Five: Out of the Dark (13 page)

The records finally arrived, and Joe introduced Seth and me to our ‘mom.’ Getting signed up for school wasn’t as easy as we hoped it would be for Johnathan and Alec. The admissions secretary at the school was surprisingly unaware of the loopholes regarding homeless students. It took her more than thirty minutes of phone calls to become educated on the subject. Finally, the district sent over a homeless liaison, and she had them signed up and ready to go in ten minutes. She left a copy of the McKinney-Vento Act for the clueless secretary to study, and gave Johnathan and Alec each a card with her contact information.

Seth and I showed up a couple hours later, with the mom Joe had found for us. Seth’s records were missing the last six months or so, because that was when he’d left home, but the secretary didn’t seem too concerned with it. We were in and out as fast as our mom could fill out and sign the paperwork. We were told to report to school in the morning and pick up our class schedules.

I was the only one in our group who couldn’t use my real first
or
last name; I had to use Seth’s sister’s name. At school I would be known as Sasha Spurlock.

We left the office just as the bell to switch classes rang. A few students joked and laughed, but, overall, they appeared to be a downtrodden group. Another ten or fifteen had the dazed look of someone on a heavy dose of tranquilizers; one girl had silent, unnoticed tears streaming down both cheeks. She didn’t even bother to wipe them away; her cheeks were red and chafed as if the salty droplets had been flowing for some time.

Seth walked our pseudo-mom outside; I told him I would meet him out there shortly. I wanted to observe my soon-to-be fellow students. Only one of the kids even looked my way. He was tall and thin, with neatly combed, short blond hair. His letterman’s jacket was well worn, leading me to believe he’d had it for at least a couple of years. I was a bit surprised when he approached me, seeing the way the other students seemed oblivious to my presence.

He stopped a comfortable three feet away, smiled a smile that didn’t come near to touching his eyes, and said, “Hi. I’m Brendon. Are you new here?”

I smiled back. “I am. I just signed up. I’ll be starting tomorrow.”

He wrinkled his brow and leaned in closer to whisper, “I don’t want to scare you away or anything, but, if there’s any way you can get into a different school, you should. This place isn’t doing so good right now.”

“Why? What’s going on?” I asked, also whispering.

“I’m not really sure. I just know something’s not normal. I’m sure you’ve heard about all the suicides? Well, that’s just the beginning of the weirdness. Nobody’s acting like themselves. Anyway, I need to get to class. Maybe I’ll see ya tomorrow … but I kinda hope not, for your sake.” He smiled his sad smile again, waved, and walked away.

Wow, the kids there really did need our help. I met up with Seth outside and told him what Brendon had said as we walked home.

“That’s not a good sign, Paige,” Seth said, shaking his head. “I wonder if we should take some extra precautions while we’re here.”

“Like what?” I asked, curious to hear his answer.

“I don’t know exactly. How could the … bad guys, I guess … be getting to the students? That’s what we need to figure out or hypothesize about first, before we can decide what precautions to take. Do you have any ideas?”

“Well,” I began, “I guess my first
hypothesis”—
I smiled at his use of the word; always the scientific one, our Seth was
—“
would be the food. The tanks John and I saw looked like they could have held some kind of liquid, so I suppose they could be adding whatever it is to the food. Maybe that would explain why some kids aren’t affected.”

“Right. The food. That’s exactly where my thoughts went. I think we need to expand that train of thought to include fluids—like the drinking fountains and soda machines and stuff,” Seth added.

“Okay. But if it was in the drinking fountains, you’d think all the kids would be susceptible to whatever it is. I don’t know of anyone that wouldn’t use the drinking fountains. And what about the teachers and other adults? Don’t they eat school lunch, too? Maybe we should focus on things that just the students do.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. I guess these are the things we’ll have to figure out while we’re there. Just to be safe, though, I think we should take our own lunches and drinks.”

“I was afraid that was where this was headed … even though I was thinking the same thing. I was really looking forward to some good old deep-fried school burritos.” Seth kicked a rock on the sidewalk to emphasize his disappointment.

“Well, maybe we’ll figure out it isn’t the food after all, and you can eat all the greasy burritos you want, ya big baby.” I punched him lightly in the arm.

He grinned at me. Seth was always good for a grin.

“Let’s go home so we can run this stuff by the rest of them,” I said.

The others were somewhat anxiously awaiting our arrival.

“Did you have any trouble registering?” Johnathan asked.

“Not really, it actually went pretty smoothly,” I answered. “I did have an interesting conversation with one of the students, though.”

When I explained what the boy, Brendon, had said to me, and the way the other students were acting, Johnathan leaned forward. “I think it’s time for a brainstorming session.”

“Let me grab my notebook, I’ll take notes.” Halli ran to where her belongings lay and grabbed her notebook and a pen.

Seth brought up our idea about the food possibly being contaminated. “So, no school food. We’ll have to pack our own lunches.”

From the frown on his face, I could tell he was still thinking about those burritos.

“That’s a good idea.” Halli looked up from her writing. “But, won’t it be a little weird for a couple of homeless boys to have food for sack lunches?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” I said. “They won’t know Johnathan and Alec are supposed to be homeless. From the looks on most of their faces today, I don’t think they notice much of anything anyway.”

“Okay,” Johnathan said. “So, we’ve decided the contamination could be from a food or drink source. What else could it be? Let’s try to think about something only the students would be exposed to.”

“Maybe the showers … in the gym?” Halli asked. “The teachers aren’t supposed to use those.”

“Good one, Halli. Write it down.” Johnathan smiled at our young friend.

