Hold on a second, Adam’s voice seemed to whisper to me from across the room.
He dumped his plate in the trash and walked over to me. “I’ll walk you to your next class.”
His hand found mine this time and he seemed oblivious to the openmouthed stares that seemed to come from every direction as we walked down the hall. He stopped at the art class’ door and gave my hand a slow squeeze as he released it.
“Thank you for letting me walk you and for cheering me up,” he smiled.
“No problem,” my voice came out in a squeak.
“Are we still on for our study date? I saw Brian leaving earlier. My offer of a ride to the reservation still stands. Hannah didn’t ride with us today so we have plenty of room.”
“That sounds good,” I said, my voice stronger. “I’ll meet you outside after school.”
“Okay.” His amber eyes sparkled as he turned and walked back down the hall.
Ed and Erik had kept a respectable distance behind us. Once Adam passed, they walked up to me and smiled. We all went in together and sat in the back of the class.
Ms. Hayton came in and started the class. She told us to pick up a pencil and start doodling. As I started sketching a pair of eyes in the corner of my paper, I thought of Adam. My mind turned to the daydream that I had of the wolves that searched for the lost girl. I drew the backpack lying against an old gnarled tree. Then I filled in the walking sticks, setting them in the spots where I had seen them. Then I began drawing the side profile of the cream-colored wolf I had seen. I wasn’t paying any attention to the paper or my drawing, I concentrated on what my memory held. My own mind seemed lost within itself as it replayed over and over, hearing the wolf’s sad cry as he threw his head back to howl at the moon.
“That’s very interesting, Miss Harmon. It’s very unique.” I was shaken back into reality by Ms. Hayton’s voice as she walked past.
I looked over at Erik, who had turned to look at my drawing. His mouth dropped open and he stared at me in astonishment. I looked back down at my sketchpad. I had drawn the scene out of my daydream. I caught the deep shadows in the trees beyond the wolves with the moon full and round above them. Meghan was scrawled in a feminine hand on one of the straps of the backpack. I looked down at a very realistic looking wolf with his head leaned back, his eyes shut as he bayed at the full moon which hid amongst the treetops. Beneath the wolf, I had written Hidden Moon. The things that looked out of place were the pair of muddy brown eyes that sort of looked like my own, farther up the path, which seemed to stare down at the wolf.
Erik seemed to be trying to get Ed’s attention when the bell rang. I flipped the pad shut and put it inside my binder. I got up and started for the door, leaving a still wide-eyed Erik and confused-looking Ed in the room.
I ran down the hall toward the lockers and smashed into Adam as soon as I rounded the corner.
“Hey,” he said, startled. “I was just coming to see if you would let me walk you to Phys Ed since that’s my next class, too. We’re sharing the gym today.”
“Sure, I just need to stick this in here,” I wheezed, breathless, as I opened my locker and shoved the binder as far back under all the other junk as I could make it go.
“What is it? Top secret?” Adam teased.
I frowned at him and slammed the door.
“Okay. Sorry,” he said quickly, “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them and started to walk. “But we’re going to be late.”
“No, we won’t. And even if we are, what will we have missed? A couple jumping jacks?” He snorted.
I smiled. It was nice to know I wasn’t the only one who dreaded Phys Ed. But I was betting Adam didn’t have to worry about jumping around in a little green and white outfit, while keeping an eye on Psycho Barbie.
Maybe I would get lucky and she wouldn’t be there, I hoped as we walked in the gymnasium.
“It’s about time.” Tiffany scowled at me. “You’re late. Didn’t anyone tell you that we show up ten minutes early to warm up and stretch out?”
“No, you didn’t,” I replied as I walked past her. “And that would be your job, since you’re the captain. So if anyone is to blame, it is you.”
I heard Adam chuckle as he went over and joined the guys at the other end of the basketball court. Tiffany’s face was turning the color of a boiled tomato as she tried to ignore me and turned to chastise the next girl that had come in after me. At least we weren’t in our little uniforms today. Everyone was comfortable in their gym shorts.
