Catalyst (The Best Days #1) (7 page)

“Uh huh,” she acknowledged, not bothering to hide her disinterest.  “Come sit with me.” 

“Nooooo, I haft go geddit!”  Sheck straddled the tree and began shimmying up the trunk toward the bird nest.  Rory heard his jeans rip as they caught on the rough bark, but if he noticed he didn’t seem to care.  He was fixated on the bird nest to the point where it appeared he was unaware of everything else. 

Sheck had been climbing the tree outside Rory’s window since they were kids,
so conquering this tree wasn’t exactly a daunting task for him.  He reached the branch housing the empty nest in a matter of seconds.  “I goddit!”  he shouted down to his irritated friend.

“Sheck, I’m freezing,” Rory complained, her annoyance evident.  “Come down now, okay?  I want to go now.” 

“Okay I comin’ downow.  Godda bring tha birrrr nest wifmee!”  He reached over with one hand and plucked the nest off of the branch.  Part of it cracked and fell away.  “Shi!”  He gingerly set the remains of the old nest on his head and then called down triumphantly, “I goddit!  Comin’ downow!” 

As Sheck started to climb down, Rory breathed a sigh of relief.  She didn’t like how
erratic his behaviour was, so it would be good to get him back in his car before he did something stupid.  She decided she was going to have to say something to him about his recreational drug use even if it did end up making him angry.  This was insane. 

“Roooory!”  Sheck
paused and adjusted the bird nest on his head.  “Lookit me I’ma birrrrr!” he leaned his head back and made cawing noises.  Then, before Rory could shout at him to be careful, he let go of the tree trunk and started flapping his arms like a bird.  It only took a moment for him to lose his balance and crash to the ground.

Rory felt like she was watching in slow motion.  She saw him slip, saw him start to fall.  She wanted to help but couldn’t.  She watched helplessly as h
er best friend fell from about six feet up, broke several small tree branches on his way down and landed hard in a pile of dirt, leaves and moss. 

“Sheck!”  Rory jumped up and ran over to where he’d landed.

He raised his head slightly and laughed, still high as a kite.  “Whoops!”  His voice was still inappropriately loud.  “I fell!”  He picked himself up slowly, then collapsed in pain when he tried putting weight on his right foot.  “I thin I bro myfoot,” he muttered grumpily.  “Help.”

“Hold
still.”  Rory leaned forward, lifted the bottom of his right pant leg out of the way and examined Sheck’s ankle.  She had no idea what she was supposed to be looking for – a bone sticking out or a fountain of blood gushing everywhere or something grotesque like that? 

Thankfully, she didn’t find anything of the sort.  Sheck’s ankle looked normal, albeit a bit swollen.  She could tell from the way he was wincing, though,
that he was hurting despite the mind altering pills he’d swallowed.

“Give me your car keys,” Rory demanded, holding out her hand. 
Much to her relief, he didn’t argue, instead obediently fishing them out of his pocket and handing them over.

Once she had them, she quickly moved his car as close to Sheck as she could in light of the rough, uneven
beach terrain.  Then, leaving the station wagon running, she hopped back out and returned to Sheck.

“Can you stand?” Rory asked him, squatting down to help hoist him up.  With some effort, Rory awkwardly got Sheck up on his left foot.  With Rory supporting him on the right side, he managed to hop the short distance back to where his car was parked.  When Rory led him to the passenger side, he
got in without protest.

Good.  The last thing she needed right now was him putting up a fight about letting her drive.  True, she didn’t really know
how
to drive considering she’d refused to practice much, but she’d played her fair share of video games so how hard could it be? 

* * * * *

Whether the drive back from Cricket Lake was more nerve-racking for Rory or for Sheck was difficult to say.  Rory gripped the wheel so tightly that her knuckles started to turn white.  She was thankful that there wasn’t much traffic on the road.  Sheck shouted in pain every time she hit a pothole or took a turn too fast.  He looked frightened for his life the one time she, against her better judgment, attempted to pass a tractor that was traveling down the highway at a snail’s pace. 

