Best Friends Through Eternity (17 page)

Mom smiles back. “All things considered, you must be right.”

Dad joins us and we enjoy our granola and chia seed cereal together. “Looks like the meteorologists were wrong about that storm they predicted. It’s a perfect clear day.”

Predictions can be wrong, fate can change.
If it doesn’t snow, maybe I can live.

Only outside the window, I now spot one feather-like flake drifting to the ground.

“Anyway, we’ll shut down early if it does turn into a storm. You should come straight home, too, Paige,” Mom says.

Coming straight home, that could work. I wouldn’t be on the track at the same time as before. “Yes. I won’t volunteer at the library today.”

We all head out together, like so many other times in our life. But this may be the last time for me. I hug them both and blink back tears. As the van drives off, I wave till I can’t see them anymore. I will miss our daily routine. I will miss them, my family, crazy mixed-up and mismatched as we are. If I can’t make fate budge for me, I will miss life.

I walk a few blocks and meet up with Jasmine.

As we stroll toward school, I tell her about our dinner at the Mandarin and the plans being made for a two-family
trip to China. I also explain about the kidney transplant.

A few more feathers of snow drift down. A chill runs up my spine.

“Wow, your mom is a brave lady.”

“Maybe she’s too tough for her own good. Kim’s mom seems to have recovered and gotten on with her life.” I stop and glance at Jazz.
If I have to die, I need to save her.
That’s why I came back. Helping Jazz will make up for the best friend … sister I couldn’t help. “Did you explain to your mom about Cameron?”

“I tried. But she’s not hearing me. She calls Cameron a cake boy. Cripes, it was Max who baked the cream puffs.” She marches along quickly.

The snow feathers perform pirouettes, now. My heart sinks. The weather is playing out exactly the same as my last death day.

“Secrets weigh you down, Jazz.” To save her, I need to convince her. “I didn’t even know my family had any. But I feel so much better now understanding everything about Kim.”

“Yeah?” She looks at me.

“I can’t cover for you today. I promised my mom I would head straight home. ’Cause of the storm.”

“Oh, come on. I need you. I don’t get to see Cameron at all on Sunday.”

“Bring Cameron to my house after school. I’ll ask Max, too.”

“What if Mom spots us?”

“She thinks he’s safe, remember? You have to wear your parents down on the dating thing. You have to, Jazz. Promise me.”

“Okay, okay! Here come Cameron and Max.”

Thankfully they’re both agreeable to hanging with us at my house. So I’ve managed to change our school leaving time. And nothing can make me take that shortcut along the track again. There will be four of us walking together, one of us being the love of Vanessa’s life. Surely she won’t beat us up in front of Cameron if she still has feelings for him.

We head off for our separate classes. In English, we finish
Romeo and Juliet.
Mrs. Corbin reads the last scene out loud to us. You can tell she loves Shakespeare and she makes me love it, too. But Romeo and Juliet still die in the end.

I feel sick.

When the bell rings, I wait till everyone leaves. “I just want to say, Mrs. Corbin, that I never liked English class until you taught it.”

“My goodness. Thank you, Paige.”

“You’re welcome.” I smile and leave. As I step into the hall, someone bumps into me, shoving me into the wall.

“Good work, Banana.” Kierstead puts her face right close to mine, and I swear I can smell smoke on her breath, the liar. “You killed the volleyball team. After school, I’m gonna kill you.”

Those words.
Will she be my new fate, my new death?

I stand up to her, anyway. If things can’t be changed, why should I cower?

“Kierstead, even if you kill every girl at school, Cameron’s not gonna go out with you.”

She steps back. “What are you talking about? He’s Van’s boyfriend.”

“You knew that was over, didn’t you? He just felt sorry for her. He was itching for someone new.”

“Shut up.” She rams me against the wall and heads off.

Max runs over. “What did you say this time?”

“I was hoping to persuade Kierstead to leave Jazz alone. But it didn’t go well.”

