JAX TOOK HER TO THE SCHOOL AND WENT WITH HER TO GET Chris’s book, then left her at the entrance to the gym before he headed off to the locker room to suit up for the game. She was surprised by the number of people already there. Teachers, parents, and lots of kids, even small ones. Younger siblings, she guessed.
She hadn’t eaten dinner and her stomach hurt, she was so hungry. There were no concessions, but it wouldn’t have made any difference if there were. She had no money.
The team was warming up, basketballs flying, and she had to duck a few as she walked across the gym floor. She searched for Amanda in the crowd but didn’t see her. Erin and Rachel were waving at her to come sit with them.
As soon as she sat down, Erin said, “We were just talking about why Brett’s turned into such a douche.”
Rachel nodded. “He’s turned into a creeper, and I don’t get why.”
Sasha could tell her why, but Rachel wouldn’t believe her.
“It’s that stupid Ravens thing,” Mason said from above them in the stands. He went to sit behind Rachel, who sent an Oh-my-God look to Erin. “Ever since he joined, he’s like a different person. East, too. And Julianne.”
Erin whispered to Sasha, “Wrong. Julianne’s always been a bitch.”
“If being a Raven means you turn into a douche bag, why does anyone want to join?” Rachel asked.
“They tell you they’ll get you whatever you want,” Mason said.
“I don’t want anything that much,” Erin said, watching the players on the court, specifically Thomas. “I heard you have to give up God and promise to follow some guy named Eryx. Reminds me of a cult.”
Rachel said, “I had a cousin who joined a cult, and my aunt and uncle had to spend a boatload of money to get her out of there.”
“Blows my mind what people will believe,” Mason said, glancing at Sasha. “Sorry about what happened. What’s up with that? I mean, he’s your cousin.”
Sasha shrugged. “He wanted me to join the Ravens, because he gets bonus points for everyone he brings in, so he made up that story and said if I’d join, he’d admit it was a lie and make like it was a big joke.”
“Some joke,” Erin said. “Now the joke’s on him because everyone thinks he’s a loser.”
Amanda came through the door with her dad, and Rachel said, “Wow, check out Amanda. She looks … different.”
“She looks great,” Erin said. “I can’t believe she came to the game. She never goes anywhere.”
“I asked her to meet me,” Sasha explained, waving at her. She watched them cross the gym floor, her dad stopping to sit with some teachers, while Amanda continued on to climb up to where they sat. She noticed Brett was staring at Amanda, and she wanted to stand up and yell at him to leave her alone.
Amanda was unaware of his attention, thank God, and she smiled at Erin and Rachel before she took a seat next to Sasha. “I was almost late because Dad took forever to get ready. He’s all excited, probably because he gets to talk to Rose.”
“Does he have a crush on her or something?”
“He says no, but I think he does. She’s always going to the market and buying lamb chops from him, and he gives her extra.”
“Aw, that’s sweet,” Rachel said, her eyes bright. “Your dad’s awesome, Amanda.”
She leaned toward Sasha and whispered, “After Dad and I got home, I had a strange phone call.” She met Sasha’s eyes, looking really uncomfortable. “It was Brett. He said he felt like an idiot for what he did, and was really sorry.”
Alarm bells went off in her head. Why would Brett call Amanda, out of the blue? Did he realize she was maybe the only kid at school who might still be interested in him—in the Ravens? “So he called you to apologize, but never said a word to me? Why?”
Amanda looked down at her hands and twisted a silver ring round and round her finger. “He said he tried, but you won’t talk to him, you’re so mad.”
“He’s lying. The only thing he’s said to me since school let out was something rude, and I did ignore him, because what do you say to someone who’s mean and hateful?”
“Maybe he didn’t mean to sound rude?”
“Oh, he meant it. Trust me.”
“He, uhm, asked if I want to join the Ravens.”
Damn. “Please tell me you said no.”
“I said I’d think about it.”
“Amanda, why?”
Amanda looked up, her eyes filled with pain. “You wouldn’t understand, Sasha. You’re pretty and smart, you were probably überpopular at your old school, and in another week you’ll be all that at Telluride.”
