Shadow Keeper
Page 2
“There’s Paul.” Carson motioned with a flick of his hand to the south entrance of the school. “But I don’t see Sherry.”
“Maybe they broke up.” I glanced around to see if I could spot her. “Paul told me they’ve been fighting a lot.”
“Hey, Paul,” Carson said when we reached him. “Where’s the wife? Did she dump you?”
My eyes rolled to the top of my head at his blunt remark.
“She didn’t dump me.” Paul smacked him on the arm with his fist. “She just hit the snooze button too many times and now she’s running late.”
Carson punched back. Paul winced, but would never admit it hurt. Tall, slim, and cool under pressure, he made a great quarterback. He could spiral the football sixty yards down the field and make it land right in my hands, but he wasn’t a physical match for Carson’s solid build.
Paul’s gaze darted to me as he rubbed at his arm. His mouth twisted into a lopsided grin. “Alexander, how was your date the other night?”
I glanced away from his scrutinizing stare. He would bring up Saturday night. Now, I’d have to listen to the two of them give me crap for the next ten minutes before the bell rang. “It was all right.”
“Dang,” Carson said. “I forgot all about your date with Regina. So, what’d you think?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“X–man.” Carson shoved at my shoulder. “You went out with the skankiest girl in school. You’ve got to give us details.”
“No, I don’t.”
“What happened?” Paul asked. “Wouldn’t she put out?”
From the smirk on his face, Paul must’ve already heard the details, but Carson looked like he didn’t have a clue.
“Regina always puts out.” Carson’s mouth twisted into a knowing grin. “Even on a first date.”
“Especially on a first date.” Paul’s mouth showed the same grin. “So, how was it?”
“You already know nothing happened.”
“What?” Carson’s eyes opened wide. “You’ve got to be kidding. She turned you down?”
I shook my head. “I turned her down.”
“Yeah, right.” He let out a chuckle. “Like you’d turn down your first chance to get laid.”
“You’re wrong. We went to a movie, and then I took her home.” I didn’t think his eyes could get any wider, but they did.
“Why?” he asked.
I shrugged while thinking how to explain it without sounding like a big wuss. I felt sorry for Regina. She wanted everyone to like her, but the way she chose to become popular only made the kids laugh at her behind her back. “All she talked about was the other guys she’d been out with.”
“So?” Carson looked dumbfounded.
“So, I didn’t want to be the guy she talks about on her next date with someone else. And I didn’t want to take advantage of her.”
“Take advantage?” Paul’s dark eyebrows lifted. “She’s broadcast it all over school that she’s going to sleep with every senior on the football team. That’s her choice.”
“Maybe, but I didn’t want to be the next guy on her list to end up with a stupid nickname.” I gave Paul a deliberate stare. “Did you know she calls you Minute Man?”
Paul shrugged as if unconcerned with his poor sexual rating. “I wasn’t trying to please her, only myself.”
“Yeah, but Regina can’t keep her mouth shut,” I reminded him. “What are you going to do when the gossip gets back to Sherry?”
His face scrunched into a grimace. “She’s already heard about my nickname, but I told her it was because Regina thinks I’m patriotic since I’m always wearing tee shirts with flags on them.”
I shook my head. “I can’t believe Sherry would fall for a lame excuse like that. She’s not stupid.”
“I know she’s not.” He glanced down. “But I’m tired of her always being suspicious of everything I do.”
“Don’t you think she has good reason? Besides, there are only about forty kids in our senior class. Everybody talks to everyone else. She’s bound to find out the truth.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Paul said, but from the expression on his face, it did. “I’m probably going to breakup with her anyway. Sherry wants to stay a virgin until she gets married. I need a girlfriend who will give me more.”
Carson snickered. “You mean like Regina?”
Paul’s head snapped up, and he glared at him. “No, you dumbass. A nice girl like Sherry, but one who wants to do more than just hold hands.”
“Good luck with that,” Carson said. “When word gets out that you were screwing around on Sherry, no nice girl is going to want you.”
“Here she comes now,” Paul said in a hushed voice. “Everybody shut up about Regina.”
We all clammed up and waited for Sherry. When she reached Paul, he put his hands on her waist and pulled her to him. She turned her face and his kiss brushed across her short, brown hair. He released her without saying a word.
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” Carson said. “You don’t need any extra sleep. You’re pretty enough already.”
“Thanks.” Her lips curved into a smile. “You just made my day.”
The conversation lulled, so I jumped in. “Hey, Sherry. Why’d you oversleep? Did you stay up all weekend studying for a big test?”
“No, Brendon.” Her smile slipped. “I had things on my mind.”
“You can’t call him Brendon, remember?” Paul made a weird sound, like a forced laugh. “He’s Smoochy Lips now.”
