“Sorry Kin!” Hunter shouted and turned back to her friend.
“Jesus,” Alex breathed. “Kin really needs to get himself some lean cuisine, if you know what I mean.”
Hunter laughed again, shook her head and went back to folding Chinese takeout boxes.
Joshua slid the car easily beside the curb and Hunter stepped out before the front gates of her school. Looming, black iron poles that swirled together swung inward for approaching students, shielding the giant building behind them. Hunter hitched her shoulder bag closer to her neck and stared up at the sloping green lawns and crumbling water feature to the sandstone brick walls of the building set back from the road. The remainder of the snow storm that ended only a few days ago had melted so that everything looked soaked and healthy. The students had already gathered in their cliques across the front yard. Everyone was chirpy, but she knew the mood would soon die once the familiar routine of torture began. She turned, waved goodbye to Joshua as he drove away and nearly lost her footing on the slippery sidewalk. Just when she thought she would fall on her ass and prayed no one was watching, someone caught her by the elbow.
“I think you need to work on your balance,” said Eli as he grinned down at her, his gloved hands under her elbows. He wore a tan coat, gray beanie and old jeans torn at the hem.
Hunter’s lips formed a smile. To the girls in this school, she was a skank and a loner. To the guys she was that mysterious hot girl who banged the principal’s son on school property.
To Eli… she was Hunter.
“I hate ice,” she replied stubbornly. “It always seems to melt around me.” Her cheeks were flaming and she let her hair fall over her face to disguise it, or in her case, to blend.
“How was the rest of your vacation?” he asked. The two of them made their way through the gates into the building, merging with the crowd. Even though the voices were loud and the energy buzzed, Hunter felt like she and Eli were the only two people in the world.
“Fine,” she replied. “A little lonely, but I managed.”
“You should have called, we could have hung out.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t think to get your number.”
“Well, we’ll have to change that won’t we,” he replied, his eyes warm behind his glasses. Hunter unlocked her locker amidst the rowdy corridor, and Eli stood by watching as she unpacked her things, talking to her about his father’s most recent attempt to force him into the business world. Hunter felt an immediate pang of fury towards Mr. Akerman, her rage fuelled by the pain and frustration in Eli’s words and expression. It seemed to Hunter that Eli didn’t have the courage inside him to tell his father he had no intention of following in his footsteps. That irked Hunter; she couldn’t stand it when people didn’t defend themselves.
“... And so I just avoided him. I didn’t go to the office like he asked me to.”
“What did he do then?” she asked, shoving her bag inside her locker and gathering her books.
Eli laughed bitterly. “I’ve never seen anyone so angry,” he said with a shiver. “I really believed he would like… burst into flames or something.”
Hunter paused with her hand on her locker door, trying to ignore the rush of memories that flooded into her mind. The stove, her unscathed skin, Joshua’s behavior...
“Hey Mozart!” someone shouted as they came running through the corridor, and before she could even move out the way, Eli was thrown into the lockers with a resounding clang. His bag fell to the floor and spilled books and stationery and little knick-knacks all over the corridor. Two bulky guys in letterman’s jackets were cackling and strolling away without so much as a glance back. One of them she recognized as Benny Layman; the quarterback and school asshole.
Hunter’s fists clenched at her sides and her blood began to boil. She stooped to help Eli pick up his books, trying to contain the flood of curses she urged to shout at Benny’s back. Eli hid his face, but Hunter knew he was blushing. When will these people grow up? Hunter forced a smile, hoping it would make him feel better.
“Those guys are dicks, Eli,” she told him as he forced the last book back into his bag. She noticed a group of badges on the strap encouraging people to ‘Save the Whales’ and ‘Support Green Peace’.
“Dicks who can’t get enough of shoving me around. Looks like I really am back to school.” Eli brushed past her, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. “See you later.”
“Eli-” she began, but the crowd had already swallowed him.