He loops his arm through mine. “No career in diplomacy for you.”

Later, in gym class, Mrs. Brown asks me if I want to play on the volleyball team. A few spots have opened up.

I grin, still hopeful, and answer, “Sure.”

But the snow starts coming down harder at noon and buries the streets by second break. For that lunch, I eat poutine at Max’s suggestion. “It’s got all your fat needs for the week in one meal,” he tells me.

It will have to satisfy my fat needs for my lifetime. My last lunch on death row. I like the salty gravy. And the texture of the melted cheddar over the softening fries.

Someone is watching me, though. I can feel the eyes. I whip around and see Kierstead, her face screwed up as she stares.

I give her the finger.

She winks.

We arrive at French class at the same time, but I notice she’s texting on her phone right from start to dismissal. I will Madame Potvin to notice. But she doesn’t.

“Your attention, please,” Mrs. Norr’s voice sputters to life over the intercom. “The school will be closing at dismissal due to the storm. No library, gym or Environment Club.”

With Kierstead’s texting, the former volleyball team has to know that we’re leaving the school at 3:15 sharp today, although they can’t be certain of our route. On the bright side, there is nothing smeared on anyone’s locker.

M
ax and I dress as warmly as we can. He even picks up a hat from Lost and Found.

“Oooh. You’ll get lice.”

“Over frostbite and amputated ears, I’ll take bugs.”

We meet Jazz and Cameron at his locker. I feel I should at least warn them about Kierstead’s texting. I won’t need to use prior knowledge of those Facebook plans I saw the last time I lived through this day. But when I tell them, neither seems to take it all that seriously.

“Really, what are they gonna do?” Cameron asks as we head for the door. “There are two guys with you, don’t forget.”

“Oh, against ten girls? You figure that’s an even playing field?” Jazz says.

Max pushes open the door, and the wind blasts snow up against us.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky.” I raise my voice over the wind. “How can anyone see anything in weather like this?”

“Anybody got any money? We could grab a cab,” Jazz suggests loudly.

“No,” Max says. “Happy engagement to Beena, remember?”

“I’ve got five bucks. That’s not enough for bus fare, is it?” I ask.

Jazz shakes her head. “One of my uncles is a bus driver. He’ll tell my parents. Let’s just walk along the tracks. It’s quicker, anyhow.”

The tracks.

She’s right, waiting for the bus might take forever. Still. How is the storm affecting the train’s schedule? Can we predict when one will come? I swallow hard as we struggle through the drifts and wind. “On one condition,” I announce.

“What?” Jazz asks.

“I don’t care how deep the snow is on either side, none of you are walking on the actual track. Okay?”

“Safety first,” Max chuckles.

“Laugh all you want. Trains can’t stop like cars. And in the storm, we won’t hear them coming.”

“You’re being ridiculous. Let’s just go.”

The four of us squeeze together across the sidewalk, with Max trailing half on, half off. The wind moans high and then low like a siren as it flings snow in our faces. I hook one arm
around Max’s elbow, the other around Jasmine’s. Together we stumble through it.

Before even reaching the intersection, we turn off the block, and I have to let go of them so they can climb over the chain-link fence.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I say.

“C’mon, just do it.” Max takes my backpack from me, but it’s impossible to jam my toe in the diamond of wire to start the climb.

“Here.” Max bends a little, cupping his hands to provide a ladder step for me.

I step on his palms quickly, and he lifts as I fling one leg, then the other, over the top. Then I let go and drop hard on the ground.

Jazz lands an instant after, and the guys throw the backpacks to us. Cameron scrambles over, no problem, but Max with his wide feet has the same trouble as I did.

“Take your boots off,” I suggest.

“Or you’ll have to go around,” Jazz says.

Max shakes his head but pitches his boots over to us. He winces as he squeezes his toes in the wire holes, foot by foot. Then he’s over, too, shoving his wet feet back into his boots.

