by Kish Knight
‘He’s such a jerk! Why did I ever think he was hot?’ Angrily, she rolled her eyes. “You know, if you don’t know something, just ask. Preferably in a nice way. Anyways, I’ll give you a break since you’re new around here. This week is Homecoming Week, and the kick-off talent show is this afternoon at 2:00 pm.”
He slouched back against the table behind him. “Thanks for sharing that info.” Then his gaze shifted up to the clouds above and stayed like that for several minutes.
Bri waited, watching him until she couldn’t bear it anymore. Impatiently, she blurted, “Are you coming? It’s really the biggest talent show of the year, in this area.” Why she cared so much if he was at the show or not, she didn’t know. But for some reason, she really wanted him to say he would be there. Maybe because she wanted him to see her in her element; coordinated and talented, instead of the depressed loser her friends painted her as.
Korey gave a nonchalant shrug. “Dunno.”
“It’s not like as if you have anything better to do.” Because it occurred to her that she was really curious about what he did with his spare time. ‘Probably slaughtering baby bunnies after school,’ she thought nastily. As soon as the words left her mouth, his gaze leveled on her speculatively.
“And how would you know that? Been spying on me when I leave school?”
“Never!” she snapped, though a tiny thrill of excitement surged through her as she realized that this was the longest conversation they had ever had. “Besides, I walk home. I’m not privileged enough to drive like you. How could I follow you?”
A laugh slipped from him before he could hide it. Challenge sparkled in his eyes. “How did you know that I drive then? You know what I drive too?”
“No!” she lied, flustered. “Get over yourself already. You’re not God’s gift to the world, all right?” Of course, she knew exactly what he drove, but if she tried to explain how she knew, Korey would turn it into something else.
Hot tingles shot across her skin as his hand suddenly slid from her wrist up to her elbow. “Then maybe I’m just a gift to you. Would that work?”
Bri tugged, trying to pull her arm out of his grasp, but his fingers tightened. A quick flip and her strange brands were on display. “What are those?” he asked, all traces of his earlier playfulness gone. Now his eyes were intense with interest.
Another hard yank and her arm finally slid free. Almost as a saving grace, the final bell rang, signaling the end of lunch period. With it, Bri stood, her skin still on fire from his touch. “Leave me alone, Korey Parsons. Come to the show or don’t, I really don’t care.” With those parting words, she stomped away towards the auditorium.
****
Not since the last tornado drill, had Jacobsville High’s auditorium been this packed. Already dressed in her first costume, Bri peeked through the curtains at the crowd. Students and teachers packed the room from end to end. The dance team was opening the show in less than fifteen minutes, and Bri was sweating.
“Nervous?” Yaya Daniels, a veteran dancer, winked as Bri bustled by on her way out the door. A tall willowy girl, Yaya always had a friendly smile for everyone. She and Bri had been friends for a while, and Bri trusted her opinions over anyone else she performed with. But not this time, though. Instead, she laughed.
“Me? Do I look even the slightest bit nervous? Never!” Still laughing, she slipped out of the dressing room. Deanna had promised to meet her just outside with the makeup bag that Bri had stupidly forgotten.
“Where is she?” Foot tapping impatiently, Bri peered down the hall, hoping to spy her friend approaching. The show started in ten minutes, and if Deanna EVER showed up, that gave Bri, at best, only five minutes to apply her makeup. As she waited, her fingers tugged at her thick curls, fluffing and stretching them so that they lay artfully over her shoulders.
Around her, performers rushed in and out through the dressing door, in various stages of makeup and costumes. Bri wished she could be like them, and be getting ready too. About to give up and head back inside, she was startled to see Gerald Johnson coming up the hall instead of Deanna.
With a big smile, he gave her a hug. “Ahh. Just the girl I wanted to see.”
“Not now, Gerald.” Pushing out of his grip, she let irritation slip into her tone. It was time to start lining up for the show, since Deanna clearly wasn’t going to show her face. She pushed on the door to head back inside.
His face fell. “Just wanted to say congratulations. I-,”
“Honestly Gerald, I really don’t have the time.” She could hear how harsh her voice sounded and quickly, Bri searched for words that would make it better. “Come back during intermission; we can talk then,” she called, before rushing inside to join her team.
****
It was no problem at all concentrating on the difficult moves in the first performance, a fast hip-hop number, even with the fact that she had a horrible body ache from sleeping on the couch. Add that to the fact of being pissed at Korey’s attitude, PLUS the fact that Aeryal hadn’t written her a good-bye message, she should have been in a terrible mood. But she wasn’t.
Today, she danced flawlessly, as if one with the music.
It was simple: she loved dancing, and it was her life. No one knew about her dreams to become a dance professional and leave Jacobsville forever. It was her ticket out of the lonely town where both her parents had grown up. Not that anything was wrong with that, but Bri didn’t intend to live there forever. Plus, she hated being sheltered. Having two over-protective parents who coddled her, scheduled her life, and otherwise treated her like a child, sucked. Bri wished her life were more like other NORMAL teens she knew: free. Shanice, Deanna, Chas, Rob, even Aeryal, all left their houses whenever and however they chose. As Mrs. Rubaine, Deanna’s mom, said, ‘They’re eighteen. If we can’t trust our kids now, then when’s it going to happen?’ The problem was that, in Bri’s parents’ minds, she was exactly that: a kid. Her size didn’t help either. It was hard to be taken seriously when everyone towered over you. If she went off and made it the way she wanted to, she would finally prove to her parents that she could take care of herself.
