by Jena Leigh
That part was easy enough to explain.
What confused him, was how much she’d changed in the six days since he’d last seen her.
Where was the Alex he knew? The strong-willed, stubborn, give-’em-hell Alex that he’d first met?
This Alex was a walking bundle of nerves, and it was only getting worse as the day went on.
He watched her tug at the edges of her sleeves, pulling them just a fraction of an inch further down her forearms.
Not gonna help, princess.
The bell rang.
Declan pulled the printout of his schedule—of Alex’s schedule—from his jacket pocket while they waited for the other students to pack up and head out.
Lunch was up next.
Thank God.
Time for some food.
Alex was silent as he followed her through a maze of hallways and toward the upperclassmen cafeteria.
Finally, they reached a large, open room with two lunch lines and a dozen long tables already packed with students. Across from them, the room’s exterior wall was made entirely of glass, one giant window looking out over a green lawn that stretched toward the football field and tennis courts.
With the sun shining brightly in a clear blue sky, the cafeteria was awash in light.
Gray, wooden picnic tables, long since faded by the sun, were scattered across the lawn, filled with the kids who hadn’t found a home beside the cheerleaders and jocks occupying the tables inside. He spotted Goths, a few disheveled looking skaters and a table filled with… cowboys?
Huh. Definitely the FFA set.
He shrugged inwardly. To each his own.
Past the tables stood a few gnarled oak trees, their moss-covered limbs offering shade to a handful of lonely students.
He spotted Cassie seated on a small blanket beneath one such tree, her back against the trunk and a colorful lunch bag set on the ground beside her.
Declan glanced at the lunch line that stretched out endlessly in front of them and then back toward Cassie.
“Hey, Lex?”
“Hmm?” She edged warily backward as two guys ahead of them in line shoved each other, laughing.
“I’ve got to… go do something,” he said. “Think you can grab me a slice of pizza and some water?”
Alex was still preoccupied with the group in front of them. “Yeah, sure,” she said. “No problem.”
Leaving her in line, Declan made his way through the cafeteria and out onto the bright green lawn.
He came to a stop beside Cassie. “Hey, blondie.”
“Hey, butthead.”
“This seat taken?” He dropped down beside her in the shade without waiting for a reply.
“Enjoying your first day at Bay View High, Mr. O’Neill?”
“I’ll turn nineteen next month and I’m going to celebrate it as a junior in high school,” he said. “It’s pretty safe to say I’m living the dream.”
Cassie rewarded him with a smile.
Declan cleared his throat. “So, you know Alex better than just about anyone, right?”
“Ah,” said Cassie. “And this would be the point in the conversation where you ask me what’s going on with her.”
“I just don’t understand why she’s suddenly so…”
“Freaked out?” She tapped the top of her soda can before cracking it open.
“Yeah,” he said. “I mean, I get it, but…”
Cassie frowned. “It’s… complicated.”
Inside the caf, Alex was still carefully inching her way through the lunch line, Declan’s sister Kenzie now standing by her side.
“I think it has more to do with this place than it does with her situation,” she said slowly.
“How so?”
Cassie watched Alex through the windows as she spoke. “You remember how she accidentally blew up the Bay View High computer lab a while back?”
Declan smiled wryly. “I seem to recall hearing something about it.”
Cassie’s smile was sad. “Well, it sort of… broke her. She just wasn’t the same afterward.” The smile dissolved into an angry glare that raked over the crowded tables inside the cafeteria. “And those shitheads are mostly to blame for her change.”
Declan raised an eyebrow.
“Pardon my French,” she added as an afterthought. “Honestly, though. What they did to her… the things they said…” Cassie shook her head. “Alex has always been too nice for her own good. She’s the softest person I’ve ever met.”
He could see that. For all of the strength and determination she had shown two weeks before, underneath it all he’d sensed an overwhelming capacity for empathy. Wouldn’t be hard for a few harsh words to cut right through her defenses.
