Ian paused for a minute and then remarked, “You’re still shivering a little. You should get yourself inside, bundle up and have something hot to drink.”
“I will, don’t worry. Thanks again, Ian. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along. I don’t think I’ll be walking around that field at night any time soon. I guess it sounds crazy but it was really spooky there. I don’t believe in ghosts, at least I don’t think I do.” I tried to make myself sound as sane as possible. Hope he bought it.
“It would be great to see you again, perhaps under better circumstances,” Ian said, looking down. Was Ian shy?
“I would really like that. It would be nice for you to see that I am not a kook,” I answered, smiling back. I could hear him whistling as he sauntered around his truck, patted Bennie and got into the driver’s seat. He quickly waved and drove off.
17. Mercy and Bully
Monday, the worst day of the week, was almost here. I turned the light off early, hoping to catch up on sleep, but ended up just thinking about Ian. Before I see him again, I’ll have to do something about my appearance. I never really cared much about it until now. Annie had remarked that even though I’m a slob, I have a lot of “raw material” to work with. Last week, she accused me of not combing my hair before school! That’s not quite true. I usually ran my fingers through my hair before walking out the door.
I managed to drag myself out of bed in time and even combed my hair before leaving the house. A haircut was definitely in order. It’s looking pretty straggly, even to me. As my cousins and I got off the bus we bumped into Rainy in front of school.
“So Rainy,” I said, “I’ve been thinking about getting a haircut. How do you think I should get it cut?”
“A haircut!” Annie replied. “Why this sudden change? Is it a boy? Who is it?”
Like I’m gonna tell her. “No! It’s not about a boy. I just know that my hair’s getting a little too straggly and I wanted to do something about it.”
Eve and Annie immediately stopped walking and looked at me in shock. Annie exhorted, “So the girl wants a makeover. Well, we’ll be happy to help you out. We’ve been waiting for this day to come for a long time!”
“We can set things up at The Chic Shack where I work.” Rainy added with a conniving gleam in her eye.
“Hey, guess what? We’re at my class. See you later.” I quickly ran off. This makeover talk was making me real uncomfortable and I just wanted to get away.
The day passed uneventfully so now I find myself in gym class. Guess we’re doing volleyball again today. Hope we can avoid the hammering from Bully Boy. Is that Mercy? She entered class with a green pass that she handed to Fat Head, oh, I mean, Mr. Elton. That must mean that Mercy’s in this class. She headed into the locker room to change. I presume she remembered me from the fight because she nodded at me.
So the teams were set up. Jeez, didn’t Elton pay any attention to what happened in here before? Here we were with Bully on one side and poor Nathan on the other side. Again. At least I was on Nate’s team. I’d rather be here any day than with that creep, Bully Boy. We had one less player, so Elton put Mercy on my team. Mercy was small but she was spunky. You could tell that she was competitive because she worked her butt off.
So, here we go again! Bully Boy positioned himself across from Nathan (surprise, surprise). He had that big stupid grin on his face and started hammering Nate like before. You could tell that Nathan loses it when Bully was in his face. Nathan raised his arms to hit the ball but they were like tree twigs up against the chainsaw massacre. Of course, there was Elton across the gym talking to another teacher. Every time the ball came over the net, big bad Bully jumped up and hammered it hard, right on top of Nathan. He then punctuated it with a stupid laugh. We finally rotated so that Nate was away from Bully. At one point, Mercy was across from Bully. I could tell she didn’t like him from her eye rolling. Then, I remembered that there was bad blood between Tonya’s crowd and Mercy anyway.
I could hear Mercy mumbling something under her breath, something like, “Stop picking on Nate you dirt bag, or you’ll regret it.” She was giving him the evil eye at the same time. It was hard to hear much because of Bully Boy’s loud guffaws. I turned around and looked at her. She nodded at me with a little smile.
The rotation came around to Bully vs. Nathan again. Bully was grinning. Nate was holding his twiggy arms in front of himself, trying to protect his face. Bully hit one ball, SMACK, hard at Nate’s face. I heard a funny sound, like a little crack. Nate had his hand over his nose. Was Nate hurt? Elton was still way over there, blabbing on, not even looking this way. The play paused but Bully yelled, “Hey, come on. What’s up? Serve the ball?”
