Fiona Frost: Order of the Black Moon (33 page)

I’ll give you a kiss on the cheek after
class if you look at me.

He checked his messages a second after I hit send.
He read the text
, jerked his head to look at me, a
nd winked.
My heart fluttered
wildly,
and I
floated
on top
of
a
white, puffy
cloud
in
my head as
Mrs. Garcia’s voice
turned into a barely audible
lion’s roar
,
and the dry erase board
looked like
ki
ndergarten drawings
.
I sat there for the rest of class with my hand propping up my head, eyes closed, dreaming of kissing Wolfe on the cheek after class,
imagining
he
might
hug me tightly after I did it.
The
close
friend
deal wasn’t going to work for us.

The bell rang
as
Detective Chase’s face
popped on
my phone screen.
It was odd timing. I answered.

“Hello, Detective
.
The bell just rang
, do you have telepathy
?
”
I said as I gathered my things
and
walked
slowly
towards the exit.
I
stepped aside
, allowing
students to exit
before me
,
delaying my entrance into the noisy
hallway
so I could
hear
.

“Great, I’m sorry to bother you during the day, but I
have
some news
,
and I need you to do some surveillan
ce at school today if you can.”

“Great, what do you need for me to do
?
”
I said
as
Wolfe waited for me in the hallway. Mrs. Garcia
st
ared
at me from her desk with a curious expression.

“We
confiscated
Damien Lee’s backpack
upon his arrest
,
and
a
lab tech just realized there is a pink envelope with Damien’s name on it, matching the blank envelopes in Victoria Newsted’s room and in Gerald Smith’s prison cell.
What we need
you
to do is keep your eyes out for any activity by Victoria and Damien today at school.
We need to know if Victoria and Damien are still acting as a couple to see if this envelope is new or old
—
it’s not postmarked
.”

“Will do
,
and I’ll ask the other club members to keep their eyes open
,” I added before
ending the call
and sending a
blast
text message to
the
team
regarding our new surveillance duties.

By the time I got
off the phone
, Wolfe
was down the hallway
and pointed
at
the clock
on the wall
.
There was only a minute left for me to get to my next class.
As I
jogged down the hall,
I
received
a text message from
Wolfe
.

Already have two tardies in next period, don’t want a ticket to see Dinges.
See ya after school
,
and you can pay up on our deal
.

At lunch, I gushed to Maddie about the deal I made with Wolfe.
She warned me about how crazy I went over the whole Camber
t
hing
and
how I felt when we didn’t talk
.
She
was happy for me, but as a friend, she
counseled
about becoming more than friends
and
how it would be if
we
stopped speaking
again
.
She had a valid point, but it was becoming entirely too difficult to hide my attraction for him.
She admitted she wanted to make it official with Carden, so she was in a similar conundrum
to Wolfe and me—since we were not allowed to engage in a relationship with other members of the team
.
Taking her advice, I decided to tell Wolfe I’d see him on Thursday.
I needed to take
the
time to think about
what I
genuinely
wanted to happen
.

When I got home, I was greeted by Janice holding a warm plate of cookies decorated with vampire teeth on them.
Wearing her favorite red velvet dress, she had returned to full health, her cheeks
flushed their
normal pink
hue
and her eyes
were brilliant as
sapphires.

“
I
n honor of your case, Fiona,” Janice giggled
as she nudged the cookies into
my hands
.
I laughed as I took the plate
and
strolled
towards my
bedroom.

As I opened the door, I gasp
ed
for air at the sight.
Everything from my dresser
, shelves,
and the
nightstand was on the floor
,
scattered as if somebody
had
raked it clean with
one careless, fluid motion of their arm
s
.
My
case
study
corkboard
was broken
in half,
and the evidence
notes
w
ere
spread
among the clutter
,
pushpins sprinkled perilously
among the
mishmash
on the floor.
There was a
Herculean
rip in my pink dow
n comforter as well as in many
of my
pink
furry pillows, feathers
scattered aimlessly
around
my
room.
Luminal’s bed was shredded, the foam in a minced pile
—the
outline of
his
body no longer
recognizable
.
My favorite chair was shredded to pieces, the
pieces
scattered about the room as if it exploded.

