Dark Realms (53 page)

“And have you lost some weight?” I
asked.

“Maybe a little,” she replied, looking down.
“I haven’t had time to eat much this week with all of the kids
being sick. I’m actually relieved that most of them are gone
today.”

“So am I,” I replied. When the kids were
here, my germ phobia was on high alert. Lately, it’s begun to
recede.

My mom turned on the small television
sitting on the kitchen counter. She poured herself a cup of coffee
and began flipping through the channels.

“I’m going to karate class again tonight,
mom,” I told her.

“Um?” she replied, not really paying
attention.

I raised my voice. “I said, I won’t be home
until after eight this evening. I’m getting a free manicure from
Mae and then I’m going to karate.”

She turned to me and put her arm around my
shoulder. “I’m sorry, honey. I wasn’t trying to ignore you. I was
just trying to see if there are any updates about the crisis in
Europe.”

I grabbed a fresh blueberry muffin that was
sitting on the stove. “Crisis? Are you talking about that attack at
the French hospital?”

She took a sip of coffee. “Well, there’s
been a string of violence and rioting in other countries as well.
France, Germany, Italy, everywhere. It’s kind of crazy.”

“Are they terrorist attacks?”

“That’s the thing...
nobody is really sure who is doing it or why it keeps happening.
The government isn’t releasing any information and the media is
bewildered. It’s just really…
bizarre
.”

“Well, I’m sure it will all blow over,” I
answered, dismissing it. To me it seemed that violence was pretty
normal all over the world at any given moment.

She shrugged and then turned off the
television. “Could you pick up Allie tonight at Kylie’s? They are
working on some science project. That way her mom won’t have to
drive her home.”

“Fine, but it won’t be until after eight
o’clock.”

