Hidden Moon

by K. R. Thompson

  I tried to smile back, but figured I was giving him my Halloween smile. I unzipped my backpack and stuffed my phone in it. It felt like I was burying a friend.

  “Ah, the tribe’s here,” Brian said, pulling into the school’s parking lot, nodding toward a beat-up looking Jeep where a pile of tall guys with dark hair were getting out. I noticed the one I saw before as he got out of the driver’s door. He had his back turned to me as he talked to the pair that had just pulled up beside him on a motorcycle.

  “That’s Erik, with the black leather jacket. He’s on the bike. He’s the friendliest of the lot. Kinda goofy sometimes, but he’s cool,” he frowned, looking at the girl whose back was turned to us. She was pulling off her helmet, shaking out her long hair that fell seductively down her back in a thick, silky wave.

  “Oh. That’s Penny, his girlfriend, sitting behind him. Everyone from the reservation carpools, but there’s always someone who doesn’t fit, and they end up on the back of the bike behind Erik. Looks like it was Penny’s turn again.”

  We got out of the truck. I slung my backpack over one shoulder, and we started walking past the group on our way to the front doors of the school. The one named Adam stopped talking to the others and turned to look at me, as if he had heard me speak. I hadn’t said a word. His eyes glowed with the same amber I had seen in my dream. Even though I had been expecting it, I still stopped and stared at his eyes.

  “Come on, Nikki, we have to get your schedule from the office. Then I’ll show you where to go.” Brian tugged on my arm, apparently thinking I was just stopping to gawk at the local people.

  I realized that when he had turned to look at me, five other dark heads had turned, too. They were giving me curious looks. I felt warmth creep up into my cheeks. I lowered my eyes and was starting to follow Brian again, when I saw him smile, laughter filling his eyes. The one on the bike with the short hair and a roundish face started whistling at me. His girlfriend swatted the back of his head in an effort to hush him.

  I caught up to Brian and we went through the front door, then down a small hallway on the right, and through a door where the word OFFICE was written in large letters.

  An elderly lady with snow-white hair sat behind a desk, bifocals perched on the end of her birdlike nose. She looked up over her glasses and smiled at us when she noticed us come in the door.

  “Good morning, how can I help you?”

  “Good morning, Miss Ratherby. This is Nikki.” Brian turned to me. “What’s your last name? I never thought to ask.”

  “Harmon. Nicole Harmon.” I smiled at the receptionist. Her stiff, arthritic fingers shuffled through a stack of papers, until she found what she was searching for and pulled a single sheet free and held it up for closer inspection.

  “Ah! I’ve got your schedule right here, young lady. I think you have most of the classes that Brian has. You can show her around, can’t you, dear?” she asked, peering over at Brian.

  “Yes, ma’am. I’d be glad to.” He nodded, causing dark locks of hair to fall towards his eyes.

  “Okay, you two run along. The bell will be ringing in a few minutes, so you’d better go to your first class,” she said, then smiled. “Welcome to Bland High, Nikki.”

  We looked at my schedule as we walked to our first class, which happened to be math. I had literature, history, anatomy, and Spanish classes with Brian. The only ones I didn’t have with him were art, English and Phys Ed. I could find those without him.

  The school isn’t that big, I thought.

  Math class went by without a hitch. I managed to find a seat in the back and was surprised to find that I had covered the same material before. The teacher was impressed and kept me afterwards for a few minutes to ask me questions about my other school. It put us later getting to the next class. Brian half-ran/half-walked me down the hallway to my English class and left me at the door with a quick grin and a reassurance that he would be there when it let out. I smiled at him as he ran back down the hall. I felt like a kindergarten kid getting ready to get on the bus for the first time. I wasn’t sure why I felt that way. Get a grip, it’s just an English class, I chided myself as I twisted the knob. I took a deep breath and went in.

  The class hadn’t started yet, though it looked like it was going to at any minute. The teacher smiled at me, asked my name and then told me to have a seat next to Mr. Black Water. I turned to see which seat she was talking about.

