Good vs. Evil High (11 page)

“Okay. Thank you.”

“Good morning, students,” Connie’s voice came
over the speakers. I sat up on my knees to look out a window and
saw that everyone outside had stopped to listen, too. “The time is
seven-fifteen a.m. We will set out in fifteen minutes. Please load
the aircraft you have been assigned to as soon as possible.”

“Fifteen minutes to takeoff!” Harmony
said.

Three more girls walked into the jet,
followed by Mr. Westhyme, who shut the door and locked it behind
him. “Looks like everyone’s here,” he said. “What do you girls say
about taking off a little early?”

A chorus of “Yeah!” went up from
everyone.

“I’ll check with Headmaster, but I don’t
think he’ll mind. We’re all ready to get there and start the Winter
Competitions, right?”

Another loud chorus of “Yeah!”

Mr. Westhyme climbed the stairs and
disappeared into the cockpit.

“See why he’s my favorite?” Nadine said.

We got up to sit on the end of the sofa for
takeoff.

I twisted my neck around to look out the
window behind Harmony and felt a shiver pass over me when I saw
that boy, my little stalker from the frosty garden. He was watching
me again, both of us turning away at that moment.

“Good morning, passengers,” Mr. Westhyme said
over the intercom. “Headmaster has given us the all clear. If you
haven’t already done so, please get in takeoff position.” I scooted
back just before the straps wrapped across my chest.

“All students and faculty, please clear the
runway, as Jet Seven is initiating takeoff,” we heard Connie say.
Kids began running toward the side of the building the jets were on
as the engine started. We moved forward and turned to the left
slowly and carefully.

Once we got to the end of the room and began
the incline, we really sped up. And then we were shooting forward
and climbing into the dark morning sky.

I waited for the belts to release me from
their grasp to say, “Could we go ahead and get under your sheet,
Harmony? There’s something I wanna talk to you guys about.”

“Sure.” Harmony reached in the pack she’d
brought and pulled out a folded blue sheet as we walked to a corner
of the room. “Everyone turn on your cons.” We pulled them out of
our bags and pockets and turned them on. “Harmony Con, stay.”
Harmony looked at us, so we each did the same thing. “Here,
Nadine.” Harmony handed a corner of the sheet to Nadine and they
draped it over the cons. The only problem was that the floating
sheet tent was a couple of feet off the ground. We instructed our
cons to move down until the problem was solved.

Then we climbed inside. “Someone’s following
me.”

“At North Haven?”

“Yes...” I told them about the times I’d seen
him before and that morning.

“It does sound strange, but why would
somebody want to follow you?” Nadine asked.

“I don’t know, but what if he keeps it
up?”

“First let’s see who the mysterious man is,”
Sassy said. “Sassy Con.” The sheet rested against her back as her
con moved down.

“What can I do for you, Sassy?” Connie asked.
It felt like she was talking way too loud, since the rest of us had
been speaking so quietly.

“Please show us all the male students at
North Haven.” Her con lay horizontally in front of her so we could
all see the screen. A row of guys with names, birthdates, and
enrollment dates beside them came up. “Tell me if you see him.”

I scooted closer to Sassy and watched as she
swept her finger over the screen. We got through a bunch before I
saw him. “That’s him.” I pointed to the freckled brunette with a
small gap between his front teeth. Everyone leaned in to get a
better look.

“Henry Lancaster,” Sassy read. “He’s only
been here eight months. Must have been recruited pretty soon after
last year’s competitions. I’ve never seen him before.”

“I have,” Nadine said. “He’s in my algebra
class. It seems like he has a really hard time talking to people,
so I’m not sure he has any friends. We could confront him about why
he’s always watching Kristine.”

“No,” I said, thinking it sounded like he had
a hard enough time already. “Maybe it’s some weird coincidence. I
just wanted to see what you guys thought.”

“I think we should wait and see if it keeps
happening,” Harmony said.

“Yeah, it could be a crush,” Sassy winked. I
hadn’t thought about that.

“Don’t worry,” Nadine said. “We’ll help watch
out for him. If he really is following you all the time, we’ll
notice, and then we’ll confront him together.”

“You know we got yo back, girl,” Sassy said,
sending us all into a fit of laughter.