Cassie fiddled with the tab on her soda can. It snapped off.
Sensing there was more, Declan waited for her to continue.
“She just sat there and took it,” she said. “All their stupid comments and jokes. All the cruel pranks. All of it. She never once tried to fight back.”
“Not once?”
Cassie fell quiet.
“It’s messed up, I know… but our girl over there?” She nodded toward Alex. “She’s acting like that because she’s petrified of hurting the same jerks that have made her life hell for the last six months.”
Declan wasn’t sure what to say to that.
“The Alex you met over break was an Alex away from Bay View.” Cassie gave him a once over before looking back toward the cafeteria. “If you tell anyone I said this, I’ll deny it, but… you’re good for her, Decks. You bring out a side of Alex I’ve never seen before. A good side. A strong one.”
Before Declan could manage a reply, his sister and Alex exited the cafeteria and made their way across the lawn, trays of food in hand.
Alex visibly relaxed after she passed through the small crowd at the building’s entrance. Her shoulders loosened ever so slightly, the lines of her face softened, and her grip on the lunch tray went from white-knuckled to one-handed as she adjusted the strap of her messenger bag.
Alex sent Declan a shy smile when she noticed he was watching her approach. She dropped down beside him in the grass, then set the tray of food on the ground in front of them both.
“Grabbed you two slices instead,” she said. “And it’s on me today. My way of saying thanks.”
“For what?” he asked, reaching for a slice.
“For covering for me all morning.” Her face turned a shade of red that nearly matched his sister’s hair. “I owe you one, Declan. Thank you.”
Their little group fell quiet. Kenzie and Cassie stared at him curiously while Alex focused her undivided attention on the patch of grass just in front of her.
“Uh, sure,” he said, swallowing a bite of pizza. “No problem.”
The awkward silence returned.
“Fifteen, twenty-six, twelve!” Kenzie blurted.
“Huh?” said Declan. Either he’d missed something important, or his little sister had finally lost it and all that caffeine had shorted out her gray matter.
“Numerical Tourette’s?” suggested Cassie.
The sound of Alex’s laughter was like music to his ears. It was the first genuine smile she’d cracked all day.
“Your combination?” she asked.
Kenzie nodded an affirmative, smiling wide. “You should see it, Decks. Thing of beauty, I’m tellin’ ya.”
“No fishy remains?” asked Alex, reaching for her own piece of pizza.
“Nope.”
Declan looked back and forth between the girls. He’d definitely missed something.
Alex leaned in close, the smell of her strawberry scented shampoo washing over him in a wave.
“Her locker,” she explained in a whisper.
“Ah.”
Twenty minutes of food and joking conversation had an almost miraculous affect on Alex. During the course of their lunch break, she went from withdrawn and nervous to laughing and at ease.
At one point, she even joined Cassie
where she lay basking in the sunshine, slipping out of her shoes and rolling up the edges of her jeans in an attempt to soak up a few more rays.
But the closer it came to the bell, the more withdrawn she became. The jeans were rolled back down, her distracted frown returned, and she began glancing at the clock on her cell phone every thirty seconds or so.
Three minutes before the bell, Alex checked out of the conversation entirely. She started tugging at the edges of her sleeves again.
Declan frowned.
Cassie was right. It was this place that had changed her. The other Alex—his Alex—was still in there somewhere. He just needed to find a way to bring her back.
Cassie and his sister continued on with their discussion, oblivious.
Declan reached for his discarded jacket.
“Here.” He held it out to Alex. “Take it.”
She took the jacket from him, running a hand across the canvas fabric before slipping it on. “Thanks, Decks,” she said quietly.
The jacket was too big for her. Her hands disappeared inside the sleeves.
Alex smiled.
He kicked himself for not thinking about offering it to her earlier.
