by Dean Murray
The same group of kids raised their hands, and I realized for the first time that most of the kids who were supporting Kat's story had been too far away from her to have been affected by her worship-me aura. It looked like there was a lot more resentment against Sandra than I'd ever realized.
"And do any of you believe that Kat was able to write this note and swap it for the note that Miss Conner claims she wrote?"
The only two hands in the air at that point predictably came from Sandra's clique. Mr. Reynolds shook his head at them before turning the paper in his hands so that they, and most of the rest of the class, could read it.
"Is this or is this not Miss Conner's hand writing?"
Jenn shook her head, but she looked miserable. Megan on the other hand looked like she was a small animal caught in the headlights of a large truck that was about to run her over.
Mr. Reynolds got right in Megan's face. "I have a substantial sample of Miss Conner's handwriting sitting in my files. I already know the answer to my question, I'm just giving you a chance to save yourself a very unpleasant trip to the assistant principal's office."
Megan nodded choppily. "That's Sandra's handwriting. I'd recognize it anywhere."
Mr. Reynolds radiated an unmistakable air of satisfaction. "Jenn and Sandra, you're both coming with me. The rest of you stay here and read through the rest of this chapter. There will be a quiz when I get back."
Sandra looked for a moment like she was going to refuse to get out of her desk, but apparently she decided that Mr. Reynolds wasn't above picking her up by her arm and physically hauling her out of the room.
I sat there in shock for several seconds staring at the classroom door after all three of them had left. I finally came back to myself enough to look at Kat in wonder, but she just shot me a jaunty wave and a wink before looking down at her book.
I wasn't going to get any answers there, at least not any time soon. That was okay though. For the first time in years I'd come out ahead of Sandra in one of our exchanges and this time she couldn't pin any of it on me. That might not stop her from trying to retaliate, but even she was going to have a hard time explaining that note away.
I couldn't imagine that her dad was going to be very eager to fire my dad on nothing more than her say-so now, not when he was going to be busy worrying which of his associates he needed to keep away from her.
I wasn't going to push Kat for an answer now, not after she'd just saved me like that, but I was definitely going to their house once school was over, and I was going to get my answers then.
Chapter 7
The rest of school flew by. For the first time in recent memory, I was able to watch people pass notes and whisper without worrying they were talking about me.
Actually they were talking about me, but this time I featured into the rumors in only a very small way. Sandra's bizarre confession was the talk of the entire school, and more than one person wanted my reaction to everything that was happening, so I got a blow-by-blow account over the next couple of hours as Sandra was marched to the assistant principal's office where she underwent a series of presumably uncomfortable meetings with Assistant Principal Snyder, the school counselor, and ultimately her father, who apparently arrived at the school in his Rolls Royce looking like storm clouds had followed him the entire way.
I enjoyed what was happening. Being the center of attention in PE was nice, and there was no denying the fact that Sandra had had it coming, but a tiny part of me kept pointing out that I shouldn't be enjoying this.
Reveling in Sandra's unhappiness would make me no better than her. I could be glad that justice had been served, and hope that it would teach her a lesson, but that was as far as things should go.
Likewise, all of the attention from my peers was pretty worthless when you got right down to it.
They were floating around me like planets pulled into orbit around a star, but the truth was they weren't going to stay. Sooner or later—probably much sooner than I was prepared to admit—they were going to latch onto someone else. A friend who wasn't your friend until you had something that they needed wasn't any kind of friend at all.
I probably should have come to that realization sooner, but at least I came to it before the school day ended. About five minutes before class ended I shook myself free from the cluster of girls who had been following me around and made my way over to Kat, who had stayed close but who hadn't interfered with me talking to all of the gossip girls.
"I thought maybe we'd lost you."
I nodded. "Yeah, that was pretty heady, but deep down I knew they didn't matter. You and Jace were there for me before you made Sandra look like an idiot. I'm not going to abandon you two for that group of mindless lemmings."
"Plus you want to know how I did it, right?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"You don't sound as eager as you did a little while ago…"
Even as she said it I realized she was right. "I guess I'm starting to worry about what it all means. I have the feeling that once I know what you and Jace are doing, there won't be any going back."
Kat gave me a sad smile. "You're right, but it's already too late for that. You've crossed the Rubicon, Selene. From here there are only two ways forward."
"I don't want to die."
"I don't blame you. I didn't want to die when it was me standing in your shoes either." Kat looked down at the archaic wrist watch and sighed. "I promised Jace I would keep you here until school ended, but I just can't stomach this place any more. You want to get out of here?"
I couldn't get my voice to work; I settled for just nodding.
"Great. Go grab your clothes. I'll meet you out by your car in five minutes. Don't worry about changing—you can shower at our place. Trust me, it's way better than the locker room here at school. I'll go make sure that we don't get into trouble."
Kat turned and started off toward Ms. Stacker before I could ask her what she meant. I watched her for a second, jealous of her confident stride, and then turned and started toward the girls' locker room.