We pick up our backpacks and start the hike along the snowbank, two of us at either side of the tracks. I keep looking back and trying to make out sounds, even though we should be perfectly safe on these banks. A few steps along, Jazz sinks up to her knees and, when she hoists her foot up,
her boot comes off. “This is ridiculous; we’re walking there. It’s been plowed.” Cameron helps her get out of the snow and, with her boot back on, they start to walk down the center of the track.

“No, no, you can’t!” Despite the cold, my face heats up like it’s on fire. I hold my head in my hands.

“Why are you so worried?” Max asks gently, taking one hand away.

I can’t say anything for a moment. Even if the rules didn’t forbid me from warning anyone based on knowledge gained from the last take of this week, no one would believe me. I take a breath. “Because I had a nightmare about this.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll keep walking with you here, then.” He speaks softly as though he’s trying to calm a little kid.

Whatever. I want Jazz and Cameron off the track, too. I came back this week to stand up for her, to save her, and I thought we had a deal. But they’re already too far ahead for me to argue with them. As we trudge on, hoisting our feet up and over the snow, I feel my body get hotter and my energy drain. We’re a warehouse building away from the overpass when I get stuck right up to mid-thigh. I fling myself backward and blow the bangs from my eyes. I want to melt into the cold snow.

Max grabs my arm and pulls, up and up. He forces me to climb out. “Look. We’ll walk on the track; it will be fine. Dreams are just dreams,” he says.

“You don’t understand. We won’t be able to get off in time.”

“I’ll walk backward. I’ll watch out for the rest of us,” Max says.

“No. That won’t work.” He does have a good idea, though. “It has to be me. I won’t be able to walk unless I personally know at all times that there is no train coming.”

“Okay.”

Both of us step up to the snow-covered gravel between the two metal rails. I look toward the overpass. A short walk home that is going to take forever, if I even make it home at all.

Max holds my hand as I stumble sideways, always squinting to make out that all-important train headlight, always listening to identify random sounds.

“I think that’s them!” Jazz calls back to us.

I face forward and peer in the direction she points. Five bodies shuffle up the overpass. Five against four, way better odds than ten against one or even two. Will they really wait there in the storm for us? Maybe that’s why there are only five of them. Five on first watch, while the others hang around in the doughnut shop warming up for the next shift.

“Just keep going. Hurry!” I tell her.

Cameron and Jazz run, and the figures climbing the overpass don’t seem to notice us.

But then I feel the rumble under my feet, thunder from the ground. I hear the long and short wail of the horn. Through the falling white, I make out the lone round headlight.

The train catches the attention of the figures on the top of the overpass, too, and when they look down to see the train, they also spot us.

“There they are!” Kierstead’s voice yells. “Let’s get ’em!”

Four of them begin running down the overpass, but one person stays at the top. Her hands grab the railing.

“Get off the track, Jazz. Cameron. Max!” I wave my arm and they jump to one side instantly. I step back into the high snow with Max. Deep snow and all, we begin running.

The person on the overpass hoists herself up, one leg over, then the other.

No!

The figure drops down like a sack of cement. She lands on her feet but falls to her side across the track.

“Vanessa, get up!” I scream.

The train howls short and long again.

All she has to do is roll over a couple of times. She raises her head. I see her hazel eyes. They look dead.

Vanessa doesn’t move.

There are only a couple of heartbeats of time in which you get to decide to do things and then you can regret what you don’t do for an eternity. I think I can change my fate but maybe I just can’t, not without taking out someone else instead of me.

I scramble back onto the track and reach for Vanessa. My hands connect with her back and I shove as hard as I
can, which means her body moves.
Far enough?
I have about a second to wonder. Mine has moved, too, though. I feel the hot wind from the engine and scream as I try to throw myself to the side. Something impacts with my head. Hard. Like a rocket. Everything in front of me shatters into white and gold shards. Nothing hurts, though. There is no blackness.