Hunter stood in the bustling corridor with clenched muscles all over her body. As she focused on breathing deeply, the class-A quarterbacks in the letterman jackets came striding back her way. Hunter found herself glaring at them without even realizing. Their eyes rolled over her body, making her feel like some sort of prostitute. Benny winked at her and hoisted his backpack higher on his shoulder.
“Hey Hunter. What’s your number up to now? Fifty?”
Benny’s mate laughed at the joke, as did a couple of the girls dressed in cheerleader uniforms staring at them from across the walkway.
Hunter scowled. If this were a cartoon, she would be steaming like a kettle right now. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t heard before, but this time their taunting wasn’t only directed at her. They tormented Eli as well, and it didn’t seem like the first time.
Benny shook his head slowly at her. He flashed open his jacket and raised his eyebrows suggestively. “I know a good desk in the History classroom, if you’re looking for somethin’ hard to play with?”
Laughter radiated through the corridor, mostly from Benny’s minions who were falling over each other. Benny ran a thick, slippery tongue over his top lip. Time seemed to slow for only a moment as the same burning fury she felt the other night rose inside her.
And it was there, in a corridor filled with people, that it happened again. The strangest sensation of warmth flooded into her hands. As the football star and his goons made to walk away, a jet of light exploded in the corridor and the front of Benny’s backpack burst into flames.
“Benny!” screamed one of the cheerleaders. “Your bag is on fire!”
Benny dropped his pack as if it was a bomb and the surrounding students shrieked and fell back. Flames devoured almost the entire pack, burning so brightly and fiercely that soon other things began to catch on fire: people’s shoes, trash blowing through the corridor, even the floor itself. That was when the principal came running. He snatched the fire extinguisher off the wall and told everyone to stand clear. The fire was doused in a fierce cloud of white mist. The students chattered loudly and moved away from the mess.
And all this time, Hunter stared, horror-struck, as Benny picked up his powder-glazed pack and shot her a startled look before shoving aside the crowd and vanishing amidst them.
The principal ordered the janitor to clean up the mess and snapped at everyone to get to class, and Hunter stood frozen by her locker, feeling as if she were in a very lifelike, very terrifying dream.
No way, she thought, her heart pounding and her hands burning hotter than hell. Not again.
With her mind still reeling, Hunter milled through her morning classes as though reality had become a waking dream. She minded her own business and tried not to listen to everyone talk eagerly about the fire in the corridor. A couple of the guys she usually hung with approached her during classes, but her attention was miles away. So far, in fact, that she entered the physics lab for her third lesson and walked straight into a small woman holding an armful of papers and a glass of water. Both went crashing to the floor, as did the teacher she’d bumped into.
“Oh I’m so sorry!” Hunter bent to help gather the soppy papers. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
The woman looked young, winged glasses hanging from her neck on glittering string, her gray skirt splashed with water and a small cut on her leg from the glass. Her brown curls were dripping and stuck to her thin cheeks. She tried smiling at Hunter, who suddenly realized she’d never seen this teacher b
efore.
“It’s fine,” she said. “Those papers were just our entire lesson, so I guess we’re screwed.”
Hunter smiled apologetically.
“Could you find me a broom?”
Hunter crept over the glass to the storage cupboard as students came filing into the classroom. They grimaced at the broken glass, but otherwise ignored it. Hunter cursed them all for being so inconsiderate.
In a matter of minutes, Hunter was sitting at a desk alone.
The teacher introduced herself as Miss Jennifer Smart, a substitute for Mr. Brown who taught the seniors. She explained - whilst straining to keep a serious expression - that Mr. Brown had a bad case of Chlamydia and wouldn’t be returning for the rest of the year. A bunch of the class snickered behind their hands, whispering, and Miss Smart turned to the whiteboard to begin the lesson, or to hide her own smiles.