I grabbed my jeans, sweater, shoes, and everything else from my PE locker, but it was kind of a lot to carry, so I ended up just putting Jace's jacket on over my regulation Cold Springs t-shirt and then picked everything else up and slipped out the side door into the hall.
I felt a little self-conscious in my navy PE shorts. Ironically they weren't too short for PE class, but they violated the dress code once I left the gym. I figured that Kat would magically take care of that too though if push came to shove and headed back towards the parking lot.
I arrived at my car exactly five minutes after separating from Kat, but there was no sign of her…until I turned back towards the school and realized she was standing less than two feet behind me.
"Holy crap! I swear you weren't there just a second ago."
"You're not wrong. Also, that is a nice look on you…"
Her smile said that she was enjoying teasing me, but it was hard to get angry with someone who'd just stood up to a bully for you.
I blushed at the reminder that I'd once again ended up wearing Jace's jacket. I started to shrug out of it, but she stopped me, cool hands on mine, before I could complete the action.
"I was serious. Leave it on, it's not like Jace minds, and you've already pissed off Sandra as much as you're going to piss her off. Oh, that reminds me, you should probably see this."
Kat reached inside of her sports bra and pulled out a note that had Megan's name on it in Sandra's handwriting.
I took it hesitantly, although I couldn't have said why. It wasn't like it was going to explode in my hands or anything.
S. is totally going to pay. Get Todd and slip away from your last class. It's time to send a message that she can't ignore. Key her car. If she doesn't break up with the new guy then we'll see how she likes replacing her windshield.
I came back to myself with Kat's arms wrapped around me in an effort to keep me from going back into the school.
&
nbsp; "It's not worth it, Selene. She's already going to be in deep trouble with the administration here at the school and with her dad at home. If you go after her directly you'll just give credence to her claims that somebody is out to get her."
There were so many things I wanted to say, but none of them really mattered. Kat already knew that Sandra was the worst bi-otch in the world. Me screaming it at the top of my lungs wouldn't help matters at all. Besides, I suspected that Kat didn't really understand what my car meant to me.
Kat obviously wasn't poor. For her a car was just a car, and if something happened to her car she paid to have it fixed and never thought twice about it.
For me, my car was more than that. I'd never gone to the factory and watched my dad at work, but I didn't have to see him there to appreciate what he was doing for us. I saw the effects every morning when I woke up and on the afternoons when I made it home in time to see him before he headed off to work again.
I saw him wake up to see us off, so exhausted it was all he could do to keep his eyes open. I saw him standing at the door, psyching himself up to go to a job he hated, a job that was slowly draining the life out of him, so that he could continue to put food on the table for Ari and me.
The two hundred dollars' worth of tires that Sandra had so casually destroyed was less than a couple of weeks' worth of allowance for her, but for me it was days and weeks of my dad's life. A new paint job would have been out of the question and a new windshield would have set us back months. It felt like Sandra and her dad were slowly killing my dad.
I still hadn't regained control over my anger, but I didn't want to put it back on a leash. I forced myself to breathe again and then looked at Kat. "Okay, I won't go after her. Why did you show me that note if you weren't going to let me do anything about it?"
"I told you because you deserve to know. You deserve to know what she had planned, and I figured if I told you back at our house that Jace would overreact and help you bury the body. He always caters to your temper more than he should. I think it's because you remind him of… Never mind. The important thing is that you need to know that my little trick today probably just delayed Sandra rather than stopping her permanently."
"Great, that's exactly what I needed to hear."
The bitterness in my voice could have etched steel, but it just made Kat smile. "It is what you needed to hear, but you're going to have to trust me on that. You needed to have time to work through your feelings towards Sandra now while you're less likely to kill her."
"I don't think there's ever been a time when I was more likely to kill her. She's a spoiled brat who needs a healthy dose of reality."
Kat gave me a surprisingly fierce hug and then released me. "You never know what the future may bring, Selene. But in the meantime, just remember that Jace and I aren't going to let Sandra put you in the poorhouse."
It was less reassuring than she'd meant it to be. I didn't want to be beholden to the two of them any more than I wanted my dad to continue being beholden to Sandra's dad, but even I wasn't so far gone as to say anything. I managed a smile as I climbed into my car and reached over to unlock the passenger door.
Kat's laugh was surprisingly kind. "I've got my own ride, Selene. I'd tell you to just leave your car here, but there's no need to provide an even bigger temptation to Sandra and the rest. I'm right over there."
I looked over to where she'd gestured and finally registered the presence of the fastest-looking motorcycle I'd ever seen. It was black and pink and had absolutely no manufacturer's logos on it anywhere, but that wasn't what made it look so fast. It was low-slung and had tires that were even fatter than the ones on my car.
"That bike?"
"Yeah, she's a beaut, isn't she?"
"I guess you'd better give me directions to your house. There's no way I'm going to be able to keep up with you."
Kat laughed again. "Don't worry, I'll go slow—I promise."
I shook my head at her as I took in the bare skin revealed by her shorts and t-shirt. "Slow is a relative term. Here, you'd better at least take Jace's jacket. It won't do anything to protect your legs, but at least it will keep the rest of you from getting as cut up."
