Gypsy (The Cavy Files Book 1) (10 page)

“Okay. I was just checking, you know, because it’s my assignment.”

“Thanks.” My smile hesitates, as unsure as the rest of me how to handle him. If he’s only coming around because he has to, though, friendship doesn’t seem imminent.

He doesn’t introduce himself to Savannah, and she doesn’t deign to speak. If she’s interested in guys like Jude, I doubt shy, eager ones like Dane are her type.

“Okay, well, we should probably go.” I nudge Savannah, who doesn’t need to be told twice.

“Norah…” Dane’s hesitant voice stops me from following right away, and when I turn his direction, the nervous expression on his face captivates me.

Why would
I
make
him
nervous?

“Yeah?”

“I can tell you don’t want me around, really, but I have to stick with it the rest of the day, at least.” His eyes soften, flick down the emptying hall where Savannah loiters, then wander back to me. “But you’re new, and I’m new. If you ever want to, I don’t know, just hang out, we could.”

“Thanks.”

His offer fills me with relief as I trail Savannah down two flights of stairs and a hall to what must be an older part of the building. The paint on the walls looks transparent in places, not peeling but definitely fading. It has a smell, a little like Darley, as though the past has started to crawl into the present.

The possibility of hanging out with Dane Kim intrigues me, largely because my gift didn’t work on him. But it’s also that, while I have irreplaceable friends in the Cavies, they’re all unhappy about leaving Darley and less than enthused about our new beginning. Dane might be good to lean on while I navigate
my
feelings, which trend more toward uncertainty and nervous excitement.

“There’s a basketball game tonight. You should come,” Savannah says, offhand but not quite.

“Are you going?”

She flips her ponytail, managing to somehow not look like a moron in the process. The mingled scents of her shampoo and perfume almost mask the mothballs. “Of course, but no one ever stays past the first half. I’m on the dance team.”

“Oh. Maybe.”

The way she mentions it confuses me—as though she has no real desire to ask but the invitation escaped anyway, and that fact puckers up her face worse than sucking on a lemon. I get the feeling that Savannah thinks she needs to be nice to me for some reason, but that doesn’t make much sense.

“Well, this is you. I’ll see you.” Savannah whirls and vanishes into the room two doors down, leaving me alone.

Trying to learn where people fall in the Charleston Academy hierarchy is more baffling that I expected. Which ones are friends, which are only pretending—why Savannah would be nice to me if she doesn’t want to be, why Jude seems intent on sticking around, or why Maya invited me to lunch after talking to me for all of thirty seconds.

There doesn’t seem to be anything to do but keep trying, but I know one thing for sure: I’m not savvy enough to determine if these kids are honest and nice, or have ulterior motives, or just don’t care one way or another. I’ll have to wade along, hoping the answers arrive before high tide.

The rest of my morning classes finish without any movie-like drama. Dane finds me after each one, walking me to my next period and mentioning points of interest like shortcuts and bathrooms along the way. He evades most of my questions about him with shrugs or self-effacing comments about how uninteresting he is, which does nothing to alleviate my thirst for details. Even so, by the time lunch rolls around we’re reaching a certain level of comfort together and I’m feeling better about being the new girl.

We separate on the way to the cafeteria when I stop in the restroom. It’s empty, thank goodness, and the me in the mirror looks tired. She also looks naked, a fact that never occurred to me before meeting my classmates, most of whom resemble Savannah in their commitment to grooming. I know about makeup, of course, but have never owned any. It’s going to be a strange thing to ask my father for—maybe asking him for anything is weird, I don’t know—but it seems reasonable.

Dane’s gone when I emerge, but there’s confidence in my stride on the way to lunch. I spent the lectures watching my fellow classmates in an attempt to pick up on social cues, to understand how they interact with their friends, how to tell whether girls and boys are dating or whatever, but it’s not as interesting as the books and movies make it seem. Everyone acts pretty much the same—trying to stay awake during class, gossiping in the halls, the occasional couple holding hands or making plans to meet up at the game that night. Very little drama, at least on the surface, but the thought of jumping in with both feet still intimidates me.

