She was wearing the same clothing she’d worn the day before, a bright red tee shirt and blue denim jeans. Her hair was tied up in a messy ponytail as if she’d rolled out of bed and threw a tie around it. There were days she didn’t even look in the mirror simply because she forgot mirrors even existed. Her brain was a pile of jelly mushing around inside her head without a real focus.
Katharine had been working tirelessly to make her two lives fit together as one. At night Ash would find her and tell her new stories about the Descended and the Guides. He had become a real buzz kill, especially on weekends when all she wanted to do was go out and enjoy her youth while she still could. She wanted nothing more than to be rid of Ash and his cocky attitude. The juggling act became overwhelming.
“I’m sorry Mr. Denoza I will try not to do it again,” Katharine replied, taking out William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the play the class had been reading. Mr. Denoza pushed his large rimmed glasses back into place on the rim of his nose, sighed and continued with the lesson. He had grown tired of Katharine’s tardiness and no longer wanted to hear her pointless apologies, as he knew this would not be the last time the 17-year-old would be late for his class.
Mr. Al Denoza looked the part as much as he embodied the role of teacher. He was a slender man whose hair had seen better days as it was falling out in random spots on his head. His horn-rimmed glasses sat snug on his nose as he shifted the blue and white tie that completed his grey business suit with suede elbow pads. Whenever Katharine got close to him she smelled the distinct scent of mothballs, as if the suits sat in old closets waiting to be worn.
Despite his distaste for her now, Mr. Denoza was still Katharine’s favorite teacher. He always pushed his students to look at things in new ways and he never allowed them to simply give up. He was a pusher, which often resulted in negative pushback from his less well-behaved students, but Katharine always admired his strength and devotion to even the worst of his students, like Richard Mayfield.
Richard was the class clown whose jokes came at Mr. Denoza’s expense. It was a rare occasion that Richard was not late to class and he was often disruptive and incredibly disrespectful. While other teachers gave up on him, Mr. Denoza did not. He continued to push Richard to see that he had the potential to excel if he applied himself.
Richard was thinking of applying to a good college where his plans before had been possibly going to a community college, but probably not. Mr. Denoza was a special kind of teacher and Katharine hated that she was letting her favorite teacher down when all she wanted to do was show him that his efforts had not been in vain.
It wasn’t that Katharine was a bad student, in fact a few weeks ago she was pulling in straight A’s, but her life had suddenly become very complicated and school became secondary to everything else. In the past, before that night in the quarry, school was all Katharine focused on.
She was the consummate student and the ultimate bookworm, but now her mind was clouded by a world of angels, hell fire and frightening creatures not even she could have dreamt up.
Katharine assumed that Mr. Denoza’s obvious dissatisfaction with her was a result of his confusion and frustration as to why her grades and attendance had slipped so rapidly. If only he knew the truth behind her academic dissention he wouldn’t be so quick to judge her.
Mr. Denoza believed that Katharine had fallen in love with the wrong kind of guy, someone who was taking her away from her priorities and becoming a terrible influence on her.
A week earlier Mr. Denoza pulled Katharine aside to talk to her about her tardiness. “You’re a smart girl Katharine and you have a lot of potential, I would hate to see that wasted on a high school romance,” Mr. Denoza said, while he sat at his desk eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that had been tucked away in one of the drawers of the metal desk that sat in the front of the classroom.
“I understand that your first love can be an exciting time but you’re so young,” Mr. Denoza said, as he took a bite of the sandwich a clump of grape jelly fell out from between the bread and landed on his clean white shirt.
He hadn’t noticed the stain of purple goo sitting just below the collar but Katharine couldn’t stop looking at it. She wanted to suggest that he wipe it with a napkin before the stain set but she couldn’t get a word in through his lecture about young love.
She wondered how he would have reacted had she told him the truth. Would he have believed her or called her parents and suggested they commit her to some institution or hospital for medication? It didn’t matter anyway. Ash was quite clear - she could tell no one about the Descended or the Guides of Heaven.
In the weeks following her attack, Katharine had to reevaluate everything she had ever learned and try to plan for a new future.
Redirecting one’s future is not something that anyone, especially someone like Katharine who always knew what she wanted to do, was able to do easily. Of everyone she knew, Katharine was the most organized and well rounded. She kept to a small group of friends so as not to be too distracted or influenced away from her studies. If there was one thing she truly hated it was change. But since that night in the quarry all she knew was change.
The plan was always: graduate high school at the top of her class, go to Harvard Law School and become a world-class lawyer. Both of her parents went to Harvard Law and opened their own law firm in the heart of Meadowbrook, Colorado where they lived. It wasn’t that her parents were forcing her to follow in their footsteps; Katharine wanted to do it.
She had always been good at arguing her way out of a punishment whenever she misbehaved and no matter what the situation was Katharine had the ability to prove she was right. It was a gift that had been embedded in her from birth, becoming a lawyer was only natural. Her parents even tried to convince her, quite a few times, to rethink her decision to become a lawyer. They feared that their daughter was only following this career path to appease them.
