Joss’s mom’s car pulled into the drive and I watched Joss get out, walk over to the cement planter in front of the school, and sit down. It was still early and there weren’t a lot of kids around. Even though I wanted to go talk to her, I found myself just standing there and not moving forward.
I objected to Eric’s term “chicken-shit.” I’d never had problems talking to girls before. And I wouldn’t say that it’s because I didn’t care before, because it wasn’t like that. It’s just that Joss mattered in a way those other girls didn’t. Maybe that’s why it always seemed like I was saying something stupid, or wrong, or pissing her off. She was so damned complicated and different that I was never sure what to say or what she thought about me.
Oh yeah, and there was that whole thing about my Talent we might have to talk about some more. I thought that I’d be more relieved that she finally knew, but it was more like I was just realizing what an idiot dick I’d been for not telling her sooner. And I don’t know why I hadn’t told her. It just never seemed like a good time, until later when I’d think, oh, that would have been a perfect time. Maybe if I had a cool one… Something useful like Marco or even Tony. Or Joss.
Whatever. Stop stalling and go talk to her already before everyone else gets here.
When I turned the corner, she spotted me right away. She didn’t jump up or wave or anything, but I thought that maybe there was a little smile there, just at first. And this was the dumbest part about the whole thing: Joss was into me. I knew she was. And I was probably really messing with her by not doing anything about it. But then, what if whatever move I made was wrong? What if I screwed things up before they ever got started? She was so…self-sufficient. Would she even bother giving me a second chance?
I plopped myself down on the planter next to her and brilliantly said, “Hey.”
“Hey.”
She looked up at me. Joss’s eyes are really big and dark. She wasn’t one to give a lot away by her expression, but I was pretty sure the key was in her eyes. I just hadn’t figured out how to read her. Possibly because I was distracted by the freckles across her nose and cheeks which really did things to me, which makes me sound totally perverted.
Try not to make an ass of yourself first thing in the morning.
But it was hard because when she was looking up at me, I couldn’t help thinking about that one time I’d kissed her. And how she’d kissed me back.
I had to clear my throat. “How’re you doin’?”
“I’m okay, you?”
“Okay.” I looked up at the sky. Oh, no, you are not going to talk about the weather. “So, um, what happened with your dad after you guys dropped me off?”
She made a noise in her throat. “He’s not happy. He said some stuff to indicate his state of non-happiness, but I think it’s going to blow over.”
“Oh. Well, good.”
There was an awkward silence as we watched the other kids. Eric and Kat pulled into the parking lot and started their morning make-out in the front seat. Maddy and Matt pulled up a minute later. Maddy immediately started banging on Eric’s car with her gloved fist, trying to get their attention.
“I called Eric when I got home,” I told Joss, “to let him know how things turned out. He said he was going to let Kat know, and she probably called Heather. Hey, did you know Kat took over for me at Casey’s when Eric and I blew out of there last night? Wonder how that worked out.”
“Hard to imagine Kat, you know, working. I guess I should have called Kat? And/or Heather? I totally never thought of that.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“This friends thing is really complicated.”
Tell me about it. “You’re doing fine.” I knew that making this transition from confirmed loner to friends with the bunch of us was hard for her. It was another reason I didn’t want to push her with the boy/girl stuff. Or so I told myself.
But there were chicken noises in my head.
We watched the twins and the lovers make their way across the street where they were joined by Heather and Elizabeth. The group could hardly make it up the sidewalk for trying to talk and walk at the same time. I had wasted most of my opportunity to talk to Joss about last night. Idiot. If I was going to say anything, I’d better get it out now.
But then Joss spoke. “I…” she hesitated, clearly uncertain, “I don’t know if you want to hear this, but I kind of want to say it.”
Well, that was kind of scary and intriguing. “Yeah?”
“I might be on my way to the State School this morning if you hadn’t covered me there at the end last night.”
