A Tale of Two Proms (Bard Academy)

by Lockwood, Cara

  “It’s not that bad,” Samir said. “I get to wear a tux all the time.”

  “You look ridiculous,” Blade said.

  “That’s what I said.” I had to agree.

  “And look at me!” Blade held up her dress.

  “You look nice,” I said.

  “I look like my mother,” Blade said, and sighed.

  “Well, let’s go back to Bard then.” Even as the last words were out of my mouth, a small portal opened near the swimming pool. It was a bright golden light, a slit that was getting ever bigger. On the other side, I saw the dark woods, and the cabin and Lindsay reading from the book. For once, she’d actually done what I told her. I guess there was a first time for everything. “Come on, we need to go.”

  “Yes!” Blade pumped a fist in the air. “I am getting out of here. I want my purple hair back.” Blade swung her arm around Samir’s shoulders and started to drag him to the portal.

  “But I don’t want to go,” Samir said, digging in his heels. “I like it here. People like me. Or, at least, they kiss up to me.”

  “Have you even read this book?” I asked him. He shook his head.

  “Let me enlighten you,” I said. “You’re a big guy right now, but you wind up dead in that swimming pool by the end.”

  Surprise danced across Samir’s face. “Ouch,” he said.

  “See? Let’s get out of here,” Blade said, pulling harder.

  “Okay, fine. I’m going.” Samir put down his glass and let Blade lead him away. As we got nearer to the portal, we realized it was floating above the water of the swimming pool.

  “How do we get to it?” Samir asked.

  “We jump,” Blade said, and then she took four steps back, and began running to the pool. She swan-dived into the portal, and as we watched, she flew through it and managed a pretty graceful landing on the other side.

  “Show off,” Samir said.

  “Seriously,” I agreed.

  “I know I can’t do what she just did. I don’t know if I can make it,” Samir said. “What if I fall in the pool?”

  “Then you get wet and you try again,” I said. “Come on. Go.” I noticed the portal was beginning to close. We didn’t have much time.

  Samir hesitated because he always hesitates.

  I didn’t even think about it, I gave him a hard push forward. He tumbled into the portal butt-first and landed awkwardly on the cabin floor. I took a big jump and followed, and then, I was on the other side, too. I looked down and noticed that the dress was gone, my jeans were back and my hair was back to normal. Seriously weird.

  I glanced up and saw Blade was back to her punked-out self. Samir was no longer wearing the tuxedo. He was once again in his Bard academy uniform.

  “I’ll miss you, Gatsby,” he said, sounding sad as the portal slid shut, the light fading, as he gave a farewell wave to the air where the portal had been.

  “Cheer up,” I said. “You’re back at Bard and we’ve got saltines for dinner.”

  “You didn’t tell me that before you pushed me,” Samir said, his voice accusing. “I had mini quiche over there! And a personal chef.” Samir glanced around the small cabin and hugged himself.

  “I cannot believed that worked,” Lindsay said, amazement on her face.

  “What a rush!” Blade agreed.

  “Wait, you came in after us and you didn’t know if you could get out?” Samir was just realizing the full implications of my not-so-thought-out-plan.

  “I had to try,” I said. “Besides, I was pretty sure I could get out.”

  “Pretty sure? That’s just great.” Samir folded his arms across his chest.

  “Now what?” Blade asked, clapping her hands together, her eyes bright with excitement.

  “First, you have to tell us what you know,” I said. “How did you get into The Great Gatsby? Have either of you seen Hana or Ryan? Or Heathcliff?”

  Blade glanced at Samir. They both knew something they didn’t want to say.

  “I’m not telling her,” Blade said, looking at Samir.

  “Why do I have to tell her?” Samir squeaked.

  “Tell me what?” I asked, growing frustrated.

  “You’re not going to like it,” Samir said, not meeting my eyes.

  “Just tell me and let me decide.” I glanced from Samir to Blade and back again. Samir shook his head firmly.

  “Coward!” Blade accused. She took a deep breath and looked me in the eye. “Brace yourself, Miranda.” She paused and took a deep breath. I knew it was bad because nothing scared Blade. She hardly ever hesitated in delivering bad news. “Heathcliff is with Catherine now.”

