Trouble in My Way

by Michelle Stimpson

Overview

IT'S ALL HER MOM'S FAULT.

If she hadn't snooped into Karis's diary, she would never have found out that Karis went to a boy's house without permission. Now Karis is grounded, which means no modem, no iPod...and no cell phone. There's just no way a cute, popular, high-schooler can survive being cut off from the world, so Karis is forced to sneak around behind her mother's back. But the way she's acting makes Karis feel guilty — even if it is her mom's fault — and she doesn't like the feeling.

Her scheming is starting to cause other problems, too. Borrowing a friend's cell phone has turned into a catastrophe that may break up her oldest friendship, and the cutie she met after driver's ed is acting a little scary. Will the faith her mother has taught her be enough to help her find her way through this trouble...and show both the world and herself that she's a stronger, better person than even she ever knew?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416586685
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	11/18/2008
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Michelle Stimpson is an educational consultant who lives outside Dallas with her husband and two children. She has also served as part of the writing and editing team of Heartbeat magazine, a publication of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas.

Read an Excerpt

chapter one

Dear Me,

Derrick is cute — NOT! I can't believe I risked my life by having Tamisha take me over to his house instead of the football game. Seriously, if my mom found out, I would be writing my eulogy instead of writing this journal entry. And for what? Some boy who does not have one single real DVD in his famed DVD collection! I swear, every single movie he had was bootleg. I think his whole room was bootleg. His whole game is bootleg, when I think about it! He acts like one thing in the beginning, but when you look closely, you realize it's not exactly as good as the real thing. Okay, here's what happened: Tamisha took me over to his house — we synchronized our watches — she was to pick me up in EXACTLY forty-five minutes. There was no one except Derrick at his house, so I knew I didn't want to be over there too long. Anyway, we started watching a movie on the floor in his bedroom. Everything was fine at first. I mean, so long as I didn't stare at him right in the face, it was okay. I just kept trying to think about all the wonderful things we'd talked about on the phone because he was NOT as cute as I remember him. So, there we were watching the movie to the best of my ability since it was a little blurry. I was just getting beyond the fact that I had to ignore the line running through the middle of the screen, and the next thing I know, Derrick is trying to kiss and hug and all that. I was like, "Hold up! Wait a minute!" and he was like, "What's wrong, baby?" like this is some kind of bad music video. I could not believe how he was trying to turn our movie-watching into some kinda romantic rondayvu (spelling??). When we're on the phone, he's an innocent little boy, but when we were together, he was a grown octopus! I'm not saying I wasn't feeling his kisses — I'm just saying, I wasn't trying to do all that. See, I know how and when to draw the line. I know when enough is enough. Thank God, Tamisha came right on time! I was outta there so quick! I know Derrick is nice and all, but he is not the one for me. Maybe we should just be friends because #1, he is not that cute, and #2 he is having some issues right now that I cannot help him out with. I think I'll leave him alone until his hormones settle down.

— Karis Laying-Low Reed

I don't know which is more stupid — me going over to Derrick's house, or me writing about it in my journal knowing how straight-up nosey my mother is. I mean, I know that a momma's gotta do what a momma's gotta do. But does a momma have to read my journal and get all up in my personal business? What about my American rights? My Texas rights? My basic human need for privacy? First my journal — next thing you know, she'll be following me into the bathroom.

The bathroom; that's a good place to go right about now.

I wait until my mother turns her back and takes a breather between the yelling spells. I'm doing my best to rise from the couch without making a sound. Her head whips around instantly. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To the bathroom," I reply, throwing in a bit of whine for effect.

"Sidown," she hisses.

I bounce on the balls of my feet, faking the biological emergency. "But I've really gotta go."

She throws her hands up in the air and they land on her hips as she half-laughs, "That's what you should have been saying when Tamisha dropped you off at your little man-ish boyfriend's house when you were supposed to be at a football game: 'I've really gotta go.' But noooo, you couldn't say it then, so don't be sayin' it now. You ain't really gotta go nowhere. Okay?"

I've already slipped back onto the couch, and I mumble, "Yes, ma'am."

My mother does a cha-cha slide over to me and pushes hot words onto my face. "I can't hear you!"

