Hunted (25 page)

"I'll
invite him."

"You'd
better, Adri. Don't think that I haven't seen the way you've been
making doe eyes at Tristan."

"I'm
not interested in Tristan and I've told him that. I told him he
should ask you out."

"And
yet the star quarterback, who just led the team to two wins, has
decided not to go after any of the girls who actually want to date
him and instead is spending every minute he can with you. Yeah,
right."

I
was beyond pissed at Cindi. I was nearly to the point of saying all
of the things I'd been thinking in the back of my mind, things that I
knew she would never forgive.

"You
know what, Cindi, I don't care. You can believe what you want, but
I've done nothing but try and have your back where Tristan is
concerned. If you don't believe me then maybe I should stop trying
and just date him like he wants me to."

I
slammed the door to our bedroom and then climbed into bed. None of
this was fair. I had some kind of supernatural creepy-crawly guy
after me, I shouldn't have to deal with all of the normal, stupid
teen drama too. I was used to dealing with this kind of crap at
school, but this was the first time I'd had it follow me home like
this.

Cindi
was my sister, she wasn't supposed to be my worst enemy too.

Monday
passed in a blur. I didn't remember having any unusual dreams, but I
was as tired as if I'd spent the whole night dream walking. I was
pretty sure that it was just the normal result of not sleeping well
due to all of my worries. As poorly as I'd eaten on Sunday, I was
pretty sure I would have been skin and bones if I'd actually dream
walked Sunday night.

The
cheerleaders were nasty to me, but they had all matched up their
schedules with each other and I hadn't, so I didn't have any classes
with them. That meant that the harassment was primarily either in the
halls or by non-cheerleaders in my classes. My having put that one
guy on the ground after he'd tried to grope me meant that nobody was
willing to escalate things too far, which was nice. I couldn't have
taken it if things had gone beyond nasty rumors and whispered
insults.

The
teachers seemed to have clued in, at least a little, towards the end
of the day, but there was only so much they could do since they were
outnumbered by the students and couldn't be everywhere at once. I
told myself that this didn't really matter, that it was a temporary
problem, but it still took a toll on me. By the time Jackson met up
with me to go to my last class, I had a headache and just wanted to
curl up in a corner somewhere and rock myself to sleep.

"You
okay?"

"Yeah."

"And
by 'yeah' you mean not really?"

I
shrugged, but Jackson didn't seem like he was going to let me get
away with avoiding the question.

"Yeah,
not really, but there isn't much that can be done about it, so I'll
just have to deal with the fact that everyone in the school now hates
me."

"Not
everyone."

"You're
right, you seem strangely immune to the mind-control powers exhibited
by Missy and the rest of the girls."

As
feeble as my joke was, it still earned me a smile, which lifted my
spirits more than I would have said was possible. Just being around
Jackson washed away some of the exhaustion of dealing with everyone
else all day.

"I
was actually thinking of Tristan, but you're right, I don't hate
you."

"Jealous,
Jackson?"

"Hardly.
It's just been a long time since I told someone to get lost and they
didn't obey. Tristan doesn't make sense on a lot of levels and I
don't like things I can't explain."

"Well,
I wish he had left. My sister is convinced that I'm tricking him into
liking me, but the truth is that I wish he'd chase her. I think they
deserve each other."

We
were nearly to the gym when I remembered the dreaded party. I bit my
lip. I'd never actually asked a guy out to anything, let alone to an
unsupervised party, but the only thing I could think of that was more
terrifying than spending Tuesday night alone was the prospect of the
old man or the Native American finding me in real life.

"Cindi
is throwing a small party tomorrow night while my parents are away.
Will you come so I have someone there who doesn't hate me?"

I
pushed the words all out in a rush so that I wouldn't lose my nerve
and chicken out partway through inviting him. That would have been
bad enough all by itself, but I also put my hand on his arm as I said
it.

He
practically turned to stone at my touch.

"I
would really like to come, but I'm not sure whether or not I'll be
able to make it. My…mom has some stuff planned for us that
night and it might be late before I can sneak away."

It
was like being punched in the stomach. I knew a polite refusal when I
heard one, I just didn't understand
why
he was turning me
down. The only logical explanation was that I'd somehow misread the
signals I thought I'd been getting from him.

"Okay,
well, I'm sure it will go for hours, so if you end up able to come a
bit later you should drop by."

"That
sounds good, I'll do that."

I
plastered a fake smile across my face and ducked into the girls'
locker room before he could say anything else. My mind retreated into
a kind of white noise as I changed into my workout clothes. I could
still respond when someone talked directly to me, I still hit my
marks during practice, but all of the other stuff happening around me
faded out into unimportance.

I
think that Cindi and I walked home together, but I couldn't have said
for sure. Once practice was over I simply picked up my stuff and
started towards the road. As I went to bed that night I idly wondered
whether or not I'd snap out of my current state.

Part
of me felt like I should be worried, that this was dangerous, but
mostly I was just relieved that I didn't have to worry any more.
Maybe I'd always had this capacity to tune everything else out and
just never exercised it fully. Maybe that was why I'd never been as
concerned as Cindi about fitting in.

Even
the prospect of dying when the old man eventually found me didn't
really seem to matter now.

I
made it all the way to Tuesday afternoon before something managed to
crack the artificial bubble of calm that I'd layered around myself.
I'd somehow gotten up on time, gotten ready and made it to school out
of nothing more than habit. Somewhere along the way I'd apparently
eaten breakfast and lunch too because I didn't have that hollow,
ravenous feeling that was my near-constant companion lately.

Despite
all of those hours of class, I couldn't remember a single bad thing
that anyone had said to or about me, and I liked that. Part of me
resented Miss Winters when she pulled me aside just before practice
and thereby tore my sanctuary away from me.

