“Not much fun writing Eats Dirt Young Eagle in those little blocks for your SAT test. I’m going to get it legally changed when I turn eighteen next year, whether Mom likes it or not,” Ed mumbled under his breath.
I smiled at him. “I think it’s unique.”
“Your trees are looking good,” he commented, as if he wanted to change the subject.
“Thanks, they’re the ones outside my bedroom window,” I said. The ones where Adam had stood, I added silently.
Seeming to read my mind, Erik popped his head around Ed again. “Nikki, thanks in advance for helping Adam. We want him to pass so that we can all graduate together next year, so if we can help at all just let us know. He’s really smart. I just don’t think he likes English class all that much. I guess he figures if he can speak our native language and English, then having a class to teach him something he already knows is a waste of time. He doesn’t like the idea of a study partner, but I have no idea why. I think he’s more open to the idea now. At least I hope so, since we bullied him into it.”
“Well, we’ll see how it goes. I’ll try, but he’ll have to try, too,” I said, resigned.
The bell shrilled again, announcing the end of the first day of school. I found Brian standing in his customary spot, leaning against the wall outside the door, his hands shoved in his jeans pockets.
“I’m beginning to feel like a stalker,” he joked, grinning at me. “Are you ready to see what the cheerleading squad has to offer? Ronnie has spent the last half hour in chemistry, pestering me about making sure I get you to the gym after school.”
“I hope I don’t disappoint her. I’ve never been a cheerleader,” I said, still trying to find a way out of it and not succeeding.
“You may not have been a cheerleader, but I saw trophies sticking out of one of those packing boxes the mover guys left in your living room when I was over Saturday. You’ve been in some kind of athletic something-or-the-other,” he prodded.
“Gymnastics and tumbling,” I sighed. I knew as soon as the words left my lips I’d lost the argument. I may as well get ready to be a cheerleader.
Brian gave me a triumphant grin. “Don’t worry, it will be easy. They never do anything complicated that I’ve ever seen. You’ll be a pro at this, no problem.”
He steered me into a large gymnasium lined with bleachers down one wall. Beth, Brian’s friend from lunch, was the only one sitting in the bleachers. She had a notepad in her hand. When she saw us she waved.
“Beth’s on the school paper. She must smell a story.” Brian returned the wave.
I groaned. Great, that was just what I needed. More trouble.
Ronnie came running up to us, grinning from ear to ear. “Great. I’m glad you’re here. Brian, go sit with Beth or something. Come on, Nikki.” She took my arm and tugged me toward a group of cheerleaders. Bland Wolves was stamped across the front of their green and white outfits.
The tallest girl stood in the middle of them, her hands crossed in front of her chest. She gave us an aggravated look. She had long blonde hair pulled back in a silky ponytail which swayed back and forth as she shook her head to the question one of the other girls had asked her.
“Tiffany, this is Nikki,” Ronnie said. “She wants to try out for the squad.”
Tiffany looked at me. “You’re new. It doesn’t matter; you won’t make the cut anyway.”
I had been tempted to throw the tryout. But now she had made me mad and I was determined to show them things I was sure her little backwoods squad had never seen before. I’d show them someone who wasn’t going to back down.
Tiffany sighed and walked out onto the floor. “Well, let’s get this over with. I’ll lead. You just try to copy what I do when I get finished. Got it?”
I gave her a curt nod and waited for her first move.
She started with a jump split in the air. Her legs kicked to either side, and then she landed on the balls of her feet. She looked at me and lifted a perfectly arched eyebrow. I jumped higher up than she had, before I kicked out my legs, landing as easily as she had.
Next, she did a series of cartwheels that landed in a split. I duplicated the movement and added two back flips to the end, before I landed beside her in a split.
The cheerleaders clapped. Tiffany scowled and got up off the floor. She didn’t look at me. “You’ll do,” she muttered.
