Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) (44 page)

We didn't.

It felt like a raging inferno out here and decent
in the ice cream shop.

We shrugged, girls.

The Js took off toward their houses and I got Jade
back to hers, giving her a quick kiss. Actually, I let my mouth
linger on hers just a little bit, then took off for my place.

Riding up to the front door I saw Onyx with his
cold, wet nose pressed to the narrow window, tail wagging.

The Boy has returned and made the good word
smells in my head. The Dog wagged his tail harder.

I tore open the door and closed it quietly behind
me. Onyx was on my heels as I walked into the kitchen and Mom was
there of course. She and Dad were talking in conspirator’s tones. I
gave Onyx's head a good rub.

Thunk, wag-wag.

They looked up as I strolled in. “Whatcha doing
Parental Unit?” Snagging a peanut butter-chocolate chip cookie.

“Hey,” Mom fumed. “Those haven't cooled for
the jar.”

I paused, cookie halfway to my mouth. “Okay and
that makes what sense? Does it matter if I take it from the plate
before it goes into the jar or after it's cooled and in it?”

Dad was grinning in the background. “I like the
cookies to cool first,” she emphasized. “Then, I've got more
cookies to put in the jar. There are less cookies when you vacuum
them off the plate before I can put them in their proper place.”

Weird Mom-logic.

I sat there with the cookie in my hand.

“Ugh! Just eat it, but no more!”

Dad grabbed one off the plate before Mom could put
them all in the jar. She glared at him but he was spared the “cookie
jar speech.”

Mom turned and opened the fat chef dude in blue
cookie jar and carefully placed the cookies inside.

Dad gave me the look. “So what did you and the
LeClerc girl do tonight?” he asked with interest.

That was easy.

“We went to the ice cream shop.”

“On East Hill? Terhune's?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“I liked it when it was Baskin-Robbins,” Mom
said.

“Remember Shakey's Pizza?” Dad asked to no one
in particular.

Mom nodded. “Those were the days, all you can
eat and we'd just walk over there from KM.”

“Mom, that's a derelict school now.”

“Caleb. You understand 'diversified' is
appropriate.”

“Yeah.
But derelict sounds better.”

“It depends on who's listening, I suppose. I'll
admit it's a great adjective,” Mom said.

Was Mom conceding my victory on a non-politically
correct word?

“KM is Vo-Tech. now, right?” Dad asked Mom.

“Yes.”

“Well, pal, I guess you won't have to worry
about the 'derelicts' as you'll be attending KPH.”

Mom frowned. Secretly, I think Dad really liked my
sense of spontaneous language use.

After supper, I ran upstairs to my clean room,
Onyx following. I had saved a cheeseburger chunk in my pocket. I got
it out and looked at it. It was no longer plump, summarily squeezed
down into a different size altogether, the ketchup and mayo oozing
out.

It looked bad.

Onyx wagged his tail.

The Dog smelled something delicious from the
Boy.

I shrugged, I was betting the looks wouldn't
matter. It didn't, he engulfed it without a glance.

“Was that good, boy? Did you even taste it?” I
laughed.

I fell asleep with a book on my chest and Onyx on
the foot of my bed. He'd ignored the spot I had made for him. That
was the way I liked it.

I fell asleep with Jade in my mind, choking out
other thoughts.

CHAPTER 28

Monday arrived with all the kids milling around in
the commons waiting to hear which high school assignments they'd
have. Everyone was gathered in their tight groups whispering about
who went where. Brett was the big topic of conversation as he was a
mundane like Jonesy but wasn't going to Kent Lake High. If we were
really lucky he'd go to KM; derelict central. He'd fit right in. Of
course, there were the inevitable transfers. Some kids came “on-line”
late and had to be reassigned. Their abilities had never even tripped
the AP Test (that was rare). It felt wrong to split the three of us
up, Jonesy was the glue of the group.

Tiff had strolled up and gave me the “guy-fist.”
She wore a flaming red hoodie, pulled halfway down her face, of
course, and skin tight black jeans with black tennis shoes. She was
leaning forward in earnest now. “It's a good thing that you figured
out a hidey-hole for our coolness,” she paused. “Otherwise, we'd
be exposed to... The Man,” she finished in a hushed voice.

