ARIANNE LEFT ART CLASS dazed and more than a little bewildered. She hadn’t expected to see Niko that morning. She’d hoped for it, certainly, but to actually see him glowing with health had her heart dancing a jig in her throat. Overnight he’d grown more delicious. It took all her control not to take a bite when he sat beside her on the bus. She never thought she’d be so happy about Ben being drafted into morning practice. Her lungs begged for more breaths of his minty scent. And that smile…it melted her insides to cherry slush.
After the surprise of seeing him with all his limbs intact had lessened, she’d let it slip that she saw the souls. Talk about not thinking. She’d sat in the bus for a couple more minutes after he’d left, staring at nothing until she managed to pull herself together enough to hurry to first period.
The fruit bowl she was supposed to paint in art came out more abstract than she’d wanted. Now, she hobbled into gym almost forgetting she needed to change. Half the class had already found seats on the bleachers. The rest milled about in groups of threes or fours on the basketball/volleyball court. She gave a shy wave to one of her classmates before hurrying to the locker room. Passing a couple of giggling girls, Arianne didn’t notice the figure sitting on the changing bench waiting for her.
“Ari, can we talk?” said a voice that brought the temperature to arctic.
Arianne turned toward the source of the question slowly, so as not to spook the primly attired, no-hair-misplaced, white tennis-shoed predator. “Darla, I didn’t see you there. Have you finally learned to vanish and reappear?”
Darla crossed her legs and placed her hands on top of each other on her knee. “What is Niko Clark to you?”
Oh God, Darla knows.
“Niko?” Arianne’s gaze darted left then right. Suddenly, the locker room seemed deserted. “We just have chemistry together,” she explained quickly. “Class is about to start. You don’t want to be late, do you?”
Narrowing her eyes, Darla asked, “Why are you changing the subject?”
“I’m merely stating the obvious. I’ve never seen you late for class.”
“Coach won’t mind. I asked permission. You know ‘girl talk.’”
Arianne didn’t like the way Darla said “girl talk.” The phrase sounded more like “torture.”
“If Niko only has chemistry with you, why did he sit beside you on the bus?”
“Darla, nothing happened. He just asked me about the experiment we had yesterday.”
“Why would Niko ask you about anything?”
“You’d have to take that up with him.”
“So, you don’t like him in any way?”
“It’s Niko Clark—what’s not to like?”
“I suppose.” She stood up and picked off imaginary lint from her creaseless clothes. Then she looked Arianne in the eye. “You won’t lie to me. Right, Ari?”
Despite shaking knees, Arianne managed to sound calm. “No, Dar. Never again.”
“Good.” She turned to go. “Now, hurry up. Wouldn’t want to be any later than we already are, right?”
Arianne waited to hear the locker room door shut before she allowed herself to breathe again. She sat on the bench and bent down with her head between her knees. “I’m screwed,” she whispered.
The foot deep locker was empty. Arianne stared and stared and stared, but nothing changed. Still empty.
“Where the hell are my books?” Her question seemed to echo within the cavern.
Her heart sank like a submarine with a gaping hole in its hull. For a second, she wanted to shrink into the deepest, darkest corner she could find and never come out. Not even for treats. Darla waiting for her before gym class should have been a sign in and of itself.
Something white made her turn to the locker door. Taped to the metal, a note had a list of names and the words:
Join me on a treasure hunt.
“I don’t have time for this,” Arianne said through her teeth, but she yanked at the treasure map and hurried to the location of the first person on the list.
The school secretary ruled from behind her desk with a froggy frown and claw-like nails in zebra print that she filed constantly. Her overworked swivel chair squeaked every time she moved—a slave beneath the heft of a fire-breathing, mumu-wearing dragon. Instead of a hoard of gold, she had paperwork.
Arianne approached with caution. “Good morning, Mrs. Whistle,” she said softly.
The nail file scratched at Mrs. Whistle’s inch long pinky nail over and over. Shh. Shh. Shh.
“Um, Mrs. Whistle—” Arianne clutched the list in her hand until the paper protested “—you wouldn’t happen to have one of my books with you by any chance, would you?”
The filing stopped. It created a vacuum of silence that had Arianne clenching her thighs together like she had to go to the bathroom but was too shy to have everyone hear her pee. Horn-rimmed glasses focused first on her sneakers, then up to her trembling knees, then to her fisted stomach and stiff shoulders, to finally land just above her eyebrows. Arianne attempted to speak through the glacier that grew between her and Mrs. Whistle, but the heavy thump of a textbook on linoleum had her jumping back. She hadn’t even seen Mrs. Whistle move to pick up anything, much less fling it at Arianne’s feet.
Without waiting for an invitation, Arianne picked up her book, stuffed it into her pack, and ran out of the dragon’s lair. She smoothened out her crumpled map and proceeded to the next person on the list. Coach Simmons handed her a notebook. Nurse Betty gave her some advice on being more conscious about leaving her things along with one more text book. Arianne couldn’t take it. Darla managed to get all the teachers and staff to play along in her “treasure hunt.” How she did it was lost to Arianne. She pushed her humiliation away and focused on getting the stupidity over with.
For the first time, Arianne dreaded walking into chemistry. Darla had come a-sniffing, and it would only be a matter of time until she figured things out. Niko’s continued attention could only cause people to draw the wrong conclusions. Now more than ever, she wanted to take things back. To have him as far away from her as possible. No matter how much I want to take him home with me.
“Oh, who are you kidding? You’ve liked him for years,” she said to herself.
“Liked who?” Tammy asked from behind her.
“Geez, Tam!” Arianne whirled around. “Give a girl a heart attack, why don’t—” She took in the slightly askew braids and wrinkled clothing of the girl behind her. “What’s wrong? Tam?”
