Bitter Demons (4 page)

"Not exactly," I said. I raised one eyebrow.
I didn't want to come right out and say that I'd used a glamour.
Not with Allison right there.

It took her a second to figure it out. "Oh,"
she said, finally realizing what I meant. "Nice."

"What?" Allison said. "I don't get it."

Lark made a move toward the building,
ignoring Allison's comment.

"Aren't we going to wait for Brooke?" I
asked.

Lark turned. "She told us not to wait for her
in the mornings anymore," she said.

"Since when?"

"Since after you went into the hospital." She
shifted the strap of her backpack and nodded her head toward the
building. "Come on, let's go before we miss the bell."

I jogged to catch up with her. "Wait a
second," I said, matching her pace. "You can't just drop a bomb
like that on me and expect me to forget it. Did something happen?
Did you guys get into some kind of argument?"

A guy I didn't know whistled as he passed by
us, looking me up and down. I cringed and shook my head.
That
was weird.

"Not an argument, exactly," she said. We
stopped by her locker and she twisted in the combination on the
lock. "She's just different now. You know, ever since she turned
eighteen. It's like she gets initiated into the Order and suddenly
she's too good for us trainees."

Allison finally caught up with us. She leaned
against the locker, slightly out of breath. "Geez, you guys
training for a marathon or something?"

Lark rolled her eyes and pulled open her
locker door.

"What are you guys talking about,
anyway?"

"Brooke," Lark said.

"Oh." Allison crinkled her nose. "I don't get
her these days. She's really been absent, you know? I think it's
all those late-night sessions talking to her boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Man, I really had missed a lot
in the week I'd been out.

"The governor's son," Lark said. "For years,
all Brooke could talk about was how much of a major crush she had
on Foster and how she wished he and Tori weren't together. Then,
the second she gets him to fall for her, she dumps him like he's
trash and goes after the governor's son."

"It's like, suddenly she's all about politics
and getting into a good school where she can study foreign affairs
or some crap."

I thought about Brooke's birthday confession
to me that she'd always wanted to work with horses. Sometimes I
wondered if being a member of the Order meant giving up everything
you wanted out of life. Did Brooke really have a choice about her
own future? Or had they decided it for her?

Lark slammed her locker door shut. "It
doesn't matter," she said. "We've still got each other, right?"

I smiled at her and nodded. "Of course," I
said. "I don't plan on changing anytime soon."

A group of guys I recognized from the
basketball team walked by and a few of them said good morning to
me. I raised my hand in a slight wave, confused. I'd been in school
at Peachville High for months now and those guys had never once
said hello to me. Heck, I didn't even know they knew my name.

"Maybe you've already changed," Lark
said.

Her comment stuck with me for the rest of the
day. Maybe she was right. I mean, sure, I was wearing different
clothes today because of the glamour, but new clothes shouldn't be
making this much difference. Even my teachers were paying more
attention to me. A few of them even let me slide on the assignments
I'd missed the week before.

In all of my morning classes, I caught
several people turning in their seats to look at me. I was kind of
a sit-in-the-back kind of girl and most of the time people ignored
me. Being part of the Demons cheerleading squad earned me a little
bit of popularity, but in class, I tended to blend in. These people
had all grown up together and had been in the same class since
Kindergarten. I couldn't compete with that. The novelty of being
the new girl wore off weeks ago, and I just became another body to
fill the seats.

But today was different.

I felt like a magnet that was attracting all
sorts of attention. Teachers called on me for my answers in every
class and complimented me for my "astute observations" or my
"unique take" on the subject. In the hallway, heads turned as I
walked past. It was definitely weird. I even made three extra trips
to the bathroom to make sure I didn't have something weird
smothered all over my face or something stuck in my teeth.

Before lunch, I ducked into the girl's
bathroom one more time, just to check. I stared at my reflection in
the mirror. The glamour was in place. No flaws that I could see,
anyway. My hair was more bouncy and full than normal, and of
course, the clothes were nicer, but none of that accounted for the
drastic change in everyone's behavior toward me.