“That’s fine. I’ll let them know. Thanks,
honey.”

~~~

My truck sputtered to life and then made
some weird puttering noises as I drove over to Paige’s house. When
she got in to the truck, she looked at me nervously.

“Are you
sure
we’re going to make
it to school in this rig? It sounds pretty bad.”

I raised my eyebrows and lied through my
teeth. “Ye of little faith…of course I’m sure!”

“Well…okay.”

“You worry too much, Paige.”

She shrugged and then her eyes became really
round. “I forgot to tell you! Guess what?”

“What?” I asked.

“My mom got a tattoo on her lower back! A
butterfly tattoo.”

I smiled. “Your mom got a
‘
tramp stamp’
?”

That’s what some of the guys at school liked
to call lower back tattoos.

She nodded. “Oh, my God… yes! Dan made her
do it.”

“I’m sure your mom had some say.”

Kristie isn’t exactly what I’d call a
pushover. She has a sharp tongue and the body of an amazon to back
it up.

“I don’t know, but if she starts getting
piercings on odd places of her body, I’m not sticking around.”

I burst out laughing, trying to imagine
Kristie with a tongue ring and a new lisp.

“It’s not funny,” said Paige, trying to stop
the smile threatening her lips.

My eyes were watering I was laughing so
hard. “Oh, come on. It’s funny!”

She folded her hands across her chest.
“Okay, think about your mom getting her nose pierced or something
further south.”

I grimaced. “Okay, that’s totally not
funny.”

The truck made some weird snorting noise and
we both looked worriedly at each other.

“Just please…get us to school,” begged
Paige.

I nodded and we drove in a nervous silence.
Miraculously, we made it with minutes to spare.

“Great, it’s Eva,” I muttered, watching as
her red car pulled up next to ours. To make matters worse, my truck
backfired as she was sliding out of her car.

Eva ignored us completely, which was a
pleasant surprise to us both. The way she was blowing her nose made
it obvious as to why.

The entire school day was pretty much
uneventful, although there were even less students than yesterday.
Many brought signed permission slips, and the line leading to the
gymnasium, where the shots were being administered, was
never-ending.

Because I wasn’t getting any kind of
vaccination, I did what I could to avoid getting sick by sucking on
vitamin C lozenges throughout the day and drinking bottled green
tea. When the final bell of the day rang, we were almost the last
vehicle in the parking lot and someone had to give us a jump.

“See you tomorrow?” I asked her.

“I might get a ride from Jeremy,” she
answered. “Call me if you want one as well.”

I nodded, hoping that my truck would hold up
a few more days. It was probably time to talk to my dad about
getting it fixed.

When I arrived at the nail shop, Mae greeted
me with open arms then stared at my eyebrows with disapproval.

“Eyebrows first,” she announced and then
dragged me to the back of the shop where she pushed me into a
high-backed leather reclining chair. She reclined it until I was
looking straight up at her. Taking a small eyebrow comb, she
brushed my eyebrows then carefully spread something warm above my
eyelids.

“Wax,” she murmured staring intently at my
unruly eyebrows.

“Oh.”

“Relax,” she demanded, pressing firmly down
on them. I closed my eyes and she ripped away a strip of eyebrow
hair.

“Ahhh!” I gasped.

She gave me a wry smile. “Not that bad.”

When Mae spread wax above my other eye, I
grasped onto the arms of the chair and waited as she counted.

“One, two…” and then she tore it off.

I flinched and looked up
at her. “Hey! What happened to
three
?”

She patted my arm and laughed. “Better this
way. Hair comes out easier when you don’t tense up.”

Mae then picked up the
tweezers and began plucking away. When she appeared satisfied with
the results, she applied some kind of gel that immediately soothed
my irritated skin. She handed me a mirror; my skin was bright pink
above my eyes, but I had to admit, my brows definitely looked
more
sophisticated
. I grinned and nodded my approval.

“No more bushes,” she stated proudly.

“Yes, thank you.”

Next, Mae took me over to a nail
technician.

“This Ming,” she said and turned to the
young girl. “French nails. Sports length.”

Ming nodded and gave then me a sympathetic
look as she examined my nails.

“Pretty bad, huh?” I asked.

She shrugged and then began transforming my
stubby nails into something less pathetic. Forty-five minutes
later, after thanking Mae profusely, I left the shop, unable to
stop staring at my new French manicure. My fingertips had never
looked so clean and white.

Chapter Six

I was ravenous when I left Mae’s shop, but
there wasn’t enough time to stop anywhere for food. I remembered a
vending machine in the karate studio, so I scrounged around in my
purse and found some loose change.

The studio is located in the same mini-mall,
just two doors down from the nail shop. As I stopped by my truck to
grab my sports bag, I noticed Bryce’s motorcycle parked nearby, and
the butterflies in my stomach began to flutter. I took a deep
breath and walked through the door.

The front viewing room was
unoccupied, the receptionist gone, but the vending machine was
full, luckily, with one of my favorite snacks. I purchased a bag of
dill pickle potato chips and washed it down with a bottle of water.
