by Admin
She checked her watch. "Oh, I'm supposed to be home in like ten minutes. Church. Can you take me?"
"Of course."
On the ride home, Raylee thought how amazing life could be, and how quickly it could change. Only recently she had been reeling from the power of Crystal and her clique, but now she was finding enjoyment in living again. She glanced at Paul. His eyes were on the road, a small grin on his face.
"What are you smiling about?"
He glanced at her for a second and then turned back to the road. "I am?"
"Yeah."
"I guess because I really thought I'd hate Silver Canyon High. I mean, I was at Royal High, and a lot of doors were opening up for me, you know? I had a chance at some scholarships and everything."
"Not to mention, Waterman is way cooler than Silver Canyon."
He grinned. "True. But I was wrong. Silver Canyon's not all that bad. I have a great history class. The cafeteria food's not bad, and I met you."
Did that mean he liked her?
As though hearing her thoughts, he said, "I just mean, I found a good friend. It's not easy, to find a real friend."
"Isn't that the truth." She smiled at him.
***
Things between her and Donald changed drastically around Halloween. Maybe it's because he would be moving in the spring.
Without any explanation, he started acting distant. He said less and less to her, sometimes behaving like he didn't even know her.
And she noticed things about him that she hadn’t before. Like how he had really bad breath and didn’t bother with breath mints like he once did, and how he had this annoying twitching habit of jerking his right leg.
"He just doesn't know how to express himself around girls," Paul explained as they played Monopoly in his living room.
His mom was flipping burgers on the stove and his dad was fixing the toilet in the half bathroom just a few rooms over. Like Raylee's parents, they were overly cautious about their son being alone with a girl, even though they were purely friends.
"I don't have any money. Can you take a loan?" she asked as her car landed on one of his expensive properties.
He chuckled. "Sure. How's Billy?"
"Billy?" She frowned.
"Like it's not obvious how much you can't stop staring at him."
Now that she felt close enough to Paul to open up more, she shared the story about Billy being there when Crystal teased her in the girl's bathroom.
"Sounds like he cares."
"Yeah, which is amazing, you know. That was the first time we'd ever talked, and he totally went out of his way to make sure I was okay."
Paul was studying the board like it was some sort of complicated math problem. Whipping out a $500 dollar bill, he purchased Park Place, completing the second part of the rent-costly pair.
"OK, you win. I can't afford a loan this big," she stated as she landed on Boardwalk. "We need to get ready anyway."
She grabbed a fat plastic bag off the floor and went to the full bathroom, just off to the left of his parents' bedroom.
Though she'd been raised a Christian, her parents were unlike other Christian parents, who dreaded celebrating Halloween, considering it solely a Pagan holiday. But in Raylee's upbringing, her parents educated her about its history, that it had started as All Hallows Eve long before the druids made up their own dark holiday. Halloween was meant for fun and candy, with an emphasis on giving, and that's how she had learned to celebrate it.
Taking out the Queen of Hearts costume, she quickly pulled it over her head while Paul put on his Batman suit in his room.
They were attending a Halloween party at the community center. Most of Silver Canyon High would be there. It was the third annual Halloween party the center sponsored.
Raylee opened the door and Paul joined her a moment later, watching as she leaned over the sink to apply her makeup.
Without warning, a sense of dread attacked her. Her hands were shaking so much that she kept missing her mouth, and now red lipstick was splotched across her cheek.
"What are you so nervous about?"
Raylee's hands continued to fidget as she attempted to apply her makeup. It must be because she might end up seeing Billy there. Now that the confusing undeclared relationship with Donald seemed to be over, she could really look at Billy again. "You'd be nervous too if somebody you liked might show."
He pulled on his Batman mask and said in a deep voice. "But I'm not just any guy."
Laughing, she looked into the mirror and scrubbed the red mess off her face. Gradually, the shakiness subsided, and she made a second attempt to do her face. She rubbed bright red blush on her cheeks before adding a big heart in dark red lipstick.
"Wow, that looks awesome. Just like a queen." Paul whistled.
"Thanks. Hold on. I gotta call Katy. OK if I use your phone?"
"Sure."
She dialed. Katy picked up on the first ring.
"You ready for the party?"
"Hey, Raylee. I can’t make it."
"What? Why not?"
Katy sounded serious, not her typical nature. "My parents are cracking down hard on me. My grades have been slipping a bit and I’m putting my scholarship to Princeton at risk."
"Princeton?"
"OK, slight exaggeration. But, seriously, they want me studying for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't think I'm going to have time to hang out, even on the weekends, until the school year is over. Have to keep my GPA up or I’ll miss my chances at some of the top universities for chemical engineering. I love chemistry, don’t get me wrong, but on top of that, I’m also taking Trig and Pre-Calculus. Needless to say, it’s a lot."
"Oh." Raylee wasn’t sure what to say. She knew how important this was to Katy, and she didn’t want to say anything that would make her feel more stressed.
"And I’m applying out of state, so I guess I should get used to not seeing a lot of faces from school."
"Oh, man, I didn’t know."
Cheerful Katy came back. "Hey, ‘Don’t Worry. Be Happy’."
