A Girl Between (8 page)

Monday, the worst day of the week, was almost here.  I
turned the light off early, hoping to catch up on sleep, but ended up just
thinking about Ian.  Before I see him again, I’ll have to do something about my
appearance.  I never really cared much about it until now.  Annie had remarked
that even though I’m a slob, I have a lot of “raw material” to work with.  Last
week, she accused me of not combing my hair before school!  That’s not quite
true.  I usually ran my fingers through my hair before walking out the door.

I managed to drag myself out of bed in time and even combed
my hair before leaving the house.  A haircut was definitely in order.  It’s
looking pretty straggly, even to me.  As my cousins and I got off the bus we
bumped into Rainy in front of school.

“So Rainy,” I said, “I’ve been thinking about getting a
haircut.  How do you think I should get it cut?”

“A haircut!” Annie replied.  “Why this sudden change?  Is it
a boy?  Who is it?”

Like I’m gonna tell her. “No!  It’s not about a boy.  I just
know that my hair’s getting a little too straggly and I wanted to do something
about it.”

Eve and Annie all stopped walking and looked at me in shock.
 Annie exhorted, “So the girl wants a makeover.  Well, we’ll be happy to help
you out.  We’ve been waiting for this day to come for a long time!”

“We can set things up at
The Chic Shack
where I work.” 
Rainy added with a conniving gleam in her eye. 

“Hey, guess what?  We’re at my class.  See you later.”  I
quickly ran off.  This makeover talk was making me real uncomfortable and I
just wanted to get away.

The day passed uneventfully so now I find myself in gym
class.  Guess we’re doing volleyball again today.  Hope we can avoid the
hammering from Bully Boy.  Is that Mercy?  She entered class with a green pass
that she handed to Fat Head, oh, I mean, Mr. Elton.  That must mean that
Mercy’s in this class.  She headed into the locker room to change. I presume
she remembered me from the fight because she nodded at me.

So the teams were set up.  Jeez, didn’t Elton pay any
attention to what happened in here before?  Here we were with Bully on one side
and poor Nathan on the other side.  Again.  At least I was on Nate’s team.  I’d
rather be here any day than with that creep, Bully Boy.  We had one less
player, so Elton put Mercy on my team.  Mercy was small but she was spunky.  You
could tell that she was competitive because she worked her butt off.

So, here we go again!  Bully Boy positioned himself across
from Nathan (surprise, surprise).  He had that big stupid grin on his face and
started hammering Nate like before.  You could tell that Nathan loses it when
Bully was in his face.  Nathan raised his arms to hit the ball but they were
like tree twigs up against the chainsaw massacre.  Of course, there was Elton
across the gym talking to another teacher.  Every time the ball came over the
net, big bad Bully jumped up and hammered it hard, right on top of Nathan.  He
then punctuated it with a stupid laugh.  We finally rotated so that Nate was
away from Bully.  At one point, Mercy was across from Bully.  I could tell she
didn’t like him from her eye rolling.  Then, I remembered that there was bad
blood between Tonya’s crowd and Mercy anyway
.

I could hear Mercy mumbling something under her breath,
something like,
“Stop picking on Nate you dirt bag, or you’ll regret it.” 
She
was giving him the evil eye at the same time.  It was hard to hear much because
of Bully Boy’s loud guffaws.  I turned around and looked at her.  She nodded at
me with a little smile.

The rotation came around to Bully vs. Nathan again.  Bully
was grinning.  Nate was holding his twiggy arms in front of himself, trying to
protect his face.  Bully hit one ball, SMACK, hard at Nate’s face.  I heard a
funny sound, like a little crack.  Nate had his hand over his nose.  Was Nate
hurt?  Elton was still way over there, blabbing on, not even looking this way. 
The play paused but Bully yelled, “Hey, come on.  What’s up?  Serve the ball?”

