The Spirit Keeper (13 page)

“Why aren’t you walking?” I said. “We live, like, three blocks from school.”

“Exactly. Three whole blocks.” Adrian gave me a lop-sided grin. “I’m only kidding. Driving is one of the perks of being an upperclassman. Don’t you know that?”

“Of course I do, but . . .”

“But what? Get in. I’ll give you a lift.”

I wanted to say yes so, so badly. How could someone like Adrian, someone who made me feel this good and tingly inside, be bad? However, I was already on the outs with David and Meg, and I didn’t relish the idea of being grounded for the rest of my life if I got caught.

“It’s a nice day,” I said. “I think I’ll walk. But thanks for the offer.” I readjusted my bag on my shoulder and started off down the sidewalk again, watching the ground so I wouldn’t trip on the uneven pavement. No sense in making a fool out of myself by falling flat on my face.

“Wait a minute,” Adrian said. He pulled up alongside me again and let the Bug coast at a lazy pace as I kept on walking.

“You know you’re going to get in trouble for driving on the wrong side of the road.”

“It’s not exactly a busy street,” he said. “Stop messing around and get in.” I didn’t have to look at his face to know that he was smiling.

“I told you I prefer to walk this morning.”

Adrian laughed. “All right. I see how it is. I actually like a girl who plays hard to get.”

I stopped in my tracks and turned to face him, my mouth hanging open. “You think I’m playing hard to get?”

His grin widened. “Aren’t you?”

No one had ever accused me of playing hard to get, and I laughed at the ridiculousness of such an insane accusation. I rolled my eyes and began walking again, calling over my shoulder, “I don’t play games, Adrian. What you see is exactly what you get.”

But even as the words came out of my mouth, I knew that wasn’t entirely true. What was I doing now if not flirting? It’s just that he made it so darn easy.

“I’m glad to know that,” he said. “I’ll file it away for future reference.”

I gave him a sidelong glance as he let the car roll steadily beside me. He was still grinning. I kept walking, afraid I’d lose my resolve at any moment and agree to let him drive me.

“I’ll tell you what,” he said at last. “It’s a standing offer. Whenever you want a ride, you’ve got one.”

I put my finger to my lips and made a show of considering the proposition. “Okay,” I said. I figured it was safe enough to agree to a ride I had no intention of ever taking. But not because I didn’t
want
to.

Adrian shot me a smile. “Great! Then I’ll see you at school.”

Before I had a chance to respond, he sped away. I watched as his car paused at the stop sign at the end of the road before it bumped and chugged around the corner and disappeared altogether.

I walked the rest of the way to school in a daze, trying to make heads or tails of Adrian’s intentions. If he wasn’t involved in some diabolical plan motivated by revenge,
if he was genuinely interested in me
. . .

I shook my head. No matter how cute or nice he was, was it worth risking my personal safety? The sad thing was it should have been an easy answer, and yet it wasn’t.

There was the usual congestion of cars and buses and kids swarming in front of the school when I walked up. The student parking lot was filling up quickly, but I immediately spotted Adrian’s car. He was already long gone, however, and there was a part of me that regretted not accepting the ride. I really hoped I’d see him at lunch later that day.

“Sarah!”

I turned in the direction of my name being called and saw Priscilla waving her arm in the air.

“So how’d it go yesterday with your dad?” I asked, once we’d met up. At least for me, Sunday had seemed like an unbearably long day.

Priscilla snorted. “Fine, I guess. He took me out to lunch where he promptly informed me over tobi-tama that he was leaving again to spend a week in Seattle.” She looked at her watch. “His plane should have taken off about twenty minutes ago.”

I held up my hand. “First of all, I have no idea what tobi-tama is. But knowing you, it’s something totally gross. Secondly, I’m really sorry.”

“It’s a type of sushi,” she said in a tone of voice that implied I should have known. “And whatever. The only reason he came home at all was because his last trip got cut short by a day and he had a suitcase full of dirty clothes he needed Laura Beth to wash. Otherwise, he would have gone straight to Seattle and not even bothered to make an appearance. I suppose I should be grateful for the few hours I got. He
did
buy me a new summer wardrobe, so it wasn’t a total waste.”

“He misses you,” I said, not completely shocked by Priscilla’s less-than-loving regard for her mostly absent father. I squeezed her arm. “That’s why he wanted to see you. I know it sucks, but he’s doing the best he can. He’s got to work, you know.”

Priscilla didn’t respond, which I knew from experience was her way of pretending not to care. But she had been my best friend since forever. I knew the truth, even if she didn’t say it out loud.

“So you’ll never believe what happened this morning,” I said to rouse her out of her funk. Given the way she was looking at me from the corner of her eye, I could see she was already hooked.

“What?”

“Adrian offered me a ride,” I said, unable to keep my voice from pitching up with barely contained excitement.

Priscilla gave me a playful shove. “And you didn’t accept? What’s wrong with you?”

I shoved back, trying to come up with a good excuse off the top of my head. “Well, I don’t really know him.”

She scoffed. “What, do you think he’s some ax-murderer?”

“No,” I said. At least I didn’t think so. “Besides, Meg and David said I wasn’t old enough to date. Remember?”