"Wow, you’re the one cheering me up. I’m sorry. I’m gonna miss your humor."
"Still got another year with me."
"Are you excited, at least?"
"Definitely. I mean, it’s a lot of work, but I know it will be worth it in the end." She paused. “And speaking of. . .how are your prospects looking?"
"Pretty good actually. Mrs. Adams is writing me a letter of recommendation for the Russian Linguistics program."
"Oh, how awesome. . .ugh, I have to go, but have a good time."
"Thanks, Katy." She hung up and looked down at the sink. Her only girl friend was moving away too.
She turned to face Paul. "Katy isn't going tonight." She drew in a deep breath. "She's leaving after next year. Probably going to college out of state."
She'd lost the desire for attending the party. Chewing on her bottom lip, her sadness at Katy leaving opened up a vulnerable side of her right then.
"Do you think Crystal will be there?" Without Donald in the next few months, she felt her wall of armor evaporating a little bit.
"Maybe." He squeezed her shoulder and smiled. Paul was so good to her, a source of strength. She needed to hold onto that.
He glanced at his watch. "Hey, it's time to go. Let's have a good time, no matter who is there," he added cheerfully.
A little after they got to the community center, Raylee couldn't believe it. One second looking at Billy set her heart on fire. It was ridiculous. She didn't even know him, yet he somehow managed to affect the tempo of her breathing.
Billy was dressed as Marty McFly, the wild west version from Back to the Future Part Three. She loved the movies, probably her favorite comedy franchise, and this made him even more attractive to her. His beautiful dark hair was thrown back in loose waves underneath his cowboy hat, and his deep blue eyes were striking even from several yards away.
She felt her teeth grinding against each other and a thick blockage of air rising into her throat. He was talking to someone, so he didn't see her, thankfully, or he would have known right away what a desperate chump she was.
"Hello? You there?" Paul asked her. Raylee jumped. She'd almost forgotten he was next to her.
"Huh?" She looked at him. "Um, yeah." Her gaze fell on a food table. "Let's get something to eat."
The walls of the community center were decorated with cutouts of cute-not-scary jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, and bats. Across the ceiling beams hung intersecting streamers of black and orange.
To one side of the massive hall stood a looming haunted house entrance. There was already a line forming to get inside. "The Monster Mash" blasting through speakers from every corner of the large hall created an exciting effect as black lights cast eerie glows over the haunted house.
"We have to go there." Raylee pointed at the ghoul-covered mansion as they grabbed some chips in the shape of bats from the snack table.
Paul seemed a bit hesitant as he mumbled. "Uh, yeah, sure."
"You're not scared, are you?" She teased.
He cleared his throat and threw her a sideways glance. "Of course not."
She elbowed him gently in the side and laughed. Then she nearly choked on a chip when Billy appeared suddenly beside her. Henry was with him and they were throwing pretzels and ghost-shaped sugar cookies on their plates.
Raylee lost her appetite.
Henry, the one who made a bet with David over who would not kiss her back in the ninth grade. Her stomach curled a bit.
It happened when Raylee was at her locker. She was getting ready to slide her books inside when she heard snickering behind her. She didn’t think anything of it, so she’d shoved her books in and then searched through her folder for the math handout.
Behind her, some guys were whispering.
"I’ll give you twenty bucks if you go up and kiss her."
"That’s not enough."
"OK. I’ll make it fifty." More snickering.
Turning, she spotted David and Henry, who had just started running in Crystal's circle. They smirked at her, shook their heads as if she was the ugliest girl to have ever lived, and ran off.
Stupid tears had leaked out of her eyes. What they did shouldn’t have bothered her, but it did. Crystal had them wrapped around her finger too. She didn’t have to do anything to her directly, she had plenty of people to do her dirty work.
So now, it was hard to watch Billy standing next to Henry. Maybe she'd been wrong about Billy. Maybe he was no different than Henry and David.
She glanced back at Paul, but he was already heading to the other side of the room, stopping at a cotton candy table.
Inhaling deeply, she decided to try the haunted house alone, pausing just outside of the entrance, admiring the skeleton statue that stood guard at the exit, just off the food tables. She must have stood there for a minute because all of a sudden, again, Billy was standing right next to her and asking her a question.
"I wanted to know if you were looking for a fright?" He gestured to the horror house.
She snatched a quick look behind her; certainly, Billy wasn't talking to her. But there was no one there. She turned back around.
"Uh, sure, uh, yeah."
Way to go, Raylee. If you can't even speak English, why bother with pursuing the Russian language?
But instead of laughing at her scrambled words or running frantically away, he escorted her through the entrance.
The inside of the makeshift house was lit up with eerie flickering orange lights; paper bats tethered to the ceiling screeched as their red eyes glowed while translucent ghosts swayed on invisible swings from above.
"The Monster Mash" was replaced with Will Smith's and DJ Jazzy Jeff's "A Nightmare on My Street" at a perfectly placed time as Freddy look-alikes emerged from hidden shadows of the room. She and Billy slowly made their way forward.
"Do you know who built this?" he asked her.
"No, who?"
"Mr. Grabisch."
"Our principal?"
"And my uncle."
