by Dean Murray
Chapter 6
I went back to class reluctantly; if I'd known what was in store that day I would have sprinted back to my seat.
There were only a couple of students in our classroom by the time we went back, but apparently that was all the audience Kat and Mr. Reynolds needed. There was something in the back of Mr. Reynolds eyes that seemed to indicate that everything wasn't quite the way it should have been, but Kat played her role perfectly.
By the time the rest of the class had all arrived and the second bell had rung, Kat was sitting in her new spot, a book open on the desk before her and a pen poised over her notebook, ready to take notes. It made me realize how much I'd underestimated her acting abilities. Every trace of the brash young woman I'd been expecting had vanished.
It made me wonder where exactly the act ended and the real Kat began. Actually, it would have been more accurate to say that it made me feel like I should have been wondering who the real Kat was. The same sleepy part of me that felt like I knew her and Jace, that was convinced I could trust them, was positive that the Kat I'd seen over the last twenty-four hours was the real deal.
Class started much like it had every other time that semester. Once Mr. Reynolds was done taking roll he turned off the first row of lights, turned on his ancient overhead projector, and started lecturing.
It wasn't uncommon for Mr. Reynolds to go ten or fifteen minutes at a time without looking up at the class, but we all behaved anyway because he'd scared us all half to death during the first few days of class.
Today apparently was going to be different. Less than five minutes after the first bank of lights went off, Sandra leaned forward and tapped the girl immediately in front of her on the shoulder.
Patricia Jones was the kind of girl who was constitutionally unable to pass up a good rumor. I was not at all surprised when she leaned back in her desk so that she would be able to hear Sandra.
Even before Sandra started whispering, I had a pretty good idea I was going to be the one being badmouthed. I probably could have predicted the general gist of the rumor too, but as it turned out I didn't have to guess because Sandra was talking just loud enough for me to make out about every third word.
"…slut…new guy…totally…whoring…"
I didn't even realize the anger was back and on the verge of escaping until I heard my pencil snap. I turned toward Sandra, planning on letting loose with a stream of profanity that would take the paint off of her manicured nails, but Kat was shaking her head at me.
I wanted to ignore Jace's sister and start an old-fashioned girl-on-girl brawl, but it was like Kat could read my mind. Just at the exact instant when I'd decided to jump out of my desk, Kat gave me a look that told me I was going to regret it if I went through with my plan.
Instead of exploding in a frothing, screaming mess, I closed my eyes and counted to ten. When that didn't do the trick I started over and counted to fifty.
Sandra of course saw the entire drama play out and I opened my eyes to find her smirking in my direction as she finished whispering the same batch of lies in the ear of the girl behind her. What had Mr. Reynolds been thinking? Surrounding Sandra with girls was like stacking dry wood around a leaky container of gasoline. In fairness if he'd surrounded her with boys he'd have had a different set of problems, but this situation was an accident just looking for a spark and I was the proverbial match.
I watched the rumor trickle around the room in slow motion. It was just too good—even the girls who didn't usually get into the gossip game couldn't pass it up. It was creating enough of a quiet ruckus that even some of the boys were noticing and leaning back in an effort to find out what was going on.
In fact, it seemed like the only person in the entire room who wasn't about to be told I was a complete whore was Mr. Reynolds. Now that I had my anger more or less under control I wanted to just crawl under my desk and hide.
Kat had been right to stop me from attacking Sandra. The euphoria of having actual friends—despite the odd stuff that was going on—and the heady feeling of having such a gorgeous boy interested in me had been skewing my world view, but the reality was that I couldn't do anything to Sandra. She held all the cards and this was just a foretaste of what was headed my way.
As if reading my mind, Sandra launched the second phase of her plan. She looked over at me to make sure that I was watching, and then passed a note up to Patricia. Patricia read the name on the outside of the note and made as though to pass it forward, but before she could make the handoff, the note shot across the aisle and into Kat's hand.
