Hunted (21 page)

It
was short now, shorter somehow than I'd expected it to be even though
Miss Winters had done exactly what I'd asked her to do. I looked at
the golden strands that now framed my face and told myself once again
that I wasn't going to cry. It was short, but it was still my color.

"Thank
you, Miss Winters. It's perfect."

I
was sure that she heard at least a little bit of the lie in my voice,
but she'd probably heard the same tremor in the voice of hundreds of
girls over the years who'd gone in and asked for an extreme change
and then second-guessed the decision after it was too late to do
anything about it.

"I'll
give you a few minutes to change into something that isn't ruined."

I
couldn't get my voice to work so I just nodded and then watched as
she walked out of the room. There wasn't a good way to get my tank
top off without getting more dye on my hair or other clothes, so I
just stripped back down and slid it down far enough that I could step
out of it.

Five
minutes later I was dressed again. Jeans still, but I was back into
my shell and my sports bra as everything else was ruined. I looked at
my tank top and bra for a couple of seconds and then just threw them
into the garbage on my way out.

The
football team and the guys from the cheer squad were all lined up
waiting to use the locker room. I mustered what I hoped was a
genuine-looking smile.

"It's
all yours, gentlemen."

Tristan
looked me up and down again as he walked past, and Jackson gave me an
indecipherable look, but nobody else seemed to really even notice
that I'd just lost half of my hair. Miss Winters was standing with
the rest of the girls just around the corner of the school.

"Adri,
why don't you go for a walk? You don't need to hear what I'm about to
say to the rest of the team. Sheree, you can go with her if you'd
like."

I
shook my head. "I'm fine. Someone can just call my cell when
you're ready to go."

I
turned around and went back the other direction. The team was between
me and the football field, so just going to the bleachers was out. I
didn't particularly feel like going back to the bus either, so I just
kept walking along the edge of the school until I found a bench.

I
felt like I was in shock, which was stupid, but I hadn't realized
that the other girls hated me this much. If things kept escalating
then eventually I'd have to just quit the team and hope that doing so
didn't make me stand out too much when the Native American, the wax lady or the
old man came calling.

I
kind of lost track of time, but I felt something changing in me as I
sat there. I wasn't just in shock now. I was starting to get mad. The
other girls on the team had no right to be so mean to me. They were
trying to get me to quit the team, but I didn't want to quit.

I
didn't love cheering, not really, but I loved spending time with
Jackson and I still had some hope that being on the team would help
me patch things up with Cindi. Besides, I really wanted to see how
good I could get at stunting.

"Adri,
are you okay?"

I
looked up to find that Tristan of all people was approaching me.

"I'm
fine, and I haven't changed my mind about dating you. Please go
away."

He
shook his head at me. "You don't have to be so hardcore about
everything. Look, I heard what happened and wanted to say that I'm
sorry. If you want I can find out who did this. Plenty of guys on the
team are dating girls on your squad. If I ask around one of them will
find out who did it. Girls talk."

I
was surprised. I hadn't thought that Tristan was that insightful, or
that he'd even care. Of course he was probably just trying to get in
my pants, but even so I hadn't been expecting it.

"I
don't know. I guess go ahead and find out, but don't tell me who did
it unless I ask. I'm not sure it would be good for me to know."

"Okay,
it's your call."

I
heard footsteps and turned to find Jackson approaching. He gave me a
slow smile. "You look gorgeous."

My
cheeks tried to heat up, but I clung to my anger.

"Thank
you, but right now I want to be mad and you reassuring me doesn't
help with that."

Tristan
stood a bit closer to me as though staking out his territory. "Why
don't you get lost, Jackson?"

"Because
she'd rather be with me than with you."

Any
points that Tristan might have earned by offering to find out who had
sprayed dye on me disappeared as he stepped away from me and into
Jackson's space. It was obvious that he was gearing up for a fight,
but it wasn't something he was doing for me, it was one hundred
percent for his own ego.

"If
you seriously start a fight with Jackson then I'll never talk to you
again, Tristan."

"You've
already said that you won't date me, so that's not exactly the most
effective threat anyone has ever come up with. Besides, I've wanted
to beat the tar out of Jackson for months."

"You
can try. It's actually better this way because it means I've got a
witness who can make sure everyone understands that you started
this."

Jackson's
words came out strangely unconcerned. I'd seen a couple of fights
start over the years, and usually the two guys involved had to work
themselves up to fighting. Jackson wasn't getting worked up, but I
was positive that he was ready to fight.

"You
really think you can narc me out after I beat you down and there
won't be any consequences?"

Jackson
shook his head. "No, it's more like I hate dealing with the
authorities after I hospitalize someone. It's always better when I
can point out that it was self-defense."

It
was like he'd poured gas on a forest fire. Even I knew that Tristan
couldn't back down after a statement like that. I did the only thing
I could think of to stop the fight. I stood up and walked away.

"This
isn't about the two of you, this is supposed to be about me right
now. If you want to fight then fight, but I'm not going to sit here
and watch. You're not going to impress me or have a witness to tell
the cops who started what."

I
didn't look back, but a second later two sets of footsteps started
following me. They caught up to me all too quickly, Jackson walking
on my right side, Tristan walking on my left.

Out
of the corner of my eyes I saw Tristan open his mouth, but I already
knew it was going to be some lame attempt to justify what he'd been
doing.

"Don't
even start with me, Tristan. You screwed up, deal with it like a man
and accept it. Maybe then you'll start to grow on me a little."

Whatever
he might have said in response was preempted by a muffled scream. I
took off at a run without even thinking about the fact that it might
be dangerous to get involved in whatever was going on. There were a
couple of outbuildings a short distance away from the main school
building and I was currently running around the side of what looked
like a metalworking shop.

