Dark Side of the Moon (7 page)

“It wasn’t that bad, London.  So drop it.”

Mrs. Riley brought class to order then, putting a stop to our little conversation.  Throughout my morning classes, I drew in my sketchbook.  At first, they were abstract doodles.  But then, in study hall, I realized that I had drawn feet.  Not human feet, but an animal’s feet.  It was running, its front paws extending out in front of its body.

Though I didn’t want to, I finished my drawing.  It was a wolf, gray in color.  I didn’t press down hard with my pencil because I didn’t want to draw the black wolf.  Its mouth was closed, facial features soft.  It was patrolling its territory, not on the hunt.  To give it more depth, I drew some trees behind it and a crescent moon rising above the treetops.  It was a soothing drawing, something I was thankful for.

When the bell rang, I stuffed my sketchbook into my backpack, and headed to my locker.  I was starving again, and could smell the food wafting out from the cafeteria.  My stomach rumbled as I chose my food and paid, driving me crazy.

Somehow, Dan had arrived to our table before me.  And I didn’t hesitate to roll my eyes when I saw Derrick.  As soon as I sat down across from them, he opened his mouth.  “Sorry to hear about your accident.  I tried to visit you, Selina.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you did,” I muttered as I took a bite of my burger.

He leaned in closer to me.  “I did, but someone told us you were asleep.”

“It’s called morphine.  And get away from me.  You smell like you bathed in toilet water.”

He gave me a look of disbelief as Dan busted out laughing.  “Dude, it does kind of stink, even though I think Selina’s nose is on the fritz today.”

“My nose is perfectly fine, Dan,” I told him.  “Let me see your burger; mine tastes overcooked.”

“What are you talking about?  “They’re the same as before break, with a little pink in the middle.”

I looked at mine, and found it to be a little pink.  “It tastes weird to me.”

“Maybe you’re sick.”

I tried to brush it off as I ate.  But the burger tasted too done to me.  It was weird because this is how I usually eat them.  Maybe I was sick and it was messing with my senses?

As I picked up my drink, I saw London and two guys who were on either side of him walking to the table in the middle of the room.  But as they walked by, I smelled something…woodsy, maybe.  It was kind of like pine and dirt and grass and rain mixed into one, and I actually kind of liked it.  But I couldn’t tell if it came from them or not because London hadn’t smelled like that during study hall.  And there’s no way he could have gone outside in that short amount of time.

But when he sat at his table, the woodsy smell wafted toward me.  It was amplified though, and I assumed it was because he was around two dozen people.  I looked away from them when I saw a girl sitting on London’s lap.  I wasn’t interested in any way in him or his friends, no matter how good they smelled.

Chapter 8

When lunch ended, I ignored Derrick and the amazing smell coming from London’s group as I threw away my trash.  I really didn’t want to go to math, but there was nothing I could do about it.  It was torturous enough, but then the teacher would want to say how sorry they were for what happened, and I was sick of hearing it at this point.

After the torture that was math, I had to subject myself to even more by doing my chemistry lab by myself.  Well, it wasn’t exactly torture, just aggravating that I had a lab partner that didn’t want to do anything in the class.  Luckily, since it was the first day back, we just had a lecture to get us ready for the lab later in the week.  I tried to take a few notes because I knew London would be of no help, and could save my drawing for the next class.

When the bell rang, I quickly left chemistry so I could go to my favorite class.  I wasn’t sure what we were going to be doing there, but I knew I was going to like it.  After we got over the last “sorry” of the day, I was able to focus on my new project.

For the week, we were going to be using charcoal pencils to draw some still life.  It was easy in my opinion, but I still took my time.  Though we would be doing different objects each day, essentially a new project every day, I wanted mine to be perfect, and selected certain objects out of the pile we were supposed to be drawing.

With ten minutes left in class, I helped my classmates clean up the room, and turned in my drawing for the day.  Then, after the bell rang, I headed to my locker to get my books for my morning classes.  I didn’t need to rush now since Dan and I didn’t have to ride the bus anymore.  And we’d be able to get home quicker because we only had one stop.

When I opened my locker, I was startled to find a piece of paper sitting on top of my books.  I didn’t immediately pick it up.  Apart from the smell of the paper and the graphite that must be on it, I could smell that woodsy scent, telling me someone put this here.  But how did they get it into my locker?  The paper wasn’t crumpled or bent in any way.

Taking a deep breath, I picked up the paper.  The side facing out was blank, but a drawing was on the other side.  A drawing that made my eyes widen with surprise.

