Between Lies Read online

  ***

  This wasn’t happening. I wasn’t lying on a table in the nurse’s office. I simply couldn’t be. But the crunchy paper sheet underneath me and the crisp white walls with pictures of human anatomy, “Feel better” signs, and smiling apples promoting good dental hygiene told me I was. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. Reopening them confirmed I wasn’t dreaming. I was in Nurse Katy’s clinic.

  I moved to sit up and Ms. Katy turned in her chair from where her desk sat in the corner.

  “Honey, I wouldn’t sit up yet. Let’s let you lie there a few more minutes and then I’ll help you sit up. You need to drink something. Would you like apple or orange juice?”

  I opened my mouth to tell her I didn’t need anything, but the look on her face changed my mind. “Apple, please.” My voice sounded weak and it was a relief to lean back until I was resting against the papery pillow again. I remembered Trina running from the room and looked around, expecting to see her lying on another table. But it was only me. Did she go back to class?

  “Apple it is!” Her cheery voice made me feel worse. Was I always going to be doomed to spending half my school time in a nurse’s office?

  She opened a tiny fridge and pulled out a juice box. She brought it and a small bag of saltine crackers over to my bed and set them on a bedside table I didn’t realize was there. “Okay, on three we’re going to pull you up so I can put some extra pillows behind you. Ready? One, two, three.” Her little arm snaked behind my shoulders and with surprising strength, lifted me up while simultaneously sliding two more pillows behind my back. “There, now ease back and enjoy your snack. You had a little fainting spell in Coach Anderson’s class. Have you ever passed out before? I mean besides the first time we met?”

  I took a sip of my juice before answering. “Yes, ma’am. A few months ago.”

  “Hmm,” she said, writing something down on a little pad of paper she’d pulled from her coat pocket. “Tell me, Sadie. Are you sexually active?”

  Startled at the question, I looked at her in shock. “What? No! That’s not—” I gulped, and tried again. “No, that’s not even a remote possibility.”

  Her light eyes assessed me. “It’s okay to tell me. I won’t tell anyone, not even your parents. Unless, of course, I am led to believe that you could be a danger to yourself or others. I’m here to educate and assist my students about the responsibilities and possible consequences of sexual activity.”

  What was she talking about? Why did she want to know if I was having sex? “I’m confused, Ms. Katy. What are you getting at? Why would me fainting cause you to ask me if I’m”—I couldn’t bring myself to say the word—“having se… intimacy with someone?”

  Her answer was direct. “To make sure you’re not pregnant.”

  I stared at her, my mouth slightly agape. And then I started laughing. I didn’t mean to and I knew it was disrespectful, but seriously… vampires can’t get pregnant and the fact that I couldn’t tell her that made me laugh a little harder.

  “This is not a laughing matter, Sadie. If you’re pregnant, I need to know so we can address the next steps.” She gave me a reprimanding look, but I couldn’t stop. She was too tiny and fairylike and so wrong, I couldn’t keep from giggling about it. I worked to stifle it, and when I could finally speak without chuckling, I tried to reassure her.

  “I promise, Ms. Katy, I am not pregnant. I’ve never… I’m a virgin.” Blech, even saying the V-word made me cringe.

  She gave me a long look. “Okay, I believe you.”

  “Why would you think that about me? Surely, other kids have passed out dissecting frogs… haven’t they? I mean, the smell is nauseating.” To emphasize my point, I took a cracker and bit into it.

  “Of course. I see two or three a year.”

  I swallowed. “So… why me?”

  “Frankly, because both times I have seen you—in a rather short time span, I might add—is because you passed out.”

  “The first time, I bumped my head after falling in water and this time it’s because I don’t like cutting into dead animals,” I said. “Those are both legitimate and totally nonsexual reasons, to faint.” My voice was rising the more I had to explain myself.