“Why don’t you take it easy, you jerk?  I think he’s hurt.”  I
yelled to Bully.  Suddenly, I could sense a change in the atmosphere, kinda
like it would feel just before a lightning storm.  At the same time I was
giving Bully the evil eye, wishing he would drop dead.  The ball was in the air
and Bully went for it.  Was that a flash of lightning near his head?  It was
small, and so quick, it almost appeared to be a flicker of light.  Bully
stopped dead in midair.  His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell
right over.  SMACK.  His neck snapped back and his head hit the floor hard.  Then
his head lolled to the side and there was a trickle of blood seeping out of the
corner of his mouth.

What happened to him?  One minute he was laughing and
jumping around and the next minute he collapsed.  Nothing touched him.  I
turned back to yell to Elton and noticed Mercy.  She was staring at Bully with
great intensity, looking a little smug.

Elton finally noticed that something was up.  He ran over to
Bully and started checking him out.  “You,” he pointed to someone, “call the
front office and have them get an ambulance, quickly.”  He had everyone stand
back while he was checking Bully out. (I guess his real name is Jimmy but I
think I’ll stick with Bully).  I have to say, he didn’t look so good.  He was
breathing, but he was white as a ghost.  I turned around and noticed that
Nathan was also hurt.  Someone gave him a wad of Kleenex that he was holding up
to his nose.  I had a feeling that Nate and Bully would be going off in an
ambulance.

Mercy and I walked to the locker room together.  I asked
her, “So, Mercy, do you have any idea what happened to Bul.., I mean Jimmy?”  I
turned and watched her but I couldn’t get a read on her.  Mercy’s eyes were a
blank.  I could see her aura, though.  It was a bright red with purple and some
darker flashes of red.  I see strength, energy and passion with flashes of
temper.  Still, there’s something I can’t quite see in her.  What’s the purple
mean?

“It’s hard to say what happened to him.  Maybe he had a brain
freeze of some kind,” Mercy answered quietly.

I looked at her and assented, “Yeah, maybe a brain freeze.”

As it turned out, Mercy wasn’t too far off the mark.  The
tests revealed that Bully Boy had suffered a stroke and that he should
eventually be able to recover from after physical therapy.  We heard from Mr.
Elton that it was very unusual for someone as young as Bully to have a stroke,
but it can happen.  Nate was also injured.  He had a fractured nose.

Rainy arranged an appointment for me at
The Chic Shack
after school today.  I still had doubts about going, but I was sick of
constantly pushing hair out of my face.  Most importantly, when I eventually
bumped into Ian, I didn’t want to look like an upside down floor mop.  My
cousins had to come along for the show.  They were always watching makeover
shows on TV and they loved this stuff, especially when it was happening to me. 
So after school I met them in front and we walked to
The Chic Shack
which was only a few blocks away.

Rainy noticed my worried look so she tried to reassure me.
“My mom said that she can’t wait to cut your hair, Tess.  Don’t worry.  She
knows what she’s doing.”

“Hope so,” I muttered under my breath.

“What?” asked Rainy.           

“Nothing.  I’m just a little nervous.  I’m not big on making
too many changes, especially if they require daily maintenance.”

“Calm down.  My mom wouldn’t do some high maintenance thing.
 The most it may require is a little blow dry in the morning.”

“Geez, you may have to get up a whole five minutes earlier,”
Eve smirked.

When we arrived, Mrs. Prescott sat me down in a chair and
studied me.  I was feeling squirmy and thinking about running out of there.  Mrs.
Prescott herself made me nervous because she wore bright red lipstick and had puffed
up red hair and high heels, with tight black pants. (How can you stand around
all day on your feet in those pointy things?)  There was no way someone like
her would be able to figure out what I wanted to look like.  What was she gonna
do to me?  I didn’t want to look like a freak.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Rainy, Eve, and
Annie looking through hair magazines, giggling and pointing at pictures.  Finally,
Mrs. Prescott spoke.  “Girls, I think I have an idea for Tess.”  She took a
style magazine from behind the counter, flipped through some pages until she
found what she wanted, and then she pointed, loudly tapping with her long shiny
red fingernail. “There.  I think that style would fit Tess perfectly.  What do
you think?”