“Janice!
”
I screamed
.

“F
iona!
Are you
alright
, honey
?
”
Janice shrieked
,
her footsteps thunder
ed
down the hallway
towards me
.

I couldn’
t respond
,
my voice became nonexistent
.
I
feverishly
studied
the chaos inside of my
bed
room
as
a b
oulder
grew
in my stomach
, weighing
me down
, making it impossible for me to
move
a muscle
.
I dropped the plate
of cookies as my hands weakened
. The plate
crashed
against the wooden floor,
the
stoneware
split
ting
into a hundred pieces amongst the
broken
cookies.
My limbs grew li
fe
less
, and I leaned
against my doorjam
b
to steady myself,
as I slid to the
floor.
I held onto my
consciousness
by a thread
,
blink
ing
my eyes
repeatedly
, r
olling them
inside of their sockets t
o
prevent
focusing on anything for too long
.
Janice
halted abruptly at the
threshold of my bedroom
,
gasping.

“Oh my.
What happened here?
I’ve been here all
day!
” she
shouted
, stepping
over the broken plate of cookies
to enter
the
room
, surveying
the damage
with her
eyes widened
.
I
found my voice.

“Hale
y.
It must have been Haley,”
m
y voice cracked as I cradled
my head in my hands.

Janice bent down to pick up a piece of paper in the middle of the clutter pile on my floor.
She read the writing on the paper and stared at
me with
a solemn expression
before approaching
.

“You must be right.
This appears to be
Haley’s
handwriting,” Janice uttered, holding out a sheet of paper that
read
in a childish scrawl
—
p
ayback.

A ball of fury gathered in my throat
as
I clenched my teeth as
hard as they would smash together
.
A
nger
turned nuclear inside of me
, radiating
towards my
fingers;
I
tightened
my fists
.
Tensing every muscle
in my body,
I found new strength and
stood to my feet, leaning against the
wall momentarily before standing on my own.
I squared my shoulders down the hallway
towards
her r
oom, trying to restrain myself
, yet at the same time, bui
l
d
ing momentum for a pending fit of rage
I subconsciously planned to unleash on
her
bedroom.

Janice
caught up to me, rubbing
my shoulder gently, sending
calming
shockwave
s
through me.
She hesitated for a short
second;
I turned to gaze at her.

“Don’t you think about getting even, Fiona
.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, dear,”
she
lectured
, patting me on the shoulder.
“I will let your mom and dad know immediately what she has done.
Honey, go
grab the other plate of cookies in the kitchen
,
watc
h television in the living room,
and I’ll clean up in here.”

If I retaliated,
Janice would be the one to pick up the pieces, not Haley.
Haley must have expected my revenge
and probably hid anything she truly cared about
—
she was a troublemaker but wasn’t stupid.

I despised
every
cell of
her
body
and
was unsure of what I would do to her
when
I saw her
.
I hoped I
could
confront her
at home first
so I could minimize the
repercussions
I would
endure
.

“Thanks, Janice.
I don’t feel like cookies anymore
, but
I thank you for making them,” I sulked into the living roo
m,
threw myself on the couch, grabbing
a
velour
blanket draped over the back cushion.

T
he doorbell rang
.

“I got it, Janice!
”
I shouted, jumping up
with
a
blanket in hand
,
carefully
peering through
the windows
.

I noticed a
familiar face
, and I swung open the door hastily
to see the prominent,
copper
cheeks
belonging to
Madison
.
Sh
e was smiling brightly
and hopped
into the
foyer,
and spun around like a top
towards the living room
with outstretched arms
.

“He likes
me, he likes me, he likes me!”