“It’s too bad we can’t vote,” Ronnie murmured beside me. “Ms. Jenkins, our coach, doesn’t think there are any of us that are better than Tiffany. That’s why she made her captain for the last two years.”
“Things change,” I muttered.
I noticed Beth up in the bleachers watching us. A little scrawny guy with thick glasses and a dark thatch of brown hair was with her. A big, clunky camera hung around his neck.
“She’s got Bernie with her this time. She’s hoping you show Tiffany up again—and I for one hope she’s right.”
A willowy woman with graying, blonde hair came up in front of our group. She smiled as she looked over her group for the year and took in the new faces. Her green eyes locked onto me.
She hasn’t looked at anyone else that way, I thought, panic flaring up inside me as I returned her stare. I wonder what Tiffany told her about me.
She quit staring at me and smiled, clasping her hands behind her back as she walked back and forth in front of us.
“For those of you who haven’t met me yet, I am Ms. Jenkins, your cheerleading coach. I see some new faces among us, so I know that some of you passed Tiffany’s tryouts. I trust her judgment, and welcome you to our squad. However, please know that rules must be followed.” She stopped in front of me and continued, “Many of our exercises depend on the cooperation of the entire team. Even the slightest change in one person’s position, can injure someone else. So please work as a team, pay attention and follow directions.”
She smiled at me. “Being as we have enough girls, I thought we would split you up in two groups and we’ll work on pyramids today.”
No problem, I thought, Ronnie will be the top of one. There are other girls smaller than me that will be the top for the other. She’ll put me at the base.
She split us up, putting the shorter girls with Ronnie to be bases. I ended up with Tiffany and the taller girls in my group. I looked at the tall legs around me. This didn’t look good. I was inches shorter than anyone else in this group.
“Nikki, you will be the top for the other group,” Ms Jenkins smiled.
I groaned. I was going to have to trust the rest of these girls around me to keep me from hitting the ground, and there was one of them in particular that I didn’t trust even when I was on the ground.
I stepped up on thighs and shoulders to get to the top of the pyramid, wobbling and trying not to hurt anyone on the way up. I could tell the rest of my group had done this many times before as they gave me tips on where to place my feet and how to stand. I made it up to stand on the top two girls’ shoulders. I stood still trying not to breathe or move any kind of muscle. I saw the boys on the other end of the gym playing basketball. It looked like the reservation guys were playing against all the others and that they were winning.
They were fast, I realized, watching them run around the other boys, passing the ball back and forth. Every move they made seemed choreographed. When one turned to pass the ball, the other seemed to already know they were supposed to be there. They seemed to glide across the floor, making the other team look clumsy and slow. I noticed Adam was facing me the biggest part of the time, only turning his back when he had to. It looked as if, somehow, he was watching me, too.
Ms. Jenkins told us to get back down and start again. The object was for the pyramid to get up within a certain amount of time so that it fell in time with the music. I clim
bed up and down my little human mountain several times, getting more confident with each try.
“Wonderful,” she clapped, pleased. “No one has gone up that many times without having some kind of difficulty. You’re doing a wonderful job, just wonderful.” She beamed up at me.
I tried to smile at her as I started back up again. I had made it halfway to where Tiffany was standing with her knee bent, waiting for me to go up again. I stepped up, and felt her shift, just the smallest bit, as she straightened her leg. I lost my footing and fell backward. Knowing I was falling fast, I relaxed my muscles and tumbled, rolling into myself as I hit the hard floor.
Wipe out, I thought, as I sat up to take note of any damage.
I realized I was surrounded, but not by the girls. Adam was crouched down beside me. He was flanked by the other four guys, who had made a tight circle around us. They all looked worried.
“You’re bleeding,” Adam told me, his nostrils flared as if he could smell it.
“Elbow,” Erik frowned, looking at the back of my arm.
“Yeah, I guess I scraped it when I rolled.” I turned my arm to see what he was looking at. I watched the blood that ran down toward my wrist.
