Downcast (21 page)

"Neat trick, though," I mused, toying with a button on his shirt as he kissed the top of my head. "That’s how you got out of being suspended, isn’t it.”

He chuckled, and I took that for a yes.

“I wondered how you did that,” I said. “I wish I could.”

"You can, if you wanted to."

Startled, and I looked up at him. He shook his head to indicate he couldn't say more. He released me then nodded at the clock above the gym doors.

"It's time for lunch," he said. "Go on, I'll meet you there."

He must have noticed my slight hesitation at the memory of the last time he promised to meet me at lunch because he grinned and said, "I'm getting our things from the classroom. Don't worry. Nothing and no one is going to keep me from you, princess. Not now. Never ever."

***

I did not want to run the gauntlet of Gaggle and Goons by going in the front doors of the cafeteria, so I took the long way around and down a back staircase.

Hurrying over to where Helen and Morris were sitting, I saw Helen toying with a Hot Pocket, and Morris was eating a roast beef sandwich. Thank goodness some things were still normal, even though they were both bundled up in coats and scarves.

Helen looked up at me as I plopped into my seat.

"What the hell is going on?" Helen demanded.

"You look, uh..." Morris added.

"But, mostly, what the hell is going on?" Helen said, crossing her arms.

Grimacing, I took a deep breath. This was going to be very hard and very...embarrassing. But, it had to be done.

"So, here's the deal," I said. "A lot has been going on, and a lot of it is...weird. Really weird. I'm going to tell you everything I know, and you need to listen and not ask questions until I'm done, because you know me. I will get confused and inevitably forget something really important. Got it?"

Helen and Morris nodded.

I told them everything: the changes in my eyes, Mom's strange behavior, Haley's turning the locker to ash, the flowers dying too fast, Zack's trick with my combination, my dream about those voices in the void, and Katie Jones' cryptic comments—all of them. I blushed a LOT when I got to the part about Haley kissing me in the woods, but I told them everything.

Morris’ mouth fell slack when I mentioned Haley's assessment that he was right about the weather being significant. Helen's expression was more guarded, and she was frowning, which was usually a Prelude to Brilliance, a brilliance I was counting on.

Finally, I finished, and I hugged myself tightly as I was still shaking from both the cold and the totality of all the weirdness in my life.

"I can't believe it," Morris muttered to himself, seeming stunned. "I actually got something right for once."

I couldn't help but smile a little bit at that, but Helen wiped the smile right off my face.

“I’m not even sure what you’re asking about,” she said flatly. “Are you trying to figure out why your mom is acting weird? Or why the weather is crazy? Or, if Haley and Zack have some kind of strange abilities? And, what does any of this have to do with each other? It seems all unrelated and mostly circumstantial.”

“Correlate your data points, though,” Morris said. “And, you have to admit that it starts to look like something more than just coincidence. Especially since all the stuff started happening at basically the same time.”

“Maybe,” Helen conceded. “But, why can’t Haley and Zack tell us anything? The only logical reason I can think of is that they’re involved in something with the law, and there’s a gag order on them or something like that.”

“Witness protection?” Morris suggested.

“Whatever. It can’t be good in any case.”

My heart sank.

“So, there’s nothing we can do?” I asked, my voice sounding as small as my hope.

“Did I say that?” Helen demanded. “I don’t think I said that, did I, Morris?”

“Not that I heard,” he replied. “Besides, if something really is going on with the weather that could affect Darbyfield, shouldn’t we figure this out?”

“Right. So we’ll just start figuring all this out, one thing at a time.”

"So...you guys will still help me?" My voice cracked slightly with desperation.

"Of course!" Helen exclaimed as Morris made positive noises around a mouthful of sandwich.

"Witnessed and attested to," I said with a relieved grin of my own.

"HEY! THE PARTY
can start now! I'm here!" Zack announced, appearing out of nowhere with a tray laden with food. He took the chair next to Helen and grinned at her. She pointedly ignored him.

I stared at the food on his tray. He had a cheeseburger and fries, macaroni and cheese, pizza, chocolate cake, cheesecake, a large soda, and a banana.

