by April Marcom
“But he’d probably freak out. He’s obsessed. If I’m a really crappy girlfriend, maybe he’ll get over it on his own.”
“Don’t worry about him.” Sassy stood up next to her suitcase, already overflowing with all sorts of things. “Let’s just get dressed and go down to breakfast. Today’s supposed to be fun, and tomorrow we fly south for the winter. No school for three months. No morning announcements waking us up at the crack of dawn.”
“Yeah, it’s like summer vacation,” Harmony said.
Summer vacation with these girls sounded like crazy fun. If only I could shake Roman. I was afraid I’d spend the whole time worrying and trying to avoid him.
Nadine zipped up the white suit she’d just pulled on. “I’ve got to go eat and get to practice. Have fun for me, too.”
“Bye, Nadine.”
I was a little nervous when we finally walked into the cafeteria, since I knew Roman might be waiting for me. But he wasn’t. So I got to relax and laugh through the morning.
It wasn’t until we were walking through the rows of snowy bushes and towering ice sculptures outside that I realized someone was following me. As we passed an elephant-shaped bush, I turned back to get another look at the little ice-stars hanging on a tree. And that’s when I saw him—a smallish boy with a bit of dark hair hanging over his forehead. He was standing there watching me. But when our eyes met, he jumped behind the tree. I kept an eye out for him after that, and saw him three more times...just standing there, watching me. After the third sighting, I decided to head back inside, because he was really creeping me out.
* * * *
Later that evening, as the four of us stepped out of the movie theatre room, I felt someone grab my arm. I gasped and jerked away, bumping into a group of girls and pushing one into the open door. “Ow, ow, ow,” she said as two others screamed.
“I’m sorry. Are you okay?” I asked. She bit her lip and nodded. I felt terrible.
“Kristine,” Roman’s voice drew me to face him. “Can I talk to you alone?”
“You can’t grab me like that. You scared me to death.”
“I’m sorry, but I really want to talk to you.”
“But we’re going to eat supper and pack up our stuff.” Harmony and I hadn’t even really gotten started.
“Just for a minute.”
I looked at my roommates for help. “We’ll meet you back in the room,” Sassy said before they walked away. I could have killed her for that, but I guess I couldn’t avoid Roman forever.
“Okay.” Since the movie room and dome room were on the same floor, I followed him onto the same veranda where we’d first kissed.
“How was breakfast?” he asked, turning to face me.
“Fine, I guess.”
“Did you like all those new people Sassy said you were meeting?”
“Sure.”
From the way his eyebrows bent down as he studied my face, I got the feeling he knew it was all a lie. I wasn’t going to say anything, though.
Roman reached out and put both arms around me. I leaned against him and crossed my arms over his back. It did feel pretty good to have him hold me that way, just not the same kind of good I think he felt.
“Why don’t you want to spend time with me, Kristine?” Roman asked, making me a little afraid to pick up my head and look him in the eye.
“What are you talking about?”
“I could have had all day off of practice to be with you, but you chose your friends over me.”
“Because I already had plans. I thought I should keep them.”
Roman pulled away from me slightly. “Headmaster’s got girls and boys separate in the jets this year, so we won’t be flying together.”
“Oh, yeah?” I realized that I sounded way too excited, so I tried to look upset. “That’s too bad.”
His eyebrows did the same thing, making me feel incredibly guilty. But maybe he would begin to catch on. I really didn’t want to hurt him, because he was such a nice guy.
“Maybe we could at least have dinner together. We probably won’t see each other again until Thursday,” he said, taking a step back and reaching out for my hand.
“Sounds great.”
Gripping my hand a little too tightly, he began pulling me toward the elevator.
Chapter Thirteen
~ Southbound ~
I really didn’t want to wake up. I was in such a deep sleep.
“Come on, Kristine,” Harmony was saying. “We’ve got half an hour to get to the jet.”
