Ice (10 page)

What was Kavick, anyway? A werewolf?

No, he can turn into a wolf (or dog) whenever he wants. The moon doesn’t even need to be full, let alone in the sky for that matter. But, what if those were just flourishes of superstition that had been added to the truth over the years? Not even Kavick knew exactly what he was.

Kavick changed the subject then, asking how I liked Riverton High. I told him the verdict was still out. We chuckled and I explained that I was still warming up to the school, and I got the feeling the school was still warming up to me. Molly seemed to be the only person interested in socializing with me.

Kavick let out a hearty laugh and said, “Molly loves socializing, alright. She’ll socialize with a brick wall. But you can’t believe everything she tells you.”

“I’ve noticed,” I said and told him about a tall tale that came through the grape vine and down to Molly, who found it the juiciest story yet.

We chatted about high school until we finally came to the edge of the forest. I had lost track of how long we had been walking, but my throat was starting to feel a little hoarse from all the talking.

He stepped in front of me with that big smile I had become familiar with and said, “We’re here. It’s just beyond these trees.”

I felt my heartbeat quicken.

“Ready?”

I nodded eagerly. And then he turned around and led the way through the last of the trees. Some pine needles scratched my face on the way through, but then we stopped and I took in the view before me. It was nothing short of breathtaking. Before my eyes was the largest expanse of flat, snow-covered land I had ever seen. It stretched as far as the eye could see, like a white sparkling, glowing ocean. There were no more trees to block the sky and the Aurora Borealis thrived above us in large vibrant sheets of green, red and purple. It was definitely the perfect place to view it. It appeared as if the Aurora was even reflecting on the ice-covered snow below, but it was hard to tell if the glittering was just from the light of a LED lamp that hung from a tree in the distance. (I took that as a sign he had been there earlier.)

Off to the side in the distance was a circle of stones with logs in the center to start a fire. Because we had been walking so much, I didn’t feel cold, but I was sure I wouldn’t fe
el that way much longer. We would definitely need a fire soon.

He grinned at the expression on my face. It was then I became aware that my mouth was hanging open. He took my hand again and I felt a little of that strange, nervous energy return. We walked forward for a bit, and then suddenly, amidst the wash of white below our feet, was a dip. The hidden dip became steep, and then he let go of my hand to run forward, sliding down a few inches like a snowboarder.

“Isn’t it great?” he yelled excitedly, not caring that someone could hear.

I glanced around quickly and then wondered,
who is there to hear?
This was even more remote than Justin’s house.

He did cartwheels all over the place and whooped here and there. He then came back to my side out of breath and leaned back against the mound of snow he had slid down just moments before. I sat down, tucking my legs beside me and watched him sigh, looking up at the sky above.  He rested his hands on his stomach, seeming content now that he had expended all that energy. His light blue eyes then moved over to look at me. “You’re just going to sit there the whole time?”

I blinked, a little stunned by his question. I then awkwardly pushed some hair behind an ear, but realized I was pushing my hood off in the process. He immediately sat up and leaned toward me. I froze as soon as I noticed him moving closer. I stopped struggling with my hood and left my hand behind my ear. He pulled my hood back up over my head, saying, “There.” He then pulled away and grinned at me again. “You don’t want to catch cold.”

We just sat there still, him grinning, and then he suddenly leaned back and looked up at the sky again. He tucked his hands behind his head and asked, “You like it?”

I wondered for a second what he meant, and then I realized he was talking about the Lights. My mind was still on the contact from a few seconds ago.

“Oh, yeah,” I said a little breathless, nodding my head and looking up at the Lights above. They were so bright and there were so many colors, and the snow in front of us was sparkling l
ike diamonds. “It’s beautiful.”

The ice was cold and hard, yet gave way under my body as I leaned back. Kavick had shown me earlier that if I balanced my weight just right I wouldn’t sink through the layer of ice on top of the snow. We had slid around, knocking into each other, at other times dragging the other. Kavick was fast and experienced, so he had instructed me to hold his hands from behind, letting him pull me around. My first few tries had been on my own and my feet had slipped out from under me many times, but when Kavick was holding onto me, I managed to avoid falling hard on my butt like I had before.

We laid in the cold snow and made angels until we got tired. Then, while we were still lying there, we stared up at the Lights in silence for several seconds. I couldn’t believe I was having so much fun. I had just as much fun with Kavick as I had with Marcus and Charlotte on the beach. Kavick had quite the personality, too, making me laugh often, just like Marcus.

“You sure don’t talk much, do you?” he suddenly asked, making me look over at him.

“I don’t know…I guess I don’t have much to say…” I said awkwardly, suddenly becoming self-conscious. I never realized I was the quiet type. Actually, I knew I wasn’t. I had just changed since my parents’ accident.

“You’re not talking because you’re thinking,” he stated, as if he thought he was being extremely perceptive.

I looked over at him again and saw him grinning at me. I felt vulnerable under his icy blue gaze, like I was under an x-ray. I thought for a moment and then looked back up at the sky. “I guess…I do think a lot.”