  “Okay, Sadie! Calm down. I didn’t mean to upset you. Finish your juice and crackers and when you feel up to it, you can return to your class schedule.” She patted my leg and went to sit back down at her desk. I felt bad for shouting at her but not bad enough to apologize. Her insinuation and reasoning behind it were ridiculous.

  I drank the juice but didn’t finish the tasteless crackers. Taking a deep breath, I swung my legs over the bed and gingerly stood up. I expected the world to sway a bit but was pleasantly surprised. Spotting my bag on the floor by the table, I picked it up and put it on my shoulder.

  “I’m okay now, Ms. Katy. I’m going to get back to class.” I checked the time and noted it was lunch period. Excited to see Harper, I started for the door. She didn’t say anything to me as I left, and I wondered if I’d made her mad. Mentally shrugging, I headed to the library as fast as my feet would go without running into anyone or tripping.

  I found her in our special corner. As I walked up she was drinking from her silver bottle, but when she saw me, she hastily put it away. I wanted to ask what the deal was with that but figured she was allowed her privacy.

  “Hey, girl. How are you? I heard you didn’t have such a great time in Biology.”

  I made a face. “Of course you heard about that. I’m sure I’m the laughingstock of the school.”

  “No, you’re not. They have somebody do that at least once every year. No big deal. But are you feeling okay?”

  I sat down cross-legged and leaned against a bookshelf. “Yeah, I guess so. More embarrassed than anything.”

  She offered me her lunch tote. “Hungry? I’m done. You can have the rest.”

  “Thanks.” I took it but what I truly wanted were my capsules. I wondered if I could get away with pretending they were something else and taking them in front of her. My throat burned at the thought. Maybe I could make it work…

  “Um, can I have a sip of your water? I need to take some aspirin.”

  “Sure.” She rummaged in her bag and handed me a large clear plastic bottle of water. I had already eased a couple of pills out of their container and held them in the palm of my hand. Taking the bottle, I quickly tossed the pills in my mouth and washed them down with a huge gulp of water.

  “Thanks.” I handed it back to her.

  “No problem.” She watched me a second, looking like she was debating with herself over something. “Sadie,” she started, a hesitant look on her face, “about last night. I want you to know that it’s okay. What you’re going through is pretty normal, I think, and I’m not going to judge you or think anything bad about you for struggling with your feelings.”

  I stayed silent. I had spent most of the day free from thoughts of Kade or Cam, but as soon as she mentioned it, everything came rushing back. Where was Cam today? Had I made a huge error by asking him if he had a girlfriend? And I still had the issue with Kade not standing up for Molly. I wanted an explanation from him and I wanted to see his face as he gave it. Then there was Pen and her incredibly vague and ominous warning. I was physically bogged down by the weight of my problems. And those were only the heavier ones on my mind. I still had the mystery of Coach Anderson, the Homecoming queen drama, and a potentially failing grade in Biology. I sagged against the bookshelf, wishing I could hide inside one of the books and be a make-believe character.

  I guess she took my silence as anger. “I’m sorry. I should just keep my mouth shut. I won’t mention it again.”

  “No, no. I’m not mad at you. I’m not mad at all. Just confused and tired. I wish I knew how to handle this whole thing. I mean, is every sixteen-year-old’s life this complicated?”

  Harper stared at the ground. “You’d be surprised.”

  Just then, the first bell rang and I groaned. How could things
like lunch fly by so fast and a class seem like a slow-moving iceberg?

  We got up, both reaching for our bags. I was leaning forward, my hand on the strap, and as I came up, I felt a sharp crack on the back of my head. Immediately, I heard an “oof” and saw Harper start going down. I reached out, desperately trying to grab an arm to keep her from hitting the floor. But instead of finding her, my hand closed around a piece of her backpack. Out of instinct, I pulled, and she regained her balance, but not before I’d yanked the bag completely out of her hand. It went flying. Harper gave a yelp right as it hit the ground and her silver bottle rolled out, blood splattering all over the floor and surrounding books.

