Five: Out of the Dark

by Anderson, Holli

  “Sasha, what did the old creep want?”

  I shrugged. “Apparently he’s worried about my well-being after the incident the other day. He offered me counseling.”

  Brendon shook his head. “Well, I’m glad I caught you before your next class. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

  “Okay … talk away.”

  “Okay. Did Seth say anything to you about the party tonight after the game?”

  “Yes, he mentioned it,” I said.

  “Well, don’t let him go. Those parties are bad news. I’m not sure what goes on there, but people don’t come back from them the same way they were before. Why don’t you guys come to my family’s diner after the game? I’ll score you some free food—maybe even a shake.”

  “That sounds great. I’ll have to run it by our parents, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. Thanks, Brendon.” I smiled and waved as we headed to our separate classes.

  Of course, we had to go to the party, but he didn’t need to know that. Maybe we could stop by the diner first. A shake sounded awfully good; I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had one.

  r. Grewa’s class was awesome. He loved history and it showed in his teaching. Even the zombie-kids seemed to pay more attention in his class.

  He excused the class as soon as the bell rang, but stopped me before I went out the door. “How are you doing, Sasha? Any more trips to the principal’s office?” No tiptoeing around his concerns, and it was obvious he was concerned. I really loved his straightforwardness.

  “Actually, yeah, I was called there during first hour today.”

  He didn’t even try to hide his alarm. He lowered his head to search my eyes.

  “Mr. Grewa, I’m fine, really. I’m a lot tougher than I look.”

  “Yes, yes, I can see that.” He nodded and furrowed his brow in confusion.

  I decided to see if I could get some information out of him. I instinctually trusted him. Not enough to spill my guts completely, but enough to let him see I wasn’t exactly just another high school student. “Mr. Grewa, what did you expect to see when you looked in my eyes just now? What were you afraid Mr. Jorgenson had done to me?”

  The gentle teacher raised his index finger in the universal Wait just a minute sign and stepped over to close the door.

  “Sasha, I don’t know what’s going on at this school and I don’t want to scare you, but every other student that’s been called into his office after having shown any amount of backbone during one of the odd occurrences that have happened here lately, has come out of there a changed person. Every other student.”

  “What do you mean, changed?”

  “They either act like their brains have been scrambled somehow, or they become a member of his entourage … or, more accurately, his lackeys. Or, they just disappear …” He looked up at the clock. “You should get going to your next class, but we should definitely talk when there is a little more time. Be safe, Sasha.”

  He ushered me out of his classroom with a strange, hopeful look on his face. I was thinking—distracted—or I might have noticed the three rather large boys closing in on me as I hurried down the hall. Before I knew what was happening, one of them had knocked my books out of my hand and the other two crowded me up against a row of lockers.

  The biggest of the three grabbed my face with one of his giant hands and forced me to look up at him. “We got our eyes on you, Miss Spurlock. Mind your own business or you’ll be sorry, real sorry.” Disgusting spittle flew from his puffy lips, reminding me of a Troll.

  “But, we’ll enjoy it, won’t we, Bubba. We’ll enjoy it real good,” said the zit-faced boy pressing up against me.

  “Shut up, idiot! I’m the only one who talks,” said Bubba Big Lips. Zitface cringed a little. The other boy snickered.

  I’d had more than enough at this point. I knew I couldn’t just zap them right there in the hallway. It wouldn’t be smart to show my hand this early in the game. So instead of magic, I employed some of the Ninja Turtle moves Halli had been teaching us. Did I mention Halli was an incredible martial arts expert? She doesn’t remember how she learned it or even what discipline exactly she was trained in, but she was good, real good, as Zitface would say, grammar be damned. She was like a mini Jackie Chan. Except female. And not Chinese.