I couldn’t stop the shudder that went up my spine at the thought of Joss being taken to one of those government-run research “schools,” never to be heard from again. I know she felt me twitch. “Don’t say shit like that.” I actually started to raise my hand for the cigarette that wasn’t there, because I had quit for good this time.
“You really came through for me last night. You knew I was in trouble and you came for me. It doesn’t matter how I was doing when you got there, it matters that you came. So thank you.”
She had directed this speech to the tops of her boots, and she had timed it perfectly, so that, almost as soon as the words were spoken, Kat was on her in a giant hug, everyone was grouped around us, and we didn’t have to talk anymore. Which was great, because I didn’t know where to go with that. If I’d opened my mouth, I’m sure I would have blown it off and made a jerk of myself, just so I could start breathing again. I caught myself rubbing at my chest like I could make my heart loosen up like any other muscle. I dropped my hand.
“We were so worried about you last night!” Kat was talking a mile a minute. “Eric said that Dylan said you were okay, and that you totally kicked some ass. No surprise there, but—”
“Volume, Kathryn,” Heather reminded. She probably didn’t even have to use her mind-reading to pick up on Joss’s worry that someone would overhear.
“We’re all just glad you’re okay,” Matt said. And then to me, “You should have called me. I would have helped.” He jammed his fist into his open palm aggressively.
“Oh yeah, what would you have done?” Prep. I almost said it, but I didn’t. Matt meant well, and I guess it wasn’t his fault his mother dressed him like that.
“I’d have told them to all go fuck themselves, of course.”
Since Matt’s Talent is putting thoughts into people’s heads, which sometimes results in them being compelled to do his bidding, the visual this brought on had everyone cracking up.
“There’s, um, that other news. That Joss might want to hear about before the bell rings,” Elizabeth’s quiet voice barely cut through the laughter.
“Oh, right,” Kat said. “Kevin—what was his name?”
“I forget,” Eric said.
“I don’t think we know his last name yet,” Heather added.
“Yeah, okay. Some freshman Talent got taken last night.”
I muttered an expletive, but Joss was silent. She probably had a tally in her head about how many had been taken since the beginning of school—or of time, for all I knew. She might even know the exact rate of increase in the disappearances in the last several weeks. There had been a lot.
“Do you know what he could do?” I asked.
“There’s a rumor going around that his Talent was blood-typing,” Eric said.
“That just sounds gross.” Kat made a face.
“Apparently there was no bleeding required. He could just touch someone and be able to tell their blood-type. You know they always do that lab in Bio? There was some girl who didn’t want her finger pricked, so he just told her what kind of blood she had. Some of the kids claim he guessed theirs and then they did the test to confirm it and he was always right on.” Eric shrugged. “I figured he was just a good guesser. I guess NIAC didn’t.”
“That sucks,” Maddy spat.
“Chivalry is a risky business,” Eric said. “Hope it was worth it.”
* * *
Joss
Singled out and called out of class again. At least it wasn’t Dobbs this time, the guidance counselor from Hell. As I made my way to the nurse’s office, I indulged in the huge yawn I’d been holding back in Chem. Lousy nightmares kept waking me up last night. If that wasn’t enough to put me in a mood, it was another one of those days when everyone was whispering about another Talent being taken, and that so set me on edge.
Yeah, I should really just be happy I wasn’t on my way to Dobbs’s office to talk about my feelings.
I turned into the doorway of the nurse’s office and—whoa, that is not Nurse Judy’s butt. Not unless some flesh-eating virus came and ate half of it.
The woman bent over the filing cabinet was about half the size of Nurse Judy, and maybe half her age, too, though it was hard to tell since I didn’t spend too much time analyzing women from this angle. She was wearing a short, white dress, white stockings, white comfy shoes, and when she straightened and turned to me, tossing a long, red ponytail over her shoulder, I saw that she was even wearing the cap!
Excuse me, is it Halloween again and someone forgot to tell me? Who does that?