“What?” Jonesy asked, baffled.

Tiff did a hard eye-roll. “Sort of a doofus,”
she said.

“Hey!” John huffed. We could call Jonesy any
number of names but no one else could.

“Whatever,” she waved our indignation away.
“Are we still on for the haunted thing?”

Jonesy nodded thoughtfully. “Well... depends on
your behavior. If, and I say,
If,
you treat me good, then you
can come.”

John and I nodded, we couldn't accept any dissing
from the females.

“I think Tiff is just tired of explaining all
her comments is all,” Sophie piped in.

“Be clearer. The Man? What-the-hell is that?”
I asked.

Jade clarified, “I've heard adults say it like
'the boss' or something.”

Okay, that made sense.

“Yeah. 'The Man' is our government,” Tiff
repeated.

“If you say so. Anyway,” Jonesy said real
slowly. “We've got a place now...”

“That Brett and Carson know about,” Jade
added.

“Yeah,” John said dejectedly.

“... and, 'The Man' isn't going to find it,” I
said.

“What if they lead them to our new spot?”
Sophie asked.

“It's okay, between my skills and Team Dead,
we'll be okay.” Jonesy said with surety.

“Your 'skills'? What skills?” Tiff asked.

“Hey... I'm the one that comes up with the
ideas, plans and other cool stuff to entertain everyone,” Jonesy
said.

John and I were wisely silent.

“Mostly you get us into trouble,” Jade said.

Uh-oh.

“But it's a helluva lot of fun!” Jonesy said.

The secretary's voice came over the pulse speaker,
“Eighth grade students, listen up: stand in line according to your
last name in the same formation as Aptitude Testing.”

We walked to our respective lines. Carson came out
of nowhere and stood in my line, both H's, geez.

“Hey Carson,” I said, feeling the waters.

“Don't talk to me, Hart, ya freak.”

“You too,” I said, a smart grin overtaking my
face.

Carson glared at me. I turned away from him, I
could ignore him.

Jade
and Sophie were in line B, and John and Tiff were in line C. I was
looking around for Brett and caught sight of him a few people behind
Jade
.
My heart sped.

He saw me notice him and reached out a hand to
touch Jade's hair. Sophie was talking to Jade and her eyes widened.
Jade saw her reaction and turned as his hand brushed her face instead
of her hair.

Jade cringed away from the small touch, stepping
back. Her eyes found mine and I left the line, striding over to
Brett.

“Don't touch her.”

“Gets you all fired up, Hart,” Brett smirked.

“Need
another zombie lesson, Brett?”

Brett's eyes narrowed. “Ya know, someday, you're
not gonna have Jonesy or one of your freak zombies around to save
your ass, then what? Huh?”

He looked at Jade. “She lives by me and you're
not always around.”

Brett turned his attention to her. “Yeah, you're
a freak like your boyfriend here,” not sparing me a glance, keeping
those beady eyes fixed on her. “It's okay if you know what I think.
More than okay,” he smiled. Jade shuddered and I put my arm around
her.

Ms. Griswold strode up, arms pumping stoutly by
her sides. “Hart, Mason...problem here?” she asked, her nasal
voice shredding my eardrums.

“No
problem,” Brett responded.

Right.

“Mr. Hart, aren't you in the wrong line?”

“Ah,” playing dumb, “I don't know.”

“I think you do. Get going,” she swung her
clipboard to indicate line A, “over there.”

She waited while I gave Jade a squeeze, crossing
her arms over her ample chest and tapping her foot. I reentered my
line where I had been.

Carson turned and said, “Nice going, dumbass.”

“Shut up, Hamilton.”

Carson turned away, a smile of triumph on his
lips.

The line went on forever but finally I received my
ticket which simply said:

Kent
Paranormal High, appear for registration on September 2, 2025,
between 7- 8AM for class roster.

Everyone
got their tickets, comparing schools. Jonesy got Kent Lake High, Math
and Science. That was expected but there was an addendum which
stated:

Secondary Aptitude Testing for Paranormal
abilities will be administered within the first two weeks of
instruction.