Ronnie flew over to me as if she had just grown wings, nearly knocking me to the floor in a big hug. “I knew you were going to be great. That was amazing. Where did you learn those back flips? Tiffany never has been able to do those. You showed her up. I think this is so cool.” She chattered nonstop beside me as Beth and Brian got up and came over to us from the bleachers.
“Awesome,” Beth grinned. “I love seeing Tiffany get showed up. I’m glad I came and watched. It’s too bad I didn’t get Bernie over here with his camera, that last flip would have looked great at the top of the page.”
“Oh, you’re going to put it in the paper.” I suddenly felt less sure of myself.
“What’s wrong, Nikki?” Brian teased, “Afraid of a little publicity?”
“Do you have to put that in the paper?” I asked Beth.
“Well, no,” she frowned at me. “I don’t have to, but I think it would make a good article. It would give some of us a boost around here, to know that some people can make Barbie doll over there look bad.”
I remembered Tiffany’s attitude and my temper flared back up. I grinned a little too widely. “Do what you want. If it helps, I’ll do another flip for the camera.”
“I’ll take you up on it another day,” she promised. “I think Bernie has already gone home. I’ll make sure he’s around next time, even if I have to drag him here by his camera.”
Brian threw an arm around my shoulder. “Are you ready to go home? I don’t want to worry your mom.”
He dropped me off at my house and told me he would come pick me up in the morning for school. I waved as he drove back down the road, and then opened up the front door, throwing my backpack on the couch as I went by.
“Is that you, Nikki?” Mom called from the kitchen.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I said. I found her sitting at the old Formica table, sipping a glass of tea.
“How did your day go? I was getting ready to call Anita and ask if she saw you guys, when I heard you come through the door.”
“Not too bad. I met some of the guys from the reservation, I have to be study partner with one of them a couple times a week, so don’t worry if I’m late tomorrow. Oh, and I made the cheerleader team.” I went to the old refrigerator and pulled out a coke, then went back over to the table to sit across from her. “So, how was your day? Any luck with the job?”
“I got it. I start day after tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to go in for drug testing, a physical and all that mess.” She waved her hand as if dismissing the mundane details. “So, cheerleading, and on the first day, too. I am so proud of you. I bet you’re going to make a lot of new friends with those girls.”
“Sure, Mom.” I tried to smile. I thought of the one enemy I was sure I had made with the human Barbie. “I’m going to go up to my bedroom. Call if you need me.”
I curled up in the chair in front of my window and put my sketchpad in my lap. I stared out at the trees. Their thick branches made a canopy above all the small, delicate plants that thrived around their gnarled roots. I opened my pad and started sketching.
I drew everything but the place where I had seen Adam stand. I stared at the paper. It looked like a frame of trees and plants, as if it waited for someone’s picture to be framed inside. It was empty. I frowned and lifted my eyes up to look out the window to decide what to draw in the empty space.
The smallest bush beside the trees was moving. It swayed the slightest bit, as if someone had brushed past it as they walked away. I jumped up from the chair and ran out of the room and back down the stairs, pulling on my shoes before I hit the landing.
“Mom, I’ll be
outside,” I yelled, not waiting for a reply.
I ran to the edge of the woods and stopped. I hadn’t been so close to the edge of the yard before. Now I could see there was a small path in the exact spot, where I had been staring. It wasn’t very noticeable, just worn down grass that showed someone or something had traveled the same steps, back and forth a few times. It looked recent. The grass was still green. It stopped at the edge of the brush in the exact place where I had seen Adam.
I thought I heard the sound of someone moving a few feet away and stepped into the shade of the trees onto the path. I walked a few steps, then stopped and listened again. Absolute silence. Even the birds quieted. The small hairs on the back of my neck were standing up again. I jumped when I heard Mom call for me to come back inside to eat. As I turned and started to walk back out, I felt eyes staring at me.
I swung back around, looking for anything out of the ordinary. I saw nothing.
I went back into the house with the unsettling feeling that someone was watching me.