“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t, but whatever I am, I want you to be my friend. We can hang out, and you could come to the house and see Chris. Don’t do it, Amanda. At least think about it.”
“I will, but I sort of already said I’d go out with him after the game.”
Double damn. “Tell him you changed your mind. I’m going to get something to eat, and I bet everyone else will go, too. Go with us. Not Brett.”
“No, I’m going to go and see what he has to say. He made a big deal about wanting to explain things, and he sounded really upset. Maybe there’s something we don’t know about him, a reason why he’s been acting so weird lately.”
Yeah, there was a reason, but she couldn’t say what it was. Frustrated and not sure what she could do to change Amanda’s mind, Sasha turned her attention to the game.
It was about to start, and she searched the players for Jax, which didn’t take long. He was bigger than any of the other guys. Wearing a basketball uniform, his arms and legs were exposed and she couldn’t help staring—he was put together like nobody’s business. She noticed he had a bandage on his right bicep and wondered if he was hurt, but he didn’t appear to favor that arm while they warmed up. The coach called the team to the sideline and as he went, he looked up, searching the crowd until he saw her. Then he smiled, and her heart skipped a beat.
“I think the new guy likes you,” Erin said. “I heard he threatened to beat up Brett if he didn’t lay off, and I’m thinking he could do it, easy.”
“Wonder where his brother is …?” Rachel asked.
As if on cue, Brody walked into the gym, followed by Melanie and Mr. Bruno.
Brody saw her and made a beeline, while Melanie and Mr. Bruno went to sit with Mr. Hoolihan and his wife.
After Brody said hello, smiling with his calm, sweet eyes, he went to sit next to Mason, which put him behind Erin. One minute later, the brown-haired girl Jenny came to sit next to him, all shy and awkward. Then Bree came in, dressed in black, and climbed up to sit by Amanda. Sasha had to force herself not to gape when a couple of Julianne’s bees made their way over to the other side of Rachel. By the time the buzzer sounded, they had a nice little group. Sasha noticed Julianne was sitting alone. She also noticed Mr. Bruno was looking up, his face creased in a frown. He looked directly at her, and she knew, just knew, he hated her for screwing up his Raven plans. She looked away from him to watch the game.
Telluride got the ball first, dribbled to one end, and Jax nailed a three-pointer. Then Ridgway missed, and it was Telluride’s ball again.
The rhythm of it, the sound of the players’ shoes squeaking on the wooden floor, the cheers and applause from the stands—it was mesmerizing. Jax handled the ball as if he’d been born with it.
After the clock wound down the half and buzzed at 0:00, the team walked to the sideline and the coach hunkered down to talk to them. Jax looked up at her, then jerked his head around at something the coach said. He nodded, then looked toward Brett, who was scowling. He gave Jax a look—a glare—and Jax said something that appeared to make Brett even angrier. Sasha was dying of curiosity. What was going on?
The second half began, and the game took on a different vibe. Ridgway was losing, and picked up their effort to close the gap. With the shot clock almost to zero, Brett passed to East, and he missed. Thomas frowned at Brett, and Jax lifted his hands in a WTF? ge
sture. Sasha didn’t exactly understand why Brett’s pass to East was a big deal, but Coach Hightower was clearly pissed. He called a time-out, pulled Brett off the floor, and yelled at him, arms waving. Looking mad enough to eat glass, Brett shoved the coach, and an audible gasp went up in the stands. Then Melanie stood and shouted something obscene, which caused another gasp in the crowd.
“What is up with your family, Sasha?” one of the bees asked.
It hit her, all of a sudden, that they weren’t her family. She wasn’t related to them at all. It made her sad to know she wasn’t blood kin to Mom and Dad, but knowing she wasn’t related to Brett and Melanie was a silver lining. She answered the bee, “I never actually met them until last Friday. My dad and Brett’s mom didn’t get along.”
“No wonder,” she replied. “Mrs. Shriver … wow, I can’t believe she just said that.”