  It was next to the boy with the golden eyes.

  He stared straight ahead, ignoring me as I took the seat beside him. The air around him sparked and snapped, startling me so that I smacked the girl who sat behind me with my book bag.

  “Hey, watch it,” she exclaimed, rubbing her shoulder.

  “Sorry,” I muttered under my breath, easing the bag off my shoulder, and under the seat.

  As I slid in beside him, I looked at him from the corner of my eye. He had a long, straight nose and high, sharp cheekbones, and looked every bit like the serious Native Americans I had seen in history books. As I watched, a tiny frown mark deepened between his brows, though he never looked at me. His long, black hair was darker than the black t-shirt he was wearing. It fell forward, hiding his face in a thick, silky curtain as he leaned over his book. I took the gesture as a hint to quit staring at him, and turned back to my own book.

  A collective groan came up from the whole room as we were instructed to turn to page forty.

  Sentence diagramming, I thought happily. Piece of cake.

  “First of all,” said the teacher, who had introduced herself as Ms. Barker. “I know some of you had problems with this when we ended the year last year. So we will be going over this material again, and you will learn this before I pass you. For this reason, we decided to have seats with shared desks this year. Quiet, please.” She clapped her hands in an effort to quiet the murmurs. “The person you are sitting beside is going to be your study partner.”

  I felt him tense beside me. The air seemed to grow hot, popping and snapping.

  “I expect you to take it upon yourselves to study together at least a couple times a week. By the end of the year, I expect you to know the difference between adverbs and verbs, prepositional phrases and the like. Although we will be covering other material, we will be going over this often to make sure everyone learns it.” She shot a pointed look at Adam, who ignored her. She sighed, frustrated. “Who wants the first try at diagramming the sentence on the chalkboard?”

  After another forty-five minutes of basics, an uncomfortable heat and crackling air that was starting to sound like Rice Krispies cereal, the bell rang. Adam jumped out of his seat and left the second it went off. I was still picking up my books when Ms. Barker came over and smiled at me.

  “Nikki, I was wondering if you could make a good effort in trying to help Adam with this class. I’ve got your manuscripts from your previous school. I know you’ve already had sentence diagramming and that you excelled at it. Adam needs help with it. I nearly didn’t pass him from last year. I won’t pass him this year if he doesn’t get it down, and that would be a pity, as this is the only class he has problems in. He is a very bright student. He just hasn’t committed himself to learning this,” she smiled.

  “Yes, ma’am. I’ll help…if he’ll let me,” I added, thinking about the way he stormed out. The way he was acting, I didn’t think he’d let me help him do anything at all. For someone I had never met before, he seemed to dislike me. The knots in my stomach tightened again.

  “He will let you if he expects to pass this year.” She stared at me over a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. “You’d better head to class. Just please do your best to help him.”

  I managed a quick nod and rushed out the door.

  Brian, true to his promise, was leaning against the wall, outside the door.

  “Hey,” he grinned. “What did you guys do to Adam in there? He looked like he was ready to kill somebody.”

  “He found out I was going to be his study partner. I don�
�t think he likes me very much.”

  “How could he not like you? He just met you. Sort of. Don’t think anything about it, he’s just being Adam. He’ll come around. Let’s head to the cafeteria. I’m starving,” he said, taking my books from me. Then he grunted, “A quick detour first to find your locker. I was planning on being chivalrous, but even my charm will dwindle after lugging these things around.”

  I laughed and laced my arm through his. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  A pretty, petite blonde girl was putting her books into the locker beside mine. She had big, green eyes that sparkled with mischief when she saw us walk up.

  “Hey, Brian. It’s about time you found a girl you liked,” she teased.

  A locker slammed at the end of the row, and I saw a flash of long, black hair going around the corner.

  “Hi, Ronnie,” Brian grinned at her. “This is Nikki. She just moved in the old house up the road from me. I’m just showing her around.”

