Sanctuary Bay (6 page)

“It can do that?” Sarah asked.

“The cells can do everything. I'm in that class too,” Taylor said, “but my notes suck. I should make Maya send me hers too. She copies down practically every word.”

“Ms. Coté pulls most of the exam questions out of her lectures,” Maya replied. “And not everything she talks about is in the textbook.” As she continued to explain the value of her detailed notes, Sarah noticed a guy—white, tall, lanky, dark hair, couldn't tell about the eyes yet—approaching them. He fisted his hand in Karina's long hair. She tilted her head back and had time for a pleased smile before he leaned over the side of the booth and kissed her. Not just a quick hello. A
kiss.
It went on so long a couple of guys at a nearby table started to hoot encouragement.

Finally, he pulled away, then circled around and sat down next to Karina. “This is girls' night,” Izzy told him.

“Oh, you finally made time for that castration appointment, Iz?” he shot back. Blue. His eyes were a vivid, icy blue. And his black lashes were crazy long. He had features Sarah had heard described as “fine”—sculpted lips, prominent cheekbones and chin, and a long, somewhat narrow nose. Unlike Nate's, that nose of his didn't look like it had ever been broken.

Karina gave him a playful shove. “Bad.”

Izzy smoothed one of her perfectly arched brows—with her middle finger. The guy—who had to be Ethan—grinned at her, then jerked his chin at Sarah. “That the new girl?”

Clearly not a first-and-last-name-with-a-handshake type. “Sarah,” she told him.

“Well, Sarah. Welcome to the Sanctuary Bay Academy,” he said sarcastically. “Prepare to embrace the suck.”

What was that supposed to mean?

“Nice,” Maya muttered. Taylor seemed too focused on getting her meatloaf into appropriately small bites to follow the conversation.

“I'm
always
nice,” Ethan agreed.

“Out of my seat,” a girl—white, skinny, brown hair—ordered Ethan. She looked like she shopped out of the Official Hipster Catalog in her thick-framed glasses, Strawberry Shortcake tee, skinny jeans with a few carefully placed patches, and clunky grandma beads. “Out of my seat,” she repeated when Ethan didn't move.

“Settle down, Specs, I'm going.” He kissed Karina again, then took his time sliding out of the booth.

“Your boyfriend's kind of an ass,” Taylor remarked. So she
had
been listening. She glanced over her shoulder, watching Ethan saunter away. “Nice butt though.”

“Don't listen to him about the school,” Maya told Sarah. She paused as they gave drink orders to one of the servers. Once he left, she continued. “Ethan's one of those people who thinks it's cool being a hater.”

“You don't even really know him,” Karina protested.

“Of course I know him,” Maya said.

“It's pretty much unavoidable,” Izzy agreed. “Living on an island and all.”

“I'm going to go wait for the caramel soup. I'll get you one, Sarah. They're better nice and warm.” Karina stood up, even though she hadn't gotten through a quarter of her dinner.

“Stand by your man,” the hipster girl crooned with a twang. “I'm Tif, by the way,” she said to Sarah, a little twang still in her voice.

“As in Tiffany. She's from Georgia,” Izzy added, as if that explained everything.

“Atlanta, okay. Not some pea farm.” Tif sounded annoyed. She must have forgotten hipster chicks didn't care about shit. “And people from all over the place are named Tiffany. It's a normal name.”

Maya took over the conversation, giving Sarah a rundown of the clubs she could join and the school activities coming up. As she was finally wrapping up the rah-rah, Karina returned with a tray holding four bowls of dessert. “I figured you didn't want one, since you can't eat it with chopsticks. But if you do, I'll go back,” she said to Taylor, seeming to have returned to her cheery self.

“I'm good,” Taylor answered.

The caramel soup was the most delicious thing Sarah had ever put in her mouth. Enough time at this place, and her brain would be stuffed with memories she'd be happy to replay forever.

“Back to our room for chick flicks and Barbacoas?” Karina asked when they'd all finished.

“Um … I sort of said I'd meet up with Nate,” Maya confessed.

“Girls' night is sacred,” Karina reminded her. “We agreed that it had to be, otherwise someone would always be in a relationship and we'd never be able to get all of us together at the same time.”

