Daughter of Darkness (20 page)

“That’s great,” I said.

“Just keep your mouth shut about it,” she said, watching the door.

I pretended to zip my lips, and she laughed. Marla, who was straining to hear us whisper, looked annoyed.

“Don’t say it,” she quipped when Ava turned to her. “I know. Be patient.”

We both laughed at that, so loudly that Mrs. Fennel popped in again to see what was happening. We quickly returned to our food. She stood there full of suspicion but then retreated. We smiled at each other. It really felt wonderful to have Ava finally thinking of me as a real sister and the two of us being little conspirators.

Later in the car, when Marla heard I was going to cut school and go with Ava, she pouted. “It’s not fair,” she moaned. “I hate school just as much as Lorelei does.”

“I don’t hate school, Marla.”

“Lorelei will promise here and now to do something similar with you after I’m gone,” Ava told her. It wasn’t enough to satisfy her, but she didn’t moan and groan about it anymore.

Every time Ava talked about her leaving and my stepping into her shoes, I had a creepy feeling in the base of my stomach. It was as if hundreds of little wires inside me had snapped and were pinging. I knew that any night now, she might decide to take me out with her on a monthly hunt. The time after that, she might accompany me, but it would be my job, as Daddy liked to say, to “bring home the bacon.”

I didn’t know if I would be better off knowing the exact night we would go out together on her regular monthly hunt or not. I didn’t ask her about it, and she still hadn’t said anything specific. I tried to put it out of my mind and enjoy my day with her at UCLA. It was a
spectacular California morning, with barely a wisp of a cloud violating the sea of light blue. The breeze was cool and refreshing. It carried the sounds of other students’ laughter as they went to and fro on the campus, and the music from nearby car radios.

Maybe it was because of my excitement about being with her and being on a college campus, but everything looked sparkling and fresh. There was a different energy there. The students were buoyant and loose. Perhaps it came from their being on their own. That sense of freedom was infectious. There were bells for classes and rules to follow, of course, but no one was standing in the hallways ready to pounce on them for not wearing something proper or for talking too loudly. The teachers I saw seemed to be just as casual, too. Why wasn’t Ava happier about being there? I would be, and I hoped Daddy would send me to college, too.

“Let’s get this over with,” she said, referring to her class.

“Aren’t you getting anything out of it, enjoying anything?” I asked.

She tilted her head and looked at me askance. “You’re kidding, right?”

I shrugged. Was I missing something? Was I supposed to feel the same way about my education? It was clear to me that I didn’t, but ironically, every difference between myself and Ava only made me feel more insecure, even frightened. Were these differences big enough to cause me to fail Daddy?

“The real school is out there,” she said, nodding toward the street.

“The more you know, the better you’ll be out there,” I said.

“Who told you that? Did Daddy tell you that?” she asked, pouncing on me.

“No. I just thought it was true.”

She smirked. “Get real, Lorelei. Ninety percent of what these people learn and do here has nothing to do with survival, and survival is the only graduation I want to attend.”

Daddy had stressed the importance of survival, too, when we were together on the beach, but wasn’t there more to all of this than just survival? Despite what he had told me, Daddy enjoyed music and art and being with his old friends. What would Ava have after she left us? Where were her old friends? How would she fill her days? What did Brianna have? Was she closer to Ava or to me? I was so tempted to ask her, to continue the conversation, but I just nodded and walked beside her into the building.

One of the reasons I was happy to come here with her was my interest in how the other students reacted to Ava and how she reacted to them. Would it be different from the way things were for me in high school? The moment we entered, I saw how the boys were looking at her and smiling. To my surprise, she smiled back and even said hello to some. Although she didn’t introduce me to anyone, there was no avoiding anyone, either. She could tell that I wondered why she hadn’t introduced me.

“Let them all wonder who you are,” she said. “Mystery is an aphrodisiac.”

The class in nineteenth-century American literature
was in a small theater, so there were plenty of seats. Nevertheless, she had us sit away from most of the others. I looked around and saw how so many of the students were staring at us, especially the boys.

“How do you keep those boys from asking you out on dates?” I asked her.

She smiled and showed me her left hand.

