Betraying Innocence

by Phoenix, Airicka

  “Caroline French,” her mom tittered, offering Mayor Andrews her hand. “You have such a lovely town.”

  Mayor Andrews smiled. It was the kind of smile that required a warning sign, something that said: Do not look at directly. Blindness may occur.

  “Why, thank you! I like to think it’s a group effort. Everyone does their part. I merely stand around looking important.”

  He and Mom shared a laugh. Ana stole a glance towards the waitress, wondering if it would be rude to ask for some service now. But the woman seemed to be completely engrossed by the Mayor and his shiny, white teeth. It was like waving tinfoil in front of someone with ADD.

  “My wife and I were actually going to swing by and say hello, but Krissie wanted to wait until you had settled in. Perhaps we could have a barbeque at our house this weekend and you can tell us all about how you are liking our fair town.”

  Her mother gasped like that was the best news she’d heard … ever!

  “That would be wonderful! I will discuss it with my husband, but I don’t see why not.”

  Mayor Andrews continued to smile. “Fantastic!” He reached into the lapel of his blazer and removed a card. “Just give me a call and we can sort out the details.” He then turned his green eyes on Ana. “I know Vincent will be delighted to see you again.” His smile faded and it was like someone had turned off the sun. “Especially after that unfortunate incident yesterday.”

  And there it was…

  “Yes, that was terrible,” her mom said, smile vanishing as well. “But Ana is fine. It was just a case of stress. The doctors are confident that she will make a full recovery with some rest.”

  The smile was back, wider, brighter if possible. “Oh that is wonderful news! I know Vincent has been distraught over the incident.”

  Her mom’s gray eyes swerved and pinned Ana. Her perfectly plucked eyebrow lifted. “Vincent sounds like a very nice young man.”

  Mom, don’t! She pleaded with her eyes.

  Mayor Andrews chuckled. “Oh I like to pretend he gets that from me, but unfortunately, that’s entirely his mother.”

  Her mother was still staring at her, the cogs turning behind her eyes. “Are you and Vincent friends, Ana?”

  Ana balled her fingers beneath the table. “He’s my Chem partner,” she said through gritted teeth, letting them draw their own conclusions.

  Mayor Andrews nodded. “Vincent has taken quite a liking to Ana. I think he mentioned something about asking you if you would like him to stick around for the next few days, just to make sure your healing progresses without further incident. He could pick you up and drop you off before and after school and keep you company during school hours. I know it’s not easy being new and Vincent has some very nice friends who would be happy to take you in.”

  Like a lost puppy?

  “That would be wonderful!” her mom exclaimed. “Ana has been having some trouble catching the bus in the mornings. Another classmate has been kind enough to drive her.”

  All signs of humor died on Mayor Andrews’ face. “Yes, I’ve heard. Raphael Ramirez, am I correct?”

  Ana felt herself stiffen at the way he said Rafe’s name, like it was dirty. It reminded her of the way Principal Finnegan had said it on her first day.

  “Yes,” her mom answered for her.

  The Mayor pinched his lips, practically oozing with his disappointment now. He sighed heavily.

  Her mom’s enthusiasm died. Her hands dropped into her lap. “Is something wrong?”

  Shut up! Shut up! Ana thought, trying to telepathically send those signals to the Mayor.

  But he didn’t get them. “Well, I consider it a badge of honor that I personally know every person who lives here in Chipawaha Creek and have the greatest respect for most of them and I do not encourage gossiping, but Mr. Ramirez…” He rubbed his jaw, staring off somewhere into space as if searching for the adequate words. “Comes with a very disturbing past. It would be best for Ana if she was a little choosier about her friends. The girls who associate with Mr. Ramirez have a certain … reputation, in town for their loose morals and I would really like for Ana not to join that list.”

  “Is he dangerous?” her mother gasped.

  “Oh yeah, in a big way!” Wanda laughed, still making no attempt to take their order or go away. “The boy could make a nun sin! Just looking at him will melt your clothes—”

  “Wanda…” Mayor Andrews frowned at her.