Annie, Eve, and Rainy all stared at the picture, looking
back and forth between me and it.  Finally, Annie responded, “Yeah, I can
definitely see it.  That would work for Tess.”

“Tess’s big eyes and heart shaped face would go with a medium
short, offset hairstyle.  Plus, it’s not a lot of maintenance.  I can see she’s
not into that,” Mrs. Prescott commented dryly while appraising me.

“Would you mind if I got a look at it?” I said glaring at
them.

They handed me the magazine and waited to see what I thought.
 Mrs. Prescott’s pointy index fingernail was stabbing at it.  I studied the
picture.  Actually, the model looked a bit like me.  It was a scruffy, punky
look, but definitely with some style.  The hair fell to her mid neck, but it
wasn’t cut even.  It was cut to look a little choppy.  It was parted at the
side and the hair fell slightly over her right eye.  And it didn’t hang flat.  It
was scrunched up.  I have to admit, I liked it. 

“OK.  You can go ahead and do it.” I said it quickly before
I changed my mind.  I knew my hair was kind of a mess but it did take me a
while to grow it this long.  Once it’s gone, that’s it.

“I would also suggest a rinse to bring out your blond
highlights, like in the picture”, Mrs. Prescott added.

“Tess, you should go for the works.  Grandma said that she
wanted to treat you for your upcoming birthday.”  Eve was grinning at me while
she said it.

Rainy added, “Hey, the make-up girl is showing up soon to
talk to someone about a bridal party session.  I’m sure she would LOVE to give
you a few tips!  She loves working on a virgin face; it’s like a blank canvas!”

“We’ll see,” I muttered.

After the haircut and rinse, I let the make-up person work
on me.  I told her that I was only willing to go for some eye make-up.  I
wasn’t into the face paint look.  The entire time the girls were watching “the
transformation” I couldn’t really tell what they were thinking.  They were deliberately
poker-faced to freak me out I’m sure.  After the make-up lady was done, she sat
me in front of the mirror and handed me another small mirror to check out the
back.  Mrs. Prescott came over to view my reaction.

Wow!  I was totally shocked.  It looked way better than I
expected.  I couldn’t act too happy about it because I didn’t want to give
Rainy and my cousins too much to crow about.  “Humph.  Yeah, I guess it came
out pretty good.  Thanks all for your efforts.”

Rainy looked indignant.  “Good?  You say it was just ‘good’?
 What’s wrong with you?  It looks great if I say so myself!  I told you that my
mom knows what she’s doing.”

“Tessie! I can’t believe you’re so hot now.  Who knew under
all that, uh. . . messiness, what you could really look like,” crowed Annie.  “There’s
one more problem though.”

I glowered over at Annie, “What’s that?”

“If you don’t mind me saying, your clothes suck.  If you
don’t want to look like a freak show you’re going to have to take our advice
and upgrade things,” Annie answered with an evil grin.

Eve added gleefully, “Fortunately, your birthday’s coming
up.  You can borrow some of our stuff until then.  After that, I think we’ll
have to take you for a little shopping spree.”

I couldn’t take it anymore.  “OK, this is ENOUGH for today!  If
you don’t stop, I’m going to go home and dunk my head in a bucket of water.  Anyway,
it’s time to get out of here and head home.  Isn’t tonight the pep rally bon
fire?  We’re supposed to do some chores before we go.”

As soon as we got home, Grandma told me that someone called.
 She said his name was something like “Willis or Will” and she left the phone
number on the table in the foyer.  It must be Will from robotics.  Wonder what
he wanted.

After talking to him, I set the phone down with a self-satisfied
smiIe.  He wanted to go to the bon fire with me tonight.  I told him yes. 
Except for being a stubborn pain at times, I really liked being with Will.  He’s
smart and funny and cute.  He’s not like Ian, but still cute.  A couple of his
friends will be there for us to hang out with.  To be honest, I preferred a
group thing because I’m not sure how I felt about Will and I couldn’t quite
tell what he thought about me.  Right now, friendship was the way to go,
especially since I was still trying to think of a way to bump into Ian.

