At lunchtime Emma wandered into the cafeteria, not really paying attention to anything happening around her. She hadn’t heard any of the lectures her teachers had given her or even what the homework for the night was. Too many thoughts crowded in her head, each one of them just as distracting as the others.
It had probably been a mistake to come to school today. So far nothing good had happened. Kathryn hadn’t wanted her to go anyways, she thought Emma was still shaken up over the mugging incident. Emma smiled ironically, Kathryn didn’t even know the half of it.
Despite her distraction Emma couldn’t help but notice people staring at her as she walked by and the whispering that followed her as she walked towards where she and Amy normally sat. Emma looked around, trying to convince herself that she was just being paranoid but the other students were definitely staring at her.
A table full of girls quickly looked away when Emma’s gaze fell on them as she walked past. Emma wondered if they somehow knew what had happened last night, like the truth was stamped on her forehead for the world to see. Emma shook her head. No, there is no way anyone could know that there were people with super powers running around. She was just imagining things. When Emma came into sight Amy waved her over to their table frantically.
“Hey Amy.” Emma said, dropping her new mini cooler lunch bag on the table and sliding onto the bench. “What’s up?”
Emma noticed a group of freshmen at the next table staring at her. She glared at them until they all looked away, but as soon as Emma turned to talk to Amy whispering exploded behind her.
“Did you actually make out with Jason in the janitor’s hallway before school?” Amy whispered excitedly, leaning towards her so other people wouldn’t overhear their conversation.
“What?” Emma yelped. The freshmen at the other table looked over at her again. A few of them even shifted closer to try to overhear Emma’s conversation with Amy. Emma glared at them again, lowering her voice to whisper like Amy. “No! Who told you that?”
Emma looked around the cafeteria and noticed more than a few people watching them.
“It’s spreading around school.” Amy replied, glancing around as well. She looked nervous as she fiddled with the silver bangled bracelet she was wearing that day. “What were you thinking? You know Morgan is going to be furious about this.”
“I didn’t do anything!” Emma whispered furiously, ducking her head to avoid all curious looks. “He pulled me into the hallway because we needed to talk about something, that’s it.”
“What did you need to talk about?” Amy asked. “I thought he freaked you out.” She was staring at Emma with her big blue eyes, giving Emma the kind of look that made it so easy to want to tell her things. Amy was her best friend, if Emma could tell anyone it would be Amy. Emma opened her mouth to tell her everything that had happened when she caught Jason staring at her from across the room. His eyes were intense as they watched her, as if he knew exactly what she was about to do.
Emma sighed and looked back at Amy.
“I can’t tell you.” She said apologetically, her shoulders slumping.
Amy looked at her with a hurt expression. She and Amy had never kept secrets from each other before, they had always told each other everything.
“You can’t tell me, or you won’t tell me?” Amy asked quietly. Emma squirmed in her seat, guilt spiraling through her.
“I can’t.” Emma said. “If it was just about me I would tell you,” She added quickly, “but other people’s secrets are involved and they trust me not to tell anyone what I know.”
Amy stared at her for a moment longer before nodding her head. “If you say you can’t tell me then I guess there must be a really good reason.”
Emma smiled in relief but Amy still looked worried.
“What is it Amy?” Emma asked.
Amy looked at her carefully, watching Emma’s reaction to her next question. “You would tell me if you were in trouble, wouldn’t you? Because if you need my help you know all you have to do is ask.”
Emma smiled and gave Amy a big hug. “I know you would and it means a lot to me that you would say that even though you don’t know what is going on. I’m fine. I just promised someone that I wouldn’t tell anyone his secret and I can’t break my promise.”
“His secret?” Amy’s eyes lit up. “Is it Jason? Does he have some big secret that he doesn’t want anyone to know?”
“I think that would count as me telling you their secret.” Emma said with a laugh. “I can’t tell you whose secret I am keeping and please don’t try to figure it out.”
“Okay fine.” Amy said a little put out at not being told a big piece of gossip. “But you’re still going to have to deal with Morgan. I don’t think she will care what you and Jason were doing, everyone in school thinks there’s something going on between you two now. You know she can’t just let that go.”