“It’s stupid,” she said suddenly. “I know it’s stupid, the way I’m acting. I mean, I walked through those halls for months before I knew what I could do, and except for the computer lab thing, nothing ever happened. I don’t know why I’m so scared now. It’s just… there are fifteen hundred kids at this school, right? And the odds are against there even being one Variant here, much less two.”
Alex pulled the borrowed jacket more tightly around her.
“But I can’t get past the what-ifs.” She looked away. “I’m scared to take that risk.”
Suddenly, Declan had an idea.
“Hey, hand me my cell,” he said.
Alex reached into the right pocket of her borrowed jacket and fished out his phone.
“Thanks,” he said, getting to his feet. “Be right back.”
Declan dialed, walking away from the girls until he was certain he was out of earshot.
On the other end of the line, the call stopped ringing and went to voicemail. There was no message from the owner of the number, just one long beep. The person he was calling wasn’t the sort to answer a call from just anyone.
Declan could only hope that he’d be an exception. He didn’t have time to jump to London right now.
The beep ended.
“Yeah, Oz. It’s Declan.” He glanced back toward Alex where she sat in the shade of the towering oak, looking small and frail in his dark gray jacket. “I need a favor.”
— 4 —
“So what do you think?”
Alex looked up from the pottery piece she’d been detailing with ceramic glaze. Forcing a smile, she rolled the thin handle of her paintbrush between her fingers.
“That’s a, uh, a very nice horse, Declan,” she managed.
His brow furrowed slightly. He turned the sculpture over in his hands. “It’s supposed to be a dog.”
Alex tried to hide her smile. “Oh! Well, it’s a lovely dog. Nice job.”
“You’re a terrible liar, Alex,” he said, mashing his creation between his palms and returning it to an unformed mass of clay. “Almost as bad a liar as I am a sculptor.”
Their last period of the day was 3-D art with Alex’s old swim coach, Mrs. Roberts. It was her favorite class, but only on the glorious days that she managed to escape the notice of Jessica Huffman.
Jessica had always found joy in tormenting Alex, but the day she managed to steal Alex’s (now ex-) boyfriend Connor Talbot, she’d become insufferable.
These days, Jessica had been cast in the role of Connor’s on-again, off-again girlfriend.
When they were on, Jessica usually settled for harmless gloating. When they were off, she and her minions excelled in making Alex’s life hell.
Judging from the vicious glares the bleached-blonde cheer captain had been sending her way for the last twenty minutes, she and Connor were off-again.
Alex was almost certain she would have sashayed across the room to begin her tormenting already, except for the fact that Declan was currently seated beside Alex, returning Jessica’s glares with a cold stare of his own.
“Your fan club looks a little put out today,” said Declan, as if reading Alex’s thoughts.
“Nah,” said Alex. “She always looks like that. ‘Surly’ is her default expression.”
Alex hadn’t spoken to Jessica since the events on the dock with Masterson.
Two weeks earlier, Masterson—masquerading as a fire-controlling Variant named Carson Brandt—took Cassie prisoner. When Alex met with Masterson in the hopes of negotiating Cassie’s release, Connor showed up at precisely the wrong moment.
And where there was Connor, Jessica and her lackeys were sure to follow.
What happened next was nothing short of a nightmare.
Jessica witnessed all of it.
Alex tugged the right sleeve of her borrowed coat further up her forearm to keep it from falling on the wet glaze coating her current project.
She couldn’t be certain if it was the way the jacket covered her so completely, or if it was the familiar scent of woodsmoke ingrained in the fabric that had caused her to relax these last few hours.
Probably, it was a little of both.
Declan wiped the excess clay from his hands with a wet towel, then pulled Alex’s tray of completed projects closer so that he could look through them.
Alex resumed her glazing.
Her current project—and her final assignment for the semester—was a full-face Venetian mask, with feminine facial features and intricate designs carved around the eyeholes. Alex had been working on it for weeks now and it was, by far, her favorite piece of all.