“What I meant was that I said I'd meet up with Nate because I have to study. Studying has to come before girls' night, and I didn't get my calc homework done,” Maya said.

“That's what the young people are calling it these days?” Izzy teased. “Let her go, Kar. Getting done … with homework is important.”

“Oh, fine,” Karina said. “But next week—”

“Next week I promise. Just not on Saturday night again.” Sarah stood up so Maya could get out of the booth.

“I actually have to go too.” Tif got to her feet and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Don't complain,” she said before Karina could get a word out. “Big delivery of lawn fertilizer came in this afternoon.”

“I kind of want to hit the gym,” Taylor said, with an apologetic smile. “I skipped this morning, but I promised myself I'd go sometime before the end of the day.”

“Oh, go. The three of us are plenty for girls' night,” Karina decreed. “Sarah, you get to pick the movie.”

“Please not
Safe Haven
,” Izzy begged as they started for the door. “We've seen it a million times, and it's never gotten any better.”

“You don't have a romantic bone in your body,” Karina said. “Not even one of the little pinky bones. I mean that dance at the diner? Swoon!”

“Never seen it,” Sarah admitted.

“Then we have to watch it! You'll love it. Everyone does, except Izzy. Oh, let's take Sarah the long way back. I want her to see Suicide Cliff,” Karina said.

“Suicide Cliff?”

“It has an amazing view,” Karina explained. “I caught Tif humming ‘Heart's Content' one day with this dreamy smile on her face,” she continued, hopping back to talking about the movie.

“Does Tif work on the grounds or something?” Sarah asked. “Why does she care about a fertilizer delivery?”

“Remember before when I said school was sort of like prison?” Izzy asked with a sly smile.

“Well, Tif is like our Red on
Orange
,” Karina jumped in. “She's the one that can get you stuff from the outside.”

Karina had started talking in L.A.-speak again, but Sarah figured she understood the important part. “So the weed and the booze come in with legitimate shipments from outside, like lawn fertilizer.”

“Our girl's quick,” Izzy said as they walked. “The gardener has someone on the mainland who'll add things to the regular order. A few other employees at school do too. It's not just drugs and alcohol. On the island, people want everything from the real world. Movies and music, we can stream from the school database. But that leaves a lot. Nail polish. Clothes. Favorite food is a big one. There's a guy here who would die without his Chile Limón Doritos. They have chips and stuff at the coffee place, but not his precious Doritos.”

They had a coffee place on campus too?

“How do you pay, though? It's not like you show up here with wads of cash that will last until graduation.” Or did they? “And I doubt the gardener takes AmEx.”

“You know how we get packages from our parents?” Izzy said. “There's always stuff we don't want. Some of it's stuff the various sources do. Or if not, it's stuff they can sell.”

Jesus, what exactly were parents sending?

“My mom sent a Coach bag I wouldn't be caught dead carrying. She thinks we like exactly the same things,” Karina told her, as if she'd heard Sarah's silent question. “That's kept me in treats for months.”

“Tif takes a little cut for delivering everything and collecting payment. It's not like everyone at school can keep showing up at the gardener's shed. It's a nice deal for her. Her care packages wouldn't get her far. But hey, there's still barter for people without sufficient funds. Writing essays works. People here are smart, but that doesn't mean they aren't lazy. And BJs work for everything.”

Sarah caught Karina shooting Izzy a sharp look, as if trying to remind her that their new roommate was someone who'd have to pay with her mouth if she wanted anything from the outside. “Here's the overlook I wanted to show you,” she said to Sarah, veering off the path. “Watch the edge. No lights out here.”

Sarah and Izzy followed Karina out near the edge of a cliff. The moonlight shone down on the water, creating a streak of silver, and across the jagged rocks where the waves broke into explosions of white spray.

“It's so beautiful, but sometimes I can't look at it for long,” Karina said, her voice low and serious. “Sometimes when I stand here I get this crazy impulse to jump.” Izzy instantly placed her hand on Karina's arm. Karina laughed. “Don't worry. It's not like I'm going to. But you know how sometimes you get a crazy thought, like what would happen if you put your hand in the garbage disposal? And then you can't stop thinking about it. And it's like a part of you is attracted to the idea.”

