by Holly Hook
And Joey and Nort...I didn't want to think about what they were going through, even if we had stopped word from spreading about their humiliation.
But Eric. We had to make sure he stayed quiet.
He'd been interested in the lettuce even if he had blamed the beer bread.
We rushed back to the Foods classroom, but someone was leaning into the doorway when we approached. I stopped and held up my arm to keep Sara back. I wasn't sure why I did that, but it felt like the right thing to do.
Someone in a flowing black robe was leaning into the classroom with his backside poking out. Red trim decorated the bottom of his robe and the color brought back whatever nightmare I had woken from yesterday in class. The air grew cold and sharp, the same way it had felt when Mr. Rain's tie had tightened around him.
This was the guy I'd dreamed about. The one who charged me.
Something was wrong here.
And the class was too silent.
The figure said something else, keeping his words low. His voice sounded like it had emerged from a void. He backed out of the classroom door a little and Mrs. Landry said something. She sounded calm. The atmosphere prickled and a wave of major déjà vu swept over me. I'd felt this before.
I nodded at Sara and the two of us ducked behind the vending machine just as the person—the man—backed out of Mrs. Landry's classroom.
I pressed against the wall as heavy footsteps headed away. Sara had her hand over her mouth like she was about to be sick. I didn't get it. Did she know something I didn't?
The footsteps got quiet and distant. Gulping, I looked around the machine.
A tall figure in a black robe and hood walked away, robe sweeping behind him. He reminded me of the evil Emperor from Star Wars. I had seen that movie, right?
And I'd seen this black robe with the red trim before. I knew it as much as I knew my name was Mara.
The hooded man walked farther away and stopped when he passed the gym and reached the exit doors. He held up one hand, and the doors swung open for him. The guy stepped out, and the doors shut with a loud bang that made me jump.
"What was that?" Sara asked. "Please say I didn't see that."
"Okay," I said. "You didn't see that. We have to go check on the class. I don't know what that was." I faced Sara. "Did you feel the air a minute ago?"
She let out a breath. "It was cold. Sharp." She rubbed her arms. "I think it's still there a little."
"I felt the same thing," I said. "What did he do to the class? They're all quiet now."
I shuddered and imagined the scene inside. Maybe this robed guy had messed up the lettuce and come here to kill the witnesses. He could have hired Mr. Rain to track us. Or Sara could be in on this. My head felt ready to explode.
It was just then that Eric turned the corner to the hallway and blinked. "You're back," he said. "Where did the two of you go off to? Mrs. Landry was wondering where you went. I sure haven't seen Joey and Nort anywhere." He grimaced. "Not that I want to."
"Where were you?" I asked.
"Bathroom," Eric said. He checked his phone. "Class ends in five minutes. I bet we're in trouble after what happened. I'm not sure what Mrs. Landry will put on our detention slips." Eric rubbed his arms. "Is it me, or did it get a little cold in here? I mean, is that even possible?"
"Are people turning into donkeys possible?" I asked. A part of me wanted to believe it wasn't true and that I'd been seeing things. I wished something would make sense.
Eric laughed. "I guess not," he said. "I was just trying to make a joke. Let's get back into class. Or not."
The classroom was still quiet. Mrs. Landry spoke.
"Okay. Since that swarm of ants got to our food, I will give everyone a passing grade if they brought in a dish," she explained in a loud voice. "I didn't realize there would be an ants' nest right under the picnic tables. I think I have bites swelling on my arms."
The three of us all faced each other.
Ants' nest?
That made even less sense.
I stepped closer to the door and peeked in. Everyone was sitting at desks and some people looked bored. Moanna put her chin in her hand. Phones had vanished and more people from Eric's class leaned against the cabinets. Nobody was fanning themselves anymore. The air stayed cool since the man in black visited.
And no one looked panicked.
Mrs. Landry looked right at us. She waved us into the classroom and gave me a hard look. "I see no ant bites on the three of you," she said. "What were you doing taking bathroom breaks? You sure weren't nursing any wounds."