The coach pointed toward the row of chairs, but Brett didn’t go sit down. He stalked away, through the door to the locker room, and the game resumed.
“Man, he’s history,” Mason said to no one in particular. “Nobody shoves a coach. He’ll get kicked off the team for that.”
Melanie also walked out, but not before she flipped off Coach Hightower.
“Classy lady,” the other bee said. “Maybe that’s why Brett’s turned into an a-hole. My brother says she’s doing Mr. Bruno. How gross is that?”
Amanda leaned close and whispered, “See? There’s at least one reason why he’s acting so weird. My mom was crazy like that, always embarrassing my dad and me.”
“Did it upset you so much that you made up horrible lies about your family and spread it all over?”
“Well … no, but I was mad all the time. I’m just saying, Sasha, maybe he’s not as awful as you think.”
She looked at her new friend, wishing so much she could explain why Brett was ten billion times worse than Amanda could imagine. But she couldn’t. All she could say was, “Something’s wrong with him. His head isn’t right. Please don’t go with him, don’t try to understand him, and please, please don’t join the Ravens.”
Turning away to face the court, Amanda didn’t reply.
Sighing, frustrated all over again, Sasha did the same.
As the game progressed, Jax and Thomas built a rhythm, and the rest of the team took their lead, putting a lot of points on the board. But Ridgway managed to keep up, and the score was tied with five seconds left on the clock. Thomas raced the ball downcourt and dished to Jax, who launched a three-pointer. The buzzer sounded just as the ball whooshed through the net, and the crowd went wild, yelling, clapping, high-fiving one another.
“Man, he’s good.” Mason was clearly impressed. “First game we’ve won this year.”
Jax was elated, beaming up at her as he walked toward the door where Brett had disappeared.
It was all so male ego and normal, she grinned back.
“He does like you,” Erin said.
Amanda stood and said, “I’ve gotta catch up to my dad. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
Sasha tried to grab her arm, but Amanda was already walking away, then down the bleachers to where her dad was waiting, talking to Rose. She said something to him, he looked toward the locker room door and frowned, then she said something else and left the gym. Mr. Rhodes continued visiting with Rose, then they walked out together. Amanda must have gone to meet Brett, and Mr. Rhodes was leaving.
Feeling out of breath and a little panicky, she startled when Erin tapped her shoulder.
“Hey, Sasha, are you up for the coffeehouse?”
“Do they serve food? I missed dinner, and I’m starving.”
“They have sandwiches. We’re waiting for Thomas, because Mason told him we would. Maybe Jack would like to go, too?”
“I think so.” She glanced at Brody, who nodded. “Yeah, he’ll go.”
This was more like it. Jax sat next to Sasha at a long table, formed by shoving several smaller ones together, and watched her shine.
With the lie about her put to bed, the other kids warmed up to her, just like he knew they would. He was even having a good time, maybe because for the first time in his life, people weren’t afraid of him. With Sasha on one side and Brody on the other, his bad vibe was counterbalanced.
He bought himself and Sasha a couple of sandwiches, some soup, and several cookies.
Mason said from his end of the table, “Awesome game, Jack. Where’d you learn to play ball like that?”
“Mostly from my brothers.”
“Brody, you play basketball?” Mason was clearly doubtful.
“I’m not much of an athlete,” Brody said. “Our older brothers are.”
Thomas finished his sandwich and wiped his hands, looking across the table at Jax. “Sorry about what happened with Brett, but it sure was a lot more fun after he hit the road.”
“I don’t get that guy. Either you want to play ball, or you don’t.”
“He’s not about the team, that’s for sure. I think he thought it would impress Reilly.”
The whole table nodded agreement, and Bree, the black-haired girl who looked like a vampire, said, “He must have asked her to go out like fifty times, and she was always so sweet about it, because that’s who she was, but the answer was always no. Drove Brett crazy, and after a while, it made him mad. You’d think if he liked her so much, he’d be at least a little bit sad that she died.”
The girl with brown hair who was kind of a plain Jane said, “I don’t think he really liked her. She was just the prettiest, most untouchable girl at school, so he wanted her like he’d want a great car, or the coolest snowboard. It was never about Reilly.”