  “What do you mean?” I felt dread pooling in my stomach and part of me wanted to put my hands over my ears and not hear any more.

  “They’re a couple, Miranda,” Blade said, her voice soft. “They seem like they’re in love.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Blade would’ve been better off just hitting me in the face. It would’ve hurt less.

  Heathcliff, my Heathcliff, and Catherine…a couple?

  Sure, I’d feared it. But it was like fearing that there might be an axe murderer lurking in the dark corner of your closet. I never actually thought the fear would really come true.

  All the blood drained from my head and my feet and hands felt hot and cold all at once. My emotions rolled around in my chest like they’d been set on a spin cycle. Was I angry? Sad? Devestated? Bitter? I was everything and all at once, and my nerves felt like they were on fire with the information I never wanted to know.

  But now I did.

  Heathcliff loved someone else. I put my hand in my pocket and felt for the cool locket there. I felt like someone had just turned the world upside down.

  “Tell me everything,” I said, not looking at Blade. I was immensely proud of myself for keeping my voice from cracking, even though the tears were burning hot behind my eyes.

  I listened as Blade talked about seeing Heathcliff and Catherine holding hands in the library. Of seeing Catherine kissing Heathcliff and Heathcliff kissing her back, and then the two of them disappeared down into the stacks of the library, where the vault was hidden.

  “Anyway, so Blade tells me that they’re up to no good and we should do something to try to stop them,” Samir said.

  “And Samir says, no way, are you crazy? Heathcliff will kick my butt and I’m a little scaredy cat.” Blade made her voice go high and scratchy in imitation of Samir in coward-mode.

  “That is not what I said.” Samir sounded indignant. “I said I didn’t want to risk your life, my love.”

  Blade let out an exasperated sounding sigh. “Whatever.”

  “Okay,” Samir relented. “I believe I said, ‘what? Are you crazy? And risk losing you because I’m a total coward?’”

  “Aw, you’re so sweet when you’re scared,” Blade said, and gave Samir a little pat on his arm. Normally, I would laugh, but I was too preoccupied with the image of Heathcliff and Catherine holding hands in the library. I felt like this whole conversation I was hovering over my body, looking at everything from a distance.

  “You’re sure it was Heathcliff?” My voice sounded soft and far away.

  “What do you mean?” Samir asked.

  “He’s got a double,” Lindsay explained. I’d told her about Syndey Carton and she filled in my friends.

  While she talked about Sydney, I wondered if that was the excuse I was looking for. Was it Sydney, and not my Heathcliff, with Catherine?

  Blade and Samir both agreed that they were pretty sure it was Heathcliff, but, of course, neither one could be one hundred percent sure. Still, I could tell they were humoring me. They didn’t want to hurt my feelings any more than they had to.

  “Are you okay?” Lindsay asked me, touching my shoulder.

  “Fine,” I lied. I was anything but fine, but now—in a cabin on Shipwreck Island with Bard Academy missing—was not a good time to have a total and complete breakdown. I straightened myself and sh
ook off the screaming voices in my head. “I’m not going to believe Heathcliff is with Catherine until Heathcliff tells me so.” I looked around at my friends, who were giving me uncomfortable glances. They thought I was playing a fool, but they weren’t going to say it. “Until he tells me to my face….” I drifted off, my voice suddenly lost to the heavy emotions that were threatening to close my throat.

  “It’s okay, we’ll find him,” Lindsay said and squeezed my arm. I was glad of the support.

  I swallowed back the tears that were threatening to fall. No use in being sad until I was sure there was a reason to be sad.

  “Did you see what happened to the school?” I asked Samir and Blade.

  “Heathcliff and Catherine went over to where the vault was and a few minutes later, it just blew up,” Blade said.

  “The floor started to glow blue first,” Samir said. “You forgot that part.”

  “Right, the floor started to glow. And then it blew up.”

  “It didn’t blow up so much as get sucked in.” Samir made a whooshing sound with his mouth as he pounded one fist against another. “Think of a huge black hole or blue hole, come to think of it. Everything looked blue.”

