A Tale of Two Proms (Bard Academy) (6 page)

“I don’t do vintage Britney Spears.” It was impossible to keep the exasperation out of my voice. Did Lindsay not know me at all? I didn’t do the sexy school girl thing. I did the artsy chick thing.

“Hey—I saw what I saw. Geez, you’re touchy.” Lindsay said. “Maybe you need to borrow a tampon?”

“Lindsay!” She may look older, but she was the same old embarrassing little sister. She was always trying to talk about periods and feminine products in public.

“What? Hana doesn’t care—do you Hana? Just us girls here.”

“Not that that would stop you,” I muttered. I guess I should’ve been clearer. Lindsay had matured on the outside. On the inside, she was fifteen going on twelve.

“You really thought you saw Miranda in the library?” Hana asked.

“Yes, and she was ignoring me—so rude.” Lindsay glared at me to show she was taking it personally.  I was starting to get a bad feeling about this. Lindsay was serious. It wasn’t a joke.

I looked at Hana. “You don’t think it was…”

“Who? Oooh—wait—a character, right?” Lindsay couldn’t keep the excitement out of her voice. Next to Blade, she was always the most geeked up when something paranormal happened. She’d been extremely disappointed by our relatively drama-free year. 

“I bet anything it was Catherine,” Hana said, sounding confident.

“What? She’s back? When did that happen?” Lindsay’s face glowed at the prospect of another Bard adventure.

“Long story,” Hana said.

“I'm going to go have a word with her,” I said.

“I smell girl fight,” Lindsay said.

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Hana asked me. “Headmaster B told us not to get involved. Maybe this is what Catherine wants—some kind of showdown.”

“Wait—can it be a girl fight if you’re trying to knock out your great-great-great-great grandma?” Lindsay mused, mostly to herself, because neither Hana nor I were paying attention to what she was saying anymore.

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing.” I’d rather squeeze some lemon juice into a paper cut, thank you very much.

A bell sounded, signaling the impending start of fourth period.

“Well right now it’s got to wait,” Hana said. “Now, we’ve got class with Coach H.”

I considered for a second skipping class, but I knew what the penalties were. If guardians caught you on the grounds, it was instant detention or worse. Still, it might be worth it if I could solve this Cathy problem.

“You really want to risk getting
further
on Headmaster B’s bad side?” Hana asked me, as if reading my mind.

“No,” I sighed and shrugged.

“Besides, she’s probably long gone by now,” Hana said. “Let’s go to class.”

“What? No fight? Come on,” Lindsay seemed disappointed as she fell into step beside us.

“You’re not helping, Linds,” Hana said.

I glanced up then and saw Ryan Kent sitting on the steps of the upperclassmen boys’ dorm, talking to a couple of other basketball players. Ryan looked like he belonged on a college brochure; his bright white smile was commercial-ready.  When he saw us, he stood and walked over. I was always surprised by how tall he was. Sure, next to Heathcliff, he looked a little on the thin side. But that was only because Heathcliff was so tall
and
broad.  When there was no Heathcliff around to compare him to, Ryan was a presence in his own right. Add in his clear blue eyes, and it’s no wonder that half the girls at school were crushing on him. Ryan was moving towards us now, his eyes on Hana. He sent me a brief glance and then, in an interesting twist, settled back on Hana. He missed Lindsay altogether.

“Hey,” Ryan said, pushing himself away from statue and his friends. “Can I walk with you to class?”

Lindsay nearly tripped over herself to say yes, but I noticed—again—he was looking at Hana. This was new. He promptly fell into step beside Hana, who only gave him the barest of nods. It just showed how things had changed. When Hana first met Ryan, she’d been as transfixed by his looks as most any heterosexual girl with two x chromosomes. But, after time, she’d become used to him, I guess, and settled into her role as platonic acquaintance.

I didn’t know if Ryan’s looks even registered with Hana anymore. Hana was hard to read. She lived in her cerebral cortex, that girl. She was amazingly smart, and always reading something new, and sometimes she didn’t quite pay attention to things like relationships and boy drama. She once told me she assumed that she’d start dating maybe in college sometime. It’s not that she didn’t like boys, she said, it was boys on the whole who didn’t like her.

I didn’t know why. She was part-Japanese and part-Irish, and the combination gave her a hard-to-place, but interesting look. She had shiny black hair, but a spattering of freckles on her nose, and big, dark eyes. She wore glasses, but even with them, she had a kind of geek chic thing going.