It was my eyes that were most different.
Normally, they were just a plain chestnut brown. Nothing special.
But today, there was something about them. They seemed to sparkle.
I leaned closer to the mirror to get a better look.

The brown was infused with golden flecks and
my eyes seemed lighter than usual. I couldn't quite put it into
words. It was as if someone had filled me up with some kind of
sparkling energy.

And power from their demons.

I shivered. As fun as it was to suddenly be
popular, I knew it came at a price. One step closer to being Prima
meant one step closer to losing myself. Hadn't they already changed
me enough? Where would I start to draw the line?

And when would it be too late to turn
back?

"Today, we're going to be changing into our
gym clothes and sneakers," Mrs. King announced as soon as we walked
into after-school cheerleading practice.

Everyone groaned. Usually, we spent our time
working on our magic. It was just as easy to create an orb of light
in jeans as it was in shorts and a sports bra.

"Why?" Lark asked, voicing the one question
on all our minds.

"We're going to practice," Mrs. King said
with a smile.

"Cheers?" Allison said, pushing her eyebrows
together.

"Yes, cheers," Brooke said, stepping up
beside Mrs. King. "And a new dance routine. We have the most
important game of the year coming up against Cypress. Another
special town, just like Peachville. We want to look our best."

"Plus, we have our regional cheerleading
competition coming up in just a few weeks," Mrs. King added. "We've
come in second place every year for the past three years. I think
this year could be our chance to finally win regionals and move on
to state."

"Who keeps beating us?" I whispered to
Lark.

"Cypress," she said. "They're the closest
demon gate to Peachville and have kind of been our rival team for a
long time. Their squad is amazing."

"Do we really have a shot at beating them
this year?"

She shrugged and headed into the locker
room.

Changing into gym clothes presented a unique
problem for me. I had no idea if my clothes would change back to
their old, holey selves as soon as I took them off or not. The
amount of concentration I'd expended on keeping up my appearance
all day was minimal, but I needed a little extra juice in order to
make sure the glamour stayed put even when I took the clothes
off.

I stood in front of my locker and took a
deep, calming breath. I blocked the sound of the girls chattering
around me and the sound of their shoes squeaking on the floor. I
pulled into myself and tapped into that deep well that ran below
the surface of my consciousness. When I felt that I was connected
to my own power, I quickly pulled off my clothes and stuffed them
into my gym bag. Thankfully, they didn't change back while they
were still in view. It would be a miracle if they stayed the same
all the way through practice, though, so I figured I might have to
find a quiet place to re-do my entire glamour before I met with
Jackson.

Jackson. Just thinking about him made my
stomach flutter. I hadn't seen him around all day even though I
looked for him in the halls. I knew he was at school, because I'd
seen his bike in the parking lot. I hoped practice wouldn't run
late today. With my new seven o'clock curfew, I wouldn't have much
time at all.

"Earth to Harper." Brooke snapped her
fingers, and I looked up. She tossed my sneakers at me hard.
"There's no time for daydreams. Everyone's waiting."

I looked around. She was right. I guess I'd
missed everyone heading back into the gym. "Sorry," I mumbled.

I carried my sneakers with me into the gym
and sat down on the bleachers while Mrs. King explained what we
were going to do. As soon as I put them on, I realized I had a much
bigger part to play in the next routine than anything we'd ever
done in the past. I bit my lip. Was I really ready for this?

The way the sneakers worked, it put the
memory of the routines into both our minds and our bodies, as if
we'd been practicing them for weeks. Unfortunately, wearing the
sneakers did not rule out the possibility of messing up. The same
way a cheerleader could practice a routine for months, then choke
when it came time to perform, a girl wearing the magic sneakers
could mess up too. I didn't like the thought of messing up when I
was going to be soaring through the air.

I raised my hand. "Um, Mrs. King?"

