Good vs. Evil High (19 page)

I set my glass down hallway to my mouth and
leaned forward to drool. “Isn’t he gorgeous?” I said, forgetting
everything else as I stared at him. Even his picture set me on
fire.

A body leaned against mine from behind and
Roman kissed my cheek. “Hey, sweetie.”

A totally different fire ignited inside me.
“Don’t do that,” I said, leaning away.

He sat down beside me with his back against
the table. “Come on, Kristine. I haven’t seen you all week. You
look like you’re feeling better.”

I shrugged and turned back to Luke just
before another Cinder came on the screen.
Darn it.
I’d have
to sit there and wait for the whole thing to run through and replay
to see him again.

The rest of the North Haven Snow Riders came
in noisily and sat around their captain. Only one girl was on the
team.

Roman reached out for my hand.

“Harmony and I have activities committee in a
little bit,” I said, pulling it away as I stood up.

Roman grabbed it anyway and stood up, too.
“Why don’t you skip it and spend the morning with me? Mr. Fielding
won’t mind—” He used his other hand to pull me close to him. “—not
if you’re with today’s head competitor. We’re like North Haven’s
couple of the year. Captain of the Tracers and Snow Riders.”

“Roman—there’s something really important I
need to talk to you about, and I’d rather do it after your
competition. So let’s wait for tonight, okay?” Placing my hands on
his chest, I tried to push him away, but he held fast, looking
positively elated.

“Tell me now.”

“No, I want to do it after the game.”

“Whatever you say.” He kept his death grip
around me as he leaned forward to kiss me and I fought to get
away.

The sound of glass breaking filled the air.
Everyone turned to stare at a guy sitting at the second Cinder
table with two halves of a plate in his hands. In the dark room at
the darkest end of the table, it was impossible to see his
face.

“Are you crazy? I’ll get you sick,” I said to
Roman.

“I don’t care. I want a good luck kiss.” He
tried to kiss me again, but I finally broke free.

“I don’t want you to get sick. Just find me
after the competition’s over, okay?”

“Sorry, Roman.” Harmony grabbed my hand.
“We’ve gotta go.”

Relief. Pure relief. “What took you so long?”
I asked, hooking my arm in hers and power walking away.

“You were squirmin’ like a worm back there.
He’s so oblivious.”

“I’m glad it’ll all be over tonight.”

A hand shot out and grabbed my arm. The giant
shadow that’d broken the plate with his bare hands stood up and
leaned close to me. “Lu—Knight!” Seeing his face and feeling his
hand on my arm was so much better than a picture on the screen.

“Meet me in the gym at eleven-thirty,” he
whispered.

“But you compete at noon.” Competitions
started earlier than usual so the Riders would have enough
daylight. He’d never have enough time to get dressed and pull his
snowmobile out.

“Hey, Knight,” Roman shouted from across the
room, still standing where I’d left him. “Hands off.”

The volume in the dinner hall lowered as Luke
gave him a wicked grin and let go. “Tonight,” he muttered.

And then Harmony and I were out the door.

* * * *

We didn’t actually have a committee meeting.
It was a free day with the early competition. But Harmony and I did
work on creating standing armor suits for the dance, using thin
cardboard and silver spray paint. That was our weekend project.
Different members of the activities committee had different
responsibilities. I envied Miss Rivers getting to make the
life-size pictures of an evil dragon circling a maiden trapped in a
tower.

At eleven-thirty, when Harmony and Sassy
started talking about heading to the arena, I realized I was
supposed to meet Luke and made my way across the second floor and
down to the Cinder gym as quickly as I could. He was already
leaning against the wall next to the door inside.

He reached out for my arm when he saw me and
let his hand slide down until he was holding mine. “You’re still
going through with it tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“Where can I find you when you’re finished
with Armstrong?”

“I don’t know. Where do Snow Riders go after
the competition?”

“We go to the competitors’ rooms, if we’re
still in one piece.”

“Don’t try to scare me.” Somehow, until that
moment, I hadn’t thought about the possibility of Luke getting
hurt. “You’ll be careful, won’t you?”