"I--" I managed.
Mrs. Landry glared and shook her head.
Say nothing, she meant.
I eyed the class. Nobody even looked nervous anymore. It was like Mr. Rain had taken Mrs. Landry's place and put everyone to sleep. It was almost as if someone had walked in and sucked the real memory of the disaster out of everyone's heads. Even Nort and Joey sat there with crappy pants from the lost and found and even crappier school mascot T-shirts.
Mrs. Landry made a face at us and motioned to three empty chairs. She let out a nervous breath and eyed me again.
She still remembered, and she wanted me to stay quiet.
Me, Sara and Eric were the only three students who knew the truth.
"I had to go to the bathroom," I managed.
"I don't blame you," Moanna said. "Those ants—some of them crawled up my pants."
It was true, then.
Everyone in here thought ants had crashed the party. That man in black had erased everyone's memories. Mrs. Landry might have even called him.
I wanted to shout at the class that Mrs. Landry was lying and something stupid had happened, but they'd never believe me. I'd just end up making everyone think we Haven House kids were crazies, too.
"You were checking for ants?" Mrs. Landry asked us. She gave us a little nod. "Correct?"
I struggled to come up with something sarcastic to say but there was nothing. The air grew thick with tension and Sara gave in. "Right," she said. "I think class is about to end. Can we go a little early and check again?"
"Sit down," Mrs. Landry demanded.
"You know," I said. "We weren't checking for ants in our pants. Isn't that a game or something? We were just off checking out some naked guys."
The look of horror on Mrs. Landry's face gave it away. She coughed and turned away from us and wrote something on the board, erased it, and then wrote again.
"We were not!" Sara said, holding her hand to her mouth.
"I wasn't," Eric added.
And then the bell rang.
Everyone got up from their seats and headed for the door, putting a small crowd between us and Mrs. Landry. Sara and I backed out of the way and let everyone pass.
"We'd better go," I said to her and Eric. "I don't like this."
Sara and I walked away from the classroom about as fast as we could. Eric pushed through everyone. "Are we the only three people who aren't ignoring that every law of physics just got broken out there? We were the only three people not in class during the last twenty minutes."
"You're right," Sara said. "We weren't in there. Mara and I saw a guy in a black robe leaving the room right before you got back from the bathroom. The air turned all cold and now it's like nothing even happened. The class remembers nothing. I mean, that's great for Nort and Joey but it's bad for the rest of us. What if our teachers are running experiments on us all and screwing with our memories? What if there are things we don't remember, too?"
I shook my head.
Yesterday.
I'd been just like the groggy Foods class.
Something weird might have happened yesterday and my memories of it got wiped by Mr. Rain and the man in black. Maybe I had a whole day's worth of false memories.
Or more.
Terror filled the space under my stomach. My life could be a lie.
I opened my mouth to tell Sara about it, but she'd walked ahead of me a little and joined
the river of students. Fear propelled her forward. Maybe I'd doomed the three of us by mouthing off to Mrs. Landry, but she deserved it. I would not stay silent about it.
The crowd grew thicker around us. I struggled to keep up with Eric as people poured out of the band room. I had to go to Mr. Rain’s class next right along with him and Sara. That would be an adventure. I wondered if he had got back to the school early enough to get our assignments started or if he was still out there, staking out Haven House. That was something I wanted to tell Sara before we got to class.
But she had gone ahead a little.
Sara was walking next to Eric, and they were deep in conversation.
Chapter Five
Mr. Rain was in class, still tieless. Sweat had gathered around on his neck which made him extra gross. He’d been outside. It was obvious. I hadn't been seeing things after all. The air got hotter and hotter in the classroom. The man in black had left and it didn’t seem like he was coming back. Mrs. Landry knew him. Mr. Rain might even know him, too.
And they both had red marks on their arms.
I wondered if that had anything to do with it.