I look her in the eyes and answer again, "Yes, ma'am."

Then she takes a few steps back toward the center of our living room and reaches down to the coffee table, picking up my beloved pink-heart journal again. I still cannot believe she read it. "And what is this?" she traces over the entry until her pearl-tipped fingernail lands on what she's looking for. She wags her head as she mocks me, "'When we're on the phone, he's an innocent little boy, but when we were together, he was a grown octopus.' What's that supposed to mean, huh?"

Mrs. Clawson, my pre-Advanced Placement English teacher, would have appreciated my fine use of figurative language. "It's just a metaphor, Mom."

"A meta-four!" She slams my journal shut, and the resulting puff of air makes her soft brown bangs do the wave. "According to this diary, it would have had a meta-five and a meta-six, given a few more minutes. Tell me, Karis, what would you have done if Tamisha hadn't come back to pick you up when she did, huh? What if Tamisha hadn't been on time? What if you had started 'feeling' your little boyfriend's kisses? Then what?"

I want to tell her that, first of all, Derrick is not my boyfriend. But somehow I think that might damage my case, so I keep that bit of information to myself. The second thing I wish I could tell her is that there was no way I would have done anything stupid with Derrick. I want to tell her that I timed things precisely to protect myself from crossing the line. I also want to tell her that Derrick and I talk on the phone for hours at a time and I have intense feelings for him. Next to Tamisha and Sydney, Derrick is my best friend, kind of. Well, I used to trust him until he turned into that eight-legged marine creature. Besides, he is really only a six on the face and body scale. When I saw him on the basketball court, he looked like Bow Wow. But when I saw him up close at his house, he looked like maybe he could be Bow Wow's half brother. Plus one of his front teeth was longer than the other. Believe me, my mother does not ever have to worry about me sneaking off to Derrick's house again.

Nonetheless, my mother would not understand these things. She's a minister. Need I say more? So in response to her question about what I would have done, I default to my standard answer, which turns out to be the stupidest thing I can say. "I don't know."

"You don't know? What you mean, you don't know? I betcha Derrick knows. I betcha Tamisha knows. I know what would have happened, 'cause it happened to me and that's how I ended up pregnant with you when I was your age. You think I don't know what boys and girls your age do when they're together for hours unsupervised? And, really, it don't take hours. It only takes a few minutes to do something that can change your life forever!"

She stands there for a minute, towering over me. I jump a little when, out of the corner of my eye, I see her right hand approaching my face. It's moving too slowly for a slap, so I calm down a bit as she puts her forefinger and thumb on either side of my chin, raises my face, and makes me look at her.

Her light brown almond-shaped eyes are a mirror of mine. We've both got the same eyes, the same light brown skin, the same dark brown hair and roughly the same skinny shape. Right now, my mom is about three inches taller than me. But if it weren't for her pudgy stomach and her wider hips (which she, of course, blames on me), we could probably trade jeans. Everybody says we look more like sisters than mother and daughter. She thinks it's a compliment. I don't. Who wants to look like her mother? But these eyes, they are both mine and hers. And just when I see a pool of tears forming in them, she points me toward the hallway and says, "I can't stand to look at you right now."

I wish she'd make up her mind. Does she want me to look at her or not?

Minutes later, we start with the all-too-familiar routine. She comes into my room to collect my cell phone and my modem. I can keep the computer for the sake of school. I can go on the internet in the den, but only for academic purposes. There goes my social life.

"Where's the iPod?" she asks.

This is a new one. "That, too?" I protest. "Daddy gave it to me!"

She raises her eyebrows. "And?"

I cannot believe my mother is this mean! This is straight boo-dee, but I can't say so without getting into more trouble — not that that's possible at this point. Slowly, I reach into my Louis Vuitton drawstring bag and pull out the hot pink iPod, a gift my father gave me only two weeks ago to celebrate my sixteenth birthday. Unlike the other items she's taking away, this one hurts. I try real hard, but I can't stop the tears from falling down my cheeks. It feels like she's taking my daddy away from me. Again.