Knowing I was alone, I released a silent burp but then
panicked;
my breath was horrible!
I scrounged around in my jeans and found enough
money for a pack of mints. At least I wouldn’t be attacking anyone
with my rancid breath.

Slipping into the locker
room, I brushed my hair back into a ponytail, applied some mascara,
and put on some lip gloss that my sister had given me last night.
With my new eyebrows, I had to admit I looked pretty darn
good
.

Glancing at the time, I noticed that I was
running late, so I rushed to put on my uniform. I tied my belt
quickly and then respectfully entered the dojo.

Bryce and Scott were off
in a corner practicing with
Bokkens
, which are wooden Samurai
training swords. I caught Bryce’s eye briefly as he leaped over
Scott’s Bokken, and counter-attacked. My heart raced as I watched
them swinging, jumping, and striking at each other so sinuously.
Although I could see that both guys were extremely talented with
their
Bokkens
,
there was no denying that Bryce was the expert.

When they finished up, Scott greeted me with
a warm smile while Bryce barely acknowledged my presence, offering
only a curt nod as he put his equipment away. It was unnerving,
especially after the way he’d teased me only the day before.

“Cassie,” said Scott,
kneeling next to me while I stretched my legs. “I’ve been meaning
to ask you…what do
you
think of Nora?”

I’d completely forgotten about Nora. “Nora?
Where is she? She was supposed to be here.” Come to think about it,
I hadn’t remembered seeing her at school earlier in the day
either.

He ran a hand over his face and sighed.
“Well, I went to pick her up earlier and she was upset. She can’t
get in touch with her dad, doesn’t know exactly which city he’s in,
and with the violence going on in Germany, she’s really freaking
out. She stayed home with her grandmother to comfort her and find
out what’s going on.”

I stood up quickly. “Oh, shoot! Maybe I
should give her a call and see if I can help, somehow.”

Scott shook his head and
laughed wryly. “I doubt she’ll be very receptive. I tried sticking
around to see if I could help, but she basically told me to
‘
get lost
.’”

I sighed. “I’m sure she’s just upset.”

“Tell me about it. Anyway,
that’s why I wanted to ask you about her. I really don’t know her
aside from this class. It seems to me that she comes around as some
kind of
tough ass
most of the time. She has this prickly wall around her. Then
other times she throws me for a loop by acting normal, almost
sweet. I think she actually
flirted
with me yesterday.”

I smiled. “Maybe she likes you?”

He snorted. “Well, she has a strange way of
showing it.”

“Seriously, Scott, I know very little about
her myself. She hasn’t made many friends at school; she either
scares people away or just blows them off. To tell you the truth, I
was shocked when she asked me to hang out with her this
weekend.”

Just then Bryce stormed over, interrupting
us. “Hey?”

“Yes?” I answered.

He studied my face for a minute. “You two
going to sit here and waste time, or did you actually want to learn
something today?”

His rudeness surprised and irritated me. I
glared at him. “Sure, but who put you in charge?”

Bryce put his hands on his waist. “Excuse
me? That’s no way to talk to an instructor, Wild,” he answered
gruffly.

“Respect is earned,” I countered.

A muscle twitched in his jaw as we stared at
each other. Before I had a chance to catch my breath, he stalked
away.

I looked at Scott. “What crawled up his
butt?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. He was fine
earlier.”

I glanced towards Bryce, who was now on his
cell phone. From the expression on his face, he was in the middle
of a very heated discussion.

Master Jordan took that moment to step out
of his office, up-beat as usual.

“Hi, guys! Listen, Bryce is going to assist
you tonight with training. I promised Mae I’d take her to dinner
tonight.”

I released a heavy sigh. “Great.”

Master Jordan took my arm and pulled me
aside. “What is it? Is Bryce giving you any trouble?”

I shook my head. “Not really, he’s
just…grouchy.”

He scratched his closely-cropped beard and
said, “Well, I came down hard on him this afternoon for his
performance yesterday. This is a respectable karate studio, not a
dating service.”

I looked at him blankly. “What do you
mean?”

“Come on, I heard the way he was flirting
with you yesterday.”

Embarrassed, I lowered my eyes. “Oh.”

He touched my shoulder.
“Cassie, if he gives you any trouble, let me know right away. Call
me, text me, whatever you have to do. But sincerely, I don’t think
you have to worry about him; he really is a decent guy. He just
needed a little reminder of
whom
and
wha
t he’s representing here at the
studio.”

“Well, don’t worry about me. I can certainly
take care of myself.”

Secretly I hadn’t minded the banter between
us yesterday. In fact, his taunting blue eyes were all I’d thought
about since then. It was one of the reasons I’d showed up
today.

“By the way,” Master
Jordan said as he lifted my hands and examined my fingertips, “your
nails look very lovely…for a
killing
machine
.”

I giggled. “Thank
you,
Sensei
.”

“Now, my dear Cassie, I think they’re
waiting for you,” he said, releasing my hands and turning me
around.