by Diane Hoh
Everyone laughed. But Jess suspected Cath had just told them her worst nightmare.
In spite of the heavy work load, which Cath agonized over, driving them all crazy, and Milo pretty much ignored, they all found time for other things. Jon, whose beloved red car had been delivered, went out almost every night with a different girl, although his eyes said he was still waiting for Cath to acknowledge his existence. Linda was busy with swim practices and meets. Ian spent hours taking photographs for The Chronicle, the campus newspaper, and occasionally joined Milo and Trucker at the creek behind the house for some fishing.
The following weekend, there were parties, a concert, a football game. Jess and the others enjoyed themselves, but Cath shut herself in her room, studying. Her face lost what little color it had had and her lips became pinched and tight with stress. Her dark eyes took on the look of a trapped rabbit.
Jess couldn’t think of any way to help.
Every night, after a haphazard meal of soup and sandwiches, or hamburgers and french fries, or spaghetti, and the desserts Madeline Carthew dropped off to assuage her conscience, Cath hurried off to her room, her ballet-slippered feet slap-slapping up the stairs with urgency.
“Doesn’t she ever relax?” Jon muttered, annoyed. “All work and no play makes life pretty grim.”
“And all play and no work,” Jess said pointedly, “makes a college dropout.”
Jon grinned. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll get to it. I’m just getting acclimated, that’s all.”
On Sunday evening, Cath gobbled half a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, dumped her plate in the sink, which was still filled with encrusted cereal bowls from breakfast, and announced that she had a “crucial” lit paper to work on.
“It’s due tomorrow and I’m not done with my bibliography.” She aimed a sharp glance at Milo. “But at least I’ve started. Have you even done your outline yet, Milo?”
“Brilliant minds,” Milo said, tilting his chair back against the kitchen counter, “do not employ methods as pedestrian as outlining.”
Cath hooted in derision.
“And while you slave away up in your dark little cave,” Milo added, “I’ll be outside gratefully gulping in some much-needed fresh air.”
“It’s raining, Milo.”
“So? A little rain never killed anyone, and the fishing is great when it’s raining.” Milo freed his fishing pole from its customary position between the stove and refrigerator and left the house.
Disgusted, Cath hurried upstairs to her room.
“She does work too hard,” Jess commented to Ian as they loaded the dishwasher. Linda had gone off to a swim meet, Jon to a party, and Trucker, who had begun eating dinner with them at Jess’s invitation, had gone to join Milo at the creek. “She looks so tired all the time, and she’s wound tighter than a spring.”
Ian agreed. “If she doesn’t learn to let off some of that steam, she’ll explode. College isn’t like high school. Some people can’t handle the difference.”
Several hours later, as Jess was finishing her German translation and thinking that Ian’s eyes were the warmest brown she’d ever seen, his dire prediction rang in her ears. A door slammed open, footsteps ran down the hall and stopped at Jess’s door. Cath’s voice, edged in hysteria, shouted, “Jess! Open the door, open it! Let me in!”
Chapter 9
“JESSICA, LET ME IN!” Panic etched Cath’s words.
Remembering Ian’s prediction about Cath, Jess ran to the door and threw it open.
Cath’s narrow face was ash-gray. Her dark eyes echoed the panic in her voice. “What am I going to do?” she cried. “The paper I worked so hard on is gone! I was sitting on my bed working on my bibliography, and when I finished it I went to the desk for my paper. That’s where I put it. But it’s not there. It’s gone, Jess!”
Jess went weak with relief. “Oh, Cath, I thought someone was trying to kill you! You’re hysterical over a missing paper?”
“What’s going on?” Linda called as she hurried to Jess’s room. Her hair was still wet from swimming and she was wrapped in a white terrycloth robe.
Ian followed her, while Milo lingered in his own doorway. Three different kinds of music wafted from the open rooms and mixed together in a discordant blend of rock, classical, and East Indian melodies.
“That missing paper is important,” Cath retorted. “It’s due tomorrow morning. And my average in lit class isn’t that high.”
Meaning, Jess thought, a B + instead of an A.
