Gone (Parallel Trilogy, Book 1) (19 page)

“Morgan! Are you okay?” Anne asked, running over to me.

I looked up at her and nodded. “I’m okay.”

“You’re bleeding,” she said as she helped me stand up.

“Let me help you,” Connor said, materializing at my side.

He put his arm around me and helped me hobble off the field.

Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing after all, I thought. Then I wondered how Lori would feel when she saw her plan had backfired, since Connor was now closer to me than he had ever been before. Suppressing a smile, I looked straight at Lori, who was staring at me with her hands on her hips. I stared at her just long enough to let her know that I knew she had done it on purpose.

She turned away first, and I felt warmth wash over me at the small triumph.

Connor and Anne brought me to the nurse’s office. Fortunately we got there before she had left and she cleaned and bandaged my scrapes. Then Anne and Connor walked with me back to the locker room, where I gathered my belongings.

“We’ll drive you home, Morgan,” Anne said.

I nodded, knowing I wasn’t in any shape to walk all the way home. Plus it would give me more time to be with Connor.

Anne and I came out of the locker room and found Connor waiting for us.

“How do you feel?” he asked, a look of concern on his face.

“I’ll live,” I said, not wanting him to think I was a wimp, but enjoying his attention.

“You know, I was watching the relay, and it almost looked like Lori yanked the baton on purpose,” he said as we walked toward his car.

He was watching me?
I immediately thought. Then I wondered if I should admit that I believed Lori had done it on purpose, or if I should claim I had tripped over my own feet. “I’m not really sure,” I finally said, deciding to play it safe. “I don’t know why she would do something like that.”

Anne laughed. “I wouldn’t put it past her.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked, since I knew that was exactly what she had done.

“I remember a couple of years ago, there was this girl she didn’t like, and she bullied her so much that the girl finally moved to a different school. Remember, Connor?”

“Kind of. I guess I didn’t pay that close of attention.”

We climbed in the car and Connor pulled out of the parking space.

“Well I’m not going to worry about it,” I said. “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

A few minutes later we pulled up in front of my house. I opened the door and began climbing out.

“By the way,” Anne said, a grin on her face. “I really liked the cookies you made.”

I glanced at Connor before looking back at her.

“That’s right. My brother actually shared them with me.” She gently punched him on the arm.

“That’s only because it was the only way to keep you quiet,” Connor said, a smile on his face. Then he looked at me. “I might come by in a few days with more ingredients. Do you think you can make another batch?”

“I’d love to,” I said, grinning. “Bring them by when you get them.”

“I will.”

I closed the door and waved to them as they drove away, then I limped to the front door and let myself in.

A short time later Mom and the kids were home. There was no way to hide my scraped hands, so when Mom asked what happened, I told her I had fallen while running the relay, which was true. I just left off the part where Lori had made me fall.

“I’m sorry you got hurt, Morgan,” Mom said. “But I know that won’t stop you from going back tomorrow, right?”

I had hoped for a little more empathy, but then I remembered Mom saying she had run track and knew she must have had her share of falls and scrapes. “Of course,” I said, half-wanting to quit. But the stronger emotion was pride, and not wanting to let Lori think she had won. Besides, what would Connor think if I quit now? After all, he had been
watching
me during the relay.

I smiled as I imagined him watching me fly around the track. At least it felt like I had been moving pretty fast. But then I pictured myself tumbling ungracefully to the ground, my hands splayed out in front of me, and frowned. As I imagined the satisfaction Lori must have felt when I crashed to the ground right in front of Connor, fresh anger welled up inside of me.

Pushing that aside, I decided to pull up Google Earth and see if I could find the hut. It was pointless to waste energy thinking about Lori when I would be gone in such a short time. I quickly found my old house on Google Earth, but it took quite a while longer to locate the hut. When I saw it, a feeling of unreality swept over me. That building is what had led me here. I still had no idea how that was possible; I just knew it had happened.

