by Carla Thorne
The girl glanced at me and then at the lack of empty large rocks around the circle.
“Oh! I’m in your place,” I said. “I have to be going anyway—”
“Please stay, Ivy,” Paige said and left little doubt it was more of a command than a request.
The girl’s shoulders sagged as if she’d given up. She turned to meet Paige’s gaze.
“Corey, you know the rules. You can’t stay if you’re late.”
“I was late because of that errand. There was an accident or something on the freeway—”
“Did you get them?”
“Yes, and again, that’s why I’m late.”
The desperation in Corey’s eyes against Paige’s obvious upper hand unsettled me.
No one else around that circle seemed to mind the uncomfortable exchange. Trinity stayed busy running her finger around the lid of her cup as the fire crackled amidst the otherwise silent group.
“I’ll sit out here on the ground,” Corey said. “I don’t mind. I’ll sit on my sweatshirt.”
“We’ve settled that,” Paige answered. “You cannot stay if you’re late.”
Corey adjusted the cross-body strap on her small purse and turned to leave. “All right,” she muttered on a tiny, broken sigh.
“Corey, wait,” Paige said.
As though suddenly hopeful, she turned back. “Yes?”
Paige touched a strand of Corey’s near yellow-blonde hair and twirled it around her finger. “I thought we talked about this,” she said with that warm, compelling smile. “The color is still way off and the roots are a mess. It feels like straw. Did you try that conditioner I gave you?”
“I did, but I can’t get the color fixed. My mom and I tri—”
“Well, there’s the problem. You need professional help. Tell you what. I’ll set you up with Claudia. She’s the best and takes good care of me. We’ll go Tuesday. My treat.”
Corey glanced at me and then away. “Sure, Paige. Whatever you think is best.”
Paige smiled and pulled her into a quick hug. “Good. I’ll text with the details. And if Claudia can’t fix it, I guess she’ll have to cut it all off.”
Corey visibly stiffened in Paige’s embrace and stepped away. She gathered her waist-length hair as if to protect it, and slid it over her shoulder. “But I don’t want to cut it.”
Paige patted her arm. “We don’t always get what we want, Corey.”
The Big Queen Arrow, or whoever she was, returned to the circle and started to talk as if nothing happened. Corey slunk off into the night like she’d been beaten and left to die.
Brutal. Ugly. Unacceptable.
I twisted on my rock and got in the best position to propel myself to my feet and off toward…somewhere, or maybe to check on Corey. Anywhere but there.
A hand clamped down on my wrist.
Not Paige’s hand, but Trinity’s.
I turned on her, prepared to break free, but Trinity had yanked my arm down between us with more force than I expected. “Don’t do it,” she whispered, barely moving her lips. “It’ll make it so much worse.”
A bright purple flame grew at the same time Paige tossed a handful of powder into the air. Shimmering sparks exploded in shiny bursts around them.
“Trust me,” Trinity whispered and let go of my arm. “Wait.”
I stilled as seconds ticked by and the girls clapped about something Paige said. I picked up my discarded cup and settled in to wait out the seriously disturbing campfire meeting.
Trinity smiled again, except when she didn’t.
I glanced her way. She had calmed down and no longer tapped a hole in the ground with her left boot.
No one else acted like they could see the tension there.
Trinity seemed fine.
But every once in a while, she slashed a tear from the glittery corner of her eye.
Chapter 9
Ivy
Forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, door.
I arrived at the Saints Café three steps before I had on Friday. Where had I taken shorter steps? Where had I lost concentration? Why did I care?
Because it would be another great topic to discuss with my new crazy person doctor when I saw him.
And if that wasn’t enough to squeeze the last drop of sanity out of my unstable brain, there was the whole hide-n-seek game I’d been playing all morning with Paige and Scout.
The tall, older Paige floated by me at drop-off on a sophisticated cloud filled with attitude, and smelling like a bathtub full of cupcakes. She used phrases like so nice to see you and let’s talk today. It was like trying to avoid my rich and snobby Aunt Constance. Paige was nice enough when she wasn’t being psycho around a fire, but who wanted all that phony sugar first thing on a Monday morning? And after Friday night? Wow. Not me. What was all that?
Still, I had to admire the girl. Seven in the morning and she looked like she’d come from a photo shoot. All the football players appeared to be wrapped around her finger, and her entourage of hotties seemed limitless. If Paige’s offer of friendship was real, what would it hurt to be associated with that level of popularity?
Scout was much less mysterious in his quest to talk about Friday. He almost knocked me down at first bell. He’d bounded to my side and bumped against me in the crowd like a St. Bernard puppy that didn’t know how big it was. Overflowing with questions and concerns, he didn’t give me much chance to answer, and wasn’t one bit discouraged when the teacher closed the door in his face. He merely smashed his nose against the narrow glass panel and crossed his eyes until I laughed.
It was all kinda cute in a clumsy sort of way.
Now, I’d have to talk to somebody in the café, and I prayed Paige and her band of fire-loving cohorts had late lunch.
“Ivy! Over here.” Scout stood and waved from one of the small tables in the corner.
I laughed as he pushed through a group of students to get to me. “I saw you, you freak. Calm down.”