A voice seemed to whisper in my head, Close. Much too close. Be more careful next time.
THREE
THE NEXT MORNING, I heard Brian’s truck pull up in front of the house. I glanced at the clock. He was early. He was at the front door by the time I grabbed my books and shoved my feet into my sneakers. I opened the door. His hand was raised up in front of him, ready to knock. He grinned at me and pushed his hair out of his eyes.
“Good morning,” I said, “Sorry you had to come all the way up to the door. I tried to catch you before you had to come this far.”
“It’s okay. I’m a little early.” His eyes sparkled with unexplained humor.
“Okay.” I watched him warily. “I’m ready if you are.”
“I’m ready. I thought we might try something different today if you’re game.”
“You tell me what it is first, and then I’ll tell you if I’m in or not.” I stopped walking and stood still. The last time he had badgered me into something, I ended up being a cheerleader. I still wasn’t happy about that.
“Well, I know how you feel about driving,” he began. My mouth opened to protest, but he hurried on before I could speak, “It’s just that I know you’re going to need a way to get around, you know, to study with Adam a couple times a week. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind taking you anywhere you’d like to go. Actually quite the opposite, but I’m getting off track. What I’m trying to say is, if you had a vehicle you wouldn’t have to worry about me waiting for you. You could come home whenever you wanted to. Besides, what if your mom has the car and you need to go somewhere else? You never know what might happen. Anyway, I thought if you wanted, I could let you borrow the truck a few days a week. We could take turns driving to school. It would be good practice.” He stopped for breath and smiled.
I chewed on my bottom lip. The offer was sweet and well-meant, but we were talking about an extra pedal and a gearshift. How was I supposed to keep both hands on the wheel? And what about coordination? I had to use both hands and both feet to drive this thing. Nope, I didn’t see that happening in the near future.
I opened my mouth to say no thanks when I looked back into his hopeful face and said the opposite, “I’ll try.”
“Great! You don’t have anything to worry about. I’m a great teacher and nothing bad will happen, I promise. Here let me take those,” he chattered as he took my books from me and walked over and opened the driver’s door.
He jumped in the passenger side and handed me the keys. After a deep breath, I put them in the ignition got ready to start down the road to disaster.
“Okay, put your left foot on the clutch and start her up. Good. Now put it in first and ease up on the clutch pedal,” he instructed.
The truck lurched three times and tried to die before it started down the road. I made it up to the third gear before I had to stop at the stop sign at the end of the road. Then, I forgot to push the clutch in and the truck shuddered and died.
“Don’t worry, you’re doing great. Just put it in neutral and start it back up,” Brian coaxed.
I hoped he was going to say that was enough for one day, but it seemed he wasn’t going to let me off that easy. I ground my teeth together and started the truck up again. I was paying rapt attention to applying the clutch at every stop until we made it into the school’s parking lot. Then I saw Adam and I forgot everything.
He was leaning against the front of his car with his arms folded across his chest again. He was watching me. All the other guys had already walked to the front of the school.
“Okay, just pull in right there. Slow up a bit,” Brian said as he scoped out a parking place.
I slowed down too much. The old truck coughed, shuddered, and died just as I pulled in. I set the parking brake, leaned my forehead against the steering wheel, and said a silent prayer of thanks.
“You only killed it twice. That’s great for a first try.” Brian beamed a grin that stretched from one ear to the other.
“I don’t think I can handle anymore today. You get to drive us back after school,” I groaned.
“Not a problem,” he smiled. “We’d better head to class.”
I grabbed my books off the seat and got out of the truck, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. The little voice was whispering inside my head again,
Good job, Nikki. It’ll get easier, I promise.
I looked up and saw Adam smile at me before he turned and started to run to catch up with his friends.
That was weird, I thought, was he waiting on me to show up? I frowned. I was beginning to think the guy was bipolar. One minute he snapped at me, the next he smiled. Prescription medication was in order.