Harmony reached into her bag and pulled out a
flashlight. “Now, who’s ready for a ghost story?”

Chapter
Fourteen

~ Southland Cinder High
~

Hours and hours of fun, boredom, and a long
nap later, we heard Mr. Westhyme’s voice. “We’ve begun our descent
and should be touching down within the next ten minutes. Make sure
you’re all seated safely until we come to a complete stop.”

A pale girl squealed with delight. “I finally
get to see it,” she said from way down the sofa.

“Is it your first time here, too?” I leaned
over to ask.

“Yep. I got recruited a week before Winter
Competitions ended last year.” She put her arms around the girls to
her left and right. “Shauna and Tallulah left early to get me, so I
only caught the end of it. It was fun watching the final
competitions at North Haven, but I’ve been dying to see Southland
Cinder High.”

“Me, too. I’m Kristine.”

“I’m Tracey. I remember seeing you in the
morning announcements. You’re the newest newbie of us all.”

“There it is,” Harmony said.

I turned sideways in my seat and looked down
into darkness. All I could make out in the night was a distant
flicker of light. In my head I pictured a grey castle with soot and
cinders pouring out of smoky, twisted towers. But as we got closer,
all I saw was the shadow of a long mountain with flames burning all
over one end.

“We’re coming in,” Mr. Westhyme said over the
speakers. “Brace yourselves. Those idiots are using fire for the
runway again. It’s dangerous, stupid, irresponsible—I’d think they
were trying to kill us if they didn’t use it themselves. How do
they expect—”

Harmony and I laughed. I could just see him
going on and on to himself about it in the cockpit. And anyway, the
landing went fine. We felt the light bump as the wheels hit the
ground and the jet began slowing down.

We followed the fire-lit lanes slowly toward
the dark mountainous thing I could only assume was Southland Cinder
High. As we turned, I got my first good look at it. Made entirely
of dark stone, two house-sized wooden plank doors were in the
front, lined with blazing torches. Gold, pointed letters hung over
them, spelling out SOUTHLAND CINDERS.

And just as we stopped, I watched the ground
rise around us. “What’s happening?” I asked Harmony as a door
opened and shut at the front of the room.

Mr. Westhyme began to descend the stairs.
“Nobody panic, we’re being lowered to their underground hangar.
We’re early, so we can stay on board and wait for the rest of our
school to get here, or we can go in and start eating.”

“I’m starving,” Nadine said, putting a hand
over her stomach. “I say we go now.”

“Me too,” Sassy said, pulling a brush out of
her bag and running it through her hair.

“I’d rather wait and go in with everybody
else,” Tracy said. “We’re way outnumbered right now.”

“Numbers don’t matter,” Mr. Westhyme said.
“We have an understanding with them. During Winter Competitions, no
fighting, so it’s safe.”

“I can stay here with those that wish to
wait,” Miss McCree said as she entered the room. “You go ahead,
now, and we’ll be meetin’ yah’ inside.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mr. Westhyme said. “I’m
just gonna go park this baby and we’ll be out of here.” He went
back up the stairs and we waited until the ground stopped moving
under us. We were inside a wide-open room with ceilings lower than
the ones in North Haven’s hangar and much dimmer lighting. The jet
pulled forward slowly and parked against a damp-looking wall. Mr.
Westhyme came back down the stairs almost immediately. “My group,
let’s go. I’ve hardly eaten all day.”

My roommates and I and three other girls
followed him to the exit. Outside, a snarly man was rolling stairs
to meet the door. His lip curled in obvious dislike when he looked
up and saw us. Then he simply walked away.

“Is everyone going to be mean here?” I
whispered to Harmony.

“Not everyone, but don’t expect sunshine and
roses either. Cinders don’t work like that.”

We walked through a door nearby and into a
cavernous hallway with stone walls, lit only by the torches hanging
on them. The stairs we climbed were made from stone as well.

And when we entered the dinner hall and found
blazing fires in every corner of the also stony room, torches hung
along the walls, and candles lining the center of each long table,
I decided the southlanders were obsessed with fire. Maybe that was
why they called themselves Cinders.

