Naomi Grim (3 page)

The second day went a lot smoother. The
morning would have been perfect if not for Morgan, the ever-cheerful new-student
liaison.

"Where were you yesterday? I was
looking everywhere for you," she said, pouting.

"Oh, I was looking everywhere for
you, too. I got so turned around, and I just couldn't find that darn
staircase."

She looked for a second like she didn't
believe me and then her expression softened. "I understand. The layout of
this school can be very tricky. Is there anything I can help you with? Getting
a student ID? Joining a school club?"

Joining a club? "No thank you. I'm
good for now," I said, patting her on the shoulder and heading for my next
class.

I sat with Roxy, Hunter, Paige, and
Ashley again, eating the same unhealthy lunch as the day before. I was happy
Hunter sat next to me. The light smell of his cologne tickled my nose. Once his
arm brushed against mine and I couldn't help but smile.

"What do you do after school?"
Paige asked.

"Go home."

"You should come watch our dance
team practice," Roxy offered.

I took a swig of Coke. "Dance team?
You're like, cheerleaders?"

Ashley shook her head. "No, no, no.
We're better than cheerleaders. We have an awesome team, number one in the
region. You should come watch, maybe you'll like it. They're holding tryouts
for next year's team next month."

That comment stabbed my heart. I looked
around the cafeteria. It was quite possible several of these kids wouldn't be
here next year, or next
week
, for that matter. Being a Grim, I shouldn't
care about that, but I did.

"Okay," I answered. If I was
only going to be at Kennedy High for a short time, I might as well take full
advantage of the experience.

"You'd make a cute Viking
girl," Hunter said.

Vikings were the school's mascot.
"Thanks," I replied, hoping my cheeks weren't turning red.

I met the girls in the gym after school
and they showed me where to sit to watch them from the bleachers. I looked
through the poetry section of my language arts book while the team changed.

Keira came through the gym's double
doors. "What are you doing in here? I sent Josh with Bram and Dorian so we
could go shop."

"Who's this?" asked Ashley,
who had emerged wearing tiny black shorts and a T-shirt with the school's logo
on it. Roxy and Paige stood behind her.

"Oh, this is my friend Keira."
I waited for Keira to greet the girls, but she didn't.

"Let's go," she ordered.

"Wow, bossy," Paige said.
"Are you her mom or something?"

Keira ignored her. "Naomi."

I sighed and grabbed my backpack.
"I'm sorry. I forgot we had plans. Maybe I can watch tomorrow."

The girls looked at me strangely, but
said nothing. Their coach blew the whistle for them to hit the floor.

Keira stormed ahead of me as if she was
upset. I was confused because I was the one who should have been angry with
her.

"You know you totally embarrassed
me back there," I said as I followed her through the hallway toward the
parking lot.

"Well, excuse me for trying to keep
you from messing up."

"What are you talking about?"

Keira stopped walking and looked at me.
"You're doing the same thing you always do. Getting involved. You're
becoming friends with those girls."

"I'm doing what Dunningham told us
to do."

"No, we're supposed to observe.
Talk to them. Get information. Keep it simple and basic. You haven't been with
anyone but those girls since we came here. You're going to get emotionally
attached and no good could come from that. Come on."

I followed her, but only because she was
my ride. I was getting pretty tired of my best friend telling me what to do.
"I really wish you'd stop treating me like a child. I'm not your kid
sister."

"Yeah? Well, don't act like a kid
and I won't treat you like one."

"Keira, you need to lighten up. We
can have some fun while we're here. That's not against the rules." I
wondered how someone who was only four months older than me managed to act like
my mother.

* * *

I had only been to a mall twice before.
We had places to shop in Nowhere, but they were mostly strips of stores and
boutiques—not gigantic, inside malls.

Keira hadn't talked to me the entire
drive and that was fine because I had nothing to say to her. At least she was a
better driver than Bram. She walked ahead of me. I looked for stores that
looked like they carried teenage fashions.

I spotted a store with fashionably
dressed mannequins in the window. They wore the kinds of clothes we needed. "What
about this store?" I asked, breaking the silence.

Keira nodded and we went inside.
Shopping and trying on clothes seemed to be what we needed to start talking
once again. When we were done, we'd each b
r
ought
several pairs of blue jeans and different colored tees and frilly tops to wear
with them.

At home, we found the boys staring at
the television, looking like zombies.

Bram had decided to cook that night,
although I wouldn't consider making cheese and cracker sandwiches cooking.