"That's sweet, but I don't get in wrecks—at least not on my motorcycle. I'll be fine."
Kat shut my door for me and then jogged over to her bike. She fiddled around with a key at the back of the bike, popping open some kind of cargo area where she'd stored a pair of sunglasses, and then straddled the bike, which roared to life with an only slightly higher-pitched growl than the Viper had the day before.
I started my car as she backed her bike up, and then I followed her out of the parking lot at a sedate pace that I figured had to be making her chomp at the bit.
The ride out to their house ended up being much less crazy than I'd feared it might be. Kat still opened her bike up with a high-pitched whine that left me in her dust on two different occasions, but she always slowed back down within a mile, so I never actually lost sight of her.
Their house ended up being all the way out on the north side of town on an unassuming lot that looked like it was just part of the forest that butted up against that side of town. The driveway was gated, and wasn't even asphalt until after it curved around a line of trees and was no longer visible from the road.
I wasn't Ari by any stretch of the imagination, but I still flinched when I thought about what the gravel driveway would do to Jace's Viper if he drove over the rocks at any kind of real speed. I followed Kat past the gate, which closed automatically behind us, and then once we were on the pavement, she shot away like a bullet.
By that point she must have figured that it didn't matter; it wasn't like I could get lost on the driveway. Only I was actually starting to wonder if I'd gotten lost by the time I'd driven for five more minutes without any sign of a house.
When the house finally came into view my jaw dropped. I'd never seen anything like it before, not even in the movies. It was all the gray, nondescript rock that was everywhere in our particular part of Colorado, which meant that parts of the house almost seemed to blend into the countryside.
That meant that my first impression was that the house was huge, and my second impression was that the house was enormous. I counted six garage doors on this side of the building, but that wasn't the full story, because one of them was open and Kat was waving at me from inside of a garage that was five or six times as deep as a normal garage. They had room for an entire fleet of cars.
Kat seemed to want me to park inside next to her bike, but I shook my head and started to park out on the asphalt. I looked away from her for just a second as I brought my car to a stop, and when I looked up she was standing at my window.
"Selene, come park in the garage."
"No, my car has an oil leak and I don't want to get it all over your floor."
Kat smiled. "Don't be silly. We've got entire bays in there that aren't being used. I'll open up the shop bay and you can park in there. Fair warning though, I think he's going to try to talk you into a new set of rims at some point over the next few days."
"Yeah, because that's subtle enough that my dad won't notice."
"In case you haven't noticed, Jace isn't always the most subtle guy. Here, pull forward into the far door, I'll go open the garage."
A couple of minutes later my car was parked inside of the 'shop' bay and I was following Kat through the garage, towards a heavy door that presumably led into the house itself. The garage was cool enough that I was glad I still had Jace's jacket on. I honestly didn't know how Kat was enduring the walk through the cavernous building with nothing more than her shorts and t-shirt on. Actually, come to think of it, she'd probably been even colder on her bike.
It was one more question that I'd have to ask once they started telling me what was really going on.
The door turned out to have some kind of fingerprint reader on it. Kat ran her finger over the sensor and then held the door open for me.
"Sorry abo
ut this. The previous owner was a paranoid nutjob. Remind Jace and he'll get you entered into the database later so you can come and go as you please. Oh, by the way, can you please take off your shoes? Jace had the entire place re-carpeted before we moved in; he's kind of a freak when it comes to carpet."
Whatever I was planning on saying in response evaporated when I stepped inside and saw their kitchen. Saying it was big didn't even begin to do it justice. The entire back wall was nothing but glass, and beyond that was a solarium that looked like it was set up for indoor-outdoor living. Right now the back of the solarium had been opened up so that Jace could cook on the grill that took up the far corner of the area, but I could tell that once the solarium was closed back up it would make the perfect sun room for the winter months.
I didn't know if Jace or Kat either one were readers, but assuming they were still inviting me over once it got cold, I was definitely going to curl up in one of the hammocks with a good book.
There was a lot more to the solarium, but that was all that I managed to notice before I realized that Jace was cooking with his shirt off.
Wow didn't even begin to cover it. You don't always expect blond guys to tan, but Jace had the tan of a surfer combined with the lean, tight muscles of a gymnast. I could feel myself starting to hyperventilate and had to close my eyes in order to get control of myself again.
"Down, girl."
I opened my eyes and glared at Kat. "You could have given me some warning."
She snorted. "Like I know whether or not he's got a shirt on at any given moment? Please girl, there are days when I'm lucky if I know whether or not I've got a shirt on. Nobody could reasonably expect me to keep track of him."
The door between the solarium and the kitchen was closed, so Jace hadn't realized we were there yet. He opened up the grill and flipped the hamburgers that were cooking there with the sure hands of someone who was no stranger to cooking.
I tried to look away from him again, but my eyes refused to budge. The wind had tousled his wavy hair. He looked perfect, like a Greek god, like he'd been carved out of marble.