* * *
Biology class dragged on forever, but I was grateful to have my mind occupied. I figured that was one hour in my day I didn’t have to struggle with. One hour down, ten to go, before I could go to sleep. As long as I kept my mind occupied, I should be good. I decided to immerse myself in my school work since we were getting our assignments for our final grades today, thinking that would be perfect. I could devote my time to those things and worry about what to do later.
After class I found Carrie waiting at my locker, bright and cheery. I tried to assimilate her mood, but couldn’t.
I was a hopeless case.
“Matt and I are going off campus for lunch. Do you want to come with us?”
My ears were ringing again, and I saw Matt walking toward us. He waved, and Carrie motioned for him to hurry up.
“No. I think I’m going to stay and get something at the snack bar.” The ringing in my ears annoyed me, and I still didn’t understand why they rang when Matt came around and with that other guy too. And why did it quit after a few minutes of being around Matt? I felt like screaming.
“Oh, c’mon, Paige.” Carrie wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “I think you need to try to have some fun.”
“Maybe some other time.” I shrugged her arm off, wanting to escape.
Matt came up behind her and tickled her sides. She squealed and jumped around, pushing on his chest with both hands. He stood there laughing at her weak attempt to push him backwards. I thought about Nathan teasing me about being his sniper chick and wanted to weep.
“Are you coming with us, Paige?” he asked, grabbing Carrie’s hands, pinning her back against him while she struggled to break free. His sky-blue eyes were intently on mine, as if he was trying to compel me. Something in my gut stirred.
“No, but I’ll catch you two later.” I pushed past them before they could object and headed to the cafeteria.
As I waited in line at the snack bar, debating whether to eat or not, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Looking behind me, my gaze went up to Tree’s face.
“Do you want to sit with me?”
After I paid for my chef salad and Dr Pepper, he took my tray. I followed him to an empty table, glad we were alone. I wasn’t in the mood to be around anybody else but Tree.
“Where’s your sidekick?” he asked. “You two always eat lunch together.”
I picked at my salad. “She’s with Matt.” I glanced up to him scowling at the table. “They invited me along but I didn’t feel like going off campus.”
“I heard you fainted the other night,” he said.
“Yeah, I did, but Nathan …” I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through my hair. “I had an emotional weekend to say the least.” I so didn’t want to go there.
He nodded, knowing not to press the issue. He took a drink of his Coke, then bit into his brownie.
“Hi, Tree. Hi, Paige,” Sam shouted from across the cafeteria.
Sam came toward us, dressed almost identically to Tree, in a black leather trench coat that hung past his arms. He looked like a little kid playing dress-up. A thin piece of blond hair was drooping out of place from his Mohawk.
“Here comes your ‘mini me,’” I whispered to Tree.
The corners of his mouth curled, raising the brownie crumbs that clung to them.
“I think he has an idol of you he sticks on an altar in his bedroom,” I persisted.
“Very funny, Paige,” he said, trying not to laugh, licking at the corners of his mouth.
“I heard what happened to you, Paige. How are you feeling?” Sam asked.
I smiled politely at him while I played with the tab on my Dr Pepper. “Fine, thanks.”
His admiring eyes fell on Tree. I covered my mouth, hiding my smile. Tree kicked my foot underneath the table and squinted at me. Sam didn’t catch on; he was too busy looking at Tree’s ear.
“That’s awesome.” He pointed at the little silver dude hanging onto the side of Tree’s ear. “Where did you get your ear cuff?”
Tree made an effort not to look at Sam by picking pieces off of his brownie and popping them into his mouth. “I don’t remember. I think my brother got it for me when he was in Germany.”
“I wonder if I could order one online,” Sam mumbled.
I stifled a giggle, and Tree made a face at me. It felt good being around him, and I couldn’t help but find humor in Tree’s wanna-be doppelganger standing next to him.
“Shit. I have to go. I’ll see ya later,” Sam said, looking at the clock on the wall.
Tree smashed his Coke can with his hand, making a loud crinkling sound. “Later.”
“Bye, Sam.” I waved, and then leaned across the table. “Do you think he knew we were laughing at him?”
Tree shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He looked at my salad. “You didn’t eat much.”
“I’m not hungry.” I pushed it aside and frowned. “I hope I didn’t hurt his feelings.”
He rolled his eyes and flicked crumbs at me. “Sam and his feelings will be just fine.”
“Oh, I have read some of Hemingway’s books,” I blurted, answering his question from earlier, taking pieces of shredded cheese off my salad and flicking them at him.
“That’s great.” He smiled. “Can you tell me about one you have read?”
“I will, but you need to read it though.” I took a drink of my Dr Pepper and watched the hope in his face transform into a pleading look. It was the same look he used to give me when we were kids. And despite how bitchin’ he looked, the little boy inside him emerged in his facial features. He became ten again, and my heart warmed to the memories of us being kids together, staring wars and all.
“Tree, if you don’t read the book, Mr. Russo is going to be able to tell. You heard what he said.” Despite Tree’s lack of literary knowledge, he was smart, and I didn’t want him in trouble.
