye.  “I miss them very much. And yes, I am sad.”
    The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
    “But what I’ve learned about life is this… It goes in stages.  There are good things and bad things. There are things we can’t control. There are things we CAN control.  But each new thing that comes has its good points, so I’m not going to miss it by being too sad about the past.  I’m glad I was there.  But now, I think maybe I’ll be glad I’m here too.  How about you?  Tell me about New Horizons. Are you glad you are here?  Or are you sad?”
    So the stories began, and she sat mesmerized, listening to them.  Some lived in foster care. Some lived in group homes, a few lived with relatives.  Some admitted to hating school, to not being able to learn. Most had grown up in the Philadelphia area, though one had come over the summer from Atlanta, Georgia, to live with his grandmother when his mother hadn’t been able to keep him with her.  One had moved to the area a year ago from Los Angeles, because his parents had wanted to get him away from the gang influence in his neighborhood there. 
    “It’s embarrassing to go to this school. It’s for messed up kids. It’s so small and all.  And there are little kids, not like a regular high school,” said a dark haired boy named Jim.  “I feel like a baby having to go here.”
    “I guess it beats jail,” a boy named Carlos offered when there was a lull in the conversation.  That w as my choice, go to this school, or go to jail.”
    “Well, last year it was a lot like jail, “said the largest boy, whose name was Tyrone, who had been the first to speak.  “I’ve been here since I was 13, right after this school opened.  The Colonel was our teacher then, and man, he was tough.  Like we were in the army or something.”  He shook his head.  “I was sure scared of him. So I did what he said. But he got sick or something, so this year, we haven’t had a regular teacher.  Just a bunch of people who didn’t really want to be here.”
    “Are you going to be tough like the Colonel?” asked Carlos, with a snicker.  “You’re kind of small.”
    Daisy laughed out loud.  “Size has nothing to do with power.  Don’t you know that yet?  I guess I have to think about that, whether I’m going to be tough or not.  I guess it depends on you.  Do you need me to be tough?  Or maybe you have grown up enough to be able to be trustworthy.”
    “What’s trustworthy?” asked several at once.
    “It means are you worthy of trust.  Can people trust you to be a man or woman of your word?”
    There was a silence in the room.
    “Nobody ever tried,” said Ty in a quiet voice. “I don’t trust nobody, and nobody ever trusted me.”
    “Well, then,” Daisy said in a lilting voice, her face wide in a smile. “This will be a new adventure. Because I am going to trust you, I’m going to believe you are trustworthy. At least until you show me you aren’t.  And I want you to