“C’mon. Salad today? That line is short.”
“Sure. But go back and eat. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“I waited for you.”
“You didn’t have to wait for me.”
“I wanted to. Mary and Deacon will save our seats.”
I grabbed a plate and a tray. “Are they mad because I didn’t make it Friday night?”
Scout got wild with the salad tongs and flopped lettuce out of the bowl. “No. Curious. Strange night.”
I nodded and chased a baby tomato around its container. I stabbed it with a fork and then used it to point. “Quick. Grab a couple of those portable cheese thingies.”
“What?”
“Those mini cheese wheels. The ones you can eat later. They go fast.”
“Portable cheese.” He tossed some on my tray and then dumped the rest on his own. “You’re funny.”
“Put some of those back.”
“No way. They look good.”
I swiped my ID badge and turned. Time to face the music. I’d have to explain my absence Friday night, but hopefully not where I ended up.
I slowed as a bubble of chatter rose nearby. Paige swooped in from the doors at the other end of the cafe and glided to a table. A shiny balloon bounced in the air above her. She placed a pink foil box with a chocolate-brown bow in front of one of the girls from the circle. A gift from Paige was apparently a very big deal because almost everyone turned to check it out. Her hug looked genuine, and even as she rounded the table to talk to Corey, there were only smiles and no obvious tension between them.
Paige came toward me as Scout stood frozen in his spot at my side.
“Hey, Ivy.”
“Hi, Paige.”
“Oh, I love these,” Paige said and plucked a portable cheese wheel from my tray. “Great for a burst of protein when you need it.”
“Help yourself,” I said, as the burn of a million staring eyes singed my body.
“Thanks. Talk to you later.” Paige walked on as though not
hing was a big deal.
But it was a big deal.
The infamous Paige had talked to me, a lowly freshman, in the café. In front of a lot of people. People who now sat taller and tried to catch my eye and offer a smile and an approving nod. The same people who would have squashed me like a bug in the hallway an hour before. Maybe I was wrong about Paige. Maybe I’d misunderstood a cold-hard threat to chop off Corey’s hair.
But that didn’t explain Trinity’s tears…
“Wow,” Scout said. “You’ve been making nice with the important people,” he teased. “Rubbin’ elbows with school royalty.”
“Knock it off,” I answered and walked on.
I slid my tray onto the table across from Mary and Deacon. “Hey, guys.”
Mary finished her water and tossed the bottle onto the pile of trash on her tray. “Hey, Ivy. You all right?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Scout settled in beside me. Portable cheese bounced off his tray.
Deacon grabbed one. “Uh… Because we never heard from you, and you ended up in some witchy-looking magic circle with flyin’ sparks and stuff?”
I squeezed the sides of my tray. “Oh. You know about that?”
“We saw you,” Mary said, with a curious arch of her brow.
Anger flared inside of me. “Are you freakin’ kidding me? You spied on me?”
“No. Of course not,” Mary rushed to add. “We saw the fire and walked down there to check it out when you didn’t show. We didn’t expect to see you there.”
“Oh.” My hands fell to my lap. “I didn’t expect to be there.”
Scout sent me a sideways glance and raised a brow like he was trying to look cool and uninterested. “Is that how you got so buddy-buddy with Paige Ryan?”
“I saw that,” Deacon said. “I heard her parties are off the hook.”
“Look, you guys, I hardly know Paige. And I intended to meet you in that dry bone valley place, but my mom’s friend dropped me off on the visitor parking side instead of the home parking side. I got turned around and didn’t know how to get there. Then my ph—”
“I tried to text you,” Scout said. “I would have found you.”
“I know. I’m trying to tell you. My phone died. Like for no reason. I was going to head back to the main road and walk that way, but Paige found me first.”
Mary’s eyes narrowed. “How do you mean she found you?”
“I mean she found me. As in she grabbed me before I got to the bridge and said it was off limits during the game. She said I’d be in trouble if I was caught out there after dark. That’s how we met. It’s nothing.”
“That’s true,” Deacon said. “That’s why it’s considered sneaking around. It’s kinda the point.”
“Was she carrying an armload of firewood?” Scout wanted to know.
“A what?”
He kept talking. “…maybe a bag of kindling… or a pouch of Epsom salts?”
“Noooo, she wasn’t carrying firewood or any of that. And what does that even mean?”
Mary waved away their comments. “Forget the firewood. What about that circle?”
I popped the baby tomato in my mouth and shrugged. “I don’t know much.” I pulled a napkin out from under my plate. “I said I was heading back, she said I should stick around until Wayne made a sweep. Next thing you know, I’m in that circle.”
Mary leaned in. “Are they a club or something?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know what they’re all about. I got the impression it wasn’t the night to ask Paige a lot of questions. I met a girl named Trinity, but…”
“But what?”
“I don’t know. It was so weird. They talked about everything from the moon and stars to how to eat vegetarian, but mostly it seemed to be a Paige fan club. They were awfully concerned with what she thought of clothes, hair, and make-up.”
“Paige is pretty trendy,” Mary said. “But I only know her from soccer and it’s not like we’re close. She’s a senior.”
