Gravity, a young adult paranormal romance (28 page)

"How are you?" she asked.

"Bored," I said. "Come in. Did I miss anything
at school?" I shut the door behind her.

"No, nothing as exciting as
yesterday," Theo said, taking off her sneakers. "You
are
the gossip around
school, though." She ran a hand through her hair. "Henry asked me
how you were; I thought you would want to know that."

A little thrill went through me. "Oh." I
wondered why he hadn't gotten a hold of me himself.

We sat down on the couch. It took a moment
before either of us spoke. Theo picked up the cushion behind her
and hugged it to her chest. Her admission yesterday about Jenna
hung heavy in the air.   

"I wanted to check on you," she started. "But
I also wanted to tell you more about what I said
yesterday."

I sat up straighter, bracing myself for
whatever bad news she would share.   

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about seeing
Jenna before," Theo said.  

"Are you sure it was her that you saw?" That
was the biggest question that had been nagging at me to ask her.
 

"Positive."

Hope inside me deflated, right when I realized
I was holding onto it. Theo ran her finger along the hollow of her
pale throat.

"She was wearing a necklace with her name on
it."

"I gave her that necklace," I said. I ripped a
tissue to pieces with my fingers and didn't realize it until I
looked down at the mess on my lap. I scooped up the pile and put it
on a leftover plate on the table. "For her tenth birthday. She gave
me a turtle piggy bank."

We were silent.

"She didn't do anything to me," Theo said
finally. "It was sort of how it was when you saw Henry stand by and
watch that kid get beaten up. She didn't do anything wrong, really,
but she didn't stop it, either."

I nodded. As much as I didn't want to admit
it, I was starting to think there things about Jenna that I didn't
know.

Chapter 19

I was ready to go back to school the next day.
I got a lot of stares in my direction, but I clutched my books to
my chest and did my best to ignore them. In Gym class, Coach
insisted that I sit out even though I told her I was fine. I peered
across the floor to the spot where I had fallen. The blood was all
cleaned up, of course, but I could almost see it, a shiny crimson
puddle.

I didn't even look at Lainey and she ignored
me in kind.

At lunch, even though Theo had to serve her
unfair lunch detention, I still sat in our spot against the wall,
enjoying my Spooky Spaghetti in peace. Theo had gathered up my
homework from the day before and I was trying to blow through it as
fast as possible, not wanting to fall behind.

Henry suddenly crouched down in front of me.
Oh no. I hadn't wanted him to see me like this. Calling was one
thing, but seeing the actual nose brokenness...

"Hi," I said, embarrassed and trying to duck
my head.  

He remained where he was, shaking his head
back and forth slowly. That didn't instill a lot of confidence.
"They weren't kidding."

I wished he would stop looking at my
face.

"What did the doctor say?" he
asked.

"I'm fine. It's not even broken. Just looks
ugly," I muttered.  

"Oh shut up," he scoffed lightly. "You're
always beautiful, this doesn't change that fact."

A thrill rushed through my blood. He patted my
nose with gentle fingers. I thought I had imagined him saying it.
My heart was dancing out a contorted rhythm underneath my
shirt.

"Did they give you painkillers?"

I nodded.

"Sweet," he said, grinning. "Gotta look at the
benefits, right?"

"Right," I said. I wanted urgently to kiss him
again, even if it was in the middle of the noisy commons. But that
seemed like a long time ago. Even though it was the most recent of
many times that I thought our relationship, as it were, had finally
progressed into something more than friends, I wondered if I had
imagined that, too.

Although Lainey and Madison carried on
relentlessly with their missing girl's committee, stopping people
in the hallways and handing out information cards, not much came
from it. I wished that I had seen more when I saw the ghost of the
girl, and now it nagged at me. Was she the one who had been
following me? There had been no more noises in my room...did the
séance actually dispel the spirit? And why was she appearing to me,
anyway?

In homeroom, a girl who sat behind me was
talking about how her father ran the police department tip
site.

"The missing child inquiry is clogged," she
said. I listened intently without turning around. "They've been
getting a bunch of false leads and prank submissions, hundreds that
they have to sort through a day."

I knew that Jenna's own fanpage had blown up
with posts from various people with clues and bogus "tips". At
first I had been extremely excited, until I started scrolling
through them and saw that it was a bunch of garbage. The page had
been cleared out and shut down, with a note to contact the Hell
Police Department directly.

I tried not to look at the flyers, but I
gravitated towards them. Jenna's face seemed to follow me
everywhere. On the paper, her eyes reminded me of how black they
were in my vision.

The lights began flickering often in school,
and no one could figure out the cause of it. Which drove everyone
nuts, especially the teachers. The electricians still hadn't been
called, and even though we kept hearing it would happen during the
morning announcements, there was always an excuse as to why it
didn't happen.  

"This is no way to conduct school," Warwick
muttered after another blackout. The only teacher who didn't seem
to be affected was Ms. Fellows. Her projector would shut off, and
she would merely stare at the roll down screen, blinking, until the
power came back on.

After class late in the week, Mr. Warwick
pulled me aside. My nose was healing pretty fast, although it was
so still so bruised that concealer hardly made a
difference.

"Great job on the test, Ariel, really," he
said. I had gotten an A on practically every assignment I'd done in
History, but it still gave me an accomplished feeling. Seeing the
big red letter on the page brought me back to first grade, when we
would get check marks or minuses. I always felt smart when I'd get
those little checks.

He sat on the edge of his desk, looking at me
expectantly. Warwick was the same age as my dad, which made sense
considering they went to school together forever ago. His cautious
gray eyes analyzed my face. He was familiar to me, but at the same
time cut off, sort of in the same way Aunt Corinne
was. 

