Gravity, a young adult paranormal romance (27 page)

In my lightheadedness that made me giggle
again. I noticed warm wetness seeping out of my nose. More
bleeding. I rushed over and grabbed some paper towels. I walked too
fast and swayed on my feet, so I had to sit on the cot.
Unfortunately I missed the last few minutes of the discipline
meeting, and Theo and Lainey were in the hall.

They must have stopped right outside the sick
bay door.

"How would you like it if Ariel's family sued
the crap out of you?" Theo asked bitterly.

"I'd like to see them try," Lainey snorted, in
the same tone of voice that she probably used to talk about the
weather. "My father's lawyer has never lost a case, and we'd
bankrupt her family with legal fees before it was over. But give
her my condolences for her nose, anyway. My uncle's a plastic
surgeon; I should give her his card."

"What is wrong with you? Are you even human?"
Theo asked incredulously, speaking my feelings out loud.

Lainey dropped her voice low. "Maybe she
shouldn't have gone after what was mine."

I heard hear footsteps going down the hall.
When I was sure she was gone, I cracked the door open. Theo was
still standing in the hall, frozen, the detention slip in her
hand.

"Well, didn't that just suck?" I said. Theo
turned unfocused eyes to me. Without a word she came over and
hugged me tightly. She pulled back and studied my face, wincing.
Okay, maybe it was a little bad.

Pink glitter was smudged all over her cheeks
and forehead, and her eyes were bright red from crying.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?" I asked.

"That all of this happened."

"Uh, it's not your fault," I said, leaning
against the door.

"Are you okay? It looks terrible." She tilted
her head to inspect my wound from a different angle.
 

"Well, it hurts, yeah." 

"It made a really nasty sound when you hit the
floor," she said, shaking her head. "That was really
twisted."

"That's Lainey for you."

"He didn't even punish her for hitting you,"
Theo said, jerking her thumb in the direction of McPherson's
office. "He said it was an unfortunate accident. He just gave us
detention for fighting."

"I heard," I sighed. "We just can't
win."

"Because everyone puts up with it," Theo
reasoned. Her anger was coming back. I could tell she had quite the
temper buried beneath the colorful cuteness.

"Can I remind you not to piss Lainey off?" I
said gently. "Remember, more money, more connections, way more
power than we lowly worker ants?"

She pounded her fist against the wall. "That's
the same crap she pulled when she sprained my ankle."

"What?" I asked, frowning.

"She knocked me down at the mall, and my ankle
got twisted." Her eyes flickered to one of the many pictures of
missing girls that were in the hallway. "And I wasn't going to say
this, but...I'm pretty sure that she was there, too. I recognized
her when the posters went up."

I glanced at the picture. She was talking
about Jenna.

"But that was back in May, so I didn't think
it was important," she continued. 

A bell rang, the perfect excuse for her to
bolt.

"I've got to go," Theo said, scampering away
before I had a chance to digest what she was saying.

"Theo?" I called, but she just ignored
me.

Chapter 18

"Your dad is here," Nurse Callie said,
appearing behind me from the door to the Nurse's station. "You were
supposed to be lying down."

"I thought that I was going to throw up," I
lied. "Walking around helped."

I followed her to the front office. Hugh was
standing in his tweed coat, looking uncomfortable and worried.
There were circles under his eyes. When he saw me, both relief and
unanswered questions flickered on his face.

"What happened?" he asked, hugging me and
avoiding my nose. He was talking to Callie. She opened her mouth to
speak, but McPherson breezed in from the hallway.

"Just a little accident during gym class," he
said, ugly smile appearing beneath his bushy moustache.

"What kind of accident, Edgar?" Hugh said
coldly. I had no idea that was McPherson's first name, and it took
me a second to connect the two.

"Another student hit her with a tennis ball,"
Callie supplied.

McPherson gave her a look that
said
shut up
.

"The situation has been dealt with. I assure
you that everyone here feels terrible about it."

"The situation has not been dealt with," Hugh
said, getting angry. His arm was still around my shoulder. "My
child was just injured on your property. I want answers. Who is
responsible?"

"The identity of the student isn't
important..." McPherson started.

"Lainey Ford," I mumbled. McPherson turned,
looking at me like I was a bug to squish.

"And why not?" Hugh said, laughing angrily.
"How much money have the Fords dumped into this pet project of the
Thornhill Society? Of course they would have you comfortably
stashed in their back pocket."

"Thornhill has nothing to do with this!"
McPherson said, raising his voice in anger. I just wanted to lie
down. This was too much. The walls started to undulate, the counter
swooping up and down. Nurse Callie and I made eye
contact.

"Gentlemen, I think that's enough. Ariel needs
to see a doctor," Callie advised, stepping in between them. That
brought Hugh back down to earth. She handed him my backpack, which
had appeared in one of the office chairs.

"Right now, I need to drive my daughter to the
emergency room," Hugh said through gritted teeth. "But this
discussion isn't over."  

McPherson nodded his head and retreated,
swinging his arms like a soldier. Hugh, grim faced, signed me out
of the office and led me out.

"Good luck," Callie said, and winked at
me.

It was raining heavily when we got out to the
parking lot. Hugh opened the umbrella he'd bought over our heads.
We didn't speak until we were safely buckled inside his
car.

"Accident?" Hugh echoed, turning to me. His
eyebrows were raised nearly up to his sandy hair. He waited for my
reply.   