“I don’t want to be a Downer Dan or anything, but what if, whatever it is, it’s something the kids are willingly taking? Like a rave drug or something,” Alec piped up. I was sure his experience with the foster system and certain foster parents and siblings had turned his mind to think of that as an option. And I couldn’t dispute his idea. We had to consider it as a possibility.

Halli added drugs to our list.

“I think we’re going to have to first decide which of the kids seem to be unaffected and then try to figure out what the difference is between them and the others,” Johnathan said.

“I’m sure Brendon wasn’t affected. I’ll see if I can find him tomorrow and maybe get closer to him,” I volunteered.

Johnathan frowned and his jaw tightened at the thought. But he swallowed down his jealousy and said, “That’s a good idea, Paige. It would be a good idea for the rest of us to identify some students of both sides, affected and unaffected. We’ll have to be subtle in questioning them. I don’t want to scare them away or alert those who are leading this poisoning of minds. We could be in some serious danger if they find out we’re there to stop them.”

Our brainstorming meeting ended and we all pitched in to fix dinner. Johnathan handed out some meager school supplies: one notebook and one pencil for each of us, just enough to keep up the charade. We went to bed much earlier than we were used to that night. Seth wound up the alarm clock and set it for bright and early so we had time to get ready and walk the long distance to the school in the morning before the first bell.

Morning came all too soon for all of us night owls. We dragged ourselves out of bed. Halli was the only one to exhibit any signs of energy; she packed our lunches while the rest of us laid in our sleeping bags and groaned about the early hour.
Of course,
I thought to myself,
she can go right back to sleep when we leave.
But, I knew she probably wouldn’t; she had plans to go back to the library to see if she could find anything useful to help me cure Johnathan.

We had to get creative when it came to our channeling rods. I’m sure they would seriously frown on us carrying them around the school on our belts. I ended up strapping mine to my lower leg, under my jeans. I just hoped they weren’t planning on me taking P.E. The boys all figured out ways to carry theirs incognito, too. Then we threw on our jackets and headed for the streets above. Of course, it was raining—a slow, cold, drizzle that chilled the bones.

Alec and Seth both acted like they were actually
excited
about going to school. Not me. My stomach roiled like crazy. I thought I might even hurl up my breakfast at the beginning of our long trek. Watching the boys’ horseplay helped settle my stomach faster than a can of ginger ale, though, and I was soon laughing along with them. Johnathan barely cracked a smile, however. I was really starting to worry about him. He was already showing signs of depression, and here we were on our way to a school full of depressed and obviously suicidal kids … .

We split up when we were within two blocks of the school and came to the campus from different directions—me and Seth one way, and Alec and Johnathan another.

I pulled my hood down as we entered the building. There wasn’t the usual noisy, before-school hustle and bustle going on. The students were mostly subdued and eerily quiet. We picked up our schedules; I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that P.E. was not one of my classes. Seth and I compared our lists. We had only one class together, Geography. Apparently, his real sister hadn’t taken it as a sophomore, as was the requirement here.
Great,
I thought,
I’ll be the only junior in a classroom full of sophomores.

Johnathan and Alec entered the office as we left. We did our best to ignore each other. I couldn’t help but turn and watch Johnathan, though. I noticed I wasn’t the only girl that did so; now it was my turn to feel a little bit of jealousy.

I decided to start right away with the mingling that was going to be necessary if we were to figure out what was going on. As Seth went his own way with the same idea in mind, I walked up to a girl that stood alone, staring down at a book in her hands, but obviously not reading it. Her eyes were glazed over and not moving back and forth like they would be if she was really reading.

“Um … excuse me? Could you help me find my locker? It’s my first day here, and I’m afraid I’m not very good at reading maps or following directions.” I smiled, threw in a little bit of self-deprecation, and shrugged my shoulders. Who said I couldn’t act?

It took a minute before my words gnawed their way through the haze surrounding her mind. She raised her head slowly, her lips twisting into a grimace as she attempted to return my smile. Like it hurt to turn her lips up in that unnatural or forgotten curve. I was sure there was a pretty girl hiding under the messy hair and sullenness. She had dark circles under her eyes that stood out in severe contrast to her sickly pale skin.

After a long pause, she said, “Sure. What locker number do you have?” Her voice was rough and quiet, and her speech was slowed down a few notches below normal.

I told her my locker number, then waited for another lengthy pause while this sad girl slowly processed my words.

“Okay,” she said. “That’s close to my locker. It’s this way.”

I followed with a sinking feeling as we trudged on toward our section of lockers. There was a quiet desperation in these kids—quiet, yet screaming inside. It made me want to cry. And
blast
the person or people who were responsible. I watched for Brendon in the crowd. I wanted to make sure his worried but friendly face hadn’t transformed into one of these half-zombies I was surrounded by.

We arrived at my locker. I opened it, stowed my jacket, and closed it, only to find that the girl was gone. I realized I hadn’t even asked her name. I shrugged my shoulders and decided to find my first class with the ten or so minutes I had before the bell rang. I kept an eye out for Brendon as I roamed.

I was apparently reading the map upside down or something because it took me only three minutes to become completely turned around. As I stood there staring at the diagram of the school, turning it around in my hands, trying to figure out which way was up and where I was in relation to the stupid thing, someone stepped up beside me.

“Can I help you find something?”

I sighed in relief when I looked up into the smiling face of Brendon. He’d survived the night without being
taken
by whatever was plaguing most of his classmates.

I returned his smile with an exasperated sigh and said, “Please! I hate maps—they are a worse form of torment than a medieval maze! If you could maybe just steer me in the direction of my first class, I would be very grateful.”