Satisfied that they were really going, she turned her attention to the beaten boy.
Cal had crawled to his knees and witnessed the whole scene, and he looked up with bleary eyes to see the girl standing over him, her golden hair reflecting the moonlight like the halo of a guardian angel. The police siren grew louder on the road beneath the hill, passing them by and fading away into the distance.
She bent down to offer him a hand, and he took it, focusing on the two raised scars that ran down the length of her forearm. She pulled him to his feet and he stood wavering, rubbing his sore jaw. It hurt to breathe, and he wondered if they had a broken rib.
He watched in a daze as she slipped her knife back into its sheath, pulling her oversized sweatshirt down to conceal it. She pushed her sleeves down over her arms and flipped the hood back up to cover her glowing mane of hair. It occurred to him that she might be a ghost.
“You need to get out of here before they come back,” she said.
“Where did you come from?” he choked out, looking back the way the men left. “Who are you?”
When he turned around she was gone.
~
Chapter Four – NOTICED
~
She sat up the next morning with a groan, rubbing her sore cheek gingerly. Her mother used to say that no good deed goes unpunished, and Cal finally understood what she meant by it. She missed her parents ferociously, suffering a stab of deep blue pain so powerful she had to lie back down to catch her breath.
After she finished crying, she got up to go to school.
Idiot motorcycle boy didn’t show up for the next few days, and she wasn’t surprised. As sore as she was, she figured he must really be hurting. By the end of the week he was back, and a crowd of girls clustered all around sympathetically, exclaiming loudly over his bruised face and fawning all over him. Cal did her best to avoid them, and thankfully, he didn’t seem to recognize her when she passed him in the halls.
He must have gotten what little sense he possessed knocked clean out of him, she thought.
She kept up her nightly walks, avoiding the cemetery for a few days. Tired at school and uncomfortable at home, Cal wandered around in a daze of grief and confusion. She made herself as small and unobtrusive as she could, trying to attract as little attention as possible. She trusted no-one, and fully expected something bad to appear around every corner.
Still, some girls took note of her. The kind of girls that amused each other at the expense of those they believed would not fight back. Cal endured taunts about her clothes, and the fact that she had no friends.
Her isolated upbringing left her ill-equipped to deal with being teased, and the cruelty they showed her only served to re-enforce her unfavorable view of the city. She wished she was back in the forest with only animals for company.
The school library was her savior, and she found herself reading more and more, using books to escape her everyday life. In order to steer clear of Phil, she started to eat only at school, taking her lunch to hide away in a back alley between some storage sheds. She would sit and read, sharing what she had with a pair of mangy stray cats.
Now she also had to dodge the idiot boy and his parade of girls, because they were always looking for secluded spots on campus to grope each other in. She saw him with a different one every time, and the girls he discarded sometimes came looking for him, radiating an ugly jealous green or a pitiful depressed blue.
One day a red haired girl passed right by her hiding place, looking around anxiously before storming off in greenish brown frustration. A few minutes later the boy swaggered up, glancing down the alley and spotting Cal where she sat reading. She looked down at her book, willing him to leave.
“Hey,” he called out, scaring the cats away.
Please don’t talk to me, please just keep walking, she thought. He was clearly trouble, and she really didn’t want anything more to do with him.
“Hey, I know you…” he said, coming closer.
She cringed, closing her book and packing her things up. “I don’t think so,” she said quietly.
“You’re the girl that was petting my dog.”
“Uh… Yeah,” she said, relieved. She got up to go, hoisting her heavy book bag over her shoulder with a grimace.
“How did you do it?” he asked.
“Do what?” she avoided looking up, arranging things in her overloaded bag.
“Get near him. He doesn’t like strangers. Most people are scared of him.”
She was suddenly angry, thinking about the poor whimpering dog. She snapped, “He gets scared too, you know… You shouldn’t leave him tied out there all night!” She stormed past him out of the alley, colliding with the girl that had come back looking for him.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going, you stupid hick!”
Cal’s binder toppled out of her bag and exploded on the ground, sending loose papers blowing in the breeze. She crouched down to gather her things, her eyes burning with frustration. She could hear the girl laughing at her as she scrambled to stack up the loose pages, lunging for the ones that blew out of her reach. Motorcycle boy was decent enough to chase down the other papers, retrieving them and coming back to hand them to her.
She was mortified, and when she reached up to take them her loose sleeve slid down her increasingly thin arm. His eyes flew open wide when he saw the twin scars on her forearm. She snatched the papers from him, stuffing them into her bag and pulling her sleeve back down hastily.
“It’s you… It was you…” he blurted out in disbelief.
He could scarcely fathom that this was the fierce girl who had helped him out. He’d been able to think of nothing else for days, questioning if she was real, wondering how he could track her down. And now here she was– the weird new girl at school who dressed like a hobo and walked around with her head down, like she was afraid of her own shadow.
