The Keeper's Vow (18 page)

Brian stood up, but Katie silently begged
him to stay down. She knew what was coming. Brian screamed and
charged Tristan. What had he hoped to do? Tristan wasn’t even going
to use much effort. That’s what was so pathetic and made Tristan
elbow him in the ribs, smack his head with the same arm, and kick
him flat in his chest in three quick movements.

Brian flew off the mat with the wind knocked
out of him. Everyone felt it.

As Will grabbed Lucinda’s arm, Katie tried
to push Tristan out of her mind. His hate burned her.

Steve Sensei helped Brian to the
bleacher.

“You wanted to see your son beaten like
that?” Lucinda spat.

“Better it be Tristan, in a room full of
guardians than a werewolf, or a vampire who won’t show him mercy,”
Will spat back. They stared at each other. Lucinda yanked her arm
away and went to Brian.

Katie looked between Brian slouched on the
bleacher and Tristan. She wasn’t the only one. Even Allison,
standing on the other side looked sorry for Brian. That wasn’t a
match, it was a slaughter. Had it been revenge for stabbing
Tristan? Tristan was looking at her from the mat. She couldn’t read
his face or thoughts.

Katie had one last match. If she could beat
the girl named Jenn Black then she would qualify for another. As
soon as Katie saw who Jenn Black was she knew she’d lost, and she
wasn’t wrong. It was the girl who she shot in the head. She still
had streaks of yellow pant in her hair. Jenn made sure Katie knew
what it had felt like to be shot in the head.

It was over before it even started. Jenn hit
her on the same spot three times.

In thirty seconds.

“I think she actually
tried
to hit me
here,” Katie said, rubbing her head.

“No, she
succeeded
.” Tristan said,
helping Katie off the mat.

The last match before the final rotation was
between the two undefeated fighters. Allison and Tristan. Katie
could hear everyone murmuring.
Would he do to her what he did to
Brian? Does this kid have a point to prove? Where did he come
from?

Katie knew different. Tristan looked as
bored as ever, even though Allison was flexing and throwing quick
practice shots. If anything, she was worried that Allison might go
berserk when she lost.

It wasn’t a quick match. When Tristan
blocked, Allison would block his counter. It wasn’t until she got
one hit in that Tristan started to look alive. The one hit was all
Allison did manage, but it was more than anyone during all of his
matches.

They finally moved on to the last event.
Katie felt a glimmer of hope. Swimming—it was the one thing she
could do well. They had three chances to dive and collect as many
weights as possible. They went in five different groups, again
Katie was in the last group, but it didn’t bother her. This time
she’d know how much weight she’d have to collect to score high. As
soon as it was Tristan’s turn he forfeited. Gasps and shocked
expressions drifted from around the pool.

“You do realize,” Mr. Right said, “That this
means you definitely giving up the top spot.”

“Yup,” Tristan sat on the benches before Mr.
Right could say anything else.

As all the groups went, Katie realized
something. The only thing that mattered was if she could use her
legs fast enough. Most people lost weights before they could
surface because they couldn’t swim to the top fast enough. It was
deep. Twenty-feet, so the push off the ground would only help about
half way. The boy she fought, Adam, brought up the most weight.
Forty-five pounds total. Katie only needed one more pound to place
first. She was going to go for it.

She stood on the edge of the pool and curled
her toes over the edge. This was it.

She dived.

Getting to the bottom wasn’t hard, she had
strong legs, and she was fast. She grabbed seventeen pounds on the
first dive. One ten-pound bag, one five-pound and one two-pound. It
was hard, but she knew she had to do the hardest tow on the first
dive when she had the most energy. Like she thought, the push off
the pool floor only propelled her a little over half way. Holding
the bags meant she had to kick harder and faster before she lost
momentum. She kicked the last foot running out of breath.

She surfaced and flipped on to her back to
preserve energy and so she didn’t need her arms to swim to the
edge.

She dived again. Fifteen-pounds.

Before the last dive, Mr. Right announced
the amount of weight each student had. Katie, thirty-two. A girl
next to had just twenty-pounds. The boy next to her thirty-pounds.
She had a good lead, she even beat out a few of the students who’d
already went. But she wanted to win. Badly. Just this one event.
She was good at swimming. Her arms felt heavy and sore. Her legs
burned.

She hoped onto the edge and prepared for her
last dive. She bent her knees and leapt. Before she entered the
water she knew it wasn’t strong enough to send her to the bottom.
She had to kick more than half the way. Big mistake.

She grab a ten-pound bag and a five-pound
bag. Her air was running out and she was twenty-feet under water.
She propelled off the ground as hard as she could.

Ten-feet. She was nearly out of breath. Her
legs were on fire. She couldn’t get them to swing right.

Five-Feet. She couldn’t hold her breath
anymore. She had to make a choice, let go of a bag and use her
arms, or nearly drown. She tried to stroke with the bags in her
hand. They were pushing her down.

Push. You can do it. Katalina, Push!

She snapped her legs back and forth as hard
as she could. Just as she took in a mouth full of water, she
surfaced. She held the bags to her chest. She couldn’t let go of
them now.

“COME ON KATALINA!”

“KAY, YOU GOT IT”

“KATIE! KATIE!”

She flipped onto her back still choking on
water. Her legs barely worked, but she kicked to the edge. As soon
as her bags touched the edge of the pool, people were pulling her
out of the water. She was coughing up water still clutching the
bags.

“Did—I—get—the—most,” she coughed.

Mr. Right took the two bags. “That makes
forty-seven-pounds! That is the most collected all day. Just shy of
the record forty-nine. Well done.”