If anything could ruin Sheck’s high, it was Rory’s terrible driving! 

“I think my ankle is broken.”  Sheck’s eyes were starting to look more normal, Rory noted with relief, and his speech was becoming clearer.  “It really hurts to move it.”

“Well then stop moving it,” was Rory’s terse response.

“You’re mad,” Sheck observed, swiveling in the passenger seat to look at her.  She stared straight ahead, her jaw clenched.  “You should be.  I’m sorry.  I was being stupid.  I shouldn’t have taken those pills.”

Rory unclenched her jaw and the expression on her face softened.
  The truth was, Sheck had scared her badly, and she was mostly reacting to that.  When all was said and done, she was just glad that he was - relatively speaking - okay. 

“Maybe it’s not broken,” she offered hopefully.  “Maybe it’s just a really bad twist.  Maybe you just need to put some ice on it when we get back.
  But you’d better get it checked out just to be on the safe side.”

The two friends made a pact not to tell anyone what had really happened.  There was no point in
admitting they’d skipped school and Sheck certainly wasn’t going to fess up to taking drugs.  That was just asking for trouble. 

They decided their story would be that Sheck fell off his skateboard outside the mall and landed hard on his ankle, injuring himself.  It was a good cover, Rory had to admi
t.  As they pulled up to the local walk-in clinic and Rory helped Sheck out of the car, she felt a strange sense of calm. 

* * * * *

When she arrived home after her exhausting excursion with Sheck, Rory was greeted by her sister’s hacking cough.  Rebecca was curled up on the couch in the living room underneath a colorful afghan looking miserable. 

“I think
I codd a code whed we were out in da rain da odder day,” she gurgled, obviously congested.  “I feel like shid.”  She rolled onto her side, sneezed four times in a row and then added, “oh yeah, Mom wands to dalk do you.  She’s in da kidjin.” 

In the kitchen, Rory found her mother chopping walnuts with fury.  A look of anger was on Nancy’s face and it only intensified when she looked up and saw her daughter standing there. 

“Was it worth it?” she asked curtly, the vein on her forehead that only made an appearance when she was super angry standing out boldly.

Rory blinked.  “Was what worth it?”

“Wherever you were this afternoon when you should have been in school – was it worth it?  You’re not going to that party tomorrow night now.  Not after the stunt you pulled today.  You’re grounded for a week, starting tonight!”

Rory was stunned. 
How had her mother found out about her skipping school?  Then Rory remembered:  her drama class and Rebecca’s art class had been doing some dumb collaborative group project that afternoon.  That meant that Rebecca would have noticed Rory’s absence from class…and she must have told their mother.

Seething, Rory raced back to the living room.   “Did you rat me out to Mom?!”  Rory demanded angrily, startling Rebecca out of a light slumber. 

“Whad?” Rebecca replied before another coughing fit overtook her.  Under normal circumstances, Rory would have felt sorry for her sister after witnessing that horrible display.  Not this time, though.  This time, she was too furious for sympathy.

Nancy poked her head out of the kitchen
and glared at Rory.  “Let Rebecca rest.  You’d better get upstairs and do your homework,” she informed her daughter icily.  “I expect you to catch up on all the schoolwork you missed this afternoon.  I have to head out to a book club meeting in a few minutes, but you haven’t heard the end of this, Aurora.” 

Rory winced. 
Nancy reserved “Aurora” for the really bad transgressions.  Her mom was seriously pissed. 

Rory spun on her heel and ran upstairs, seething.  She just knew that her stupid tattletale of a sister had
ratted her out to their mother.  She wanted – no,
demanded
– an apology but before she confronted her sister again she wanted proof.  She didn’t know why Rebecca seemed so intent on ruining her life, but Rory was going to put an end to it once and for all. 