Eric didn’t speak to me as he shuffled to his seat. Sara sat in hers and I tried to read her expression. Eric had been talking to me at the start of Foods. He’d switched to Sara. I’d been the one with the scary salad. Sara had brought the healing one.
For a second, I felt like I had been set up. I grabbed the sides of my desk.
And that Sara had done it in a way that wasn’t too obvious. A way that she could avoid the guilt.
I sat down and opened my Algebra book.
I had to knock it off.
Sara was my best friend. She'd been trying to set me up with Eric. I had no reason to be jealous of her. The whole stupid thing had been a coincidence. Sara hadn’t meant for any of this crap to happen. She'd just been lucky, choosing to take in the Light Side salad.
But Mr. Rain hadn’t choked himself.
My thoughts stormed all through class. Mr. Rain gave no sign that he had been spying on me or that he’d caught me playing hooky for twenty vital minutes. He just droned on and avoided my gaze whenever he could. I searched his arm for any sign of that red mark he had on his arm, but he wrote so much on the board that he never stayed still for more than a few seconds. The guy was all nerves.
And the whole time, I could only think about Sara and Eric.
They had only been talking. Like normal people.
People talked all the time without anything more happening.
I traced my fingers along the Led Zeppelin carving in the desk.
And then a thought hit me.
The man in black had demanded something from me in my dream. What if, in real life, he wanted something of mine? The apple? It was the only thing I'd been holding in the dream. I could think of other, far worse things, but I had the feeling that wasn't it.
I sat straight up in the chair as it hit me.
The same dark dream I had last night was the same one I had right before I woke up in Mr. Rain's class. A wave of deja vu washed over me and I tried to grasp it, but it flew away into the dark before I could. It was like some morbid fairy tale.
I watched the clock. Mrs. Landry had her conference hour the last hour of the day. I knew that because I’d heard her mention that she didn’t like to run the ovens in the Foods room during the hottest part of the afternoon once. The last hour had to be her free one. Mr. Rain had another class after this. And Mrs. Landry knew things. She'd had a civilized conversation with the guy in black. If I could skip out next hour and spy on her…
Ten minutes before the bell. Mr. Rain gave us an assignment and mentioned that there would be a quiz tomorrow. I was so going to fail it.
The bell rang. I nodded to Sara and waved her out into the hall.
“I’m getting to the bottom of this crap,” I said. “Want to join me?”
“Mara. What are you going to do?” she asked. Sara sounded so timid. “You already made Mrs. Landry really suspicious of us.”
“She already was,” I said. “Besides, I had to add some of my trademark perverted humor in there. She should expect that.”
“But you didn’t have to be so specific.”
Eric emerged into the hall. “And you didn’t have to include me in it.”
He sounded a bit hurt and I withered inside. “Sorry,” I said. “Really. I just didn’t know what else to say to her. I didn’t want to let Mrs. Landry win. And I only meant Sara and me with the naked guys comment.” I was blowing this. This was the worst day of my life.
“Mara. What’s the plan?” Sara asked. "Please don't let it be something dangerous."
“I’m going to Mrs. Landry’s room. To spy on her.”
“I wouldn’t,” Eric said. He pulled his class jacket back over his coat of arms T-shirt. “She was just medieval today, to put it politely.”
“Who’s going to handle this for us?” I asked. “We’re the only three students who remember what really happened today and we have to keep it that way. The teachers here aren’t our friends. There could be a lot of things we don’t remember.” I gulped and waved Sara and Eric away from Mr. Rain’s door. “I felt like something had happened to my memory when I woke up in Mr. Rain’s class yesterday. I felt like the Foods class.”
“Oh,” Sara said. “Mara—I had no idea. I don’t remember anything weird about yesterday in class, but if we got memory wiped none of us would.”
The hall filled and turned into a river of chattering people. “Are you coming with me or not? Either way, I’m going.”