Plain Jane was sharp. Jax watched her while he ate, noticed the way she looked at Thomas when she thought he wasn’t looking, and in turn, the way Thomas looked at her. He gained interest as the conversation progressed. And something was going on between Mason and the girl with skinny glasses—that ironically matched her skinny body. Mason kept handing her food, and she ate it, obviously hungry. But she had no food of her own. He asked Sasha if maybe she had no money, if he should offer to buy her something to eat, and she whispered, “Rachel has an eating disorder.”
“Aw, man. Bummer.”
He looked around the table while he ate the cookies and watched the others, wondering what was up with Julianne’s ex handmaidens. They were trying to flirt with Brody, who seemed oblivious, most of his attention on Jenny, the quiet little brown-haired girl who had the whole first season of Star Trek, with outtakes. Jax smiled, thinking all over again that Brody was the coolest nerd on Earth.
While he was wondering why Rachel had an eating disorder, and why Thomas didn’t go ahead and talk to plain Jane—when she obviously had it bad for him and he wasn’t uninterested in her—it struck him that this was a new thing for him. Other than from a purely observational standpoint, he’d never taken any personal interest in humans. He found those who’d traded their soul to Eryx and took them to Hell on Earth, then went home and hung out with his brothers. People were a job to him, another face, another lost soul.
Until today, he’d never spent much time among humans. He didn’t count what he and his brothers did some nights, trolling clubs for easy sex. People were afraid of them, and only in the night, with loud music and little conversation, could they get close enough to get what they wanted. He never wondered about the girl, why she was there, what she wanted, or why she’d agree to have sex with a stranger. He asked, she said yes, then he was gone, never to think about her again.
Now he wondered who they were, all those girls, and why they allowed a stranger to take them in the most intimate way. He brushed a crumb from Sasha’s lip while he whispered, “Why do some girls have sex with guys they don’t know?”
“Probably because they hope it’ll lead to something else.”
“So it’s not because they want sex?”
Her eyes met his, and she shook her head slowly. “I’m no expert, obviously, but I’m a girl, and I
know a lot of girls, and I read a lot. I think for us it’s more about being romantic than something physical. And I don’t think they really like it unless it feels safe, and they really trust who they’re with.” She studied his face. “Why did you ask me that?”
“I feel different. Can’t explain it, but it’s like I’m noticing things I never did before, thinking about things that never occurred to me, until right now.”
“And you’re wondering why all those strangers let you …?”
“Right. For me, it wasn’t a big deal. I wanted it, so I went to get it, and I always thought they felt the same way. Now, I’m not so sure, so I wondered.”
“Why is it different now?”
He stared at her, trying to figure it out. “I don’t know.”
“What’s all the whispering over there?” Bree asked, laughing. “Would you guys like us to leave so you can be alone?”
The whole table laughed, and the conversation drifted from one subject to the next. He hoped someone would say something about Bruno, but no one talked about high school. It was all about college applications, then some more about Reilly, which led to an interesting discussion about what happens to people after they die. He listened closely, amazed and relieved at the same time. None of these kids were in any danger of pledging soon, not even Julianne’s former friends.
Those girls were the first to leave, then Bree left with some guy who worked at the coffeehouse, and Brody said he was going across the street to the bookstore with Jenny. Jax gave him a look, and he nodded, silently agreeing he wouldn’t do anything stupid. Like kiss her. Or go to her house to watch Star Trek outtakes.
That left six of them, until Thomas said, “I gotta get home and finish my history homework.”
Plain Jane said, “My mom’s probably mad because they’re waiting on me to light tonight’s Hanukkah candle, so I need to go, too.”
Rachel looked disappointed. “I’m not ready to go, but I will, so I can take you home.”
“If you need a ride, Erin,” Thomas said, “I can take you.”
Erin. Her name was Erin. She smiled and said, “Thanks,” then got up to leave with Thomas. As they walked away, she turned and grinned at Rachel.
THE MEPHISTO COVENANT Page 24
