Freaks of Greenfield High (7 page)

As the day had progressed, she was satisfied she’d gotten the hang of revealing enough knowledge to convince the teachers she was a good student, while convincing her classmates she was not especially gifted.

An anomaly in the way the crowd was moving demanded her attention, and she spotted a couple of girls standing whispering, forcing students to fan out to avoid them.

The first girl held herself stiffly, muscles tensed and jaw working. Flags of crimson painted her cheekbones. She had auburn hair cut into a sharp chin-length bob. She wore black leggings and a deep purple scoop-neck tunic, belted at the waist with a gold cord. Her lip tint matched the gold cord. So did her low-heeled sandals. Glued to her side was a girl whose t-shirt was very tight, and whose red shorts were shorter than any other shorts Jay had seen on female student. She dismissed them and opened her locker.

Purple Tunic Girl marched up to her and said, “First and last warning, sweetie. Keep your paws off my boyfriend.”

Jay swept her gaze over the girl, analyzing her bone structure, facial features, and mannerisms. “Hello, Caro,” she said, in a pleasant, conversational tone. “I wondered how long it would take you to introduce yourself.”

Caro’s companion took that statement as a signal to take matters into her own hands. Jay noted the indicators and tensed her stomach muscles in preparation. When the blow came, it was hard enough that if Jay had been a fragile human female, it would have caused a substantial bruise.

Amidst gasps of “Omigod, did you see that?” from kids who’d witnessed the gesture, Jay heard her attacker inhaling with a hiss that indicated pain. She didn’t bother to verify how badly the girl might have injured her hand. The girl’s pain was not her concern. She was only interested in gauging Caro’s reaction to her friend’s behavior.

Caro’s jaw sagged. “Vanessa!”

From the strangled tone of Caro’s voice and her horrified expression, Jay guessed Vanessa’s actions had been unexpected and had greatly shocked her. Apparently Tyler’s sister preferred to intimidate with words rather than actions. That was useful to know. She switched her full attention back to the girl who’d hit her.

Vanessa flexed her fingers, and as she blinked back tears, Jay noted her pupils were abnormally dilated. Abuse of pharmaceuticals would certainly explain her misplaced aggression. “You should go now,” Jay said to her. “This is none of your concern.”

The girl’s pink-slicked lips curled into a sneer. “Is that so?”

Jay dulled the hue of her irises, leaching the color until the intense azure faded to a flat, cold, gun-metal grey. She’d done this before to good effect. She couldn’t permanently alter her eye-color, but she’d discovered that even a brief temporary alteration unnerved people. She took a step toward Vanessa. And another.

The girl swallowed another whimper, of fear rather than pain this time, and backed off.

“Hey!” Tyler’s sister grabbed Jay’s arm.

She remembered just in time she was supposed to be a “normal” girl, and allowed herself to be dragged back to face Caro. Jay wasn’t programmed to remain passive when someone attacked her, but these sharp little impulses flicking beneath her skin, urging her to retaliate, weren’t usual. She ignored them. She wasn’t hurt and nor was she in danger. There was no reason to act on those impulses.

Caro raked her gaze over Jay’s attire, lingering on the borrowed flannel shirt. A frown puckered her brows, and her eyes narrowed to slits.

The odds that Caro recognized the shirt were high. It would be interesting to note how she reacted if she realized the shirt was her brother’s, and that he’d loaned it to the new girl who supposedly had designs on Caro’s boyfriend.

Shawn, too, had surprised Jay with his observational skills. The very next time he’d seen her, he had immediately recognized the shirt and made the connection with Tyler. His lips had flattened into a tight white line and he’d made a derogatory comment about her borrowed attire. As the school day had progressed, Shawn insisted on sitting next to her wherever possible, and would slip disparaging remarks about Tyler into the conversation. Jay had finally realized the remarks were because Shawn was angry at Tyler.