Ryan cleared his throat. “Hey… uh, Hana. Did you finish up that Dickens paper?”

Hana looked at Ryan, like she was waking up from a dream. “What?”

“That Dickens paper. Did you do it?”

Hana shrugged. “Yeah. I wrote it last night.
A Tale of Two Cities
is one of my favorite books of his.”  Hana was an avid reader. She read everything. Of all of us, she’d read more classics than anyone else.

Ryan looked like he was mentally taking notes. Hana—again—didn’t notice. If I was going to lay down bets, I’d say Ryan was actually trying to flirt. Usually, he didn’t have to try that hard as a half-smile was all that it usually took to get girls to go all gooey on him. 

“I was thinking… maybe you could help me with mine?” He asked, hopeful, as he quirked up one eyebrow. Oh, yeah. Definitely flirting.

Hana, however, was too busy digging around in her pocket, looking for lip balm, to notice.

“I’ll help,” Lindsay piped in. I was sure Lindsay would be glad to help. Back in her pre-Bard life she made a career out of helping the popular kids finish their homework. Offering to write papers was her way of trying to get in their good graces. But Lindsay was supposed to be reformed now. No more helping popular people cheat. But I could tell Ryan could easily make her slid into her old ways. Not that Ryan would ever let someone write a paper for him. He had scruples.

“I can help! Come on Ryan. I write great papers.” Lindsay sounded like she’d eagerly help him clean out his sock drawer just for some one-on-one Ryan time.

Ryan looked like someone had just asked him to spend an evening with an alligator. “Um…thanks, Lindsay. I appreciate it, I do. But I was hoping Hana could help me.”

He turned back to look at Hana. Yep, this was some serious flirting. I think Ryan was asking Hana on a date. I knew for a fact he didn’t need help on any paper. Ryan did just fine on his own, pulling in As and Bs on a regular basis. He was that rare combination of smart and athletic. I nudged Hana and she dropped her lip balm. Ryan dived so fast you would’ve thought she dropped a diamond. He came up with the cherry Chapstick and handed it to her.

“Thanks,” she said, unfazed, as she plucked it from his hand. I couldn’t believe she was taking all of this Ryan Kent attention so calmly. More than half the girls at this school would’ve been nearly passing out if Ryan Kent had handed them gloss, and yet Hana didn’t even slow her step. She was at that moment the most oblivious girl in the world. I was going to have to have a little talk with that girl about the birds and the bees and cute boys who are trying to hint around for a date. Maybe it wasn’t true that boys didn’t like her. Maybe it was more that Hana didn’t notice when they did.

“So?” he asked.

“So….?” Hana looked like she hadn’t heard a word he said. I would’ve bet twenty bucks she’d tuned out the whole conversation. She hadn’t even
heard
Ryan ask her for help. 

Ryan wasn’t used to not making an impact, I could tell. He seemed a little flustered, and Ryan was rarely flustered.

“Uh, I mean, would you help me with my paper?”

“Oh…. Um….” Hana was puzzled by the question. “But you write great papers.”

“But you write the best papers,” I said, trying to help Ryan out. He sent me a grateful glance. “You always have the top grade in the class.”

“Yeah,” Ryan agreed. “And, uh… this one is giving me trouble.”

Hana shrugged. “Well, I guess. I mean, if you want.” That was the most lukewarm acceptance I ever heard. Hands down, I knew it was probably the least excited any girl had ever been by the prospect of spending time with Ryan Kent. 

“Great! Maybe the library? Before dinner?” Ryan, to his credit, just seemed pleased and not overly-worried about Hana’s lukewarm response. He was a confident guy, Ryan.

Hana nodded. “Sure. Whatever.”

“I need to study, too!” Lindsay said, quickly. “Can I come?”

“Lindsay, I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I said.

“Why not?” Hana asked. She really was clueless. Hana glanced over at Lindsay. My sister had grown on Hana in the last year. Everyone had been a little put off by her aggressive friendliness, but eventually she’d won them over. She usually did that to people.

“I just really need a lot of…. help,” Ryan said.

“If you want to be tutored by Hana, Lindsay, you can come by her room after dinner,” I offered.

Lindsay sent me a look threatening death, but I didn’t care. Ryan wasn’t into her, and she had enough problems on her own without getting into a love triangle.