That's all she ever does is take, take, take. She takes my freedom, she takes my friends, my family, everything! I think she wants to take my life because she didn't have hers. She missed the homecoming games because she couldn't find a babysitter, she missed her senior prom because I had pneumonia, and she didn't graduate with her class because she had to sit out a semester. Basically, she lost her teen years when she got pregnant with me at sixteen — but how is that my problem? Why do I have to pay for her mistakes? I'm not my mom, and she's not me! The more I think about it, the madder I get.

My mother takes the iPod in hand and wraps the headphone cord around the rectangular box as she walks toward my bedroom door. I want to scream something from one of those poor little rich girl movies — something like "I wish I was never born!" — but there is always the possibility that my mother will do her best to make my wish come true by killing me now. The safest thing I think I can get away with while she's still in the room is crossing my arms on my chest. I'm pushing it.

Somehow, my mother sees me and says under her breath, "Keep on and you won't be getting a car for Christmas."

I know she did not just threaten me with the car my daddy has already promised me for Christmas when I pass my driver's test! "What's the point? It'll just be one more thing for you to take away from me." Who said that? I hold my breath and wait to see what my momma will bop me with. She's got a cell phone, a modem, and an iPod in hand. Those shouldn't hurt too badly.

She keeps her back to me as she grabs hold of the doorknob. She stops and takes a deep breath. I feel like I'm in a movie theater, waiting for the bad guy to jump out of the closet and attack the innocent victim. But instead, my mother says in a calm, even tone, "For your sake and mine, I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that because I don't believe that God has called me into the prison ministry."

When my mother shuts the door behind her, I bury my face in my pillow and scream as loud as I can without letting her hear me. That's when the door opens again and my journal comes flying across the room, barely missing my head. I grab the journal and, for a moment, consider ripping each page to shreds. I still don't understand what gives her the right to read my stuff. In that whole forty-five-minute lecture she gave me, she never once mentioned the violation of my privacy. Where is the justice?

Instead of destroying my journal, I grab a pen from my desk and write:

Dear Me,

Mom just read my journal. Here is what I'm thinking:

#1 — Nothing happened at Derrick's house, so I don't know what the big deal is.

#2 — I can take care of myself, which was actually proven in the journal!

#3 — What gives my mother the right to just go in my room and pick up my journal and read it?

#4 — If my mom keeps me from getting the car that my daddy promised me, I will leave this house!

#5 — Derrick does not look like Bow Wow. Do not ever fall for a guy that you have only seen from the 9th row up in the stands at a basketball game.

Maybe I should stop writing all of my personal stuff down. But if I do that, who will I tell all my problems? I mean, I have my friends, but they don't understand me like this journal does. No, I can't give up the journal. I will just have to find a good hiding place for it.

— Karis I've-Been-Wronged Reed

Now I'm searching all over my room for a journal hideout spot. I've got to hide it in a place where it's so out of place no one would ever look there. There again, I have a problem. My mother might have the voice to be a minister, but she's got a nose that could outsniff a hound dog. She can smell trouble all over me. When I was little and I got a bad note from school, I could barely get off the bus before she'd say, "Something's wrong with you. What happened at school today?" And since I've never been a good liar (at least not to my mother, anyway), I'd have to break down and tell her the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

I'm searching through the closet now for a place big enough to hold a journal but small enough to be inconspicuous, and that's when I decide to forget it. Deep down inside, the truth is: I don't want to hide things from my mother. Once again, the tears start to sting my eyes. It bothers me that she read my journal. My mother and I have been living in this house alone for the last five years. When she and my father divorced, she got the house and me. She's always talking about how we only have each other and God. Always talking about how levelheaded I am, what a blessing it is to have a daughter who is so self-reliant. So what made her think that she had to read my journal? What happened to the trust? In a way, I feel like she deserves whatever she got for reading it.

I figure the best thing I can do is stop writing in the journal until I'm eighteen, at which point I can do and write whatever because I will be grown. You hear me — grown! I cannot wait for that day! Go where I want to go, do what I want to do, answer to nobody but myself. And God, I suppose, but that shouldn't be too hard, since He already knows everything.

I close my journal and put it where I have always put it — in my top drawer. If I can't have my privacy and if my mother can't trust me, then...whatever. That's on her, except right now it's on me because I'm the one who's grounded. There's something seriously wrong with this picture.