I saw that when I clicked on the hut, the GPS coordinates popped up. That was great, except I didn’t have a GPS device. I wondered if Mom had one I could use. Of course if I borrowed it, I would never be able to bring it back. But I was sure she would forgive me if she knew why I needed it.

As I gazed at the small structure on the screen, I knew what I really needed was the location of the tunnel—at least I assumed that the way to get home was to retrace my steps. I wasn’t sure how far I had walked in that tunnel, so I searched outward, in concentric circles around the hut, looking for an opening of some sort. I spent nearly two hours searching, but didn’t see anything that looked like the opening to a tunnel. Eventually my eyes were so tired that I had trouble focusing and I had to stop.

The next morning at breakfast, Mom had to remind me again that I was supposed to do my weekly weigh-in.

“Morgan, it would be nice if you could do things on your own, once in a while.” She looked at me with annoyance. “I’ve got to get the boys to school. Please make sure and weigh yourself before you leave.”

This time when I used the scale I knew what to do. When the machine announced my weight, I was surprised to learn I’d only lost one pound. With running track the last week and what seemed like eating less, I had expected to lose more. It was true I’d been eating a lot of cookies, but the other changes should have made up for it.

Oh well. I should still be in the government approved zone. Then I shook my head that such a thought would even cross my mind.

What a crazy world this is.

Chapter Twenty-Two

When I got to class I sat next to Lori.

“Hi.” I put a friendly smile on my face. At her look of surprise, I almost laughed. I knew she must have expected me to be furious with her, so my friendliness must have really thrown her off.

As I had tried to fall asleep the night before, I had considered what to do to make it clear that I was immune to her bullying. Finally I had decided to do exactly the opposite of what she expected. It wasn’t that I was trying to make her like me, but I wanted to make her think I didn’t know she had made me fall on purpose.

“Hi, Morgan,” she said, her expression guarded. She glanced at my scraped hands. “I hope your hands aren’t too sore.”

“Oh, no. They’re fine,” I said, although in reality both hands had stung terribly when I had showered that morning. Not to mention my knees, which were in even worse shape.

“That’s good. I guess you just need to be more careful when handing off the baton.”

Her lips turned up into a subtle smirk, but I ignored that.

“I know. I can be so clumsy. Sometimes it seems like I can trip over a blade of grass.” When I smiled, it was genuine. I couldn’t help it as I watched the confusion sweep across her pretty features. She must have assumed I knew she had made me fall, which of course I did, but the fact that I was playing dumb actually made me feel like I had the upper hand. Like she didn’t have any power over me at all.

“Yeah,” she muttered, obviously disappointed that her ploy hadn’t had the intended effect.

“So did you get the assignment done?” I asked, enjoying watching how she handled the idea that what she had done had had no effect on me.

“Of course,” she said as she flipped her hair over one shoulder, obviously irritated. “I always get my assignments done.” She locked eyes with me, like she was trying to intimidate me. “What about you?”

“Well, I don’t
always
get my assignments done, but since Connor helped me, I was able to get this one done.”

Her eyes widened briefly, then she turned away.

So she
did
like Connor. I had thought so. But why had I lied to her? Did I just want to upset her like she had upset me? I didn’t know. I just knew I didn’t want her to think she could control me.

That afternoon at track practice as we ran the relay, I paid careful attention to the baton hand-off and this time managed to stay on my feet. When the relay was done I looked over at Connor to see if he’d been watching, and when I saw that he was I smiled and waved. When he waved back, I glanced in Lori’s direction and saw the fury on her face as she watched us. When I looked back at Connor, my smile was even more radiant.

He was getting ready for his turn to do the long jump and I walked over to watch. When he landed in the sand, I cheered. “That was great, Connor.”

“Thanks,” he said, a pleased smile on his face. “I think I might be getting good enough to actually win.”

“Yeah, I think so too. Let’s see you do it again.”

He flashed me a grin, then got into position.

I watched as he ran, then jumped. “Woo hoo!” I shouted as he landed. “That was awesome!”

He brushed the sand off as he stood, a wide smile on his face. “I think you’re my good luck charm, Morgan.”

