Hidden Realms

by Dean Murray

  I blew out a puff of air. “Is there anything this school doesn’t spread like a wild fire?”

  “It’s high school. Gossip is all we have.” Callie looked me over, scrutinizing me with a frown. “You look like hell.”

  “Thanks.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “When was the last time you washed your hair?”

  “Last night,” I said, pulling the straw-like strands into a hasty ponytail to shield them from her critical eyes. Or was it two nights ago? Hair washing had not been a priority as of late.

  She made a face like she didn’t believe me. “It’s looking a little on the orange side.”

  That was me, the freak with the burnt orange hair. It used to be pretty—long blonde waves with a touch of strawberry. That was another life, another girl. The girl I was now had more important things than hair to deal with. Like dead friends, classmates who thought I was a witch, and a mystery man whose motives I couldn’t figure out.

  “You ready to get out of here?” Callie asked.

  “You have no idea.”

  But she did. She was my friend for a reason, even if our bond didn’t make much sense.

  Callie was everything I wasn’t. She was borderline annoyingly bubbly, wore makeup, dated boys in rapid succession, and had a new hair style and color every other week—today was an almost black bob with dark red highlights. She preferred getting a manicure to watching a football game, loved to shop for fun, and excelled in high school social politics. We were very different, but it worked for us. I couldn’t imagine high school without her. Every day, I was grateful for the turn of events that had kept Callie out of the car that night.

  “I have to grab my math book,” she said, stopping at her locker. “Big quiz tomorrow.”

  “That you won’t study for,” I added drily.

  She shrugged, and slipped the book into her bag anyway. Our lack of interest in school was one thing we did share. Before the accident, school nights had been nuisances that stood in the way of socializing. That was until we had mastered the art of sneaking out. Well, Callie hadn’t, which was why she had been grounded the night of the accident.

  “So what happened in class?” Callie asked once we started down the hall. Aside from us, it was empty.

  “The usual nightmare.” Callie knew about my dreams, everything except the guy that frequented them.

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “Not really.”

  Callie knew the drill. I talked when I wanted to, which wasn’t often. And when I did, I never, ever told her everything. Sure, I felt bad about keeping things from my best friend. I also didn’t want her to think I was crazier than she probably already thought I was. If I didn’t understand my mystery guy, how could I explain his existence to her without sounding like a raving lunatic? The short answer: I couldn’t. So, I kept him a secret. It was easier than defending my sanity.

  We crept quietly past the office, the empty cafeteria, and the gym, where the squeaking of shoes on the polished basketball court and cries of war signaled the start of a wild game of dodge ball. Through trial and error, we had learned that the door at the back of the gym was the best route of escape. The student parking lot was a short dash from there.

  The sun felt warm on my face, the air chilly. The weather here was often confusing. In western North Carolina, we were far enough south to get mild winters, but elevated high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the town of Boone saw more harsh weather than mild.

  It was a good ski town...for skiers, which I wasn’t.

  Callie and I made a beeline for her white Honda Civic, parked in the rear of the lot. About halfway there, she turned to me excitedly.

  “Have you seen the new guy yet?” She wiggled her eyebrows as if to say, wow.

  “Cute, is he?” I asked with little interest. Callie was boy crazy. I wasn’t.

  “Not cute. So hot he doesn’t belong at this school,” Callie amended, and then went into listing all the reasons why he was so hot, but I wasn’t paying much attention.

  I recalled my own arrival six years ago. Having played the foster home shuffle as a child, I knew all too well what it was like to be the new kid. That had changed when I came to live in Boone. My life has been different since the move. Better, thanks to Gran, and because of him, the guy who frequented my dreams, the one I couldn’t get out of my head...

  The same one I saw now, in the flesh, with my own two non-dreaming eyes.

  I stopped and blinked at what I thought at first to be a mirage. He stood on the corner a block away, wearing shades so I couldn’t see his eyes, but from everything else about him—his hair, size, shape, build, and even the way he didn’t move—I knew it was him. I felt his eyes on me, watching me.

  I glanced around for the source of danger. Nothing looked out of place. Only him.

  “Hey...” Callie was talking to me. “Are you listening to me?”

  It occurred to me that maybe he hadn’t expected me. I was supposed to be in school, in class. Not in the parking lot. Maybe my sudden appearance had taken him by surprise? With a determination to cash in on this unexpected encounter, I bolted across the parking lot at a full on run, heading straight for him. Seeing my intentions, he turned and disappeared around the corner. Callie called my name, but I tuned her out and pumped my arms harder. I would not let him get away. Not without some answers.

  As I approached the road, I slowed long enough for a car to pass, and then darted across. By the time I reached the corner, he was long gone. I ran into the middle of the street he had fled down and swept my eyes from side to side, looking for movement.

  Cars lined the street on both sides, bumper to bumper, the whole way to the next intersection. I glanced over my shoulder to be sure I wasn’t about to be hit by a car, then walked down the road, my feet straddling the single yellow line in the middle.

  In the distance, a car door shut and an engine roared to life. A second after I spotted it, a sporty black Jeep pulled away from the curb, sped to the intersection, and took a fast right without stopping. I ran after it but, by the time I got to the intersection, it was nowhere in sight.