Copyright © 2008 by Michelle Stimpson

Reading Group Guide

This reading group guide for TROUBLE IN MY WAY includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Michelle Stimpson. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.



Introduction

Karis Reed doesn’t try to get in trouble—but, sometimes, trouble gets in the way. An unauthorized trip to a male friend’s house puts Karis at odds with her mother, a minister who is determined to make sure that Karis doesn’t repeat her mistake of getting pregnant at sixteen. Against Karis’s better judgment, she takes part in a plan to keep her social life flowing just beneath her mother’s radar.

Enter a self-proclaimed bad boy, a trifling potential stepmother, a deployed soldier, and threats to relationships with two of Karis’s best friends. When Karis’s mother finds out about her deception she is fed up and decides that Karis may be better off living with her father. Feelings that Karis could never before articulate come to the surface when she realizes that there’s nothing left to lose when you’ve lost your parents’ trust. Through a renewed faith in God’s plan for her life, Karis decides to recommit herself to living with integrity.




Discussion Questions

1. “Basically, she lost her teen years when she got pregnant with me at sixteen—but how it that my problem? Why do I have to pay for her mistakes? I’m not my mom, and she’s not me!” How does Karis’s turning sixteen trigger a shift in her relationship with her mother? In what ways is Karis directly and indirectly responsible for this shift? Do you feel that Karis’s mother is being overprotective?

2. Explain Karis’s attraction to Javon. What does her decision to pursue a relationship with him on the sly, using a borrowed cell phone from a friend, reveal about her character? Based on the details he reveals to Karis about his life, how moral of a person is Javon? Why doesn’t Karis’s mother object to their budding relationship?

3. “You can still be you and do what you’re supposed to do. Actually, you can’t fulfill your purpose without being the you that God created.” How does Karis’s mother’s faith in her daughter guide her parenting? To what extent does Karis share her mother’s religious beliefs?

4. How would you describe Karis’s friendships with Sydney and Tamisha? When Karis accidentally incurs excessive cell phone charges using Sydney’s sister’s phone, why doesn’t she immediately own up to her mistake? When Marlon contacts her from Iraq, why does Karis decide to conceal that from his sister, Tamisha? How does the resolution of these separate crises impact Karis’s friendships with both girls?

5. “There’s something about you, Karis. I don’t know what it is, but you make me want to do the right thing.” How would you assess Karis’s moral instincts? What role do her parents play in her shaping these beliefs and attitudes? How does she convey her faith to her friends? What role does her diary play in her establishing what it is that she believes? To what extent does her moral compass protect her from really getting into trouble?

6. What does the “Boyfriend Quiz” that Sydney, Tamisha, and Karis devise reveal about the nature of their feelings about the opposite sex? What is most important to them and why? How does their quiz reveal both their wisdom and their naïveté about romantic relationships? If you were to apply their quiz to someone you really care about, what kind of ranking would he or she receive?

7. “And since I’m the reason she has the ring, I can also be the reason she doesn’t have the ring.” Is Karis justified in taking the ring her father intends to use to propose to Shereese? Why does Shereese suspect Karis’s interference is an attempt to bring her parents back together, and do you agree or disagree with that assessment?

8. What spurs Karis’s mother’s decision to have her daughter move out to go and live with her father? How does Karis feel about this change in her domestic arrangements? Why does her mother feel that it is a good time for them to live separately? To what extent does her abrupt solution to the difficulties involved in raising her daughter seem in keeping with her approach as a parent?

9. Of the many different moments of trouble that Karis finds herself in, which were the most memorable or compelling to you, and why? To what extent are the people Karis surrounds herself with responsible for the trouble that she encounters?

10. What does Karis’s mother mean when she says she strives to live a life with integrity? How does living a life with integrity connect with living a life faithful to God’s desires? How does Karis try to live with integrity in her own life? Can you identify an example from your experiences in which you have chosen a path of integrity?