I'd
expected to find one or more guys assaulting some poor girl. I didn't
expect to find one girl, a slender Hispanic, being punched and kicked
by four other girls. Normally I would have just grabbed my phone and
called 911, but the anger that I'd been nursing over what had been
done to me flared into an incandescent point of brilliance. The
parallels to this girl's situation and my situation were too close
for me to just watch and wait for the police to get there.

The
building was nearly twenty yards long, but I covered the distance in
a couple of seconds before they'd even realized they weren't alone
any more. I grabbed the arm of one of the girls and shoved her into
the side of the building to stop her from landing another kick.

"Get
off of her!"

All
four girls turned on me with a speed that took my breath away.

"Get
lost, wolf girl. If you leave now and keep what you saw to yourself
we won't track you down and beat your head in."

It
took me a second to realize that she was talking about our mascot. I
was still wearing my cheerleading shell, so it didn't take a genius
to know which team I belonged to. I was slowly backing away, trying
not to do anything to cause them to actually attack me, but they were
following me, keeping the distance between us from growing.

With
a start I realized that all four girls were in red and white
cheerleading uniforms. It took me a minute to remember that we'd
played against the Waterford Red Devils.

"Sorry,
devil girl, but I can't just stand here and watch you kill her. If
you have a problem with her, then come at her one by one after she's
healed back up instead of just ganging up on her."

The
girl they'd been beating on had pulled herself up to a sitting
position, but she still didn't seem very with it. I wanted to yell at
her to make a run for it, but I knew that would just focus the
attention of the cheerleaders back on her.

I
was starting to think of the girl who was doing all of the talking as
the head cheerleader. She was so furious she was practically
spitting.

"You
don't know anything about what's going on here. She looks like a
normal girl, but she isn't. She's some kind of supernatural freak.
Two of the football players we knew turned up dead after a party last
week. She was the one they were last seen talking to. She ripped
their throats out."

A
supernatural freak. Parallels indeed. I took a deep breath and shook
my head. "Listen to yourself. You really think someone our size
overpowered and killed two burly football players? Even if she was
capable of that why would she then let the four of you kick the
stuffing out of her? It doesn't make any sense."

I'd
continued to carefully retreat the entire time we'd been talking. We
were nearly a dozen yards away from where they'd been attacking the
girl. If she was unhurt enough to run it should be more than enough
room for her to escape, but she was just sitting there in a daze.

"You're
out of time."

Even
as she said it the head cheerleader sprang at me. I was still pissed,
but four-to-one odds had gone a long ways towards calming me down
enough to realize that I couldn't let any of them get their hands on
me. I tried to turn and run but there was something unexpected in my
way.

Jackson
steadied me with one hand as I bounced off of him and then
straight-armed the head cheerleader with an open hand to her sternum.
It wasn't a blow, more like he'd just let her run into his arm, but
it knocked her on her butt.

Somehow
in all of the craziness I'd completely forgotten about Jackson and
Tristan. They'd followed me, but stayed back far enough that
apparently the cheerleaders from the other school hadn't thought
they'd interfere.

"Are
you okay, Adri?"

"Yeah,
thanks. They'd knocked that other girl down and they were kicking
her."

One
of the other devil girls spoke up for the first time. "You guys
aren't going to hit girls."

I
stepped to the side a little so that I could see Tristan and Jackson
without turning my back to the other girls. Tristan actually didn't
look very happy at the idea of fighting with girls, but Jackson was
doing a lot better job keeping his poker face in place.

"Oh,
I don't know. I probably won't actually need to hit you. Besides,
girls who will gang up against one girl like that are nothing more
than bullies. I don't like bullies."

Jackson's
comment apparently made Tristan feel like he needed to man up and
defend me too.

"We're
not going to let you hurt Adri or that other girl anymore."

Fighting
another girl when you outnumbered her four to one was one thing.
Throwing yourself at two guys the size of Jackson and Tristan was
something else entirely.

"The
next guy she kills is on your conscience."

All
four cheerleaders started moving away from the building so that they
could go around us without getting too close to the guys. Jackson
just pivoted in place so he could keep an eye on them, but Tristan
took a step forward as if to go help the girl they'd been beating on.

I
grabbed his arm before he could get very far.

"She
looks pretty traumatized. Let me go talk to her first, you guys stay
back there and make sure that the devil girls don't bring a bunch of
guys of their own."

It
wasn't until I said it that I realized just how skittish the other
girl looked. If she'd been a small animal she'd have been right on
the verge of running up a tree or otherwise fleeing for safety.

A
breeze had picked up. It was mostly running parallel to the building,
but as I took my first couple of steps towards her a stronger than
normal gust came in at a slightly different angle. The wind made the
thin, white material of the peasant top she was wearing flutter and
it came up far enough that I was able to see some of the bruises that
they'd left on her stomach and side.

I
gritted my teeth and reminded myself that it was more important to
make sure she was okay than it was to chase down the other four girls
and beat their heads in. There would be plenty of time for the police
to deal with the four devil girls.

"My
name is Adri. How can I help? Are you okay?"

I
reached a tentative hand towards her in an effort not to startle her,
but something still set her off. She recoiled so fast that I almost
didn't see her move. One moment I was only inches away from her and
then she was a couple of feet away with her arms and legs underneath
her as though ready for fight or flight.

"I'm
just trying to help. I won't hurt you, I promise. Do you need an
ambulance?"

It
seemed a stupid question given how quickly she'd just moved, but
people could move on broken legs and not even feel the pain if they
had enough adrenaline in their systems. I could see her visibly
trying to regain control of herself. She was breathing erratically,
sucking in huge drafts of air in between each gust of wind, but
finally after one last deep, calming breath she seemed to come back
to herself enough at least to respond to me.