A
smile
spread across my face
at my best friend’s excellent mood.
No matter what
this was, it was what I needed
—
a sharp dose of positivity.

“What are you talking about,” I brooded
in a pseudo-happy tone
, sitting back down on the couch
, unable to hide my foul mood
.

“What is wrong with you?
Somebody steal your cookies?
I know
she’s
home now, so share,”
she
laughed
as
she searched around
the room
for
a plate of
Janice’s cookies.

A
heavy mist
of sadness washed over me, causing me to close my eyes without my consent.

“Haley trashed my room.
She destroyed my evidence board I worked on
for probably about four hours.”

I fought a
meltdown
as
I
opened my eyes,
survey
ing
Mad
die’s face for her
friend fury
—the
unspoken rule that best friends must share the same emotions
towards
everybody
.

“Are you kidding me?
That ungrateful brat trashed your room?
Why
?
Wait,
she trashed
your evidence board?
She needs to be taught a serious lesson, Fiona.”

To my
pleasure
, the
friend fury
rule was
intact
.

“
Haley
was angry at me for telling Carden I thought he was going out with
her
.
You know, when I tried to kick him out of the club for dating her
,
but then found out she was really dating his older brother Duncan?
Well some
how,
within that time, Carden must have gone straight to
his brother Duncan,
who
in turn
got angry
,
thinking
Haley was trying to go out with Carden,” I
crumpled my head into my lap
, “or somethin
g like that.
It’s all stupid!”

Maddie shook her head in bewilderment,
patting me on the back
as
I let out a huge sigh of frustration.

“Sounds like it.
Sounds very confusing with all that
he said, she said
stuff.
How bad
is your bedroom?
”

I lifted my head
from my lap, leaning back on the arm of the sofa.

“Pretty bad.
She obliterated everything that wasn’t nailed down or over two hundred pounds.”

Maddie’s expression turned more
hesitant.

“Clothes?”

I hadn’t thought of that.
I felt a lump beginning to develop in the back of my throat.

“Didn’t check my closet.
Don’t know if I can handle it if she touched anything in there.”

“
T
hat’s pretty messed up.
I don’t know how you can stand to live with somebody like that.
She’s a l
oose ca
nnon,
”
she said
, rushing
towards
the kitchen
.
“Hold on, Fiona!”

After a few quick seconds,
she
returned with a
plate of
Janice’s
cookies
, laughing
hysterically at the vampire teeth décor on them.

“Gotta love Janice.
Seriously, I love that woman!”

I forced a fake smile on my pouty face, remembering how happy Maddie was when she arrived
at
my house.

“So, who likes
you?
I can only guess it’s Carden.
I’ve seen how he
stares
at you with that crazy smile, especially in the conference room
—
you guys were so obvious!
” I said, holding my head low, realizing I hadn’t been a great friend. “
Sorry I didn’t take your excited bait
when you first got here
, I just
have
trouble dealing—
”

“
No worries!
”
s
he interrupted excitedly.
“
Carden said he wants to make it official
with me
,
but he wants to see how we get along on a couple of dates first.
I mean, what if we hate how each other eats or sits in a movie theater seat?”

I found my best friend’s fit of
bliss
to be a ray of sunshine
;
true
happiness invaded my face.

“Sounds like important things to know before committing to a high school relationship,” I said,
my lips curving upward in an authentic
smile
for the first time since discovering my
destroyed
bed
room
of mayhem
.

“I just love his blonde hair, his deep brown eyes, his tan, his
muscular shoulders,”
she
gushed.
“O
h and I can’t wait to see him
ride
at the rodeo!
Did you know he and his brother rope calves
and stuff
at the rodeo
?
How cute will he look in rodeo clothes?
Oh my gosh, Fiona!
”

“Yes, I was aware they’re rodeo boys.
And yes, he is entirely cute
,
and I’m so happy for you.
I knew this was coming, by the way.
You always get what you wan
t
!
Hey, didn’t you guys watch movies together last Friday?
”
I laughed.