“Hello,” she said, smiling at me with bright red lipstick. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you yet. I’m Ms. Chambers, the new nurse.”
That must have been in response to the dumbstruck look on my face at 50s pin-up nurse lady. I made sure my mouth was closed. “Oh. I’m Joss Marshall.” I extended my hall pass. “You called for me?”
“Joss. Jocelyn? Yes, of course, dear. Please, have a seat.” She extended her hand toward a chair and we sat down on either side of her desk. “I’ve been perusing some of the student files, familiarizing myself, and when I came across yours I found it…troubling.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Don’t be sorry, dear,” she told me, as though she actually thought I was apologizing for troubling her, which we both knew I wasn’t. Why do people do that? “I’m very concerned about these injuries Nurse Judy noted in your file recently.”
Damn. I kept my expression carefully blank. After that fight I’d had with Marco, Dad and I had agreed that we should try to downplay what we were calling a car accident as much as possible. We didn’t want to deal with a doctor’s questions, so I didn’t see one and didn’t get a note for PE. But then when I tried to tough it out in the gym, Coach Penley could tell something was wrong and I’d wound up getting poked at by Nurse Judy.
“Oh. Well, I’m doing a lot better. All better, really. And I’m wearing a seat belt all the time now, even in the back seat. Trust me.”
“Well that’s good to hear, dear.” Did she have to call me “dear” every time she spoke? Seriously, what was she, like, five minutes older than me? “But these kinds of injuries,” her open palm bounced up and down in the air above the file, “are consistent with…”
She didn’t finish. We just sat there in silence until I finally broke and raised a brow at her.
“Is anyone hurting you, Joss?”
“No.”
“Maybe someone at home, someone here at school, someone you know, someone you care about?”
“Ms. Chambers, I was in a car accident. But that’s history now.”
“You have an abrasion on your forehead.”
I started to reach up but then made my hand lie still on the arm of the chair. I’d gotten a nice scrapey bruise at some point when Corey was slamming my face into that wall. Mom had covered it up with makeup this morning, but I guess it was wearing off. Great.
“I was getting a box from the stockroom at my parents’ store. It was heavier than I thought and hit me in the head. But it’s fine. No big deal.”
“How often do you work at your parents’ business? How many hours a week would you say?”
That was the beginning of a really annoying Q&A involving a lot of personal questions about my family which I answered. No sense giving her a hard time. That would make her more suspicious when I just wanted out of there and for her to file that file.
“And your boyfriend, Dylan Maxwell, everything okay there?”
“Dylan’s not—” Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. Was that in my file? Not damn likely. So what the hell?
“Jocelyn, Dylan’s had his problems, I know. Often a boy like that will—”
“Ms. Chambers! I got a pretty banged up knee here,” a deep voice called out from behind me.
I turned in my chair as the nurse got up and moved around the desk. Coach Penley was helping some guy I didn’t know limp into the room. Blood ran down from his knee to his sock.
“Well ouch!” Ms. Chambers exclaimed in a higher-pitched voice than she’d been using a moment ago. Kind of like she was talking to a baby or pet. “I’ll bet that didn’t tickle. I’m sure it looks worse than it is. Coach, why don’t you help him sit down in the examination area over there and I’ll be right with you.” She turned to me. “Jocelyn, I’m not finished speaking with you yet. I won’t be long, so please wait right there.” Then she disappeared behind the screen.
Coach Penley came out. “Joss,” he said, and nodded at me. I raised my hand in little wave and he walked out.
Alone at last. I reached across the desk for my file.
“Ms. Chambers?!”
I jumped in my seat, yanked my hand back, and turned to see Bella limping into the room.
“I’m with a student!”
“I…went for a run last night,” Bella rolled her eyes at me, “and turned my ankle. Can I get some ice?”
“Of course, dear. Have a seat and I’ll be right with you.”
Bella limped over to a padded bench beneath the windows along the side of the room and plopped down on it. She just sat there, staring at her outstretched feet, and didn’t look like she had anything to say to me at all.