The girl’s body drooped as she sighed. Arianne wrapped her arms around her lab partner and guided her to their table. She pulled out a stool and eased Tammy onto it. Her braids hung limp over her shoulders. Lack of sleep showed beneath her eyes. Worry spread through Arianne’s chest like prickly moss. The image of Niko fading resurfaced. She glanced toward the back of the room just as Niko entered.
Satisfied that he wouldn’t be disappearing any time soon, she returned her attention to Tammy, who looked like she had a cloud hovering over her head, drizzling salty rain down her face. Arianne fished out a tissue from her bag’s side pocket and handed it to her lab partner. Tammy blew her nose with gusto.
“Tam, talk to me.” Arianne rubbed circles on the girl’s back.
Tammy balled up the tissue. “It’s my mom. She was caught in that pile-up yesterday.” She could barely get the words out between each labored breath. “She’s in intensive care at St. Joseph’s.”
“Oh God, Tammy. You didn’t have to come to school!”
“I had to.” She sniffed. “With Dad at the hospital, the house is just empty. My aunt is coming to help out tomorrow, but I just couldn’t stay in that house with my mom’s things scattered where she’d left them. I just can’t.”
“Shhh,” Arianne breathed. Everyone in the room had started to stare, but she didn’t care. She continued comforting her friend. “Everything’s going to be fine, you’ll see.”
“What if it isn’t?”
“Tam, you can’t think that way.” Arianne held her friend at arm’s length and gazed into puffy, red eyes. “It’s unfair to your mom. You have to stay hopeful, if not positive.”
Just as Tammy accepted her words, a grief stricken Mr. Todd walked in. He placed his leather case on top of his table and addressed the class solemnly. “Everyone, please settle into your seats.”
Sensing the heaviness Mr. Todd had brought in, the class followed without incident. Arianne continued to hold Tammy’s hand while they sat side by side, facing their chem teacher.
Mr. Todd’s eyebrows came together. “I wish I didn’t have to bring you this news, but as you may notice, Carl Thompson isn’t here today.”
As if on cue, everyone looked toward Niko’s table.
Even with all that attention, Niko managed to stay stone-faced.
“You may have already heard about the accident that occurred on I-75 yesterday,” Mr. Todd continued, causing the class to face him again. “Carl’s father was headed home when the driver of the semi fell asleep.”
Tammy stiffened beside Arianne. Both girls squeezed each other’s hand as tightly as humanly possible.
“Let’s pause for a moment to pay our respects to Mr. Thompson. To those who are friends with Carl, the wake will be held this Saturday.”
Everyone bowed their heads. A heavy-handed sadness settled in the room, pressing on the shoulders of all those present. Even when Mr. Todd began class and explained the day’s experiment, no one seemed in the mood. Arianne watched Tammy intently, ready to play offense if so much as a glimmer of depression entered her friend’s aura. In her periphery, a silent figure had her glancing at the door.
There stood a naked woman, gazing forlornly at their table. Arianne gasped and immediately covered her mouth with both hands. She recognized the slant in the woman’s eyes, all too similar to those of the girl she sat next to.
“Ari, what’s the matter?” Tammy glanced up at her from their experiment.
“Oh, Tam,” she said, her voice muffled by her hands. “I’m so sorry.”
“Ms. Herald?” Mr. Todd interrupted Tammy’s questioning glance. He had come to their table and placed a hand on Tammy’s shoulder. “You’re wanted at the principal’s office again.”
Tammy’s lower lip quivered.
Arianne couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. All she managed was to watch her friend stand and gather her things with flat eyes.
“Ms. Wilson, are you all right?” Mr. Todd asked after Tammy left the room.
“May…” Arianne swallowed the barbed lump in her throat. “May I go to the bathroom?”
Arianne hobbled along on wobbly legs. Classes in session afforded her the luxury of the hallway’s emptiness. She swerved to the right in drunken steps. Then she moved to the left until her shoulder collided with a locker. Just as her knees gave out, a second set of footsteps hurried toward her from behind, and before she slipped to the floor, strong arms wrapped around her. She turned within the protective circle and pressed her face against a chest where the heart it kept within beat so fast that it was all she could hear.
They slid to the floor together until Arianne found herself sprawled between long legs covered in rugged jeans. The dam spilled over, sobs alternating with hiccups and sniffs. Never in her life had she cried so hard. A hand moved to the back of her head, stroking her hair. She continued to sniffle until the shirt she’d fisted felt damp in her hands.
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” she hiccupped. “I’m really, really sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for, angel?”
Shock pushed her back. “Niko?”
“Why are you crying, Ari?” He wiped away the last of her tears with his thumb while keeping his other arm around her waist.
“I…”
“You saw Tammy’s mother, didn’t you?”
Her eyes widened until they hurt. “How…? No. You already know. I was just telling her that everything would be okay. I was just hugging her.” Every word sounded more hysterical than the next. The second deluge had come. “And now—”
“Shhh. Angel, shhh.” Niko gathered her close. “Let me take you somewhere you can rest. Will you let me do that for you?”
Without thinking about what Niko meant, Arianne nodded once, her shoulders shuddering with every rasping breath.
“Keep your eyes closed.”
The hard floor disappeared from underneath them, leaving behind weightlessness akin to the first tug of an elevator going up. Then, just as quickly, the feeling vanished.
“We’re here, Ari,” Niko said.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself still in Niko’s arms, but now sitting on the grassy shore of a placid lake with a dock. Pines worshipped the sun on all sides. Arianne couldn’t see beyond the hilltop that rose from the shore behind them. Fat, fluffy clouds grazed in the sky.
“Where are we?” she asked.