Hunter immediately liked Miss Smart. Unlike most of their teachers – Mr. Brown in particular - she seemed realistic, and a lot closer to their generation than the old crotch who last taught them. Hunter loved physics, but Mr. Brown didn’t do it justice.
What Hunter liked most about Miss Smart was her passion. Because she looked young, inexperienced and maybe even too pretty to be a science teacher, people immediately made the impression that she couldn’t handle such a diverse and complicated topic. Hunter was often given that impression as well, but her background of scientific heritage was to thank for her good grades and ability to impress most of the teachers. To Miss Smart, she could easily relate.
By the end of the double lesson, Hunter could honestly say she was sad to leave class.
Lunch couldn’t have been drearier. Hunter sat alone, as usual, searching the cafeteria for Eli to distract herself from the stares. She used to wonder why people still talked about her, and a few months ago she discovered why: It seemed that whenever some jock or straight-A student with a clean record was caught with their pants down, Hunter’s name automatically replaced theirs. She now had the reputation of a common whore. It still made her blood boil, but eventually she stopped caring. It was only high school. These immature idiots will get the shock of their lives out in the real world when they will finally have to start taking responsibility for their own mistakes.
Eli was nowhere to be seen in the cafeteria, and her mind travelled back to the fire that morning. She decided she didn’t want to tell Joshua, fearing his hermit tendencies would increase until he became permanently absent and she ended up completely alone. With the way he reacted to the last explosion, she really needed to keep her cool around him.
That was when it occurred to Hunter: On both occasions, she’d been mad. Not just mad, but livid. Had she caused it? No, that’s impossible, she told herself while she chewed on her salad leaves. Both of those fires couldn’t have been me, I wasn’t even touching the stove or Benny’s bag. How can I set things on fire without even a match in sight?
But no matter how many times she repeated that thought in her mind, trying to force herself to believe it, she was constantly reminded of the warm, enthralling feeling that erupted like a volcano inside her just before each fire. She found her mind straying to possibility after possibility until, when the final bell rung, she hardly noticed who was standing at her locker with a small smile on his face.
“Hey Hunter,” said Eli, moving aside so she could put away her books.
She looked up at him and stared, the mental picture of Benny shoving him into the lockers back in her muddled mind.
“Oh. Eli. Hi.”
“Are you okay?” he asked, peering at her. “I didn’t see you at lunch today.”
“You were in the cafeteria? I didn’t see you either.”
“Well.” He stopped and fiddled with the hem of his jacket. “I took one look at Benny and Link and those guys and sort of... moved outside...”
She couldn’t help but laugh at the way he trailed off in embarrassment. He looked up through his glazing spectacles and seemed to want to explain something.
“Why’d they call you Mozart?” she asked as they moved through the corridor towards the front grounds.
“It’s a nickname I’ve had for a while,” he shrugged. “I kind of play the violin.”
Hunter’s eyebrows raised. “Really? That’s impressive, and hardly something to be teased about. Not many people play the violin.”
“Thanks,” he replied.
“You’re welcome,” she grinned.
They waited by the side of the road in the bitter air in silence. Hunter glanced up and saw Eli looking down at her. Something warm stirred inside her chest. She’d had crushes before, but being the girl who usually had guys either following along behind her or running from her hurriedly, Hunter had never been in love. She was beginning to like Eli, and something about that scared her.
A horn beeped close by, and the two of them jumped. Joshua’s car parked aside the curb and Eli became suddenly uncomfortable. Hunter turned back to him and picked up his hand.
“Here’s my number.” She scribbled on his palm in blue pen. “Call me later, okay?”
“Uh – yeah,” he stammered. “I will.”
Hunter squeezed his hand and ran to the car. As she slid into the comfortable leather seats beside a stoic Joshua, she watched Eli disappear behind her again, just as he had the other night. Only this time, she knew she’d see him again soon.
“How was school?” asked Joshua and Hunter turned to him, her eyes wide.
“You’re talking to me now?”
