Good vs. Evil High (25 page)

Kristine—I still love you beyond measure or
my own control. I will always love you this way. So my Christmas
present to you is a promise that by the time the night is over, you
will realize that you love me too, not Knight. This year for
Christmas, you will be mine.

That scared me. “Luke,” I said in a quivering
voice, handing him the paper, because I didn’t want it.

He grabbed it and said, “He’s dead,” before
he turned to storm away.

Chapter
Thirty

~ All I Want ~

Luke never found Roman. No one did. And he
had his entire Snow Rider team searching for him.

I didn’t say anything to anyone else about it
even though I was worried.

It ruined the movie Luke and I were going to
watch together, though. I ended up going to the rec room with
Harmony, Sassy, and Nadine, because he refused to do anything but
search for Roman. And since my friends and I were planning to watch
the old “It’s a Wonderful Life” movie with the rest of North Haven
later that day, anyway, I wouldn’t see Luke again until the
dance.

I was so mad at Roman. I thought all my
problems with him were over, and now this. Couldn’t he have waited
until after Christmas to go all crazy on me again?

Right after the movie the four of us went to
get ready for the dance early, since Harmony and I had to be there
half an hour before everyone else. A surprising number of girls
were already in the bathrooms, doing their hair and nails.

Nadine would be wearing a simple purple silk
gown. Harmony’s was black with white trim and a thick white ribbon
tied around her waist. She called it her ‘piano dress’. Sassy chose
a black dress with a feathered skirt and blue everything
else—shoes, earrings, hairpins, and eye shadow. I didn’t think much
about it before I saw it on her. But it was amazing how she could
foresee the spectacular ensemble it would be when it was all put
together. And I had my ‘Beauty and the Beast’ dress, with matching
gloves and hairdo. I added the gold headband Sassy gave me and gold
glitter around my eyes, but I opted out of the ridiculously poufy
skirt.

Sassy managed to talk two of us—Nadine and
me—into wearing masks, because she said they were totally medieval.
I think she was just looking for more ways to dress us up like
paper dolls. The masks she chose were really something, though.
Mine was a feathered monarch butterfly that only covered the top
half of my face. Sassy’s was the same blue color as her shoes and
had peacock feather tips shooting out of the top. And Nadine’s was
a full gold mask with deep purple lips and eyeliner.

Sassy was going to the dance with a really
cute guy named Lance, who was a North Haven Snow Racer. But Harmony
and Nadine had both turned down the guys who’d asked them. Nadine
had her eye on James, and you might say Harmony’s really picky when
it comes to guys. She can’t even tell you what her type is, because
she’s not sure.

Miss McCree walked into the bathroom as Sassy
unrolled my final curl. “Harmony, I’m glad I caught yah’. This
morning I was thinking what a delightful voice ye have. Maybe you’d
like to sing a song at the dance tonight. It’d be a real treat for
everyone.”

“Okay. That sounds like fun.”

“Good, I’ll let them know. Now, Sassy, are
yah’ ready for me to do your hair?”

“Almost. Let me just spray Kristine.” She
picked up the bottle of hairspray and sent a sweet-smelling mist
spewing all over most of my head. “Done—perfect,” she said, leaning
back to look me over.

“Thanks, Sassy,” I said.

“Thanks from me, too,” Harmony said, “but
we’ve got to go.”

“See you at the dance,” Sassy said.

I picked up my con and shoved it into my bra
before I followed Harmony out of the bathroom and then the girls’
living quarters.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to survive
these things all night,” I said, nearly falling over in my high
heels on my way down the stairway. I had to grab onto Harmony for
support.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” she said. “I
wonder what I should sing. Maybe something different—something no
one would expect.” She hummed a few different tunes and bobbed her
head around in deep thought all the way to the dance hall.

