Sworn (13 page)

Rachel ran back through the winding trail that led to school and saw kids pouring out of school. It was the end of the school day. Wiping away her tears, she looked for her Mom’s car in the sea of cars waiting to pick up. Rachel spotted it about fifteen cars back and waited for her mom to reach the front of the school. Rachel kept checking over her shoulder to see if Benji had followed her up. But he hadn’t.

Rachel sat quietly in the car on the way home reflecting on her day in the field with Benji. She didn’t know why Benji was so secretive, and couldn’t understand what was so different about him. Rachel was confused and upset. She would not talk to Benji or continue their relationship until she knew the truth about him.

That night, Rachel couldn’t do anything but wonder about Benji. She wondered what he was up to and she wondered how he felt as she ran away from him today. She wondered if maybe she had been too dramatic and emotional.

As she sat on her bed and ran their conversation over and over in her head, she heard her phone buzz.

1 New Message:

Emily: What happened to you today? You were MIA.

Rachel didn’t know how to respond. She didn’t want to tell Emily where she was and that she had cut school to be with Benji but she didn’t want to lie either.

Rachel: Yeah, sorry about that, what’s up?

Emily:  You’re coming to the homecoming dance tomorrow right? Everyone’s going.

Rachel: I wasn’t planning on it. I don’t have a date.

Emily: Neither do I, let’s just go stag, it’ll be fun.

Rachel: Um, I don’t know.

Emily: You have to go. If you don’t go, I won’t go either.

Rachel didn’t want to hold Emily back so she told Emily she would join her. She figured that she would just stay for a little bit. She didn’t want to leave herself out of an all school event; she would never make friends that way.

Rachel: Ok, I’m in. See you tomorrow.

All of a sudden, Rob entered her mind. She wondered who Rob was going to the dance with, and wondered why he had totally fallen off the face of the earth. She then thought of Arielle, and wondered if Rob was taking her. Rachel convinced herself that she didn’t care though; she was over him and had moved on to Benji.

Rachel sat there, feeling upset. She wondered if Benji was going to go to the homecoming dance. Part of Rachel hoped that Benji would be at the dance but another part of felt that dances weren’t his thing and that he wasn’t big on hanging out with large groups of people.

Feeling mentally and emotionally drained, Rachel took out her journal, drew a picture of her and Benji in the field together, and then, fell asleep.

Chapter Eleven

Rachel woke up to a buzzing sound coming from her phone.

1 New Message:

Emily: Bring your stuff for the dance to school; I’m having a “getting ready” party at my place after school.

She rubbed her eyes and reread the message. Rachel felt a sudden pang of nervousness. It was her first school dance and she had nobody to go with. Part of her didn’t want to go to the dance, but she knew she had to go with Emily. She didn’t want to let her down.

Rachel: Ok, I’ll do that.

Rachel looked out the window and it was raining. The rain depressed her and made her want to curl up in bed, and not go to school or the dance. She also felt depressed because of Benji. She had never had these kinds of feeling before for a guy. She knew her feelings were real and she didn’t know what to do. Would she ever see him again?

She looked at her watch and realized she was running late. She quickly bolted out of bed, searched through her closet for a dress to wear to the dance, threw some makeup in a bag and ran downstairs for breakfast. She hoped she wasn’t forgetting anything.

“What’s in the bag?” Sarah said.

“My dress for the dance tonight,” Rachel answered.

“I got the cutest dress at the Westchester Mall yesterday, you’re gonna die when you see it tonight,” Sarah said.

Rachel suddenly thought her dress wasn’t going to be good enough. She didn’t realize the dance was a big deal or warranted a “new” dress.

“I’m wearing the one I wore to the Easter Parade last year,” Rachel said.

“You are?” Sarah looked at her in surprise.

“Um, I don’t have anything else, and it’s too late now to go shopping. It’s my only option,” Rachel said back.

“All right, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Sarah said, peeking into her duffle.

The dress that Rachel packed was teal, with big pink and orange flowers all over it. She knew it wasn’t the most fashionable dress, but she didn’t see what the big deal was. It was only a homecoming school dance -- not the prom!