My aunt and grandma were a bit taken aback at my new look.  Grandma
thought it was a little scruffy looking (good sign) and my aunt really liked it
(good sign).  After dinner, Annie insisted on picking out a couple of things
for me to wear, especially after she heard about my “date”.  She’s a little
taller than me but her clothes still fit me pretty well.  Since she had a job
for a while, she had some nice stuff.  She got out a pair of great looking
jeans (tight and torn) and a black knit top with slight off the shoulder cap
sleeves.  The one thing I insisted on wearing was my old comfy flip flops. 
After all, we’re going to a bon fire and flip flops go with old looking jeans
even if they’re fake old. 

The doorbell rang.  When I opened it, Will just stood there
for a minute and stared at me. “Will, what’s up?  Wait a second.  Let me grab a
jacket.”  He still didn’t say anything so I added loudly “WILL, SAY SOMETHING.”

“Tess.  You don’t look like you.  You’re somehow different.”
 Will answered, still staring at me.

“Yeah, well, I’m the same person you saw a few days ago.  I
just got a haircut.  Let’s go, OK?”  I had to cut that short.  It was making me
uncomfortable.

Will paused for a second then he agreed, “All right.  Let’s
go.  I told my friends, Sam and Doug, that we’d meet them by the baseball field.
 You may know Sam.  I think he’s in your Chem class.  You might also recall
Doug from Robotics.  He’s the crazy sarcastic one.”  

As we got closer to the high school, there were streams of
kids flowing onto the back field from all directions.  Everyone was headed
toward the large pile of wooden pallets in the center.  As kids arrived, they
would immediately gravitate to their own factions.  The loners were hanging
around the edges.  The irritating cheerleaders were prancing all over the
place.  The band was marching around the field, booming away.  As we approached,
I took notice of one of the loners.  It was Mercy.  She had some crazy hat on.

“Hey, Mercy, how’s it going?” I asked.

Mercy warily glanced over to see who spoke.  She initially
seemed uncomfortable, but when she saw who I was her eyes lit up.  “Hi, Tessie,
what’s up with you?”

I beckoned her to join us.  Sam and Doug are nice guys, but being
part of the Robotics crowd means they’d never be asked to join in the upper
echelon of high school coolness.  For that reason, they’re accepting of someone
else who’s a marginal outcast.  Mercy does have a rather eccentric style. 
Going against convention doesn’t win you friends in high school.  She’s
frequently alone from what I can see, but I can tell that it didn’t bother her. 
In fact, I would say that she seemed very comfortable in her own skin.  Tonight,
she was wearing an old man hat over her wild reddish brown hair and a long
skirt.  I loved her big curly mop of hair.  Somehow it fit her.

Our group started moving closer to the bon fire area.  The
fire hadn’t been set yet.  I guess that happens after the speech by Mr.
Delapath, the principal.  He was here to stir up the masses into a frenzy of
school spirit. 

I was looking around at people in the crowd to see if I knew
anyone.  I felt that someone was observing me so I turned in that direction.  Was
I imagining it?  No, someone was viewing me through the crowd.  He brushed his
hair out of his eyes and then I knew who it was.  It was Ian.  I cracked a
smile at him.  No response.  He was still staring at me without any
acknowledgment.  What was he doing?  Suddenly, I realized.  He didn’t recognize
me.  I smiled again and gave him a little wave and it finally dawned on him.  He
smiled his gorgeous smile back at me.

Who was he with anyway?  Is that Tonya?  It looked like her
whole troupe of idiots was with her.  Why was Ian there WITH HER?  I glanced
back at him.  He was still looking at me, but he was not smiling.  In fact, I
would say he was now looking at me with some concern.  Oh, that’s just great!  Now,
Tonya had noticed me looking at Ian.  She looked at him and then at me.  She
deliberately put her arm around his waist with a nasty smile pasted across her
face.  He looked surprised and took a step back.