When we got there, things were already in
full swing. There wasn’t a ton to do, since most of the decorations
had been set up the day before. Harmony helped Mr. Fielding hang up
balloons and I kicked off my heels and went with two other
committee members, Amy and Vanessa, to help carry things from the
kitchen to the tables. It was a long walk, since the dining hall
was nowhere near where we were having the dance, but with the help
of the Cinder cooks we were able to get it all in two trips. They
would be bringing replacements for what was eaten during the
night.

Things were pretty much done and ready when
we got back with the second load. Harmony and I sat at one of the
tables in the front of the room and talked about how awesome
everything looked until people started showing up.

The band began playing something way too loud
and heavy as Nadine and Sassy, some of the first people to arrive,
came to sit beside us. Mr. Fielding ran onto the low stage and
began flapping his arms around like a great vulture. “Stop that
racket right now!” he yelled so that the microphone picked up his
voice. “Play something more tasteful.”

“Like what?” asked the lead singer, a guy in
a ripped up biker’s jacket and flaming red hair.

Mr. Fielding turned around and waved his arms
wildly in our direction, making me want to climb under the table
and hide. “Harmony Foxen, would you come over here for a minute,
please?” he called out.

“Kill me now,” she said as she stood up and
started for the front.

“Do you think Luke will recognize me with
this on?” I asked, stroking the edge of one monarch wing.

“It’s hard to say, since we’re wearing masks
too,” Sassy said. “Usually if someone’s looking for you, they just
look for one of us.”

“We’re about to find out,” Nadine said,
pointing to the door.

The Cinder Snow Riders were walking in, Titus
and Luke in the middle of them. They all looked really dashing in
their black tuxedos. A few girls were mixed in with them, but it
was impossible to tell which guys they were with, since the guys
were all ignoring them. Luke was trying to listen to what Titus was
saying and looking around for me at the same time.

I turned my back, thinking it would be more
fun to wait and see how long it took him to find me.

Sassy kept watching him, though. “He’s still
looking...he spotted Harmony...” The band started playing a pop
song I’d heard before. “...He’s heading her way and she’s coming
our way...She’s pointing to you—Oohhh, the jig is up, Kristine.
He’s coming for you.”

We all laughed until I saw him out of the
corner of my eye.

“Come dance with me,” he said coarsely,
taking my hand from the table.

“You know I don’t dance.” Not since I twisted
my ankle when I was dancing around in the kitchen with my mom. It
wasn’t the first bad fall I’d had when I was dancing—my feet were
always getting tangled up in each other—but it was the last,
because I got tired of the falling and clumsy accidents and vowed
never to dance again.

“Just come with me.”

I stood up and let him lead me away from
everyone else. “What’s wrong?” I asked as he turned to me.

“Did you see Armstrong again?”

“No. You still haven’t found him?”

He shook his head and scanned the crowd.

“Let’s not let him ruin the dance or anymore
of Christmas Day for us.” I pulled on his neck so I could kiss him
before I took the glove off my hand with the long scar across the
inside of it. Then I lay it over the top of his where he had the
matching one. “You know I only love you. I don’t want you to waste
a second worrying about anyone else.”

He smiled and stared as if he was noticing me
for the first time that night. “You look beautiful. Those should
have been the first words that came out of my mouth.”

“Thanks. You look pretty beautiful, too.”

He slipped his fingers through the hand I
held over his and pulled it to his lips. “I’m sorry I let this get
to me. But I can’t go back to living without your love. It’s
everything I’ve ever wanted, and I can’t stay calm when a guy’s out
there trying to threaten that.”

“There is no threatening that. All I want is
to love you. I mean that with all my heart, Luke.”

He took a deep breath and shivered as he
kissed me.

“You two should really get a room.” Bane
laughed as he walked past us. He turned around and walked backwards
long enough to say, “We could paint Knight and Fayre across the
front of it and then no one would ever bother you.”

Luke smiled. “That would be nice. Are you
hungry?” he asked me.

“Starving. We skipped lunch for Miss McCree’s
cookies.”

But Headmaster’s voice stopped me halfway to
the food table as adults began ushering everyone away from the
dance floor. “Good evening, North Haven and Southland Cinder High
Schools. Tonight we have a special treat for you. We will be
holding the inventor’s competition.”

