Knight Flyers

by Ann McCune

  “You guys are such a pain,” I said under my breath.

  “What was that, sweetheart?” Mom asked, looking up at me.

  “Nothing, Mom.” I rolled my eyes.

  She picked up my now empty plate and took it to the sink. “If today gets to be too much, call me and I’ll come get you,” Mom said as we headed to the door.

  “I will, but it will be fine, Mom.” I gave her a hug, before Billy and I went out the front door to his truck. The sun was coming up over the mountains and it looked like it was going to be a clear day, but it was still cold.

  Once we were on the road, I started thinking about what people were going to say when they saw my multicolored face, and partially shaved head. “Everyone at school is going to want to know what happened, and I’m not really ready to talk about it.”

  “Everyone already knows what happened. You know how the rumor mill works. The EMTs told their kids and they told everyone.” Billy looked at me from the corner of his eye. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t your fault. Everyone will be glad you’re back.”

  “I know it wasn’t my fault, but you know how I hate attention.” My pulse quickened as we came closer to the spot where the moose had clobbered me. I looked over to Billy, he was driving safely and looking around to make sure nothing was going to jump in front of us. When we reached the spot where I hit the moose there was no sign of the accident, the snow must have covered it all up.

  “Where’s the moose?” Usually animals hit by cars were pulled to the side of the road and left there until spring. “Mom told me they had to put it down, but don’t they usually leave it on the side of the road?”

  “The game warden took it. Since it was a bull he didn’t want anyone to cut his antlers off. He was going to see if the meat was still good. If it is, he’s going to donate it to the food bank.” Billy sounded serious, which didn’t happen very often.

  “Well, at least some good will come of it. I should get to keep the antlers after what he did to my Jeep.”

  “I’ll tell him next time I see him. He will probably say you were poaching since you hit it out of season and without a license.”

  I laughed. “He’s such a hard-ass. Did I miss anything at school?”

  “We have a bunch of new kids. They all moved here during spring break. I guess their parents are part of Knight Inc, the cyber security firm, who moved into the Freeman Mansion.”

  “How many new kids are we talking about?” I pulled my eyebrows together.

  “Four so far. Two in our class, one sophomore, and one freshman. It sounds like there may be more by fall.”

  “Wow, when was the last time we had a new kid? Have you met any of them yet?”

  “Yeah, I have a couple classes with Shawn and one with Jo. They sat with us at lunch yesterday. You’ll like them. Actually, Shawn is the guy you saw at the gas station on Sunday.”

  “What?” I tensed, every muscle in my body locked and pain radiated from my neck into my head. I was going to have to see the guy I had been dreaming about? “Do I have any classes with him?”

  “Yeah, he’s in our history class. Why are you so worried?” Billy gave me a sideways glance as we pulled onto the highway.

  “I made a fool of myself the first time I saw him.” I was scrambling for an excuse; I didn’t want to tell Billy about the dreams. “I hate not making a good first impression.”

  “He’s pretty chill, and I doubt he could see you through the glare on the garage door. I bet he won’t even know you’re the same person, especially with the bruises.” We pulled into the parking lot of the high school and I forced myself to take a deep breath.

  Billy was right, I had nothing to worry about. When he saw me, I was covered in oil and wearing my coveralls. There was no way he would recognize me as the same person.

  The day crawled by, my head hurt, and it was hard to concentrate. I wanted to go home and take a nap, but I wasn’t going to let the pain get me anymore behind in my school work than I already was. When lunch came around, the entire school had seen the damage the moose had done.

  I went to my table in the cafeteria only to find the guy from my dreams sitting in my spot and the new girl sitting across from him. I wanted to turn around and find a closet to eat in, but Billy had already seen me. Frustrated, I went to the end of the table and sat. I didn’t know how to act around a guy I had never met in real life but who was starring in my dreams.

  “There you are,” Billy said. “Where have you been?”

