Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) (32 page)

John, after surveying the lunches said, “Jonesy,
look at what the girls eat, maybe you could get a clue.”

Jonesy sniffed Sophie's casserole. “I wouldn't
eat that stuff if someone pressed a gun barrel to my head.”

John nodded in approval, Jonesy would tell it.

Jade sniffed, replying with dignity, “Well, you
go ahead and eat three meals in one. Sophie and I will eat healthy.”

John looked down at his lunch, which mimicked
Jonesy's, but no grodie nut-brownie, he had an awesome chocolate chip
cookie, and shrugged.

I laughed, mealtime was interesting.

We
all started eating and I asked John, “So what gives? You hit the
radar as something
,
'
cuz
you're in our building.”

We looked expectantly at John.

A slow flush crept up his face, he wasn't used to
the attention, but he rallied.“I don't know. I thought there was a
bunch of control questions, and academic questions, but there wasn't
anything that I thought was paranormal.”

What was he?

Then, our heads swiveled to Sophie, who had just
shoveled a bite into her mouth, a small lump protruding from her
cheek. We waited until she swallowed.

“What?” she asked.

“Well, what about you?” I inquired.

Jade gave a nervous glance her way.

She knew what Sophie was.

The Js were all curiosity when she admitted, “I
guess I have some Astral-Projection.”

“Some?” Jade stated.

Sophie glanced down, her tight curls cascading
froward, almost brushing that nasty casserole.

“Maybe a little more than some,” she mumbled.

Jade gave her a tense look, leaning forward she
cupped her hand around her mouth and whispered something inside her
ear.

Sophie looked around nervously then stared at each
one of us.

“You can't tell anyone,” she directed, looking
pointedly at Jonesy.

“I'm not going to say anything!” he
all-but-shrieked.

We all gave a big sigh.

Jonesy leaned forward. “So barf it out. If it's
not so juicy you think I'll blab.” A wide grin appeared in the
middle of his chocolate colored face. He crossed his arms on his
chest, but not before popping another one of the Funyuns in his
mouth.

John breathed out, “Wow... Astral-Projection.”
Yeah, that was pretty cool I agreed mentally.

Sophie
gave him a sharp look and he held out his palm out,
go
ahead.

“
So,
it's like this. About a month ago I started dreaming I was traveling
to all these places, far away places,” she looked at us all, “like
Europe.”

We
stared back and shrugged,
so
?

“Remember in History class when a bunch of us
came in with the CE about the assassination?”

John nodded. “I did my current event on that
President.”

“The French one?” Jade clarified.

“
The
Prime Minister
,
”
Sophie said, exasperated.

“Right, Prime Minister, my bad,” John said,
embarrassed. He of the Perfect Grade Point Average, making a mistake!
Unheard of.

I cupped my hand over my mouth, hiding a grin.
Jade smiled, letting it show all over her face while Sophie looked
smug.

John's
pale complexion flamed to life again. Being a known brain-iac only to
be shown up by Sophie, a girl no less!

“
Anyway,”
Sophie waved the awkward moment away with a hand, “I was
there
,”
she said in a low voice.

Jonesy
leaned all the way forward. “You mean... there,
there
?
Like, as in, Astral-Projection there?”

We held our breath. Sophie nodded, once.

“
Well...
damn
,
girl, no wonder you aced that CE! Cheater!” Jonesy said, throwing
up his hands.

John and I nodded emphatically, it must've been an
advantage.

We were quite for a moment, then John said, “But,
they don't know who did it.”

Jonesy
yelled, “Do you?!”

“Shhh, Jonesy... God!” Jade said.

Jonesy looked right and left, making sure his
yelling got sucked into the general din of cafeteria noise.

“Chillax, nobody heard.” Jonesy leaned back in
his seat, all relaxed and everything. The bigness of situations
didn't impact the Jonester.

“We need to be circumspect,” Sophie said.

Jonesy and I were confused, John nodded and Jade
waited.

“Secretive and cautious,” Sophie expounded.

“More big boy words for you Jonesy,” I said.

“Can it, Hart, you didn't know what it meant
either,” Jonesy growled.

He had me there.

“
Off
topic guys,” John said. “So... you
know
,
Sophie?”

“Know what?”

“Who did it,” Jade stated.

“Yeah.”

“Who?” Jonesy leaned forward again.

“That's
not important. It's what happened after.”

John looked thoughtful, then shook his head. “I
remember that the guy signed an important document into effect,” he
paused. “Sophie?”

She nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, you're
getting warmer. You remember all the adults were raging about how it
would change the face of France?”

I remembered that, my parents had talked about it.
“Yeah, so?”

“He didn't actually sign it. Well, he did and he
didn't.”

“Oh Sophie!” Jade said impatiently. “Just
tell them, or I will.”

Sophie
glared at Jade then went on, “He was dead when he signed it.
Dead
.”
She leaned back in her chair triumphantly, stabbing a helpless
curlicue noodle and popping it into her mouth, chewing on it slowly
while we all sat, mouths agape, digesting this latest disaster.

“Parker,” I said.

Swallowed her bite, she pointed her fork at me.
“Bingo.”

John
said, “So... if I am following this, Parker was used by somebody,”
John turned to me to confirm and I gave a terse nod, “and made sure
that after the assassination, in which the Prime Minister was
probably marked for death so he could not sign this document, he was
then raised by Parker, who directed him to sign it and faked the
nation out.”

“What? Did the dude die twice?” Jonesy asked.

Jade
sighed. “No, listen, there was an attempt to kill him. It worked,
but the bad guys made it look like it hadn't. The prime minister
signed the thing, as a zombie
,
then they made it look like he didn't make it after all.”