Joshua’s jaw was set hard as he stepped on the accelerator, but she could see guilt in his eyes as clearly as if it were flashing in neon lights.
“Listen Hunter,” he began quickly, “I’m sorry about the way I’ve been acting. There’s no excuse for it.”
“Are you kidding me?” Hunter shouted, making Joshua flinch. “You’ve been ignoring me for the past week with no excuse whatsoever and suddenly you’re sorry? Do you really think you can apologize and everything is okay again?”
“I don’t know what to say,” he replied softly. “I was just... preoccupied. You know how I get.”
“You’ve never been that preoccupied. Honestly Joshua, I don’t get you sometimes.”
He nodded. “That’s understandable. Scientists are weird blokes.”
“No shit.”
Presuming all was forgiven, Joshua perked up in his seat. “Will you come grocery shopping with me?”
She sighed, determined to remain mad with him. “I have homework.”
“Well too bad, I’m on my way.”
Hunter scoffed and changed the radio station. “Fine, but we’re going to Chelsea.”
Joshua exhaled loudly in frustration. Hunter smiled, knowing how much he hated the busyness of the markets.
“Alright.” He eyed her as she turned up the heat. “But we’re getting slushies.”
Hunter refused to answer.
ten
“So. Joshua.” Hunter picked up a bag of Twinkies from the shelf and threw them in the trolley. “Where have you been this past week?”
He tried to move ahead of her. “I don’t have the energy for this Hunter.”
“What do you mean? It’s a simple question. Are you studying something?” She peered at him with one eyebrow raised. “Are you sleeping with someone?”
Joshua’s whole face reddened. “Wh- Hunter! No I am not sleeping with someone! Would you just-”
“It’s okay if you are,” she lied. “I mean, it’s probably good for you. I can’t even remember the last time you went on an actual date.”
“Speak for yourself,” he grumbled.
“Hey, I’m not the forty-year-old virgin here.”
Joshua’s whole body became stiff as he threw a can of beans in the trolley. “I’m still thirty.”
“Joshua, you’re forty-three.”
“Give me a break,” he grumbled.
“I just want to know what happened last week, with the stove. I have a feeling you do.”
Joshua turned around and looked at her with his crystal-clear eyes. A thousand different emotions flickered in the endless blue. Now was one of those times when Hunter wished she had superpowers and could read his thoughts. He was hiding something, and it was killing him to keep it from her.
For the smallest second, Hunter actually believed he would tell her the truth. His lip twitched and his eyes almost burst with excitement. But then the same lie he’d told her exactly a week ago after the fire fell out of his mouth and Hunter found herself thinking, with a mountain of disappointment, that the truth just wasn’t something Joshua conformed to.
“I have no idea what happened.” He picked up two different brands of pasta and examined them closely. “What will we have for dinner?”
“I still have some sweet and sour pork from work. It just needs heating up.”
“No thank you, I feel like something other than Asian food tonight. What about a lasagna?”
“Okay. Go grab a frozen one since our stove is still dead. I’ll get some munchies.”
Hunter and Joshua split ways, and after gathering an armful of chocolate and candy, she zigzagged back through the aisles. She found Joshua standing in the seasonal section with the ‘after Christmas’ sales. A whole shelf of decorations were left on special. As Hunter came closer and threw her food in the trolley, Joshua turned to her, holding a small snow globe in his hand and grinning.
One other thing Joshua liked very much – that never ceased to surprise her – was snow globes. There were thirty of them in their apartment. They were the only Christmas decorations he would allow, aside from her stocking that hung in front of the fire.
“Joshua, what are you doing?” Her eyebrows were raised as she slowly approached him.
His eyes widened, alight like a child, as he shook the globe and watched the fake snowflakes dance inside it.
“I don’t have this one in my collection,” he said in an almost robotic tone. “I have to have it. It has the North Pole sign in it.”
“You have like a billion of them.” She began pushing the trolley towards the counter, turning around to see if he had followed.
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