Then he walked right up to me and leaned close. “You’d better make sure and watch me at all of our meets. Just to make sure I win.”

His breath warmed my ear and my pulse quickened in reaction. Swallowing hard, I nodded. “Of course I will.”

He pulled back and smirked at me, obviously aware of the effect he had on me.

I felt my face redden, embarrassed that he knew his closeness had put me off-balance.

“And I’ll watch you too,” he said, smiling.

Suddenly I wasn’t sure if I wanted him watching; I was afraid I’d be too self-conscious and not able to focus on the race. Then again, I liked the idea of him paying attention to me. In my other world I hadn’t had a lot of luck with boys, so I was enjoying this flirtation while it lasted. “You’d better,” I said.

“Just don’t fall.” He grinned at me.

False outrage on my face, I shoved him.

“I’m kidding,” he laughed as he easily kept his balance. “You know, if you want me to give you a ride home, you’d better be nice to me.”

“Are you saying you’d make me walk all the way home?”

“If you push me again, I just might.”

“Oh really?” I stepped in his direction and raised my arms, but just as I was about to push him, he grabbed my wrists in his hands.

“Oh no you don’t,” he said, his voice soft and deep.

Then, still holding onto my wrists, he stepped close to me and held my arms to my sides. I tilted my head until my gaze met his, my heart pounding at the serious look on his face.

“Morgan,” he murmured.

My face flushed as I just knew he was about to kiss me.

“Hey, guys,” a voice seemed to shout next to me.

Connor let go of my wrists and we both turned to see who was speaking.

“Hey, Lori,” Connor said without enthusiasm.

Her gaze darted from Connor to me, then back to Connor.

Knowing she had interrupted us just to keep Connor from kissing me, I didn’t say anything as I waited for her to say what she wanted.

“Your jump looked good, Connor,” she finally said, gazing at him in a way that I recognized as adoration.

“Thanks.”

We stood there for a moment in an awkward silence.

“Well, I guess we should get changed,” Lori finally said. “Are you coming, Morgan?”

Knowing she wanted to get me away from Connor so he wouldn’t have a chance to kiss me again, I said, “You go ahead. I’m not ready.”

Even though I’d turned down her offer, she stood there. “I can wait.”

To keep from rolling my eyes, I blinked, then turned away from her and faced Connor. “Whatever,” I muttered.

Connor glanced at Lori, then looked at me. “I have to get to work soon anyway. I’ll meet you outside, okay?”

A frown crept across my mouth, but I forced it away with a smile. “Okay.”

Connor turned and jogged toward the boys’ locker room. I watched him go, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Lori watching me. I turned my head and met her gaze, then I turned away, ignoring her, and headed toward the girls’ locker room.

A few minutes later I finished changing and closed the door to my locker.

“I hope I didn’t interrupt anything earlier,” Lori said, appearing next to me.

I didn’t want her to know how upset I was that she had interrupted us just as I thought Connor was about to kiss me. That would make her think she had won, and I certainly didn’t want her to win.

“That’s okay, Lori,” I said, a fake smile on my face. “You didn’t interrupt anything that hadn’t happened before.”

Though it was a blatant lie, I was satisfied to see the look of surprise on her face. When she didn’t respond, I turned away from her and walked toward the door, my thoughts moving on to Connor and enjoying the time I had to spend with him before I would make my way back to the tunnel and to my world.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Connor was waiting outside, just as he said he would be.

“Hi, Morgan.”

We walked to his car together.

“Where’s Anne?” I asked.

“She had to stay to make up a test.”

“Oh.” My stomach fluttered as I realized Connor and I would be alone for the first time. It’s just a car ride home, I scolded myself. Nothing to get worked up about. But then I thought about Connor almost kissing me and felt my face flush.

We climbed in his car and he backed out of the parking space. As we drove out of the school parking lot, I desperately tried to think of something to talk about.

“So, how long have you been doing track?” I finally asked.

He glanced at me before turning back to the road. “Oh, since about sixth grade, I guess.”