But Cath’s hands were trembling, her eyes glittering with threatening tears. “If I don’t turn in that paper, I’ll be lucky to pull a C in there! A C!”
Jess couldn’t imagine falling apart over a simple C. She’d had her share of them and the earth hadn’t stopped spinning on its axis.
“Maybe you moved your paper,” she told Cath reassuringly. “C’mon, we’ll all help you look for it.”
They looked everywhere: on Cath’s desk, in her dresser drawers, under the bed, in the closet, in the pockets of her jeans and raincoat … but there was no sign of the missing paper.
When they were ready to admit defeat, Jess and Ian sat on Cath’s bed. She stood in the center of the room, wringing her hands. “How can I show up in class tomorrow without that paper?”
“Cath,” Jess said, “can’t you tell your professor the truth? You can’t be the first student to lose a paper, can you? Maybe he’ll give you more time.”
Cath turned on her. “But I don’t lose things, Jess! Ever.” After a moment, she added, “Someone took my paper.”
There was a shocked silence.
Cath’s face was a narrow mask of white. “And that means,” she said, her voice tremulous, “that someone was in my room. Someone went through my things!”
They could all see that the thought horrified her.
“Took your paper?” Ian said. “You mean, as in stole it?”
Cath nodded.
“Honestly, Cath,” Linda said, “why on earth would anyone steal your paper?”
Cath, her lips firmly pressed together, looked at Milo. “You have the same paper due tomorrow,” she said, “and you haven’t even done your outline.”
All eyes moved to Milo, leaning against Cath’s desk.
His eyes behind the wire-rimmed glasses narrowed. “I’m not hearing an accusation here, am I?”
“My paper was right here on the desk, beside the lamp. And now it isn’t. Did you finish your paper?”
Milo stood up very straight. His face flushed with anger. “No, I didn’t. Don’t worry about it.”
“The question is,” Cath said, her head high, her dark eyes very bright, “why aren’t you worried about it?” Suddenly, she turned and ran out of the room, heading straight for Milo’s room across the hall.
“Hey!” he cried, running after her, “what do you think you’re doing?”
What she was doing, they all discovered as they followed and gathered in the doorway to Milo’s room, was racing around like a crazy person, tossing papers and clothing and CDs in the air, her dark hair flying about her face, her eyes wild.
“It’s here,” she babbled as she tossed a pile of books on the floor. “I know my paper is here. You took it so you wouldn’t have to write a paper of your own.”
Linda gasped. “Milo would never do that,” she cried.
“You’re crazy!” Milo shouted, scooping up the discarded books. “You’ve really lost it, you know? I never touched your stupid paper. I never went near your room.” He lunged at Cath as she dumped a handful of CDs on the hardwood floor. “Cath, cut it out!” Bending to pick up the disks, he appealed to the others, still in the doorway, their mouths open. “Stop her, will you? She’s wrecking my room.”
And even though it seemed to Jess that the room had already been a wreck before Cath arrived, she stepped forward to grasp Cath’s wrist, saying softly, “Okay, that’s enough. He says the paper isn’t here.”
“Could have blown out your window,” Ia
n suggested. “While we were eating. Was your window open?”
Drained, exhausted, Cath sagged against Jess. “I … I don’t know. I don’t remember.”
“Well,” Linda said, moving into the room to stoop and pick up some papers and a maroon jacket Cath had tossed on the floor, “I personally think you’ve got a lot of nerve, Cath. Accusing Milo of stealing!” She smiled at Milo and reached out to touch his hand. “We all know he wouldn’t do anything like that.”
Actually, Jess thought, we don’t know any such thing. Everyone seems nice enough here at Nightingale Hall, but we don’t really know each other. Not yet. Aloud, she said, “C’mon, Cath, let’s go back to your room and figure out what to do.”
“What’s to figure?” Cath said bitterly. “I don’t have any choice. I’ll be up all night rewriting that paper, that’s all. But,” leveling a look of fury at Milo and Linda, who stood beside him, “don’t think I’ll forget about this, because I won’t!” Then, in a low voice directed only at Milo, she added, “Get this! You probably thought I wouldn’t have time to redo the paper, but I’ll finish it if it kills me. So forget about turning in the one you stole, unless you want to be kicked out of this school for cheating.”