Emma got a sick feeling in her stomach. When it came to revenge Morgan was ruthless, Emma had seen it first-hand many times. Emma jumped to her feet and grabbed her lunch.
“I’ve got to go.” She told Amy.
The doors to the cafeteria burst open and Morgan came storming into the room, followed by her two closest friends, Heather and Hannah. Her face was flushed and her eyes practically spat sparks as she searched the room, her anger so strong it was almost palpable. Everyone in the room fell silent, staring at the terrifying image that she made.
“You!” She said when her eyes settled on her adopted sister. She plowed her way through the crowd, pushing unfortunate bystanders out of her way as she charged at Emma. “How dare you humiliate me like this! When I get my hands on you, I swear I’ll kill you!”
Emma jumped up from her seat and held her hands out in front of her. “Morgan, wait! It’s not what you think! There is nothing going on between me and Jason!” She said quickly, trying to reason with her.
“Nothing is going on between you two?” Morgan screeched. “I saw you with him this morning! Everyone in school knows what you did!”
“No! We’re just friends, I swear!” Emma said. She dodged around a table as Morgan got closer, trying to put as many obstacles between them as she could. Wherever she went people scattered, not wanting to get caught between Morgan and Emma.
“Liar!” Morgan screamed. “You’ve had a crush on him from the very beginning! Everyone knows you like him!”
“But it’s never been like that between us, we’re just friends!” Emma said, running around another table as Morgan ran around the first one.
“Morgan!” Jason’s voice cut through the commotion and suddenly the crowd parted to show Jason racing towards them. “Stop it!” He commanded as he ran up to stand between the two girls.
“Oh, are you protecting her now?” Morgan snarled as she tried to circle around Jason towards Emma.
“She didn’t do anything wrong.” Jason snapped, blocking Morgan from getting past him with his hands. “We were just talking.”
“That’s not what I saw!” Morgan yelled, trying to find a way past him. “And that is not what the entire school has been saying all day.”
“The entire school is wrong!” Jason told her. “And so are you!”
Jason stayed in a defensive position, shifting to keep Morgan in front of him and away from Emma. Emma stood a few feet behind him, watching the scene unfold with wide eyes. The rest of the students had formed a circle around them and they were watching the drama like they were watching a modern day version of the gladiator games. Suddenly Emma realized yet again that she was letting someone else stand up for her instead of fighting her own battles.
“Jason, get out of my way right now or it is over between us!” Morgan yelled, giving up on trying to get past him.
The room grew even more silent as everyone held their breath waiting for Jason’s reply. Losing his defensive posture Jason stood up straight and looked at Morgan with disdain.
“It never should have even began with us.”
He said coldly.
With a shriek of fury Morgan shoved him into a group of football players. Caught off guard Jason stumbled back and the football players grabbed him, restraining him from interfering as Morgan charged at Emma.
Emma just stood unmoving as Morgan ran towards her, her eyes wild and her face twisted in anger. She watched as if from a distance as Morgan’s fist came towards her face, but she didn’t move.
The blow, when it landed, knocked Emma off her feet and she fell on the cafeteria floor. Emma felt heat spreading across her cheekbone where she had been hit but there was no pain. Emma reached up with one hand and rubbed the side of her face, surprised that it didn’t hurt.
“You are worthless, you pathetic waste of life!” Morgan yelled at her. “Your parents didn’t want you, my family doesn’t want you, and no one else is ever going to want you either.”
At the mention of her parents Emma’s brain refocused. With that focus came the anger that she always held back and she realized that she was no longer scared of Morgan. This was the worst that Morgan could do and Morgan had nothing left to scare her with.
Emma casually stood up as if falling on the floor had been a part of her plan all along. Ignoring Morgan who was continuing to shout insults Emma calmly straightened her clothes and brushed the dirt off. When Morgan circled around to insulting Emma’s parents again Emma looked at Morgan with deadly intent in her eyes.
“Shut up.”