  “Oh, so that’s what it’s called now, is it?” she laughed as he blushed, “Nice to meet you.” She extended a dainty, small hand and smiled.

  “You, too.” I grinned, and shook her hand.

  “You look like just the person we need in the cheerleader squad,” she looked at me as if she were sizing me up, “We had a couple girls quit from last year. Tiffany made them mad, like she does everybody. Anyway, we’re having tryouts today after school. If you can stay that would be great.”

  “Um, I don’t know,” I began as I tried to think of a way to get out of it.

  “I can wait, it’s not a problem. I don’t have anything pressing at home. Besides, I think you could give Tiffany a bit of competition and that would be entertainment at its finest.” Brian laughed at my discomfort.

  I shrugged. It looked like I was stuck, so I may as well make everyone happy. “Okay. So, where’s the cafeteria? I’m hungry.”

  We made it into the cafeteria and Brian took a big sniff.

  “Smells like spaghetti and mystery meatballs. It’s official. School is back in,” he announced, and then whispered to me, so the cafeteria lady wouldn’t hear. “We’re safe, it’s the first day of school. They use whatever meat is leftover from earlier in the week to make their meatballs. So today, at least it’s fresh meat.” He shot a very large innocent-looking grin over to the cafeteria woman who was giving us a suspicious look.

  We found a table with some of Brian’s friends. There was a blond-headed guy named John, who happened to be Ronnie’s boyfriend, and a small, chubby brown-headed girl named Beth. Both smiled at me after introductions were made. I noticed all the Indian guys were sitting at the same table across the room from us. Each of them had two plates of food, though none of them were eating. They looked like they were having a serious conversation and by the quick looks in my direction, it was about me. I stared down at my plate. My appetite left me.

  “I wonder why those guys keep staring over here,” John said, running his hand through his short blond spikes.

  “I think Adam’s upset that he has to pass English class this year. And Nikki here, got elected to be his study partner,” Brian explained.

  “You poor thing.” Ronnie giggled with amusement.

  I looked back up and noticed that the girl named Penny, who had been riding double on the motorcycle, was looking over at me, smiling. I smiled back and went back to eating my spaghetti, listening to the conversation about people I didn’t know.

  A few minutes passed when I heard a soft voice speak. “Excuse me?”

  I looked up to find Penny standing next to me with a shy smile. Her pretty brown eyes darted toward the floor and her brown cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

  “Hi, I’m Penny. Adam isn’t happy about having a study partner, but we all think he needs one if he’s going to pass English class. I think we might have talked him into being a little more cooperative.” She shrugged, lifting one shoulder. “Anyway, what I’m trying to ask is, could you come over to the reservation today after school and try to help him?”

  “You’re setting up his study dates?” My mouth opened in astonishment.

  “I kinda got nominated. Since I was the only girl here today, it was unanimous and they decided to send me over.” Her face flushed darker and she bit her lower lip.

  I looked back over to their table, and saw Adam looking sullen while the one named Erik grinned from ear to ear with amusement. The other three boys just smiled politely at us.

  Angry, I stood. “Come on, Penny. They’re not putting this on you. He has to talk to me if he wants help.”

  “Don’t forget the tryouts,” Ronnie mumbled through her teeth.

  I walked over to their table with Penny in tow. I stopped in front of Adam and stuck my hand out.

  “I’m Nikki, your appointed English study partner.”

  “I know. I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” he said in a low voice.

  “Well if you want to fail, that’s up to you.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant.” He was looking at my still offered hand. He shrugged and took it in his. A spark leapt between our hands and the air sizzled.

  “I’m Adam,” he said, still holding my hand. The air still sparked, although it seemed no one but the two of us felt or saw anything.

  I dropped his hand as if it were on fire and resisted the urge to rub mine on the leg of my jeans. He was looking at me as if he thought I was the one who caused all the little sparks.

  “I am unavailable to tutor you this evening,” I said primly. “However, tomorrow evening if you wish, I will be available.”

