Broken (25 page)

"Sure, I'd love to. Mrs. North again?"

I ignored the spat of nasty looks shot my
way, gathered my books, accepted the bundle of papers, and hurried
off to the stairs. It was later than last time, so unless I was
quick the bell was going to ring before I made it back down the
stairs. The congestion was bad in the halls, but for some reason it
was twice as bad around stairs.

Apparently I was hurrying just a little too
fast. I tripped just before I hit the first step, and almost went
crashing down the flight that led to the basement. Luckily I was
just quick enough to grab the banister and save myself from a
broken neck. I didn't quite manage to avoid twisting my ankle
though, so I limped all the way up to the second floor.

Trying to be as casual as possible, I looked
into the art room as I hobbled by, but they'd rearranged their
stations, and someone's easel was in the way now.

The sprained ankle had slowed me down enough
that there was no way I was going to make it back to my locker
before the bell rang. Still, I tried to be gracious when it went
off just as I handed Mrs. North the papers.

Based on the number of classrooms on the
second floor, and the narrowness of the stairs, there was no point
in trying to wait the crowd out. I gritted my teeth and limped out
into the surge of bodies.

Surprisingly enough, there were more familiar
faces than expected. As I grabbed the handrail on the right, I
noticed Isaac several feet ahead of me. Of course, it's hard to
miss someone nearly six feet tall and almost as well-muscled as
Alec. Even if he was partially hidden by Vincent, who was strutting
along a little higher up the stairs with all of his usual
arrogance.

If Isaac had been the one close enough to
reach out and touch, I probably would've tried to get his attention
and said hi. With Vincent, I just stayed quiet and hoped he
wouldn't notice me.

I didn't want to risk tripping and making my
ankle worse, so I was paying especially close attention to where my
feet were going. If I hadn't been looking down, I would have
completely missed it. I still almost thought I'd imagined it, but
there was no denying that Vincent's foot snaked out and nudged the
ankle of the kid in front of him just hard enough to trip the
smaller guy.

The result was all out of proportion to what
I expected. The smaller boy fell forward, careening towards the
banister with so much force he knocked people in front of him out
of the way.

Just before I left elementary school someone
had read us a newspaper article about some poor guy being pushed
over a railing and falling to his death. I'd had nightmares for
months. Dreams where the stairs had turned slick and I'd slid all
the way down them. Dreams where the banister hadn't even been there
and the stairs had become impossibly narrow; and nightmares where
I'd somehow stumbled and started to fall over the edge of the
railing.

This was like all of those dreams put
together, only happening to someone else. A couple of kids seemed
to reach out, but the only people who could've really stopped him
had already been bowled over.

Time slowed down for me as he hit the railing
and started over it. His feet came up and his torso was hanging in
the void when someone reached over and grabbed his arm. I heard a
grunt of effort, saw him stop moving, and only then realized it was
Ben who'd nearly died.

In the split second between Ben being gently
placed back on the stairs, and everyone starting to breathe again,
I followed the arm that'd saved him back to see who the hero was.
Isaac met my gaze as he let go of Ben and then he looked up at
Vincent with a stare that was somehow both calm and challenging at
the same time.

"What are you looking at freak?" It was hard
to believe Vincent could be so nonchalant after having almost
killed someone. It'd been an accident obviously, but still that
wasn't the kind of thing you just shook off.

All of the kids that'd been rushing forward
to congratulate Isaac for his heroic save, started backing away.
Anxious to avoid the fight, I tried to move with the crowd, but
felt a flash of pain as my abused ankle protested.

For a second I couldn't think about anything
other than the agony. When I managed to get my eyes to focus again,
Vincent was only a couple of inches away from Isaac and hissing
something too quiet for me to make out.

Whatever it was, Vincent was all but foaming
at the mouth while Isaac was so calm it was hard to believe a fight
was about to break out. As admirable as Isaac's calm was, I was
actually wishing he was a little more worked up. I'd seen plenty of
fights where the guy who got the first hit in won.

