Jenny Pox (The Paranormals, Book 1) (9 page)

“Now,” Ashleigh said, “Let’s hear some reasons we are committed to abstinence.”  A few girls raised their hands.  Whatever any girl said, Ashleigh wrote it on the whiteboard, approving of all suggestions.  She made a long list of bright purple words like GOD, PURITY, PARENTS, PREGNANCY, HEALTH, OUR FUTURE, and SELF-RESPECT.  When the group was all tapped out, Ashleigh gave them a big smile.

“
These are all great reasons,” Ashleigh said.  “I’m glad everybody’s so fired up on this subject.  Now, there’s one thing nobody mentioned, one you may not know about.  And this one is a very big secret.” Ashleigh looked at the closed door, as if expecting spies and eavesdroppers.  “I don’t want any of you talking about it outside this room.  Raise your hand if you promise to keep this secret.”

Every girl raised her hand.

“Okay.” Ashleigh used her stage-whisper voice, the one that made a whole crowd feel like Ashleigh was taking them into her confidence, cutting them in on the real dirt.  It was almost magical, the effect that voice had on a crowd. “Here’s the secret, and I want you each to think about it.  Every guy you meet—except maybe in your family—all of them want to have sex with you.  They’ve all thought about it.  They might be thinking about it right now.”

Some of the girls, especially the middle schoolers, looked at each other with big, frightened eyes.  There was much whispering and gnashing of teeth, and Ashleigh waited for all of them to finish.

“It’s really all they think about,” Ashleigh said. “Studies have shown that if a guy looks at you, he’s probably imagining you and him having sex together.  They can’t help it, that’s how God made them.

“
But when they see this,” Ashleigh tapped her thumbnail against her abstinence ring, “It means they can’t have what they want, because you’re devoted, and not just some slut.” Some girls giggled. “It makes them respect you.  And, listen, it makes them want you even more.  Think about the last time you wanted something you knew you couldn’t have—like an expensive pair of shoes your dad wouldn’t buy for you.  Didn’t that make you want it more?”

Several girls nodded, and there was more whispering.

“Now—and this is the other part of this secret—the more you make a boy want you, without letting him have you, the better he will treat you.  He’ll buy you things, take you places, do what you tell him, and stand up for you and protect you.  The more you make them want it and don’t give it, the more control you have.  Abstinence isn’t just saying ‘no.’  Abstinence is power.”

Ashleigh let that sink in a minute, then asked if there were any questions.  A freshman girl, Erica Lintner, daughter of the town police chief, raised her hand.

“I like ‘abstinence is power,’” she said. “Maybe that could be like our saying, or our, whaddya call it…”

“
Slogan?” Ashleigh suggested.

“
Yeah!” Erica said. “Our slogan.”

Ashleigh pretended to consider this very carefully. “Hmm. ‘Abstinence is power’ as the slogan for our campaign.  I think Erica has a great idea.  What does everyone else think?”

Lots of girls hurried to agree with Ashleigh.  Erica beamed, clearly very proud of herself.

“
So here’s what we’re doing,” Ashleigh said. “Each of you write your top three picks for your boy ‘abstinence buddy’ on the little heart-shaped pieces of paper Shannon is passing out.  Shannon and I will go through them, and by the time you leave tonight, you’ll know who your buddy will be.”

This led to tremendous chatter.  A sophomore raised her hand.

“Can it be a boy you have a crush on?” she asked.

“
Of course,” Ashleigh said. “Any boy you’d like to talk about sex with.”

Another girl, a very dorky bucktoothed sophomore named Veronica Guntley, raised her hand.  She spoke very slowly when Ashleigh called on her.

“I was thinking,” Veronica said. “When you say all the guys want to have sex with us, well, does that, well, does that include Principal Harris?  And Coach Humbee?  And the dentist?  Or Dr. Goodling?  Or what about--”

“
How dare you?” Ashleigh asked in a low, hissing voice. She stalked toward Veronica, and other girls shifted their chairs away to leave Veronica isolated in the middle of the room.  “My father is a man of God.  He is anointed!”

Ashleigh was looming over Veronica now.  The younger girl had scrunched way down in her seat, staring at her hands, her face bright crimson and very close to tears.