“Is anything else hurt?” Adam asked, as his eyes still searched me.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Okay, boys, move out of the way.” Ms. Jenkins pushed at Michael, who was shoulder to shoulder with Tommy and seemed to be as unmovable and solid as a brick wall. Neither boy paid her any attention. She finally squeezed around them to get to my other side, “Oh dear, just when you were doing so well, too. We need to get that cleaned up.”
“I’ll take her to the nurse,” Ronnie’s voice came from behind my head as she ducked under Ed’s arm.
“Thank you, Ronnie. Okay, boys, back to your side of the court, everything is fine. The rest of you girls, keep working,” Ms Jenkins said in an effort to get everyone moving.
None of the boys acknowledged her. They stayed still until Adam gave them a barely perceptible nod. His eyes were still on me. As the others started back across the court, he helped me up to my feet.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just a scrape. I’ll meet you after school.” I said as Ronnie started tugging my good arm.
“Come on. You’re bleeding all over the floor.”
I let her lead me out of the gym and toward the nurse’s station.
“Those guys were fast. I don’t think you had been on the ground but a half-second when they came over. I saw you fall and I swear they were like a blur. Then all of a sudden, they were surrounding you,” she giggled. “I didn’t think they were going to let Ms. Jenkins in to see about you.”
“Yeah, that was kinda weird,” I admitted.
“So are you and Adam an item?” she asked, taking me off guard. “He seems protective of you.”
“N-no,” I said, feeling my cheeks start to burn.
Ronnie laughed. “You don’t sound so sure, Nikki.”
“I’m not sure of anything right now. I’m not sure I’m cut out for this cheerleading thing.” My elbow was starting to throb as it bled, leaving tiny splats of blood to follow us down the hall as if we were Hansel and Gretel with breadcrumbs.
“What are you talking about? You’re a natural, you heard Ms. Jenkins. You did great until you lost your footing and fell.”
We made it to the nurse, who cleaned up the scrape and put clean gauze around it. She put my other hand on top, told me to keep pressure on it and sit there until it quit bleeding. Then she told Ronnie to head back to class. Ronnie gave me a sympathetic smile and left.
I sat on the table in the sick room for the next twenty minutes, keeping the gauze on my arm. Various posters on the walls informed me that cleanliness depended upon me while others warned me of the dangers of STDs. I memorized every letter on the eye chart and thought I was about to go nuts with boredom, when the nurse came back to check on me. When she seemed satisfied that I wasn’t going to leave a trail of blood all over the school, she let me go.
I had just opened the door when I saw Adam leaning against the wall across the hall, his arms folded across his chest as he stared at the door, as if standing guard.
“I thought you were supposed to be in class,” I said, trying not to look happy to see him.
“After you fell, no one felt like playing ball anymore, so they dismissed us early. I was worried, so I came to wait for you.” He shrugged, then touched my arm, inspecting the bandage. “I think we should go skin Tiffany for that little stunt she pulled. Does it hurt much?”
“It’s getting sore, but I’ll live. How did you know she did anything? I could have just gotten clumsy and fell.”
“She moved her leg just as you stepped on it. And anyone that can fall on that hard floor and not get hurt worse than a scraped elbow, is not clumsy,” he retorted. His golden eyes blazed as he swung his long hair back over his shoulder. “I saw her. She was jealous after the teacher gave you a compliment.”
“How did you see and hear all of that? You were on the other side of the gym.”
The fire in his eyes dampened, and he gave me a weak smile. “I pay attention. Let’s go get your things and get out of here. I’ve had enough of this place for one day.”
“But school isn’t over yet, the bell hasn’t…” I was cut off by the shrilling bell as Adam took my hand and pushed through the other students, leading me to the lockers and then out the door.
Ed, Michael and Tommy were standing around the Jeep. Penny was behind Erik on the motorcycle. Her arms were wrapped around his waist and her cheek rested against his shoulder. She smiled as she saw us walking hand in hand toward them.