If there was one thing Katharine’s parents, Marion and Royal Macklemore, weren’t it was forceful. Katharine’s parents never forced her to do anything unless she really wanted too. They coddled her and spoiled her, their only child, to no end. Katharine always accepted the coddling because she loved being close with her parents, but she knew that part of it had to do with the fact that she was their, “miracle baby.”
Before Katharine came along doctors told Marion and Royal that having a baby was not possible for them. Their reproductive organs wouldn’t allow it. Still hoping beyond hope that they would become parents, Marion and Royal kept trying. When she became really hopeless Marion turned to God.
She prayed night after night to be blessed with a child and one day, as if God had heard her, doctors were surprised to find that Marion was six weeks pregnant. In Marion and Royal’s eyes, God had given them the greatest gift imaginable and they were going to do all they could to make sure their child’s life was a happy one.
Marion and Royal gave their daughter everything and Katharine was always grateful for everything she had and she couldn’t wait to start a future and family of her own. The future excited Katharine and until recently she believed that nothing could stand in the way of her dreams.
“What happened to you last night?” Katharine’s best friend whispered as Mr. Denoza settled back into his lesson. “You never called me back.”
“I’m sorry I fell asleep,” Katharine replied, without looking up from her book.
Molli and Katharine had been best friends for over ten years and had the kind of friendship that could withstand even the worst fights, and they had had many. However, it wasn’t always that way.
Molli and her family moved to Meadowbrook from Los Angeles, California, when she was in the 5th grade and Molli resented the move. She loved her life back in L.A. and had a solid group of friends; the idea of moving to a town not even the size of the smallest California town was too traumatic to bear even for a ten-year-old.
Molli was placed in Mrs. Pavlov’s 5th gra
de class, the same classroom as Katharine was in. She was small, much smaller than her classmates and therefore she was an easy target for teasing.
Her California roots gave her a far more materialistic mentality than Meadowbrook residents were used to. She walked into her 5th grade class wearing a sequin covered pink dress with black-strapped shoes, bangle bracelets and a gold studded headband. Her look alone left her open to ridicule. Though a relatively friendly town, many of the children wanted to keep their inner circle the way it was and didn’t always accept outsiders right away.
“Hey Hollywood where’s your limo?” Jacob Marks, an overweight boy with blue overalls covering his stained white t-shirt, teased Molli as she took a seat next to a slender dark haired girl who smiled softly as her new neighbor slid into the cold metal chair. She sat quietly burying her eyes into her lap figuring if she didn’t look at anyone they would leave her alone.
“Hey I’m Katharine Macklemore, what’s your name?” Katharine asked leaning over her desk to grab Molli’s attention.
Molli looked up slowly and glared at the girl sitting next to her with the bright overly friendly eyes, the girl who was wearing the Oshkosh Bigosh jean overalls with the bright pink tee-shirt underneath. Molli’s neighbor looked at her as though she knew that they would eventually be friends despite Molli’s disdain for everyone in her new town, a town she resented the moment she was forced to leave California.
“Good for you,” Molli replied.
Her tone was harsh and uninviting but Katharine could see beyond her façade. Molli was afraid of change and that was something Katharine was quite familiar with. It couldn’t have been easy for her to move to a new place in the middle of the school year.
“Don’t let the teasing bother you, they are just jealous because you have been outside of Meadowbrook,” Katharine replied, ignoring Molli’s disinterest. “Hey do you know Johnny Depp?”
She had hoped to get at least evidence of a smile from the new girl but Molli was far too resentful to even attempt to allow Katharine in. Being pulled out of a school where she knew her place, where she knew who her friends were, was tragic for a girl of Molli’s age and left her unwilling to trust or open up to anyone in her new school. She was in defensive mode and wasn’t quite ready to pull out of it.
“I didn’t ask for your opinion,” Molli snapped.
“I know but considering I am going to be a lawyer one day I don’t give in easily.” Katharine’s smile was convincing. Molli found herself captivated by the slender girl sitting beside her. Something about Katharine reminded Molli of the kids back at her old school in California, something familiar.
“Has anyone ever told you how annoying you are?” Molli barked back.
Katharine was hurt but not completely deterred. She saw something in Molli, which made her want to keep trying. She had never been the new girl but she knew what it was like to be teased by the kids in Carnegie, especially by Jacob Marks who took pride in making others feel inferior to him.
“Nope you are the first,” Katharine replied. “How come your family moved here of all places?”
Molli couldn’t believe that Katharine was still talking to her as if she’d invited her in. She sat in silence pretending to pay attention to what Mrs. Pavlov was saying in the hopes that the annoying girl next to her would take the hint. She did not. “It may seem like a truly boring place but it has its benefits. Did anyone tell you about the snowball fights in the quarry?”
“Why are you still talking to me?”
“Because you’re going to have to let someone be your friend otherwise you’re going to be extremely bored here.”
Molli rolled her eyes with exaggerated movements using her head and mouth to show Katharine just how irritating she had become. If it were anyone else they would have given up and left Molli alone but Katharine was not just anyone. She saw a kindred spirit in Molli and believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that they would one day be friends.
