Between Lies Read online

  I had my stuff together and was ready when the bell rang. I headed to the door, intent on making a smooth exit when my foot caught the leg of one of the desks and I stumbled. Heat bloomed across my cheeks when I heard snickering behind me. A girl I didn’t know heard it, too, and stopped to give me a big smile.

  “They’re floozy idiots. Ignore them.”

  “Yeah, I’m trying to,” I replied.

  “My name is Maddie. I think I’m in your Math class, too.” She waited for me to get myself together and we walked side by side out the door and down the hallway. She was pretty, with dark brown hair and big brown eyes. She wore a belted dress with cowboy boots and chunky jewelry. It was funky and classy all at the same time and I immediately liked her.

  “You are. Though, to be honest, yesterday was such a mess I don’t remember much of it.”

  She laughed, but I didn’t feel like it was at me. “That’s okay. Everyone is entitled to bad days. Yours just happened to be on your first day here. After the drama, I bet you were really anxious.”

  “By drama, you mean the fall in the hall and the fight in the lunchroom?”

  She laughed again. “Yeah. But don’t worry about the lunchroom thing. Everyone in the school knew those two maniac groups were going to try to get their hooks into you. Nobody thinks you had anything to do with it.”

  I felt a wave of relief. “You don’t know how glad I am to hear you say that.” I dodged a kid barreling down the middle of the aisle. “I thought maybe everyone would think I was starting trouble.”

  “Nah. Most of us think you’re pretty cool. The ones who don’t are the ones involved in all that Homecoming crap.” She waved at a group of guys staring at us as we passed. “Silly boys,” she said in an undertone.

  I smiled. She was turning out to be exactly my type of person. It was good to have an ally of sorts. “Speaking of Homecoming maniacs, here’s my stop. Kitty’s in here.” I hesitated a second. “It was nice meeting you, Maddie. I guess I’ll see you later in Math.”

  “You betcha! Take it easy and don’t let the haters get you down.” With a warm smile and a little wink, she was gone, lost in the crush of kids trying to get to their classes. I took a brief moment to relax into the heaven of talking to someone with no ulterior motives. As I refocused my attention on getting into English, I caught a glimpse of Harper a few lockers down. She was swapping books and ignoring the noise around her. I could almost see an invisible bubble surrounding her person. With all the craziness in the halls between classes, it was weird to watch how the other students magically stayed out of her personal space.

  I was lost in theories about Harper’s semi-demigod status as I walked into English. A trio of cold eyes stared at me from across the room. I guess I could officially call them my enemies now. I ducked behind my hair and sat in my seat, determined to forget their existence. Artist Guy in front of me was busily sketching what looked like an elf this time. And unlike yesterday, he was using a drawing pad and charcoals. Maybe it was for an art class or something. I watched as he transformed basic shapes into a person. I’d never been good at art, but I’d always wanted to be. Mesmerized, I could have watched him for hours.

  Without looking up from his drawing, he spoke to me. “My name’s Mitchell. You’re Sadie, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you like art? I’ve noticed you watching me.”

  “I’m sorry, has that bothered you? I was just transfixed by your style. It’s calming to me… to watch others draw, I mean. I don’t have a talented bone in my body.”

  He chuckled. “I bet you have more than you think you do. Most people have the basic ability. It just takes training and practice to go further with it. I’ll be happy to show you sometime.”

  I was startled by the offer, though I didn’t know why. Most of the kids here were pretty nice, but every time one of them showed me a gesture of kindness, it put me on guard. Man, the vampire world must have done a number on me.

  “Are you drawing that for a class project or something?”

  “No, this is going to be for an art contest through the city’s art council. They hold it every year. I’ve won second and third places every time I enter. But this is my year. I can feel it. I’m going to bring home the medal.” He smiled to himself as he continued to flesh out the elven being coming to life before him.

  “Wow. That sounds cool. Good luck. I’ll be rooting for you.”

  “Thanks, Sadie.” He offered me a smile I couldn’t look away from. He was nice and I was glad to have made one more friend.

  Mrs. Lang walked in and slammed the door behind her. We all sat straighter, a little fearful of the mood she appeared to be in. She paced back and forth in front of us, her giant form twisted with angst. “It has been brought to my attention that we will be having a visiting teacher take over the class for the next six-week semester. She is new to the area but is an established teacher from her previous hometown. This will give her a taste of what Jefferson’s educational curriculum is like and what subject she will eventually settle into. She will be making the rounds to all classes for the remaining school year, so I expect you’ll see quite a bit of her.”

  Just as she finished talking, the door opened again and I saw a pair of three-inch high heels peek in as the person finished up a conversation in the hallway. Even with the two whispering, I knew that voice. Dread curled in my stomach. It couldn’t be. What was she doing here?

  As the stranger walked the rest of the way in and turned to face the class, I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. There stood Ms. Stratha, in all her beautiful perfection, looking exactly the same as she did the last time I saw her. Despite the heat outside, she was dressed in a feminine black pantsuit that showed as little skin as possible. I wondered what her plan was for getting out into the sunlight without charring to a crisp. Or was she like me, where the sun didn’t do anything to her? Our eyes met for a second before she looked away and swept her gaze across the roomful of students.