  “Where was the faculty?” I asked.

  “I didn’t see any teachers around. Or Guardians. It was weird.” Samir shrugged. “Maybe Heathcliff and Catherine had taken care of them somehow. I don’t know. But nobody came to stop them. They walked right down there to the vault and destroyed everything.”

  “But, wait—you didn’t actually see them do it,” I said.

  “Well, no, we didn’t,” Blade said. “But we could put two and two together. They were the only ones near the vault at the time. They go down that book aisle and then—bam!—everything’s gone.”

  “How could they have done that though? I don’t understand,” I said. Something wasn’t making sense here. Heathcliff destroying the whole school? I couldn’t believe he trashed the school on purpose. Either he didn’t know what Catherine had planned or neither one of them realized what would happen when they opened the door to that vault.

  “Maybe that was Heathcliff’s plan,” Lindsay said, almost too softly for me to hear. “He knew you were gone from Bard. Maybe it was his way of ‘taking care of things.’”

  “You mean he was too chicken to tell her he was leaving, so he just decided to banish the whole school while she was away?” Blade translated, skepticism thick in her voice.

  “Farfetched,” Samir agreed.

  “Maybe they had help,” I said.

  “Emily Bronte?” Lindsay suggested.

  “We never saw her,” Blade said. “But that doesn’t mean she’s not behind this.”

  “So what happened after the floor turned blue?” I asked.

  “One second we were sitting in the library and the next, the chairs and tables and books were shrinking and twisting and flying around and then we were all in the air and next thing I know I’m sitting poolside with a martini glass with that dress on,” Blade said.

  “I liked that dress,” Samir said and wiggled his eyebrows.

  Blade rolled her eyes. “And I was blond. That was a crime against humanity. I don’t think I’ll ever recover from that.”

  “That is actually good news,” Lindsay said, as she picked up another book from the shelf. Samir and Blade stared at her. “Don’t you see? The school wasn’t destroyed. It was just relocated.” She held up her vault-copy of Jane Eyre. “If you guys were pushed into the pages of the Great Gatsby, then….”

  “The rest of Bard has to be hidden somewhere in literature, too,” I finished. For the first time, I felt a little bit of hope. Maybe the school hadn’t been decimated at all. Maybe it was just hiding out in another story—along with the rest of the Bard students and faculty.

  “Let’s look,” Blade said, grabbing another book off the shelf. We each took one and poured over the pages, looking for familiar names.

  After a few minutes, Lindsay spoke first.

  “Found Ryan…and Hana,” Lindsay said, pointing her finger at a page in the book. “They’re in Jane Eyre. Oh, crap.” She kept reading.

  “What?” I thought for a minute they were both in danger.

  Lindsay glanced up at me, her face pained. “I think they’re getting married.”

  “They’re what?” Samir and Blade both grabbed the book at the same time.

  She held up the page for us to see. I saw Ryan’s name and then Hana’s. It seemed Ryan was now Mr. Rochester and Hana was now Jane Eyre. “We’ve got to go get them out.” Lindsay’s voice came out in a whine.

  “No way. I’m not going in there,” Samir said, shaking his head. “Do you remember two years ago? When that crazy pyromaniac what’s her name…?”

  “Mrs. Rochester,” I said.

  “Right, that crazy woman who set fire to everything? I mean, do you remember her? She nearly burned down the school. And she’s nuts. I’m sorry. I’m not going in there. Crazy lives in there.”

  “You don’t have to come with us,” I said. “You can stay out here with Lindsay.”

  “Excuse me?” Lindsay blurted. “I had to stay out last time. It’s my turn to go in.”

  “No, I don’t think so.” I shook my head. “It’s too dangerous. Have you even read Jane Eyre?”

  “Yes,” Lindsay said. “Before you, actually. Mrs. Rochester is going to burn down the house if you we don’t get in there.” She looked at me a long time and I realized she wasn’t bluffing. “And, Miranda, I’m not a little kid anymore. It’s time you let me do some stuff on my own.”