Enhance Your Book Club

1. Karis Reed keeps a diary in which she addresses herself and makes sense of some of the events of her life. Do you keep a diary? If so, go back and reread your entries from a time that was especially challenging in your life. How did you question your actions and the events you were dealing with? If you don’t keep a diary, consider doing so for a week. How do you experience the act of reflecting on your life? What are some advantages of recording the moments in your life that have an impact on you? You may want to share diary entries with fellow book club members, to compare your experiences and writing styles.

2. Karis is committed to supporting Marlon and his colleagues while they are stationed overseas in Iraq. Have you ever considered corresponding with a serviceman or woman or volunteering to support your fellow Americans in our armed forces? To see what you can do, visit www.uso.org/ for suggestions and ideas on how to lend your support to people serving in the military. Your book club may want to consider “adopting” a troop or unit and sending them care packages and notes of encouragement.

3. In Trouble in My Way, Karis finds a prayer for protection that she distributes to her friends and uses in praying for Marlon, who is headed to Iraq. Did you know that prayers are an essential component of virtually all religious traditions? Are there any prayers that you know or that you say regularly? When your group gathers to discuss the novel, share any prayers that you know, and learn more about the kinds of prayers that are familiar to your fellow book club members. You may want to exchange written prayers with each group member on an individual basis.

A Conversation with Michelle Stimpson

Q: Trouble in My Way is your first young adult novel. What were some of the challenges you faced in writing a novel with a teenager as a protagonist?

A: Actually, I found it pretty easy. I’m a big kid at heart, so falling into this character’s mindset was like second nature.



Q: To what extent did the process of writing Trouble in My Way take you back to your own hijinks as a teenager?

A: Writing this book took me way back! I have kept a journal since I was twelve, so I have a record of the dramas and antics I experienced as a teen. Writing this book almost made me feel as though I was writing in one of my old journals.



Q: How did you first come up with the idea for the story of Trouble in My Way?

A: I didn’t really come up with a story first. For this book, I came up with the main character first and then built the story around her. I knew I wanted to write about a girl who has a good heart but doesn’t always do the right thing. Once I had a feel for Karis, it was just a matter of putting her in several situations that tested her character and, ultimately, caused her to rethink what it means to be true to that good heart within.



Q: Karis’s mother still seems to be reeling from the experience of having been a teenage mother, but her father doesn’t seem to be as affected. Can you explain this phenomenon?

A: I think that there has always been a double standard when it comes to teens and pregnancy. More often than not, the girl suffers a greater degree of social stigma than the boy. While Karis’s father certainly wouldn’t want Karis to become pregnant as a teen, the sting of being a teenage parent was not as powerful for him as it was for Karis’s mother.



Q: As a mother yourself, to what extent could you relate to the experiences of Karis’s mother, as she struggles with her daughter’s adolescent rebellion?

A: The older my kids get, the more I can relate to Karis’s mother and the more I appreciate my own mother. My daughter, in particular, really makes me think and rethink what it means to rely on God’s guidance for parenting. More and more, I have to say to myself, “Okay—we taught her well. Now it’s time to let her put those lessons into action.” In releasing some of the control, I find myself relying all the more on God’s promises because I know that when I can’t be there to watch her every move and whisper direction into her ear, He can.



Q: How do you hope that readers of your work who are not religious will respond to the portions of the book that examine faith and belief?

A: I hope that those portions will cause them to reflect on their values and beliefs. I hope that readers will think about how developing a personal relationship with God can provide even greater direction in life.



Q: You’ve written both nonfiction and fiction; how do they differ, in terms of your writing process?

A: I find that writing nonfiction is easier for me because I already know what I’m going to write. However, I do not find it as enjoyable as writing fiction. Writing fiction is more difficult and even frustrating, at times, but I find it immensely enjoyable.



Q: To what extent do you see your own writing as a kind of ministry?

A: My writing is definitely a ministry. There are many people who won’t pick up a Bible, but they will pick up a novel. They relate to the characters and envision how God can do for them what He does for the characters. Jesus understood this—that’s why He told parables. I count it an honor to follow His example.



Q: Which contemporary fiction writers inspire you, and why?

A: I read a variety of fiction authors—Vanessa Miller, Sandra Cisneros, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Khaled Hosseini, and Walter Dean Myers to name a few. I also read a lot of historical fiction and nonfiction.