It was of a wolf’s head, howling, even a little hot air coming out of its mouth, telling me it was cold in the drawing.  But the detail of the lines and shading was absolutely amazing.  It almost looked real.

Who in the world drew this and why was it in my locker?

I could narrow it down to someone in London’s group, based off the smell.  But they could have just delivered it for someone and their scent lingered on the paper.  And there wasn’t a signature anywhere on the drawing.

Did I want to know who did this and why?

Shrugging it off for now, I put the drawing in one of my folders, and switched out my books.  I wanted to keep the drawing in as much of a perfect condition as possible because it was an outstanding piece of art.  And if anyone asked about it, I’ll just act dumb.

Closing my locker, I headed outside.  I was glad we didn’t have to stand in the cold now.  And as I opened the door to my car, I saw Dan approaching.  Turning on the heat, I waited for my brother.  When he was inside, I told him, “I want to run to the hobby shop before going home.”

“Why?”

“Because this is the first time I’ve been out of the house since I left the hospital.”  I pulled out of the parking space, and thought of something very important to ask him before we went to the shop.  “Does Derrick draw?”

“Not that I know of.  I’m not sure if he even owns a pencil.  Why?  Would you be interested in him if he did, Selina?”

“No, I’m not interested in him, I can’t stress that enough.  I was just curious.”

“Why?”

God, he was annoying.  “Someone put a drawing in my locker, and I was wondering if it was his before I preserved it.”

“Someone gave you a drawing?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re going to preserve it?”

“Yes, Dan.”

“Aw, look at you, keeping your first love letter pristine,” he teased.

Since we were at a red light, I smacked the side of his head.  “Shut up, Dan.  It’s not a love letter because it’s a drawing and they didn’t leave a name.  You’ll see why I want to keep it soon.”

Dan was quiet for the rest of the ride.  When we arrived at the shop, I fished the drawing from my backpack, and went inside.  The bell above the door rang when I opened the door, alerting Richard to a customer.

He smiled when he saw me.  “Hello, Selina.  I’m glad to see you feeling better.”

“Yeah, me, too.  Richard, this is my brother, Dan.”

They nodded at each other.  “What can I do for you today, Selina?”

“I need to preserve this,” I said, showing him the drawing.

“Wow.  This is amazing,” he said, gently taking it from me to inspect it.  “Did you draw this?”

“No, I found it.  And I would hate for it to be ruined.”

“I’ve got just what you need.”  He handed the drawing back, and walked out from behind the counter.  I followed him down the aisles, and we stopped next to the charcoal.  “This is meant for charcoal, but it’ll work just fine on graphite, too,” he told me, handing me a can.  “Just spray it over the drawing, and you’re done.”

“It’s that easy?”

“It’s that easy.  Is there anything else I can get for you?”

I grabbed another can off the shelf.  “If you could take these to the counter for me, I’m going to grab a canvas.”

Richard took the cans from me, and returned to the front of the store.

It took me a moment to pick out the canvas I wanted.  But when I turned to go to the register, I heard Dan whispering.  “A guy at school gave her that drawing, but she won’t say who.”

“Really?  Are you sure she didn’t draw it?” Richard asked.

“No, she’s not that good.”

“I heard that!” I shouted, going to the register.

Dan made a sound of disbelief.  “How?  You were at the back.”

I just slapped his head again, and set the canvas on the counter when I got to the front of the store.  “How much do I owe you?”

After I paid for my items, Dan and I left the store, and returned home.  I was a little mad that he was kind of talking behind my back, but I didn’t say anything to him.  It thankfully only took us a few minutes to arrive home; we were silent in the car.

Once in the house, I retreated to my bedroom to use the spray on my drawing.  After reading the instructions, I used it, and found a clear sheet protector to use to hang it on my wall.  I should have gotten a frame for it.  I’ll have to get one later because it was too beautiful of a piece to leave it displayed like this.

But I couldn’t help but wonder who had drawn this and why they had given it to me.  I couldn’t think of anyone other than Derrick that tried to flirt with me, and no one really knew I drew other than the people in my art class because I had to draw in that class.  There was no way any of them could have drawn this and gotten it to my locker before me when class let out.  Everyone in Moonlight Falls knew that I had been attacked by the wolf, so that was out.

In the next coming days, when I was home, I was in my room either drawing or staring at the one that had been in my locker.  If Dan said anything to our parents about it, I didn’t know.  Neither of them said anything to me about the drawing or even tried to tease me about having a secret admirer.

