“Dan! Or weren’t you at the same lunch table as me?”
Allison liked creepy guy? Was she blind? The way he looked at Lucy had been pretty hard to miss. “Are you kidding? He’s a total weirdo. Did you see the way he watched Lucy? Why did you have to invite him this weekend?”
“Oh Xoe,” Allison responded, “ever the pessimist. Just give him a chance, it’ll be fun.” She paused for a moment. “And yes, I noticed the staring,” then she added as if trying to convince herself, “It doesn’t mean he likes Lucy though, it could mean anything.”
“I didn’t mean it in that way,” I said. “It was eerie. He hardly blinked. He looked at her like his favorite possession.”
Allison frowned. “Maybe he was just nervous.”
“That was so not nerves. That was stalker potential.”
“You’re being paranoid Xoe, he just didn’t know how to act. It’s his first day at a new school. I’m sure he’s fine,” Allison paused. “You don’t have to come on Saturday if you don’t want to.”
I set my jaw stubbornly. “No, I’ll be there.”
I was coming all right. I’d be damned if that creep was gonna cause me to stay home on a Saturday, even if I had to sit through an entire chick-flick. Plus, how else was I supposed to keep an eye on him? Now if only the feeling of doom in my gut would agree with me.
We arrived at the gymnasium and headed straight to the girl’s locker room to change. The gym somehow seemed even older than the rest of the school. You could feel the years of tears and sweat that had gone into the place, giving it an almost electric buzz. The walls had received the same lovely paint treatment as the rest of the building, and the gloss on the hardwood floors had been all but worn away by the thousands of feet that passed before us.
Our school was small enough that our gym classes were co-ed. It had been an issue with some of the parents. Apparently it was taboo for boys and girls to see each other in gym clothes. I would never understand parents. The co-ed classes were fine by me, the more competition the better.
We were allowed to wear our own sweats, thankfully. The uniforms the school supplied were reused each year and came in our school colors of yellow and green. Yuck. How yellow and green went with our school mascot, an eagle, was beyond me. I had plain black sweats and a dingy gray t-shirt to change into. I also wore a sports bra, even though I didn’t really need it. I turned to Allison as I was tying my Nike tennis shoes to see her dressed in pink shorts and a fitted white t-shirt, with a look of grim determination on her face. To Allison, preparing for gym class was akin to preparing for battle. We walked back into the gym as Mr. “Call me Mitch” Walters was announcing that today was volleyball day. Most excellent.
Brian Fletcher was chosen as one of the team captains. Brian and I go way back. He’s my next-door neighbor and has been since I moved to Shelby. I’ve been friends with him about as long as I have Lucy. Brian’s smiling brown eyes landed on me and he chose me for his first teammate. I jogged up to stand beside him and ruffled his curly brown hair with my hand. Brian didn’t simply choose me because I’m his friend, I also kick butt at volleyball, and he’s almost as competitive as I am. To say we like to win is a vast understatement.
Allison was usually chosen last for team sports. She tends to close her eyes and flinch any time a ball comes near her. When the choices were down to Allison and a small nerdy boy I didn’t know, Brian finally put Allison on our team. She shuffled up to stand by me as Brian ran to the ball rack to grab a few volleyballs.
Play began and I was up to serve first. I hit the ball overhand, aiming right at the small nerdy boy. He ducked out of the way, not even trying to hit the ball. Point one for us. So maybe I played a little dirty. So what? My teammates never complained.
After we started to play, time went by in a flash, and we totally crushed the opposition. Soon we only had 10 minutes of class left, not enough to play another game, so “Mitch” told us just to get changed and hang out until the bell rang.
No one takes showers after gym class. It may seem kinda gross, but if you could see the rusty, grime-infested showers in the Shelby High locker rooms, you would no doubt understand. The consensus was that you would come out dirtier than when you went in.
Having changed back out of our gym clothes, Al and I went to stand near the door to talk to Brian. We had barely reached Brian when Cindy Miller swayed up to us. As gym was the bane of Allison’s existence, so Cindy Miller was the bane of mine. Cindy Miller was every guy’s dream and my worst nightmare, rolled up into a slim brunette package.