“Why don’t you take it easy, you jerk? I think he’s hurt.” I yelled to Bully. Suddenly, I could sense a change in the atmosphere, kinda like it would feel just before a lightning storm. At the same time I was giving Bully the evil eye, wishing he would drop dead. The ball was in the air and Bully went for it. Was that a flash of lightning near his head? It was small, and so quick, it almost appeared to be a flicker of light. Bully stopped dead in midair. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell right over. SMACK. His neck snapped back and his head hit the floor hard. Then his head lolled to the side and there was a trickle of blood seeping out of the corner of his mouth.
What happened to him? One minute he was laughing and jumping around and the next minute he collapsed. Nothing touched him. I turned back to yell to Elton and noticed Mercy. She was staring at Bully with great intensity, looking a little too smug.
Elton finally noticed that something was up. He ran over to Bully and started checking him out. “You,” he pointed to someone, “call the front office and tell them to get an ambulance, quick. Everyone else get over on the bleachers and give Jimmy some air.” (I guess his name is Jimmy but I think I’ll stick with Bully). I have to say, he didn’t look so good. He was breathing, but he was white as a ghost. I turned around and noticed that Nathan was also hurt. Someone gave him a wad of Kleenex that he was holding up to his nose.
As Mercy and I walked to the locker room I finally asked her, “So, Mercy, do you have any idea what happened to Bul.., I mean Jimmy?” I turned to watch her reaction but I just couldn’t get a read. Mercy’s eyes were a blank. I could see her aura, though. It was a bright red with purple and some darker flashes of red. I see strength, energy and passion with flashes of temper. Still, there’s something I can’t quite understand. What’s the purple mean?
“It’s hard to say what happened to him. Maybe he had a brain freeze of some kind,” Mercy smirked.
I looked over at her with my eyebrow raised. “Yeah, sure, maybe it was a brain freeze.”
As it turned out, Mercy wasn’t too far off the mark. The tests revealed that Bully Boy had suffered a stroke that he should eventually recover from. He just needs rest and physical therapy. We heard from Mr. Elton that it was very unusual for someone as young as Bully to have a stroke, but it can happen. Nate was also injured. He had a fractured nose.
18. A New Me
Rainy arranged an appointment for me at The Chic Shack after school today. I still had doubts about going, but I was sick of constantly pushing hair out of my face. Most importantly, when I eventually bumped into Ian, I didn’t want to look like an upside down floor mop. My cousins had to come along for the show. They were always watching makeover shows on TV and they loved this stuff, especially when it was happening to me. So after school I met them in front and we walked to The Chic Shack which was only a few blocks away.
Rainy noticed my worried look so she tried to reassure me. “My mom said that she can’t wait to cut your hair, Tess. Don’t worry. She knows what she’s doing.”
“Hope so,” I muttered under my breath.
“What?” asked Rainy.
“Nothing. I’m just a little nervous. I’m not big on making too many changes, especially if they require daily maintenance.”
“
Calm down. My mom wouldn’t do some high maintenance thing. The most it may require is a little blow dry in the morning.”
“Geez, you may have to get up a whole five minutes earlier,” Eve smirked.
When we arrived, Mrs. Prescott sat me down in a chair and studied me. I was feeling squirmy and thinking about running out of there. Mrs. Prescott herself made me nervous because she wore bright red lipstick and had puffed up red hair and high heels, with tight black pants. (How can you stand around all day on your feet in those pointy things?) There was no way someone like her would be able to figure out what I wanted to look like. What was she gonna do to me? I didn’t want to look like a freak.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Rainy, Eve, and Annie looking through hair magazines, giggling and pointing at pictures. Finally, Mrs. Prescott spoke. “Girls, I think I have an idea for Tess.” She took a style magazine from behind the counter, flipped through some pages until she found what she wanted, and then she pointed, loudly tapping with her long shiny red fingernail. “There. I think that style would fit Tess perfectly. What do you think?”