The students are the decorations in the cafeteria, a huge room that contains nothing but stark white walls and bare tables. Empty, it would be a cavern. Full, it’s a loud flurry of activity, with voices and colors careering off the floor, hitting the ceiling, zipping in one ear and out the other.

I pick up a slice of pizza, a bottle of water, and figure out how to maneuver the checkout line with my ID bracelet. Maya spots me after only a few minutes of awkward loitering on my part, waving me over with exaggerated arm movements. Maybe because she’s so little she thinks she has to jump up and down to get attention. Maybe she does, what do I know?

I’d been looking for Dane, but he’s nowhere to be seen and I
had
told Maya sure when she asked me to have lunch. Told me, whatever.

Her table isn’t empty. Savannah sits on Maya’s right, and to
her
right is a girl with sandy hair that reminds me of Jude’s. I climb onto the bench across from them, feeling mousy among their heads of shiny blond perfection, but smile at Maya as she introduces me to her friends—the dirty blonde reminds me of Jude because she’s his younger sister. Holly.

“How was your morning?” Maya asks around a mouthful of garlic bread.

“Good. The principal has someone showing me around so I won’t get lost, and he’s nice.”

“Ohhh, a boy? Who is it? I bet I can tell you a hundred and one reasons you don’t want to go on a date with him.”

“He’s new,” Savannah interjects in a bored tone. “I met him after Latin.”

“A
new
boy? It’s what I’ve been dreaming about for three years!”

“Maya, if you’ve been dreaming about me for three years, you should have said something sooner.” The voice is smooth and drawling and full of good humor

It’s behind me, and I only heard it for the first time a few hours ago, but it can belong to no one but Jude.

“Very funny, Jude. Your delusions are getting worse. Time to up those meds.” Maya grins at me, then swallows a huge bite of spaghetti. “Keep going, Norah.”

“There’s nothing to tell, really. He’s a real go-getter. Came in on Saturday and met with your student council president, and is keen on helping other new students learn their way.”

“So, he’s a little dorky. There are worse things.” She presses on, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. “What’s he
look
like?”

Jude drops his tray next to mine and sits, sighing dramatically to display his lack of interest in the conversation. I shoot him a look of apology and catch a wink in return.

“He’s, um… handsome?” My brain struggles to focus, to remember the question. “And a little quiet.”

The embarrassingly honest description drops from my lips and onto the table, where we all examine it. It’s true, anyway.

“I like it.
Tres mystérieux!
”

“If you gals are done gabbing about men, I have something important to discuss,” Jude says.

“Important? I promise, no one cares whether you walk around with that pizza sauce on your shirt all day. We’re used to it.” Savannah frowns, nodding toward the little red circle on Jude’s white shirt.

“Damn!” Jude swipes at the glob while Maya and Holly dissolve into giggles.

They infect me, and his elbow connects with my ribs. I flinch away, laughing. Lunch has been simpler than the rest of the day, except for the quick walks with Dane. These kids aren’t Cavies, I haven’t known them my entire life, but they’re nice. Friendly. So blessedly
normal.

“So, Norah, tell us everything about Darley.” Maya puts her elbows on the table, her chin in her hands, and stares at me as though she has nowhere to go for the rest of the day. “You’re, like, famous.”

It occurs to me that this is what I’ve been missing. That the reason Maya, and Savannah, and Jude want me around is to get a jump on the gossip, maybe lay claim to the new weirdo. The realization squints at me with an expression that says
duh
, and my stomach sinks.

The longer my pause, the thicker the discomfort at the table grows, but I don’t know what to say. They’ve seen everything on the news—everything I can say, anyway—but no one’s giving me an out from answering. Even though their curiosity and their barely proffered friendships don’t seem malicious, it makes me feel more than a little like a fish trapped inside a glass bowl.

