The Prophecy (14 page)

Priscilla
snorted. “No comment.”

I laughed.
“I don’t think she likes me.”

She
gave me a
duh
look. “You’re the one who stole her man. And what’s the
big deal? You don’t like her either.”

“Adrian
was never
her
man,” I said a little more angrily than I’d intended.

“She
seems to think he was.”

“That’s
because she’s delusional. Adrian says I have nothing to worry about.

“In
case you didn’t miss it, she’s insanely gorgeous. Of course you have something
to worry about.”

I
stared at her, the French fries in my stomach feeling suddenly very solid and
indigestible. “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.”

I
hadn’t missed the fact that Jasmine was a lot prettier than any
fifteen-year-old had the right to be, but I wasn’t about to publicly acknowledge
it either. What if Adrian
was
lying to me? What if he and Jasmine used
to have a thing for each other? If he had a girlfriend, any girlfriend, before
we met, I couldn’t hold that against him. But did it have to be Jasmine? The
thought of the two of them kissing made my blood boil.

“Looks
aren’t everything,” Priscilla said. “You win based on personality alone.”

I gave
her a look. “Thanks,” I said. “I think.”

THIRTEEN

Sliding
into the seat next to Adrian’s during third period the next day, I leaned over
to kiss his cheek, but he barely responded. I squeezed his arm, and still he
just sat there. What had I done this time? His mood swings were starting to
make me crazy.

“So
you’re not talking to me today?”

He seemed
to finally notice that I was there. “Do you think I’m mad at you?”

“Aren’t
you? We haven’t exactly been on the same page lately.”  

Adrian shook
his head. “I’m not mad at you.”

Something
was up, though. By the way he’d started digging at a gouge in his desktop, I
knew he was definitely keeping something from me.  

“Are
you sure you’re not mad?” I asked when he didn’t elaborate.

“Positive.”
He looked at me then and took a deep breath. “It’s not you at all. My dad
called last night.”

I
wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly, and at first I did nothing more than
stare. I leaned in and whispered, my voice shaking. “Your dad? What did he want?”

“To talk.”

“Talk?”
I certainly hadn’t expected him to say that. “Does Victor seriously think he
can just waltz back into your life and expect you to give him the time of day?
He almost
killed
you, Adrian.”

“Keep
your voice down,” he said as he looked around the room. But nobody had heard.
They were too absorbed in their own little worlds to notice.

Adrian resumed
picking at the desk, and I reached over and laid my hand on top of his to make
him stop. His breath came out in a heavy rush, but he finally turned to look at
me.

“He said
. . . he said he wants to see me.”

I
blinked. “Well, did you tell him that whatever he has to say, he can say over
the phone?”

Adrian
nodded. “Yeah, but he said it was something he needed to say face to face.”

“What
did you say to that?”

Adrian
shrugged in a gesture of complete helplessness. “I told him I had to think
about it, and then I hung up before he could say anything else. He’s called
five times since then. I just let it go to voicemail.”

“Did
you tell anyone?”

“No. I
don’t want Gran to worry, and Shyla won’t understand.”

I’m not
sure I understood. I sat back in my chair, catching my bottom lip in my teeth. “You
know I don’t trust him.”

The
muscles of Adrian’s forearm tightened in reflex, and his voice came out in a
furious hiss. “You think I do?”

His anger
took me by surprise. “No, but I think you want to. I think—”

“You
think that just because he calls I’m gonna go running back—”

I put my
hand on his arm to stop him. “Adrian. I don’t think that at all.”

 His shoulders
slumped suddenly and he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Sarah. You know I will
never let him hurt you.”

“I know
you won’t,” I said, offering him a small smile.

“And if
that means I have to ignore him, that’s what I’ll do.”

The
bell rang as Caleb slumped into the seat next to mine. He nodded to us as he
dropped his bag on the floor with a noisy thump. “Yo,” he said.

I turned
back to Adrian and squeezed his hand. “I know you won’t let Victor, or anyone
else, hurt me,” I said in a low voice. “But it’s not your job to protect me. I
have to fight my own battles.”

“What’s
going on?” whispered Caleb as he leaned toward us.

“It’s
not just
your
battle,” Adrian whispered back. “It’s mine and Shyla’s, too.
It’s the entire tribe’s.”

“Yo.
What’s up?” came an impatient hiss from my right.

I
closed my eyes and breathed out. “Victor didn’t say
why
he wants to talk
to you?”

Adrian
shook his head. “No. I purposely kept the conversation brief.”  

Caleb
waved his hands at us. “Hello. Am I invisible here?”

Mr.
Wigley appeared suddenly in front of us. “Class has started. Am I going to have
to separate you three?”

“No,”
Adrian and I said at the same time, turning in our desks to face the front.

Caleb raised
his hands in a shrug. “Apparently I’m not a part of this, so don’t look at me.”

Mr.
Wigley eyed us severely. “You do understand this is AP History?”

“Yes,” Adrian
and I answered together.

“And
that means you’re expected to show up and be prepared to listen and work, not
conduct your own private affairs. Take care of that on your own time. Not
mine.”

Mr.
Wigley clamped his lips together and gave each of us a final hard look before
turning toward the front of the room.

I
fingered the pendant around my neck as I bided my time. When Mr. Wigley was
occupied writing columns of dates and names on the whiteboard, I leaned across
the aisle toward Adrian and whispered, “Is your dad here? In town, I mean?”

“I don’t
know,” he answered. “Caller ID said only ‘cell phone.’ There was no number, so
I don’t know where the call originated from. Knowing him, he could be anywhere.”