Completely ignoring Al and me, Cindy walked up to Brian. “Nice game, we should practice together sometime.” As she spoke, Cindy casually brushed imaginary lint off of Brian’s shoulder.
Brian looked at me pleadingly, trapped. I tapped Cindy on the shoulder, turning her to me with a look of distaste in her large brown eyes.
“What?” She asked with as much snark as a single word could possibly possess, snarling her glossed lips.
“Oh, I thought you were asking Brian for some playing tips,” I replied sweetly. “I was going to tell you to keep your head down; it’s rather large and blocks your teammates’ view of the ball, though the same tip could apply to your butt as well.” I gave her my most innocent smile.
Catty, I know, but Cindy had it coming. Last year she spread a rumor that Allison was bulimic, and purposefully dumped a soda onto me during lunch. So me-ow. Cindy gave me a murderous look and walked away as Allison burst into laughter.
Brian put his arm around my shoulders companionably. “That’s why we love you Xoe.”
The bell rang and Brian gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, then practically skipped away to his locker like an excited puppy. He had English with me next. Now don’t get the wrong idea, Brian and I were strictly friends. We had more of a brother-sister relationship. People talk, as people tend to do, but we’d never crossed that friendship line. I said goodbye to Allison, then headed to class.
I got to my English class and snagged a seat near the back. The back row was already full, so I had to settle for the second to last row. I was patiently waiting for the excitement to begin when, lo and behold, creepy guy, I mean Dan, walked in. He walked right towards me, then took the open seat to my right. I froze, like a mouse trying not to draw the cat’s attention. He glanced at me, as if to say something. With my heart pounding in my ears, I ignored him, keeping my eyes towards the front of the class.
Brian came rushing in and took the seat on my other side, oblivious to my predicament. As class continued, I noticed Dan sneaking more puzzled glances at me. Squinting his pale blue eyes he would tilt his head slightly, almost like a dog. My wardrobe might have been a little out of style, but was it really that puzzling? Did I have something on my face? The weird looks were starting to get to me.
Brian passed me a note while the teacher’s back was turned. I opened it and it read, “What’s with that guy?” I gave Brian an exasperated look and shrugged, relieved that it wasn’t just in my head. I turned my eyes to the front of class and prepared to wait out the rest of the hour.
When the bell finally rang, Dan reached as if to grab my arm, with a strange look in his eyes. I quickly turned away from him to Brian and practically dragged Brian out of class. The look in Dan’s eyes as he reached for me had been completely alien, like he had dropped his already poor mask of normalcy. Whatever lurked behind those icy blue eyes wasn’t something I knew how to deal with.
Brian and I stopped in the hall, safely away from the classroom to discuss the creepiness of Dan. I dragged Brian farther away from the classroom as Dan exited and walked passed us. “Allison invited him to the movies with us this weekend,” I whispered.
Brian frowned. “Do you really think that’s a good idea? I’ve got a bad feeling about him.”
At least someone agreed with me. “You know how Allison is . . . ”
Brian smiled ruefully. “Yeah, I guess you didn’t have much choice. I could come with you, just in case.”
&n
bsp; “Really?” Maybe things were looking up. “We’re going Saturday evening.”
“Oh. Sorry Xoe . . . football practice.” He shrugged and bit his lip. “I could cancel . . . ”
“No, no it’s okay. I’m sure we’re just being paranoid.”
Brian nodded, still hesitating. “C’mon, I’ll walk you to class.”
Brian and I walked in silence the short distance to my geometry class. He stopped me before I walked into the classroom. “If you change your mind and want me to come, just call.”
I had begun to say thanks just as Allison whipped by us, grabbing my arm and dragging me into the classroom. I waved to Brian as he turned to go to his next class.
Allison and I snagged seats in the back of the class just as the bell rang, Allison turned to me and opened her mouth as if to speak, but the teacher began her lecture, sealing any chance Allison had to talk. Assuming she was probably going to talk about Dan, I didn’t really mind. Allison crossed her arms and slouched down in her chair, seeming more than a little sullen. I looked out the window to our green surroundings and daydreamed for the rest of class.