Feeling a little self-conscious, Rachel hopped into the car and headed to school. As her mom drove down the street, Rachel saw cars that had been painted red white and blue and said, “Go Tigers!” on the windows. Rachel suddenly realized that homecoming was a big deal at this school.

She remembered her homecoming dance at her school in Pennsylvania. It was the lamest thing, and most people didn’t even go. Rachel had figured that it would be like that up in Bedford, but she was clearly mistaken.

As she entered school, the school spirit and positive energy filled the hallway. Everyone seemed excited for the big homecoming dance and she heard chatter about it as she passed groups of friends in the hallway.

“I’m so excited, Chris just asked me to be his date!”

“I’m going with Brian, he’s so hot.”

“Jason asked me a week ago! I can’t wait for tonight.”

Rachel heard girls gossiping about their dates and she felt a little left out. She didn’t expect that she would have a date, being the new girl and all, but still.

Rachel caught herself looking for Benji in the hallways again, but didn’t see him. She felt sure he was in school somewhere, but didn’t know where. She wished she had remembered to ask him where his homeroom was, but she’d forgotten.

Rachel slid through the door of Mr. Allen’s class with a few minutes to spare. She sat down and watched as the kids started filing in and finding their seats. She saw Rob enter and sit in the chair next to her.

“Hey, you going to the dance?” Rob said.

“Yup,” Rachel answered.

“You have a date yet?”

“Going with the girls,” Rachel said.

“Yeah, I’m going with the guys. Save me a dance, OK?” Rob said with a smile.

“We’ll see,” replied Rachel.

Rachel was taken back by Rob’s comment. Was he insane? Did he really think she was going to save him a dance after what he did to her? Rachel was shocked, and didn’t know what to make of it. She’d wish Emily had been there to hear it, but she walked in late.

The class began and Mr. Allen started talking about Helen Keller, another important woman in history. She was interested in Helen Keller, but found herself zoning out and thinking about Benji.

Rachel couldn’t get Benji out of her head. She tried to make sense of him, but couldn’t figure out why he called himself “different.” She remembered their night at Rye Playland. She thought about Benji using supernatural strength to save her life and tried to convince herself that that was normal. She wanted him to be “normal,” to be like her, but deep down, she knew he wasn’t. What was he?

Chapter Twelve

RING.

The final bell rang and it was finally time for Rachel to meet up with her friends and go to Emily’s house for their “getting ready” party.

Rachel waited for her friends outside on the front lawn of the school. Emily’s house was only a five-minute walk from school, so they all decided to meet and walk together.

Rachel, Emily, Liv, Kate, Jen, Jess and Taryn met up on the front lawn and started walking to Emily’s house. It was the first time that Rachel was hanging out with Liv, Kate and Jess, so she wasn’t so sure what to expect. Suddenly her night in NYC crept into her mind, and her body grew tense. She hoped and prayed that this night wouldn’t end up like the other night she had with Taryn, Emily and Jen, but she figured that would be almost impossible because it was an all school dance, and no ID was required!

Feeling social, Rachel went over to Liv and Jess who were walking next to each other and started talking to them.

“So, you guy’s excited for tonight?” she asked as she caught up to them.

“Guess so,” Liv said.

“Yup,” said Jess. “And wait until you see what I brought, that’s the best part.”

Liv giggled and did a little jump. “What is it?” Rachel asked.

“Oh, you’ll see!” Jess answered.

Rachel couldn’t imagine what it was. At first she thought maybe a sexy dress, or super tall platform pumps, but as the girls neared Emily’s house, Jess pulled out cigarettes and a bottle of Absolute Vodka. Rachel found herself standing still in her path. She felt a little uncomfortable with this but didn’t know how to react. All the other girls were cheering and taking cigarettes from Jess’ pack, and lighting them up.

“Here ya go, Rach,” Jess said, as she handed her a cigarette.

“Oh, no thanks,” Rachel answered.

“Come on, why not?” Jess asked. The girls all looked at her.

“I um…don’t smoke,” Rachel said with a nervous voice.

“Not until you met us, you didn’t!” Jess said, as she tried again to hand Rachel a cigarette.