"Adri,
are you okay?"

"Yes,
Miss Winters, why?"

I
could tell that she didn't believe me, but she wasn't quite sure how
much to say.

"Adri,
you've continued to lose weight. I'm glad that you have a desire to
take care of yourself and that you've slimmed down from where you
used to be, but you're approaching the lower end of what could
possibly be considered healthy. I don't care how badly you want to
cheer or fly, or what guy you think will like you if you're just a
little skinnier than you are now, it's not worth it."

It
took a second for her words to sink in.

"Oh,
you think I have some kind of eating disorder. I don't. I hate being
hungry, so I rarely miss a meal. At lunch I usually have pizza and
French fries because I've been trying to make sure that my calorie
intake keeps up with my expenditures."

"Calories
in don't count if they don't stay down, Adri."

I
was suddenly tired. Actually that was odd, had I not been tired
before? I was usually tired these days.

"I'm
not throwing it all back up. I'm not throwing any of it back up. I'm
not even trying to lose weight. I'm just exercising with the squad a
lot more than I ever used to."

"How
much exercising are you doing outside of practice then, Adri? I've
seen a lot of different ways that girls abuse their bodies in my
time. Compulsively exercising to the point where your body can't keep
up with the punishment you're doing to it isn't much better than
starving yourself."

"I
don't really exercise outside of practice."

"Is
it stress then? Something isn't adding up between what you're telling
me and what I'm seeing. The kind of calories you're
saying
you
eat each day don't just disappear, they have to go somewhere."

Saying
yes, that it was stress that was causing me to slim down despite how
much I was eating was a tempting option. It seemed like an easy out,
but even as I opened my mouth to tell her that was the cause I
realized I couldn't say that, not if I wanted to stay on the team.

Miss
Winters was a good person, one who cared about us girls as
individuals, not just as cogs in a machine that she hoped would win
her trophies at the regional cheer competitions. If I told her that
stress was causing me to lose weight beyond the point where she
thought I could still be healthy, then she'd kick me off the team.
She'd let me down as gently as she could while still encouraging me
to get some kind of professional help, but she wouldn't have any
other choice.

"It's
not stress. I've been more stressed than this before and I didn't
lose weight like this. I promise that I'm not doing anything bad. If
you don't believe me you can ask Cindi. She's constantly telling me
that I can't eat the way I am and still hope to stay skinny on a
long-term basis."

"You're
sure that cheerleading isn't causing you too much stress?"

I
wanted to say yes so badly. When you stacked all of the cheerleading
fallout up against the fact that someone with powers I couldn't even
guess at was trying to kill me, it was pretty small change. Even so,
eliminating even that small amount of drama from my life would go a
long way towards clearing my head enough to think about possible ways
to deal with the Native American and all of the other people who might be
trying to hunt me down.

I
knew that quitting the team would paint giant crosshairs on my back
though, so instead I lied.

"I
really am fine, Miss Winters."

She
gave me a long look. "Okay, I'm willing to trust you at least a
little, but I want you to go see a doctor next week and get a
physical. Ask him to write up his findings and then I want you to
bring them to me. If you don't, or if the findings indicate that
you're getting into any kind of dangerous territory, then you're off
the team."

"Yes,
Miss Winters."

I
turned to go, but she reached out and touched my arm. "Adri, I
really am just worried about you. I want to believe you, but your
physical transformation over the last month or two is nothing less
than astonishing."

"It's
okay, I probably wouldn't believe me either. I know it's crazy, but I
really haven't been doing any of the stuff you're worried about."

Something
in my eyes must have convinced her because she took a deep breath and
nodded. "I need you on the team, Adri. It's past time to break
Missy's clique and I can't do it without you."

**

Practice
went by in a kind of slow agony where time couldn't seem to manage
much more than a faltering limp. True to her promise when I'd first
agreed to become a flyer, Miss Winters kept Jackson with me the
entire time. It was torture.

I
could tell that Jackson was trying to pretend like nothing had
changed, but I knew it was just an act. I tried to lose myself in the
stunts, but even that didn't work. The second or two when I was in
the air was pure joy, but I always had to come back down and I always
came back down to Jackson's arms.

His
touch seemed to burn. I knew it was my imagination, knew that nothing
had changed other than me being hyperaware of him, but having him
touch me now was painful. It was silly, we hadn't ever kissed or even
held hands, but I'd started thinking of him as
mine
. Only he
wasn't, not even close.

Making
it home didn't provide any relief from my misery either. Missy and a
few of the other girls walked home with us—home with Cindi,
really—so that they could help get things ready for the party.
Nobody even pretended to include me in the conversation as we walked
the few blocks to our house. It was too much for me; once we arrived
I just went to my room and shut the door.

I
came out after a couple of hours so that I could grab something to
eat and was astonished at the transformation that had taken place. I
vaguely remembered Cindi doing some prep work the night before, but
that had involved little more than moving everything that was
valuable or breakable into Mom and Dad's bedroom so that she could
lock it up once the party got started.

Things
hadn't looked all that different then, but now there were black
lights, strobes and all kinds of crazy stuff scattered all over the
house. They'd even put black paper over all of the windows, probably
in an effort to keep the strobe lights from alerting the neighbors to
the fact that there was a party going on.

It
was actually a pretty smart thing to do. We weren't particularly
close to our neighbors, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't tell
my parents about any parties that took place while Mom and Dad were
gone.

Missy
apparently didn't have to go home before the party, because she'd
already changed into a black tube top and shorts so tiny that she
wasn't particularly hiding much. The rest of the girls were still
just wearing the clothes that they'd worn to practice, but Missy's
clothes were a definite preview of what was still to come.