"Yes, Harper?"

"I think I might have been given the wrong
shoes," I said. "I thought Brooke was normally at the top of the
final pyramid."

Brooke's head snapped toward me. I saw the
tightness in her jaw, the anger in her eyes. I'd never seen that
kind of look from her before.

"No," Mrs. King said. "You've got the right
shoes. I decided to give you a more prominent role in the new
routine. I think you're perfect for the top of the pyramid."

What? Where did this come from? I hadn't
asked for a more prominent role. I didn't want it. It seemed like
everywhere I turned today, someone was pushing me into the
spotlight.

I opened my mouth to protest, but Lark put
her hand on my arm and shook her head. "Just do it," she said. "You
might as well try it once and see how it goes. Besides, Mom told me
about last night. Well, not everything, but she told me you know
you're the Prima Futura and we can stop keeping it a secret. People
need to start seeing you as a leader."

I swallowed nervously. I'd never thought of
it that way. Was that what their ritual was all about? To make me
more popular and beautiful so that the town would start to see me
as their golden child? Somehow, it didn't feel right. I hadn't
earned any of it.

But to turn down the new position on the team
might throw up some red flags. Maybe the Order would begin to
question my loyalty. I couldn't afford for that to happen, so I
just smiled and pretended to be excited about the new routine.

Our first run-through went surprisingly well.
I was nervous to be up so high in the air, but once I got up there,
my body knew exactly what to do.

"Try to look more confident, Harper," Mrs.
King yelled up to me. "You're going to be fine!"

I steadied myself at the top of the pyramid
and lifted my hands into the air with a smile. On cue, the girls
below threw me into the air. I tucked and landed safely in their
arms, then flipped up onto my feet. The routine was exhilarating.
My heart rate soared and I was actually having fun. Just when I
started getting into it, though, Brooke bumped into my
shoulder.

I cried out and bent over in pain. She'd hit
me exactly where the dagger had gone into my skin that night at the
old hospital. Mrs. King stopped the music and rushed over.

"What happened?"

I looked up at Brooke's face. She'd plastered
on a look of confusion and sympathy.

"I don't know," she said in a voice so sweet
it almost didn't sound like her at all. "Harper went the wrong way
on the turn. She bumped right into me."

I glared at her. What was her problem? If she
really cared that much about being on top of the pyramid, she could
have it. Damn.

"Maybe I'm not cut out for the lead
position," I said.

"Nonsense," Mrs. King said, helping me off
the court and onto the bleachers. "You looked perfect up there.
Maybe there's something wrong with the memory spell. Let's run it
again without Harper and see how it goes." She turned to me. "You
just take a rest and then you can jump back in on the next
run-through."

There were no more problems with the routine
for the rest of the afternoon. After my shoulder stopped throbbing,
I ran through the routine with the team three more times without
bumping into anyone. I knew it was Brooke that went the wrong way
that first time, and it wasn't a problem with the spell. She'd done
it on purpose just to hurt me.

She really had changed.

I groaned as I looked into my bag. My cool
new outfit had gone back to its horrible original state. I must
have lost my concentration when Brooke hit my shoulder.

I knew I couldn't change with all these
people around. I stalled for time as everyone else changed, then
when no one was watching, I slipped down into the secret training
room downstairs. Luckily, it was empty. I quickly changed into my
old clothes and sat down on the hard cement floor. It took me a
little while longer to connect with my power than it had this
morning. My shoulder was still sore and it messed with my
concentration. Pain sucked.

When I finally got the glamour going again, I
walked quietly up the stairs. I heard my name in the locker room. I
stopped before I went through the wall and listened.

"Harper's new to this town and this squad,"
Brooke said. Her voice had an angry edge to it. "What gives her the
right to just take over the lead position? I've been waiting four
years to be at the top of the pyramid. I finally get there and what
happens? Some new girl who's never cheered before in her entire
pitiful life takes it away from me."