“There’s not much to tell,” I say, forcing a smile. “And we’re not famous. We’re just kids. We didn’t know anything different until a few days ago.”

“You’re like an alien,” Savannah muses. “Like E.T.”

“What’s that? Does it stand for something?”

Everyone laughs, but the joke’s lost on me. It starts to feel a little like they’re laughing
at
me, and maybe they are, but the joy and friendliness on their faces reminds me they’re not being mean. Maybe I’m funny?

Jude’s arm lingers close to me, heat from his body tickling my hip. The memory of Dane’s nonnumber is almost enough to propel my hand forward, to lay my flesh against his and verify that my gift remains. That my quiet tour guide didn’t somehow steal it.

Years of aversion stop me, along with the fact that I don’t want to think about Jude dead.

“It’s a movie,” he explains, gently. “An old one, about a kid that finds an alien and then hides him when the government wants to take him away and do tests on him.”

“Oh.” The information sparks a revelation—they kept certain films from us at Darley. This knowledge distracts me, leaves me wondering why, but I give Jude a smile of thanks.

I look over to find Savannah staring at Jude and me from across the table. She’s not laughing with the others, and the fire consuming her gaze takes my breath away. It sobers me, and causes me to put a few inches between Jude and me on the hard bench. She and I watch each other, locked in a silent confrontation I don’t understand. A fight I don’t need. I don’t need an enemy, either, certainly not in the form of a pretty, popular girl already ensconced with the people who seem interested in befriending me, whatever the reason.

Just because my past sparked their interest doesn’t mean they’re not nice, or that we all won’t end up getting along. Hopefully they’ll take the hint, as far as my comfort level with their questions about Darley Hall.

They do abandon the topic of Darley, swapping it for tonight’s basketball game. Jude’s a starting guard and questions everyone’s friendship who fails to cheer until the final buzzer. I tune them out, my brain on overload from the day, from the idea of a movie I’ve never seen, and from the results of touching not one, but two people. My blank gaze drifts over the rest of the kids in the cafeteria, not intent on anything in particular, and that’s when I see her. Reaper.

My heart leaps onto the back of my tongue, fizzing and popping with glee. One of my friends
is
here. I’m not doing this alone. Maybe she’s having better luck unraveling the intricacies of high school than I am, but even if she’s not, she’s still
here.

She sits by herself, not with the welcome committee I somehow acquired first thing this morning, and picks at a sandwich and chips. Her uniform is the same as everyone else’s, but she adds a bit of blackness to everything—in this case, a cardigan and clunky black boots. I haven’t seen her since she went home with… her father? Is that what Haint said? Either way, it means I don’t know her real name yet.

I wonder if she’s who Dane took around this morning. Given that the other new student had gotten to school earlier than me and hadn’t had to walk into a class late, she probably is. Reaper has a romantic attachment to being on time. My feet are under me before I mean to get up, but she’s so close. My friend. The girl I lived with until a few days ago.

“Where are you going?” Maya stops in the middle of explaining, in detail how much the basketball team sucks.

“I know that girl over there. She came from Darley, too. I want to say hi.”

They follow my eyes to Reaper. The moment she senses our collective scrutiny, she freezes. Her shoulder blades pull together, her back rigid, but she doesn’t look. It breaks my heart because it’s not like her. She’s a lethal Operational—useful, strong, important.

Here, she looks scared, and worse, tiny.

“She was in my Chem class this morning,” Jude offers. “Quiet.”

Reaper is
not
quiet. The sour smell of her fear attacks me from halfway across the room.

“Invite her to sit with us, if you want,” Savannah offers, her curiosity plain.

My impression of the cheerleader stands trapped between her thoughtfulness and cold stare. I’m not sure Reaper will handle their obvious desire to know everything about our pasts with as much patience as I have, so I just smile in response.