Hidden Moon (18 page)

I felt my cheeks burn hot with anger, causing the air to spark and sizzle around us. I jerked my hand free of his. “He is my friend, my best friend actually, and I don’t like the way you’re treating him.”

“That’s not the way he thinks of you. He wants a lot more than just friendship,” Adam replied in a steely voice.

“As if you can read his mind.” I glared at him and turned to jerk my books from the dash of the truck.

“I don’t have to. It’s obvious what he wants. He wants
you
—and not just as a friend.”. He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled.

Erik cleared his throat beside us. We both turned and shouted, “What!” Causing him to flinch and take a cautious step back.

“Um, I hate to interrupt you. But in like two minutes, we’re all going to be late for class, and then everyone’s going to notice us more than before.” He pointed at the empty steps. Everyone was already inside the school.

“You’re right, let’s go,” Adam said, waiting as the four boys took off in front of us. He turned back to me. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I don’t like sharing. I’ll try to take his feelings into consideration, for your sake.”

“Thank you, I’m sorry, too. My nerves are on edge today, I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” I managed a half-smile and reached over to take his hand as we walked behind the human shield of the four guys in front of us.

At the door, he leaned over and kissed me. “Ed and Erik are in most of your classes. If you need them, let them know. I was going to ask if you wanted me to walk you to classes, but I’ll let Brian do it. It may help calm him down if he thinks he’s protecting you and I back off a little. I’ll see you in English.”

The entire day consisted of people asking me if I knew that Tiffany made me fall. It was a dumb question, but I still shrugged and said that I hadn’t been looking down at the time, which wasn’t a lie. I had felt her move, but I hadn’t seen it. No need to add fuel to the fire, by the way I figured it. She was going to be answering a lot of her own questions, so I didn’t say much to anyone. I tried to look as boring and uninteresting as I could. I doodled on papers, stared off into space and even tried pretending to be asleep in one class, although that didn’t last long. The last thing I needed were teachers getting angry with me.

In English class, no one bothered me as Adam stayed close, guarding me as if I were the Queen of England. By lunch, my plan had worked, and everyone decided that I was pretty dull and not very forthcoming, so instead of pestering me, they settled for Ronnie, since she had been my escort to the nurse’s station. The fact that she loved to talk was a bonus and they had flocked to her, bombarding her with questions. All the while, she smiled and talked some more. I looked at our little table that was packed with people. Ronnie was surrounded, and was chattering nonstop. Brian was immersed in some conversation with some other boy. His dark hair fell down to his eyes as he shook his head in answer to some question he had been asked. He looked up as if he felt me watching him, took a quick look around the table and lifted one shoulder in a small, helpless shrug.

Come sit with us,
a voice suggested and I looked over to see Adam watching me.

He pulled out the chair beside him in invitation. I sat my tray down on the table and slid in next to him. I stared down at my food, which was looking less appetizing by the second. I looked over at Michael who seemed to be shoveling more food down than the others. His plate emptied in seconds, and I pushed mine, still untouched, over in front of him.

“Are you sure?” he asked, politely. His fork was poised above the plate in midair.

“Yeah, have at it,” I replied, a second before he dug in.

“Thanks,” he murmured through a mouthful.

I looked over at Adam. “What have you been doing to him that he’s eating so much more than the rest of you?”

“We’ve been splitting up shifts at night, keeping an eye on everything. Michael was the last wolf out. He didn’t have time for breakfast this morning. So, he’s hungrier,” he shrugged, tossing a cookie that was leftover on his plate at Michael’s bent head.

Michael’s eyes snapped up as if he had heard the movement and he snagged the cookie a millisecond before it whacked him in the head. In two bites, it was gone, and the rest of my plate was cleared. He sighed, contented. “Thanks. I feel better.”

“So if everything is okay and the trail killer has been caught, why are you still patrolling at night so much?”

“They’ve arrested Mr. Walters, but we aren’t so convinced he’s the trail killer,” Ed replied.

“Yeah, something just doesn’t feel right about that. Have you
seen
Mr. Walters?” Erik chimed in. “He doesn’t look like the serial killer type, if you know what I mean. He’s all sweaters and loafers. He works in the library.” The frown on his face suggested that one would never find a killer in such a setting.

“Yeah, but those are the types that are the serial killers. They are always the ones you least suspect,” I said, thinking of some of the forensic shows I had watched.

“Still, something just doesn’t feel right. It’s not anything we can explain. It’s a gut feeling. We walk through the forest and something just feels wrong, as if there is evil just lurking there, just waiting,” Ed said in a hushed voice.

“Speaking of evil lurking,” Tommy lifted his chin, pointing towards the far corner of the room, where Tiffany sat alone, glaring at me as if I were Satan himself.

I bit my lip and looked down at the table. Her eyes were boring holes into me. Adam’s hand came under the table to squeeze mine. I heard movement and snuck a peek in her direction. She slid back from the table, her chair scraped against the floor. The entire room went quiet as she stood up, threw me some more
I could kill you
glances, and stalked out of the room. Her Ugg boots made padded thumps against the tile floor as she stomped out, her long blonde ponytail bouncing back and forth on her back as if it were as angry as she was.

I took a big gulp from my bottled water with my free hand, and plopped it back down on the table. My hand shook just the tiniest bit. I thought it was barely noticeable. I was wrong. Adam’s hand squeezed mine tighter and automatically I was bombarded.

Are you okay, Nikki? Nothing to worry about, she’s scum. We’re here for you; we won’t let anything bad happen. Did you see the way she walked out of here? Everything’s gonna be just fine, you’ll see.
Anger, protectiveness, worry, and a faint bit of panic coursed through my brain all at once.

“Whoa,” I yelped. “Everybody, stop.”

