Free Falling (25 page)

Charlotte’s hand shot out, flipping the lid. “What the
hell?” she cried, frowning down at the contents distastefully. “Someone FedEx’d
you a murdered teddy bear and a dead flower? That’s twisted!”

I nodded as Beth immediately pulled the box to her, closing
it and examining the packaging that I’d stored with it in my cupboard. “Who
sent it? There’s no return address,” she observed, looking over the front of it
again.

I ground my teeth in frustration. “Sandy.” She was the only
one that would have a grudge against me.

Beth frowned. “How do you know that? It could be anyone.”
Charlotte flipped open the box again, reaching in and pulling out the note,
reading it with wide eyes before she passed it to Beth. “Wow.”

I shrugged and slumped down to the floor, sitting
cross-legged and watching them. “It has to be her, who else could it be? She’s
just trying to scare me; she’s trying to get a reaction as payback for me
calling her a dirty tramp at the party. She’s a freak.”

Suddenly Beth put the box down and shook her head. “We
shouldn’t be touching this. It’ll be contaminated with our fingerprints now.”
She set it on the side, looking at it worriedly. “You have called the police,
haven’t you?”

Okay, I knew this was coming. “Er, no. I’m not going to, and
I don’t want anyone else to know either. She’s just doing it to make me look
like an idiot, so I’m not giving her the satisfaction.” I lifted my chin
confidently. I wasn’t going to the police, not over a beheaded teddy bear and a
couple of prank phone calls, I’d get laughed right out of there.

Beth’s lips pressed into a hard, disapproving line. “Maisie,
this is serious, what if it’s not her sending it? What if it’s not a joke? You
have to tell the police.”

I flinched; I refused to think about that scenario. “It is
her,” I assured them. “I don’t want a load of people to know about it, but I
needed to tell someone. I definitely don’t want Alex or Luke to know about
this, they’ll go all caveman on me and insist that I don’t go anywhere alone,
you know what they’re both like.”

Charlotte sat forward, leaning her elbows on her knees as
her blue eyes locked onto mine. “But why would she go that far though? Sure,
she’s minion of the devil, but why would she even bother with you now anyway?
She’s got what she wanted, you and Luke have split up, she’s free to make her
move on him if she wanted. So why would she start sending you stuff like this?
She’s already won, it doesn’t make sense.”

I groaned in frustration, wishing I hadn’t told them. The
fact that they were making a big deal out of this was making it worse, I was
hoping they’d both just agree with me, and we’d laugh about how stupid Sandy
was and then burn the teddy in some kind of voodoo ritual or something. “When
has she ever made sense? She already told me that us breaking up wasn’t enough
for her,” I countered. “Look, I only wanted to get it off of my chest. I don’t
want to go to the police; I don’t want a big deal made out of it. That’s what
she wants to happen.”

Charlotte nodded slowly. Beth still looked like she
disapproved of the whole thing. “You should call the FedEx people and see who
sent it, they have records and stuff. Or maybe I could find out another way,”
Charlotte suggested. There was a mischievous little glint to her eye and a
smile pulled at the corners of her mouth which signalled that she was up to no
good.

I raised one eyebrow. “How would you do that?”

She sat back and clasped her hands together, smiling in full
now which only meant one thing - she was going to do her computer thing again
and hack FedEx to see who sent it. “I need my laptop,” was all she answered. I
rolled my eyes. Beth looked at Charlotte with apprehension clear across her
face, she didn’t approve of anything illegal and usually shied away from
Charlotte once the laptop came out. “I’ll look as soon as I get home, shouldn’t
be too hard to crack their security. We have the tracking number on the box, so
it should be a breeze.” She looked almost excited as she said it. Computers
were her thing so she relished anything that posed a slight challenge to her.

I sighed and nodded. “Okay, but it won’t make a difference,
that’ll just show that it was sent from her, I still don’t want to do anything
about it. She’ll get bored soon enough and she’ll move on to someone else.”

Beth still didn’t look convinced. “All right, but if
anything else happens then you should report it, or at least tell your parents.
Prank calls and stuff like this is no joke, even if it’s only meant to scare
someone.”