After geometry, Allison had to rush to her yearbook committee meeting and I went to find Lucy. Lucy was already waiting outside the school entrance when I arrived. We started the short walk to our houses. We passed through the parking lot in front of the school, then veered away from the road to cut through the woods. We can get home following the road, but taking the trail through the woods cuts about ten minutes off of our journey.
Before Allison got her car, she would insist on the longer route of paved road whenever she came home with us. Allison isn’t big on the woods; they get her shoes dirty.
We walked in silence, shaded by the pine trees that bordered either side of the trail. The trail was partially grown over. A narrow strip of deep brown soil was all that was left to show us the way; though we had walked it so many times we didn’t need the trail to lead us home. The sky had actually cleared up some. The warm sunlight leaked through the trees to hit my face. I smiled and took a deep breath of moist, mossy air, then looked back down at the ground just in time to notice and hop over a puddle of water on the trail.
I continued walking, paying more attention to where I was stepping. Something felt weird. It then occurred to me that the woods were overly quiet. The usual ambience of birdsong, and the scuffling of small creatures were completely absent. I stopped and scanned the area. Nothing moved. Lucy stopped a few feet ahead of me and looked back questioningly.
All of the tiny hairs on my body stood on end, as if my skin were charged with electricity. Lucy slowly turned to fully face me as her eyes widened with realization. She had noticed the eerie quiet as well. I nodded to the trail, signaling that we should continue walking. We started walking without a word, trying to step as lightly as possible. Instinct told me to stay as quiet as I could, like a rabbit trying to avoid a predator.
Suddenly a blue jay flew overhead, screeching out warning to all of the seemingly absent birds, then flew on away from us, leaving a weighted silence behind. My palms began to sweat. We walked for several minutes with only the sound of our footfalls and nervous breathing to let us know we hadn’t gone deaf.
Lucy began darting nervous glances at me. I stopped and gave her my attention. She mouthed, “Should we run?”
I began to shake my head in reply, when suddenly there was a loud crack to the left, behind us, as if someone had stepped on a branch. We both froze, neither of us so much as breathing. Lucy kept her eyes on me, at a loss on what to do. I scanned the woods around us, trying to spot the origin of the cracking sound. The pine trees and other vegetation were too dense for us to see very far. All was still and silent again, but my instincts were screaming in my head for me to flee. I looked back to Lucy, nodded, and we broke into a full-blown run.
Chapter Two
We ran through the woods, the trees a blur in my peripheral vision. After a short time I had to slow my pace for Lucy’s shorter legs to catch up. Adrenaline pounded in my head like a second heartbeat. Lucy pushed harder and began to pick up speed, but then tripped and went flying to land in a heap on the moist soil. I skidded to a halt and gripped her upper arm, dragging her to her feet. We continued running down the trail as the vegetation became less dense. We were almost safe. We slowed to a trot as we reached our street, both of us panting from the effort.
Catching her breath, Lucy said, “Ok, that was weird, you felt it too right? Like someone watching us the whole way . . . the same someone who stepped on the branch.”
I nodded my head and looked behind us, searching for a sign of our anonymous stalker. “What do you think it was?”
Lucy started laughing loudly, and not very convincingly.
I whipped my head back around to regard her. “What could you possibly be laughing about?” I asked, exasperated.
“Never mind, we’re being ridiculous, it was probably just a deer or something.” Despite her laughter, she didn’t sound very sure. She looked away from my skeptical glare and began examining her palm, which had been scraped when she fell.
I continued to stare at Lucy, until she finally raised her eyes back up to meet mine. She flinched slightly at my stubborn look. “C’mon Xoe, do you really think that we were being followed?”
I crossed my arms. “Yes, yes I do.”
Lucy sighed. “By what? No one’s seen any bears or mountain lions this close to town in years.”
It was my turn to look down. “Maybe it wasn’t a bear.”
Lucy laughed again. “And who would want to follow us? For what reason?”
I shrugged and met Lucy’s eyes again. “I don’t know, but we were followed.”
