by B. F. Simone
She nodded stepping over some of the books. She must have knocked them over when she jumped out of the chair. She started to pick a few up but Mr. Carver waved her out of the room.
“A starting mark?” Katie murmured. She’d been freaking out this whole time and the evaluation was just to see where her starting point was?
“Yes, what did you think—Katie, Dear girl, you have to start reading the handouts I give you. This was just too check your breathing exercises and to see if you were giving off any fluctuating sparks. No wonder you were sweating bullets—oh don’t go blushing on me—off you go, you know I hate it when you kids look like I’ve been lecturing you—go on.”
Katie left, closing the office door behind her. She couldn’t hold down the smile. She had to tell Tristan. She did it. Something she didn’t even know existed. She was finally better at something than everyone else. She ran out of the empty classroom and straight into Tristan. He was like a rock.
She rubbed her head. “I did it,” she smiled.
“I told you,” he smiled back.
They turned as they heard clacking heels down the hall. Tristan put his arm around her shoulder. “Let’s go hide in the library.”
“Tristan! Skipping class!” Katie smothered a laugh as she gasped.
“There’s this girl. She’s a bad influence.”
“A girl?” Katie laughed.
“Yeah, she’s my best-friend. Crazy though.” Their legs were in sync with each other and she wished she were like him. He was confident, strong, did everything deliberately, rational, and always knew exactly what he wanted to say. He didn’t freak out about anything really. She was the exact opposite.
“That’s not true. You’re confident in your own way, you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for and…well, you are erratic and irrational but those can be redeeming qualities.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, ever seen, The Gremlins?”
She laughed despite herself, “I hate you.”
“No you don’t,” he smiled. “You love me.”
“Ha!” She rolled her eyes. She couldn’t think of anything witty. She was stuck on the word love. “Race you the rest of the way,” she said, sprinting towards the library, it was the only way to bury the sound of her pounding heart.
The next time she saw Mr. Carver was in Field Study, and this time she was happy to see him. He announced they’d be going on a field trip. To Gray City. Katie was excited and freaking out at the same time. What would it be like? If it was a field trip it couldn’t be too dangerous, then again, they weren’t in this program to live a safe life….
The field trip was tomorrow, Friday, and apparently everyone already knew that except her.
“The flyer has been on the board for weeks, Kay,” Allison said as they left class.
“She doesn’t read the board,” Tristan answered. She could hear him mocking her. “Katalina, it’s not mockery if it’s true. You don’t read anything. It’s like you’re allergic to words.”
“I just might be!” Katie shouted. Traci wanted her to read this and that and more of that. It was a miracle she still had working eyes.
The next day, Katie didn’t read anything. It frustrated Traci, who gave her a lecture on self-betterment, but Katie couldn’t help it. She was going to Gray City after lunch. The Gray City. How could she concentrate on anything else. A place where mystical creatures really existed.
She was the only one who seemed to care. Everyone else just chalked it off as a free half-day. They were told to bring a pair of jeans to school—clean, no rips or tears and preferably dark so they could match, because they were still Hamilton High students.
After lunch, Mr. Carver handed out black t-shirts with big letters in yellow print:
JG
Junior Guardians
They were walking billboards, but Katie didn’t care as long as she wasn’t the only one wearing it. They all changed. Except Tristan who walked out still in his uniform. He said something to Mr. Carver and winked at her before he left. He was up to something, and as they loaded the yellow bus she realized he wasn’t going.
The giant pang gripping her chest was disappointment. When had she started getting these feelings? When did thinking about the way he smiled start making her giggle like an idiot. Allison gave her a confused look as the bus drove off.
The bus drove past Kat’s Ice Cream shop, took a left at the one store that sold maps, and Katie realized they were moving into the heart of downtown. The bus stopped at a small restaurant and no one seemed alarmed. Was it a pit stop? Was Gray City a small bistro called Viva?