Intermission rolled around almost too soon for Bri, and she rushed off stage, adrenaline pumping from a job well done. Backstage, gossip flooded their dressing room, as girls ran back and forth ripping off costumes.
“Great job, girlie!” Yaya high-fived her, and Bri raced over to her bag. Now that they had a break and she was actually able to focus on something else other than performing, her stomach had started rumbling big-time. During lunch, she’d been so busy figuring out Korey’s motives that she’d scarcely eaten anything. ‘Maybe I should have taken some of those fries,’ she thought sardonically.
Downstairs in the lobby, the food concession would be jam-packed. She hated standing in lines, especially if it would be a long wait. Another loud stomach rumble made up her mind; she would try. Flipping a quick wave to Yaya, she stepped out of the room. Something caught her attention at the other end of the hall, and she squinted, trying to see what was off.
“Are you ready?”
Jumping at the voice that sounded right behind her ear, she whipped around. Her visitor wore a large smile, as large as the oversized cap and T-shirt covering his long, gangly limbs.
Confused, but still managing a smile, she nodded her head at Gerald. “Hi. What’s up? What are you doing here?”
Mild surprise blanketed his face for a second. “You told me to meet you here. Forgot already?”
“Come again?” Her brows shot up as she shook her head. Playfully, she asked, “Gerald, are you getting me mixed up with one of your many girlfriends? If you are, just say so. I’ll be reasonable about it.”
The younger boy just laughed. “Nope. You told me earlier to meet you here at intermission. And here I am. Besides, there’s no one else but Bri Brewley for me,” he joked. Not for the first time, Bri noticed that if Gerald’s thin frame ever filled out, he would be very handsome.
&n
bsp; “Ha ha.” True, she did recall talking to him earlier, but couldn’t remember saying anything like that. Then she froze. A shadowy figure entered her field of vision, way down the hall behind Gerald. Focusing on it, she was startled to see Korey’s familiar swagger walking away from them. ‘What is he doing back here?’ Not only were the dressing rooms deeper backstage than in other auditoriums, the architect who’d designed this one had placed them upstairs. So not only had Korey left his seat and made it through the unfamiliar backstage maze, he’d climbed all the way upstairs too. Why? Pushing past Gerald, she followed.
“Something the matter?” Gerald’s young face twisted with concern and Bri would have been amused that he cared so much about her problems, if she hadn’t been pre-occupied with a certain mysterious jerk. She kept walking, quickening her pace. Korey wasn’t stopping and had just turned a corner. There was no way she was going to lose him; it was Aeryal’s house all over again. He was skulking around where he had no right to be. To their left was a narrow door, which Bri knew led to a more restricted part of the building.
When Korey went through the door, Bri’s heart began its familiar pounding. Now she called out, “Korey! Wait!” The door closed behind him. Speeding up, she yanked the door open and discovered a staircase inside. Her heartbeat quickened; where was he leading her? By now, she was certain that he had to have seen her following him.
As the door swung shut behind her, a waft of musty air rolled over her from an old vent overhead. She took two more steps in until her toes touched the first step. At the foot of the stairs, she just stood and peered at the top, but even the stairs turned a corner and she could no longer see Korey. Bri started to climb. Slight wheezing from the vent masked the sound of her steps as she tiptoed her way up the stairs.
Fright ricocheted through her small frame as she reached the corner and there was still no sign of Korey. Now she could feel something in the air around her, something hovering. It was as if a malicious presence was hanging just above her shoulders, taunting her. But she continued up the narrow stair case, jaw set, determined to find Korey.
Evil steeped in the air as she finally stepped onto the top landing. She was, by the looks of it, up in the high wings of the auditorium, just under the roof. About twenty feet ahead of her was a railing that she figured overlooked the seating two floors below. It was every bit as creepy as the musty staircase had been. Sharp shadows roamed around the room, and the instant she took her first step, a loud creak rose into the air.
“Where did he go?” she swiveled her head around for any signs that Korey was there. The thing was, he could have gone in at least three directions: there was a door to her right, one to her left, and a narrow passageway, also left. She chose the passageway. As she neared, she realized that it wasn’t a room, more a catwalk bridge that spanned a short length to another section. Knowing that she was burning away her break time with this pointless chase, Bri couldn’t turn back. He wasn’t going to slip through her fingers this time.
The instant she had gone a few feet onto the catwalk, she knew something was wrong. Under her feet, the ground swayed and protested. At first, she held her ground, trying to offset the unsettling feeling of motion, but then as the first tremble started, Bri whirled and began to run back to the opening. The floor below her gave way with a loud screech of beams snapping and everything collapsed in a shower of dust. Darkness descended over her as she and the entire catwalk slammed to the floor below.