She ran from the room. The door to her own room slammed so hard the posters on Milo’s walls flapped wildly.
Jess decided it might be a good idea to let Cath work on her anger alone. But as Ian walked her back down the hallway to her own room, she said quietly, “That paper couldn’t have just walked away. And Cath doesn’t seem like the sort of person who misplaces things.”
“That’s for sure.”
“Do you think Milo took it?” she asked Ian.
“Why would he? Cath’s right, he can’t turn it in.”
“I know, but he could have underestimated Cath. Thinking that she wouldn’t have time to finish a rewrite.” Jess leaned against the wall outside her room. Sighing, she said, “There’s something about this place. I wish I could figure out what it is. I know it’s getting to Cath. I don’t think it’s just the pressure of classes that’s turning her into a maniac.”
Ian ran a gentle finger along the frown lines in Jess’s forehead, smoothing them out. “What you need,” he said, “is food. Let’s roust everyone out of their rooms and raid the refrigerator.”
“Ian, I’m kind of tired …”
“That means your engine needs fuel. C’mon, I saw microwave popcorn in the kitchen. Lots of it. It’s calling to me.” He tilted his head. “Ian, I-an!” He began running up and down the hallway, pounding on doors, calling, “Popcorn break, everyone! Move those tired old bodies down to the kitchen, pronto!”
Laughing helplessly, Jess said, “You sound like a cheerleader. Or a drill sergeant.” But she felt better already.
Cath’s door didn’t open. Jess hadn’t expected it to.
Everyone else seemed grateful for a study break. They all pounded downstairs to the kitchen. Milo had apparently recovered from Cath’s accusation. Ian made popcorn and Linda filled glasses with soda. They ate and drank and talked about their classes and an upcoming formal, the Fall Ball, which Linda had heard was “a very big deal.” Jon arrived from campus just in time to share the last bag of popcorn.
Feeling relaxed and comfortable in spite of Cath’s absence, Jess smiled at Ian and said, “This was a great idea.”
He looked pleased. “Stick with me, baby,” he said in a mock Humphrey Bogart voice, “and the sky’s the limit. Anything you want, name it.”
“I’d settle for a warmer kitchen,” she said, leaning over to nestle into Ian’s red-sweatered bulk. “Can you manage that for me?”
“Just come in June,” Linda said, licking salt from her fingers. “This place is an oven then.”
“In June?” Jess said. “How do you know?”
Linda got up to take her glass to the sink. “I was here for that orientation day they had. Weren’t you?”
“No.” She had wanted to see the university before she made up her mind, but she hadn’t had time. The brochures they’d sent had had to suffice.
“Ian was here,” Linda said, turning away from the sink. “And Jon. I saw them on campus.”
Ian nodded. “Came with a bunch of guys from my high school. They didn’t like it, but I did.”
Jess felt a little left out. They’d all visited campus last June?
“It was a scorcher that day,” Linda said. “It almost made me think about finding a school in Alaska. But everyone kept saying it was just a weird heat wave, not normal, so I decided to come here, anyway. But I didn’t know then that I’d be living at Nightingale Hall. It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t see it first. I might have changed my mind and gone somewhere else.”
Jess could understand that. If she had known she was going to be sleeping in the room of a girl who had died, would she have moved in, anyway?
I don’t think so, she told herself.
“So,” Ian said, standing up, “anyone sorry they decided to come here?” Smiling, his eyes found Jess’s. “I know I’m not. Look at the great class of people this university attracts.”
“Speaking of people,” Jon said, “where’s Cath? How come she’s not pigging out like the rest of us?”
Milo jumped to his feet and left the room. Linda quickly followed.
It was left to Ian and Jess to fill Jon in on the trouble between the three.
He took Cath’s side, which didn’t surprise Jess. “Milo’s too far off center,” he said as they left the kitchen.