I nodded in agreement. I already decided I’d do that anyway,
if something else came along then I’d tell people, but for now I was happy just
sweeping it under the carpet. I had too much other stuff going on at the
moment; I was still struggling to deal with the fact that Luke had shattered my
heart. I didn’t want to have to acknowledge that yes, for a few minutes, I was
actually scared when I opened that box, and that yes it had actually crossed my
mind that someone was, in fact, threatening me. It was easier to pretend like
it wasn’t happening.

“Once I get the proof that she sent it, we should all jump
her or something,” Charlotte suggested thoughtfully.

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “I don’t like violence.”

She raised one eyebrow. “The girl sent you a mutilated teddy
bear; I think violence is justified in this situation.”

I chuckled at the hopeful glint in her eye. “You sound just
like Zach.”

“Ooh, and that’s another thing I wanted to talk to you
about,” Charlotte said, eyeing me curiously. “What’s going on with you two?
Personally I don’t think he’s a good fit for you, he’s too… badass, for you.
But you seem to be getting on well,” she mused.

I laughed incredulously. “Nothing’s going on. I’m tutoring
him, and for some reason he seems to like hanging out with me. Nothing more
than that. He’s a nice guy actually. I don’t think he’s as badass as he likes
to make out he is. He’s a pretty complicated person.” I frowned, thinking about
some of the things he’d said to me, he was definitely complicated and had a lot
more going on than he liked to show people. Cocky and arrogant seemed to be an
image he liked to portray to people so that they’d stay at a distance.
Underneath it all I would bet that he was more sensitive than he let on.

Charlotte pursed her lips and nodded. “I’d sure like to work
him out. If only he hadn’t called me sweetness, I’d be all over him like a
rash.” We all burst out laughing and talk turned onto boys and school rather
than Sandy and police, for that I was immensely grateful.

As soon as I stepped out of Alex’s car on Monday morning, I
was instantly met by Charlotte who looped her arm through mine, leaning in
conspiratorially. “So I tried everything to find out who sent that package, but
I couldn’t find anything at all. The records for it seem to be a mystery; the
ID of the sender was never logged. I did find out that the office that sent it
was in the next town over though. I tried to look through their security
footage to see if Sandy was caught on camera sending it, but there was nothing.
Either they don’t have security cameras, or it was deleted,” she told me,
raising one eyebrow.

I frowned at that. “The ID wasn’t logged?”

She shook her head and shrugged. “Nope. Trust me, if it had
been logged and then deleted, I would have seen it, but there was nothing there
at all, not even ghost record entries. The sender was left blank,” she
confirmed. “I reckon she slipped them a few bucks to keep her name off of it so
no one could prove it was her if you did decide to go to the police.”

I sighed dramatically. She’d gone to so much freaking effort
just to send me that package. It was a little scary really. “Let’s just forget
about it. I’m not giving her the satisfaction of a reaction about it.” I lifted
my chin confidently as we walked towards the school building together. As we
got to my locker I spotted Sandy. She was further up the hallway, chatting and
laughing animatedly with her little group of likeminded airheads. She didn’t
even look in my direction.
She’s obviously intent in not giving herself away
and pretending like she doesn’t know anything is going on. Witch.

Beth marched up a minute later, talking about how she was
going to flunk algebra because she hadn’t done her assignment for class. I
smiled and tried my best to get into the conversation, but my mind kept
wandering back to the note and the box.
You’re next.
I suddenly doubted
my plan to ignore it. As I glanced up at Sandy again the anger built in my
stomach. What I really wanted to do was strut over there and finish what I’d
started the other day. She looked up at exactly the same time, her eyes met
mine and a small smug smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. I frowned,
barely holding in my anger because she’d ruined everything and she seemed to be
enjoying it so much.

A tap on my shoulder made me turn my attention away from
Sandy. Zach smiled down at me, though his eyes seemed concerned. “Hey. You
okay? You look tired,” he asked, raising one eyebrow.