“Okay everyone, please move in your pairs—Katie, Allison? Why don’t you two pair up since both your partners are out sick.”
Sick? Tristan sick? Katie rolled her eyes and smiled. She wondered what he was doing now….
“Admit it already,” Allison said, opening the door of the Bistro. Olive oil and balsamic vinegar filled Katie’s nose. Her mouth watered.
“Admit what?” Katie said, hoping she hadn’t spent the last minute ignoring everything Allison said. Mr. Carver was leading them all into a private room.
“That you’re crushing. Hard.”
Katie blushed. Was it that obvious? What if Tristan knew? How could he not. He was in her head all the time. But she was careful around him. And who said she was even crushing?
Mr. Carver cleared his throat. “Okay four at a time. Wait at the bottom.” He opened a door and Katie and Allison were the first to go in followed by two others, Michael and Ethan. They were in an elevator, but the number panel was different. It was a keypad. Mr. Carver punched in a series of numbers while everyone pretended not to look. It must have been a secret. Katie couldn’t remember the numbers anyway, and from the look of Michael’s smile, it wasn’t as big of a secret as she thought.
He left the elevator, and as soon as the doors closed they were falling. Her feet never left the ground, but her stomach rose into her chest.
She was glad when it was over. Her feet felt oddly light, and her stomach tumbled when it got the memo that she was planted on the ground again. The elevator door opened and they were in a quiet lobby. It was a decent looking hotel with a large seating area and bar. A man behind the bar eyed them until he saw their shirts. He nodded.
Allison dragged Katie to a couch. “Don’t tell me you aren’t, it’s written all over your face.”
“Aren’t what?” Katie said as a woman walked through the outside doors. The outside was lit-up like Downtown at night. Katie pretended not to know what Allison was talking about, but she was genuinely interested in what lay beyond that door.
The elevator chimed. Four more people got out and moved towards them.
“Kay, Tristan isn’t the only one who can read you like a book. You’re always staring at him like—like that. That goofy look you get when you hear his name.” Allison smiled. “You two are pathetic. It’s so cute it makes me gag.”
“What do you mean, you two.” Katie waited. Butterflies took off with her innards—stomach, guts, and all. Did Allison think he liked her too? Not, too. She didn’t like him. Not Tristan. Not like that. He was—the person who was making her smile right now.
Fiddle-sticks.
The elevator chimed again. “You both get that same look when you see each other. I’m totally jealous. Someone needs to look at me like that.” Allison sighed.
Did he?
The elevator chimed again and again, and Allison went on talking about someones ugly shoes, but Katie didn’t hear a word. Not until Mr. Carver was herding them out into the City.
It was the moment Katie had been waiting for.
She took her first step out into Gray City and stopped. It was—normal.
A city.
People walked up and down the illuminated streets. Cars drove by and stopped at red lights. Chatter and city noise filled the night air. The only strange thing was it was dark.
Everyone drifted off into their groups and even
Allison lagged behind with Adam, who’d beaten Katie in the preliminaries. It turned out he was nice, but she still never talked to him much.
Katie tried to stay close to Mr. Carver. He didn’t seem to notice that everyone else was ignoring him as he played their tour guide. He pointed out the hospital and historical homes belonging to well known vampire families. The city, he explained, had been around for over a hundred years now, one of the newest underground cities to be built.
To the left, down 8th street was the werewolf district. Many werewolves owned restaurants and a few were notable among the underground cities of America. “I sometimes find the meat a little too raw though.” Mr. Carver chuckled.
Katie shrugged. Maybe it was supposed to be a joke? As they crossed the street she caught a glimpse of a sign: The Pub. It was a bar. Apparently werewolves were a little too unoriginal too.
“Here,” Mr. Carver said directly to her—now that he realized she was the only one next to him, “Down 12th street is called Shadow District. This street, specifically, is the fashion district. A little SoHo if you will.”
Despite it’s name, it was not any darker or ominous looking than Main street on a Saturday afternoon. How—odd.
