Authors: Nikki Jefford
Ryan straightened up in his desk. “Anyway, Charlene helps me with English.”
“Well, good for her.” God, Gray was actually looking forward to Mr. Darling’s lecture that morning—anything to shut Ryan up. And she had two more classes with him before the day was out. It wasn’t like she got them over with in one fell swoop, either. They were strung out over the course of her day. School started with Ryan Phillips and ended with Ryan Phillips. She needed her damn body back.
As much as she loathed keeping Ryan’s company, French held even less appeal.
Shay Baxter advanced on Gray as she headed for the seat beside Nolan. “Why don’t you sit beside me, Mademoiselle Perez.” It wasn’t a question.
“And why should I do that?” Gray demanded. Ryan had been warm-up and she was on a roll.
Because I’m going to tell you what to say if Madam Girard calls on you
.
Just great: On top of everything else, Shay Baxter had telepathic powers.
If only Gray had the same ability to convey a message of apology to Nolan as she slumped into the desk beside Shay in the front row.
“Why are you helping me?” Gray asked.
“I’m doing this for Raj.”
Gray’s lip curled back. “You must really care about him.”
Shay naturally didn’t pick up on Gray’s bitter tone. Her stoic pose went uncompromised. “He’s my friend,” she said matter-of-factly.
Well, he could forget about being Gray’s friend. She had a bone to pick with Raj. How could he tell Shay Baxter about the resurrection spell? He probably told her everything. They were BFFs, bonded through years of friendship.
Gray had to stop this. Shay was probably reading her thoughts right now.
“I’ll also translate everything Madame Girard says so you’ll know what’s going on in class,” Shay said.
“And that’s it, right?” Gray asked. “You’re not going to invade my thoughts or anything?”
Shay showed the first glimmer of emotion. Maybe it was her version of outrage because her words had a crisp undertone as they dropped from her lips. “That would be a violation of your private rights, not to mention an
infringement
of coven code. I would never eavesdrop on your personal thoughts.”
Of course you wouldn’t, Miss Perfect
.
Gray checked Shay’s face for any indication that she’d heard that thought, but the girl still looked incensed by Gray’s accusation. Shay’s jaw didn’t soften until Max Curry walked in. While they greeted one another, Gray glanced back at Nolan. He was frowning. She lifted a hand and nodded her head toward Shay. Nolan looked down at the piece of paper on his desk and began scribbling furiously.
Gray turned back around to face the front of the room. It wasn’t that she wanted to sit beside Shay Baxter. She was the last person she wanted to sit next to! But it beat laryngitis.
After class, Gray waited for Nolan in the hallway. He certainly took his time coming out. “Hey,” she said when he stepped out of class.
“Hey.”
“Sorry I didn’t get to sit with you.” Gray rolled her eyes. “Shay Baxter cornered me. At least she’s helping me with my language problem.”
Nolan stiffened. “So Shay knows what’s going on?”
“It’s not like I told her. Raj did.” Gray screwed up her face. “He’s so going to get a piece of my mind—or mouth, rather. I guess Shay really is more gifted than me with her fancy pants telepathic abilities. I’ll just have to chew him out the old-fashioned way: with my mouth.” Gray chuckled then stopped abruptly when she noticed Nolan wasn’t exactly paying attention to her diatribe.
“You told Raj McKenna?”
Gray lifted her shoulders up and down. “Well, yeah. He knows that warlock I mentioned, Adrian Montez.”
Nolan’s lip curled over. “But I was going to help you.”
“You still are. I’d much rather solicit the help of this Brock guy than Adrian the Avenger. He doesn’t even have powers anymore.”
Nolan’s mouth returned to normal. “Cool, so we’ll make a road trip out of it this weekend.”
“Saturday,” Gray said. “No overnighters unless you want to wake up next to one very pissed-off twin.” She chuckled.
Nolan dimpled and looked at the ground then back up. “All right, if I don’t see you later, I’ll catch you Saturday morning as soon as I can make a getaway.”
Gray laughed. “See you then.”
Gray physically winced when she lifted the tab of her French vanilla Slim Fast during lunch hour—and it wasn’t just because the chalky substance in front of her was “French.” Gray took a sip and made a face. “God, this is foul.”
Kiki giggled. Even her salad looked more appetizing.
Gray stood up and grabbed the Slim Fast, practically crushing it in her hand.
“What are you doing?” Brittany asked.
“I’m chucking this and getting tater tots.”
“I’ll come with you,” Kiki said.
Brittany stood. “Well, you can’t just leave me here sitting alone.”
“I think I’ll have a slice of pizza,” Kiki said on the way up to the service window.
“You know you guys are going to have pimples tomorrow,” Brittany cried out behind them. “And forget fitting into your prom dresses. Guys? Wait up!”
Gray got her tater tots and Kiki had her slice of pizza. Gray made a goofy face at Brittany when the girl glared at her once they’d returned to their table. “What? You want one or something?”
“No, thanks,” Brittany sniffed.
Gray thought she’d managed to survive another day at McKinley High as Charlene when Brittany came rushing upon her at the end of sixth period.
“Oh my god, promise you won’t get mad at me for telling you this, Charlene.”
Gray suppressed a sigh. “What now?”
“Kristy Phelps says Blake and Jenna showed up at Subway together during lunch hour. Usually Kristy has fifth period chemistry with Jenna, but Jenna never showed up and when I asked Kiki, she said Blake didn’t show up to bio.”
Obviously, Gray was supposed to have some kind of reaction to this, but she just wasn’t in the mood. “Oh my god, that bastard,” Gray said half-heartedly. “At least I showed him with Todd Hanson. Maybe it’s time I tap that again.”
Brittany hugged her arms around her chest. “Todd is the hottest senior at McKinley. You’ll so show Blake!”