"It must be hard for you," he said finally,
crossing his arms. The pale blue stripes on his shirt contorted and
twisted at odd angles.  

"What's hard for me?" I asked. My eyes found
the globe behind his shoulder and focused there, picking out
England, Spain, China.  

"Seeing your friend's face all over school,"
he said. "You've been doing great in my class, but I can tell that
you're upset. You don't interact much with the other students. You
don't ever raise your hand even though I know you know the
answers."

"I don't have anything to say," I said,
shifting my binder from one arm to the other. I was very
uncomfortable with heartfelt talks. My heart could stay right off
my sleeve and inside my chest. "I prefer to write my answers
down."

"I just wanted to let you know if you ever
need anything, there are people you can trust here. I'm one of
them. Your dad and I have been friends for many years," he said.
"You could tell me anything that was bothering you."

I mumbled my appreciation, looking at the
floor. I was suddenly feeling weirded out, and I didn't know
why.

"Thanks," I said.

"So is there anything you want to share?" he
asked. There was an unusual twinkle in his yes I'd never seen
before. I didn't want to say anything.

"No, not right now," I said.

"Okay," he said, jumping off of his desk.
"Just wanted to let you know that I was there. Go on off to class
now, I'll write you a hall pass."

I took the pass and walked out of his
classroom. In all honesty, I couldn't stand being treated like
that, even if it was from someone who cared. I wondered if that
made me a bad person.

Would it always be this way? Would I be
getting print outs in the mail in ten years, age progressed to make
Jenna look like she was twenty-five? Maybe I would never know what
happened to her.

Before school on Friday, I waited at a table
for Theo in the commons before first bell. We were going to quiz
each other for math since we both had Geometry, and there was
another big test today. Mr. Vanderlip seemed fonder of tests and
quizzes than he was of his chalk.

But Theo didn't show. I flipped through my
flashcards absently, hoping I was prepared enough. I had been up on
the phone for an hour last night with Henry, his soothing voice
asking me questions and nearly lulling me into a trance.

A few minutes before the bell
rang, my phone beeped a text alert. It was Theo, saying
I'm not coming to school, I'm sick. Doctor's
office. Sorry!
Hope test goes okay.
Theo texted novels the same way I did. She had
been complaining of the sniffles and a sore throat yesterday, I
recalled. I sent her a get well text back and went to
class.

I was happy I had Geometry first hour, only
because I could get the test out of the way so it wouldn't be on my
mind all day. I was confident I more than passed, but didn't want
to speculate. More than anything I just felt relieved. I didn't
celebrate until I received the paper back with the grade on
it.

I missed Theo in gym, although luckily we were
only doing yoga poses led by a college instructor, so we kept busy.
The lesson was complete with new age music. I was jealous of
Lainey's flexibility as I wobbled from one pose to another. She was
still pretending I didn't exist, which was a relief as well. I
wondered if her parents had coached her on ways to avoid
retaliation for my still-bruised nose.  

In Art, the empty seat that Theo usually
occupied made me lonely. I felt selfish depending on another person
so much for companionship, but it had helped so much to pull me out
of my introverted state. Theo was so different from Jenna in so
many ways, but we had already become quite close friends when I
wasn't paying attention. Part of me felt like I was betraying Jenna
by moving on. But part of me argued that perhaps she had betrayed
me.

Art class itself had taken on a relaxing
atmosphere. We were still deep in free painting, and now that I
didn’t take my attempts at art so seriously, I was actually
enjoying myself.  

I picked up my brush and dipped the end in
brown paint, working on a ropey-looking horse's tail. In actuality
it looked more like a camel than a horse.   

Henry seemed tense, shifting around in his
seat. Without Theo there, I didn't check myself in looking at him.
Twenty minutes into the hour-long class, he got up and asked Ms.
Vore for hallway permission. Since I pretty much always
involuntarily looked at him whenever he moved, I gazed up at him
and was surprised to see him staring intently at me. Either me, or
the poster behind me of the talking pencil. He didn't smile like he
normally did when our eyes met. What was going on with
him?

He left the room, and didn't come back. I
couldn't help checking the clock as the minutes ticked by. Ms. Vore
was too busy helping other students with their paintings to notice.
 

Out of nowhere, the fire alarm started
blaring. It was so loud my ears hurt. I dropped the paintbrush in
my rush to cover my ears. The muddy paint made a splotch on the
floor.

"Okay, everybody, let's go," Ms. Vore said
calmly, already standing at the door. Everyone lined up, shuffling
out into the hall. Our teacher remained as unruffled as could be,
although I saw her push her glasses up her nose and it reminded me
of Theo.

I followed the quiet procession of kids,
strangely somber. I was the last in line since I sat in the back
corner. But as we were heading down the hall towards the exit, I
imagined I heard someone calling to me from down the hall. It
wasn't the same voice that had called me when I saw the little
girl, but it was almost an echo of that. The same strange urge that
I was being pulled manifested again.

I suddenly had to find Henry. He could be in
danger.

I ran down the hallway. Ms. Vore didn't notice
me because she was already at the exit. I walked quickly, swinging
my arms to propel me forward, hoping I could find him fast and get
out. I had no idea what had caused the fire alarm to go off, but it
couldn't be good.   

Further into the school, the electricity
suddenly went out. I froze, skidding to a stop and almost falling
over. Of course today would be the day I didn't wear sneakers, the
impracticality of the heeled boots on my feet never occurring to
me.