“How’s the arm?” she asked.
“It’s okay.” I smiled at her.
“Tiffany shouldn’t be allowed to be on the squad, if she’s going to act like that,” Ed said, shooting a murderous glance at the back of a blonde ponytail that was getting into a little blue car near the front of the school.
“We saw her move, we know she’s the reason you fell,” Tommy informed me.
“All of you saw her move?”
The four dark heads in front of me nodded in unison, leaving me speechless.
“Let’s go,” Adam said, opening the passenger door for me. Ed, Michael and Tommy piled in the back, backpacks and books flew over the seat into the cargo space as everyone buckled in.
“You want to drive?” Adam offered, as he looked over at me and started up the Jeep.
“Huh-uh.” I shook my head. “I’m happy where I am, thanks.”
He grinned and we pulled out of the parking lot. A few minutes later, we pulled onto the gravel road leading us towards the reservation. We pulled up behind Erik’s motorcycle in a driveway beside a little white house that sat beside the woods. Everyone piled out of the Jeep, splitting up in different directions to go home. Erik was leaning against the hood of an old blue Wrangler as he watched everyone go. He grinned as I looked in disbelief at the car.
“I thought we’d stop here first, and then go study at my house,” Adam said. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” I said, and then stared at Erik. “This isn’t the old beat up car you’re getting rid of.”
“Yep, good ol’ Bessie,” Erik patted the hood, and then looked down to speak to the car. “Don’t take it to heart, love. I never said you were beat up.”
“You’ve got to be joking. That’s a nice car.”
“I know, but I can only drive one thing at a time, and the insurance on both the ‘cycle and the car is pretty steep. I wouldn’t dream of getting rid of the motorcycle, unless it was to get a better one, of course.”
“Of course,” I murmured as I took in the Jeep’s flaking powder blue paint, the black rag top, and the big knobby tires.
“You wanna take her for a spin?”
“Sure.”
He tossed me the keys and hopped into the backseat. Adam got into the passenger seat as I l
ooked over the interior. It was clean and well-loved. A tie-die colored peace sign hung from the rearview mirror. I grinned as I looked at the cigarette lighter and saw where he had put a sticker with a slash over the cigarette lighter to suggest that he didn’t allow smoking in his vehicle.
“Ok, so the heater knob sometimes sticks, you have to jiggle it a little. She burns a little oil, but not bad. I just check it once a week. I gave it a tune-up a couple of months ago, but I haven’t driven much since the weather warmed up. The four wheel drive works great, so you shouldn’t have any trouble getting out in winter.” He frowned, trying to think of anything else important. “I think that’s about it, start her up and let’s go.”
I turned the ignition, and was thankful that Brian had taught me to drive a manual transmission as I pushed down the clutch and put it in first gear. The Wrangler was easier to drive than the truck. It shifted smoothly as we went back out to the main road. I fell in love with the sound of the tires humming down the road. We went a couple miles and turned around to come back.
“What do you think?” Adam asked. I noticed he had been quiet during the entire exchange.
“It depends on the price, but I think I’m in love.” I smiled as I tried not to get my hopes up.
“If you want it, I’ll work with you,” Erik promised, going into salesman mode. He came up with a low figure and watched my eyes widen in the rearview mirror.
“Are you sure?” I asked, “That doesn’t seem like enough.”
“It’s enough. I got it for a good deal, so I’ll give you a good deal on it, too. Maybe karma will work in my favor and I’ll find the ‘cycle parts I’ve been looking for cheap. She’s all yours, if you want her.”
“Deal. We can stop by the house and I’ll get you the money.”
“Don’t worry about it today. Dad’s got the title locked up so I’ll have to wait until he gets home to get it. When you get back, I’ll get my junk out of here and you can just drive it home tonight. We’ll do the other stuff tomorrow,” he said as I pulled back into his driveway. “Wait. That won’t work. You can’t drive it home by yourself. You haven’t got your driver’s license yet.”
Hidden Moon Page 7