“What’s he doing with bucktoothed Jenna Hocking, anyway?” Gray mused aloud. “When did Stacey Morehouse stop making the cut?”
Brittany’s mouth hung open. “You’re joking, right?”
“Apparently.” Gray lowered her voice and leaned closer. “Why?”
Brittany took a step back. Her face squeezed together and she looked at Gray with the same kind of disgust one might use when catching sight of roadkill or a whiff of fish guts.
“What’s wrong with you lately?”
“I bumped my head this morning. Really hard,” Gray added when the first part did nothing to soften the features of Brittany’s expression.
“Yeah, well, you might want to have that looked at.” Brittany walked away as though Gray’s supposed head injury were contagious, or maybe the only contagion she was worried about was keeping company with a person clearly losing her mind.
Fat chance Charlene’s friends would stick around if her sister stopped being anything other than perfectly stuck-up and popular. Blake’s wasn’t the only relationship she had to maintain and that was currently on the fritz thanks to Gray’s handy dandy reflexes.
Gray could only begin to imagine what she’d find written in the Book of Charlene come Saturday morning. Her sister would probably rip through the pages with the pressure of her pen. Well, it wasn’t easy being Charlene.
Gray noticed Ryan at the end of the hall with his jacket and backpack. He walked toward the double doors leading into the student parking lot. Gray hurried after him. “Hey, Ryan!” As soon as Gray was close enough she asked, “What’s the deal with Stacey Morehouse? I asked Brittany why Blake lost interest in her and she looked at me like I was nutto. So what did you fail to mention?”
“Um.” Ryan looked side to side. “It’s complicated.”
“Ryan!”
“She’s in a coma.”
Gray stepped so close to Ryan their noses practically touched. “How did Stacey get in a coma?”
“She was in a car crash.” Ryan’s eyes darted to one side.
Gray sucked in a breath. Even when she’d distanced herself from Ryan by a full foot she had trouble getting air into her lungs. Finally, she managed to take in a breath. She wanted to slap him across his pear-shaped face or, better yet, sock him in the jaw. “Realized the error of his ways, my ass.” Gray turned on her heel and took off down the hallway.
“Don’t go assuming something!” Ryan yelled after her.
But it was far too late for that.
Gray had only one theory, and her name was Charlene.
Green
, Gray thought.
Green. Green. Green.
The lights changed on cue all the way to Valley Medical Hospital. Man oh man, she loved being a witch. Gray didn’t have any time to waste. Not that Stacey Morehouse was going anywhere. She just had to see how she was doing for herself.
“Hello, I’m here to see Stacey Morehouse,” Gray said, approaching the front desk of the critical care unit.
A large African-American woman, who looked even darker in her white uniform, regarded Gray over her horn-rimmed glasses. “Are you a relative?”
“I’m a friend.”
“Sorry, sweetie, only family allowed.”
“Thanks,” Gray said grudgingly.
No matter. Once she’d rounded the corner and checked that the hallway was deserted, Gray went invisible and turned right back around. It would have helped if she’d known which room Stacey was in. Gray had never been very good at locator spells. If the stationed nurse would go away for a second, Gray could try looking Stacey up on the computer, but the woman was firmly planted in her seat.
Okay, feet, take me to Stacey Morehouse
.
Gray walked swiftly down the hall and slipped through a partially open door. An elderly woman emerged from her bathroom. The flush of the toilet still sloshed behind her. Gray was about to mutter an apology, then remembered she was invisible.
She’d just have to look in every room until she found Stacey.
Hospital odors always made her nose twitch. If only invisibility could erase her sense of smell. At least Gray hadn’t died inside a hospital. Dying peacefully in her sleep was at the top of Gray’s list as far as death scenarios went—just not at seventeen!
Gray was surprised by how much it affected her to see Stacey Morehouse lying comatose on top of her hospital bed. She’d never been fond of Stacey, but they shared a bond now: the bond of death and the brink of death. Two seventeen-year-old girls knocked down in their prime.
The difference was Stacey shouldn’t be lying on her back, breathing through a ventilator, shut off to the world. Gray sent out a silent apology for her sister—if it was, indeed, Charlene. That was what she had to find out.
The windows in Stacey’s room overlooked the hospital’s green patch of lawn below.
It looked like an interior designer had been hired to personalize Stacey’s hospital room. Whoever it was had done a noble job of making it feel more homey. Several framed Monet art prints hung from the wall and there was a fresh floral bouquet on a side table.
A beautiful patchwork quilt had been spread over Stacey’s standard-issue hospital bedspread.
Gray walked tentatively to Stacey’s bedside. Why did it feel like she was approaching an open casket?
Stacey’s hair was fluffed gently around the pillow on either side of her face as though it had recently been combed. Her brows were perfectly plucked and even her cheeks had a healthy glow to them.
She looked like Sleeping Beauty.
“What did Charlene do to you?” Gray whispered.
Death and accidents were beginning to feel like a morbid obsession with Gray. Her eyes raced down the article she’d pulled up on the computer inside her room.
McKinley Teen in Critical Condition after Collision
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Stacey Lee Morehouse, 17, is in critical condition at Valley Medical Hospital after driving headfirst into a street lamp Friday evening.
Morehouse is the only daughter of local attorney Daniel Morehouse.
This tragedy falls two days after McKinley High junior Graylee Perez, 17, was found dead in her family home the morning of the 9
th
. Coroners have yet to determine the cause of death. Perez was in the same grade as Morehouse at McKinley High School.
Morehouse crashed into a light pole off Stanton and Third shortly after leaving her boyfriend’s house at 9:40 p.m. Friday night. Paramedics performed CPR on the young woman after they arrived on the scene. They said she was found unconscious.