Instead of going to her own room, she tore into Rebecca’s room and pulled her sister’s well used
mauve leather bound journal off her bookshelf.  Taking it back to her room, she threw herself down on her bed and opened it to see Rebecca’s small, perfectly neat handwriting. 

“You backstabbing bitch,” Rory muttered under her breath.  “You’re gonna be sorry.”

Not only was she going to prove that her sister was a snitch – she was also going to make sure she dug up enough dirt on her to blackmail her into silence for the rest of their lives.

Rory flipped the journal open to a random
page near the start and began to read.  She quickly realized it was a journal entry from ages ago, the summer before the girls had started high school.  It wasn’t what she was looking for but once she read the first few words on the page she felt compelled to continue.

August 7

Today Justin, Rory and I went swimming at Cricket Lake.  It was almost unbearably hot out, but it made getting in the water that much nicer.  The three of us hung out for a while before Justin ran into some guys he knows and forgot we existed.  Typical brother…we’re good company until his friends come along and then suddenly we’re his bratty kid sisters and he can’t wait to get away from us.  Oh well, at least Rory would never do that to me.

After Justin ditched us
, Rory and I decided the beach was too crowded, so we wandered away, down to the rocky part of the shore that’s usually deserted.  I can’t remember what we talked about while we walked but I know I won’t forget how much we giggled as we made our way to the seldom used part of the beach.

Sure enough, it was just the two of us down there.  We played in the water for a bit – it’s not so bad as lo
ng as you wear your flip flops - otherwise the rocks are kind of jagged and hurt the soles of your feet.

Rory f
ound some weird looking little sea creatures.  I don’t know what they were – maybe some kind of crab – but they kind of freaked me out with their claws and whiskers.  Rory was as fearless as ever, though, and picked one up.  I have to admit, it was pretty cool to see up close.  Or at least it was until she started chasing after me with it.  But I got her back by shoving a handful of sand down the back of her shorts. 

At dusk when it finally started to cool off, we sat on the shore, skipped rocks on the water and talked about
what high school will be like.  I can’t believe it’s already August – we’ll be freshmen at Belleview High before we know it. 

Rory seemed nervous about the whole thing.  I told her it wo
uld be fine because I think that’s what she needed to hear, but I’m secretly worried too.  I don’t know what to expect and there are going to be so many new people.  For someone as shy as me, that’s a big deal.

It will be
strange not having Mya there.  She’s been my best friend (not counting Rory) since we met in the third grade.  I hate that her dad got transferred and she had to move away.  It’s even worse that it had to happen right before high school.  I know it would be easier with her there. 

Meeting new people makes me so nervous.  I’m glad Rory will be there
with me.  At least I’ll have someone to sit with at lunch.  Besides, Rory’s so outgoing that it will probably be easy to meet new friends through her.  Maybe high school won’t be so bad after all.  Having my sister there with me will make it all seem less scary.

Her anger temporaril
y forgotten, Rory sighed wistfully.  She remembered that day at Cricket Lake.  Had it really been nine months?  So much had changed since then, especially between Rory and Rebecca.  It felt like that day had been a million years ago but the details stood out in Rory’s mind so vividly that it may as well have been yesterday.

It had probably been one of the best days of the entire summer even though it hadn’t been anything particularly special. 
It was one of those lazy, hot, perfect days that felt as though it would last forever.  It was one of those days you don’t know is special until you look back on it later with nostalgia.

Every last unremarkable detail from August 7 had
been burned into Rory’s brain.  If she closed her eyes, she could almost feel the tepid water lapping at her ankles and the hot sun beating down on her skin.  It had been one of those rare times she knew she’d still remember fondly for years to come.

Above all else, Rory had felt so close to her sister that day. 
They’d playfully teased their older brother mercilessly as he’d driven them out there that several times he’d threatened to make them get out of the car and walk.  So then they’d teased him some more.  They’d talked and laughed and whispered to each other like best friends.