Everyone stopped eating and fell silent so
they could cast nasty looks our way as we moved to the table in the
back of the room. I felt my face burn as the intimidating figures
taking up the front half of the room continued to stare. I doubted
they would notice, though, since the lighting was so poor.

Once we took our seats, voices began picking
up and the Cinders seemed to forget about us.

“Shouldn’t you be sitting with the adults?”
Harmony asked Mr. Westhyme, who was sitting across the table from
us beside Nadine.

He looked back at the first table, full of
scary looking grownups. “I think I’ll wait for the rest of our
adults to join them. I know what I said about our understanding,
but going in alone doesn’t sit right.” He turned back to us. “Maybe
we shoulda stayed on board anyway, though. It looks like we’re not
getting served until we’re all here, even though
they’ve
obviously been fed. Now we gotta sit here and smell their food
while our mouths water and our stomachs complain.”

“No, look. Here they come.” Nadine pointed
her finger at something behind me.

Several women in dark dresses with tattered
edges came through a door and brought platters of food to us.
Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, white and dark gravy, corn on
the cob, and an assortment of pies were laid before us.

“Thanks,” Nadine said before ripping a leg
right off the turkey and shoving it against her mouth.

The woman who’d set it down gave her an odd
look and turned her nose up before she left.

“You can’t thank a Cinder,” Harmony whispered
to her. “It’s rude.”

“Right, I forgot,” Nadine said through a
mouthful. “Their idea of rude is so backwards, though. It’s hard to
remember.”

The rest of us began loading our plates as my
con began to ring, so I had to stop and reach in my bag for it.

Once it had risen and opened up, Roman smiled
at me. All his gloom from the night before was gone. “Hey, sweetie.
We’re about to land, but ya’ll left early, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I was about to start eating.”

“Well, I’ll join you as soon as I can. I just
wanted to tell you to save me a seat.”

“Sure.”

He winked before the screen went dark and
began folding up.

I leaned my head back to stare at the dark
ceiling. “Aw, man. I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with him until
tomorrow.”

“Break up with him already,” Harmony
said.

“How can I break up with someone I’m not even
going out with?”

“Tell him that. How long are you going to put
yourself through this?”

“Until he figures it out.”

“In other words, you’ll let this go on until
you’re married and have kids with the guy.”

“I sure hope not.”

Harmony shook her head and turned back to her
food. I tried not to think about it as I ate. Instead, I turned my
thoughts to why in the world everyone had been looking forward to
coming here so much. So far it seemed dark and kind of demented.
Everyone here hated us. I hoped it would get better.

When the entrance doors finally opened and
North Haveners began pouring in, one of the Cinder staff, clad all
in black, stood and went to shake Headmaster’s hand. His snowy
white hair reached halfway down his hunched back. I realized it
must be his brother when he spoke with the same voice, except that
it was void of all emotion. “Hello, North Haven High School. Right
on time, as always.”

“So good to see you, Brother,” our Headmaster
said, “but why is it so dark in here?” Both voices were magnified
somehow, like they were speaking directly into a microphone.

“Because we like it that way.”

Headmaster ignored him and walked over to the
wall. Light flooded the room. Gasps and protests came from the
front. Cinders shielded their eyes and leaned over in an effort to
escape it. Our students looked relieved as they took their seats
and began eating.

“Headmaster had them installed several years
ago,” Harmony whispered to me. Both headmasters went to stand under
the flags from all over the world hanging on the wall in the back
of the room. “Having to live by light of fire only was driving us
all crazy. The Cinders still do, though.”

When I saw Roman looking for me, I slumped
down, hoping he wouldn’t see me. I had officially reached the point
of being sick of him, just friends or not. But when he saw Harmony,
he started heading my way. “I missed you all day,” he said, kissing
my cheek and wrapping both arms around me when he sat down.

“Thanks.” I really wished he would go
away.

“So, we gather together to celebrate another
season of competition,” the Cinders’ headmaster began. “As we are
the ones playing host this year, I expect all my students to behave
as such and to be courteous and respectful of our guests.” A hint
of a smirk crossed his thin, wrinkled lips before he went on. “We
welcome you all, North Haveners, and are grateful, as always, to
share our home with you for a time. You’re welcome to whatever you
may find here, but make no mistake. You’re here so we can beat you,
and win we will. I promise you that.”