  They stood so close to me that I wasn’t able to use my arms. I needed to clear some space. I stomped on Snicker’s instep with bone-crunching force, which caused him to back away with a yelp. I raised my arms and slammed them down hard and fast on Big Lips’ forearms to break the grip he had on my face. He wasn’t expecting that. An elbow to Zitface’s nose and a knee to Big Lips’ groin was enough to allow me the space to escape. I glanced back as I walked away and was satisfied to see blood dripping from Zitface’s hands as he held them to his nose; a somewhat green-skinned Big Lips doubled over, clutching his groin; and Snicker hopping around on one foot.

  It had turned out to be a very eventful day indeed. I couldn’t wait until lunch to compare notes with Seth. I refused to look over my shoulder to see if they were following me. If they wanted to continue the fight, bring it on, I thought. I was in the mood for a good throwdown. I figured those three must be some of the lackeys Mr. Grewa had mentioned. It sure hadn’t taken long for Mr. Jorgenson to sic them on me.

  I slipped into my next class just as the final bell rang.

  I saw Snicker in the hall on my way to lunch. I noted, much to my satisfaction, that he was still limping. I smiled my sweetest serves-you-right-smile at him and continued to the lunchroom. I was glad to see that Seth was sitting at the same table as Alec and Johnathan. Seth and Alec now knew each other from football, so it didn’t give anything away if we all sat together.

  I sat down and Seth said, “Now can I tell you guys?”

  “Tell us what?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Johnathan said. “But hurry up. Looks like Brendon’s headed this way.”

  “Okay. These three punks cornered me in the locker room after gym class and started asking questions about ‘my sister.’” He looked at me.

  “Wait,” I said. “What did these punks look like?”

  “They were big, but not as big as Johnathan—except one that was fatter, with big lips.” He described the three thugs that had pushed me up against the locker.

  “Was one of them limping?” I asked with a small measure of smugness.

  “Yeah, and one of them looked like he was getting two black eyes—wait, how did you know one was limping?”

  “Well, I had an encounter with them, too. They kinda annoyed me.”

  Brendon sidled up to the table before we could finish our stories.

  “Mind if I sit with you guys?” he asked.

  “Not at all. Have a seat, Brendonna.” It didn’t surprise me at all that Alec already had an annoying nickname for Brendon.

  He sat between Johnathan and me. I’d left the empty seat between us on purpose; I didn’t want there to be any chance that we might bump arms or brush legs.

  “So, Sasha, I heard you had a little run-in with some of the school bullies earlier—and that they came out on the losing end. So, what’s the deal? Spill your guts, girl.”

  “That explains a lot,” Seth said.

  “What do you mean? What did they say to you?” Brendon asked.

  I turned to Brendon and explained. “Seth was just telling us he had a ‘run-in’ with the same crew in the locker room.”

  “Well, as I was saying, they cornered me after class. They didn’t even care that the locker room was full. Not that it mattered. No one came to help or even see what was going on. They all just scattered as quickly as possible,” Seth said. “Anyway, they surrounded me and started asking questions, mostly about you,” he nodded toward me.

  “First, the kid with the black eyes”—Zitface—“asked, ‘Do you know karate like your sister?’ I was a little confused and wondered if you’d had anything to do with the darkening circles under his eyes. I said, ‘Yeah, I do’ and
kind of jerked toward him and raised my hands like this”—Seth raised his hands like a gangsta-rapper, totally making me laugh—“he jumped three feet! It was awesome.”

  “What else did they ask?” I said.

  “They all kind of backed up a little then and started asking questions. It sounded like they’d memorized a list. ‘Where did you move from? Does your sister have any other talents?’ The question that bothered me the most, though …” He hesitated and glanced at Brendon before finishing, “was, ‘Do you know what a soul-gaze is?’ I was like ‘What the crap are you talkin’ about? You guys tryin’ to flirt with me or somethin’? I’m not your type—douchebags just don’t do it for me.’ Then I just shoved past them and left the locker room.”

  Seth had a way with words.

  “What’s a soul-gaze?” Brendon asked.

  As if on cue, we all shrugged in the I-don’t-have-a-clue fashion.

  Brendon turned to me. “It’s your turn. Tell us what happened after second hour.”