Most of the heads in the room that had seconds before been watching Tiffany’s retreating back, were now turned and watching me curiously. I cringed. Great, just what I needed. More attention.

“Would everyone please stop thinking so loudly? I’m fine,” I hissed through my clenched teeth.

Several apologies were whispered to me from across the table. After a rather uncomfortable moment, everyone else turned back around and stopped staring at us. I breathed a sigh of relief and managed a halfhearted smile at the worried faces that sat with me.

“Do you need me to sit in the bleachers and watch out for you at practice?” Adam asked. “With the way she’s looking at you, I wouldn’t put anything past her.”

“No, you have class too. They’re not going to let you skip just so you can ogle the girls’ cheerleading team. I appreciate the concern, though.”

“I can get out of it. I think I may have pulled a muscle. You can’t work out if you’re hurt.” He managed a fake, unconvincing grimace and rubbed his shoulder.

I stifled the spastic giggle. Adam hurt? Yeah, right. He was the picture of health with all his taut, lean muscles. He looked like the kind of guy that would be on the posters for milk advertisements. The guy radiated strength and power as if it were all ordinary for him. Even if they didn’t know about Adam’s healing capabilities, no teacher in his right mind was going to just let him skip class. He looked too healthy.

He skipped class.

He sat in the lower bleachers, nearer the guy’s basketball team than to us, watching us as we came in and walked over to our side of the gym. I looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. In return, he lifted one shoulder and gave me a sheepish grin. It seemed he was a better actor than I realized. I smiled to myself and turned back, making sure that I stayed somewhat close to Ronnie and as far as I could get from Tiffany while we stretched and waited for Ms. Perkins to arrive.

“Everyone quiet now, please.” A very determined-looking Ms. Perkins strode out onto the hardwood floor. Her face was grim and serious. “I’m sure you have all seen the school paper today. Per the suggestions made from the principal, we have come to a decision. This year, for the first time, we will be putting the position of captain up for a vote.”

Excitement rippled through the line of green-and-white pom-pommed girls. Nervous giggles and small exclamations of surprise echoed up and down the line.

“Quiet, please.” Ms. Perkins smiled at the eager faces in front of her. “I am going to give you each one slip of paper. Write the name of the person you think should be captain on it, only one name, and then fold it and give it back to me. Whoever has the most votes, will be the new captain if they choose to accept the position.”

The pom-poms fell into a heap on the floor as everyone began searching in earnest for an ink pen to jot down their choice. Tiffany stood over to one side, ashen-faced, her mouth open in shock. Whatever she had expected it hadn’t been this. That much was obvious. Her mouth worked closed and open a couple times like a fish that was out of water as she stared at the back of the teacher. Then she saw me watching her and her face changed color to that of a boiled tomato, which at least looked more natural for her.

I snuck a look over at Ronnie and was pleased when I realized that others were looking at her as well. It was looking better all the time. Somehow, a pen found its way into my hand and I wrote down Ronnie’s name, folded the slip of paper, and handed it back to the teacher. I handed the pen to the next girl I passed and stood waiting, while the last few finished up and came back into the line.

Her hands full of folded bits of paper, Miss Perkins sat down on the nearest bleacher and started sorting out the names. She ended up with four different piles. The pile farthest from her started stacking up higher than the other three. It was pretty obvious, whoever’s name was in that pile, was going to end up being our fearless leader. I sucked in a breath as she finished, looked once more at the name in the biggest pile and stood back up in front of us.

“Your new captain is,” she paused for dramatic flair, “Ronnie Stevenson.”

Ronnie threw hands over her mouth in surprise and started jumping up and down, while I blew out the breath that I had been holding and went limp with relief. I looked over at Adam, who was grinning from ear to ear across the gym. The entire group seemed elated with their new captain. Well, nearly the entire group. Tiffany, hearing the wondrous news, had gone from her tomato color to a pretty fuchsia and magenta color. It was a color I had only ever seen in tie-dyed clothes, never on the human face. It was quite lovely, and the expression on her face was priceless.

“Being as I believe our new captain will accept her position, we should be getting started now.” Miss Perkins clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention.

Everyone calmed down and we got back to work. Although she stayed in the group, Tiffany may as well have been on a different planet, though she still managed to shoot me murderous glances whenever the opportunity presented itself. I joined the rest of the group and pretended to ignore her. Thankfully, we didn’t work on pyramids again and everyone kept their feet on the floor.

ERIK SOUNDED ALMOST gleeful as I slid into the chair between him and Adam. “Turkey nipple soup!”

“Huh?” I asked, perplexed, as I plopped down my tray on the table.

“You didn’t notice that the line over there is like nonexistent where you went through?”

“Yeah, so? I thought it would be quicker.”

“Quicker, yes. Better? No way, you’ll see.” Erik pointed at my tray, then over at his in comparison.

“Here, Nikki, take mine,” Adam tried handing his plate over to me, which held a cheeseburger.

“No, it’s okay,” I looked down at my tray to see what the big fuss was about.

In the bowl, a round slice of what looked like turkey sandwich meat lay floating on top of a congealed, yellow substance that was as thick as concrete. I guess it was supposed to be gravy. Small white noodles resembling maggots popped up here and there, surrounded by what I supposed were tiny chicken bits. In the exact center of the meat, a small peak poked upwards, giving the term turkey breast a whole new meaning.

I crinkled up my nose at the weird lunch tray and before I could object, Adam had switched trays with me, placing his in front of me.

“Seriously, eat mine. I’ve had enough and you shouldn’t be subjected to that. If I’d known you were going through that line over there, I would have warned you.”

“It seemed like the better choice at the time,” I explained, picking up the burger. “I went the long way around school trying to avoid Tiffany. I don’t like her, and she knows it. I figure that I’ll be telling her so.”