I
chewed my bottom lip and thought for a moment. “Do you think he’s gone back to
the reservation? Without Charley there, maybe he feels free to go back instead
of wandering around—” I flapped my hand, “wherever he’s been wandering around
for the past few months.”

Mr.
Wigley slapped his notebook on his desk and stormed over to us. He pointed at
Adrian. “Take your things to the back of the room. And from now on, you and
Miss Redbird may not sit together in my class.”

The
entire classroom erupted with
ooohs
and stifled giggles. My face flamed
as though a match had been lit underneath my skin. I met Adrian’s eyes and
mouthed
sorry
.

Mr. Wigley
slapped his palm flat on my desktop, making me jump in my seat, and yelled for
everyone to be quiet, that this was a serious class and he expected us to
behave accordingly or get out. I held my breath, not even daring to blink or
breathe. This was going to be a very long year.

When Mr.
Wigley finally turned toward the whiteboard once more, Caleb leaned over. “I
doubt Victor would go back to the reservation,” he whispered.

I glanced
at Mr. Wigley to make sure he wasn’t watching us and then met Caleb’s gaze. “Why
not?” I whispered from the corner of my mouth, as quietly as possible. I did
not
want to start the year off with a detention.

“He’s
not dumb. The Council knows what he’s done. There’s no way they’d just let him come
back, as though nothing had ever happened. And if someone saw him, they would
have told my mom about it. She hasn’t said anything to me.”

“Maybe
she doesn’t want you to know.”

Caleb
cupped his hand around his ear and shrugged. I sighed and glanced at Mr. Wigley
to make sure he was still busy at the board, and then ventured a little more loudly,
“Maybe she didn’t tell you that he returned because she doesn’t want you to
know.”

“Why
wouldn’t she want me to know?”

“Because
she knows you’d tell me.”

His
forehead smoothed. “And that you’d freak out,” he said.

I
shrugged noncommittally, not really knowing myself what I was getting at, but
knowing for sure Charley Moon wasn’t the least bit concerned whether or not I
might freak out.

I
opened my mouth to say something more when Mr. Wigley said, his back still
turned to us, “I hear voices. The talking will cease now or I’m going to start
handing out detentions.”

I
zipped it pretty quickly after that and didn’t look at Caleb for the rest of
the period.

After
class, I waited for Adrian in the hallway. “What were you and Caleb talking
about?” he said as we began walking.

I
clutched my books to my chest. “Nothing.” I didn’t want to talk about Victor,
and I didn’t want Adrian to even think about him.

“It
sure didn’t look like nothing much from where I was sitting.”

I
linked my arm through his and smiled up at him. “You’re not jealous are you?” I
said, picking up at once on his.

He looked
down at me. “Jealous of Caleb? Hardly.”

I laughed.
“Is that any way to talk about your best friend? Maybe you
should
be
jealous of him.”

The
crease between his brows deepened, and the arm around my waist tightened. “I
should?”

I
laughed again and shook my head. “Why are we even talking about this?”

“Then tell
me what we
should
be talking about.”

We had reached
the end of the hallway and veered off to the side to finish our conversation.
We had approximately two minutes before the bell rang.  I sighed in resignation.
When would we get back to being a normal couple without all this extra stuff coming
between us?

“Fine. If
you must know, Caleb said he doubts your dad would return to the reservation.
He thinks the Council, knowing what he’s done, would never welcome him back.”

Adrian
leaned a shoulder against the wall and pulled me toward him so that we were
standing only a few inches apart. The heat coming off his body was intense. I
wanted to stay in that one spot, forever.

“Caleb’s
right. They wouldn’t.”

“Are
you sure about that?”

He tucked
a stray strand of hair behind my ear, and his hand lingered at the base of my
neck. “How many times do I have to tell you that you’re one of us? Don’t forget
that. You are the tribe’s Spirit Keeper. Who do you think they would choose to
protect?”

The bell
rang and Adrian kissed the top of my head. “I’ve got to go.”

I
pulled away from him with a groan of frustration, not for the first time
wishing we had more than just one class together. School was putting a serious
crimp in my boyfriend time.

At
lunch Priscilla and I took our trays outside, where I quickly recounted what
Adrian had said to me, about his dad calling and wanting to see him.

“Sounds
fishy to me,” she said.

“I
know.”

I
pushed my tray to the side and leaned back on my elbows, raising my face to the
crystalline sky. The weatherman had said a cold front would be blowing in soon.
I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the sun and hello to the cold, dreary weather,
even if it was just temporary.

“Remember
when things used to be easy?”

Priscilla
laughed. “In what lifetime was that?”

I laughed,
too. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

If having
Victor back in the picture again wasn’t enough to give me an ulcer, I now had
Katie and Jasmine to blame for my persistent stomach aches.

“They
were chumming it up again today.”

“Katie
and Jasmine?”

I
squinted through the sun at Priscilla and smiled. Only a true best friend could
read your mind. “Yeah. Someone’s really got to put a stop to them.”

“I
don’t know. Katie’s actually not so bad this year.”

“Ha! That’s
so not true. It’s only the second day of school and already they’re up to no
good. Jasmine purposely tripped Shyla in the locker room this morning, and
Katie just stood by and laughed. Then they high-fived each other. Talk about
immature.”

Priscilla
made a gagging sound in the back of her throat. “God, that’s so immature. What
did Shyla do?”

“She pretended
like it was an accident and walked away. She doesn’t want to start anything. All
I know is that if they don’t stop it, I’ll make them.”