Sarah backed up a step, her gaze now drawn more to the sharp, deadly rocks. A low moan filled the air, and she jerked her head toward Izzy, sure she was messing with them. But then she heard the sound again, and it definitely didn't come from Izzy.

“Did you hear that?” Sarah whispered, trying not to sound terrified.

“It's the ghost,” Karina said, still staring down. “One of the POW prisoners escaped from his cell. He managed to get topside. When the guards came after him, he kept running. He had to know he was going to die, but he just kept running. He landed right down there. It's his spirit you hear. That's why it's called Suicide Cliff, because of him. I hear his ghost all the time.”

“Well, that's what some people think the sound is anyway,” Izzy said, rolling her eyes, and Sarah let out a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. Izzy didn't believe in the ghost story, and that made Sarah feel better, even though she didn't believe in ghosts, period. She used to when she was little, because she wanted her ghost parents to come visit her. But they never did.

They stared down at the rocks for another moment, then Izzy added, “Some people say it was one of the patients from the insane asylum on the other side of the island who escaped and killed herself here.” Sarah's breath caught in her chest again.

“There's an insane asylum on the other side of the island?” Sarah's voice came out in a squeak.

“Oh, not anymore,” Izzy replied. “It was built back in the 1910s, for the mentally disturbed rich. Or just annoying family members the robber barons didn't want to deal with. The buildings are still over there, but they're falling down.” So that's what Sarah had seen from the boat. The welcoming committee clearly hadn't wanted to tell her anything that would make the school sound less than perfect. “It was closed up back in the early thirties,” Izzy continued. “They did horrible things to the patients. Starvation treatments. Days in tubs full of ice. Months strapped to beds. Forced sterilization. I know I'd rather take the dive onto the rocks than live through that.”

The moan came again, low and plaintive. The back of Sarah's neck prickled as the small hairs there rose in response.

“It sounds like a woman to me,” Izzy said. “Her spirit may have been trapped here for all these years.”

“Or the sound could be made by the wind blowing through the caves.” The voice came from right behind Sarah and she jumped. She looked back and saw Ethan. He put his hand on her shoulder. His thumb brushed against the side of her neck, and a jolt of hot electricity shot from her heart to low in her belly. “Easy, new girl. This place is so boring people have to make up stories to keep themselves entertained.”

He pulled his hand away, and Sarah involuntarily moved her own hand over the warm spot it had left.

“But I can think of better ways to amuse myself, can't you, Karina?” He grabbed her by the hand and jerked her tight up against him. She giggled.

Izzy gave an exaggerated sigh. “So much for girls' night.”

“Do you mind?” Karina asked Sarah.

“Go,” Sarah told her. “You've spent half the day babysitting me.”

“It's not like that,” Karina protested.

“Go,” Izzy said. “It'll save me from
Safe Haven
. And you'll only sit around the room texting him all night if you don't.”

Ethan backed toward the path, without releasing Karina.

“No worries,” Izzy told Sarah. “I'm between boys at the moment, and there are a variety I haven't tried yet. When you're in the mood, we can go shopping together.”

 

3

Sarah stared up at the bedroom ceiling, the only sounds Izzy's steady breathing and the soft hum of the ocean. She lightly smoothed one finger over the inside of her right elbow. Ages ago, she'd trained herself not to fall asleep in a new place. When she was little and she started to doze off, she'd pinch her arm, right on the tenderest stretch of skin.

It wasn't like being awake protected her from anything. But somehow it was worse waking up to beer breath in her face, a hand sliding under the covers. When she knew it was coming, she could pull herself far away, deep inside herself. And when she was older, bigger, when she knew it was coming, she could grab whatever weapon she'd managed to find—kitchen knife, rock, anything.

Most places her vigilance turned out to be unnecessary. A foster dad came after her a couple of times when she was seven, and another place a foster kid had tried some stuff when she was eleven. But her perfect memory could replay each episode so well that it was hard to shake the fear. And after what had happened to her parents, it wasn't as if she had started out fear-free.