Spiral (Spiral Series) (12 page)

This year, Maxie had insisted on all three of us going. Jill, in protest against doing anything remotely normal or expected, had threatened to attend wearing a painter’s smock. Maxie had told her that if she did any such thing Maxie would draw “I love bunny rabbits” on the front of it and to hell with friendship.

All three of us had been dateless until recently. Andrew was going with Emma Johnson, the prettiest girl in our class, and Jill had spent the last month making snarky comments about how much makeup she wore and how high-pitched her voice was. Maxie was determined to find a date, and she finally had when a football tight end named Chad had asked her to go with him.

“Are you going to ask anyone?” Haley simpered. She was going with Casey. He was just popular enough for her to be seen with, freakish social climber that she was. When Andrew hadn’t appeared interested she had instantly switched to his best friend, and with Casey she had been more successful. Jill had informed her that Mrs. Casey Whitter had a nicer ring to it than Mrs. Andrew Michaelson anyway, which earned her a particularly evil glare.

“I never thought evil could be so pretty,” Maxie murmured. “In TV shows and stuff it’s always the ugly stepsister.”

“Thanks,” I muttered back. Maxie grinned apologetically as we trickled into the assembly.

School assemblies were like lunch, only ten times worse. Where you sat and who you sat with meant everything. Kids acted like it was as important as determining what college you were attending.

“These school assemblies are so stupid,” said Maxie, marching towards a seat. “Seriously, what’s the point?”

“I don’t think they are,” said Jill sitting down between us. Andrew wandered off to sit with his friends, while Pierce went and stood against the wall, slightly apart from everyone else but offering an excellent view of his well-muscled forearms and strong profile.

“What have you learned?” asked Maxie.

“How to text without looking,” said Jill, ticking off things on her fingers. “How to sleep anywhere - i.e. at your desk, how to strike fear into the hearts of freshmen without trying, you get the idea.”

“Freshmen?” Maxie scoffed. “You strike fear into the hearts of everyone.”

“The more the better,” said Jill, shrugging. “Pierce doesn’t act afraid of me.”

For some reason she looked at me while she spoke.

“What?” I demanded. “It’s not like he and I are friends. Maxie’s the one who always wants him around.”

“I want him around for you,” Maxie explained. “You heard him talking to Haley. He still doesn’t have a date for the dance.”

I rolled my eyes. The dance still felt far away, but it wasn’t. Graduation was crashing down on us and soon our whole lives would be turned upside down. No more high school. The thought that I wouldn’t be bored to death for six hours every day was almost too much to contemplate. Don’t get me wrong, I got nearly perfect grades. Since I didn’t drink or do anything my dad wouldn’t approve of there was no reason not to do well, but that didn’t mean I found high school fun.

A long time ago, about the time my hair had turned white, I decided that school was the exact opposite of fun: it was a form of legally-funded torture. I figured that if the government ever needed to get information out of a prisoner, they should just send him to my calculus class for a week and he would be crying uncle by Tuesday.

Incidentally, and seemingly unrelated to school, I felt the same way about the dentist, the developed world’s own personally funded form of legalized torture. I would have told you anything not to have that cavity filled, except that I didn’t have anything to tell.

Fun, on the other hand, was fleece blankets on a cold night, ice cream and goldfish any time, and cuddling up with friends to watch romantic comedies. Or, if you were with Jill, shoot-em-up action movies. She thought “The Bourne Series” was the second coming, the first coming being “The Departed.” When she had voiced that controversial opinion to Maxie, it almost ended the friendship.

It had taken me weeks, several bribes, and one or two threats - which included telling Maxie’s mom about the padded bra she kept in the back of her unmentionables drawer and Jill’s aunt about the cigarettes she once tried - to get our little group back together.

The assembly turned out to be about the dance. Having an assembly was always a bad idea, having it for seniors on a Friday afternoon was almost suicide for the staff. Really, it was their own fault. They should have known that after years of teaching. The gym was hot and stuffy, and no one, not even the teachers, looked like they wanted to be there.

“Can’t they just open the doors?” Maxie muttered, fanning herself. Her face was going the shade of wet peaches.

“No,” said Jill. “If they opened the door it would be like admitting we were human beings with pulses that needed to air out instead of sheep to be contained.”

“They look hot, too,” Maxie whined, pointing to the teachers.

“They can take it,” said Jill, “if it means making us follow meaningless rules.”

The principal was worried about “debauchery” and “treachery” and “seniors behaving badly” at the dance, while everyone else was worried about how much longer the principal was going to insist on talking.

“No one has behaved badly in this town since . . . well, ever,” Maxie hissed.

I nodded. This was one of those things meant to kill time - ours - and make the adults feel productive. Nothing bad was going to happen at the dance, because nothing bad EVER happened. I was the most interesting thing in town, or at least I had been until Pierce came along, and I could tell you for a fact that I was not that fascinating. I knew, because I spent a lot of time with me.

Towards the end, or at least what we all hoped was the end, three minutes into the principal’s speech, the lights flickered slightly.

The thunder had been coming more frequently, and I wondered if we would lose power. We had generators that would kick in - it had happened twice before - but not before a little chaos ensued.