He wasn’t in any of my other classes. Only English. I made it through the morning’s classes, and found myself standing at the classroom door again. He was sitting in the same spot as the day before when I slid in next to him. He was wearing black again. He always seemed to wear dark clothes. Maybe I would buy him a white shirt for a present if he passed this class.
“Hello, Nikki.” He turned and gave me the full effect of his golden eyes.
“Hi,” I tried not to stare at him, so I looked down at my open book in front of me.
“I wanted to apologize for my attitude yesterday. I know it’s not your fault we got paired up together for this class.”
Well, that was rude. Medication wasn’t going to fix that.
“If you’d rather pair up with someone else, I’m sure we can get Ms. Barker to switch us around,” I said as I tried to keep my temper in check. I took a deep breath and looked up at him.
The air had warmed again, but instead of being uncomfortable, this time it circled us like a warm breeze.
“No, that’s not what I meant at all.” He frowned, as if he was trying to decide how to say what he meant without getting into bigger trouble. He started again, “I meant that I just don’t like this class, and that I had no place getting angry at you. For that, I am sorry.”
The air started sparking.
“This place needs to get their ventilation system checked out. Maybe their heat pump has gone bad,” I mumbled, moving my pencils in a neat line above my book.
Adam frowned for a second, causing the little frown mark to dent between his brows. He must have taken my rambling as an acceptance of his apology. “So Brian is teaching you how to drive.”
“Yeah, he’s trying. I keep forgetting the clutch and then I kill the blasted thing.”
“I saw you. You did a good job. It’ll get easier, I promise,” he whispered as Ms. Barker called the class to order.
Weird coincidence, my brain told me, as I fumbled with my book to get to the right spot. Maybe I was the one needing medication.
As we went out the door at the end of class, I remembered I hadn’t asked directions to his house. I turned around only to plow straight into him. His hands came out to steady me. I put a hand out to catch myself and it landed against his chest. We both stood as if we h
ad frozen together. His hands were on either side of my waist and I felt his heart hammer hard and quick beneath my palm. I looked up to see him staring down at me in awe. His face was only inches from mine. I took in his high cheekbones and his long straight nose. He had the slightest cleft in his chin that I hadn’t noticed before. I felt his breath catch as my eyes slid back up to his. His eye seemed so warm.
I jumped when I heard someone clear their throat behind me.
“Mind if I cut in, Adam?” Brian’s voice was cold.
Yes, an angry voice whispered in my head.
Adam looked over at Brian and dropped his hands from my waist. “Sure, no problem. Did you forget something, Nikki? You were heading back in the room.”
“No, I was just going to ask how to get to your house to study later,” I said as I felt the blood rush back up to my cheeks.
“I know where he lives. I’ll get you there.” Brian’s blue eyes flashed and the muscles in his jaw clenched.
“I have a better idea,” Adam said, “I’ll just come over to your house. That way you don’t have to worry about holding Brian up until we get finished.”
“I don’t mind,” Brian interjected as he gave Adam a cold stare.
I put a hand on Brian’s arm and smiled up at him in an effort to diffuse the situation, “I know you don’t mind, but you’re already stuck with me playing chauffeur twice a day now. Besides, if I’m home I can keep an eye on Emily if Mom needs to go out.”
Adam smiled. “Okay, it’s settled. I’ll come to your house.”
“I live right past Brian.”
“Don’t worry, I know where you live,” he said over his shoulder as he walked away from us.
I’ve found you before, the whisper echoed in my mind.
Brian frowned as Adam walked away, as if he didn’t like the idea of my spending time with Adam alone. I had to hand it to him. If I had seen what he had seen a few minutes ago, I might be thinking the same way.
He affirmed my suspicion when he said, “Maybe it’s not such a good idea. You did say you saw him outside your window. If you want I can come hang out while you help him. It wouldn’t be a problem. Mom’s working late today, so I’ll stop by the house and leave her a note in case she makes it home before me.”
Hidden Moon Page 4