  I recounted my encounter with the bad boys. Brendon was in awe of my hand-to-hand combat skills and brazen disregard for the bully code—in that I didn’t bow down and get pee-my-pants scared and hand over my lunch money. Johnathan was irate. His eyes started to change color and I knew he needed to calm down before he lost control. I kicked Seth under the table and discreetly nodded at Johnathan, then pointed at my eyes with my back turned to Brendon. Seth immediately understood.

  “Johnathan, let’s go check out the ice cream bars. I’m in the mood for some frozen deliciousness.” Seth stood and gestured to Johnathan to follow him. Johnathan drew in a shaky breath and closed his eyes for a few seconds before standing.

  “Hey! I want one, too. Wait for me!” Alec said, almost falling in his hurry to get up from the table.

  “So … karate, huh? What color belt do you have?” Brendon said.

  “Yeah, well, not officially or anything. We just watch a lot of Ninja Turtles. Michaelangelo is my favorite, so I guess you could say I’m an orange belt.”

  The fact that he understood the reference—and laughed—moved Brendon up a notch in my book.

  The boys made it back to the table with their ice cream. Johnathan was a little calmer, but he still continued to look around for the bullies. I hoped they were far from the cafeteria, not because I was worried for them—they deserved what they deserved—but because I was worried Johnathan would lose himself to the Wolf and go on a beating, killing frenzy. We needed to get him out of there.

  “Come on, guys, let’s go get some fresh air,” I said.

  I headed for the front doors of the school, hoping the bullies wouldn’t cross our path. We made it safely outside and Alec was able to distract Johnathan by talking about the football game that night.

  I didn’t see the Bad Boys again that day. After school, Halli met us with dinner at a nearby park. We hung out until just before the boys were supposed to be at the field to prepare for the game, then walked there together. The plan was to pass Halli off as my cousin. Alec and Seth headed to the locker room while Johnathan, Halli and I started for the football field. The game didn’t start for another hour but there were plenty of students milling about, so we milled about with them and tried to listen in on conversations. We wandered over by the fenced-in shop area where Johnathan and I had gone our first night there, where we’d seen the tank contraption. We peered through the locked gate, but didn’t see anything unusual—not that we expected to.

  “We really need to figure out where they’re hiding that thing. I’d like to take a closer look at it and get a sample of what’s inside those tanks,” Johnathan said.

  “Maybe we should make another late night visit, since that’s when we saw it here before,” I suggested.

  He squirmed a little and frowned at that suggestion. I doubted it was the thought of returning at night, but the thought of being alone with me that bothered him.

  “All five of us could come. That way we could spread out a little and have back-up if needed,” I said. The twitching muscle in his jaw instantly relaxed. It broke my heart, the idea he was afraid to be alone with me.

  As the football stadium filled up, we made our way to the student section. I looked around at the sparse crowd. The visiting team bleachers had more spectators. There were only four cheerleaders on our side. I assumed there’d been many more before their school had been invaded by weirdness and suicide. The crowd was equal parts subdued and over-the-top zealous. I could guess by watching them which students had started the party a little early and which students had some brain-fry going on from past parties. I wondered, as I looked around, which were Jorgenson’s followers. How many more were there?

  As the teams ran out onto the field to warm up, it was obvious that the Edwards Falcons were undermanned. The visiting team had at least twice as many players.

  The announcer came on the speakers: “Please stand for the National Anthem. Directly following the National Anthem, Principal Jorgenson wishes to say a few words.”

  My stomach flipped just a little. I’d really been hoping he wouldn’t be here, that he’d be holed up in his Evil Lair somewhere, plotting his revenge on the Girl Who Dared Defy His Gaze.

  Even though I knew it was coming, a chill still ran down my neck when his voice came over the loudspeaker. “Parents and students, welcome to Friday Night Lights at Edwards High School! It’s great to see the support for our football team and our school after a very rough and tragic few weeks. I want to assure you all that we are deeply concerned with the well-being of our students and are doing all within our power to keep them safe. Your support is a wonderful step in the healing process. We would like to dedicate this game to the memory of those we’ve recently lost. I would like to welcome the Garfield Bulldogs to our field tonight and wish our Falcons good luck! Let’s get it started!”