  I stood in the middle of the road, staring in the direction he had gone, and held a hand to my side as I fought to catch my breath. I hadn’t seen the driver, but I hadn’t needed to. I knew it was him.

  Again, he had gotten away. But I had seen his vehicle. I knew what he drove. It was the most I had gotten in fourteen years.

  CHAPTER 2

  I had a long therapy session with my journal that evening. Gran checked on me once, brought me some food. She must have guessed that I had a rough day and left me alone. She was always good about that.

  I fell asleep late and woke up late, with the journal sprawled across my chest and sunlight peeking through the curtains. I glanced at the clock and groaned. I flung the journal across the room, crawled out of bed, dressed in the first thing I found, ran a brush through my hair and ultimately decided to pull it up in a ponytail.

  I was going to be so late.

  I grabbed my cell from the kitchen counter and checked it as I dashed out the door. There were two missed calls from Callie half an hour ago. She would have gone to school without me by now. That left me to walk, which would make me even later.

  It was a fifteen minute brisk walk to the school. Second period classes were half way over by the time I got there. Racing through the front door, I didn’t see the boy until I crashed into him, and sent the contents in both of our arms scattering across the lobby.

  I groaned again. This day was not off to a promising start.

  I glanced at the victim of my clumsiness, a meek apology ready, and stopped with my mouth gaped open, the words stuck to my tongue.

  Whoever he was, he was cute—like just stepped out of a magazine cute. His dirty blonde hair was purposefully and stylishly unruly. The jade hue of his eyes was so bold there was no way they could be real. A ring hooked his left eyebrow and I glimpsed part of a tattoo on the back of his neck, above
the collar of his shirt. His clothes—faded and torn jeans and an Abercrombie t-shirt—fit as if they were made for him.

  He could be the poster boy for chastity belts. His easy smile promised trouble, like he knew he was every father’s worse nightmare. The flash of a tongue ring drew my eyes to his mouth, and he beat me to an apology, since I was temporarily stunned.

  “I’m sorry.” He stooped to pick up the mess at our feet. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

  He had an accent I couldn’t place. And, my God, those eyes...

  Where did this guy come from? He had to be the new kid. Callie was right. He was hot.

  “I’m pretty sure I ran into you.” I picked up a few books that weren’t mine and handed them to him. “I’m running a little late.”

  “That makes two of us.” He shrugged like he didn’t care, and I was sure he really didn’t. He handed me the strewn contents of my book bag and a blush rose on my cheeks, though I didn’t know why. Things could have been worse. It could have been a gym day and my sports bra had hit the floor at his feet. I should be grateful that it was only a pack of cheese-flavored crackers he held out to me. “Healthy lunch?”

  “Better than the food the school tries to force on us,” I returned with a shrug.

  He nodded like I had said something ingenious. “It really is horrible. My last school wasn’t this bad.”

  Having collected our belongings, we both stood and started toward the office to check in. One of those annoying high school rules meant to keep us in line, and the adults in charge. Or so they thought.

  “Where was your last school?” I asked, wondering about that accent I had detected.

  Like everyone else, he was several inches taller than me and had to look down when he answered. “Colorado. Outside Aspen.” He would be a skier. No, snowboarder. He had that pot-smoking girl-on-each-arm snowboarder vibe.

  “What brought you to middle of nowhere Boone?”

  His gaze drifted ever so slightly before he looked at me. “I can’t pop that mystery bubble so soon, now can I?”

  Death or divorce, I thought. Or...he almost had the edge of a foster kid, something that might make others uncomfortable, but I found familiar, like I recognized a kindred spirit. And, while I wasn’t the best interpreter of this sort of thing, I would swear he was flirting with me.

  “Maybe I’ll solve the mystery someday,” I said. Correction: I was terrible at this sort of thing.

  He returned a definitely flirtatious, and downright sexy, grin. “Yeah, maybe.”

  He was nice enough, but a much better flirt than me, and I was relieved when we reached the office. The secretary looked up from her computer in that way all adults looked at teenagers when it was assumed they were up to no good.

  “Excuses?” she asked without any preamble.

  We both shook our heads and she sighed in annoyance. As she pulled out the tardy slips, she asked for our names. That was how I learned that his was Alec Sierra.

  She didn’t bother to ask my name. She knew it. I was a frequent flyer through the office and had acquired a not-quite-a-trouble-maker-yet reputation. More like a thorn in their ass. After the accident, I had skyrocketed to infamy. Everyone knew who I was. Kristina Young. The smartass new chick— in a town where everyone has known each other since diapers—who had no family, lived with the strange but super sweet old lady the whole town adores, and walked away from the worst disaster to hit this town in thirty years.

  Yep, the secretary definitely knew who I was. Even the new kid noticed.

  After we were given the unexcused tardy lecture and ordered straight to our second period classes, we exited the office together. I barely took two steps before he swiped my excuse.

  “Kristina Young,” he read out loud. He turned to me, his hand extended. “I’m Alec, but I guess you already know that. It’s nice to officially meet you, Kristina.”