It almost seemed like Kat…flickered…for a split second right after the note landed in her hand. My eyes widened as I realized that Kat was using her powers in view of the entire class. I half expected someone to stand up and denounce her as a witch or something, but nobody said anything.
Given all the carefully-orchestrated drama that Sandra had created leading up to that moment, there was certainly no lack of eyes watching that little corner of the classroom, but it was like everyone else had failed to notice anything out of the ordinary.
Kat sat there motionless for several long seconds as almost every eye in the room turned towards her. I had a split second to wonder if my noticing Kat meant I was somehow unique, and then Kat started unfolding the note.
I felt like my heart was going to explode inside my chest. Grabbing the note and disposing of it wouldn't have stopped Sandra from writing more of them, but it would have been preferable to showing the entire class the nasty things she was saying about me. Now that they'd been prepped with the whisper campaign they'd be predisposed to believe whatever she'd written.
I opened my mouth to yell at Kat, and then remembered that I was sitting in Mr. Reynolds' class. Before I could decide whether yelling was worth the extended detention it would earn me, Kat finished unwrapping the note and held it up for everyone to see.
I know I just said that Selene was a skank, but the truth is that I'm the biggest whore in the entire school. Funny, huh? I think I'll sleep with a couple of my teachers next. Then again, maybe some of my dad's friends would be a better choice. They have more money and some of them certainly seem interested…
My lungs were refusing to work. It was impossible. Sandra wouldn't have put something like that in writing. She was all about maintaining deniability, but it was hard to argue with my own eyes. The note was in her handwriting and the entire class had just seen her pass the note to Patricia, who had…dropped it straight into Kat's hand.
The flicker. I didn't know how she'd done it, but Kat had forged a note, put Sandra's name on it, and then switched the original note with her forgery. It was the only explanation for the sickly look on Sandra's face.
"Put that away or I'll destroy you." Sandra's voice came out in a hiss. It was impressive that she could sound that angry even when she was scared out of her mind.
Kat gave Sandra a satisfied look before standing and waving her arms in Mr. Reynolds' direction. "I'm sorry to interrupt, sir, but I'm afraid that one of my classmates is being disruptive."
It was social suicide. The one iron-clad rule of high-school existence seemed to be that you didn't rat out one of the other kids to the teachers. It was stupid, really. The only kids who benefited from everyone keeping quiet were the jerks like Sandra, but that was just the way it was. It was more proof that most high-school kids weren't very bright.
Mr. Reynolds stepped away from the lectern and the overhead projector. "What's going on here?"
"Sandra wrote this note and was passing it to someone in front of her."
"That's a lie!"
I expected Kat to go down in flames as the rest of the kids in the class hurried to defend Sandra. Instead there was a perfectly-cued chorus from the kids closest to Kat, all weighing in to indicate that they'd seen Sandra write the note.
I didn't even realize that I'd joined until the words had already left my mouth. Sandra shot me a dark look, but I was too busy being shocked that Kat had
used her worship-me aura to be very worried about Sandra.
Mr. Reynolds took the note from Kat and his expression darkened even further as he read it. Sandra didn't even let him finish.
"I didn't write that note! I wrote a note, but somehow she changed the words when she picked it up."
Mr. Reynolds looked at her with disgust on his face. "You can't really expect me to believe that."
"No, it's true!"
"Fine, what was your note actually about?"
"I…ah…I was telling my friend about a party."
I felt a sudden urge to jump to my feet and yell Sandra down. Apparently Kat had expanded the reach of her aura again because several of the kids between her and I made as though they were going to stand up. They didn't get the chance though because Mr. Reynolds slammed his fist down on the closest desk, silencing Sandra and intimidating everyone else.
"I cannot abide liars, Miss Conner."
"I'm not lying. That's not my note!"
Mr. Reynolds looked around at the rest of us. "How many of you saw Miss Conner write this note and pass it forward?"
More than a third of the class raised their hands—basically everyone who sat behind Sandra—even a couple of kids who couldn't possibly have seen her pass the note raised their hands.
"And how many of you saw Kat pick up the note?"
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.