I bit my bottom lip. How could I put it so
Hugh wouldn't get all up in arms? I didn't want my family to go up
against Lainey's; she was right, they would bankrupt us for looking
at them funny.

"That's what she says," I said
carefully. "We were playing tennis in gym, and she hit the ball,
which struck my nose. It
could
have been an accident, yes."

He studied my face, gently grabbing my chin
and rotating my head side to side.

"I think you made enemies with the wrong
person," was all he said, and started the car.

We spent the afternoon at the hospital. The
emergency waiting room was packed when we arrived, full of coughing
kids and broken limbs. It took nearly forty-five minutes for the
triage nurse to get to me. I felt goofy as I explained what had
happened.

After more waiting in the exam room, a
technician performed a CT scan on my head to check for problems.
But when the doctor breezed in, he told me there was no internal
bleeding or real cause for concern.

"And there's just a small fracture at the top
of the bridge," he said cheerfully, as if it were good news. Did he
not see that I was a fifteen year old girl, not a football
player?

"My nose is
broken
?" I asked,
horrified.

"Yes. But once it heals you shouldn't notice
any difference in the way you look," he said dismissively, before
hurrying back out into the hall. Easy for him to say.

"You'll be okay," Hugh said, more to himself
than me, his voice cracking.

Hugh stopped at the drugstore on the way home,
and stocked up on ice packs and tabloids, the best reading material
when one is incapacitated.

"Does this mean I get to stay home tomorrow?"
I asked.

"I suppose it does," he said, a tired smile
forced on his lips. 

I leaned my head against the window. It bumped
against the glass as the tires navigated potholes. My eyes kept
sliding shut, lids heavy from a combination of swelling, tiredness,
and medicine. I was suddenly very hungry but food sounded
gross.

By the time we got home it was dark. We went
inside and Claire squeezed me in a tight hug. It was a rare show of
affection, for her. I patted her back through her jacket for
comfort.  

Pulling back, she inspected my face like Hugh
had; only her hands were on my cheeks. Exchanging one of her
glances with Hugh, sharing their worries silently.

"I wanted to come to the hospital," Claire
said, apologetic. "I couldn't get off of work, and your father said
it was alright. She looks awful, Hugh."

"Thanks so much," I said.

"She's fine, Claire. The doctor checked her
out, he ran a head scan, and he didn't find anything to concern
him. Her nose will heal. She's going to be okay."

He preached all of this as if trying to
convince himself. He couldn't stand still in the kitchen, tossing
his keys on the counter and drumming his knuckles, then pacing over
to the fridge and back. Unspent anger colored his
cheeks.

"Honey, why don't you go take a shower?"
Claire said to me. That meant they wanted me out of the way so that
they could argue. "The steam will probably make you feel better,"
she finished.

The suggestion did sound heavenly.
My back was sore from both falling on the floor and lying in the
hospital bed.
Falling through the
floor
my thoughts whispered.
You fell through the floor and you
saw...

"Yeah, I think I'll do that," I
said, willing my thoughts away. It was just a dream, no different
than when I had dreamed she was at the orphanage. So what if I had
seen the ghost of a little girl merely a few days ago. That was a
totally different experience. A person had to be dead to be a
ghost. Jenna had run off, like everyone said, and was now living it
up, and had totally forgotten the small town she came from.
But her eyes were black...
the same little voice of my thoughts whispered. I shook my
head.  

I went into the downstairs shower. Hugh and
Claire talked in hushed voices, but I could still make out a few
words."

"Is it dangerous for her to be at that
school?" Claire asked.

"I don't know," Hugh said after a
moment.

I paused, shivering in the bathroom even
though it was warm. I hadn't thought about it like that. I turned
the shower on hot, letting the steam fill the bathroom and fog up
the mirror.

"There's definitely favoritism," Hugh said.
"The Thornhill reach extends all the way into the
classrooms."

"You really think it has to do with that silly
committee?" Claired wondered aloud.  

Hugh didn't respond.

I undressed and stepped into the shower. The
sharpness was beginning to return to the pain in my face, meaning
the painkillers were wearing off on schedule. I shampooed quickly,
then just stood in the hot water. It felt good on my aching
face.

I got out eventually, fully expecting Claire
and Hugh to be yelling. But there was silence. The kitchen was
empty by the time I had gotten dressed. It must have meant they had
retreated to their individual corners.

A few pieces of baked chicken sat on a cookie
sheet on the stovetop. I made myself a small plate, and while I
didn't usually take food to my room, I figured this time would be
alright. I trudged down the stairs with my tabloids and my
food.

It didn't take long after eating and taking my
pills to fall asleep. 

The next morning I woke up to find Hugh had
already called in, for both of us.

"What if Gwen needs you there?" I
protested.

"Gwen runs the place better than I do. Have a
seat," was his reply.

He slid two pieces of French toast from a
skillet onto my plate. My favorite breakfast food since I was a
little girl. I couldn't taste anything very well because of my
nose, but it was still a nice change from plain cereal.

I spent the day lazing about the house,
watching daytime TV and putting together an old puzzle I found
underneath the couch. I wondered what Theo was doing, hoping she
was keeping her anger to herself. And I wondered if Henry had heard
about me getting hurt.

Around 3:30, I heard a knock on the front
door. I got off the couch were I had been watching courtroom shows
and answered it.

Theo stood on the porch. She smiled
sympathetically when she saw me. The world behind her looked
inviting after being cooped up all day. I didn't know how I'd
lasted so long over the summer inside.