That was surprising. "Really?"
Nodding, he pointed out the display in front of them. She gasped with excitement as they passed wax figures of movie villains from over the years: The Joker from the eighties Batman movie, serial killers Michael Myers and Jason Voohrees from the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises respectively, and Biff from Back to the Future.
"Hey look, it's your arch nemesis," she exclaimed, pointing out Biff. Billy shared in her enthusiasm and held his arm up, showing his watch with a huge face before pushing a dark yellow button that zinged.
"Time to go back to the future!" he shouted.
She laughed, her heart leaping with excitement as they continued through.
But when they came to the exit and a shot of lightning flashed in their faces and thunder boomed, she about jumped out of her shoes.
"What was that?" she said, looking all around.
"They took a picture of us." He was so calm.
Why had she thought that there was an actual storm in here? Obviously, such a thing was impossible. Just the idea of a storm always freaked her out, made her uneasy, the whole unexpectedness of it. No, but it was more than that. Something she couldn't see or hear, something she sensed, something. . .wrong.
Billy was already exiting the attraction and waiting for her. She looked back into the dimly lit space, only to find a group of young kids giggling as they approached the last exhibit.
When she turned back around, she reeled backwards, bumping into the edge of the exit door. A statue of a skeleton faced her, and on its face was a mask that looked exactly like the one in her locker, just without worms.
She covered her mouth and spun around, scanning the room. The skeleton had definitely not been wearing a mask before. Someone had planted it on it, someone who was doing his, or her, best to scare her.
Everyone moved about as though nothing were amiss, some people enjoying the games, others immersed in laughter. No one looking guilty. No one shaken as she was.
Tears built up inside of her eyelids and she bit her fist, trying not to fall apart.
Billy was motioning her over to a long table where a monitor displayed photos of patrons at the end of the attraction.
Surveying the room once more, she joined him at the booth. Together, they leaned over the picture that had been snapped of them. She shuddered, ready to throw up, even as she tried to remain calm, trying not to think of the mask.
The picture didn’t flatter her at all. Her eyes were glued shut, her cheeks so tightly scrunched together that she resembled a sun-dried raisin. Billy, on the other hand, appeared cool and resembled an actual human being.
Instead of laughing at her expression the way she’d expect anyone to do, Billy simply smiled at her and made his way to the next table where sat large pitchers of red punch and plates stacked with cookies and brownies.
That’s when she spotted Henry popping up on Billy’s other side. Suddenly, Raylee’s heart rate increased. Was it because of the embarrassing photo or from being near Billy, or because he had something to do with the mask?
Was it because Henry was standing there? Was that it? Had his near presence set her on edge? But it never had before, so that didn't make much sense. She would feel a little sick to her stomach, humiliated, yes, but not scared.
"Hey, how about some punch?" Billy asked her, turning to face her.
Willing herself to calm down, she thought of Paul. She'd almost forgotten about him. Again.
"Um, maybe another time. Thanks for the fun." She flashed a quick smile at him and felt the warmth and fluttering sensation return to her heart.
As out there as it was, she wondered if he would ever be her Prince Charming or if Crystal, or some other girl, would cast him under her spell instead.
The thought of that hurt a little.
&nb
sp; When she looked back, the feeling that she was being watched hit her. Henry and Billy weren't looking at her though, their gazes moving over the crowd.
She clutched her stomach, her hand touching the big cloth heart of her costume, suddenly feeling a strange combination of emptiness and fear. She hurried to the bathroom.
After splashing cold water on her face, she grabbed one of the water bottles, wrapped in mummy gauze, off the vanity and took several swigs in an attempt to settle her nerves.
Why was this happening to her?
Taking in a deep and steady breath at last, she returned to the main hall.
Billy and Henry were talking about something. Billy glanced in her direction. He smiled and turned back to resume his conversation with Henry.
Her heart warmed, the stomach pain completely subsided, and she felt something she’d never felt around a guy she liked—her body and mind at rest.
"Ghostbusters" blasted out of the speakers next. A bunch of people hit the dance floor.
She spotted Paul stretching his legs beneath his black cape as he settled in a seat at one of the dinner tables; his Batman mask was still on.
Raylee sped up her pace, as though she were running away from the culprit, forcing her thoughts to Billy. He remained a mystery to her, mostly, of course, because they'd barely spoken, but it was more than that. It was how he did things, like in drama, how much intensity and realism he expressed. Even in the simple actions, just walking or glancing around a room, he managed to display his movements in extraordinary ways as though he possessed a secret or special knowledge that no one else did, as though he carried an understanding that most people never would.
Crossing the dance floor, orange and white bulbs glowing from strings of lights overhead, she was nearing her best friend when the song ended, and the DJ finished for the night, and when she noticed Gina and David making out as they danced. Crystal came up to them, clearing her throat, still in her cheerleading uniform.
Raylee stopped, not wanting to be seen, hiding behind a dark curtain that divided the game tables.
Gina broke away. “Oh, hey." She raised her eyebrows, eyeing Crystal’s cheerleading outfit. “So, this is your idea of a costume."
"If Billy is anything like the other guys, he won’t be able to resist me."