There was clapping, but Katie didn’t hear
it. Not as loud as she had heard Tristan. In her mind. Words. He
spoke to her in her mind. Katie was laughing, but not for the
reasons everyone else thought. Only Tristan, the boy who was
smiling at her, knew why.

CHAPTER NINE

When the scores
were announced Katie finished thirty-seven out of fifty. It was
nice, considering she’d planned on finishing last. Brian finished
thirty, Tristan third, and Allison first. Allison said she was
happy, though every time someone would congratulate her on her huge
trophy, they’d ask where her dad was and she’d smile the way Katie
knew she smiled when she was being overly polite.

Katie wandered outside and sat on the steps.
There were too many people in there talking about too many things.
She wanted to think quietly.

“You surprised me at the end there,” Tristan
said, appearing from nowhere. He did that too well.

“It’s nice to know your faith in me goes so
deep.” Katie couldn’t help but think, “
You surprised me
too
.” There might have been a slight smile on his face. If
there was, it was gone now. “We could totally cheat on test this
way.”

“You are the saddest person I’ve ever
met.”

“Really? I’ve been told I have a cheerful
look about me.” Katie smiled as if to make her point.

“That smile right there, it’s a smile that
would scare even the bravest of men.”

Katie felt a pang of disappointment. She’d
meant to be silly, but to say her smile was something so hideous
that it scared people went a bit far.

“I never said it was ugly.”

“I know what you meant,” she scowled.

“I mean what I said.”

“Just when I thought we were getting along,
you start with the riddles and ‘
ohhh I’m shady Tristan, look at
me I’m all mysterious and cool because I never make sense and I
always leave people wondering what the hell I’m talking
about’
.”

“I don’t sound like that.”

“
I don’t sound like that,”
Katie
said.

“You’re so annoying.”

“
You’re so annoying.”

“Are you done?

Katie stood up, she didn’t have to sit there
and listen to that. Tristan grabbed her hand to pull her back down.
As soon as their hands touched he snapped his hand back as if he’d
never meant to do it. She stood there not sure what to do. His face
made it harder to decide. He looked like he’d just been caught.

She sat back down. “If you want to be
friends you can’t be such a dick.”

He didn’t say anything, but she knew he got
the message. They sat in silence, or thought, or however they sit
in because technically it’s never silent between them, not for him
anyway.

“Katie? Tristan? Oh there you are. Katie,
Will says you had a duffle bag this morning what was that about?”
It was Lucinda walking down the school steps toward them. Will
wasn’t with her. Maybe with Brian? She hadn’t seen Brian after the
swim, he only collected ten-pounds.

“Everyone has duffle bags, Lucy” Katie said,
avoiding eye contact.

“Not filled to the brim. And don’t think I
forgot about this morning. What is going on?”

“I—I sort of left home.”

Lucinda didn’t look surprised. Of course
Will told her he’d spilled the beans to her dad. She must have been
expecting a dramatic outcome. “When?” This time she looked between
her and Tristan. The cat was out of the bag. The cat was screaming
and scratching up the bag because it was violent and glad to be out
of it.

Tristan looked at her.

“Technically?”

“Katie Watts.”

“Yesterday.”

Lucinda’s eyes bulged. “
Where did you
sleep yesterday?”

“Al—”

“Think about that lie before you tell it.”
Lucinda rubbed her right temple.

“A park. But I technically didn’t sleep
there. Maybe for an hour or two I—”

“YOU SLEPT IN A PARK?” Lucinda pointed at
the school doors. “Get your bags right now. We’re going home. As
soon as we get there, you’re grounded.
BOTH
of you are
grounded.”

“You’re
grounding
me?” Tristan said
the word like a foreign concept.

“YES I’M GROUNDING YOU. NOT ONLY DID YOU
SLEEP IN A PARK BUT YOU ALSO BEAT UP MY SON IN A ROOM FULL OF
PEOPLE. SO MUCH FOR BLENDING IN.” Lucinda was red in the face.
People were staring, “Don’t you have teenage children? What are you
looking at?” she said.

Katie and Tristan took her momentary
distraction to slip away into the school.

“She can’t ground me,” he said, looking over
his shoulder. “She can’t even ground you. You’re homeless.”

Katie laughed despite herself. They grabbed
Katie’s duffle bag and book-bag. She congratulated Allison again
and said her goodbyes. When Allison’s eyes drifted to the bulging
duffle bag, Katie realized it would be hard to tell her best friend
that she ran away, slept in a park, and spent entire day not
telling her anything at all. One more problem to add to the growing
pile.

When they went back outside Lucinda and Will
were waiting in the truck. Brian was nowhere to be found. No one
mentioned his absence so she didn’t bring it up.

“Katie,” Will said, talking to her directly
for the first time today. “I called your dad on Friday to make sure
he was handling everything okay. I didn’t know you hadn’t told
him.”

Since when do you call my dad to see how
he’s handling things?

“How about we ride over there and try and
smooth things out?” Will said, looking at her in the rear view
mirror.

How could she tell them that her dad blames
them for everything and doesn’t want her to see them ever
again.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Will,”
Tristan said as if he was above the conversation. “He’ll just cart
her off to an omitter and move away.”

“Tristan, how do you know that? Katie did
your dad say something to you? Exactly what happened?”

Katie cleared her throat and looked out the
window. “He doesn’t want me around you guys. He said he could make
me forget you.”

The only sound in the car was the
engine.

“It doesn’t hurt to try,” Will said, turning
into her neighborhood. It was a few minutes past four. Her dad was
definitely home and he wouldn’t react well to everyone showing up
on his doorstep like they were hosting an an intervention.

Katie hesitated before getting out of the
car.