“Half an hour?” I forced myself to sit up. Anticipation mixed with extreme drowsiness gave me a bit of a headache, but it was hard to think about that when there was so much to look forward to. I climbed out of bed and got busy.
Fifteen minutes later, my roommates and I wheeled our suitcases into an empty elevator. Connie didn’t have to ask where we were going.
“What did you guys bring to do while we’re in the air?” Harmony asked, practically bouncing on her heels.
“Magazines and my sketch pad,” Sassy said. “I’m gonna get to work designing my dress for next year’s dance.”
“I brought my notebook and A Guide for the North Haven High School Student,” I said.
“We’ve all got cons,” Nadine added. “What else do we need?”
Harmony gave us incredulous looks. “Man, it’s a good thing you have me. You’d all be bored out of your minds after an hour if I weren’t here. Don’t you remember last year?”
Nadine and Sassy looked at each other. “Yeah, I pigged out and slept it off. Then we were there,” Nadine said.
“That’s not fun. I brought games and puzzles, a notebook we can fill up with everything about our trip, and stickers and markers. I even brought a flashlight and a sheet we can huddle under together and tell ghost stories. This year we won’t get bored.”
Sassy and Nadine laughed as we got out of the elevator. “You’re right, Harmony,” Sassy said. “What would we do without you?”
“I think it sounds great,” I said.
We were met by chaos in the giant underground hangar. Students were everywhere. The many jets were parked in a row beside one wall, with their doors open and stairs leading up to each one. A few kids would stop and ask a teacher a question, then head to the jet they were told to get on. But most of them were moving or standing around talking.
“Let’s go ask Miss Tripside which one we’re in,” Sassy said. We made our way to the tall, boxy woman with her head down, skimming through the papers she was holding. “Good morning, Miss Tripside. We were wondering where we’re supposed to go.”
She looked up at us through square spectacles. “Good morning, girls. Let me have a look here. You’re all in the west wing, right?”
“Uh, huh.”
She flipped through several papers before she stopped. “Here you are. Harmony Foxen, Nadine Rodriguez, Sassy Johnson, and Kristine Fayre, you’re all in Jet Seven.”
“Thanks.”
We walked toward the jet with a white seven painted on the wall behind it and saw Mr. Westhyme standing in the doorway. “We get you?” Nadine asked. We climbed the stairs, leaving our suitcases with all the others. Each one was tagged so they wouldn’t get mixed up.
“Sorry, Nadine, but you’re stuck with me all the way to the Southlands and back.”
“You’re my favorite pilot. You know that.”
Mr. Westhyme chuckled. “I’m just pulling your leg.”
We walked into the same jet I’d been picked up in, this time with a huge extension to the table and lots more chairs. Not to mention the ten other girls already inside.
Miss McCree walked over to us as we sat in a circle on the floor beside the edge of one long sofa. “Hello, lovelies. You remember where the toilets are, Kristine, behind the stairs there. But if yah’ get sleepy, you can go through those doors you always see me comin’ in and out of, and there’s a load of pull-out beds. It’ll be too crowded for sleepin’ in here, I’m afraid.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Good morning, students,” Connie’s voice came over the speakers. I sat up on my knees to look out a window and saw that everyone outside had stopped to listen, too. “The time is seven-fifteen a.m. We will set out in fifteen minutes. Please load the aircraft you have been assigned to as soon as possible.”
“Fifteen minutes to takeoff!” Harmony said.
Three more girls walked into the jet, followed by Mr. Westhyme, who shut the door and locked it behind him. “Looks like everyone’s here,” he said. “What do you girls say about taking off a little early?”
A chorus of “Yeah!” went up from everyone.
“I’ll check with Headmaster, but I don’t think he’ll mind. We’re all ready to get there and start the Winter Competitions, right?”
Another loud chorus of “Yeah!”
Mr. Westhyme climbed the stairs and disappeared into the cockpit.
“See why he’s my favorite?” Nadine said.
We got up to sit on the end of the sofa for takeoff.