“There’s no careful for Snow Riders. I’ll be
fine, though.”

“Well...I guess I’ll wait for him outside the
boys’ competitors’ room. It’s right next to the girls’.”

“Or you could follow the hallway around.
There’s a storage room just after you get on our side. If you tell
him in there, no one’ll have to see him cry like a little baby.
Then you could wait for me in the hall.”

“What am I supposed to do if he cries?”

“Nothing.” Still, I
really
hoped he
wouldn’t cry. “So, will you wait for me there?”

“Yes.”

I held my wrist up and struggled to read my
watch. “It’s eleven-forty, Luke. I don’t want to leave you, but I
don’t want you to miss the match either.”

“I know.”

He put his free hand behind my neck and began
rubbing it. In that moment, as I rested my hand on his elbow, I
felt so close to him. The line between best friends and something
more was so fine. I wanted to know. I wanted him.

“Try to be careful—for me—please,” I said.
Unable to restrain myself any longer, I turned my head enough to
kiss his arm.

His hand became still as he drew in a breath.
His eyes looked angry and surprised at the same time. I’d never
seen him look that way before.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

His stiff hands drew away as he turned to
leave.

“Good luck, Luke,” I said.

He looked back at me. His eyes, somehow
darker than usual, were pained. Something was very wrong.

“Did I—”

He turned away and left me all alone.

Chapter
Twenty-Four

~ Lucky Break ~

The Winter Competitions arena was all the way
at the other end of the place, so I had to run to get there on
time. Still, it was a couple of minutes past twelve when I came
racing into the stands.

My spirits fell when I saw that the Riders
had already ridden out and were being shown from different angles
on the screen.

The arena wasn’t like any I’d ever seen
before. Curved rows of wide, white padded chairs were set in groups
of five unevenly all over the place, a small round table placed in
front of each one. It was homey, except for the window in the back
between the red and blue sections where you could get stuff like
chips and hotdogs. The gigantic screen above center field was
lifted high enough that no one would have trouble seeing it.

“Is Luke out there?” I whispered to Harmony
as I sat beside her, knowing it was impossible.

“Yeah, that’s him with the purple flames
painted on his snowmobile.” The camera was looking down at that
moment over two Riders heading for each other.

“How did he make it in time?” I wondered out
loud.

The North Havener had a giant rock in one
hand and Luke was unarmed.

“What’s he doing?” I asked, desperately
clutching Harmony’s arm. I wanted to scream for him to stop. I
wanted to run outside and throw myself in between them.

At the last moment, Luke turned his
snowmobile sideways and skidded hard enough forward that the snow
was forced into a mound directly in the path of the Havener.
Surprised, the rider in white jerked slightly to the side and hit
the mound’s edge so that his snowmobile turned over mid-air and
landed on top of him. Luke sped away.

Everyone around me booed and complained
while, to my far left in the darker stands, everyone erupted in
cheers and beat their feet against the ground.

I let out a breath and thought I would cry
from the relief I felt.

“Relax, Kristine,” Sassy said, leaning over
Harmony to hand me a bag of popcorn. “You’ll give yourself a heart
attack if you freak out at every close call. They know what they’re
doing.”

We watched the whole thing in slow motion as
Connie informed us that, “Roman Armstrong is the first competitor
out of the game.”

“Roman?” I asked. “Isn’t he our best
player?”

“He’s been distracted since you got here,”
Nadine said. “That’s what his coach told mine.”

I didn’t care. I didn’t even care that I
would crush him completely in a matter of hours, because he was
going to throw a deadly rock at Luke.

The picture on the big screen changed. It
showed two doors slide open on the side of Southland Cinder High
and a Cinder on a black snowmobile ride out. “The Southland Cinder
High School Snow Rider, Titus, has entered the competition late.”
North Haveners all around me began shouting their protests loud
enough that we almost didn’t hear Connie say, “The penalty for this
is that Roman Armstrong will be allowed to reenter the
competition.” That turned them around.

Someone behind me let out a shrill whistle
and then got everyone chanting, “Roman, Roman, Roman,” as we
watched him roll over his snowmobile and climb back in.