“Mr. Carver?” Allison said behind them. “Have you ever been to SoHo?”
Mr. Carver shook his head and Allison gave him a five-minute speech on why 12th street was not a little SoHo.
Katie still couldn’t believe it. It was all so grossly normal. People passed by her. Vampire? Werewolf? She couldn’t tell. For all she knew she wasn’t even underground.
Mr. Carver stopped the group as a man walked up to him. The man pointed up and down the streets as they talked. Katie looked around. They were across the street from a club that pumped indie music.
“Oh! Remember that night Brian got plastered?” Michael said to Ethan and Christi. They were staring at the same bar. Katie had gotten used to ignoring their existence even more so now that Brian wasn’t with them—but now, she leaned in as they spoke.
“I wonder if his puke is still on that mailbox,” Ethan laughed, pointing across the street. Three cars sped by.
Maybe they don’t have speed limits in Gray City.
Katie leaned closer but they eyed her and dropped their voices.
Whatever.
“They’re just allowed to go out like that? Into clubs and drink?” Katie asked Allison.
“No, but they don’t really card down here,” Adam said. He looked bashful that he’d said anything. Maybe he thought Katie still held a grudge from the preliminaries—or her horrible attitude early this year. She smiled.
“How many times have you been down here?” she asked him.
“Unsupervised? Ten—fifteen?”
Katie nodded. This entire time she’d been thinking Gray City was some uber shady place with dark alleys and rampant gun men.
Adam said something and Allison laughed.
Katie wished Tristan was standing next to her. Of course he saw this place differently. He’d been here more than ten or fifteen times. He knew the nooks and crannies.
Then again, he promised her he wouldn’t come down here anymore. Maybe that’s why he skipped out on the field trip. He was keeping a promise. Katie smiled again. She felt so stupid and happy and in…
No. Definitely not that.
Mr. Carver finished the tour up with showing them more popular destinations, and guardian hubs. There was a guardian hub on every major street. Hotels, bars, restaurants, trinket shops. People owned actual stores down here and—even a blood shop, where Lucinda must have bought blood for Tristan. And, to everyones disappointment, they spent half an hour in a “Getting To Know The New You!” community center—where Mr. Carver mentioned extra credits for weekend volunteer work.
On the way back to the “topside” as Mr. Craver called it, Katie tried to stay engaged with Adam and Allison as they talked about studying for midterms, restaurants they’d been to with their mentors, and people they’d met down here. She couldn’t. She looked up and down the streets for Tristan.
Katie knew he wasn’t there, and yet, he was on the face of everyone she walked by. He was in the windows of the shops they walked by, maybe that guy looking for hats, or that guy boarding a bus. He was everywhere.
“Kay. Kay? She’s gone again,” Allison said.
“What?” Katie turned around. She’d walked past the hotel everyone was walking into. “Oh.”
The ride up the elevator wasn’t as bad as the ride down, but the drive back to the school was long. Love song’s played on the radio and she hid her face in the window every time Allison looked at her. Was it that obvious? Why was she thinking about him like this? Katie knew from experience that friendships are better left at just that. What if she kissed Tristan and it turned out to be like kissing a fish? No. Not with lips like his—full, never dry, probably soft.
No.
No.
No.
The bus pulled into the school. The thoughts had to stop. She was only thinking them because—it didn’t matter why, they just needed to stop. Her life was complicated and awkward enough with out him hearing those thoughts.
“What thoughts?”
Katie jumped and smacked against her locker. What was he doing there? When had he got there?!
Her heart pounded. Good grief.
“What are you hiding?” His voice drifted from behind her locker door. She couldn’t look at him. Not now. God. Not right now. “Katalina,” he sang, holding out the ‘ahhhh.’ Why did that make her smile.
Her locker began to swing closed and there he was. Smiling from ear to ear. “How was the field trip?”
“It was fun.” She fidgeted with her mouth, trying to suppress a smile.