I twisted my neck around to look out the window behind Harmony and felt a shiver pass over me when I saw that boy, my little stalker from the frosty garden. He was watching me again, both of us turning away at that moment.
“Good morning, passengers,” Mr. Westhyme said over the intercom. “Headmaster has given us the all clear. If you haven’t already done so, please get in takeoff position.” I scooted back just before the straps wrapped across my chest.
“All students and faculty, please clear the runway, as Jet Seven is initiating takeoff,” we heard Connie say. Kids began running toward the side of the building the jets were on as the engine started. We moved forward and turned to the left slowly and carefully.
Once we got to the end of the room and began the incline, we really sped up. And then we were shooting forward and climbing into the dark morning sky.
I waited for the belts to release me from their grasp to say, “Could we go ahead and get under your sheet, Harmony? There’s something I wanna talk to you guys about.”
“Sure.” Harmony reached in the pack she’d brought and pulled out a folded blue sheet as we walked to a corner of the room. “Everyone turn on your cons.” We pulled them out of our bags and pockets and turned them on. “Harmony Con, stay.” Harmony looked at us, so we each did the same thing. “Here, Nadine.” Harmony handed a corner of the sheet to Nadine and they draped it over the cons. The only problem was that the floating sheet tent was a couple of feet off the ground. We instructed our cons to move down until the problem was solved.
Then we climbed inside. “Someone’s following me.”
“At North Haven?”
“Yes...” I told them about the times I’d seen him before and that morning.
“It does sound strange, but why would somebody want to follow you?” Nadine asked.
“I don’t know, but what if he keeps it up?”
“First let’s see who the mysterious man is,” Sassy said. “Sassy Con.” The sheet rested against her back as her con moved down.
“What can I do for you, Sassy?” Connie asked. It felt like she was talking way too loud, since the rest of us had been speaking so quietly.
“Please show us all the male students at North Haven.” Her con lay horizontally in front of her so we could all see the screen. A row of guys with names, birthdates, and enrollment dates beside them came up. “Tell me if you see him.”
I scooted closer to Sassy and watched as she swept her finger over the screen. We got through a bunch before I saw him. “That’s him.” I pointed to the freckled brunette with a small gap between his front teeth. Everyone leaned in to get a better look.
“Henry Lancaster,” Sassy read. “He’s only been here eight months. Must have been recruited pretty soon after last year’s competitions. I’ve never seen him before.”
“I have,” Nadine said. “He’s in my algebra class. It seems like he has a really hard time talking to people, so I’m not sure he has any friends. We could confront him about why he’s always watching Kristine.”
“No,” I said, thinking it sounded like he had a hard enough time already. “Maybe it’s some weird coincidence. I just wanted to see what you guys thought.”
“I think we should wait and see if it keeps happening,” Harmony said.
“Yeah, it could be a crush,” Sassy winked. I hadn’t thought about that.
“Don’t worry,” Nadine said. “We’ll help watch out for him. If he really is following you all the time, we’ll notice, and then we’ll confront him together.”
“You know we got yo back, girl,” Sassy said, sending us all into a fit of laughter.
Harmony reached into her bag and pulled out a flashlight. “Now, who’s ready for a ghost story?”
Chapter Fourteen
~ Southland Cinder High ~
Hours and hours of fun, boredom, and a long nap later, we heard Mr. Westhyme’s voice. “We’ve begun our descent and should be touching down within the next ten minutes. Make sure you’re all seated safely until we come to a complete stop.”
A pale girl squealed with delight. “I finally get to see it,” she said from way down the sofa.
“Is it your first time here, too?” I leaned over to ask.
“Yep. I got recruited a week before Winter Competitions ended last year.” She put her arms around the girls to her left and right. “Shauna and Tallulah left early to get me, so I only caught the end of it. It was fun watching the final competitions at North Haven, but I’ve been dying to see Southland Cinder High.”
“Me, too. I’m Kristine.”
“I’m Tracey. I remember seeing you in the morning announcements. You’re the newest newbie of us all.”