CHAPTER
9
Someone was lifting her out of the rubble. Her body felt heavy, numb, and try as she might, Bri couldn’t get herself to snap fully awake. She clung there, between semi-consciousness and darkness, fading in and out.
The voice, though familiar, wasn’t one she could place at the moment. “Bri,” it whispered urgently, “stay with me. Oh man….please be okay. Don’t die, just hang in there, all right? Stay with me.” Strong arms wrapped around her, carrying her away, somewhere, and Bri couldn’t be bothered with where. Her head throbbed all over and her savior’s arms were so comfy, that she didn’t see why she shouldn’t settle in for a cozy nap. She snuggled down.
Fingers brushed her forehead lightly, moving a mass of curls off her face, and lips moved close to her ear. “Stay with me,” it repeated firmly, and this time, she caught just a trace of the owner, but then the memory was gone. The soft lips, however, lingered and slowly grazed the side of her jaw.
A kiss. ‘Definitely a guy,’ she acknowledged before starting to slip into the darkness again.
He shook her briskly. “Wake up. You can’t go to sleep,” he said sharply, and Bri’s eyes drifted open. But her gaze was blurry. All she could see was an odd birthmark on the inside of her savior’s elbow, a pale star-shaped patch.
Finally, after an eternity of walking and a jarring headache, he laid her on something soft and Bri promptly closed her eyes. She couldn’t help it. She hurt. Bad.
“Wait here. I’ll get someone.”
****
“She’s waking up!”
Her eyes opened fully. Above her, Gerald hovered, worry etching his face. “Man, you scared us! When you were just lying there unconscious, we thought you were never going to wake up again.”
Moving her grainy eyes around the room, Bri realized that she was lying in the nurse’s office. Her head still felt as if a semi-truck had done its best to crush her skull, and her body seemed to be choosing that route too. Behind Gerald, Shanice and Deanna waited with the school nurse, all with concerned looks on their faces. Nurse Webster stepped forward.
“Don’t try to move just yet, Bri.” The nurse adjusted a cold compress that Bri just realized was on her forehead. “You have a mild concussion. Which is why we were all so concerned when you were passed out for that length of time. It will be tough, but you have to stay awake for a bit longer, dear. Just to ensure that there are no lasting effects from when you hit your head.”
Deanna smoothed her hair and fiddled with one gold hoop earring. “Part of the roof collapsed with you. Everyone had been looking for you to start the show again. Why were you up there?”
It wasn’t that she didn’t see the skeptical look in Deanna’s eyes; she did. But her mind was on other things. Her savior, and literally so, had truly saved her when he’d repeatedly insisted that she stay awake, even as she kept trying to go to sleep. Going to sleep with a concussion would have been the worst thing she could have done. She might not have woken up. Bri stretched out her hand to Gerald, grateful. It had to have been him; Gerald always worried about her. “Thanks.”
Clasping her hand, Gerald gave her a warm smile. “Just try to get some rest. I’ll go find your parents. They don’t know that you fell as yet.”
Shanice nodded. “Deanna and I will grab your stuff from the dressing room and take them to your parents’ car.”
Bri watched her three friends leave. Deanna’s question had been spot-on, and it would come up again, especially once her parents got involved. Why had she been running around in the auditorium roof? It was an issue that she would deal with when she got to it, just as she would deal with Korey later.
Chills ran down her spine, though, as it occurred to her that she’d been alone with Korey in the wings when she’d had her accident, and Korey was the same person who had drawn her up there. Had he set a trap for her?
A memory of the dark presence cloaking her on the stairs drifted back. She hadn’t actually seen Korey again after he went up the stairs. Was it possible that Korey could fly? That he was the evil presence on the stairs, and had tried to kill her on the catwalk?
CHAPTER
10
“Outta my way, outta my way!” Stepping back, she watched two guys carry a cooler of ice into the house.
They were at Shanice’s house. Shanice and Chas were throwing a pre-game party in honor of the Jacobsville Jaguars game against Petersen High. Homecoming started with the kick-off the day before, so there was no school tomorrow, which was perfect for the amount o
f partying her friends intended to do. As Bri moved toward the laughter on the porch, she smiled. Pre-game, as she had noticed, meant getting drunk before the game, then there was the actual game itself, and the after-party was there to wrap things up nicely with more alcohol. Not that she minded, Bri was always up for a wild party or two, even if she didn’t drink.
And since it was Shanice’s house, Bri’s parents had allowed her to attend the party for a couple of hours, even with her concussion from the day before. She’d had to promise that either Chas or Shanice would drive her right home at 9:00 pm.
Everyone loved Shanice’s parties. At least twenty of their friends crowded into the living room, slouched in chairs or tossing back drinks. Through the glass door, Bri could see Deanna on the porch telling one of her famous, loud, drunk stories, with a crowd of kids around her.
One thing about Deanna, she could sure entertain a crowd. Bri had to admit, she envied her friend that talent. Not to mention that, whatever she was out there saying, had to be hilarious, by the way everyone was howling with laughter.