Morgan’s words stumbled to a halt as she looked at Emma in shock. Her mouth gaped open but words seemed to escape her as she stared at Emma.
“Jason and I never kissed.” Emma said, loudly enough for everyone to hear. “And even if we did, how could you get mad when you’ve been kissing every guy in school?”
Emma heard gasps in the crowd and people started murmuring. Morgan looked around at the crowd surrounding her, realizing for probably the first time that Emma knew all of her secrets and now she was going to tell them to everyone.
“Shut up.” Morgan hissed at Emma.
“What’s wrong Morgan? You don’t want people finding out all of your secrets? Like how you flirt with your teachers to get them to give you better grades? Or maybe how you sabotage all of your “friends” relationships so that none of them have a boyfriend to keep you from having their undivided attention?”
Off to the side Morgan’s two best friends jerked when they heard that. Their eyes narrowed as they looked at Morgan. If looks could kill Morgan would have been dead at that moment.
“She’s lying!” Morgan yelled, looking at her friends. “I would never do that to you!’
Heather and Hannah just looked at her coldly before they turned and walked away without giving Morgan a second glance. Around them the crowd started getting louder as more and more stories about Morgan began being told.
Emma stepped forward until she and Morgan were face to face.
“I am not scared of you, Morgan.” Emma said quietly, “And if you so much as dare to even mention my parents again you will be the one to walk away with a black eye.”
Then Emma turned and walked away, leaving Morgan alone in the middle of the crowd. Jason met Emma at the edge of the crowd.
“You okay?” He asked, looking at the eye Morgan had punched.
Emma nodded and kept walking. She just wanted to get away from the crowd and somewhere she could breathe. Pushing open the doors that led from the cafeteria to the common area in the middle of campus Emma walked out, Jason following her. When the doors shut behind them the noise of the crowd was cut off and Emma took a deep breath of the fresh air, slowly beginning to relax.
She and Jason wandered over to one of the benches scattered around the common area and sat down. The concrete was cold and as Emma stared at the overcast sky she began to shiver.
“Here.” Jason said, pulling off his coat and draping it around her shoulders.
“Thank you.” Emma said, smiling shyly. She tucked the coat around her, ducking her head between her shoulders and pulling the collar up over her neck.
“So was what you said true? Has Morgan really done all those things?” Jason asked. His eyes looked sad, as if he already knew the truth but he wanted to hear it from her anyways.
Emma dropped her gaze from his. “Yes.” She said softly.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Jason asked. He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands loosely in front of him. He didn’t look at her when he asked but she knew she had his full attention.
“I guess I didn’t think you would believe me.” Emma replied.
She watched as a squirrel ran across the grass and scurried up a tree, chattering angrily at another squirrel that had followed it up.
“I would have rather heard it from you then hear it announced in front of half the school.” Jason said, giving Emma a crooked smile.
“I’m really sorry.” Emma said, pulling the coat tighter around her shoulders. “I didn’t think about how it would affect you. I was just so mad at Morgan.”
“It’s okay, I understand.” Jason said with a shrug. “Do you have any other big secrets that affect me that you think I should know?”
Emma pretended to think about it for a minute before leaning towards him and whispering. “I don’t want to freak you out but…you shoot fire from your hands.”
Jason gasped, looking shocked. “What? I do!” He said, placing a hand dramatically on his chest.
Emma nodded gravely. “It’s true. I’m sorry I have to tell you like this but…you should know.”
“Thank you.” Jason said gratefully. “You are a good friend.”
“I try.” Emma said with a playful grin.
“Alright little Miss Keeper of Secrets, let’s get you home before someone else tries to start a fight with you.” Jason said, standing up and offering Emma a hand up too. Emma laughed and let him pull her up.
“But it’s so much fun being punched in the face!” Emma said in exaggerated enthusiasm.
“Oh I know from experience how much fun it is.” Jason said with a laugh.
The two of them began walking to the building where Emma’s locker was so she could go get her things, neither of them seeing Morgan as she escaped from the angry crowd in the cafeteria. Morgan watched with hatred in her eyes as Emma and Jason walked away.
The Forgeron Legacy Page 20