"Are you going to eat all that?" I asked.

"Absolutely!" Zack replied.

Haley slid into the seat next to me and shook his head, depositing our bags on the floor.

"What?" Zack said, looking at his brother.

"Not subtle," Haley replied.

"But, I love food!"

"We're supposed to be trying to fit in."

"Hey," Helen interrupted acidly. "Sorry to interrupt the bromance, but we have some work to do here. So, either help us or shut up."

"I love it when a woman takes charge," Zack said, propping his chin on his hand and gazing adoringly at her.

Haley scooted his chair so that it was right next to mine and slipped his arm around my waist, dropping a slow kiss on my cheek.

"No," I said, pulling away slightly. He looked at me, puzzled. "Not here in front of everyone in the cafeteria, um, if that's okay?"

"Soon, princess," he promised darkly. "You won't care about what anybody else thinks."

"What does that mean?" Helen demanded, irritably shrugging off Zack who had casually stretched his arm out along the back of her chair.

Haley grimaced.

"Oh, I totally got this one," I said, jumping in and throwing Haley a quick smile. “The answer is that he can't tell you.”

"I got that much," Helen said curtly, but I knew better than to be offended by her In Hot Pursuit of Answers demeanor.

She rounded on Zack.

"I get that there's a lot of you," she snipped. "But would you mind confining your bulk to your own chair? Or at least your own personal space?"

"Bulk?" Zack blinked disbelievingly. "This is all muscle!"

"Are you in trouble with the law?" Helen asked, turning back to Haley.

"Absolutely not," he replied with complete confidence.

"We are completely innocent,” Zack said.

"I wouldn't go that far," Haley said drily, with a wry smile.

“In the eyes of the law,” Zack amended.

"Holy crap!" Morris exclaimed, and Helen and I jumped in our seats.

"What is it?" Helen cried.

"This is horrible!" Morris gasped. "I mean, it's amazing. But, it could turn out to be horrible!"

"What?" I demanded.

"I can't believe they did this," Morris muttered, looking around the back of the cafeteria. He caught Zack's eye, and Zack winked. Morris shook his head.

Helen thrust her hand out over Morris' sandwich, an uncapped green highlighter clenched in her fist.

"Morris," she announced calmly. "Tell us now, or the sandwich gets it."

"It's all over Tumblr," Morris said, finally. He turned to Zack. "Why did you do it?"

Zack grinned and used the excuse of talking to Morris to lean into Helen's personal space again.

"I thought it would be more interesting this way," he said.

"What would be more interesting?" Helen's hand wavered precariously close to the bread.

Morris looked at me and spoke.

"The Homecoming king and queen nominations. Zack dropped out. It's Haley and Jordan now."

My stomach fell into a deep, dark puddle of dread.

"Wait," Morris said. "There's more. It looks like everyone from the back of the cafeteria has started a write-in campaign for you to be homecoming queen. Apparently the fight yesterday made you a poster child."

“I thought Jordan might enjoy a little competition,” Zack said with a smirk.

Now, it was my turn to look blankly around the back of the cafeteria, and I saw that everybody was conspiratorially huddled around their phones, tablets, and laptops. There was a wild, new energy buzzing in the usually stale air back here.

Pings now started rolling down the rows of the cafeteria as everyone got the tweets, texts, and Tumblr posts. There was an avalanche of whispers and nervous nods.

I began to cringe as the beeps and pings moved further, past the Goons and to the edge of the Jocks and the Gaggle. I winced and buried my head in my hands, waiting for the inevitable in 3...2...1...

Screech from Jordan.

***

The next few hours were incredibly unpleasant. I was practically being tattooed by everyone's stares, even the nice ones. In a sense, feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable at being the center of attention was a good thing. It kept me from obsessively worrying about all the other really important problems I was supposed to be dealing with. Being the write-in candidate for homecoming queen wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened to me, but it was definitely unsettling. While having everyone finally see me as something more than the nerd in the back of the cafeteria, their surprise that I could even be considered a possible match for someone like Haley was more than a little disconcerting.