“What is that?”

“An engagement ring,” she said. “I slip it on before I come to class.”

“Did you think of doing that?”

“No. It was Mrs. Fennel’s idea,” she said. “I had the feeling it was something she once did, too.”

“I can’t imagine her our age.”

“Oh, she was,” Ava said. She smiled and added, “And for a long time, too.”

Her teacher entered and went to a lectern. He wore a light blue sweater and jeans and had a dark brown goatee, but he was mostly bald with two even strips of hair just above his temples. From where we were sitting, they looked painted on his head. He was giving a lecture on Mark Twain’s
Huckleberry Finn.

“Did you read it?” I asked Ava.

“The first ten pages,” she said. “Boring.”

“Boring?”

I had read it in eleventh grade and thought it was one of the most fun and interesting novels taught that year. How could she call it boring? Despite her attitude, she looked as if she was listening attentively but took no notes. Others were either writing in notebooks or typing on little portable computers. The point of the lecture was
what exactly the importance was of Huck saying, “All right, I’ll go to hell.”

The teacher encouraged some discussion then. A tall, very thin girl, with glasses thick enough to be called goggles, raised her hand and pointed out that Huck believed slavery was right because his society told him it was. In his heart, he didn’t think so, and because of that, he was willing to help the slave Jim escape, even if it meant he would go to hell. I had known that and even had the urge to raise my hand.

“Exactly. And so you see,” the teacher concluded, “why I call Huck Finn the most courageous literary character.”

The bell rang. Although she looked as if she had been listening, Ava jumped as if the sound had woken her.

“Is it finally over? What did I miss?”

“A very important point.”

“Really?” she said.

“Yes. What your teacher means is that what’s right and wrong isn’t something for a government to decide. It’s for you to decide inside yourself.”

“I didn’t need him to tell me that. Didn’t Daddy ever tell you that?”

“Yes.”

“Thought so,” she said. “C’mon. I’m hungry, and I don’t want to eat what Mrs. Fennel made for our lunch.”

We followed the other students out. Some paused to talk to Ava. She was as normal as anyone else, talking about her vacation, the class, whatever subject was mentioned. How different it was for her, I thought. She was
relaxed and not on any special guard, and all because she wore that engagement ring.

“I’ll give it to you when I leave,” she muttered as we continued to walk out.

“What?”

“My engagement ring.”

“How did you know I was thinking about it?”

“Your face is better than a flashing billboard. At least to me,” she added, laughing.

We had started toward the parking lot when I suddenly heard someone just behind me shout, “Diane? Hey?”

Even though my name wasn’t Diane, I turned and stopped walking.

The young man hurried to catch up. For a moment, I thought he was going to join someone else, but he came directly toward me. I recognized him immediately. Ava stepped up beside me. She either didn’t remember him or wanted to get me to ignore him, but he was too close.

It was the young man from Dante’s Inferno, Buddy Gilroy.

“Hi,” he said. “Remember me? Buddy Gilroy. You go to school here?”

“No,” Ava said. “We’re Jehovah’s Witnesses delivering the
Watchtower.
C’mon,” she said, tugging my arm.

“Very funny,” Buddy said, walking along. “I had a feeling I had seen you before when we met at Dante’s,” he told Ava.

She glanced at him. Suddenly, she stopped us, looked at me, and then turned to him. “What do you want?”

“Hey, I’m just saying hello. I didn’t mean to blow
your cover or anything,” he replied, holding up his hands.

“You’re not blowing any cover,” she said. She thought a moment. “Where are the rest of your bosom buddies, Buddy?”

“Around,” he said. “Where are you heading?” he asked me.

I was afraid to speak.

“We’re going to Papa’s for some pizza.”

“Honest to God,” he said, raising his right hand. “I was heading there myself. Can I walk along with you?”

“Did you get your flu shot?”

“Huh?”

“Never mind,” Ava said. “Walk along.”

“Thanks. So what year are you?” he asked me.

“She’s only auditing today,” Ava answered for me.

“You’re not enrolled?”

“No,” I said.

“You didn’t tell us where you were from, Buddy,” Ava said.

“You didn’t ask.”