  Turning a pretty pink, the woman dropped her gaze. “I’ll just … get some waters.”

  They watched her turn and hurry through the doors behind the counter.

  Mayor Andrews turned back to the table, his smile pleasant all over again. “But I am positive that you have nothing to worry about!” He gave Ana an encouraging wink. “Ana looks like she has a good head on her shoulders.” His gaze was penetrating as he bore into Ana with the look of a priest gazing upon a sinner. “I am confident that she will make the right sort of friends.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Ana

  After first period on Thursday, Ana was ready to go home. There weren’t enough drugs, money or hot guys in the world that could keep her from exploding on the next person who looked at her and started whispering to the person beside them. Already, she’d had one teacher, a teacher she’d never even had before, ask if she would be fainting so that he could clear away the tables. Like that could be predicted. The fact that he’d been sardonic in his comment only made matters worse.

  By her second class, Ana was ready to chew steel. The girl sitting behind her in Canadian History actually raised her hand and asked to have her seat changed, claiming she didn’t feel safe sitting so close to Ana and her demons. What made the mortifying situation worse was that the teacher actually allowed it. Ana didn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t feel safe. It wasn’t as if she was a threat to anyone but herself.

  Then, she walked into Phys. Ed and wished she could go back to Canadian History. In the back, dressed in black shorts and a black t-shirt, Rafe was twisting and bending his upper body in what was supposed to be stretches, but had every girl in the gym watching with riveted fascination as his shirt stretched across his chest or lifted just enough to tease them with a strip of golden skin. Any other time, Ana would have happily joined the group, maybe not so avidly, but not this time. This time, she was too busy wondering if it was too late to turn tail and run before she was spotted. Maybe there was just enough time to switch classes before anyone noticed.

  “Wendy!”

  Ana jumped. She whipped around just as long arms wrapped around her throat and squeezed.

  “We have the same gym class!” Jack shrieked into her ear, making her throbbing skull reach new heights of pain.

  “Jack … air … needed…”

  The strangling hold vanished and Jack bounced back a step. “Sorry.”

  Rubbing her bruised throat, Ana stared at the girl, wondering how anyone that peppy could wear so much black.

  A whistle blew from behind them. Ana turned as the gym teacher signaled for everyone to take a seat on the floor in front of her. Jack took her hand and dragged her forward. Ana let herself be pulled to a section behind the others and sat, folding her legs.

  She was vaguely aware of being watched, even before Jack elbowed her in the ribs and said. “Don’t look now, but you have a secret admirer looking this way.”

  Ana refused to look. She kept her gaze fixed forward as if the tall, masculine woman at the front had the answer to all of life’s big mysteries. “I don’t care.”

  She could almost feel Jack’s frown burning into the side of her face. “What gives? We were all Team Ramirez the other day.”

  Yeah, before he turned into a complete jerk. Well, a bigger jerk than he was before.

  “I’m over him,” she said, lying more convincingly to Jack than herself.

  Jack shrugged. “Okay, but—”

  “Holleran!”

  Beside her, Jack jumped. Her head whipped a
round. “Yes, Coach Godard?”

  The beefy woman folded her arms, making the biceps look frighteningly enormous. “Is there a reason you’re talking while I’m talking?”

  Jack shook her head. “No, ma’am!”

  Beady eyes in a square face narrowed. “Silence then!”

  Jack pinched her lips together and sat quietly.

  They were instructed to run thirty laps around the gym and then return to their places on the floor and wait to be divided into teams for basketball. Ana, who had always loved the game, couldn’t wait to get started.

  During teams, Ana was put against Jack. As team shirts, she was required to block some girl with a wild mane of ginger curls, freckles and a pig nose. She was taller and larger than Ana, but Ana didn’t complain.

  When Coach Godard blew the whistle and tossed the ball into the air, the tall, lanky boy from the other team slapped it easily over the head of the tiny girl waiting for it and the games began.