It didn’t help that all I wanted to do was to see Haley again, to feel his arms around me, to experience the bliss of him kissing me. To be completely honest, I wanted his reassurance, too. I wasn’t new to loving hopelessly, but I was very new to being loved in return.

***

Lost in my thoughts, I walked into the library, and immediately, skinny hands with sharp nails grabbed me by the collar and sleeve, and I was yanked down the aisle toward a back corner and slammed against the shelves.

Gasping, I finally got a look at my attackers.

Jordan and Kara loomed over me, their bodies hedging me in, smirking nastily.

"Soooo," Jordan sneered. "I heard you snuck out of the building with Haley."

"Yeah, did you kiiiss him?” Kara cackled. “Did he tell you he loooved you? Are you guys, like, together now?"

“As if he’d ever go for someone like you.”

“I bet you’ve never even been kissed before.”

They snickered in hoarse whispers, and little flickers of angry heat melted some of the ice off my fear. My ears were burning with the habit of humiliation, and their words hurt. But, not as deeply as they hoped or I had feared.

“You would probably gag if someone stuck their tongue in your mouth.”

“She’d probably gag worse if a guy stuck something else in her mouth,” Kara jibed.

My world had gotten just a little bit bigger over the past few days, and I no longer saw my life as an endless prison sentence with the Gaggle and Goons as my wardens. In a few short months, I would graduate, and I’d never have to see Jordan, Kara, or any of the others ever again. Knowing this made it hard to muster up the usual fear and anguish their teasing usually inspired. Instead, I felt detached and almost bored. Maybe even a little annoyed. I had come to the library to get some work done and see if Morris was there. There were other, bigger things going on in my life now, and I just didn’t have the time or energy to be their emotional punching bag any more.

I should have just walked away, but, leave it to me to not even be able to diss people the right way.

Instead, I rolled my eyes and laughed.

"What's so funny?" Kara snapped, narrowing her eyes.

"You really think a god like Haley is going to stay interested in someone like you?" Jordan fumed.

I cocked my head to the side, buoyed up by an irrepressible surge of sensing my own power. These poor girls, with their bleached blonde hair and bubble gum lives, had nothing. I had Haley. I had myself.

Buzzing with a kind of reckless courage, I fixed my steeliest gaze on them, narrowing my eyes ever so slightly.

"Yes," I replied with a smirk, letting the satisfaction of remembering Haley's kisses saturate that word. “I absolutely do. Give it up, Jordan. You never had a chance.”

Jordan and Kara physically startled and stepped back. They looked dazed and a little flushed. Score one for Stephanie Starr.

I took advantage of their shock to slip around them and out of the aisle. Then, being the bold badass that I was, I went and hid behind the periodicals display to watch until they left and the coast was clear.

"See?" cooed a smooth, musical voice by my ear. "You can do it, just like he told you that you could."

I whipped around to find Katie Jones smiling at me, her indigo blue eyes almost unnaturally bright. Morris stood by her side, staring at me in surprise.

The bell rang before I could ask her anything else, and Morris dragged me away to the joys of senior Economics.

***

This was officially turning into the longest day ever. I felt ancient by the time English rolled around, though being pulled into Haley's arms just outside the classroom did give me a much needed boost.

"Did you think of me, Stephanie Starr?" he asked, dredging his words in thick need.

"Yes," I answered breathlessly. "Well, no."

His face fell a fraction, and I felt the exquisite pressure of his fingertips tightening around me ever so slightly.

"I mean, I did, but I kind of had to think about Jordan and Kara for a few minutes," I amended, cracking a small smile. "And then, there was the whole need to think about Katie Jones, Morris, and Economics, where I still don't get what Mr. Sewell is talking about with inflation. But yes, I mostly thought of you."

It was touch and go if he was going to kiss me right then and there.

Instead, he laughed, the sound rumbling between us.

"Now," he said. “I have a question for you. Do you wish me to sit next to you in English?”

"No." The word came out instinctively, apologetically, and cringingly, but he surprised me by grinning at me instead of being hurt.

"Good," he replied. "Sitting next to you without being able to touch you all this time has been a torment, and now that I have you, I don’t think I could hold back.”