  With eyes wide, I gaped at it and turned toward her. A look of horror creased her face, made worse by the fear in her eyes.

  We stared at each other, the final bell ringing in the far-off distance, like a warning of impending doom.

  Chapter Nine

  Harper was the first to move. She fell to her knees and picked up the bottle, searching around for the lid. It had rolled and come to rest by my foot. Picking it up, I silently handed it to her, still in too much shock to say anything. The blood was sinking into the carpet and I heard the faint dripping as it fell from the books where it had splashed. Weirdly enough, the sight and smell of it didn’t turn my stomach. I took a quick second to think about that.

  Still on her knees, with her head lowered, she spoke. “I… I guess I owe you an explanation.” Her voice quivered and I wondered if she was about to cry. Sympathy welled up inside me. Whatever the reasoning was, it could wait. I was more concerned about getting the mess cleaned up before Ms. May saw it and thought someone was hurt. Having the school go on alert was the last thing we needed. What Harper needed.

  “Not right now. We can talk about it later, but right now, we need to try to clean this up before anyone else sees it and sounds an alarm.” She nodded and sniffed. “I’m going to try to sneak out of here and go get some paper towels and sneak back in. Okay? Will you be okay while I’m gone?”

  She nodded again. “Yeah, I’ll be okay.”

  I tiptoed through the stacks, trying to decide which way was the best to go in order to avoid Ms. May. I hunched down low when I got to the tables and peeked over the top of a chair. The librarian wasn’t anywhere in sight and I breathed a sigh of relief. She’d probably gone to the lunchroom to get something to eat. I had a slim window of time to get to the bathroom and back. I crept along the side wall until I reached the double-glass doors. Closing my eyes, I trained my ears on the outside hallway, listening for footsteps or conversation that would indicate it wasn’t empty. After a few seconds, I decided it was clear. Like a shot, I flew out the doors and into the girl’s bathroom directly across the hall. I nabbed an extra roll of paper towels sitting on top of the dispenser and paused again at the door. Again, not hearing anything, I made another mad dash until I was through the glass doors and heading back into the stacks.

  Harper was still there, waiting for me, her eyes red and wet.

  “C’mon, you helped me. Now I get to pay you back.” I kept my voice cheerful because I knew all too well how the sound of sympathy from another person could cause a crying fit. I wrapped my hands with the towels until they were well-padded and handed it to her for her to do the same. I got on my hands and knees and pressed into the carpet where the blood was. It made a soft squishing noise and the towels became soggy as the blood soaked in. Harper did the same. We continued like that, removing the “mittens” and rewrapping our hands until the paper towels stopped getting soaked through anymore. It was beginning to not look quite as noticeable, but I was still worried someone would freak out if they stumbled upon it. I pondered what to do until I had an idea.

  “Harper, hand me the water bottle. Maybe we can pour it over the blood and sort of wash it out. We may have a shot since it hasn’t had a lot of time to set in.”

  “Yeah. Good idea.” She dug in her bag and pulled it out. It was one those 1-liter bottles, and we’d only drunk about a quarter of it. Handing it to me, she said, “Thanks again for helping and not… freaking out.”

  “Hey, it’s no problem. We got this.” She gave me a watery smile before turning to wipe the blood from the books.

  I poured a generous amount of water over the stain and continued sopping up the moisture. After two times of repeating the process, I could tell the affected area of carpet was starting to lighten and blend more with the surrounding fibers. It was working.

  When all the water was gone and the paper towels were down to a small roll, I sat back and looked at our handiwork. I could tell it was still there, but I didn’t think anyone else would. If anything, it would appear like someone spilled a soda a long time ago. Even my sensitive nose couldn’t detect a strong smell of blood. For the second time, I stopped to think about that. I should have passed out long ago. The fact that I hadn’t even gotten queasy, especially having my hands in it, was seriously weird. I decided I’d worry about it later, though. We’d already missed most of P.E. and still needed to sneak out the mass of blood-soaked paper towels and dispose of them somehow.