Annie, Eve, and Rainy all stared at the picture, looking back and forth between me and it. Finally, Annie responded, “Yeah, I can definitely see it. That would work for Tess.”
“Tess’s big eyes and heart shaped face would go with a medium short, offset hairstyle. Plus, it’s not a lot of maintenance. I can see she’s not into that,” Mrs. Prescott commented dryly while appraising me.
“Would you mind if I got a look at it?” I said glaring at them.
They handed me the magazine and waited to see what I thought. Mrs. Prescott’s pointy index fingernail was stabbing at it. I studied the picture. Actually, the model looked a bit like me. It was a scruffy, punky look, but definitely with some style. The hair fell to her mid neck, but it wasn’t cut even. It was cut to look a little choppy. It was parted at the side and the hair fell slightly over her right eye. And it didn’t hang flat. It was scrunched up. I have to admit, I liked it.
“OK. You can go ahead and do it.” I said it quickly before I changed my mind. I knew my hair was kind of a mess but it did take me a while to grow it this long. Once it’s gone, that’s it.
“I would also suggest a rinse to bring out your blond highlights, like in the picture”, Mrs. Prescott added.
“Tess, you should go for the works. Grandma said that she wanted to treat you for your upcoming birthday.” Eve was grinning at me while she said it.
Rainy added, “Hey, the make-up girl is showing up soon to talk to someone about a bridal party session. I’m sure she would LOVE to give you a few tips! She loves working on a virgin face; it’s like a blank canvas!”
“We’ll see,” I muttered.
After the haircut and rinse, I let the make-up person work on me. I told her that I was only willing to go for some eye make-up. I wasn’t into the face paint look. The entire time the girls were watching “the transformation” I couldn’t really tell what they were thinking. They were deliberately poker-faced to freak me out I’m sure. After the make-up lady was done, she sat me in front of the mirror and handed me another small mirror to check out the back. Mrs. Prescott came over to view my reaction.
Wow! I was totally shocked. It looked way better than I expected. I couldn’t act too happy about it because I didn’t want to give Rainy and my cousins too much to crow about. “Humph. Yeah, I guess it came out pretty good. Thanks all for your efforts.”
Rainy looked indignant. “Good? You say it was just ‘good’? What’s wrong with you? It looks great if I say so myself! I told you that my mom knows what she’s doing.”
“Tessie! I can’t believe you’re so hot now. Who knew under all that, uh. . . messiness, what you could really look like,” crowed Annie. “There’s one more problem though.”
I glowered over at Annie, “What’s that?”
“If you don’t mind me saying, your clothes suck. If you don’t want to look like a freak show you’re going to have to take our advice and upgrade things,” Annie answered with an evil grin.
Eve added gleefully, “Fortunately, your birthday’s coming up. You can borrow some of our stuff until then. After that, I think we’ll have to take you for a little shopping spree.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. “OK, this is ENOUGH for today! If you don’t stop, I’m going to go home and dunk my head in a bucket of water. Anyway, it’s time to get out of here and head home. Isn’t tonight the pep rally bon fire? We’re supposed to do some chores before we go.”
19. Sparks
As soon as we got home, Grandma told me that someone called. She said his name was something like “Willis or Will” and that I should call him back. It must be Will from robotics. Wonder what he wants.
After talking to him, I set the phone down with a self-satisfied smiIe. He asked to take me to the bon fire tonight and of course I said yes. Except for being a stubborn pain at times, I really liked being with Will. He’s attractive in a very different way than Ian. Will’s a bit cocky because of his brain power, but he makes up for it by being self- deprecating. He also has a sweet side that he tries to hide from his friends, but he can’t hide it from me! He looks like a Clark Kent type- his cuteness is somewhat compromised by his geek ways. Fortunately, we’ll be meeting a couple of his friends there which I prefer. I’m not sure where I’m ready to go somewhere alone with Will yet. That’s too much like an official date. Who knows what Will thinks about me, anyway. He probably just wants to stay friends, too. Anyway, I’m still hoping to bump into Ian.