Vincent was going to throw the first punch,
and then Isaac was going to go down like a house of cards.
Something Vincent said must've been particularly vile. Isaac's
expression shifted for just a second. They were circling now, both
amazingly graceful considering that they were still on the
stairs.

Everyone stepped back a little further. I
hobbled up a stair or two in an effort to avoid getting in the
way.

I'd heard of tension so thick you could cut
it with a knife, but this was the first time I'd ever experienced
it. It felt like there was electricity surging back and forth
between Vincent and Isaac, making my skin feel too small.

The tension suddenly flickered like a dying
light bulb. "Vincent!"

I was disoriented for a second. The yell had
come from behind me, and had torn the two apart faster than I'd
believed possible.

The crowd, packed so tightly that I'd been
worried someone was going to get pushed over the railing, separated
as Alec flowed down the stairs. I'd only thought Isaac and Vincent
were graceful. Alec made them look like drunken frat boys.

Vincent spun around so fast it almost looked
like he was going to fall down and then backed away from both of
them like a cornered animal. It was hard to decide whether my
excitement at seeing the biggest jerk I'd ever met humbled
outweighed my dislike for Alec, who'd pretty much locked up the
honor of being the second biggest jerk.

A surge of dread washed through me as Vincent
backed closer to the wall in an effort to maintain his distance
from Alec.

I half expected for the incredible tension
I'd been feeling before to disappear, but instead it morphed
slightly. If I hadn't know it was absolutely absurd, I would've
said it felt like there was a tingly wind blowing down the stairs,
pushing Vincent along before it.

Isaac moved slightly. It was a small change
of position, but somehow incredibly menacing. It wasn't until
Vincent froze in place that I realized Isaac's shift had kept
Vincent squarely between him and Alec. It was like watching a pair
of wolves bringing down an elk. I'd seen gangs work together like
this before, but it seemed strangely out of place in Sanctuary.

I was positive there was going to be a fight
after all, but then Vincent grabbed some poor freshman, shoved him
into Isaac, and pushed his way downstairs as Isaac caught the human
missile.

As soon as Vincent was safely out of sight,
everyone surged forward to congratulate Isaac on having saved Ben,
and Ben on having not died.

**

The near fight between Isaac and Vincent, and
then Alec's intervention seemed to be the buzz for the next two
hours. It appeared that a lot of other people felt the same way
that I did. Alec was plenty prickly and stuck up, but that was
nothing compared to how much the average student hated Vincent, who
seemed to delight in making everyone's life miserable.

The teachers seemed curiously ignorant of
everything. Nobody else seemed to think that was unusual which
freaked me out almost as much as Ben having nearly gone over the
stairs.

At least I didn't have to listen to all of
the gossip during lunch. Once I'd been able to hobble down the
stairs, I'd made my way to Mr. Whethers' room, and I'd spent the
entire lunch break studying.

I hadn't been especially excited at the
prospect of spending that long by myself, but the cafeteria was all
the way on the other side of the school. Limping over there
listening to Vincent run his mouth, and then coming all the way
back here for History wouldn't be worth it.

History being what it was, I probably heard
about as much in that one hour as most everyone else did during the
whole rest of the day. Mr. Simms seemed especially dense, and
pretty much let everyone do whatever they wanted for the entire
class.

In deference to my new dedication to academic
excellence, I finished up the reading, and then opened up my
Biology book and started trying to get a handle on all of the items
I'd thought I understood, but apparently hadn't.

When the bell rang I limped back to my locker
before making my painful way to Physics. I almost turned around and
left when I saw the substitute again, but almost two decades of
ingrained respect for authority figures propelled me into the room
and to my seat.

I happened to look up at the exact moment
that Alec appeared in the doorway. I expected him to take one look
at the sub and turn around like he'd done before, but he seemed to
register the presence of a substitute and then come inside
regardless.