  Her opponent, who Ana nicknamed Pig-Nose, had no sense of fair play or sportsmanship. The first chance she got, she stomped a frying pan-sized foot down on Ana’s and then elbowed her in the gut as she dove forward for the ball. The Coach didn’t notice any of this. What she did notice was that Ana was doubled over, wheezing for air.

  “Get back in the game, French!” she bellowed.

  On the other side of the court, Jack shot her a sympathetic smile. She, Ana noted, had gotten lucky. The girl she was guarding barely came up to her shoulder and she was so not the athletic type. She wasn’t even trying to take the ball. If anything, she was practically cowering behind Jack in clear avoidance. Rafe was sitting on the bleachers, waiting for his turn. Ana hated him for that option, especially when Pig-Nose shouldered her, sending her crashing to the ground and skidding. The skin on her arm burned as it was peeled off. The side of her head struck the hardwood and for a moment, everything blurred. The noise dimmed. The bright lights dangling over her vanished and it was all so blissfully silent. And then it all erupted.

  “Ana!”

  She blinked and Jack’s face came into focus, ashen and filled with concern. Her blue eyes were enormous against her face. She dug her blunt nails into Ana’s arm.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Get back! Get back!” Coach Godard shoved her way through the crowd now hovering over her. She stared down at Ana with a look akin to annoyance. “Can you stand, French?”

  God, she couldn’t even breathe! Standing may have been a stretch. She struggled to right herself. Jack’s hands were there, helping her. Jack was also there to catch her when light bulbs popped across her vision and she swayed.

  Coach Godard sighed, rolling her eyes heavenward as if begging for patience. “Ramirez! Get over here!”

  “No!” Her protest went ignored as Rafe jogged over.

  “Take French here to the office. Let them deal with her. I don’t have the patience for weakness.”

  “She isn’t weak! She hit her head the day before,” Jack snapped defensively, still gripping tightly to Ana’s arm. “She was in the hospital. Janice should get called for shoving her—”

  “Don’t sass me, Holleran! This is still my gym class and I will deal with students in my way. Now if you have a problem with that, you can take it up with management … after running laps. Move!”

  Jack waited until Rafe had a firm grip on Ana’s arm before tossing the coach a dirty glare and setting off. Ana watched her jog away, her own temper tasting bitter at the back of her throat. She whirled on the coach, ignoring Rafe’s curse as he fumbled to grab her.

  She raised a finger. “That wasn’t fa—” She threw up the rest of that statement … literally, all down Coach Godard’s crisp, white polo shirt and forest green shorts. For a moment, all the air got sucked out of the gymnasium in a single sharp inhale as everyone froze. All eyes stared with wide-eyed horror as globs of Ana’s breakfast dropped down onto the coach’s sneakers and the floor. The sound echoed like canons in the deathly silence.

  The coach stood rigid, arms open wide as if expecting Ana to trip into them for a hug. Her mouth gaped in a silent scream. Her beady eyes were wide, staring … just staring at Ana with the look of someone who just witnessed something truly unbelievable.

  “Y … you…”

  “Time to go!” Rafe tugged on her, dragging her away before Coach Godard could get the full use of her senses back.

  Ana stumbled and staggered behind him, one hand clamped over her mouth. The uprising chorus of shouts, profanities and wild, riotous laughter followed after them. Ana glanced back once to see what was happening, but the only thing she saw before Rafe dragged her out of the gym was Jack, doubled over, hands on her knees, howling for all she was worth as Coach Godard screamed at her to shut up.

  “I didn’t mean…” She swiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, disgusted with herself for not feeling her breakfast coming up before it was too late, for humiliating herself even further in front of yet another class and for getting Jack in trouble. “I’m okay. Stop dragging me!”

  Rafe stopped. He turned to her, his free hand taking her other arm so he had her by both elbows. “Look at me!” Anger and concern punctuated the words, laced with … panic? “Look!”

  Looking at him, meeting those beautiful brown eyes, was the last thing she wanted to do, but she couldn’t stop herself. Her eyes lifted and she found herself captured like a moth to a flame. He released one arm to sweep his hair back from his face. Upon release, the tendrils slipped back over his brow.