Mercy said, “Hey, Tess, did you notice Jimmy (Bully Boy) in
a wheelchair?  I don’t like the way he’s looking at us.  He’s with the Tonya
gang.”

“Yeah, I just noticed him.  Have you heard how he’s doing? 
Didn’t he have a stroke or something?”

Mercy replied, “He had a mild stroke which affected the
right side of his body.  That’s why he’s in the chair.  I guess he won’t be
walking for a while, but he’s supposed to get better.  What’s with the look on
his face?  Is it directed at us or is his face frozen in a sneer?  It’s like he
wants to kill us. I hate to say this, but it’s making me glad that he’s stuck
in that wheelchair.”

I commented to Mercy, “And why would he be mad at us anyway?
 We didn’t do anything, right?”

“Yeah, right”, Mercy responded with a little smile.

While our attention was focused on them I figured I’d ask
Mercy about Ian.  “Mercy, do you know anything about Ian Miller?”

“Not really.  I think he used to date Tonya a while back.  He’s
certainly one that’s easy on the eyes.  I don’t know much else about him.  Why?”
 Mercy looked at me curiously.

“I was just wondering,” I responded.  “Do you think he hangs
out with THEM?”

“I wouldn’t know.  ‘Course, I only moved here last spring,
and I’m not exactly in the know of high school society here.  I haven’t seen
him hang out with those guys much before though.  Isn’t he out of high school?”
asked Mercy.

I answered, “Yeah, he’s in college now.  I think he
graduated from school last year.  Do you know anything else about him?”

“I think he’s aware that he looks like a god, but at the
same time I don’t get the impression that he’s a dumb, arrogant jerk like a lot
of great looking guys.”

“You talking about me?” asked Will laughing.

“Maybe the dumb, arrogant part,” I responded.

Suddenly we all hear a big whoosh . . . . . . . The fire had
been lit so we all turned to it.  It was beautiful against the darkening sky.  In
the background, I could hear the cheerleaders chanting and the band clanging
away.  It sounded like school spirit was revving up. 

As our attention was distracted by the mesmerizing fire, I
felt a strange sensation at my back, like someone was just barely touching me.  It
was creepy.  I quickly glanced around.  Who was there?  Abruptly the touch felt
like a thrust that forced me forward onto the ground.  Having initially sensed
something, I had just enough time to put my hands out to break my fall.  My
face just barely scraped against the edge of a jagged metal piece that was sticking
out of the ground.  I felt my face where it hit.  There was blood just above my
right eyebrow.  Will was right there, bending down to help me up.  “Are you OK?
 That was weird.  Did you trip on something?”

“No, but I felt somehow like I was shoved,” I answered while
looking around.  “Maybe I tripped on something.”

Will questioned, “How could that have happened?  I didn’t
see anyone directly behind you.   And how did you get blood on your face?  Let
me get a good look.”  He got up close and examined my forehead.  It was hard to
see in the darkness so he leaned in close.  “Do you mind me touching it?  It’s
hard to see in this light.”  As he gently pressed with his fingers, he pulled a
handkerchief out of his pants pocket and handed it to me.  “Fortunately, the
cut looks pretty shallow; however, the head always bleeds more than most
places.  It looked like it got cut open with some metal piece.”  He bent down
to examine the ground before adding, “You may have to get a tetanus shot.” 

Sam added, “That metal part may have been an insert for a
soccer post.  This area used to be part of the old soccer field.  I can’t
believe that wasn’t pulled out of the ground when the field was moved.  That’s
pretty bad!”

I glanced over at Mercy.  What was up with her?  She looked
really pissed.  She was watching Tonya and her gang who were laughing
hysterically.  What’s that about?  “Mercy, why are they acting like that?”

“I was wondering the same thing,” she responded grimly.