Priscilla burst out laughing. “It’s just a ride to school, Sarah. I can’t speak from personal experience, but I highly doubt the backseat of his car is comfortable enough to—”

The warning bell for homeroom interrupted Priscilla’s train of thought, and I immediately picked up the pace. I didn’t want to start the week off on the wrong foot with yet another detention, and I still had to stop at my locker.

“Later!” Priscilla called, already heading off in the opposite direction.

First and second periods were a bore, and Mrs. Raines’s class was just as stimulating as ever, which wasn’t saying much. Katie was especially generous with the evil eye and catty remarks, though today they were more or less directed at Priscilla. As I suspected might happen, Katie was still holding a grudge for what had gone down at lunch this past Friday. I wasn’t worried for Priscilla, though. She could take care of herself.

I spent most of English doodling little hearts and squiggle lines and smiley faces around the edges of my composition book. I should have been working on the outline for my final paper of the year, but I just didn’t have the mental stamina for it. Now I’d be stuck doing it for homework, which was a total bummer, but I didn’t care. Lunch couldn’t come fast enough, as far as I was concerned, and I had little patience for anything else.

As Priscilla and I schlepped through the cafeteria doors fifty minutes later, I instantly spotted Adrian from my vantage point on the stairs. But my hopes of sitting with him vanished when I realized he was surrounded by a group of girls, all of them the school’s most elite brats.

“I hate to say it,” Priscilla said, “but you don’t stand a chance if
bitchy
is what he’s attracted to.”

“Come on,” I said, tugging Priscilla’s arm to get her to follow.

Yet as we started to pass Adrian’s table, he called out to us. I considered pretending like I hadn’t heard, but Priscilla was right; acting like a snob wasn’t exactly in my DNA. I was usually much too nice, even when I didn’t want to be.

I made sure I had the most charming smile plastered on my face, and then I turned around to face him. “I’m glad to see you’ve made some friends,” I said.

A look of guilt erased his smile. He knew how I felt about Katie, but apparently he didn’t care. “Uh, I guess,” he said.

I caught Katie eyeing me with the same expression one makes when she steps in a steaming pile of dog crap. “So I see you’ve met the class know-it-all,” she said to Adrian. “Sarah thinks she’s so smart, using all those big words all the time. She’ll probably be valedictorian next year.
Lame-o
.” 

“Actually, Sarah and I are neighbors. And I happen to like smart girls,” he said, turning his back on Katie. He gave Priscilla a small wave. “What’s up?”

“Same old, same old,” she said. When Adrian looked down to fish a dollar from his bag, she made a face at Katie.

Katie crossed her arms over her chest and snorted. “I suppose it’s nice to see
someone
take pity on Sarah, considering she doesn’t have many friends around here.” She nudged Adrian to get his attention. “Sarah had problems fitting in from the very beginning . . . for
obvious
reasons.”

“Geez, Katie. Way to be subtle,” Priscilla said, her eyes darting to Adrian to see his reaction. “Are you too blind to notice he’s got the same color skin as Sarah?”

“Adrian’s different,” she said with an unapologetic shrug. “He’s hot. She’s not. And I wasn’t talking about
that
, so who’s the subtle one now? I was talking about the fact she’s a loser.”

I rolled my eyes. I’d heard more than enough. “Let’s go,” I said to Priscilla.

“Yes, please go,” said Katie. “This is a nerd-free zone over here.”

“See you later,” Adrian mouthed to me, a frown on his face.

As I turned my back on them I overheard Katie say, “You obviously have a lot to learn about who
not
to hang out with around here.”

It took every ounce of self-control I had not to go up to her and tell her just how right she was. He
did
have a lot to learn about who he should and shouldn’t hang out with. But, of course, I didn’t say anything at all. I just kept my mouth shut. Like always.

We got our lunches and headed outside to our regular spot. I sat in silence, poking at the chicken casserole on my plate like it was a biology specimen, not sure I was brave enough to risk an actual bite.

“Spill it,” Priscilla said. “I know it’s bothering you.”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to talk about it, not when we’d talked about it a hundred times already. But when Pricilla nudged my foot with hers in a silent plea, I couldn’t keep it in any longer.

“I hate her so freaking much!”

Priscilla took a long pull on the straw poking out of her milk carton and exhaled slowly. Then she clasped her hands on her lap. “Let me guess. You’re talking about Mrs. Raines.”

I gave Priscilla a don’t-mess-with-me look and sighed. “She just makes me so . . .” Failing to find a strong enough word to express the anger and frustration Katie could make me feel on any given day, I pantomimed wringing a person’s neck.

Priscilla laughed. “I know what you mean. She makes everyone with an average IQ feel that way. Take solace in the fact that you are not alone.”

“I don’t understand how you can be so relaxed about it.”

Priscilla shrugged and took a large bite of apple. Juice ran down her chin, and she wiped it away with the back of her hand. “I told you: mind over matter. It takes an incredible amount of self-restraint not to drop-kick her whenever our paths cross. Trust me. She has a knack for awakening the violent side in me, but I do my best to ignore her.”

We’d exhausted the finer points of this same argument many times over, always coming to the same conclusion. According to Priscilla, either I should just accept the fact that Katie was a grade-A witch and get on with my life, or give in to temptation and finally beat her up.