“What?” I looked at Paul, not certain I’d heard him right.
“From the look on your face,” Sherry said, “I’m guessing Paul hasn’t told you.”
“Told me what?”
“Let me tell him.” Paul stepped to the center of the group. “Regina gave you the nickname of Smoochy L—”
“Please,” Sherry uttered between gritted teeth. “I do not want to hear her name, especially from you.”
His shoulders slumped, and he glanced away.
Carson didn’t seem to catch the tension between Paul and Sherry. “Smoochy Lips?” He burst into his donkey laugh. “No wonder you took her straight home,” he said between gulps of laughter. “No telling what name Regina would’ve come up with if you weren’t any good in the sack.”
“Shut up, Carson.” Paul took a step closer. “Nobody wants to hear about Regina or her stupid nicknames.”
Carson continued to laugh. “I know you don’t want to hear it—Minute Man.”
Paul shuffled his feet around on the sidewalk, and his hands tightened into fists.
“Stop it.” Sherry grabbed his wrist. “You’ll both get kicked out of school.”
Unsure if Paul intended to throw a punch, I stepped between them. I dug my elbows into each chest and shoved them apart. “Let’s forget about it. Who cares about any stupid nicknames?”
“She calls you Hairless,” Paul shouted around me to Carson.
“So?” Carson puffed out his chest, and his arms came up like he was going for a tackle. “That’s because I had to shave all my body hair to show my muscles for the junior body building championship at the county fair.”
“That was two months ago, but you still shave your body.” Paul’s tone changed to disgust. “That’s just weird.”
“Oh, yeah?” Carson said. “Well, I can always let my hair grow back, but you’re going to have to—” The ringing school bell drowned out the rest of his words.
“Let’s get to class.” I grabbed at Carson’s shoulder and pushed him toward the entrance, but he shrugged off my grip and turned back.
“Wow.” His tongue almost fell out of his mouth. “Get a load of that machine.”
We all glanced at the vehicle pulling up to the curb about thirty feet from where we stood.
“That’s a Hummer H3,” Carson said.
“It looks brand new.” Paul put his hand to his forehead to shade his eyes. “And check out that burnt orange color. That is so tight.”
I nodded in agreement. If the school gave grades for the knowledge of automobiles, Carson would get an A.
“Do any of you know who the driver is?” Sherry asked.
The glare of the sun on the tinted windows made it impossible to see inside. I glanced at the others, but they all shook their head.
“I don’t know who it belongs to,” Carson said, “but that is one sweet ride.”
The passenger door swung open. From my angle, all I made out was the sandal clad foot of a female stepping onto the curb. A well toned, bare calf appeared at the bottom edge of the door. As she stepped away from the car, my eyes scanned up the denim skirt that began at her knees and skimmed up her slim thighs and nicely shaped bottom. “Sweet is right,” I agreed.
“Damn,” Carson said. “I’d love to take that for a test drive.”
“Same here, but you’ll have to get in line behind me.”
“Brendon!” Sherry gave me a shocked look, but she quickly broke into giggles. “You’d better behave yourself.”
“What?” I raised my eyebrows and tried to press an innocent expression on my face. “I was talking about the car.”
“Sure you were.”
I glanced back at the girl. Her one hand gripped the open door. Her other held a backpack. She wore a blue tee shirt over a pink one. I never understood why girls wore two shirts. If they’re cold, why don’t they just put on a jacket?
“I’ll be fine, Mom,” the girl said to the driver. “I’ll wait right here for you to pick me up.”
She stepped back and shut the door. When she turned around, her head was down. Her long, blonde hair hung loose and I couldn’t see her face. Just as she reached the ramp that led to the entrance of the school, she glanced at the four of us standing there. Her gaze darted to the sidewalk. She threaded her fingers through her hair, drawing it back across her face.
One glance was all I needed to catch the sparkle in her blue eyes. She didn’t wear any makeup—not that I noticed. Her eyelashes weren’t smeared with black goop, and her dark blonde eyebrows were undefined. Her clear skin glowed, and her lips glistened in a natural rosy shade. She seemed really shy. This might be the only time I’d be this close to her, so I made my move. “You must be new here.”
She shot me a quick look before glancing away, but her gaze returned, and she stared into my eyes.
I flashed my best smile. The corners of her mouth twitched, but she glanced down and her hair fell across her face. I couldn’t tell if she finished her smile, so I searched for something to say to make her look at me again, but my mind went blank.
Sherry came to the rescue. She thrust out her hand and introduced herself.
The new girl shook Sherry’s hand. “My name is Lisa Stratton.”
Lisa. I burned the name into my skull.