“Ah-huh, well I did my CE on some Greenpeace
thing.”

No wonder he didn't have a clue.

“Ugh!” Sophie said, disgusted with the general
ignorance that was Jonesy.

“Everybody knows I don't dig that civic crap.”

“What-ev-er!
It was kinda important,” Jade said.

Jonesy shrugged, completely unconcerned.

“The bottom line is, Parker changed history,”
I said.

We were all quiet at that revelation.

“You're in deep shit,” Jonesy said.

“
Ya
think?” I replied. He had put
that
together, at least.

“I do,” Jonesy nodded.

Wonderful.

Sophie
said, “Listen, I'm a witness, what do you think about that? Imagine
the trouble I'd be in if
they
knew that
I
knew,
huh?”

More silence. Our little group was becoming quite
a threat. I cast a secretive (or circumspect... ha,ha) glance around
us, the formula-people were still by the doors. The pulse clock was
counting down, only five minutes, forty-seven seconds left until the
rest of the AP Test.

“We need some kind of plan, an objective,”
John said.

“A what?” Jonesy asked.

John just looked at him; we did a lot of that.

“Listen, have any of you freaks-o-nature
considered that the Jones-Man here doesn't have any cool stuff at my
awesome disposal?”

He was right. He was a mundane in a pond of
paranormals.

John ducked his head, shamed. “You're right,
I'll try to be more patient. After all, you get stuff done.”

“Yeah! Damn straight! I'm accomplished, I'm
legitimate, I'm...”

“Okay, Jonesy, we know your importance,”
Sophie conceded, suppressing an eye roll.

“Listen, let's not get distracted. We've got,”
I glanced at the pulse clock, “less than three minutes to formulate
a plan. And, let me just restate the obvious, we still don't know
what the blue hell John is.”

“That's true, Caleb. But we have bigger problems
than just that, like Carson and Brett and getting through this test,”
John said.

“Well I, for one, want to meet somewhere and
figure it out,” Sophie said.

“Where?” Jade asked, glancing at the clock
again.

Jonesy let a slow grin spread over his face.

I started to shake my head. “NO-oh, don't you
even think it.”

Jade joined in, “No way, Jonesy.”

“Yes way, sista!”

“Oh crap,” John moaned, doing a face-palm.

“What?” Sophie asked, confused.

“The Cemetery!” Jonesy clapped his hands
together gleefully, barely containing his joy.

We hung our heads, while Sophie looked confused at
Jonesy's triumph. He was in his element, let the games begin.

The pulse clock chimed; it was back to AP Testing.
We were almost done and hopefully I'd be just a two or three pointer,
not a Parker-worthy five pointer.

A glimmer of hope sparkled in my mind's eye,
wrapping a fist around it. I held it tight like the world depended on
it.

Maybe it did.

CHAPTER 20

The testing wrapped at the end of school. A damn
good thing, as after lunch, I could feel myself “sharpening right
up.” As we filed out of Delta, we were scanned again for dismissal.
This time, our pulse pad's results were scanned as well.

Now, and forevermore, the committee of “they”
would know what our collective aptitudes were, paranormal or
otherwise. We would all know what each other was. The results would
determine the next four years of our education and where we'd receive
it.

After I was scanned, I could only hope that the
drug's effect had lasted long enough that the remainder of the
questions were answered and completed without giving myself away.

No pressure.

I grabbed my backpack out of my locker, noticing
that it was not in the place that I'd left it. Huh, I looked around,
unconsciously looking for the formula-people, none were in sight.

They were top on my list of suspects. Lurking
around doorways and such, not doing much of anything. Didn't like it.

Just
then, Jade strolled up in all her blackness, looking dark and
mysterious.

Hotness.

“Hi.”

I smiled, smitten as usual. Then I had a thought.

“Before we go, would you,” I gave her the
helpless look and her eyes narrowed, huh, better ask straight out,
“do a 'feelie' on my locker?”

“A which?”

“Ya know, touch my locker and see who's been in
it.”

Jade put her hands on her hips (still hot). Then
she got that look, ya know the one, where the girl may go all emo on
you. So I rushed in with some explaining.

“The thing is, I always hang my backpack here,”
I pointed to the double hook on the left side.

Okay
...
her look said.

“And I hang my cap on the right.”

“Which you never wear,” she noted.

“True, but my mom makes me take it to school in
case I get cold.”

“You never get cold.”

“
Right,
but
my
mom
feels better about it. And when she asks, I can say it's in my locker
just in case.”

“Okay?”

“Anyways, when I came back from the AP Testing,
the backpack was on the right and the cap on the left.”

That cute little frown between her eyes made an
appearance. She was thinking it through; no cluttering up the moment
with chatter. Love that.

Jade came to some decision. Reaching forward with
her hand, she touched the hook, wrapping delicately built fingers
around the cool metal.

I had a moment when I didn't think anything would
happen and then her body stiffened, her eyes taking on a glazed
expression. I didn't like where this was going, getting up close
behind her. Just as her eyelids fluttered and she started to sway, I
moved in against her, cradling her small body against my larger one.

“I think I'm gonna be sick,” she said, eyes
still closed.

Like...
right here?

The Js charged up out of nowhere.

“What's wrong with Jade?” John asked.

“I don't know. Jonesy, get my water in there,
no... in the backpack.”

Jonesy tore through my backpack, jerking out my
water bottle. John grabbed a chair from one of the commons' tables
and put it next to Jade. I carefully lowered her down on the seat, a
fragile commodity.