  “Mrs. Webber wanted to make sure I was doing okay. Why is everyone acting so overprotective?” I opened my lunch bag and pulled out the sandwich and apple my mom packed.

  “Because hitting a moose and getting an antler to the head is a big deal,” Tommy said, before taking a bite of his pizza.

  “Plus, look at you,” Sam said, holding up his hands. “You look like you got your ass kicked.”

  “Thank you for making me feel so much better, Sam. Do you think I don’t know how bad I look? I wish I could wave a magic wand and make the bruises go away, but I can’t.” I blew out a breath and took a bite of my sandwich.

  “Guys. Leave her alone. You know she hates attention,” Billy said, browbeating the guys. “Hey, have you met Jo and Shawn yet?”

  “No,” I had forgotten that Billy told me his name on the way to school that morning and remembering while being introduced to him was not what I needed. “Hi, I’m Elizabeth, but you can call me Liz.” I nodded my head to Shawn.

  “Nice to meet you,” he nodded back with a knowing grin on his face. “I’m Shawn.”

  “You too.” I almost said, but your friends call you Dickhead, right? but I held my tongue. It was only a few dreams, right? “You must be Jo.” I shifted my gaze to the girl sitting across from Shawn.

  “Yeah, nice to meet you. Billy told us all about you, sorry about the moose.” She nodded giving me a smile.

  “Thanks.” I smiled, then went back to my lunch. If they were going to sit with us I hoped she wasn’t like Tracy; obsessed with hair, makeup, and clothes.

  I didn’t have a lot of girlfriends because most of the girls at school were very girly-girl and I was not. There were a few girls who sat with us at lunch, and I considered them friends, but I usually ended up hanging out with the guys. They were a lot less drama than girls.

  I tuned everyone out as they started talking about car accidents they had been in. I just wanted the day to be over already. When I was done eating, I got up to leave.

  “Liz, where are you going?” Billy asked, giving me a confused look.

  “I want to get to class early, I have a bunch of work to catch up on.” I crinkled my paper bag and took a step back.

  “I’m sure Mr. Pearson won’t mind. Stay and hang out.” I watched Jo glare at him and wondered what that was about.

  “We can hang out when I’m caught up with all my homework. I’ll see you in history.” I left the cafeteria, throwing my trash away at the door.

  I was pulling my coveralls on when I felt someone come up behind me. I turned and almost ran into a chest. I took a step back and looked up. Shawn was standing there with his coveralls already on looking at me expectantly.

  “Can I do something for you, Shawn?” I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t want to treat him like the jerk like he was in my dreams, but the dreams were so real it was hard not to.

  “Yeah, I noticed you were really quiet at lunch. Are you alright?”

  “I would be if people stopped asking me if was alright. My head hurts, I totaled my Jeep, and everyone wants to know if I’m alright. I’m not alright, but there isn’t anything you or anyone else can do to make me feel better right now.” Why was I being so mean to him? “Look I’m sorry, it’s been a crappy day and…” I almost said, you were a jerk in my dream last night, but I caught myself. “I want everyone to stop treating me like a cripple.”

  “Give them till the end of the week, then they will be used to it.” He gave me the bright smile I remembered fro
m my dreams and I could not stop my cringe. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “This is going to sound crazy, but I keep having these dreams about you,” I said, feeling my face turn red. I hoped the bruises covered the blush, because I didn’t think I had ever blushed harder.

  His face went slack with disbelief, before he smiled again. “You dreamed of me before we met?”

  “I saw you getting gas on Sunday, I work there.”

  “I must have made quite an impression at the gas station, huh?” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

  “No, I have no idea why I dreamed of you. Maybe I’m psychic since you are acting just like you did in my dream.” I turned and went over to the motor I was overhauling. I put on a pair of disposable gloves and got to work.

  He followed me laughing. “How is a guy supposed to act when a girl he just met says she been dreaming about him?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never told anyone about my dreams before, but I would think a sensible person wouldn’t make a big deal about it.”