   I sighed and shrugged. “I’m fine. Didn’t sleep too well
over the weekend that’s all.” Last night I hadn’t managed to get much sleep
either. Alex was in the house so I wasn’t worried about being on my own, but
the box, Sandy, my ill grandad, and Luke were running through my mind
practically all night long. Sleep had unfortunately eluded me again.

“How come?”

I waved my hand dismissively, not wanting to get into it
all. “My grandad’s not well. My parents went to make sure he’s alright, so that
was stressing me out a little. He’s okay though. He’s got pneumonia apparently
but he’ll be fine. My parents are staying down there to help my nanna out for a
couple of days.” I reached into my locker and pulled out my books for the
morning classes.

“Wow, that sucks. Hopefully he’ll get better quickly,” he
replied, leaning against my locker and watching me curiously.

“Hopefully. So, are we studying at my place or yours
tonight?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.

“Mine if that’s alright, Olivia’s still keeping tabs on me.”
He chuckled darkly as he stood up straighter. “I actually have something I need
to do straight after school though so I’ll have to pick you up after I’m done.
Maybe you could just hang out here at school and I’ll pick you up when I’m
done, I’ll be about half an hour I guess.”

I shrugged and nodded in agreement. Alex was going straight
to the gym after school to train for his upcoming kickboxing match. I’d already
told him I was going home with Zach and wouldn’t need a ride. “Sure, I’ll just
hang in the library for a while until you get back. I need some new books to
read anyway.”

“You’re such a nerd,” he joked, bumping his shoulder with
mine. I rolled my eyes, about to make a sarcastic comment back, but the bell
rang before I could speak. He smiled, nodding over my shoulder. “I’d better go
get to class, don’t want to be late and earn myself a reputation for being a
delinquent.”

I laughed at that and waved as he strutted off down the
corridor confidently, not seeming to notice the girls looking at him and
smiling as they tried to get his attention.

My day passed without a hitch. I’d had none of those weird
silenced phone calls, no typed notes with petals inside, and nothing was
scrawled on my locker. Sandy didn’t even look in my direction all day. During
gym I silently wondered if maybe the box with the teddy inside was the
anticlimactic climax. Maybe she was bored of me not reacting the way that she
wanted me to. Hopefully my choice of ignoring it all had the right effect and
now she was abandoning her vicious façade against me. One could only hope.

Even tutoring went well. Maybe my luck was finally turning
around again and life would get back to normal. After Zach had finally graced
me with his presence and picked me up after school, we’d gone to his place to
study. We worked for almost two hours, getting a lot done, before stopping to
have dinner with his aunt and uncle again. After, he drove me home.

It was cold as I pulled off Zach’s jacket and passed it back
to him. “Thanks for the loan. I really should remember to bring a sweater or
something when we’re going to be on the bike,” I said, holding it out to him
gingerly.

He grinned teasingly. “Just admit it; you’d rather wear my
clothes, that’s why you always wear silly little flimsy shirts when you know
we’re studying. You like cloaking yourself in my smell.”

I rolled my eyes, shouldering my bag. “Whatever you want to
believe, Zach,” I replied sarcastically. “Thanks for dinner. See you tomorrow.”
I turned for the house, hugging myself against the cold. Now that I’d taken off
his jacket I was instantly covered in goosebumps.

“See ya.”

I waved over my shoulder as his bike roared loudly, then
started disappearing down the street. I fumbled with my keys, slipping them
into the lock and pushing the door open. As I stepped through the front door of
the house I dropped my bag on the floor and frowned at the unusual quiet of the
place. Normally the smell of food would hit me as soon as I walked through the
door; chatter and the sound of a TV would fill the house. But today I was the
only one here because Alex was training until late, and my parents were with my
nanna. Even Chester, my dog, wasn’t whining and skipping excitedly down the
hallway towards me. I didn’t like coming in to an empty house, it felt a little
eerie.

I decided to go and make a snack before I started on my own
homework. The quiet was a little weird as I walked down the hallway. “Chester?
You’d better not be asleep on the beds again!” I called, chuckling to myself.
He had a fondness for Alex’s bed and took any opportunity to sneak in there if
his door was left open. I stood at the bottom of the stairs and peered up.
“Chester!” I scolded, rolling my eyes. “Come on, dinner time.”