  “Good morning, class. My name is Ms. Stratha. I trust Mrs. Lang has given you an introduction as to why I am here?” Mrs. Lang opened her mouth to answer, but Ms. Stratha waved a hand at her to keep quiet. “Good. I want to give you a little background on my purpose here and what I’ll expect for us to learn from each other.” She waited a half beat, but when nobody moved, she sighed. “This is when you take out some pen and paper and prepare to write things down.” There was a burst of movement as everyone did as instructed, including me. I was irritated with myself for acting so quickly on her demand. I had experience with this woman, though I couldn’t tell anyone that, and I had hoped next time—if there ever was a next time— I’d be able to resist being intimidated by her. But no such luck.

  When everyone was ready, she started off. “As I said, my name is Ms. Stratha. Please address me as such.” As she talked, she walked gracefully around the room, and another jolt of déjà vu hit me. “I come from the East Coast, where I taught primarily World History. English is the other subject that I have experience teaching. I am accustomed to larger classes, but I think a small intimate group such as this will have its advantages. We can truly get to know one another.” With that last sentence, she gave me a quick glance. It was so fast, I didn’t think anyone else in the room noticed, but I tensed. She was talking to me. I could feel it. “My promise to you is this: I will listen to your opinions and ideas and take them seriously. And what I expect from you in return is to take me and this class seriously. We will have ongoing debates in here, I’m sure, but there will be no hostility or disrespecting me or each other while in this room. As long as you follow those guidelines, I see no reason why this can’t be a pleasant and engaging hour.”

  I couldn’t believe it. I could not believe she had followed me here. Memories of her poking at me about The Nursery and my dad floated through my mind. What was she doing here? I was certain about one thing. Her sudden appearance at Jefferson High made Coach Anderson’s connection to Kade’s family more
possible. There was no way those two things were a coincidence. I needed to talk to Kade. I’d show him the pictures I took of the coach and tell him about Ms. Stratha. Then we could put our heads together and figure out what the heck was going on. And then I was going to get to the bottom of why he wasn’t standing up for Molly.

  While I’d been lost in my thoughts, Ms. Stratha had started a “getting to know each other” exercise. Kids were taking turns standing up and introducing themselves. Since everyone had been going to school with each other from kindergarten and on, I figured it was for Ms. Stratha’s benefit. I grew antsy as it grew closer to my turn. I didn’t want to do this. She knew everything about me already, and I was worried that in my nervousness I’d slip up and say something that would blow my cover. Without realizing it, I was tapping Mitchell’s chair leg with my toe, and he turned around to give me the “cut it out” look. There were only two kids left before me. I said a silent prayer hoping for anything to get me out of this. A fire alarm drill, bomb threat, anything. Mitchell stood up and started his spiel. I looked at the clock and realized we only had about two minutes left. Silently pleading with Mitchell to talk slower, I slid my paper and pen into my bag and tightened my hands around the strap. I was going to be ready to zip outta there the second the bell rang. Mitchell sat down and I cursed under my breath. Ms. Stratha’s gaze bored into me and I reluctantly stood, still holding onto my bag with a death grip. I opened my mouth to speak but was interrupted by the bell.

  Yes!

  Ignoring anyone in my way, I scooted out of the room before Ms. Stratha or anyone else could stop me. I went straight to the girls’ restroom on the first floor near the library and hid in the same stall I was in yesterday. I put down the toilet lid and sat there, my chest heaving from anxiety. I dug out some blood capsules and managed to get them down my dry throat. Wait until Kade hears this. And Molly. They’ll have to agree that something super weird is going on. As the room began to fill up with chattering girls, I left my safe spot and wandered toward the cafeteria. I didn’t want to go back in there today, but I didn’t know if loitering in the halls was permitted.

  “Not sure where you want to spend your lunch?”

  I turned around and smiled at Harper. “You guessed it.”

  “If you want to hang out with me, you can. I usually spend it in the library. The librarian is pretty cool about letting a few of us eat our lunch in there, and it keeps us out of the drama that is always going down in the cafeteria.”

  “Do you ever spend lunch out in the courtyard?” Now that I was confident the sunlight wouldn’t hurt me, I craved its warmth. Of course, that wasn’t the case today, with it being overcast and randomly raining, but I was hoping I would get to spend a fair amount of my lunch hours out there when the weather was nice.

  Something—I didn’t know what—ghosted across her face, but it was gone before I could even be sure I saw it. “I don’t like to spend too much time outside.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you with the suggestion. It just seems like a nice place to pass the time, you know when the weather cooperates…”

  “No, it’s okay.” I waited for her to continue with an explanation, but she remained silent.

  “You know, the library sounds great. I could use a little quiet.”

  She aimed a brittle smile at me. I could feel the tension my suggestion caused, which only served to pique my curiosity. Why did the mention of the outdoors cause her to shut down? All warmth we’d had between us was now gone.