  He nodded, his beautiful amber eyes never left mine. Feeling awkward, I nodded and started toward my table.

  “Good luck at tryouts,” his voice whispered so low I thought I had imagined it.

  I resisted the urge to turn around and see if he had spoken as I kept walking and took my seat next to Brian.

  “That’s weird,” Brian frowned as he looked at the table I had just left.

  “What?” I asked, letting out the breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding.

  “The way he was staring at you as you walked back over here. I think he likes you,” he murmured, not looking the least bit happy.

  “Look out, Brian. You may have competition.” Ronnie grinned. “And you do have a point. I’ve never seen him look at anyone like that before. It’s kinda weird.”

  I looked back at the other table, but no one was looking at us now. They had finished eating and seemed to be talking about something else. The bell rang, making me jump in my seat. The cafeteria came alive in a rush of food and trays that everyone shuffled around and made their way out of the door to their next class.

  The rest of the day went by fast. Brian took me to art class as the last period of the day. I fell in love with Ms. Hayton, the instructor. She introduced herself in front of the class in a smock that once had been white, but now was covered with every color of the rainbow. She looked like she had been in a water balloon fight, with paint being the water. She had bright, blue eyes and short, frizzy brown hair that looked like a perm job gone wrong. Strangely enough, it looked perfect on her. She looked like abstract art.

  She told us to draw anything we wanted. As long as we stayed busy, we could talk to each other as long as it didn’t disturb anyone. I started sketching out the trees I had memorized out of my bedroom window. I thought I was doing pretty well until I looked over and saw the lifelike image of a young Indian woman the boy beside me was drawing. He was one of the guys that had been sitting at Adam’s table at lunch. Like the others, he had the same dark black hair with a subtle blue tint, but where Adam’s hair came to his waist, this boy’s only came past his shoulder. He tucked a loose strand behind his ear as if it were a habit he did many times a day.

  “That’s amazing,” I said, smiling. “I wish I could draw like that. The eyes are beautiful. She looks so real.”

  He returned a polite smile. “Thank you. Ms Hayton is a wonderful teacher. You’ll
be doing this is no time.”

  “Who is the woman in your picture?”

  “Mother Earth,” he replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “She is always depicted in our culture as a young, beautiful woman. She is full of life, and the giver of life. Most pictures painted or drawn by Native Americans that have a young woman in them are pictures of Mother Earth.”

  “I never knew that,” I murmured, then shook my head and introduced myself. “Sorry, I’m Nikki.”

  “I know. I’m Ed,” he grinned. “And that idiot over there is Erik.” He pointed to motorcycle boy with the short, spiked hair and a big goofy smile on the other side of him.

  “Since we’re giving a lesson in Native American tradition,” Erik said, “Ed is not his given name.” His dark eyes sparkled with mischief.

  Ed gave him a dirty look, and then pretended to be busy with his art.

  “Nikki,” Erik said as he leaned forward to peer around Ed, “in case you didn’t know, some Native Americans still practice the traditional beliefs when naming their children.”

  Ed scowled.

  “Marianne, Ed’s mom, is one of those people. Plus, it doesn’t help that she has an odd sense of humor. In the old days, mothers wouldn’t name their children until they were a few years old. The reason was because so many of the children died when they were infants. Anyway, when they were sure the child would survive they would pick a name, based on what the child did or liked,” he explained in what I was guessing was his most serious face.

  “Ed seems like a nice, reasonable name,” I said, trying to reassure Ed, whose brown face was starting to flush.

  “It seems our good friend here had a certain fondness for only one thing when he was two years old. He loved playing in the dirt. He would have it from his head to his feet, even in his mouth. No matter what Marianne did, she couldn’t keep him out of it. She warned him that he would regret it if he didn’t stop, but he wouldn’t mind her. So she named him ‘Eats Dirt’. We’ve sort of shortened it to Ed. I think it becomes him more,” Erik grinned, trying to duck as Ed smacked him on the head with his binder.