We had been having a nice dinner
conversation until Keira decided to spoil it. "Do you know that your
sister is making friends with some girls—like real friends?"

"It's only been two days. I'm not
friends with anyone
,
" I said defensively.

"But you want to be," Keira
said.

I did want to be their friend. I liked
the girls. I liked Hunter even more.

Bram narrowed his eyes at me. "What
did I tell you, Naomi? Keep your head in the game. Who is she hanging out
with?" he asked Keira as if I wasn't even there.

"Popular girls. Girls on the dance
team. The kind of kids Doyle told us to stay away from because observing them
would be a waste of time."

Bram looked at me. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"What do you have to say about
that?"

"I think the both of you should get
off my back! That's what I have to say about that!" I left my half-eaten
plate of crackers and cheese on the table and escaped to my bedroom.

Almost an hour later, I heard the
bedroom door open and close. I had buried myself under the lavender covers of
our bed. Feeling Keira's weight on the bed, I closed my eyes, sure she would
rip the covers off of me. I wanted to pretend I was sleeping. I had nothing to
say to her.

"Naomi, I know you're not
sleeping."

It wasn't Keira. It was Bram. I didn't
want to talk to him either, but I removed the comforter from my head anyway.
"What do you want?"

"I want to know what's wrong with
you. Why can't you just follow simple directions without getting emotionally
involved? It's not normal. Nobody else I know has that problem."

"What do you want me to do, Bram? I
am what I am. I can't help the way I feel."

Bram stared into my eyes, as if trying
to read my mind. "Maybe you shouldn't have come."

I sat up. "What?"

"Maybe you shouldn't have
come," he repeated. "Obviously you can't handle it."

"Get out!"

"Listen, Nay, I'm serious. Don't
get close to these kids. It's only going to make it harder for you when the
time comes. Why you would want to do that to yourself, I don’t understand.
Observe, have casual conversations, but don't interfere."

"You know, I'm really sick of you
and Keira telling me what to do. Go away."

Bram stood and ran his fingers through
his hair. "There's a lot riding on this; it's not just about you and what
you want. It's about our family. Keira and Josh. It's about Nowhere. Get your
head in the game."

The next morning, I was greeted by
Hunter leaning against my locker. I'd spent the entire morning ignoring Keira
and Bram, so I was already in a foul mood. Only three days in and we were
already tired of each other.

Hunter smiled and I tried not to focus
on his dimples. He held a small bag up to me. "Morning, Snowflake."

I took the bag from him. "What’s
this?"

"Breakfast. It's just a little
something. A bagel from Rudder's. They have the best bagels around."

I felt the bagel. It was still warm. I
didn't have the heart to tell him I'd had a bagel earlier. "Why did you
bring me this?"

He shrugged. "Just thought it was a
nice gesture."

"Oh. Thanks."

"What up, Hunter?" said a boy
with brown, spiked hair.

"Hey, Russ. Naomi, I'll see you
later, all right?"

I nodded. "Sure." Hunter left
with the boy.

I turned to open my locker just as Keira
slammed hers shut. She brushed past me, rolling her eyes.

Having to sit next to Keira made Mr.
Bertelli's class awkward. She did her absolute best not to even look in my
direction.

There was a knock on the door. The kid
closest to the door answered it. Another new student—a girl with dark hair that
came to her waist. She wore a long, dingy-looking floor-length skirt and a
sweater, even though it was April and warm out.

"Class, this is Amanda," Mr. Bertelli
announced. "Amanda, tell us a little about yourself."

Her face had a familiar quality. It was
ashen, almost dirty looking, as if a gray film had built up underneath her skin
and would never go away.

I looked at Keira, who glared at the
girl.

"My name is Amanda Thomas. I'm from
Wisconsin," the girl said shyly.

"Keira—" I began, but before I
could finish my sentence, Keira leaned over to me.

"Forager," she whispered.

Doyle had warned us about this. Now they
were here. If they collected the lives before we did, it would be a disaster
and a total embarrassment to our families.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"We have to tell Bram right away.
He'll know what to do," Keira answered.

Amanda took a seat next to the window as
kids snickered and whispered comments to each other. I knew why. Amanda looked
dirty, like a homeless person.

The bell rang. I had no idea what class
Bram had next, but I knew he had chosen a locker in the very last building.
Keira and I made a beeline for the building. We didn't care about being late to
class. This was far more important.