“There it is,” Harmony said.
I turned sideways in my seat and looked down into darkness. All I could make out in the night was a distant flicker of light. In my head I pictured a grey castle with soot and cinders pouring out of smoky, twisted towers. But as we got closer, all I saw was the shadow of a long mountain with flames burning all over one end.
“We’re coming in,” Mr. Westhyme said over the speakers. “Brace yourselves. Those idiots are using fire for the runway again. It’s dangerous, stupid, irresponsible—I’d think they were trying to kill us if they didn’t use it themselves. How do they expect—”
Harmony and I laughed. I could just see him going on and on to himself about it in the cockpit. And anyway, the landing went fine. We felt the light bump as the wheels hit the ground and the jet began slowing down.
We followed the fire-lit lanes slowly toward the dark mountainous thing I could only assume was Southland Cinder High. As we turned, I got my first good look at it. Made entirely of dark stone, two house-sized wooden plank doors were in the front, lined with blazing torches. Gold, pointed letters hung over them, spelling out SOUTHLAND CINDERS.
And just as we stopped, I watched the ground rise around us. “What’s happening?” I asked Harmony as a door opened and shut at the front of the room.
Mr. Westhyme began to descend the stairs. “Nobody panic, we’re being lowered to their underground hangar. We’re early, so we can stay on board and wait for the rest of our school to get here, or we can go in and start eating.”
“I’m starving,” Nadine said, putting a hand over her stomach. “I say we go now.”
“Me too,” Sassy said, pulling a brush out of her bag and running it through her hair.
“I’d rather wait and go in with everybody else,” Tracy said. “We’re way outnumbered right now.”
“Numbers don’t matter,” Mr. Westhyme said. “We have an understanding with them. During Winter Competitions, no fighting, so it’s safe.”
“I can stay here with those that wish to wait,” Miss McCree said as she entered the room. “You go ahead, now, and we’ll be meetin’ yah’ inside.”
“Sounds good to me,” Mr. Westhyme said. “I’m just gonna go park this baby and we’ll be out of here.” He
went back up the stairs and we waited until the ground stopped moving under us. We were inside a wide-open room with ceilings lower than the ones in North Haven’s hangar and much dimmer lighting. The jet pulled forward slowly and parked against a damp-looking wall. Mr. Westhyme came back down the stairs almost immediately. “My group, let’s go. I’ve hardly eaten all day.”
My roommates and I and three other girls followed him to the exit. Outside, a snarly man was rolling stairs to meet the door. His lip curled in obvious dislike when he looked up and saw us. Then he simply walked away.
“Is everyone going to be mean here?” I whispered to Harmony.
“Not everyone, but don’t expect sunshine and roses either. Cinders don’t work like that.”
We walked through a door nearby and into a cavernous hallway with stone walls, lit only by the torches hanging on them. The stairs we climbed were made from stone as well.
And when we entered the dinner hall and found blazing fires in every corner of the also stony room, torches hung along the walls, and candles lining the center of each long table, I decided the southlanders were obsessed with fire. Maybe that was why they called themselves Cinders.
Everyone stopped eating and fell silent so they could cast nasty looks our way as we moved to the table in the back of the room. I felt my face burn as the intimidating figures taking up the front half of the room continued to stare. I doubted they would notice, though, since the lighting was so poor.
Once we took our seats, voices began picking up and the Cinders seemed to forget about us.
“Shouldn’t you be sitting with the adults?” Harmony asked Mr. Westhyme, who was sitting across the table from us beside Nadine.
He looked back at the first table, full of scary looking grownups. “I think I’ll wait for the rest of our adults to join them. I know what I said about our understanding, but going in alone doesn’t sit right.” He turned back to us. “Maybe we shoulda stayed on board anyway, though. It looks like we’re not getting served until we’re all here, even though they’ve obviously been fed. Now we gotta sit here and smell their food while our mouths water and our stomachs complain.”