A knot formed in her stomach at the mere thought of Tyler being harassed by Shawn and his cohorts. Tyler had done nothing wrong. He didn’t deserve to be punished for being kind, and worrying about her wellbeing.

“I’ll say this in plain English so even you can understand,” Caro said. “Stay away from Shawn, or I’m gonna make you very sorry.”

Jay didn’t bother responding to Caro’s outlandish claim. But Shawn was another matter, an irritation she would happily be rid of. She’d very politely asked him to please stop bothering her, but apparently Shawn was not intelligent enough to understand her request. And Caro appeared to hold Shawn blameless for his actions, placing the fault squarely on Jay, whose only crime was being the unwilling object of his attention. It made no sense. She had not encouraged Shawn’s attentions. She’d actively discouraged him. Perhaps being completely honest with Caro would bring about the desired result.

“You have nothing to worry about so far as Shawn is concerned,” she said. “I have no interest in him. In fact, after suffering his attentions at the office this morning, and during three classes today, I find myself in total agreement with your brother. Shawn is a douche. And you deserve better.”

Caro blinked at her. Her lips twitched. “Speaking of my brother, I heard what happened in Bio. Thanks for looking out for him.”

They were statements, not questions, so Jay remained silent.

“He loaned you his shirt, didn’t he?” Caro probed.

Jay didn’t see any reason to prevaricate. “Yes. I washed out my t-shirt and he was concerned about me wearing a wet top. It was very kind of him to loan me his shirt.”

“Yep. Sounds like Tyler, all right—the whole give you the shirt off his back thing, I mean. Hey, it looks way better on you than it did on him, anyway.”

Jay glanced down at her shirtfront. “Thank you. Tyler tied the shirt in this fashion. He seemed to think it looked more attractive this way.”

Caro’s lip-twitching became more pronounced. If she wasn’t careful, it might morph into a smile.

Behind Jay, Vanessa gave a strangled-sounding gargle, and took advantage of Jay’s apparent inattention to grab a handful of her hair.

“Cat-fight!” someone yelled.

The kids milling around in the corridor found a common purpose. They pushed and shoved, trying to get closer so they didn’t miss out on the promised entertainment.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Vanessa?” Caro squawked, and then turned to elbow someone who’d jostled her. “Hey! Back off, jerk-face!”

Vanessa yanked harder on her handful of Jay’s hair and in response, Jay allowed her back to arch until she had an excellent view of the stained grey ceiling tiles. Having her hair pulled didn’t bother her. She could have resisted and left Vanessa with a hank of her hair as a trophy. She would have had a bald patch on her scalp but the missing hair would soon re-grow. What bothered Jay right now was that her current position restricted the scope of her vision.

It was time to rectify the situation—without loss of hair. She arched backward in a gymnastics-style bridge, hands reaching for the floor.

The unexpectedness of her actions startled Vanessa into a shocked shriek, and she released Jay’s hair to scramble backward.

Jay’s hands contacted with the floor. She kicked up to balance on her hands, and resisted the instinctive desire to lash out at Vanessa with her feet. The girl was not a true threat and there was no need to disable her. For five seconds Jay remained upside down, balanced on her hands, her body arrow-straight with feet in the air and toes pointed, giving those nearby the opportunity to get clear before she bent her elbows, abruptly straightened them and pushed off with her hands to bounce upright.

“Shee-it!” someone said. “Nice moves.”

Before Vanessa could react to this new development, Jay snaked out her hand and grasped Vanessa’s wrist. She pulled the girl toward her until they were face to face. “What is your issue with me, Vanessa? I’ve done nothing to you. I’ve told Caro I have no interest in Shawn. There was no reason for you to attack me again. I am inclined to conclude you are either—” she sought the correct slang term “—
high
, or that you have feelings for Tyler and you are jealous that he helped me.”

Vanessa’s heavily made-up cheeks flushed with uneven blotches that crawled down her neck. “Me, high? That’s rich!” Her gaze slid sideways. When she met Caro’s raised eyebrows, she flinched and ducked her head, and then tried to pull from Jay’s grasp.