  “What all do you have in your bag? Is it lined?”

  “Um, I just mainly have the lunch stuff. There’s a plastic binder in here. Oh, and a sweatshirt.”

  “So do you think the inside is mainly water resistant?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. Okay, give me the shirt or tie it around your waist and give me your binder. We’re going to stuff all these towels in your bag until we can get to a trash can off the school grounds. I’d do it myself, but mine is all fabric on the inside and I can’t wipe it down the way you can with yours.”

  She nodded some more. That seemed to be all she could do, but honestly, I couldn’t blame her. She was lucky I’d been here and wasn’t asking a lot of questions. Yet.

  We made the transfer between bags and were finishing up right when the next bell rang.

  “Phew! We made it. Let’s get to Math.”

  “We’re going to have to come up with a good excuse for Ms. Kimberly. She’s kind of a stickler for attendance.” Harper’s voice was stronger now that it looked like we’d get away without anyone else knowing.

  “I know. We’ll have to deal with that later. You ready?”

  “Yes. Let’s get out of here.”

  We emerged from the stacks, luck being in our favor as Ms. May was still nowhere to be seen. As soon as we hit the hallway, we assumed a causal gait toward Math class. I looked over at Harper, my mind swirling. The whole thing seemed surreal, almost like I’d imagined it. Yet the faint smell on my hands and clothes told me I hadn’t. Harper was drinking blood.

  ***

  Math flew by. We received our quizzes from the day before and I was proud of the 100 written in big, red numbers at the top. I’d always liked math, but as with all “human education subjects”, my parents had never recognized my abilities in it.

  When everyone was packing up, I turned to Harper. “We planned to hang out after school today. You still in?” I watched her as she glanced around the room, fiddled with the straps of her bag, and basically tried to look at anything but me. “Harper. C’mon, we need to talk.”

  She drew in a breath. “Okay, yeah, you’re right. We do. And I honestly do want to hang out with you. I just…” She fell quiet.

  “You just what?”

  Shutting her eyes, she whispered. “I just don’t want to run off the one person in school who I feel… relaxed… around.”

  I chuckled and she seemed to physically shrink a little bit. “No, I wasn’t laughing at you. I feel the same way. It’s crazy. I’ve only been here three days, and so much has happened, but the best part has been meeting you. Trust me, you can’t say anything that is going to change my mind.” I paused. “Or really surprise me, even.”

  She still looked hesitant, but I knew in time I’d prove my words true.

  We were walking out the door when Angie and Kitty both appeared in front of us. With h
ands on their hips and identical catty expressions, they blocked our path. I sighed. I was not in the mood to deal with their crap.

  Kitty talked first. “Sooo, Sadie. My dear friend Angie here tells me you’re not joining her campaign and you’re not running yourself. Does that mean you’re joining my team?”

  I shook my head as if I had water in my ear. “What? Are we actually doing this? Are you seriously asking me, in front of Angie—your arch nemesis for Homecoming queen—if I’m voting for you? In what world does this happen?” I looked at Harper in disbelief and she shrugged.

  “No, I’m not asking if you’re voting for me. I’m asking if you’re joining my campaign.”

  I had no answer.

  Harper gave them both a withering look. “Why are you two together? You hate each other. You’re running against each other.”

  Angie tossed her hair. “We both want to know what’s going on and realized this was the most expedient way to do it.”

  “Oh wow,” I drawled, “look at the smart girl using her big, fancy words.” Angie turned red and I felt a tiny little jab of remorse at the remark. But it was quickly doused.

  “Look here, missy. I know you weren’t brought up in a civilized world, being homeschooled and all, but we take Homecoming very seriously. It’s a huge town event and we are honored to do our part in the tradition of Homecoming queen.” She flicked her hair again. “Besides, it’s not like either of us is worried you could beat us even if you did run.”