  Blade didn’t offer her opinion, which was telling. Normally, she’d be the one screaming that Lindsay had no business going on a stealth mission. Instead, she just gave an indifferent shrug, like she really didn’t care one way or another. I looked at Lindsay for a second, really looked at her, and I saw she was right. She wasn’t the twelve-year-old kid sister with the braces and the annoying whine. She was growing up. And maybe she was right. Maybe it was time for me to let her.

  “Fine,” I said at last. “You go. But be careful.”

  I took Jane Eyre from her hands and began reading. A glimmering portal opened up in

  the middle of the cabin and on the other side sat a lush green lawn and an old English estate.

  “Okay, Lindsay, stay close to me, listen to what I say and don’t screw anything up,” Blade said. “Got it?”

  “Got it,” Lindsay said and nodded.

  “Maybe I should go with you,” Samir told Blade. I could see the concern on his face. If Hana could see them now, I was sure she’d approve of them as a couple. They just worked. I didn’t know if fate brought them together or it was just plain luck. Because on the outside, nothing about them seemed compatible, but together, they just clicked. There wasn’t a better way to describe it. I felt a sharp pang as I thought about Heathcliff. When I thought about perfect couples, my mind went back to him. I thought we’d been one. Had I been so wrong?

  Thinking about that, I felt like crying, so I stopped thinking about it. I had a job to do. I had to keep reading to keep the portal open, so I kept reading.

  “Samir, you stay here with Miranda,” Blade said. “I’ll be right back. Lindsay, come on.” Blade stepped through the portal. Lindsay’s eyes grew bright as she followed. On the other side, we could see them, dressed in long skirts, and walking quickly toward the estate.

  “I should’ve gone, shouldn’t I?” Samir said, as we watched them go. I stopped reading, and the portal began to close.

  “They’ll be fine,” I said. At least, I hoped so.

  Outside, the wind howled against the thin walls of the cabin. The trees rustled loudly in the wind, and I tried not to think of whatever creature Lindsay and I had run into in the woods.

  “Yeah, but a brave boyfriend would’ve….”

  Outside, I thought I heard a scream. So did Samir, because he instantly stopped talking and his face went white.

  “Tell me I imagined that,” he
said, his voice a little shaky.

  “Nope,” I said, walking to the window. I peered out, but the light in the cabin made it hard to see. I turned and flicked the light off.

  “Lights off? Is that really necessary?” Samir hovered near my shoulder. We both pressed our faces to the glass. All I saw were tree branches swaying in the wind.

  “I can’t see anything otherwise,” I said.

  “And tell me again why you want to see what’s out there causing people to scream?”

  “I want to be prepared,” I said.

  “Maybe it’s not what it sounded like,” Samir said, trying to sound hopeful. “It could’ve been a wounded raccoon or something.”

  “Maybe.” I wasn’t convinced. I glanced over at Samir. “You beginning to regret not going with Blade?”

  “Definitely,” he said.

  We both fell quiet, and then, far away, another scream came. This time, it was hard to imagine it was anything else than a girl out there in trouble. I wondered if it was Parker.

  “That was no raccoon,” I said.

  “That’s what I was afraid of,” Samir said.

  I put my hand on the door lock, preparing to open the door, when Samir’s hand clamped down on mine.

  “If you go out there and don’t come back then Blade won’t, either,” Samir said. His voice was low and somber. He wasn’t afraid of me opening the door as much as he was telling me he wasn’t going to allow me to do it. He wasn’t going to let me run out there and leave Blade trapped in Jane Eyre.

  “You’re right,” I said, taking my hand off the doorknob. “What was I thinking?” I was Blade and Lindsay’s only way back.

  “It’s okay,” Samir said. “Can we turn the lights on now?”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea do you?”

  “Probably not,” Samir said. “Just thought I’d ask.”

  We sat in dark silence, looking out the window. No other screams came after that. The woods were silent, except for the wind blowing through the trees.

  The minutes ticked on, and then, it was time to open the portal.

  I began reading and the doorway to the book opened in the center of the room, just as it had before. The light glimmered as the portal grew larger. In seconds, we saw Blade and Lindsay sprinting across the field. Following them were a man and a woman in period dress, and as I got closer I recognized them.