  I followed her into the library, where we were greeted by Ms. May. Harper went to her and gave her a big hug. There was a fondness between the two that gave me a pang of jealousy. So far, the closest I’d come to having an adult ally, besides my parents, was Nurse Edara. I’d been hoping to get that chance here, but from the way the past few days had gone, I didn’t think it was going to happen.

  “Ms. May, this is Sadie. She’s new in school and I invited her to hang out with me in here. Is that okay?”

  “Of course. Just make sure y’all keep it down. You know what will happen if Mrs. Carter finds out.”

  “We will. Thank you.”

  I smiled at Ms. May and walked behind Harper until we were lost in the stacks in the back of the large room.

  “Nobody ever comes back here, and certainly not during school. We don’t have to worry about being disturbed.” She pulled a sandwich, chips, and a large bottle of water out of her bag. I’d forgotten, again, to make myself a real lunch. Her food looked tasty and I eyed it hungrily. She noticed my stare.

  “Do you want half? I don’t have much of an appetite, but my mom never listens and packs enough food for a horse.” Her normal friendliness was coming back.

  “If you’re sure. I forgot to bring mine today.”

  “Of course.” She handed me half her sandwich and laid the bag of chips between us. I noticed she hesitated before pulling another bottle out of her bag, this one silver and opaque. I took a bite of the sandwich and half moaned. It was chicken salad, one of my all-time favorites. She took a chip and ate it slowly, her fingers caressing the silver bottle almost lovingly. The silence stretched out between us. In the time it took for me to finish my food, she’d only eaten three chips.

  She offered me the water bottle. “So, has today been any better?”

  “Yeah, other than my English class. We have a new visiting teacher who’s taking over the rest of this semester and Mrs. Lang was pretty mad about it. Apparently, she’s going to be making her rounds to all the classes for the rest of the year. We’ll both probably be seeing her.”

  “Was she nice?” There was a strange look on Harper’s face. Something I couldn’t identify.

  I tried to think of how to respond. Nice? In my world, no. But I couldn’t tell Harper that since it would lead to questions I didn’t want to answer. Trying to come up with some noncommittal answer, I finally settled on one. “She seems competent.”

  “Competent,” Harper repeated, a tinge of disbelief in her voice.

  “Yes. I mean, she didn’t have time to teach anything today. We only did introductions. You know the exercise. Everyone gets up and says their name and a little about themselves…”

  Harper nodded. “I know the drill. I hate it.”

  “Me, too.”

  “So, was Mrs. Lang upset? I bet she was. She’s one of the most senior teachers here. Been here for like twenty five years or something. I can’t imagine she’d be too pleased about someone new coming in and taking over her class.”

  “Oh, you nailed it. She was not a happy camper. We knew it the second she walked into the room.”

  We both lapsed back into silence as we pondered the situation. Again, I watched as Harper stroked her silver bottle. It reminded me of a child clinging to their favorite security blanket. I wanted to ask, but somehow, I knew it would put a wall between us. She’ll tell me if she’s ever ready.

  “Hey, thanks for letting me crash your lunch spot. I don’t think I could have handled another scene in the cafeteria.”

  She smiled. “No, I don’t think you could, either. And you’re welcome here anytime. It can be our secret.”

  I liked the sound of that. I was making a few friends here, but she was the one who intrigued and relaxed me the most. I didn’t feel like I had to put on any sort of show with her. She’d seen my fall, stopped to help, and still wanted to hang out with me. I wasn’t about to turn that down.

  The bell rang, and we started cleaning up our mess. Harper packed the rest of the chips and her two bottles back into her backpack and reached her hand down to help me up.

  “What’s your next class?”

  I groaned. “PE.”

  “Oh, you don’t like it?”

  “I was late yesterday and got a tardy slip against me. But in general, no, I don’t like PE. I don’t do very well in the physical arena.”

  “Well, I’m off to talk to the counselor about changing my schedule. They put me in a subject I’ve alread
y taken, so we’re working on rearranging it a bit. If we’re lucky, I’ll be in your gym class.” She smiled at me, her blue eyes shining. I could tell she meant it.

  “That would be awesome. I hope you manage it.”

  She winked at me. “Don’t worry. I’ll be able to pull it off.”

  The second bell rang, indicating we had five minutes left of the passing period. “Shoot, I better hurry. I don’t need another tardy against me. Not sure what happens if I get to three, but I don’t want to find out. See ya.” I flashed a genuine smile at her, sorry that our time together was already over.

  She gave me a half hug. “You’ll be fine. I’ll see you soon.”

  Wondering how confident she could be about that, I power walked out of the library and broke into a small jog as I made my way toward the gym. I was sliding through the double doors when the final bell rang. Phew, I’d made it.

  The gym teacher, Ms. Kimberly, gave me a huge smile. “Sadie, you made it on time. Good job!” Her high blond ponytail bounced in excitement. Actually, her whole body seemed to bounce. Peppy and vibrant, she reminded me of a terrier puppy, always quivering with energy. Her enthusiasm did not thrill me. “Come on, come on, into the bleachers with the rest. We’re about to go over the plan for the next six weeks.”