  Really, I thought. Let’s get it started? Isn’t that a song or something? What a lame-o. A lame-o that made my skin crawl. I had to force myself not to slink down and hide. The announcer’s box was right above and to the right of where we sat, and I could almost feel his creepy eyes scanning the crowd for me.

  I forgot all about Mr. Jorgenson once the game started. I’d almost forgotten how much I loved football. Alec had not been exaggerating when he said he had mad skills as a running back. He must have run up almost two hundred yards and he scored two of the three Falcon touchdowns. I knew he could run fast, but his ability to sense holes in the defense was equally impressive. Seth was also awesome. He had five sacks and was still a force to be reckoned with when they started to double up on blocking him.

  We ended up winning by two points when Seth outmaneuvered his blockers and tackled the Bulldog punter in the end zone for a safety. It was awesome. The adrenaline of a tight game is infectious. Even some of the zombie kids perked up a little.

  We waited by the outside entrance to the locker rooms for our triumphant friends. They were totally stoked, chest-bumping with each other, then Johnathan. They even hugged me and Halli. I was glad they’d taken the time to shower before coming out.

  They talked excitedly about the game as if we hadn’t just witnessed it for ourselves: “Did you see when I vaulted over that kid’s head for a touchdown?” and “Did you see the third time I sacked the QB and he had to be helped off the field?” And a million other “Did you sees.”

  “That was an awesome game!” a passing teammate called. “You guys are MVPs. Are you comin’ to the party? You have to come to the party, it’s gonna be epic!”

  “Yeah, we’ll be there,” Seth answered.

  “Bring your hot sister, too.” He leered at me. I wanted to tell him to go suck a raw egg, but I smiled instead, like it was a privilege to be called “hot” by one of such obvious greatness. I glanced over at Johnathan, but he seemed to be handling himself okay.

  We waited a few more minutes for Brendon to exit the building. The plan was for us to go to his family’s diner and take him up on his offer of free food while pa
cifying his fear of us attending the party. Then, we would go to the party.

  “You guys ready to taste the best burgers and fries you’ve ever had?” he asked.

  “And shakes?” Seth asked, hopefully.

  Brendon laughed. “Yeah, and shakes. You guys deserve shakes for sure after that game. That’s the first game we’ve won since … well, since the beginning of the season.”

  Lucky’s Diner was decorated with green shamrocks, rabbit’s feet, horseshoes and other supposedly lucky memorabilia. I looked around at the booths and tables packed with customers—a good indication of the quality of the food. Brendon’s parents had saved us a booth close to the kitchen, and his sister brought us drinks while Brendon went in the back to change into his work clothes: a green t-shirt with Lucky’s on the front, a pair of Levis, and a white apron.

  It was, by far, the best food I’d eaten in at least a year and a half. The burgers dripped with grease. I had a bacon cheeseburger that took up more than half the plate. He brought us a huge basket of fries to share and refilled it at least twice that I know of. I soon had a little brain-drain going on, as all my circulating blood was shunted to my guts to help digest the cholesterol-laden feast. Johnathan ate his burger, probably two baskets of fries and the half of Halli’s burger she couldn’t finish.

  I didn’t think any of us could possibly eat another mouthful. I was wrong. Brendon brought out six huge chocolate shakes in tall glasses and sat down to drink his with us.

  “Hey, Sasha,” Brendon grinned. “What did the blonde say when she saw the Cheerios box?”

  I pursed my lips and raised an eyebrow at him. “Blonde jokes? Really?”

  “She said,” he continued as if I hadn’t even spoken, “awesome, donut seeds!”

  Johnathan spit chocolate shake across the table. I smiled as his laughter mixed with the other boys’—even though it was at my and my fellow blonde’s expense.