“I think he’s just shy,” Jess said.
But hadn’t she, at first, thought Milo was unfriendly, and a bit odd? And that look on his face when Cath accused him of stealing … that hadn’t looked like simple anger. There’d been something strange in that look.
Something that scared Jess.
Chapter 10
BRIGHT SUNSHINE LIGHTING UP Jess’s room the following morning failed to dispel the pervasive chill. Goose bumps formed on her arms as she dressed quickly in jeans and a white T-shirt that read, I IS A COLLEGE FRESHMAN, a going-away present from her sister Nell. She ran a brush through the shiny dark hair that was beginning to grow longer. The short haircut had been easy to take care of, but not much fun. Now a few thick strands curled softly around her high cheekbones.
Maybe, she thought, I’ll actually be able to do something interesting with it by the time the Fall Ball rolls around. Laughing softly at her own unintentional pun, Jess escaped into the warmth of the hall.
In the kitchen, Linda was expressing disgust over Jon’s choice of breakfast.
“A hot dog and ice cream?” She made a gagging gesture. “Your body is a temple, Jon, and you’re tossing a wrecking ball at it.”
Jon continued munching with pleasure. “Food is food,” he mumbled around a mouthful of hot dog bun. Swallowing, he added, “You see anything wrong with this body?”
As Jess moved to the refrigerator for a glass of juice, she thought about the formal Linda had mentioned the night before. Hurry up and ask me to that dance, she ordered Ian silently. Time’s a-wastin’. A boy in her history class had been hanging around a lot lately. What if he asked her first? Would it be totally rotten to turn him down, hoping that Ian would ask her? And then what if Ian didn’t?
“What did Maddie bring us yesterday?” Linda asked, lifting a blue cloth napkin to peer into the wicker picnic hamper sitting on the kitchen counter. “Gee, isn’t it great that she gets rid of her guilt about not moving in with us by baking goodies?”
“What would I do without her?” Jon said gratefully, biting into a strawberry muffin from Maddie’s most recent care package.
Laughing, Jess wondered where Cath was. Had she already left for school? Had she finished the essay rewrite?
As if on cue, Cath appeared in the kitchen doorway. She looked terrible. Her eyes were shadowed with purplish raccoon-rings, her hair a tangle of dark waves hanging limply around her pale, strained face. She was wearing the same tan skirt and green bl
ouse she’d worn the day before. The skirt was wrinkled, the blouse drooping over the waistband.
It’s not just her clothes that looked wrinkled, Jess thought with a wave of compassion. Every inch of her looks wrinkled, as if she’d spent the night tumbling around in a clothes dryer.
Cath waved a sheaf of white paper in the air. To Milo, she said, “I finished, just like I said I would. So you can forget about turning in that paper you stole from me.” Her smile was cold. “You wouldn’t want to be accused of cheating, would you? Although for someone like you, that probably wouldn’t be a first.” Aiming one last contemptuous glance in Milo’s direction, she hurried from the room.
The front door slammed a moment later.
Shaking his head in disgust, Milo got up, muttered, “That girl is crazy! I never went near her room,” and left the kitchen. Linda did the same. Their footsteps echoed through the house as they went upstairs.
Jon followed a moment later.
“Cath is so positive that Milo took her paper,” Jess said to Ian when they were alone. “She’s never going to forgive him. We’ll have to draw up battle lines to keep them away from each other.”
Ian nodded. “What’s the quote? The one that goes, ‘United we stand, divided we fall’? Sounds like us, doesn’t it?”
Jess agreed. We are living in a house divided, she thought dispiritedly. “I wonder if Milo ever did do his paper?”
Ian, at the back door with an overflowing wastebasket in hand, asked, “You think he took Cath’s paper, don’t you?”
She was saved from a reply by the peal of the front doorbell. Ian went out back with the trash and Jess ran into the hall to yank open the front door.
A short, stocky young man in a military uniform stood before her, twirling his Army cap in his hands. His straw-colored hair was cut very short and neatly parted to one side. He had deep brown eyes that seemed sad to Jess, almost melancholy.