My aunt and grandma were a bit taken aback at my new look. Grandma thought it was a little too scruffy looking (good sign) and my aunt really liked it (good sign). After dinner, Annie insisted on picking out a couple of things for me to wear, especially after she heard about my “date”. She’s a little taller than me but her clothes still fit me pretty well and since she had a job for a while, she has some nice stuff. She got out a pair of great looking jeans (tight and torn) and a black knit top with slight off the shoulder cap sleeves. The one thing I insisted on wearing was my old comfy flip flops. After all, we’re going to a bon fire and flip flops go with worn jeans.
The doorbell rang. When I opened it, Will just stood there for a minute and stared at me. “Will, what’s up? Wait a second. Let me grab a jacket.” He still didn’t say anything so I added loudly “WILL, SAY SOMETHING.”
“Tess. You don’t look like you. You’re somehow different.” Will answered, still staring at me.
“Yeah, well, I’m the same person you saw a few days ago. I just got a haircut. Let’s go, OK?” I had to cut that short. It was making me uncomfortable.
Will paused for a second before he finally nodded. “All right, let’s go. I told my friends, Sam and Doug, that we’d meet them by the baseball field. You may know Sam. He’s in your chem class, right? The one who thinks he knows more than the teacher and he’s always debating him? You might also recall Doug from Robotics. He’s the crazy, sarcastic one.”
As we got closer to the high school, there were streams of kids flowing onto the back field from all directions. Everyone was headed toward the large pile of wooden pallets in the center. As kids arrived, they automatically gravitated to their own factions. The loners were hanging around the edges, the irritating cheerleaders were prancing all over the place, and the band members were marching around the field, booming away. As we approached, I noticed one of the loners because they were wearing a crazy hat. Not a surprise! It was Mercy.
“Hey, Mercy, how’s it going?” I asked.
Mercy warily glanced over to see who spoke. She initially seemed uncomfortable, but when she saw who I was her eyes lit up. “Hi, Tessie, what’s up with you?”
I beckoned her to join us. Sam and Doug are nice guys, but being part of the Robotics crowd means they’d never be asked to join in the upper echelon of high school society. For that reason, they’re very accepting of someone else who’s a marginal outcast, like Mercy with her rather ecc
entric style. Going against convention doesn’t win you friends in high school. She’s frequently alone from what I can see, but it sure didn’t seem to bother her. In fact, I would say that she was very comfortable in her own skin. Tonight, she was wearing an old man hat over her wild reddish brown hair and a long skirt. Her style fit her unique personality.
Our group started moving closer to the bon fire area. The fire hadn’t been set yet. I guess that happens after the speech by Mr. Delapath, the principal. His main purpose was to stir up the masses into a frenzy of school spirit.
I had a weird feeling that someone was watching me so I studied the crowd. It wasn’t easy to see people because darkness was settling in. Eventually I noticed a face turned in my direction. It was followed by a familiar movement of a hand brushing the hair out of his eyes. Yep, there’s no doubt that it was Ian. I smiled back and gave a little wave. No response. He was still staring at me without any acknowledgment. What was he doing? Maybe he does think I’m crazy and doesn’t want anything to do with me. I was starting to feel embarrassed. If that was the case then why would he still be staring at me like he is? Suddenly, I realized what was going on. He didn’t recognize me because of my haircut. I continued to look at him and widened my smile. He FINALLY recognized me and he beamed at me. He has a beautiful smile.
Who was he with anyway? Is that Tonya? It looked like her whole troupe of idiots was with her. Why was Ian there WITH HER? I glanced back at him. He was still staring at me, but he wasn’t smiling. In fact, I would say he was now viewing me with some concern. Oh, that’s just great! Now, Tonya noticed me staring at Ian. She looked at him and then back at me. She deliberately put her arm around his waist with a nasty smile pasted across her face. He seemed surprised and took a step back.
Mercy said, “Hey, Tess, did you notice Jimmy (Bully Boy) in a wheelchair? I don’t like the way he’s looking at us. He’s with the Tonya gang.”
A Girl Beyond (War of the Witches Book 2) Page 8