When I was at school, I was trying to not let all of the new smells I discovered get to my head.  It was strange at first, but after a few days, it drove me crazy because they were all mixing together and I wanted to find out where they were coming from.  And at lunch and dinner, I had to force myself to eat.  I didn’t want to because as well as my new sense of smell, my sense of taste was amplified.  Everything tasted overcooked to me, and my parents’ only solution was that the air was messing with my sinuses.

Lunch time was the worst.  Everyone in the school was in one room, talking, eating.  It gave me a headache on Tuesday, and by Friday, it had progressed to a migraine.  I suffered through my classes as the scents became stronger and it felt like I could hear the quietest of whispers from across the room.  It was strange, but didn’t weird me out.  My healing ability couldn’t be topped I didn’t think.  Most of the things I heard weren’t very interesting:  people asking what certain notes were or what was due for homework, or who saw who kissing so-and-so.  Trivial yet torture.  I had to take some pain reliever several times a day to even make a dent in the pain throbbing in my skull.

When I was in the cafeteria on Friday, I felt like I could crawl out of my skin.  Dan had asked if I was okay, but didn’t seem to notice that I was going insane.  The chatter of my classmates blended together, just becoming loud white noise.  The food smelled delicious, and everything but the meat tasted wonderful.

But the best part of lunch time was smelling London’s group.  I had no idea why, but I felt like I could smell their scents for the rest of time and I wouldn’t get tired of it.  I was comforted by the scent, and wanted to be surrounded by it, too.  That was the main thing I questioned.  Though I didn’t know how I would be received, I really wanted to get up from my table to go sit with them, just to be around them and have that woodsy smell wash over me.  It was weird, because I didn’t know any of them.  The other reason for wanting to move was because of Derrick annoying attempts at flirting with me, even though I remained silent and pretended he didn’t exist.

After lunch and math, I headed to Chemistry.  London was already there, and when I sat beside him at our desks, I had to stop myself from leaning over to him and inhaling deeply.  He smelled very earthy, and it made it hard to concentrate during the lecture.

But after the bell rang, I saw London head over to a group of his friends.  This wasn’t unusual because it seemed like they were always together as soon as class let out.  What was unusual was the fact that they were staring at me as they spoke in hushed tones.  I couldn’t quite hear them with all of the people in the halls trying to get to their class, but it was very unsettling how their eyes didn’t waver from me.  Why were they staring at me?  Were they talking about me?

One thing that I did pick up was one of London’s friends saying, “She needs to know.”

Who needed to know what?
I thought all throughout my art class.  If it was me because they had been staring at me, then what did I need to know?  London had been the one to find me after my attack, and questioned me about why I wasn’t in my cast when we returned from winter break.  Did they suspect something about me?  Yeah, my healing ability was weird, but I really didn’t want for anyone to know about that and label me as the school freak; I was already tortured enough by being here.

After school was over and Dan and I were home, I thought about what London’s friend had said.  If they knew what was going on with me, then why weren’t they saying anything to me about it?  I mean, it was my body, and I had the right to know what was going on with it.  Why were they keeping vital information from me?

Before it was time for my parents to come home from work, I told Dan that I was going out for a little bit, and got into my car.  I had no idea where London was or where he lived, but when I was walking from the house to my car, I had smelled the woodsy scent that seemed to follow him and his friends.  Since I was in my car, I cracked the window a little so I could try to follow it.

I had to be crazy for even thinking about following a scent in hopes of finding someone that I didn’t really talk to all that much.  What was going on with me?

Would London tell me, or did he even know?

Shaking that thought off, I followed the woodsy scent to the main part of town.  Then, it took me out of town, the opposite way we had entered it when we first moved here.  Where in the hell did he live?

The scent grew stronger the more I drove through the woods.  The thickness of the scent almost made me moan because it smelled so good to me.  Then, new scents mixed in with what I had smelled at school.  This was still so strange for me.

Then, the scents took a sharp turn to the left.  It was a driveway.  After I followed it for a few minutes, I found a rather large house in front of me.  Though the log style was outdated by a couple decades, it looked new.  Why would anyone want to build a house all the way out here?

Was this where London lived?  I stopped a good ways away from the house, next to a couple cars parked in the front yard.  There weren’t any other cars in sight, so I had no idea if anyone was here.  Putting my car in park, I turned it off, and carefully got out.  Desperation for the possibility of answers drove me to confront London about what his friend said earlier today.

The loose gravel of the driveway shifted beneath my feet as I approached the house.  Though it was crazy of me to think about knocking on the door and seeing if anyone inside could tell me what was going on with me, I needed answers to my questions.  Wanting to know what happened to me wasn’t crazy.  And I wanted to know why they were talking about me at school today.