“God’s ministers are not like normal men,” Ashleigh said. “God’s blessing changes them and makes them holy.  What is wrong with you, Veronica?  Why are you having these thoughts?”

“
I’m not!” Veronica wailed.

“
I think you’ve made your thoughts clear to the group, Veronica.  I want you to apologize to me for making accusations about my father, and to all the girls for trying to ruin this meeting.”

“
I’m sorry!” Veronica cried. “Everybody, I’m sorry!  I didn’t mean it.  Please, Ashleigh, please don’t hate me!”  Veronica buried her face in her hands and sobbed.  Ashleigh let her do that in front of everyone for a couple of minutes.  Then Veronica asked without looking up, “Do I have to quit the Crusaders now?”

Ashleigh waited a long pause, then said, “Veronica, stand up.”

Veronica stood, crying hard, her whole body shaking. 

Ashleigh placed her hands on both of Veronica’s hot, slick cheeks, and curled her fingers around to touch the back of Veronica’s neck.  The gust of power rose in her, the secret thing that only Ashleigh had and nobody else, and it ran like an electric current out through Ashleigh’s fingers and into Veronica’s skin.  Veronica’s trembling slackened.

“It’s not Christian to kick people out just for being dirty and sinful,” Ashleigh said. “You just need to learn to control yourself better.  That’s what this abstinence campaign is all about.  We can work out your problems together.  So no, I’m not kicking you out of the Crusaders.  Not tonight.”

“
Oh, thank you!” Veronica threw her arms around Ashleigh’s waist.  Ashleigh tried not to look grossed out when the girl buried her snotty, wet face in Ashleigh’s breasts.  Ashleigh returned the hug, smiling to hide her revulsion.  The girl’s nose was really dripping. 

“
I love you, Ashleigh!” Veronica cried.

“
We all love you, too, Veronica,” Ashleigh said. “Right, everybody?”

The rest of the girls applauded or shouted that they loved Veronica, too, and a few of them got up to hug Veronica.  Ashleigh touched several of their bare arms or faces, spreading the energy around.  She couldn’t help it.  The energy gushed out of her whenever she touched another person.  Sometimes, Ashleigh wished she could keep it inside.

***

After her encounter with Seth, Jenny had trouble concentrating on anything.  Her mind kept drifting to Seth, how kind he’d been to her, talking to her like she was a normal person.  She thought back, and couldn’t remember having trouble with Seth until he started going with Ashleigh freshman year.  Even when Ashleigh spread the rumor in tenth grade that Jenny’s doctor made her wear gloves because she was addicted to masturbation, Jenny didn’t remember Seth talking about that.  And everyone had been talking about that for a couple of months.  Maybe Seth wasn’t so bad, but had a bad influence on him from Ashleigh.

For the first time, Jenny attended the school football games on Friday nights, dressed in long sleeves and a pair of tan-and-yellow Porcupines gloves from the school spirit catalog.  She sat among parents instead of students, since there was a lot less jostling and touching, and a whole lot less interest in picking on Jenny Mittens.

She liked watching Seth take the ball and crash his way down the field.  It also thrilled her when the Porcupines switched to defense, because then Seth would go to the sidelines, take off his helmet and splash water on his head.  She liked to watch that.  She also liked watching him help his teammates, in a secret way only Jenny knew about.

During the first game, Porcupine quarterback Tycus Williams had been sacked hard in the second quarter and twisted his ankle.  He’d limped off the field leaning heavily on Coach Humbee, while the crowd applauded politely.

On the bench, Seth slung an arm around Tycus and talked to him, gesturing toward the cheerleaders.  Tycus laughed, and Seth touched the back of Ty’s head and whispered something in his ear.  Tycus nodded and grinned.  After halftime, the quarterback was in the game again, repaired and full of energy, and led the team to victory over the Barlowe Bears. 

Seth did the same for any injured player on his team—shaking their hands and gripping it while he spoke to them, or giving a playful noogie, or leaning his forehead against the injured boy’s under the pretense of giving him an up-close pep talk in the noisy stadium.