“Here we go,” Luke said as everyone
cheered.

“Don’t get your hopes up too high,” I
said.

“As you all know,” Headmaster began, “each
invention will be presented by me and my brother. No one will know
which one belongs to which. And then you will each line up and
enter a private room where you will be able to choose which one you
think is better. Because we cannot have students present them and
we are both far too old to present one of the inventions, I will
have Mr. Westhyme do it. This is not a reflection of which school
created it. He was simply the one nominated by my brother and me
due to the fact that he was one of the greatest snowboarders to
ever graduate from either of our schools, making him a prime
candidate. Mr. Westhyme...”

Mr. Westhyme was brimming with delight as he
ran out of the crowd and toward the open dance floor. He took the
sliver of silver from his pocket and spun it as he tossed it in
front of him. Everyone stared in rapt attention.

I leaned toward Luke and whispered, “Did you
tell anyone else about it?”

“Just you.”

When I looked back, Mr. Westhyme was climbing
on and then soaring around the place.

“This invention has been titled Cyclone and
can fly you anywhere in the blink of an eye. It’s powered by a core
that will never run out of energy. It never has to be refilled or
recharged. And it’s one hundred percent safe as long as you know
what you’re doing, as you can see Mr. Westhyme clearly does.”

Mr. Westhyme made one more round through the
room before he landed.

“Thank you, Mr. Westhyme,” Headmaster said as
everyone began clapping.

I realized kids were making way for the
object being wheeled in through the main doors. It was The Baring
Springs with a thick blanket thrown over it. I assumed this was to
keep it from getting set off before it was supposed to be.

“And here we have the other invention. Now
before I say more, may I have a volunteer?”

The four men pushing it in—two of them ours
and two of them Cinders—stopped where Mr. Westhyme had just been.
Three of them left the last one behind to pull the blanket off and
run away before it could get going.

In the surrounding crowd, North Haven
volunteers had their hands raised high, while not even one Cinder
bothered.

“All right, Miss Yates, come join me,
please.” Tracy moved away from the crowd and walked toward the
headmasters. “How are you feeling?” Headmaster asked her.

“Terrific!”

“Not at all nervous?”

“Nope.”

“Good. What I want you to do is approach that
fountain and stop at about three feet away, all right?”

“Yes, sir.”

She approached it without caution and stopped
as orange smoke began to pour from the edges of the top fountain
bowl and spill over to the second, and then the third. An orange
woman swirled around as she rose upward out of the bottom basin.
She stopped and smiled around her at everyone. She let out a
watery, “Wahoo!” as she pointed a finger to the sky and let orange
sparks fly from it, like a firework.

“Excitement,” Headmaster said. “Very good,
Miss Yates. You may return to your date now...So, we’ve seen the
reaction one of my students can bring. Could we get a Cinder to
volunteer now?”

Still no takers.

“Cord,” Cinder Headmaster said, “you will
go.”

A boy with ghostly white skin and a hateful
stare fixed on his face moved toward The Baring Springs. The white
smoke still falling became red as he approached, and I knew what
was coming. Cord was barely three feet away when a large man rose
from the lowest basin. Hot flames poured from the illusion’s mouth
as it stood and turned around, shouting tumultuously. Cord ran from
the blaze when it turned to face him, causing the smoke to break
apart.

“Cord appears to be feeling angry at the
moment,” my headmaster said. “This invention has been titled The
Baring Springs because it bares the emotions of whoever gets too
close to it. It ranges from feeling love to feeling heartbreak and
sadness, fear and envy. Each has its own color and human
projection.

“Now we will have you all line up with your
school. Cinders to the right, North Haveners to the left. You will
enter a room one at a time and choose a blue token if you will be
voting for the Cyclone or a green one if you will be voting for The
Baring Springs. A teacher will be there to assist you, should you
have any questions.”

“You could stand in the Cinder line with me,”
Luke said.

“I want to, but I should probably do what my
headmaster says.”