“Okay, say we were, what do we do about it now?”
“Nothing I guess.” I managed a weak smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow okay?”
With an uneasy smile and a wave goodbye, Lucy brushed off the situation and veered towards her house. I watched her go inside, and then continued farther down the street to my house.
As I reached my door, I sensed movement to my right, in the woods, but my eyes couldn’t pick out anything out of the ordinary. That cracking sound in the woods had not been a deer. I waited, pretending to examine the purple flowers that cascaded over the edges of the planter that rested to the side of my front door. Everything was still.
I unlocked my front door and entered my house, then headed straight upstairs for my room, still feeling a little shaky. I walked in and shut the door behind me. As soon as the door was shut, the tension in the middle of my back eased. I walked over to my large window and looked outside for . . . what? I walked the back left corner of my room that my queen size bed dominates. I sat on my forest green comforter, and leaned against my mismatched yellow and blue pillows. I looked around my room, feeling silly for being so paranoid.
Like my mismatched bedding, there is no rhyme or reason to the decoration of my room. Besides my bed, the rest of my room is taken up by my desk, my clothes dresser, and my bookshelf. The empty wall space above my desk and dresser is consumed by posters from old horror movies. I’m a bit of a horror movie aficionado. I don’t discriminate between old, new, hit movies, B movies, or anything in between.
My ancient, at least it seemed ancient to me, stereo system rested on the floor beside my desk. At any given time, my room is strewn with the cases of whatever CDs I’m obsessed with at the moment. I also usually have more than a few books lying about. On the other side of my desk is the door to my bathroom. That is one of the few positives about my room, my own private bathroom, plus the aforementioned window in the adjacent wall.
I pulled my English book out of my backpack and stood up to set it on my desk. First day and we already had an assignment. It was just plain cruel. If I didn’t do the homework now, I would procrastinate until the day it was due. My goal was to do a little better in school this year. The classes weren’t really hard for me; it was more a lack of motivation that kept my grades down.
; I sat down at my desk, my mind still preoccupied, trying to come up with an explanation for the eerie experience in the woods. No matter how I tried to justify what had happened, I kept coming back to the same conclusion: someone or something had followed us, and chased us when we ran. The thought briefly crossed my mind that predators will chase you if you run. It’s instinct; they simply can’t help themselves. I suppressed a shiver and stared at my English book for several minutes, then got up and went downstairs. Tomorrow, I’d do it tomorrow. Ri-ight.
My mom was getting home from work just as I reached the living room. My mom is a field biologist. I’m not sure exactly what she does; something to do with birds. I tried having her explain it to me once, but when she got to the part about collecting dead bird bodies to study, I decided I was okay with not really knowing what my mom does. Her job takes her out of town a lot, which can be good and bad. I miss her, but having free range of the house does not suck.
My mom noticed me and gave me a warm smile that reached her chocolate brown eyes. I get none of my looks from my mom. Her dark, wavy hair and tan skin are in sharp contrast to my blonde paleness. I must look more like my dad, but I never knew him, so I have no proof.
My mom’s hands were full with what looked like plastic bags of Chinese take-out. Yeah, we don’t have the healthiest eating habits, not that I’m complaining. Our main dinners of choice are pizza and Chinese food. If we get bored we occasionally throw in some Indian or, gasp, have a home-cooked meal. On the rare occasion that we decided on home cooking, the task always fell to me. My mom and cooking apparatus of any kind just do not mix.
My mom took the bags to the rectangular, pale wood dining table, while I grabbed us each a glass of water. See, we’re not that unhealthy, water’s good for you. Plus there’re vegetables in the Chinese food. Don’t judge us.
My mom pulled out a matching pale wood chair, smoothing the skirt of her burgundy cotton dress as she sat. I followed suit then dug in the bags for the included wooden chopsticks, handing a set to my mom. We took the little cartons of food out of the bags and placed them between us on two woven yellow placemats. My mom watched me with curiosity in her dark eyes.
Xoe: or Vampires, and Werewolves, and Demons, oh my! (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series) Page 2