Everyone turned to look at Tonya’s gang.  There’s Tonya,
Red, Guy (with the slicked back hair), and Stacy, one of the cheerleaders.  Bully
Boy is nowhere to be seen.  They all seem to find something rather amusing in
our direction.  I couldn’t help but notice that Ian was gone.

Mercy was livid.  “She did that to you.  You know that,
don’t you?  You could have been killed or severely injured.”

I didn’t respond but had a gut feeling that she was right.  I
remembered viewing Tonya’s aura.  It was troubling to say the least.  I saw
flaming arcs of dark red and waves of black and gray.   I sensed hatred,
malevolence, evil intent.

I was holding the handkerchief up to my head and feeling
shaky.  It shocked me to think someone out there was deliberately trying to
hurt me.  “Mercy, how could that make any sense? They were way over there.”

Doug commented, “You know, I’ve heard some weird stuff about
Tonya.  Something about telekinetic powers.  I know that sounds crazy.” 

“She definitely has an evil streak, and who knows with
Tonya.  I wouldn’t put anything past her,” Will
added, while staring
over at her.

“I think it’s time for Tonya and her group
to get a taste of their own medicine.  I’ve been battling it out with her by
myself ever since I moved to town.  I’ve been their victim, but I’ve ignored it
most of the time because I just didn’t care.  Now, she’s spreading her evilness
to you, Tess.  You’re her new play thing.  I think it’s time to fight back, and
you can help me.” Mercy announced.

“What can I do?” I asked.

“Ever since that day you stepped into the fight between me
and Tonya, I knew you had abilities that were out of the ordinary.  In your
case, it’s just underdeveloped because you’re unaware of what you can do.  Believe
me, I have a good sense of this.  In fact, Will, I also sense some abilities
from you, too.  And, I think you know what I’m talking about.”  Mercy stared pointedly
at Will.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the Will’s
reaction.  I expected him to loudly proclaim that she was nuts but instead he
looked back at her, a gleam in his eye. “What did you have in mind?”

Mercy stopped for a minute and looked around.  Then, she
turned to Will and shook her head.  “That’s OK, Will.  I think I’ll do this
myself.  Tonya and her gang will be sorry they started something with us.  I
can fight fire with fire!  Just check this out!” 

I grabbed Mercy’s arm, “Mercy, I don’t know what you have
planned but I don’t think this is the time or place to start a fight.”  I had a
feeling that Mercy was more powerful than she looked.  Who knew what she had in
mind.

Mercy looked at us, her eyes blazing.  “Look,
this has become very personal for me.  You guys don’t know what it’s been like since
I’ve moved here.  Tonya zeroed in on me the first day I showed up at school and
she hasn’t let up.  I knew I didn’t have the power to do anything about her all
by myself, so I existed by lying low and staying out of her way as much as
possible.  I haven’t made any friends here because I knew she would just
torment them to get to me.  I realized there were a few other students in the
school that had special gifts, such as you Will, but it wasn’t enough to fight
Tonya and her pals.”

Mercy’s full attention turned to me.  “Tessie,
when you showed up, everything changed.  I knew it the minute you barged into
that fight.  You have power, REAL power, and Tonya knows it.  She wants to
frighten you into becoming a mouse like I’ve been.  It’s time to turn the
tables.”

Mercy regarded Sam, Doug and Will with a
gleam in her eye.  “Should I pull Tonya down a notch?”

“Hell, yeah, it’s time for some vengeance!”
yelled Sam.

Doug screamed, looking like a wild man, “Yeah,
it’s time to pull her DOWN!”

That was all Mercy needed to hear.  She
faced the blazing fire that was several yards away, took her finger about waist
level, and pointed it at the fire.  She closed her eyes like she was trying to
concentrate on something.  Then she opened them and slightly traced an arc from
the fire over to Tonya’s thick golden French braid.  Against the blackness of the
night, some sparks from the fire moved, over the crowd and landed around the
end of Tonya’s braid.  At first, there was a little smoldering and wisps of
smoke.  Then, suddenly, a flame broke out at the end of her braid.  No one
noticed for a few seconds, and then, all hell broke loose.