Rachel didn’t know what to do. Did she stand her ground, or grab it so she wouldn’t have to deal with this pressure anymore to fit in. She didn’t want the girls to hate her, but it was also becoming clear that these weren’t the right girls for her to be friends with after all. It was obvious to Rachel that this group was into alcohol and smoking, and she imagined if there weren’t already, they would probably start trying drugs. Rachel was never a rebel, and while the thought seemed cool for a while, in the long run she knew this was not what she wanted.

“No thanks, I’m all right,” Rachel said firmly.

“OK, be lame then,” Jess said with a joking smile.

Rachel felt bothered by this, but knew by the tone of Jess’ voice that she was just kidding with her. Still, it didn’t feel good.

The girls headed inside Emily’s house and began getting ready. Emily’s house was huge; it was the biggest house that Rachel had ever seen. It had large white columns at the front entrance, and when you walked through the front door you stood in a double story foyer, which Rachel was sure was the size of her entire house.

Rachel suddenly got a new picture of these girls, and realized they, too, were a little different than Rachel.

When she got upstairs to Emily’s room, which Rachel thought was more like an entire wing than a bedroom, Rachel opened up her duffle and pulled out her teal dress with the hot pink and orange flowers, and hung it on a hanger. Feeling self-conscious, Rachel looked around to see if anyone had noticed her dress or was making any comments about it. She knew it wasn’t the most flattering dress and that maybe it was a bad choice, but there was no turning back at this point.

Rachel looked at the dressed the other girls were pulling out. They were very chic and beautiful. She was a little bit surprised, coming from this “punk” group, that they would clean up so nicely.

“Where’s yours from?” Taryn asked Jen.

“I got my dress at Saks with my mom over the weekend,” Jen answered.

“Mine’s from Bloomingdales! It’s BCBG,” answered Taryn.

Rachel didn’t know what these girls were talking about, but assumed these stores and brands were better, and more expensive, than what they sell in JCPenney’s. Rachel didn’t want to ask either, because she didn’t want them to know she was clueless.

“Where’s yours from?” Liv said, as she looked at Rachel’s dress with disapproval.

“Oh, that old thing. I got it at a store in Pennsylvania, you probably wouldn’t know it,” Rachel said.

She remembered vividly the day she had bought that dress with Dana and their crew. It was a few weeks before the Easter Parade, and all the girls had wanted to buy new dresses. They’d piled into her mom’s car and headed off to Wal-Mart to go shopping. Rachel spotted her dress as soon as they entered the Juniors department and she knew it was the one. The girls’
oohd
and
ahhd
over it when Rachel tried it on. She had felt great in it, and knew it was the perfect dress. Not to mention, Rachel remembered all the compliments she got on it.

Now, it was a whole new ballgame. This dress was like the plague up here. Rachel couldn’t understand why it was beautiful in Pennsylvania but ugly in New York.

“You can’t seriously wear that,” Emily said. “I’ve got stuff you can borrow.”

Feeling insecure about her dress, she walked with Emily over to her closet. Rachel figured it wouldn’t hurt to try a few other options on.

“I’ve got this Marc Jacobs baby doll dress,” said Emily, as she held it out. “Or, this Banana Republic LBD.”

LBD..LBD…Rachel was jogging her head trying to figure out this terminology. She looked at the dresses and decided she would try on the Banana Republic dress. Rachel put it on and it fit like a glove. She had never felt sexier before in her entire life. It was a short black dress that came up to the middle of her thigh. It was tight over her hips and butt and showed off her curvy waist. It was short sleeved, but had a low cut-back, which the girls seemed to really think looked great on Rachel.

Rachel was sold. She would forego her teal Easter dress for the sexy black number Emily was going to lend her for the night. Rachel pulled out her Pay Less twelve-dollar gold pumps and put them on her feet. The girls started at her in awe. Rachel couldn’t believe the approval she was getting from the girls and she had never felt so good about herself before.

“So, how about a few shots to get this party started!” Jess said, as she whipped out her Absolute Vodka.

“Yeah!”

“Here we go!”

“Party time!”

Jess opened the bottle and handed everyone a shot glass off of Emily’s shelf. Emily collected shot glasses, and they were being put to good use.