Their final project was meant to be given as a gift, and Alex had already decided to make it a present for her Aunt Cil.
Her Aunt could probably make a mask such as this one in her sleep, but Alex was hoping she’d like it anyway. Things hadn’t exactly been easy between them lately. A peace offering was definitely in order.
Something in the pocket of Declan’s coat was vibrating. Without looking, she fished out the phone and offered it to him.
“It’s ringing.”
Declan put down the hand-shaped ring holder he’d been inspecting and took the cell from her. He checked the ID and smiled.
“I have to take this,” he said, pushing back his barstool. “Will you be okay for a few?”
Alex eyed Jessica warily, but nodded. “Sure.”
He walked over to Coach Roberts’ desk and asked her for a bathroom pass.
Thirty seconds later, Declan was gone and Coach Roberts disappeared into the kiln room.
Jessica had her opportunity.
Alex tried to focus on the lines of the glaze decorating the mask. A swirl here, an outline around the eyes and—
“Now that your boyfriend’s gone,” Jessica’s saccharine sweet voice whispered in her ear, “how about you and I have a little chat?”
Perching herself on the edge of Declan’s vacant barstool, Jessica leaned in close to Alex. The cloying scent of her perfume clouded the air around them.
Alex set her jaw, but didn’t look up.
“We have nothing to talk about, Jessica,” Alex managed. “I told you before, Connor’s all yours.”
Jessica’s fake laughter trilled in her ears. “Oh, Alex. This isn’t about Connor.” She dragged out the words, her tone acrid. “This is about Veronica.”
The brush in Alex’s hand froze mid-stroke.
“You remember her? Five-two, dark hair. Used to be in this very class with us. Sat right over there, next to Marcie.” Jessica nodded toward Marcie, still seated at her workstation on the other side of the room. “You do remember Vee, right?”
Alex swallowed hard.
“Yeah,” Jessica said slowly. “You remember Vee. Funny how the rest of the world seems to have forgotten abo
ut her. Did you know someone covered it all up? The official report says she ‘drowned at sea.’ That it was all just some tragic accident. Never found her body, of course. How could they? There was hardly anything left of her, after…” she trailed off. “And her parents… her little sister… they’ll never know the truth.”
Reaching forward, Jessica picked up the mask, careful to avoid the wet glaze.
“My friend,” she said carefully, “is dead, Alex. She was burnt alive, right in front of my eyes. And I can’t tell a soul about it.”
Jessica turned the mask over in her hands, inspecting the piece before placing it back on the table in front of Alex.
“My friend is dead,” she repeated. “And that’s on you.”
Alex finally looked up. A cold fire was burning in Jessica’s mascara-lined eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re involved with, Alex, and I really don’t care. All I care about now, is making you pay for what happened to my friend.” Jessica slipped off the stool. “And believe me, Lexie… you will pay.”
Jessica reached out and snagged the edge of the tray filled with Alex’s work. It clattered to the floor with a resounding crash, most of the pieces shattering on impact.
Alex bit down on her lip.
An entire semester’s worth of her artwork was now scattered across the worn linoleum.
“That was for Vee,” said Jessica, stepping over the mess and striding around to the other side of the table.
The entire class had halted their work and now sat watching Jessica as she leaned across the table and smiled at Alex. She flicked the bottle of ceramic glaze and it tipped over, sending a wave of chalky paint across the mask and straight into Alex’s lap.
Jessica grinned sweetly as she stood back up. “And that was for me.” She started back toward her workstation. “See ya ’round, Alex.”
The bell rang.
Alex sat frozen, staring at the mask in front of her, all of her intricate designs now concealed beneath a thick, bubble-filled swath of glaze.
Oblivious to the exchange, Coach Roberts poked her head into the classroom long enough to tell them they were dismissed before disappearing back into the kiln room.
All around her, students were cleaning up, stowing their work trays and exiting the room, eager to head home.