Sara glanced at Eric. “I don’t think we should,” she said. “Mrs. Landry might invite Evil Emperor back any second.”
“I’ll take the risk,” I said. “Since when do I back down from one?”
Sara frowned at me. “You are not going there alone.”
“I am. What do you want to do? Sit here and wait for someone to poison our food?”
Sara balked and looked at me as if I were the one planning it. “I’m packing my own lunch from now on.”
I had to get away from her. Sara could be in on this whole thing for all I knew. No. Not my best friend. She had no reason to be.
“Class,” Eric said. “Then I think we should go home and forget any of this ever happened. Even though I’m never going to erase that image from my brain. Does anyone have any bleach?”
They were both ducking out on me. I’d been hoping Sara would go, but fear glistened in her eyes. Eric barely knew me. I couldn't expect him to.
Even though I would have really, really liked him to.
"Maybe the two of you should go to class," I said. I didn't want to endanger either one of them. I was already on a thin, thin rope with Eric. I didn't need to make his day any worse. That rope would snap. "I'll be okay. I promise. I'll tell you if I found out anything."
Sara waited, then nodded. "Be really careful, Mara," she said. "Swear."
"Damn," I said.
She laughed.
"Well, you told me to swear," I said. "I get it. I'll be really careful. It's not like I'm going to barge in there and ask her who that guy was."
Sara's mood had gone up, at least. "I'll tell Mrs. Kovo you had to go home sick. She hasn't done anything weird lately. I don't think she's in on this whole thing, whatever it is."
"I appreciate it."
She turned away and headed down the hall.
And then Eric waved to me and followed her.
I watched them go. Eric was jogging to catch up with Sara. The crowd got too thick and I couldn't watch them for long, but I caught a glimpse of them turning the corner and disappearing around the water fountain.
Eric didn't have the same last period as us.
And yet he was walking beside Sara.
I shook my head. I had to knock this off. We had way worse crap to worry about. Sara wouldn't do something like that to me, not after she had convinced Eric to come over and talk to me. It would be the ultimate betrayal.
She knew how I felt about Eric.
I turned and headed back towards the Foods room, taking my time so I could watch out for Mrs. Landry.
And on the way, I passed Nort.
He was wearing one of those crappy Ellwood High School Pride T-shirts the office made people change into if they wore something offensive to school and an ugly pair of olive green pants someone had (rightfully) never claimed from the lost and found. I hurried past, but Nort didn't even give me a second glance. He looked annoyed, but far from embarrassed. I had the idea that his memory along with Joey's had been wiped, too. The man in black must have visited them both. Nort and Joey sure weren't in the Foods room after the disaster. They must have been in the office or something.
That meant the guy in the black robe might have been in the office at one point.
Where I had seen that strange image in Mrs. Hendry's mirror.
I wondered if Nort remembered getting in trouble for something he didn't do. For wearing a shirt with nudity on it, maybe. Some false memory was better than the alternative. Those guys were better off now.
Mrs. Landry walked around the corner without noticing me. She was headed towards the office. I wondered if Mrs. Hendry had anything to do with this all. She had the weird mirror. She had mysteriously let me off after being in that room with the mirror.
Either way, I had to move fast.
Mrs. Landry's room was empty. The bell rang to start the last class. Lit. I was so disappointed I was missing it. I checked the hall to make sure Mrs. Landry wasn't returning and I darted into the Foods room. I tore open her desk drawers to find planners and papers and recipe books, but nothing else. The heat in here was awful. Sweat broke on out the back of my neck as I thought of excuses I'd give her if she came back in. Nothing was any good.
I opened her bottom drawer.
Mrs. Landry had left her cell phone sitting there. Its shiny screen displayed the time and for some reason, I couldn't stop staring at it. Why would she put her cell phone in the bottom drawer? Most of the teachers kept them on top of their desks. Mr. Rain did that. He sometimes stared at it in class after he'd told us never to have ours out. Mrs. Landry wasn't a hypocrite, at least.