The creepy, painful feeling I always had during my dreams was hovering at the back of my consciousness, but I told myself it was just because I was tired and excited for school to be over.

“I hope we lose power,” said Maxie, her brown eyes glowing with excitement. “It’s about time something cool happened around here.

“You understand what you just said, right?” Jill asked. “That the power going out counts as excitement for around here?”

Maxie shrugged. “Gotta embrace the truth sometime.”

“Sometimes the truth just deserves a good shove,” said Jill.

As luck would have it, we were about to find out. With one last pathetic flicker, the lights disappeared.

Cries went up around us as the only thing illuminating our ancient gym was the red EXIT signs and a few tiny rays of light peeking in from under the closed doors.

Suddenly, everyone was moving. A great mass of shifting bodies pushed past us. I felt arms, slightly slick from sweat, push into my sides. I tried to stand back from everyone, but it was impossible. Someone was yelling for calm, but we had had enough. Surges towards the doors made it hard to move, and in the chaos the electric feeling intensified.

Someone close to me gasped, and I heard a thud as a body fell to the floor. I darted forward, intent on helping, but before I could see who had fallen, a mass loomed in front of me. I came to a skidding halt as the broad shoulders blocked my view. If I hadn’t almost run into him I wouldn’t have seen that it was Pierce, but my nose was a mere inch from his chest, so even I, who wasn’t the most observant person at the best of times, knew that it was the new guy.

“Move,” I demanded, making a shooing motion with my hand that only caused him to grin in the dark.

“Make me,” he said.

My eyes widened. I tried to tell myself that it was because your pupils widen in the dark to try and take in more of the scarce light, but I knew that wasn’t true in this case.

“Excuse me?” I demanded. Anger swirled around me. I don’t normally get angry, but this guy I barely knew was trying to tell me what to do. I didn’t think so.

He glanced over his shoulder. Satisfied with whatever he saw, he stepped aside and disappeared into the throng of bodies.

I pressed forward again, intent on helping if someone was injured. Along with all the other things that seemed to happen on my birthday, a couple of years ago I discovered that I could sometimes heal injuries. It had happened by accident, and I had been pretty shaken by the knowledge, so since then I had tried to pretend it had never happened. But all along I had wondered what I would do if I ever passed an accident or saw someone seriously injured. Would I heal someone and risk discovery? I didn’t think I could just stand by idly while an injured person died. Now had seemed like it might be the time, but Pierce had gotten in my way. It was almost like he knew.

It turned out that the principal had had a fainting spell, reportedly from the heat. I wondered about that, because the electricity I had felt in the air had intensified around her, but I had no choice but to find my friends in the chaos and leave.

If the principal had come to any harm because Pierce had tried to stop me, I would never have forgiven myself. Or him.

I looked for him, but he had disappeared

Later that same afternoon I sat in my room, staring at my poster of Florence and the Machine. My dad had laminated it for me, his effort to show that he understood and supported my musical tastes. Displays like that had become more frequent after he had decided to marry Olivia, and I wondered if she was encouraging him to take a more active role in my life. I didn’t want to be mean, but it was kind of late. He was the greatest dad in the world, he had just never been very hands on. When my features started to change he had pulled away even more and our relationship had never fully recovered. I was trying to concentrate on my book for English class, which was hard, first because I was about to graduate, and second because I was so mad at Pierce I could barely see straight.

Finally I gave up on the book and decided that there was only one thing to do about Pierce: I was going to show up at his house.

I knew where he lived because he had said so when Maxie prodded him about it, so I set out on foot. When I got there I marched up his long dirt driveway, careful to avoid all the puddles from the day’s rain.

This might have been ridiculous, but I had never asked who he lived with. Mom? Dad? Erratic cousin? Raised by wolves? The nineteenth Kardashian? I had no idea.

The house looked empty, with no lights on inside, but there was a truck in the yard that I had never seen Pierce drive, so I concluded that he must live with someone.

I tapped on the door, stood back, and waited. It wasn’t until after I had knocked that I realized I was crazy. I had no right to show up at his house uninvited like this. So what that he had tried to stop me from helping the principal! If anyone else had thought of it they probably would have done the same thing.

But I wanted some answers. Pierce’s sudden presence in Blueberry, his tendency to pay attention to me when almost no one else had ever done so, and his odd behavior in the assembly today had put me over the edge with him. It was time to have it out.

After a very long time the door swung open and I gulped. Pierce was standing there in nothing but a towel, his black hair wet and dripping over his shoulders. I had interrupted him in the shower. I wasn’t sure if I was totally gleeful about this, because Maxie, along with every other girl in Blueberry except Jill, would probably have killed kittens to see Pierce in a towel. On the other hand, my face turned scarlet and I couldn’t find anywhere to look. Smooth, Nat. Very smooth, I thought.

Pierce continued to stand there in a towel doing his Greek god imitation with his eyebrows slightly raised.

“Did I know you were coming?” he asked dryly, “and if I did are you early?” He wasn’t at all uncomfortable with the state of his dress - or lack thereof.