“What are you thinking about now?”

I felt myself stop breathing. I didn’t want to answer that for some reason. I didn’t like spilling my guts. The only person I spilled my guts to was
Charlotte, and then I didn’t do that very well. I usually left out certain embarrassing details. The only time being an exception was when I had decided to tell Marcus how I felt. I had asked her for advice then.

“How I don’t want to answer that question right now.” I grinned at my honesty and looked over to see him grinning, too, and laughing softly.

“C’mon,” he said, turning over onto his stomach and propping himself up onto his elbows. It felt like he could look into my head even better, like he would know if I didn’t tell him the full truth. I looked back up at the sky to escape his unnerving gaze.

I sighed, finding myself grinning again. “Fine. I’ll answer if I get something in return.”

“Deal,” he said immediately, as if he didn’t even think about it. “Now what’s making you so quiet all the time?”

“Well,” I huffed, watching the Lights’ intricat
e pattern of green and red above, “I’m thinking about how much fun I’ve had.” I then added quickly, “And my friends in California.”

“Wow,” he chuckled. “I still can’t get over the fact you came all the way from
California. I bet you hate it here.”

We laughed again and I smiled.

“In the beginning, yeah, but it’s not that bad anymore. It’s better when you have friends.”

I couldn’t believe I considered him a friend. I still didn’t know him that well, but after everything we had done that night, it felt like I knew him just as well as Charlotte, or Marcus.

And then he showed me that big, beautiful smile, making my heart feel lighter.

Suddenly, I was thrown out of my sleep by that annoying, cursed buzzer. I hit my alarm clock as fast as I could to shut it up. I glared at it, thoroughly irritated. As I regained my senses, I ran a hand through my messy hair and pushed my thick comforter away. I slowly got out of bed, feeling exhausted.

I rubbed my hip as I walked into the bathroom. I was feeling sore, too. I didn’t get back to my room until after three that morning, and falling on my butt all those times didn’t help things, either. I knew it was going to be a rough day at school.

“Why do you keep doing that?” Molly asked quickly as soon as I had sat down at the table with my tray. It was lunch, and she was sitting by me, as usual. And, as usual, nobody wanted to sit anywhere near us at the table, as if we had a life-threatening contagious disease.

“Doing what?” I asked puzzled, holding my spoon halfway to my mouth.

“Every time you stand up, or sit down, you do this weird twitch.” She then proceeded to do the “weird twitch,” imitating me in such a ridiculous way I knew that it had to be exaggerated. She furrowed her dark eyebrows like she was constipated and lurched in a quick fashion that slightly resembled flinching. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was. I stopped ea
ting, frowning as I tried to figure out exactly what it was supposed to be.

“What is that?” she demanded.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” I said, finally swallowing the apple sauce that was in my mouth.

She narrowed her eyes at me and said, “Don’t answer my question with a question.”

“Sorry,” I said, unsure of what else to say. Molly was easy to offend and I didn’t want to get on her bad side. It was a job getting her to forgive me, but I figured if I waited a few days she would come back around because she would run out of people to gossip to.

Then it dawned on me what she was doing. She was imitating my hesitation whenever I would stand, or sit. The hard chairs weren’t easy o
n
my sore rump. I rolled my eyes and said, “C’mon, Molly. It doesn’t look
that
bad.”

“Yes, it does,” she said, almost defensive. “Now what on earth is wrong with you?”

“I hurt myself playing…sports.” I didn’t want to say I was playing outside in the snow like a five-year-old. And with a boy, no less. That somehow made it more embarrassing, and Molly would immediately run with it, putting a romantic twist on it that wasn’t there.

“Really?” she asked, sounding like she didn’t totally believe me, and maybe even disappointed that it wasn’t something more exciting.

I nodded as I continued to shovel applesauce into my mouth so I’d have an excuse not to speak.

“What were you playing?” Her disbelief was much more evident this time.

“I was skating,” I said, glancing at her to show my innocence and to give her a hint that I didn’t appreciate being questioned.

“That’s not a sport,” she responded quickly.

“Yes, it is. It’s in the winter Olympics,” I shot back, returning to my food as if I had nothing to hide and there was no more to discuss. She let out a quick “Hm,” and studied me for a moment. She had a mischievous look on her face. I narrowed my eyes at her and said, “Whatever it is you’re thinking, you’re wrong.”

“What makes you
say that?” she asked in that defensive way again, as if she were innocent.

“Because I can tell you think it’s something dirty, and it’s not. I’m sorry it’s not a juicier story to tell, but that’s just how it is.”

Molly was quiet for a moment, watching me eat again. She must have been able to see I was telling the truth because she started talking about something else a few seconds later. Molly was notorious for jumping from topic to topic.

That evening at dinner, Justin told me that Doug wouldn’t be signing up for the Iditarod next year, because he was too busy working part-time at the Factory in addition to his job at the lumber yard, and now he was having to put more hours in to help with repairs from the fire.