  “I don’t mean to make a big deal about it. It’s flattering.” He held his hands up. “Will you tell me what you dreamed?”

  I looked over at him. His unblinking stare told me he was starting to take me seriously, almost like he was worried. “Fine, the first one was when I was knocked unconscious by the moose. It was super realistic, there was a monster or a goblin trying to eat me, suck me dry or something. You busted the door down and killed it. There was a woman there too, I have no idea who she was, but you saved me, then gloated about it. You smelled disgusting.” I watched his face as I talked, it went from smug, to concerned, to horrified before he hid it behind an obviously fake smile.

  “Then, last night we were in a classroom and you were being a cocky ass, trying to get me to kiss you in appreciation for saving me from the goblin, or whatever was trying to kill me the night I hit the moose.” His eyes were huge once I finished telling him about the dream.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but Mr. Pearson called us to the front of the shop to start class.

  I listened and tried to take notes, but Shawn was distracting me. He kept staring at me, but whenever I looked over to him he would look away. I almost regretted telling him about the dream, but at least he was leaving me alone.

  After class, I went back to my locker and got my history book out, wondering where Shawn had gone. I figured he would want to talk to me again, but he was nowhere around when I left the shop.

  When I got to history, Billy was sitting in his normal seat, and I took my seat next to him. “How’s it going?”

  “I’ll be happy when this day is over.” I opened my history book to review what I missed the day before.

  “Do you want to go home? We can leave now.” Billy looked concerned.

  “No, I want everyone to stop treating me like I’m dying and need to be coddled.” I blew out a breath and looked at the ceiling. “Can you just treat me like you normally do?”

  “I’ll try, but you look like you are in a lot of pain.” His eyes were doing that sad ASPCA thing again.

  I rolled my eyes just as Shawn walked into the room. He took a seat in the front row almost as far away from us as he could get. Had I done something to make him mad?

  “Shawn,” Billy called. “Why don’t you sit over here with us?”

  “I need to sit closer to the white board to see,” Shawn said, turning to look at Billy.

  “Alright,” Billy said, looking confused. He turned to me. “He sat back here with me yesterday and was reading the board just fine.”

  “I don’t know, maybe he lost a contact or something.” I had a feeling it had something to with what I told him about my dreams.

  After class, Billy and I watched Shawn practically run out of the room. We went to Billy’s locker first, and he grabbed his bag and coat then we went to mine where I did the same. As we walked out the front of the school we watched Shawn get into a brand-new, lifted, matt-black Jeep Rubicon and start it up.

  “Wow, nice car,” I said, trying not to drool.

  “Yeah, he said his dad bought it for him because he needed a four-wheel drive up here. I wish my dad would buy me a brand-new truck because we lived up here.” Billy unlocked the passenger-side door of his truck and opened it for me.

  I grabbed the chicken bar and pulled myself up into the seat. “Yeah, no kidding. I wonder if my parents will even let me get another car after what happened.”

  Billy shut the door, went around to the driver-side door, and got in. “They will. How else will you get to work?”

  “Oh crap, I need to call Bob. I was supposed to work this afternoon.” I was so mad my phone didn’t survive the accident, there wasn’t a lot of cell phone service in Twisted Pines, but I felt lost without it.

  “Don’t worry, your mom called him. You have the week off. Sorry about your phone.” He pulled out of the parking lot and turned towards Twisted Pines’ only tow yard and auto body shop.

  “Man, this day isn’t getting any better,” I mumbled to myself as we sped down the road.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Can you fix it, Phil?” I asked, looking at the squashed front end of my Jeep. The radiator was sitting ninety degrees from where it should have been, both fenders were dented, the hood was caved in from the weight of the moose, and the windshield was gone. The dash looked like someone had fun with a razor blade. There was dried blood and vomit all over the seat and floor, and there was a chunk missing from the steering wheel. I took a step back and put my hands to my midsection.