“Let me guess,” Ava said, pausing again. “Hemet or some other small California town?”

He laughed. “No. Born and raised in Long Beach.”

“Keep talking,” Ava said, continuing to walk. I realized what she was doing. She was making sure Buddy Gilroy was no renegade.

“I’m the oldest of three boys. My father is a dentist, and my mother works as his receptionist now. My father was a dentist in the navy.”

“How patriotic,” Ava said. “Drill, drill, drill.”

“Are you two related?” he asked, his questions always directed at me. I was still afraid to answer before Ava, however.

“Do we look like we’re related?” she fired back at him.

He shrugged. “You’re both beautiful,” he said.

Ava finally smiled. She glanced at me, an impish twinkle in her eyes. “We’re blood related,” she said.

“So, that’s like sisters, right?”

“Just like sisters,” she said, and we crossed the street.

“I can’t believe I ran into you,” he told me. “Ever since that night, I’ve been thinking about you.”

“Just thinking?” Ava asked him. She smiled as we headed for the restaurant. “Or did you fantasize?”

“Guilty,” he said.

She laughed and gave me another knowing look. What was it she was trying to tell me? She further surprised me by inviting him to join us at our table in the restaurant. After we ordered, she once again did most of the talking. Buddy tried to start a conversation only with me, but Ava interrupted frequently, finding out more about him and his family. He finally reacted.

“This is beginning to feel like a job interview for the CIA,” he told her, and looked to me.

“It’s been our experience more often than not that men lie to us,” I said. I saw how much that pleased Ava.

“Well… I’m Buddy Gilroy. I’m not all men,” he said with a little indignation. He looked from Ava to me. “Fact is, I’m getting vibes from you two that tell me you’re the ones speaking with forked tongues.”

Ava laughed, but I was sure he saw the truth in my face.

“Except for your name and that you are auditing a class or two here with your blood relation, I don’t know anything about you.”

“You know we like pepperoni on our pizza,” Ava said. “Don’t be in such a rush.”

He laughed and looked around.

“None of your friends show up?” Ava asked him.

“No.”

“Little white lie, Mr. Gilroy?”

“Huh?”

“When you said you were heading here,” Ava practically sang.

He looked from her to me and then back to her and laughed. “Am I that obvious?”

“Hopefully,” Ava said.

He shook his head, ate some pizza, and smiled warmly at me. I had a strong urge to tell him the truth, to tell him that my name wasn’t Diane, but with Ava right beside me, I kept my feelings under lock and key.

Ava excused herself, took her purse, and went to the ladies’ room.

“C’mon,” Buddy begged. “Who are you? Where do you live? When can I see you again? You and I had a great time that night. Don’t say you didn’t.”

“I’m not,” I said.

“So?”

Something in me wanted me to be reckless, to be a little rebellious, and it wasn’t only his good looks and sweet personality.

“My name isn’t really Diane,” I admitted.

“Oh. What is it?”

“Lorelei.”

“Why did you tell me it was Diane?”

“Caution,” I said. “We’ve been stalked.”

“Oh. Well, I won’t stalk you if you don’t want me to, but boy, I want to very much.”

I smiled. Surely, he was too sweet and innocent to be dangerous. He didn’t have Mark Daniels’s cocky attitude, either.

“Why don’t you give me your phone number, and maybe I’ll call you?” I told him.

“Really?”

“Really,” I said, and he wrote it out quickly on a slip of paper and handed it to me.

“So, are you coming back here tomorrow?”

“No.”

“Why did you come today?”

“Maybe I’ll go here someday,” I said.

“So you’re not in college? You’re in high school?”

I realized I had already said too much, but as Mrs. Fennel said many times, you can’t unring a bell. Before I had to reply, however, Ava returned.

“Let’s get the check and go,” she said. “We don’t want me to be late for my next class.”

“Hey, let me take care of the check,” Buddy said. “That’s the least I can do for telling a white lie.”

“Yes, redeem yourself,” Ava said.

I stood up. “Thank you,” I said.

“My pleasure.”

We started out.

“He’s telling the truth,” Ava whispered. “I checked him out on my BlackBerry. His father is a dentist in Long Beach. No renegade there.”