“Isn’t she tall for a soccer player?”
“Well, those long legs get her down the field in a hurry. She also runs track.”
She could be an Olympic runner for all I knew or cared, because all I could think about was the Paige who towered over Corey and threatened her hair—and now the Paige who’d upped my social status into the stratosphere just by saying hello and taking a piece of cheese off my tray. At that very moment, she stood and observed activity from the edge of the cafe. Girls from Corey’s table approached and asked her questions. Sometimes she’d nod and point. Other times her expression was dismissive. It was clear no one in that group made a move without first consulting their leader.
I toyed with the edge of my plate. “There was a girl named Corey there. Really long hair. You guys know her?”
“Yeah,” Scout said. “We have a couple of classes together. She was there? I didn’t see her. Then again, we couldn’t see much.”
“She didn’t stay long. She was late so Paige didn’t let her stay for the meeting.”
Deacon snagged another portable cheese wheel and tugged at the wrapper. “What was all that fire stuff?”
“I’m not sure.”
“What was that thing on Paige’s head?”
“C’mon, you guys, why the third degree? I told you I don’t know much.”
“Sorry.” Mary pulled a bunch of hair to one side and picked at the ends. “Just wondering.”
“Well, that thing on her head was like a piece of brownish metal. Like an arrow she’d twisted into a circle.”
Scout pushed a cracker into his mouth and held up his finger as if wanting us to wait until he swallowed. “Why an arrow?”
“Trinity said that’s what they call themselves. The Arrows. But there’s another word in there. Paige used it in another language when she opened the meeting, and I saw it on the back of her phone. Oh! And speaking of phones, she gave the whole group new cell phone covers. Expensive ones.”
“Did you get one?” Deacon asked.
“No, I’m not a member of the group. You have to be invited into membership,” I said and used big air quotes to emphasize invited and membership.
“OK,” Deacon said. “Slow your roll there on the bunny ears. We get it. It’s an exclusive club.”
“Back to the name,” Scout said. “Do you remember the long version at all?”
“I think the word purple was in there, but it wasn’t even English. I only remember because I heard a word like Sagittarius and I think that’s my sign.”
Scout dusted cracker crumbs off his hands and slid his phone closer. “Sagittarius. The Archer. Latin, maybe?” He tapped away at record speed and then showed me the screen. “That it?”
Purpura Sagittis
“How would you even say that? What does it mean?”
“That’s loosely purple arrows in Latin.”
“I guess.” I attempted to sound it out. “Purpur… Sagit… Whatever. The Purple Arrows. Apparently, that was Latin written in marker on the back of her phone.”
“When’s your birthday?”
“Why?”
“You said maybe you’re a Sagittarius.”
“December seventh.”
“Yep.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s an exclusive club for Sagittarius girls or something.”
Deacon shook his head. “That’s lame. And ridiculous. What would be the point?”
“I didn’t say it made sense,” Scout said.
My head started to hurt like I had a giant rubber band squeezed around it. “None of it makes sense. Can we let it go now? Paige doesn’t know my birthday, and I don’t know anything about the purpur-whoever-sagit-whatevers—”
“The Purpura Sagittis.”
Scout was so helpful. It might get him punched.
I shot him an icy glare. “Really?”
Deacon threw his portable cheese trash onto Scout’s plate. “Let it go, bro, let it go.”
Mary stacked her tablet, two pap
erbacks, and a pile of pens on the table. “It could be anything. Not our problem, I guess.”
Mary’s warm, white smile and clear, fair skin were as perfect as Paige’s. Her green eyes practically leapt off her face with the depths of their emerald color. But somehow, she was less intimidating than Paige, even though it was clear Mary was the leader of our bizarre gang of weirdos who always seemed to be at the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time.
I picked up my last tomato. “Anybody have science yet? I hope Mr. Berry’s sub isn’t a pain.”
Deacon scrounged around for more food to steal. “Nope. But I heard she isn’t bad.”
“That’s good…”
No one said anything for a while, and I realized if we weren’t all involved in some massive drama, we didn’t have much to talk about. We didn’t really know each other.
I popped that last tomato in my mouth and hoped someone else would say something amidst the clank and clatter of the busy cafeteria.
Move child…
That was so totally not the voice I wanted to hear.
I panicked, of course, and choked on the juice and slippery seeds that sprayed my tongue.
“I’m sorry, Deacon.” I struggled to speak. “Did you say something to me?”
Move child…
I swallowed hard. “No, no, no…” I mumbled and then looked at Deacon as if begging him to talk. “I didn’t hear you. What did you say?”
“I didn’t say anything, Ivy. What’s wrong?”
Move child…You are called to be part of the calm, not part of the chaos. Move…
Something grazed my cheek. I swatted it away, totally knowing there was nothing there.
Deacon scrambled off the too-small and too-tight bench attached to the table. “She’s choking, Scout. Hit her on the back or something.”
I sucked in a long, gasping breath. “I’m not choking. I thought I heard… Never mind.”
Mary glanced over her shoulder and then shivered as though the temperature dropped. It had not. She took another quick look around the room before she reached across the table and touched my shaking hand.