  “Your insurance adjuster was here this morning. He is going to total it. I’m sorry, Liz, I know you loved your Jeep.” Phil put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I fought back tears; it was stupid to cry over a car, but I loved it. “Do you want to get your stuff out?”

  “Why don’t you give us a few minutes?” Billy asked, pulling me into his arms. I fell into him and let the tears fall, oblivious to Phil walking away. When I was finally done crying, I pulled back from Billy.

  “Let’s put him to bed.” I went to the driver-side door and yanked it open.

  “I can do it if you want.” Billy put a hand on my lower back and tried to steer me away from what was left of my Jeep.

  “No, I got it. I just didn’t realize how bad it was. I was really lucky.”

  “Now do you understand why everyone is so concerned?” He put his hands on his hips.

  “Yeah, I get it now.” I took a deep breath and started going through the glove box. Billy and I pulled my stuff out and put everything in trash bags since everything needed to be cleaned or thrown out. It was too cold to go through everything in the tow yard, it could wait until I got home. As we pulled out of the parking lot, I waved goodbye to my Jeep. It had a good life, now it was time for it to go to Jeep heaven.

  “Just put the bags on the floor,” I said to Billy, dropping the bag I was carrying in front of the work bench. “I need to make some room on the bench for us to work.”

  “Okay. I’ll go get the last bag while you make room.” He dropped the bag next to me and left. I started moving boxes of Christmas decorations off the work bench and pushed them onto the third shelf against the wall, my dad had forgotten to put them away after Christmas. I had them all up except for one. Something was already on the shelf, but I couldn’t see what it was. I got the stepladder from the other side of the room and set it up. I was about to start climbing up when Billy came back with the last bag.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” he asked, dropping the bag, and pulling me away from the ladder. “Girls with concussions are not allowed on ladders.”

  “Fine,” I wasn’t in the mood to argue with him. “I can’t get this last box up there; something’s in the way.”

  “I’ll check it out.” Billy climbed the ladder and pulled out a small tin box, about fourteen inches around and six inches tall. “It looks like more Christmas decorations. It must have fallen out of the box.” He handed it to me, and I ran my hands over th
e dusty lid.

  “I’ve never seen this before. It looks old.” The Santa on the cover was dressed in blue instead of red and some of the paint had chipped off. I put it on the bench and picked up the last box. “Here, since you are already up there, can you put this on the shelf?”

  “Yeah,” Billy said, taking the box from me, and sliding it into place. “What do you want to do with the tin?”

  “I’ll ask my mom about it later. Let’s go through this stuff, so we can go in and get warm.” I pushed the tin aside and pulled one of the bags onto the work bench.

  We spent an hour going through the bags making three piles: the trash pile, keep pile, and needed cleaning pile. When we were done, the only thing left on the work bench was the tin. “Are you coming in or heading home?” I asked, ready to get inside and make some hot chocolate. My fingers hurt with cold and my nose was running.

  “I better head home, I need to get my chores done then start on homework.” Billy walked toward the side door on the garage. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

  “Thanks for your help with everything. See you tomorrow.” I picked up my backpack and the tin, then went up to my room.

  I didn’t have a huge bedroom, but it was all I needed. I painted the walls dark-gray the year before, then covered it with posters of military planes and Jeeps. I had a full-size bed with a wrought iron headboard pushed up against the wall with a fluffy, white, down comforter on top of it and a dreamcatcher hanging above it on the wall. I had a white desk in front of a large window where I could see town and the lake beyond during the day. My matching dresser was against the wall opposite the bed. My small closet was filled with various stages of jeans, from newish, to ripped, to covered in oil, along with my hoodies, and T-shirts. I had a Jack and Jill bathroom, but since it connected to the guest bedroom, I didn’t really have to share it.

  I set the tin on my desk then took a shower. I felt like I was covered in blood and vomit, even though my hands were clean.