The muscles in his face bunched up, like a kid being told he had to eat liver. “I know, but that stuff is so boring to me, and if I try to read it I’ll fall asleep.”
An idea came to me. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll go to a used bookstore and buy one of his books and highlight what you need to know. Then you can take that information and write your essay on it.” That will totally work.
“Great idea.” He beamed.
“I’ll go today after school and buy the book, and I’ll highlight what you need to know tonight.” I was benefitting from this as well because it would give me another thing to do.
“You don’t need to do it today,” he said, sounding guilty.
“It’s no problem. I planned on doing all my school work this week anyway.”
“Paige, it’s going to be okay. Things will work out. You don’t have to use your school work to–” Sympathy now took over his guilt, stabbing at my heart.
I raised my hand. “You know me too well, but I need to do this to help cope with things. Besides, once it’s out of the way, I won’t have to worry about school work for the rest of the year.” At least something positive would come out of my misery and stupidity. I was an idiot for allowing myself to fall for Nathan so quickly and believing we were connected in some unexplained way.
The bell rang. Tree took my tray and threw the contents on it in the trash, along with his.
“I’ll give you the book tomorrow. Unless, you want me to stop by your house tonight to give it to you.”
“I won’t be home.” He flashed me a guilty look. “I have to work at my dad’s garage after school. We’re rebuilding an engine.”
“That’s fine. I’ll bring it to school then,” my voice squeaked, as if to say “no worries.”
He kissed me on the cheek before going up the stairs to his next class.
My last class for the day was history. I saved Matt a seat. But when class started, and there was no sign of him, I wondered if he ditched for the rest of the day. Until ten minutes later when he entered in the middle of Mr. Harrin’s lecture, and my ears were ringing.
>
Mr. Harrin’s pale-blue vulture eyes shifted to Matt. “It’s nice of you to grace us with your presence, Mr. Schall.”
All heads turned to Matt.
“Sorry,” Matt said, rubbing his belly, making a sick face. “I ate some Mexican food and was detained for a while.” He took the empty seat next to me.
Soft laughter rumbled throughout the room.
“So, if it starts to smell like boiled eggs over here, you’ll know why.”
The laughter broke free. A couple of girls across the room shot him a disgusted look. I couldn’t help but snicker. Matt was totally playing it up, and our teacher wasn’t amused.
Steve who sat behind Matt raised his hand. “Can I sit somewhere else?”
“No, Mr. Hass. You will remain where you are,” Mr. Harrin said through tight lips.
“But I’m in the line of fire,” Steve complained.
More laughter.
In his Gestapo style, with his back straight, shoulders back, Mr. Harrin approached Matt’s desk. “Mr. Schall, we were just talking about the bubonic plague. If you can answer the following questions correctly, I’ll forget about your insubordination. But, if you can’t, then you will have detention for the rest of the week.”
I think we all held our breaths because the silence became deafening. Mr. Harrin looked down his nose at Matt.
“Lay it on me,” Matt said with a cocky smile.
Mr. Harrin returned his cocky smile and asked, “What was the bubonic plague also known as?”
“The black death.” Matt smirked, slinging his arm behind the chair.
“Where did it originate?”
“Central Asia.”
“How many lives did it claim?”
“On record, close to two-hundred million.”
I glanced around the room. All eyes were glued on Matt, shocked and impressed.
“What year did it become a pandemic?”
“1328,” Matt answered. “And during that time a third of the population died.”
Mr. Harrin responded with a sharp nod, his cold eyes thawing. He patted Matt on the shoulder. “You’re forgiven, Mr. Schall.” He went to the front of the class and continued with his lecture.
“You rock. That was totally awesome,” I whispered to Matt when Mr. Harrin turned to the blackboard; my ears were no longer ringing.
He snorted with indignation. “Those were bullshit questions and a waste of my time.”
“Yeah, well, I wish I knew as much as you did.”
He stared at me in an odd way, like he knew a secret. “Maybe someday you will.”
I held his eyes with mine and thought I saw something flickering beyond them, but he looked away before I could be sure. Then the ghostly spoke:
“Black in the day. Black as night. They love human flesh, but it must be just right.”
The hair on the back of my neck prickled. I peeked at Matt, and he was glaring at Mr. Harrin. My eyes fell on my open textbook to a picture representing the people who were afflicted with the plague. Was this message talking about the plague? And why was I having another premonition? They never came this close together. I wanted to throw my book across the room and scream, but instead I wrote down our assignment and bolted out the room when the bell rang. I couldn’t deal with this anymore and was on the verge of flipping out.
“Hey, wait up,” Matt called above the herd of rushing students.
I stopped and waited, even though I wanted to get the hell out of there.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, shifting his books in his arms.
“Nothing. I have a lot of work to do,” I said in a rush, my heart racing.
“Are you mad at me for going out with Carrie?” He moved closer to me.
I shook my head and frantically looked around.
“Do you want to meet us at Café Nation at four?” He stepped into my space.
“No. Tell Carrie I’ll talk to her later.” I spun and bailed.