  Ana giggled without thinking. “You really need a haircut.”

  He blinked in surprise and then there was an almost-smile on his face. “I’ll look into that once I’m sure you’re not going to die on me.”

  She raised a hand to the side of her head, the side that had made friendly with the gym floor. There was no blood so her stitches hadn’t opened, but the wound felt hot to the touch and it throbbed.

  She winced. “Hurts, but I don’t think I’m going to die.”

  His fingers replaced hers, gently rubbing the spot and making delicious tingles shoot all the way down to her toes. A moan left her, slipped past her guard and poured between them. Her eyes fluttered closed without her consent and she started to lean into him, into his touch. His free hand slipped off her elbow and splayed across her back, guiding her into the folds of his warmth. Ana would have happily snuggled into him, given up all thoughts of ever leaving, if common sense hadn’t slapped her back to reality.

  She jerked back. Her eyes snapped to his, surprised to find him looking as shocked by his bold move as she was. She made a sound, the start of words in the back of her throat, but nothing actually came out.

  “Let’s get you to the office,” he murmured, hand on her elbow once more.

  They didn’t speak again, which was fine by Ana. She was too busy reprimanding herself for being so stupid anyway. Had she learned nothing?

  At the office, he helped her into a chair and went to talk to the secretary. The tiny woman behind the desk blinked up at him through her thick glasses. Ana didn’t miss the wary annoyance in them, like she couldn’t believe he would dare bother her.

  “Yes Mr. Ramirez?”

  Rafe didn’t seem to notice, or he ignored it as he folded his arms on the counter between them and leaned in to speak. “She hit her head in gym. Coach asked me to bring her to the office.”

  The secretary had to rise out of her chair, and probably stand on tiptoes, to see over the counter to where Ana sat. She batted her eyes rapidly as if the image might just fade if she did it enough times.

  “Oh my!” She scampered around the desk to come stand in front of Ana. Her hand was cool and dry as it came into contact with Ana’s forehead. “Did you have another … incident, dear?” she asked, genuinely concerned, so unlike how she’d been with Rafe.

  Ana shook her head, and the room strained as though she were suspended in glue. Sounds and movement slurred and she had to cradle her head in case it fell off he
r neck.

  “Oh me! Oh dear!” The secretary bustled back behind the counter and snatched up the phone, but she didn’t dial anything. She stared at Rafe as if he had the answers to this unexpected and unplanned event. “I will call Ms. Dawnay first,” she decided, still staring at Rafe. “Then the principal. Then her parents.” She hesitated. “Maybe her parents first?”

  “Nurse, parents, and then principal,” Rafe suggested not unkindly, like he was talking to a small, helpless child who needed a gentle push in the right direction. Ana could imagine him talking to his brother and sister in that tone.

  “Yes!” the secretary decided, punching in the proper numbers.

  Within minutes, the school nurse — who introduced herself as Ms. Dawnay — was at Ana’s side, flashing her pen light in her eye and asking her to recite the alphabet, her name, her birth date, her address. Rafe stood away from the small crowd gathered around her, which consisted of the nurse, the secretary — whose name Ana learned was Mrs. Kane — and Principal Finnegan. It wasn’t that many people, but the office was so small, so overtaken by the U-shaped desk that it seemed almost suffocating.

  “Have her parents been notified?” Principal Finnegan asked Mrs. Kane.

  The older woman nodded, bony hands wringing. “I called them right after I called Ms. Dawnay.”

  The principal nodded, turning his attention back to Ana. “How are you feeling, Ana?”

  Ana shrugged. “Fine.”

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  Taking a deep breath, Ana recited what she told the nurse. “We were playing basketball and I tripped.”

  Principal Finnegan nodded slowly, looking very concerned and regretful with his eyebrows drawn and his lips pinched thin. “I see. Well, I think, until your parents tell us otherwise, we should keep you from playing any other physical activities.” He paused to consider something a moment. Then said, “I was actually hoping to talk to you about what happened Tuesday. I’ve already spoken with your parents, but I would really like to hear the details from you. If that’s all right?”