I got up and sat down next to her. “I’m glad I’m getting a chance to talk to you,” I said, pitching my voice low so it wouldn’t be heard on the other side of the curtained divider. “I gotta thank you for what you did last night. You really saved my ass.”
“Yeah, like literally,” she said snidely. “But I didn’t do it for you.”
“Okay…”
“Look, don’t think we’re friends or anything just ’cause I helped you out. It didn’t have anything to do with you. It’s just…Marco’s, like, obsessed with you, did you know that? He talks about you a lot. I see him watching you when you deign to show yourself in the cafeteria. And I’m not the kind of stupid that thinks him getting a piece of you is gonna get that out of his system. Not hardly. So if you want to thank me, you just keep this in mind, okay? Marco is mine.”
Uh, yeah, okay. Welcome to him. I couldn’t think of anything appropriate to say.
“Don’t give me that look. Like Dylan’s such a prize. Invisibility? Give me a break. When NIAC comes to town, am I gonna want to be with the guy who can beat them all down without breaking a sweat, or the guy who will disappear to save his own ass? Think about that.”
I really didn’t need to think about that, because Bella’s conception of the personalities in question was clearly at odds with reality. But was this what it was coming to? With all these Talents being taken, the paranoia rising, was this how kids were going to start thinking? I remembered what Heather said to me after Kat’s party, about the Talents wanting to group together, feeling safer with their own kind. And here was Bella, pretty much willing to prostitute herself for that false perception of safety.
Damn.
“Bella…” I began.
“Vivian?” Mr. Dobbs strolled in with his hands in his pants pockets, his cardigan bunched up over them, and his Looney Tunes necktie hanging on the outside. He didn’t seem to notice us sitting by the window.
“Neil?” Ms. Chambers hurried out from behind the screen. Dobb’s smiled hugely, grabbed her around the waist, pulled her to him and just laid one on her.
“Is this the Twilight Zone?” Bella asked.
I kind of hope so, I thought, be
cause this is a reality I don’t want to contemplate.
The public display of affection went on, gaining momentum. There was groping. Finally, Bella coughed “Gross!” into her hand.
Dobbs immediately released Ms. Chambers. So immediately that she almost landed on her ass. He was bright red as he whirled toward us. “Girls! I didn’t see you there.” He took off his glasses and began furiously polishing them with the end of his tie.
“Obviously,” Bella drawled.
“Joss, we can continue our conversation at a later time,” Ms. Chambers said briskly, smoothing her naughty nurse dress. “Let me get you a hall pass.”
“I have the one from earlier. I’m sure it’s fine.” I just wanted to get out of there.
“All right, dear. Bella? Shall we see about that ice?”
“Sure,” she was saying as I was skulking out the door, trying not to look at Dobbs. “We could probably all use a little cooling off.”
* * *
Joss
I was all kinds of jumpy when I turned the corner of my stairwell at lunchtime and saw Dylan sitting in my hideout. First, it was because I still wasn’t used to anyone showing up. For years this spot, at the top of a dark, winding stairway in the older part of the school, had been reliably ignored. It seemed its popularity increased along with mine.
I had mixed feelings about that: people bad, Dylan good. Which was what the other jumpy was about.
I shouldn’t have been surprised that he showed up. He wouldn’t want to chance running into Marco and his friends in the caf’ today. And maybe he knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t really want to be alone, after the news about that Kevin kid. Just because I always was, just because I was used to being alone, didn’t mean I really liked it that way. Did he know that?
I flopped down beside him on the landing and dug our lunch out of my bag. More likely he’s just following his stomach. Since Dylan had his big friend break-up with Marco and was occasionally avoiding the cafeteria scene up here with me, I’d started packing more food. I felt weird about it, because bringing his lunch seemed kinda girlfriend-y and I didn’t want to seem…whatever. But the boy had to eat, didn’t he?
Heroes 'Til Curfew Page 5