She looked up at him reluctantly, fighting back the tears that only made her eyes look even bigger than they already were. He stood there staring at them, struck dumb. One of her eyes was blue as the clearest sky, and the other one was the bright green of a new spring leaf. The colors were surprising, but there was something else. Instead of the fear he expected to see, there was sorrow.
She had the saddest eyes he’d ever seen.
Before he could say anything, the girl with the two different colored eyes sprang up gracefully as a doe and bounded away.
The redhead came up and took him by the arm, “Come on Cal. Let’s go.”
~
He looked for her in the halls the rest of the day, finally waiting out front when school got out. He sat perched on his bike, talking to some girls but scanning the crowds for her. She was elusive, and she almost slipped away, but he spotted her walking home. She was a good distance from the school when he pulled up, his bike idling.
“Wanna ride?” he called out.
She shook her head no and kept moving. He followed alongside her slowly.
“What’s your name?”
She looked over at him, wishing he’d leave her alone, “Cal.”
He nodded, “Yeah, what’s your name?”
She flashed him an annoyed look, “Cal,” she repeated, picking up the pace.
He pulled up a little ways and cut the engine, forcing her to walk past him.
“Seriously, what’s your name?”
She looked at him, his curiosity blazing a confidant warm gold. The glow surrounded him, making him look like Apollo. If he was a mythological figure, he’d be a foolish, vain one, like Narcissus, she reminded herself.
“My name is Cal too,” she informed him flatly.
He laughed, and his amusement came right through his dark eyes. “Is that short for Callie?”
“No.” She kept walking, forcing him to push his bike alongside.
“California?”
“No.”
“Hold on a sec…” he asked, smiling a charming, lopsided smile. “Please?”
S
he stopped, looking over at him with irritation. He almost felt like he was inconveniencing her, and he’d never had a girl look at him that way before. Her extraordinary eyes darted around like she was trapped, searching for a way out.
“That was you a few nights ago, wasn’t it?”
She nodded once, looking at him with resignation.
“Wow,” he flashed his most beguiling smile. “Thanks for the help.”
She frowned, “You should be more careful who you meet up with in the middle of the night.”
“I was doing a favor for my brother,” he said defensively. “Anyway, what were you doing there? You shouldn’t be out wandering around alone in the middle of the night.”
She held her head high, “I can take care of myself.”
He chuckled, I bet you can, he thought, remembering the way she wielded a knife.
She looked angry at being laughed at, “I wasn’t the one meeting with the ruffians.”
“Ruffians?” he said mockingly.
She set her jaw and started walking away fast.
“Hey Cal,” he called after her.
She turned, “What?”
“The dog… Rufus. He’s my brother’s dog. I’m taking care of him while he’s away. I only leave him out at night when I’m gone… He goes nuts and tears up the house if you leave him alone.”
She shrugged and kept walking.
“You still didn’t tell me what Cal was short for,” he called after her.
She didn’t turn around this time, “That’s right Calvin, I didn’t.”
She heard the bike roar to life and watched as he sped away past her, popping a wheelie for her benefit.
Reckless fool, she thought.
~
The next day at school he watched her, intrigued. There was something so completely different about her– It was like seeing a unicorn wandering the halls. At first glance she seemed shy and timid, but he realized that she was really just doing her best to disappear. She moved through the crowds fluidly, like a cat stalking through the jungle, in stark contrast to the other girls who bounced and strutted, trying to get his attention.
Her choice of clothes was odd. He was used to provocative displays of bare skin and cleavage, but she wore oversized shabby looking things, dwarfing her slender frame in earth tones. He could see how hard she worked to blend into the background, keeping her head down and her nose buried in a book. He could also see how pretty she was underneath her camouflage.
Fascinated, he became acutely aware of her presence, and when she passed by him he grabbed the girl next to him, just to show her he could. The girl he embraced noticed his gaze following the new girl, and took him by the chin, turning it to kiss him.
She could turn his face but not his eyes.
As for Cal, all she saw was a strutting, arrogant, peacock of a boy. She went out of her way to avoid him, alarmed by the way his eyes sought her out in the crowds. He was the high-school Cassanova, and she wasn’t interested in becoming one of his conquests. She didn’t need any more trouble in her life– even if it came in an undeniably attractive package.
She struggled to find her way, clinging to her new routine to keep from drowning in her sorrow. She wandered the streets at night, wraithlike, and kept to herself at school. She faded into the background, her head down and her golden mane of hair tucked away in a braid.
She soon discovered that the trick to being left alone in public was to look like you were completely engrossed in something. She avoided eye contact, and kept her body language closed off. She also broadcasted the very best back-off blue color she could muster, and it seemed to work.
On everyone but Cal.
He sought her out, leaning over to murmur into her ear, “Calista, right?”
“No,” she said, darting into the nearest girl’s restroom to wait him out.
He pulled up alongside her on her way home from school, “Calpurnia?”
“No.” She trudged along, shifting her heavy bag from shoulder to shoulder.
“I like Cali better than Cal… You know, for a girl. How about I call you Cali?” he said, trying to strike up a conversation.
“Suit yourself,” she replied, continuing to walk away.