“These are my friends.” Sherry motioned with a flick of her hand as she introduced each of us.
When Sherry got to my name, Lisa looked directly at me and smiled. “You have really nice eyes.”
I stumbled for something clever to say, but her compliment threw me completely off guard and I blurted out the first thing that popped into my head. “My little brother thinks my eyes are weird.”
She shook her head as if disagreeing. Her gaze drifted, and she stared at the school entrance. Her body shifted like she intended to bolt for the front doors.
“Do you know where your first class is?” Sherry asked.
Lisa wrinkled her forehead, then thrust her hand into the backpack and pulled out a white sheet of paper.
Sherry craned her neck to look at the schedule. “Oh good, we have first period together. I’ll walk there with you and show you where it’s at. And you’re in my history class and gym.” Her finger slid to a spot halfway down the page. “You have Advanced Spanish right after lunch. Brendon’s in that class.” Sherry glanced at me, a sly smile on her lips. “I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to walk you to the last class so you don’t get lost.”
“Absolutely.” I fought the huge grin tugging at my lips. “It’ll be my pleasure.”
Chapter Three
Calculus class ended and I dashed down the hallway to the lockers to stash the books and snag my lunch. I was about to head outside when I spotted Carson dragging his feet down the hallway.
“Move it, Carson. It’s lunchtime.”
“What’s the hurry, X–man?” He dialed the combination on the padlock and opened his locker. “Are you that starved?”
“We’re meeting Paul and Sherry at the Burger Barn.” I grabbed the books from his hand and threw them inside the locker. “I don’t want to be late.”
“I’m in no hurry to listen to them fight.”
“Neither am I, but Sherry is bringing Lisa.”
His face scrunched up. “Who’s Lisa?”
I slammed the locker shut and spun the dial on the combination. “Don’t you remember meeting the new girl this morning?”
“Oh, yeah.” His eyes lit up. “The orange Hummer.”
“Yeah.” I shoved my forearm against his shoulder and nudged him to the exit.
“Say, do you think you can talk her into giving us a ride in the Hummer?”
“I don’t know.” I led the way out the door and cut across the grass. “Taking a ride in her car is the last thing on my mind right now.”
“You like her.” Carson started with his donkey laugh. “That’s why you’re in such a hurry.”
“Yes, I do. So don’t mess this up for me. All right?”
“Don’t worry, man. I got your back.”
The Burger Barn sat kitty-cornered to the school grounds. As we crossed Yolo Street, I spotted Paul sitting outside at one of the wooden picnic tables. Sherry and Lisa sat across from him. I quickly formulated a plan. “Okay, Carson, you have to sit by Paul so it won’t look too obvious when I sit next to Lisa.”
“I don’t want to sit by Paul. He’s a butthead.”
“No, he’s not.”
“Man, he’s cheating on Sherry.”
My anxiety level cranked up a notch. “That’s between Paul and Sherry. I think she already suspects, so don’t go blurting anything out.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m not going to tell her. Besides, I don’t want to be the one to hurt her.”
Carson walked around the table to where Paul sat, but instead of sitting next to him, he plopped his butt on the tabletop and put his feet on the bench. “Where’s my lunch?”
“You have to go to the window and order it, you dumbass,” Paul said.
“Oh, wow,” he said in a voice heavy with sarcasm. “I never thought of that.”
I tried to ignore my two obnoxious friends as I took a seat next to Lisa.
“Paul.” Sherry crossed her arms and glared at him. “I thought we agreed not to use profanity.”
“That wasn’t a swear word,” he insisted. “Ass is in the bible.”
When she continued to glare, Carson hopped off the table. “You want anything, X–man?”
Shaking my head was all I could manage. He knew I never bought anything for lunch. Suddenly, I felt self–conscious. I was trying to impress the new girl, but how could I do that if I ate my lunch from a brown paper bag?
Lisa turned on the bench and nodded to the sack on the table. “Do you have food allergies too?”
“Allergies?” I glanced at the purple padded lunch box in front of her. “No. Do you?”
“Peanuts.” Her lips twisted into a grimace. “My mom worries that the fast food places use peanut oil to cook with, so she always packs my lunch.”
I almost went with the same story. The alternative was to blurt out the truth: My family’s poor, and I didn’t have money to buy lunch.
“That looks good.” She leaned closer. “What is it?”
“Roast beef.” I unwound the plastic wrap from the bread roll stuffed with thin slices of beef,
and pulled sliced tomatoes and lettuce from a different baggy to add to the sandwich. “My grandma always bags these separate so the bread doesn’t turn soggy before I get a chance to eat it.”
“That’s so sweet.” Her lips curled into a smile. “Do you live with your grandmother?”