Jenny liked the games because she could watch Seth for hours and get away with it.  She couldn’t approach him at school, with Ashleigh and friends close by and always ready to tear Jenny apart.  At the games, she could at least look all she wanted.  The only sour notes came at halftime and the end of the game, when Ashleigh would push herself against Seth to kiss him, and his hand would slide down toward her khaki skirt.  For all of Ashleigh’s religious posturing, when she’d become cheer captain, the cheerleaders’ skirt hems had risen by several inches, and their tops had shrunk to leave their stomachs bare.

After the games, Jenny would go for a walk in the woods by her house.  She would end up sitting on a certain large boulder in one of the little valleys that dimpled the hilly woods.  Lying on the flat top of this boulder, her head against smooth stone, she would think about Seth.

In her mind, she replayed the time he’d stopped to help Rocky, but she made things happen differently.  Instead of driving away to meet Ashleigh, he took Jenny’s hand and led her into the woods.  He pushed Jenny against a massive, gnarled old tree, and kissed her, pushing his tongue deep into her mouth.  His lean, strong body pressed against the front of her, while her back rubbed against the rough bark.  Then he would take the straps of the tank top she’d been wearing that day, and slide them down along her shoulders and arms, pulling her shirt down and turning it inside out at the same time.  Then he laid his warm, healing hands on her bare chest.

Usually, that was all Jenny could take.  She would lie on her back on the big rock, breathing hard, feeling ashamed of herself.  Then she might go again, making Seth do different things in her imagination.

She’d heard the word “crush” before, but never realized it was something so powerful it filled your head and body, and made it hard to eat and sleep.  She felt extra stupid because she was probably the hundredth or thousandth girl to crush on Seth Barrett.  She could not have set her sights any higher.  But she couldn’t help it.

Jenny also harbored another, less physical fantasy about Seth.  She imagined that after she discovered his healing power, Jenny had eagerly spilled to him about her own awful power, the Jenny pox.  In her fantasy, Seth was totally understanding and happy to finally be with someone like him.  He said he could love her even if he couldn’t touch her.  That was the truly dangerous fantasy, Jenny knew, the one that could only cause profound grief and suffering—but again, she couldn’t help it.

She started jogging through town late at night, when she wasn’t likely to encounter anyone as long as she stayed away from McCronkin’s Irish Pub.  Fortunately, Rocky had lost all taste for paved roads and wouldn’t go near one, so she didn’t have to worry about him, but she did have to run alone.  She never worried about getting attacked when alone at night.  Nobody had ever tried anything like that, but if they did, she would just give them a quick and horrible death.

Jenny lived south of town, and Seth lived on the east side.  For a week, she jogged past Barrett House every night on reconnaissance.  It loomed on top of a hill, surrounded by a tall, spiked wrought-iron fence that dated back to the Great Depression.  White brick columns topped by stone lions flanked the front gate.  Through the gate, you could see some of the three-story stone and brick house, which looked very old, much hidden behind huge ancient trees thick with Spanish moss and purple wisteria.  The driveway was brick and ended at the house with one of those hey-I’m-rich turnarounds with a fountain and garden in the center island.  Vines had overtaken the fountain and much of the garden.  The more she jogged past Barrett House in the moonlight, the more it looked like the country retreat of a crumbling dynasty, from a kingdom gone to ruin.

She never saw Seth outside and didn’t pick up any clues about how to talk to him without his friends around.  She’d considered slipping a note in his locker or backpack, but with Jenny’s luck, Ashleigh would find it first.  She’d considered calling him at home, but the number was unlisted.  Anyway, that seemed awkward, since he hadn’t given Jenny his number, and Jenny didn’t have much practice talking on the phone, aside from bill collectors threatening to shut off the power.  All her thoughts led to dead ends.

Strangely, her inspiration eventually came from Ashleigh Goodling.

Ashleigh sprang up on her long legs, high into the air, and swatted the ball as hard as she could over the net.  On the other side of the court, the ball cracked into its intended target—the center of Jenny Mittens’ stupid, ratty face.  Jenny cried out and fell to one knee.  She covered her face with her batting-gloved hands.  The ball skittered out of bounds, a point for Ashleigh’s team.