It didn't make sense until the first girl all
but fainted as he walked past her desk. Of course. He didn't like
substitutes, and figured he had better places to be, but the draw
of hero worship after having almost double teamed Vincent was just
too much to resist.

The sub took a desultory roll, and then waved
his hands at us. "Her notes say you're all supposed to be able to
work on some kind of group project. Just keep it to a dull
roar."

It was like releasing a bunch of kids in a
candy store and telling them to sample whatever they wanted. Every
single girl in the classroom but me made an instant beeline towards
Alec's desk. The guys were a little slower, but not by much. For a
while I tried to ignore all of the poorly disguised gushing about
how brave Alec was, or attempts by the guys to recreate exactly
what Alec would've done if Vincent had gone ahead and thrown a
punch.

After fifteen minutes I finally gave up,
closed my book and flipped open my notebook. Our physics class was
about the most sedate, nerdy group of people I'd yet met. If they
were this worked up about the fight, it was a good thing I didn't
share any other classes with Alec. The rest of the school must be
three or four times as bad.

Sketching helped block out all of the inane
conversation that'd taken over the other corner of the room. It was
amazing how easily I was able to zone out while drawing. Once
again, I didn't try to guide my hand, just let my subconscious
create a horizon and start fleshing out a body of water and droopy
trees around it.

The sound of a hand coming down hard on a
desk pulled me from my refuge. "I told you all to keep it to a dull
roar. I want everyone back to your seats."

A couple people looked like they wanted to
give the sub a hard time, but these were all the kids that were
hoping to make it into the top ten percent of their graduating
class. None of them really had a disobedient bone in their body.
They grudgingly returned to their seats and left Alec by
himself.

I picked my pencil back up and started
drawing again, only to be disturbed by someone clearing their
throat. Alec was looking down at me with something almost like a
smile playing at the corner of his lips. For a second I couldn't
blame the other girls for swarming him over. He was so attractive
it was hard to remember he was such a jerk.

I forced myself to stop wondering if anyone
else in the entire world had such incredibly blue eyes, and tilted
my head to the side questioningly.

"Sorry, I can tell you're not really in the
mood to work on our project, especially with all of the racket
today, but I saw you limping down the stairs just before lunch. Are
you ok?"

It was almost convincing. If he hadn't
mentioned the stairs, and thereby the fight, I might have fallen
for it, but he was just looking for more attention.

"I'll be ok. Just a little sprain."

Alec looked like he wanted to say something
else, but finally nodded and sat down in the next chair over. It
wasn't as good as if he'd gone all the way back to his seat, and it
was extremely out of character, but it was better than nothing. I
breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't going to continue fishing
for compliments, and returned to my drawing. I knew I should open
my books back up and study, but it was starting to take shape, and
I figured it was only a few minutes away from becoming
recognizable. Once that happened my meager drawing skills would
evaporate and I'd have to stop anyways. For whatever reason every
time I tried to work on something after I realized what it was, I
completely ruined it. One of many reasons why I'd never really
pursued drawing.

A short time later I surfaced again and
looked down to find a familiar landscape. The body of water had
morphed into an oblong pond with a crescent land positioned almost
exactly in the center. I still remembered the first time I'd been
told a monster had taken a bite out of the island, and that was the
reason it was so oddly shaped.

The trees were all familiar too. I'd climbed
each and every one of them at least once. The one on the right had
taken the longest to conquer. I'd tried climbing it dozens of times
over the years before finally making it to the top when I was
thirteen. When I'd finally made it as high as I figured was safe,
I'd worked my trembling way back down to the ground, and never felt
even the slightest inclination to climb it again.

I felt tears start to gather at the corner of
my eyes as I remembered all of the good times our family had spent
together there. It was like being immersed in everything I'd loved
only to have it evaporate when I went to grab my surroundings.