Thankfully, Bram was there, leaning
against his locker, looking like he owned the place. He stood head and
shoulders above most of the other students. Some blonde girl stood in front of
him, twirling her hair. Keira pushed her way through the crowd. I don't know if
she was eager to tell Bram about the Forager or upset about the girl talking to
him. I struggled to keep up with her.

"Excuse us," Keira said curtly
to the girl.

The girl rolled her eyes. "No,
excuse
us.
" Then she looked at Bram. "Who is this?"

"She's a friend. I'll catch up with
you later, Amber," Bram replied.

The girl flipped her hair over her
shoulder. "Whatever, douche."

Keira pushed Bram into his locker.
"What do you think you're doing?"

Bram laughed. "What? We were just
talking. What's a douche?"

I shook my head. "Something not
nice. Bram, we have a serious problem."

Still smirking at Keira's obvious
jealously, "Yeah? What's that?" he asked.

"Foragers," Keira answered.
"They're here. There was one in our math class, and I'm sure she's not
here alone."

That wiped the smile off my brother's
face. The hallways were almost empty since the bell was about to ring.
"Well, how the hell are we supposed to see them in all these kids?"

"I don't know, but we have to tell
Doyle," I replied.

Bram pulled out his phone as the bell
rang. "You guys get to class. I'll take care of it."

* * *

"We need to talk before
lunch," Roxy whispered in my ear as I changed for PE.

"Okay, about what?" I asked,
but Paige and Ashley entered the locker room, and Roxy shook her head.

I'd decided to change in front of the
other girls. I took my clothes off and put my PE uniform on quickly. No one
even paid me any attention, so I relaxed.

"Naomi and I are going to the
bathroom. We'll meet you at the table," Roxy told the girls after PE. But
we didn't go to the bathroom, instead she pushed me into the corner of a
deserted hallway.

I got a weird feeling in my stomach.
"What's wrong?"

"I have to warn you about
Hunter."

"What about him?" I asked.

"I think he likes you, but he's
Ashley's ex, so he's off limits."

 Why was she telling me this?

"Naomi, Ashley's a little—how can I
say it, crazy. She's mad possessive. If you're going to hang with us, you
cannot hook up with Hunter."

I shrugged. "That's fine. I don't
like Hunter anyway," I lied.

Roxy smiled. "Good." She
looped her arm in mine. "Let's go eat lunch."

I'd eaten Doritos, a brownie, and drank
a Coke two days in a row, so I thought I'd switch it up. Fritos, a chocolate
chip cookie, and a Sprite. Mother would flip if she could see the way I'd been
eating.

Roxy and I joined Paige and Ashley at
the table. They were engrossed in conversation about a girl named Kelsie who
was supposedly pregnant. I looked around the cafeteria for Hunter, but he was
nowhere in sight. I guessed that was a good thing.

Ashley nudged Paige with her elbow.
"Look."

I rolled my eyes, hoping they weren't
talking about Bram again. I turned around to see Keira enter the cafeteria with
a half-dozen other kids all dressed in black.

"Isn’t that your friend?"
Paige asked. "Why is she hanging out with the Goth freaks?"

I clenched my teeth. I kind of hated
when humans tried to imitate our lifestyle. To many of them, it was simply a
style of dress, a fashion statement; to us, it was a way of life, not to be
taken lightly.

I shrugged. "She can hang out with
who she wants."

"Why was she being so bossy
yesterday?" Ashley asked. "She was acting like she owned you. It was
a little weird."

"She was just having a bad day;
we're good now," I answered.

Hunter plopped down at the table with a
handful of junk food. "Did you enjoy the bagel?"

"What bagel?" Ashley asked.

"I gave her a bagel this
morning," Hunter said.

Ashley made a face at me like I was
rotten meat. "Why?"

"Why not?" Hunter said,
opening his bag of onion rings.

"Look," Roxy said, nudging
Paige, "There's that new girl in our math class." The conversation
shifted to Amanda and her awful attire.

Amanda took a seat at the table across
from us. She wasn't eating. She pulled a tattered paperback from her backpack
and began to read. I couldn't help but stare. Amanda looked up from her book
and made eye contact with me. I looked away.

The bell rang, telling us lunch period
was over. We began to gather our trash, except for Ashley, who sat resting her
chin on the palm of her hand. "Why do you think so many new kids are
showing up all of a sudden? There was a new kid in my French class and one in
Language Arts. That's kind of off, especially so late in the year." Her
eyes, looking like pools of water, bored into mine as if waiting for an answer.

       A nervous feeling filled my
stomach. "Who knows?" I asked. "I guess it's just one of those
things."