Jay held on to Vanessa’s wrist, ignoring her pathetic struggles. She gazed at the students who’d gathered, clearly expecting more entertainment. After selecting what seemed to be the most appropriate response, she twisted her face into a sneer. “Go away. There’s nothing more to see here.”

Staring students suddenly found more interesting things to concern themselves with. Excellent. Practicing her facial expressions in the mirror had achieved the desired results.

When they were no longer the center of attention, and the noise level in the hallway had resumed its usual boisterous levels, Caro confronted Jay. “Look. I’m really sorry about this. It wasn’t supposed to get physical. I just wanted to warn you off Shawn.”

The tight strain in Caro’s voice was congruent with her overly wide, worried eyes. Jay calibrated Caro’s non-verbal physical responses and concluded she meant every word.

“Your apology is accepted,” Jay said. Her gaze cut to Vanessa. “I’m still waiting for yours.”

“Sorry,” Vanessa muttered, tugging on her wrist to try to free herself from Jay’s grip, and sounding anything but apologetic.

For some reason that Jay couldn’t define, Vanessa’s rudeness irritated her as much as Shawn’s persistence. She waited until Vanessa threw her weight backward to try and free herself again, and without warning, released the girl’s wrist.

Vanessa overbalanced and landed on her butt, legs sprawled, mouth hanging open in disbelief. A bunch of kids who’d witnessed the incident snickered and whispered to each other. Vanessa’s face turned a shade of red that almost matched her shorts.

“Sorry,” Jay said, exactly matching Vanessa’s tone. She slammed the door of her locker shut, and walked off, leaving Caro to deal with her companion in whatever way she chose.

“Skanky bitch!” she heard Vanessa say.

“You had it coming, Nessa,” came Caro’s response. “You’re real lucky she didn’t smack you a good one after what you pulled on her. Look, we’ve got to get ready for practice and you need to get your head in the game. You know what Bettina’s like. She’ll drop you from the squad if you screw up again. We’ll talk about this later, ’kay?”

“Whatever.”

Jay’s lips curved. Yes, Vanessa had deserved “it”.

And strangely enough, her confrontation with the girl had eased the hollow feeling in her belly. She’d suffered this strange feeling since spotting Tyler heading toward the music room at lunchtime. Unseen and unnoticed, Jay had lurked outside the room, spellbound by the guitar riffs spilling out from the gap beneath the closed door.

The ability to create a song or an instrumental piece was one of the rare human abilities Jay could not mimic. She could play any instrument, competently recite any piece of music after hearing it only once, but it was beyond her abilities to create anything new. Tyler’s music, his voice and the words he’d sung…. The combination had been raw and powerful. Haunting.

I wake in the dead of night,
And you’re not there.
I call your name,
But there’s no answer.
You’re gone,
And I’m lost.
Half of what I am is yours.
And I’m lost without you….

As Jay had listened, a vast emptiness had welled up inside her. Logic dictated the hollow feeling was merely a result of her body’s requirement for sufficient sustenance, however eating a snack from a dispensing machine outside the cafeteria had done little to dispel it. She didn’t comprehend how mere words put to music could have a physical effect on her… and that physically bettering an opponent could help alleviate the symptoms. It bore further investigation.

She pushed through the exit doors, blinking once to accustom her eyesight to the brightness after the gloom of the poorly lit corridor. As she cut through the car park, she noticed Tyler lurking amongst the bunch of students who had congregated in the bus bay. She suspected from the stiffening of his posture that he’d spotted her, but was pretending he hadn’t.

This must be what was meant by “playing it cool”.

Jay didn’t understand how to reciprocate, how to project “coolness” in return. Had kissing Tyler this morning been playing it cool?

She didn’t know.

She
did
know it had been uncharacteristic, acting on an impulse that had surged through her body and hijacked her brain. Like now, when her arm, seemingly of its own volition, lifted to acknowledge him with a wave.

Tyler waved back.