We looked at each other, this was new. Once placed
in the school which matched your aptitude, that was it.

John said, “There must be kids slipping notice.”

We looked at him.

“There are kids that don't follow a 'puberty
time-line,” John made airquotes. “We're not all following the
same schedule, you know.”

That was true. “I thought the AP Tests picked up
on” I paused, “that they were sensitive or something.”

“They are but it's not an exact science.”

Just what I'd been thinking about earlier.

Jonesy
jumped around like his feet were on fire. “Ya think I may ping the
test? Hot Damn!”

The girls watched the Jonesy-display.

John
sighed. “I didn't say
you,
I've heard there have been a few kids that sometimes manifest later
than the AP Testing.”

“Weren't the drug companies promising that their
shots would be...” Sophie started.

“Yeah. That everyone would manifest an ability
by a certain time.” Jade finished, and Tiff nodded. We'd heard the
same spiel, straight out of their pulsemercials.

“That's what they thought but we're human
beings,” John rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Individuals.”

“What
John's saying is we're all alike, but not exactly alike. The drug
companies put us in the same box and some don't fit,” I said.

“Generalizing the population,” John restated.

“
So...
I may
ping
the test?” Jonesy asked again.

John threw up his hands. “I don't know! They'll
see if you join us freaks at KPH.”

“Nice. I knew I'd have extra skills.”

“I thought you already had 'skills'?” Tiff
asked.

“Yeah, I do, I said 'extra'.”

“Whatever,” Tiff said, exasperated.

Sophie's cheeks had a faint blush as she and Jade
walked off to their class. Maybe she was diggin' on the Jonester.

“Hey!”

Jade turned. I jogged over to her, pulling her
into my body as I slyly looked for adult radar and gave her a nice
one right on that luscious mouth of hers.

“Miss ya,” I whispered, pulling back a little
and looking into the green pools of her eyes.

“Me too.”

“Give me a break!” Jonesy said. “You guys
will live until the end of the day.”

I
turned to him. “The question that you should ask yourself is
whether you'll live.”

Breaking away from Jade, I raced after Jonesy.
Both of us flew down the hall, John trailing behind, slowed by his
laughing.

CHAPTER 29

Finally, Friday arrived and we were doing all the
field games which ended in a picnic. If we didn't go to school; no
report card, they held it hostage. I knew mine would have a bunch of
C's with a couple of B's plugged in there. John would have all A's or
be shot when he arrived home. Jonesy always passed into the next
grade but didn't do much of anything except Math.

I was scooping out the crap from my last period
class when Jonesy piped in, “... Looks like your room Caleb.”

I looked critically at the yawning hole that was
my desk and saw that there was a treasure trove of pencils and other
useful items back there. Well, that worked out.

John peered in, his face almost touching mine, the
frizz of his hair spearing my nose. I could feel it coming on with no
way to stop it, “Ahchoo!” I sneezed, blasting the inside of my
desk.

“Hey!” John yelped in surprise, jerking his
head up and instantly hitting the table top on his way.

“Ouch! That hurt like a bitch,” John muttered,
rubbing his head.

“Nice, Terran,” Jonesy said, his eyes rolling
to indicate adult radar had noticed his colorful wording. I stood up,
just short of wiping my nose on my sleeve, I looked around, spying
the tissue box on Ms. Rodriguez's desk and grabbed a couple of them,
blowing the goodies where they belonged.

“Got any gold, Caleb?” Jonesy asked in front
of the Hotness that was my English teacher.

I wanted to die, could a chasm open and suck me
in?

But, thankfully Ms. Rodriguez was all eyes on
John, who looked as though he would burst into flames.

Wonderful. I took that opportunity to notice that
Ms. Rodriguez was dressed very summery today with stiletto heels, a
tight, white skirt (very short) and a pale yellow blouse. A lacy cami
in aqua flashed (a cleavage-hider, that), her hair all dark and
flowing around a face that was... angry.

“You know very well the rules of decorum in this
classroom, Mr. Terran.”

“Yes, Ms. Rodriguez,” John stammered.