“Was anyone inside?” I asked. Big John sat diligently by my feet, waiting for me to drop some meat for him, as always.

“No, it was after it closed.”

My mind wandered to that night and how I met Kavick, having run from the very forest that the Factory’s mysterious blaze had spread to. “Did they ever find out what started it?”

“No, but Doug says the police still suspect arson. They just can’t find any evidence to point them to the person who did it. The Factory didn’t have many cameras on the outside yet, so they didn’t get a shot of the arsonist.” Justin shook his head in wonder and said, “Nobody knows why someone would do that. The whole town’s been excited over the business it would bring.”

Thinking about it puzzled me, too. Riverton was such a small town. According to my history lesson earlier that day, “our fine town” was founded by Dale Riverton in the seventies during
Alaska’s oil boom. However, the town never grew very big despite the boom. There’s so little in Riverton; there’s not even a motel. Because of Riverton’s small size, a new business rarely succeeded. So when there was talk of a factory moving in, there was talk of jobs. There was talk of more people coming to Riverton. There only seemed to be hype of how it would help the community.

So why would anyone want to destroy it? Nobody seemed to oppose the Factory moving in. In fact, everyone seemed thrilled.

“So what kind of factory is it?” I asked, realizing I had never heard what it was exactly, other than just a factory.

“Doug said it makes leather goods. Belts, wallets, purses, furniture—the works.”

I no longer had much interest in the Factory, so our little conversation fizzled out there. Sadly, we still hadn’t gotten comfortable enough to keep a conversation going long.

Later that night after Uncle Justin went to bed, I saw Kavick. He tapped on my window around eleven, or twelve with a big, cheerful smile plastered across his face. As I got up to raise my window, I wondered briefly why he seemed so excited to hang out with such a downer like me.

He climbed through my window as a fully clothed human, just like before when he took me to view the Aurora Borealis,
unlike the first time I saw him.

“You wanna go out again?” he asked, probably because I was sitting back down on my bed, instead of grabbing my coat like I usually did.

I hugged my arms close to myself and whispered, not wanting to wake up Uncle Justin, “Why don’t we hang out here tonight? It’ll give me a chance to thaw out.”

He chuckled and then turned to close the window behind him. “Right, you’re a
California girl. That’s probably a good idea,” he said, whispering too.

“Take off your coat, make yourself at home,” I said, motioning toward the coat rack in the far corner of my room. I mentally wondered why he didn’t act strange about me calling his cape a coat. I had said coat out of habit, since I wasn’t accustomed to having visitors wearing fur capes.

Even after stuffing his gloves in one of the pockets of his faded blue jeans and hanging up his cape, he was still grinning from ear to ear, eyes wide in excitement. He looked around, only taking a few steps.

“You’ve seen my room before,” I said with a bit of a grin, wondering why he was acting like he was seeing it for the first time.

“I didn’t get to pay much attention before.”

He looked around, standing in the center of my room. He turned every now and then until he had finally come full circle.

He took a few steps toward my desk, clasping his hands behind his back. My books were strewn across it from when I had done my homework earlier.

“I am
so
glad I don’t have to do that anymore,” he groaned, making me want to chuck a pillow at his face.

I narrowed my eyes at him in a playful glare. He just flashed me
a
wide, toothy grin.

“Sure. Rub it in,” I said dryly.

I then smoothed out the comforter and patted the space next to me. “Relax. Sit down.”

He stood there a few seconds and I thought he was going to come over slow and hesitant, but he didn’t. He got a running start and hopped over, bouncing on the bed when he sat down. “Wee!”

My eyes widened, but I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Jeesh…you wanna announce that you snuck into my room? I’m sure my uncle wouldn’t find any problems with that.”

“Sorry, I forgot for a second,” he said a little bashfully. “I promise to be quiet from now on.”

I just smiled and ruffled his hair. I had no idea why I had the urge to do it. Maybe because I thought he looked adorable. His very personality struck me as cute. He was so energetic and had no qualms about showing every possible human emotion in less than five minutes.

He chuckled and ran a hand through the black part of his hair. “What was that for?”

I wanted to say, “’Cause you’re cute,” but I didn’t. That might sound weird. It was kind of hard to explain that I meant it in a perfectly normal way.

“Am I your pet now?”

We both burst out in hushed laughter, struggling not to get too loud. Finally, I had to cover my mouth, and Kavick was laughing at me so hard by then that there wasn’t any sound to it. After a few failed attempts at trying to force myself to abruptly stop, I finally managed to regain my composure.

“Man!” he whispered, pretending to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye. “I have never seen you laugh so hard!”

“Me, neither,” I said without thinking. I saw his smile falter and I could tell that comment caught him off guard.

“I mean, not for a long time, anyway,” I said trying to quickly sav
e
myself. I was ready to downplay my earlier statement but he gave me that sad, knowing smile. It made me lose my voice, and suddenly I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even think anymore. It would be useless to lie, anyway; he knew what I was going through.