  I grimaced at the use of my full name, but took his hand. “Nice to meet you too, Alec,” I said. “And please, call me Kris.”

  “Kris?” He cast me a sideways glance. “Don’t like your full name?”

  “Despise it,” I said with exaggerated emphasis.

  We reached his locker first and I stopped to wait for him as we talked about everything, and yet nothing. Next thing I knew, we were standing next to my locker, the door open, my books unmoved, still chatting away. I heard of his confusion about foods popular in this part of the country, some language barriers he was adjusting to, what teachers he had, and what neighborhood he had moved to—not far from mine actually. I was in the process of dishing on the habits of certain teachers when the bell rang.

  I jumped and glanced at him with widened eyes. He shrugged at me as students brushed past us, hurrying to their third period classes.

  “I’m sure we didn’t miss anything,” he said. “I had more fun doing this anyway.”

  I retrieved the books I would need and shot him a small smile. “Me too.”

  He noted the incredulity in my voice, and feigned a broken heart. “Surprised by that?”

  “I just—” I stammered. “I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just been a rough week for me.”

  I saw the flicker of recognition on his face, and knew that he had heard about the accident. It was the curse of going to a small town school. Everyone knew everything. For a moment, I wondered what the others had told him. Then, I decided it didn’t matter.

  With a secretive smile, he said, “Well, that’s about to change.”

  “What?”

  He leaned forward like he had a secret to share with me and dropped his voice. “People can’t help but have fun around me.”

  That I could believe.

  “And you’re on my radar now, so I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot more of me,” he added as he backed up, hands in his pockets. With a parting grin, he turned and walked away.

  A cluster of passing junior girls slowed and stared. I kept my eyes on his back as he navigated the hallway, and ignored the stares with perfected indifference. Half way down the hall, he glanced over his shoulder and shot me a killer grin. For the first time in weeks, the smile I returned wasn’t a forced one.

  Callie cornered me at lunch. “Okay. Spill it.” She set her tray down and plopped into the seat next to me. She leaned her elbows onto the table eagerly, and waited for the juicy details. She wasn’t going to get them. She should know by now that, when it came to boys, I wasn’t as exciting as she expected me to be.

  “Apparently you already know,” I said coyly as I bit into a cracker.

  “I had to hear it from Kathy.” Her voice dripped of disapproval. Kathy was the self-appointed school gossip. Of course she would be all over Alec and me talking in the hallway. She also had a way of exaggerating the facts.

  “Heard what exactly?” I asked.

  “You and the new kid were skipping together and getting chummy this morning. I can’t believe you stood me up and didn’t at least tell me it was for a boy, let alone a hot one.”

  Our friends, Josh and Danny, sat down across from us. Josh had a thing for Callie, though neither of them knew it yet. In eighth grade, I endured seven minutes in heaven with Danny. Really, only thirty seconds. We spent the other six and a half minutes comparing playlists. That was the closest I have ever come to having a boyfriend.

  “I heard you two are going out tomorrow night,” Josh volunteered.

  “I heard the quarry tonight,” Danny countered.

  “The quarry?” I squeaked. Where the entire school goes to park and make out? Me?

  My three friends laughed. They knew me and knew how ridiculous the rumors were. The rest of the school unfortunately...

  I turned to Callie in desperation. “We just talked.” Not only was it embarrassing, but I felt a little guilty about it. She had been the one admiring him from afar for days. “It was nothing. He probably doesn’t even remember my name.”

  “Uh-huh,” Callie said with a goofy look on her face. She dropped h
er voice to a whisper. “Then why is he on his way over here right now?”

  “What?”

  I turned in a panic as Alec strolled up behind me, holding out a purple and yellow folder with a lily on the front that I recognized as mine. He looked like he thought he should be embarrassed to have it in his possession, but didn’t care. Not really. He was the type of guy that could take a small hit to his ego. It wasn’t going to go anywhere.

  “I found this mixed in with my math homework. Imagine how humiliated I was pulling it out in front of the whole class.” The smile in his eyes made the jade sparkle, and I had a hard time looking directly at them.

  “Oh, sorry about that.” I took the folder from him with a grimace. “That can’t be easy to overcome. That’s probably going to be how everyone will remember you now.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I’m ruined for the rest of my high school career. The whole four months.” He stared at me a beat, his hands stuffed in his pockets. “You owe me.”

  How did he make that sound so...hot? I smiled awkwardly as my cheeks warmed. A quick glance confirmed that at least half of the ever-observant eyes in the cafeteria were watching us. Alec noticed at the same time I did, and he took a step back, raising his hand as if to wave goodbye.

  And Callie kicked my shin. Hard.

  The words tumbled out of my mouth before I had time to second guess myself. “Hey, Alec, do you want to sit here? With us?” I shot a frantic look at Callie, who grinned from ear to ear. “Or do you already have a table?”

  He drew in a breath, and squinted his eyes thoughtfully as he surveyed the room. “I’ve experimented a bit. I’m definitely not welcome at the jock table. Or the smart kids table. The outcast table had some promise…”