Hana seemed to take this answer at face value. “Okay. Whatever.”

Lindsay, however, pouted the rest of the way to B Hall.

C
HAPTER
F
OUR

“Today we’re going to talk about the use of doubles in
A Tale of Two Cities
,” said Coach H, as he stood by the blackboard at the front of the classroom. “Any one of you lamebrains want to give me an example from the book?”

Coach H regularly insulted us, but he did so with affection. I didn’t mind. Hana raised her hand. But then, she always did. If you wanted an answer about a classic, she was your go to girl.

“Yes, Hana.” Coach H nodded at her.

“Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton,” she said.

“Yes. Other examples?”

Surprising me, Blade held up her hand next. She wasn’t always on top of her reading assignments. She liked to spend study time casting Wiccan spells or making potions. Blade liked to think she was an amateur witch. As far as I knew, she didn’t actually have any powers, except the profound talent for really stinking up a dorm room with potions whipped up in her hotpot. 

“The two cities,” Blade said. “London and Paris.”

“Very good,” said Coach H. “Anyone else?”

I found my mind wandering. Normally, I liked English and Coach H was one of my favorite teachers. But today I felt antsy. Now that the distraction of the Ryan-Hana blossoming love match was not right in front of me, my thoughts fell back to Catherine and Heathcliff. I wasn’t going to feel safe until I was sure Catherine was gone from campus.

I shifted in my chair but I couldn’t settle down. The desk and chairs at Bard were designed to be uncomfortable and they were all bolted to the floor in case anybody got the idea of stealing them. Or throwing them for that matter. Either outcome was possible, given that there were quite a few kids here with some serious behavioral problems. Parents didn’t send their honor students to Bard. If you were here, you usually had a problem. Or, your parents were the problem.

Like in my case.

I’d been sent here after I wrecked my Dad’s cherry red BMW convertible. I realize this sounds bad. Technically, I didn’t even have my driver’s license yet. And I hadn’t had permission to drive his car.

On the face of it, sure, I deserve to be sent here. But, the fact was I wasn’t having a joyride. I had taken the car because I was going to pick up Lindsay from school where she was stranded and needed to escape a very mean bully. My divorced parents had forgotten whose turn it was to get her. I was being a good big sister, but Dad didn’t see it that way. He thought it didn’t matter why I’d broken the rules, just that I’d broken them. And he’d never really listened to my side of the story. Dad was never very good at listening.   

It’s no wonder he can’t keep a wife. Last summer, he’d divorced his
third
wife, Carmen. I had never liked her, so it’s not like I was particularly sad to see her go, but I also hated it when Dad was single. He would start up again with the Rogaine and the spray tan again.  Seriously--enough said.

But, whatever. I was glad I was hundreds of miles away and didn’t have to deal with it. Dad had his own problems and I suspected we were never going to be on the same wavelength.

And, the fact was, I liked Bard. It had started as a punishment, but it had grown into something else altogether. I’d met Heathcliff here, not to mention all my other friends. And even though my time here had been dangerous and stressful, I have to admit I wouldn’t want to change places with anybody at my old high school.

I just had to figure out why Catherine was here, poised to spoil what was left of my senior year.

As I stared out across the campus grounds from the windows in our class, the pathways were empty, save for two guardians—a fat squat one and a tall thin one—who were marching down the main pathway, patrolling the campus and looking for anyone who might be ditching class. I wondered where Heathcliff was at this moment. Had he found Catherine? The idea of him talking to her made my stomach tie itself up in knots. Was he—right at this moment—telling her how much he’d missed her?

I realize that part of me was to blame if he did. If I’d jumped at his marriage proposal, maybe he wouldn’t have been so eager to find Catherine when she showed up again. I hoped I wasn’t too late already. To be honest, I didn’t know what Heathcliff felt for Catherine. I knew he’d loved her at one time.  But Catherine was a subject we’d both deftly avoided. Now, I wished I’d insisted we talk about it.

Until now, he said he wanted to stay here with me and I believed him. I just hoped he hadn’t changed his mind.

The Guardians outside turned left across campus and disappeared behind the science building. And then, suddenly, the room burst into song. My attention went to the front of the class and I saw Samir standing there. He was holding a guitar, strumming notes. I didn’t know he played guitar. From the look on Blade’s face he’d kept her in the dark, too.