For the next few weeks Katharine did her best to get Molli to accept the friendship she was offering. For the most part Katharine’s efforts were to no avail until one Friday afternoon during Molli’s fourth week in Carnegie Elementary.
Lunchtime at Carnegie Elementary was like a free-for-all. Kids would ransack the cafeteria for the best and least healthy food options they could find and then hightail it to the benches where their friends sat. This was a madness that Molli was not expecting from such a small school. She often got pushed or lost in the shuffle and ended up eating her lunch in the girl’s bathroom. However, that particular Friday Katharine caught Molli on her way to the girl’s bathroom.
“Hey Molli! Where are you headed?” Katharine inquired as Molli whizzed by her practically knocking her down.
“I was just running to the bathroom before lunch.” Molli held a lunch tray in her hand with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a diet coke and a bag of Fritos placed side-by-side on top of it.
Katharine looked at the tray doubtfully. “You bring your lunch to the bathroom?”
Molli said nothing and glared down the hallway wishing she’d been quicker on her feet so she could have avoided this awkward run in.
“You want to eat lunch with me?” Katharine remembered never seeing Molli in the lunchroom since the first day she arrived at Carnegie and she put two-and-two together. No one should have to eat their lunch in a place full of bodily fluids.
In all the weeks Molli had been in her new school no one ever offered the same kindness that Katharine did. She could no longer maintain the wall she had built to protect herself from rejection. She smiled gingerly at Katharine. “Sure.”
It was in that moment that their friendship began its sensational journey.
Molli, like Katharine, had grown into a beautiful young woman with flowing curly blonde hair and bright hazel eyes complete with the body of a supermodel. Molli had most of the boys in Carnegie High School wrapped around her finger. Dissimilar to Katharine, Molli dated…a lot. Unlike Katharine, Molli loved boys and was not afraid to show it.
Having always been in relationships, Molli could never truly understand how Katharine went almost her entire high school career without a serious relationship. Katharine came close once in her sophomore year with Dylan Lenore, a senior at the time.
Dylan was exceptionally handsome, leading man type looks and he had the smarts to go along with it. He challenged Katharine and she was happy with him, which made Molli happy because that meant her best friend would actually take on a social life. Molli also enjoyed Katharine and Dylan’s relationship because she was dating someone as well and that meant double dates.
However, right before he left for college Dylan decided he didn’t want to start his college life with a girlfriend. Katharine was sad but her goal-oriented mind did not allow her to grieve for long; in fact the break up forced Katharine to put even more focus on her studies.
“You’ve been doing that a lot lately Kat, is everything okay?” Molli asked.
She was genuinely concerned but Katharine didn’t know how to answer her friend’s question without feeding her a lie. It seemed like all Katharine was doing lately was lying to people she cared about. She wanted nothing more than to tell Molli everything that had happened to her in the last few weeks but she knew that anyone who knew the truth was in danger. Lies were all she had.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Katharine whispered and smiled evasively.
“You haven’t been returning my calls for weeks now. You’re always late, if you come at all. What is going on Kat?” Molli’s voice bellowed throughout the classroom. Classmates in the immediate vicinity jolted around to see what all the fuss was about. As usual the first face to plunge their focus on Molli and Katharine was Amy Hutchinson. She had a tendency to be involved in everyone’s business no matter how private it was.
Katharine always predicted that Amy would become an investigative reporter after college; she knew how to get information even when people didn’t want their information getting ou
t. For a relatively large girl, weighing over 200 pounds, Amy was surprisingly good at getting information without her victim’s knowing she was doing it. As Amy peered on, smiling with pure satisfaction, Mr. Denoza looked up from his lesson book.
“Is there something you would like to share with us Ms. Macklemore?” Mr. Denoza barked pausing his lesson upon hearing the chatter in the back of the room.
“No sir,” Katharine replied sitting up in her chair.
“You are walking on very thin ice, I’d suggest you straighten up your act before you are required to spend some time explaining to Principal Jones why you are causing a disturbance in my classroom.”
“It won’t happen again, I’m sorry.” Molli looked at Katharine and mouthed the words, “I’m sorry,” for only furthering her friend’s ever thinning ice on Mr. Denoza’s classroom metaphoric ice rink.
Katharine smiled acknowledging that she accepted her friend’s apology. It wasn’t Molli’s fault and Katharine wished she could thank her friend for her concern and promise her that she had done nothing wrong. After all none of this had anything to do with Molli, everything going on was about Katharine. She had the weight of the world on her shoulders and she couldn’t tell a single person she cared about.
The sound bell of the chime coming through the classroom loudspeaker marked the end of first period; it was a sound that Katharine was waiting for, ever since she walked in forty-five minutes earlier.
She knew that once they were in the hallway Molli would bombard her with questions about what was going on and Katharine would have to feed her even more lies and once she got started she didn’t know when she would be able to stop. She had gotten so used to lying that it almost didn’t feel wrong anymore.
In order to avoid a potentially damning conversation with her best friend, Katharine grabbed her things and rushed out of the room well ahead of Molli, who was left behind baffled by her friend’s great escape.
Into The Light (The Fallen Shadows) Page 3