“You’re kind of in the middle of this,
Kristine,” Sassy said. “Who are you hoping will win?”

“Luke.” Even if he had left me confused and a
little hurt only a few minutes before.

“You want your own school to lose?”

“No. I guess I’ll be happy either way.”

“Competitor Knight seems to be experiencing a
problem. He will be leaving the game temporarily.” The screen
focused on the black and purple snowmobile as smoke began pouring
out of the back.

I stood up when I saw Roman riding toward him
with the same big rock. “That’s not fair!”

I fell back from the deafening explosion that
followed. Bright yellow scorched the arena as Luke’s snowmobile
went up in flames and a thousand shredded pieces. The camera moved
to focus on a motionless body lying facedown in the snow fifty feet
away.

“LLUUUKE!” I let out an agonizing scream that
drowned out Connie’s voice before I ran from my seat.

The fastest way to get outside was through
the slit in the wall on the Cinder side. I tore through the blue
section and into their dark arena hallway, hoping I would come out
on the right side of the school at the end.

I swerved around two Cinders who were giving
me peculiar looks, and slammed into a third one. He was a tall man
wearing a belt loaded down with security guard stuff, so I figured
that was what he was. We both fell back. I popped up and tried to
keep going, but he grabbed my leg and said, “What are you doing
over here?” harshly.

“I need to get to Luke.”

“Knight? He’s not in here. They’re racing
outside, genius.”

I yanked my leg away. “There’s a tunnel to
outside. I need to get to Luke!”

I made it a few running steps before I felt
him grab me around my waist and roll me to the ground. “You can’t
go running outside dressed like that. You’ll die.”

Two other men were making their way toward
us.

“What do you care? One less Havener in the
world.”

He grunted as I fought to get away. “Contrary
to what you might think, we don’t want you dead. You’re a lot more
fun alive.”

Hysteria rose inside me. Luke could be lying
out there dead. I couldn’t lose him again. I kicked the man’s legs
as I reached around and grabbed a fistful of hair.

He cried out in pain, finally letting go.
“All men to section three, section three, right now!” he shouted
into a radio.

The other two ran at me as I hurried to the
tunnel. Each one tried to stop me, but I fought like I’d never
fought before. For Luke. I could hear them all chasing after me as
the two doors came into view.

Someone came at me from the side. My shoulder
slammed into the ground. More and more men came to hold me down.
“You’re not going anywhere, so just calm down.” The fat man who’d
pushed me over pressed my shoulders against the cold stone
floor.

I was out of my mind with fear and grief.
“NO! NO! NO! I don’t want to live without Luke!”

“You’re not thinking straight. If you ran
outside like this, you’d be a human icicle, okay? You’ve got to
calm down.”

“Luke,” I moaned, tears pouring over the
sides of my face.

A voice came on every man’s static radio at
once. “Titus is being taken to a hospital room. He was on Knight’s
ride. They’re showing it right now.”

Five of the guys got off of me, leaving two
to hold me down against the hard floor.

“Hear that? Knight’s fine,” the first man I’d
encountered said. “So no more trying to run outside. Are we okay
letting you up?”

“Yes, yes, let me go.” I fought to get up
again, this time so I could see that Luke was safe for myself.

The two men looked at each other and leaned
back, letting go at the same time.

I ran through the nearest opening into the
Cinders’ stands. Up on the screen, I saw him. Luke was putting his
helmet back on and climbing on his snowmobile. It cut back to the
Cinder being carried away on a stretcher. I cried harder as I
laughed. It was like he’d been brought back from the dead.

“What are you doing here, Fayre?” a girl
asked callously.

Looking over at one of the black half-circle
sectionals and the menacing girls sitting on it, I realized I was
surrounded by Cinders. I would have been a lot more afraid if I
hadn’t just discovered the guards set in place right outside the
arena to protect us as well as their own.

“Nothing.”

I turned around and left the stands. Still
mostly in shock, I returned to my seat beside Harmony and stared at
the floor, going through it all in my head.