“Do you want a ride home?”
“No,” she wondered why he wouldn’t just go away.
He wondered why she wasn’t interested in him. “Are you afraid?” he taunted her.
“I happen to value my life,” she retorted.
He laughed, “You are afraid.”
“And you’re too stupid to wear a helmet.”
He was taken aback, “It wouldn’t matter anyway.”
She cast him a withering glance, “That’s not what the statistics say.”
“Well, I like to be free,” he said defiantly.
“To do what? Donate your organs?” she snapped. She rushed away, eager to get home and take a nap before her aunt had to leave for work. Phil still couldn’t find a job, and he’d started drinking heavily. Too much beer made him dangerous.
She left the house after dark that night, striking out for the night woods. She could hear a raucous party going on in front of Cal’s house; music was playing loud, and the smell of wood smoke and something cooking on a grill made her stomach growl. There were at least seven or eight big, heavy motorcycles parked diagonally in front, and she crossed the street, going out of her way to skirt the house.
She heard a bark, and looked up to see a dark shadow come flying across the street at her. She gasped in horror to see Rufus illuminated by the headlights of an oncoming car; the dog narrowly missed getting flattened.
“Oh Rufus! What are you doing running loose?” she cried, crouching down to greet the happy dog. He wagged his whole body, whimpering like she was a long-lost friend he hadn’t seen for years. He lunged for her face, slathering her with sloppy dog kisses and knocking her over into a weedy patch.
“Hey! Get back here!” a man’s figure came racing up the dark driveway to retrieve the dog. When he saw Cal and Rufus on the ground he ran across the street to them, “Oh my God!”
He grabbed Rufus by the collar, roughly jerking him away from Cal. He looked like he was about to hit him, yelling, “Bad dog! No! Bad boy!”
“It’s okay! It’s okay!” she cried, scrambling to her feet, “He was only being friendly!”
He looked surprised, watching as she brushed herself off. She recognized Cal’s brother from the bus station. Another good looking ne’er do well, she thought.
“Are you alright?” he asked incredulously.
“I’m fine,” she said, picking burrs from her sweatshirt, “But Rufus nearly got run over!”
“How do you know my dog?” he asked suspiciously.
Rufus slipped out of his grasp and rushed back over to Cal, nuzzling her hand and whimpering.
“Calm down,” she told him, pointing to the ground. “Sit.” He plopped down at her feet, and when she bent to scratch him behind the ears he rolled over on his back submissively.
“He’s a good dog,” she said, “You should take better care of him.” She turned to go, walking off into the darkness.
Jarod returned to the ring of people sitting around a fire pit, dragging a dog struggling to go back the way they came from. He found the end of a nylon rope and tied it to Rufus’ collar. “Man, that was weird.”
“Did Rufus put the hurt on someone?” one of his friends asked.
“No… There was this girl… She like, totally had him… like… hypnotized or something.” Everyone around the fire broke into laughter, thinking he was making a joke.
Cal’s head snapped up, “Was she blond?”
“Yeah, like with a long braid,” Jarod replied, watching with surprise as his little brother bolted up, nearly knocking over the girl that was perched on his lap.
“Hey!” she cried, standing up and watching him race off into the street.
Cal heard footsteps coming up behind her fast and she wheeled around, hand on her k
nife. Her eyes were wide with fear; she was relieved to see it was only Calvin trotting towards her.
“Where you headed?” he asked, breathing hard.
“Nowhere,” she replied.
“You shouldn’t be out here all alone,” he said, “This isn’t the best neighborhood.”
“I’m fine,” she said.
She didn’t look fine to him. She looked vulnerable, fragile, and more alone than anyone he’d ever seen before. He had an irrational urge to take her into his arms and hold her close. He’d probably get stabbed if he tried, he thought.
“Listen… My brother got back today, and we’re having a party to celebrate.” He ran his hand through his shaggy hair, “Wanna come over and have a beer or something?”
“No thanks,” she shook her head, wondering why everyone kept offering her beer. She would have had a harder time turning down something to eat. “Goodbye.”
She turned away to walk briskly off into the dark, without looking back. Cal stood watching her go, her long braid swinging gently as she made her way down the deserted street. He had a sudden impulse to follow her, to stay by her side; to take her hand and make sure she got home okay.
Don’t be an idiot, he told himself. She doesn’t even like you.
He walked back to the party slowly, and spent the rest of the night worrying about her.
~
Chapter Five – RUFUS
~
It was frustrating. Cal kept finding himself scanning the crowds at school, looking for her, but unable to catch more than a glimpse as she rounded a corner. She was hard to spot, and there was no denying that she was going out of her way to elude him. He had so many unanswered questions, but she obviously didn’t want to talk to him. She was driving him crazy, and he didn’t know why.
Girls had always liked him, and he was used to getting his way with them. This one obviously didn’t want anything to do with him, and it was aggravating. He couldn’t understand why his charm didn’t work on her. He’d never been ignored like this before.
The Athena Effect Page 4