“What am I not supposed to hear?” He said, moving closer to her. She caught a whiff of his hair. Bar Soap. Clean. He bent down to her eye level. Blue. They were so blue today. Blue and unblinking. His nose was very close to hers.
It was coming back.
No.
Tristan smiled bigger. “What did you do? You are acting very suspicious.” His eyebrows were bouncing. What an idiot. A cute—
His eyes got bigger.
“NO!”
“You think my eyebrows are cute? I get them from my mother you know,” he winked.
Katie laughed and pushed him. To her surprise, he lost balance and fell backwards.
She laughed.
Tristan squinted his eyes and smiled, “I’m giving you a five-second head start.”
She took off running with him hot on her trail.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Snow blanketed the ground around them as Tristan went over Lucinda’s mini boot camp for the Christmas holiday. They had to get more serious about their training ever since Lucinda caught them throwing mud at each other and called them clowns, but they still used any opportunity when she was distracted to goof around.
Katie didn’t mind boot camp though. She loved training; the dull burn she felt every morning when she stretched her muscles and running with Tristan shouting out, “Detour!” every time they got close to Lucinda’s house.
She didn’t have so many bruises now, she was getting faster and faster everyday. She felt stronger and lighter. Even now, after a long morning practice she felt fresh—except the hole in her stomach that wanted to consume all of the cookies Lucinda was making. She could smell the sugar cookies now—mixing in with the thick cold wet outside—they were probably right out of the oven.
“Boot camp, Katalina. No Christmas cookies for you,” he said, poking at her stomach.
She jumped at the touch and laughed, slapping his hand out of the way. They sat down on the porch and stretched.
“Grinch. I’m eating at least six. Even if I have to fight you for it.”
“Is that a challenge?” he said, throwing a light punch. She dodged it and punched him in the arm, harder than she meant to. He grabbed his arm. “You’re getting good. Really good.”
“Got that
right.” She flexed her arm. Her muscles were defined. She was good. “You really think I’ve gotten good?”
“Doesn’t matter what I think. You’ve got less bruises to prove it,” he said.
Yeah, but what do you think of me.
He studied her. She blushed under his gaze. It was like the one from a few days ago, long and contemplative. She’d caught him looking at her legs. What she would give to know what he was thinking.
He smiled. “That I have to start pumping more iron to keep up with you.”
It snowed every day leading to Christmas Eve. Lucinda went crazy putting up decorations in any space she could find. Will hid from Lucinda after she made him rehang the stockings on the living room fireplace. Brian was making more of an appearance, but he left early and stayed out late—everyday before practice, she’d hear Will yelling at him.
Katie made Tristan help put up—even more—Christmas lights in the front yard. His face was dark against the mounds of snow on the ground and his pink lips and blue eyes popped more than usual.
She couldn’t help but laugh as he attempted to make the lights look nice. They’d always droop where they were supposed to hang and hang there they were supposed to be in a line. “Have you ever put up Christmas lights before?” She pointed at a sad little cluster of red.
“No,” he said stiffly.
She brushed hair out of her face. “Seriously?”
“Never.” He wore his crooked smile, but it didn’t fool her.
“Didn’t you celebrate Christmas?”
“I don’t like to remember.” His face harden and he looked at her. She felt The Black Void brooding under the surface, and she was glad he let her feel it—glad he didn’t mind being exposed in front of her.
She focused on fixing her sections in silence. As they worked, The Void eased away, but there was still a stark loneliness around him. It was in the blanket of untouched snow and in his footprints when he’d disappear around the corner.
The Andersons had their Christmas Eve party that evening. Every year people came dressed in their best. They’d always gape at the majestical winter wonderland that was once yard; they’d admire Lucinda’s modern, yet traditional color scheme—red and green with gold metal works—and gasp at the transformation of the house into a ballroom fit for a gala; and Lucinda would modestly deflect admiration for her custom-made gown onto the catering company or hired entertainment.