Hidden (Hidden Series Book One) (42 page)

“Appearance?” I asked.

Sophia got up and put her hands on my
shoulders, massaging them like I wasn’t going to like this.

“Your school is interested in throwing you a
welcome home party. It has been mentioned on the news already,”
Lydia said.

“Please. I really don’t want to go back,” I
said.

“Not back … back. They have agreed to let
you finish the rest of your classes independently. You’ll only go
for this party. Sophia, didn’t you say this was a good idea?”

“Yes.” I looked back at the traitor.
“Please, sweetheart. It will settle everyone and you’ll finally be
able to move on with your life. Here, with your friends.” I groaned
because I didn’t stand a chance of getting out of this with
Sophia’s sweet voice along with a command from Lydia Shaw. “They
can go with you. You won’t be alone.”

“Fine,” I said.

Emma, Paul, and Nate shook Lydia’s hand when
she stood to leave. I had the urge to open my arms for a hug and
freaked myself out. I settled for a wave. She seemed fine with
that.

When she left, me feeling oddly sad about
it, Sophia gave us our new phone numbers that Remi didn’t have and
gave Nate a new phone since his was stolen.

Instead of watching movies, I helped Sophia
and Emma with her room that was next door to mine. They had spells
and snaps, and I had my mind … well until I was too tired, and then
I had nothing. I needed to be penciled into Lydia’s schedule sooner
than later if I was going to make this a normal part of my
life.

We moved on to Paul’s room downstairs. It
was way easier. He just needed a bed and dresser, and he didn’t
care if they matched.

“Nate’s turn,” I said. Sophia passed the
empty room next to Paul’s, across the hall from mine. We followed
her downstairs, picking up Nate from in front of the TV on the way.
She opened the back door, and I groaned.

“You’ll be staying in the pool house,
Nathan, and you have a curfew of eleven o’clock,” she told him.
“You’ll never know when I’m watching, so you’d better sleep here
every single night.”

We didn’t laugh about the curfew until
Sophia left to go to work – meeting freaking Lydia Shaw in Tokyo.
We’d find a way around that rule. She hadn’t given me a curfew or
said I couldn’t sleep in the pool house with him.

Emma had the wonderful idea to turn one of
the empty rooms downstairs into what she called
The Girls
Only
room. It would be for movies and whatever else we decided
to do in there. We covered the floor with pink and green pillows,
her favorite color and mine. I had to crash on them after,
completely exhausted.

“In her old room, mounted on a wall, I
summon a television that will be useful to us all,” she said, and
it appeared. She clapped, and I added a listless hooray. “How about
we get the boys to hook it up for us?”

We watched the guy I loved and the guy she
pretended not to love hook up the TV and move every movie they
would never want to watch into our room.

I realized it was the best day of my life
some time around four. Emma and I had watched five terrible but
awesome movies, and she’d somehow convinced me that we needed to
learn the cheers from the last one. I sucked and had absolutely no
coordination. She laughed when she saw that I’d resorted to
watching and didn’t scold me for not trying like Whitney would
have.

Everything was perfect until Sophia came in
and sucked all of the air out of the room.

“Hurry and get dressed, loves,” she said. “I
need to have you in New Haven by 7:30 their time.”

Emma pulled out every shirt, dress, and
skirt in my closet and scattered them across my bed.

“No,” I said as she held up the mustard,
see-through one.

“Good, I’ll wear it.” She changed right in
front of me, and I rolled my eyes. The shirt looked infinitely
better on her. “What about this?” she asked, holding up a black and
green polka-dot dress.

“Okay. It’ll do.”

“It’ll do? This stuff has tags that I don’t
think Sophia would copy. Do you know how much she had to spend on
this dress? Of your money, probably. I doubt she can just afford to
splurge like this with all the people she takes care of.”

“She was just trying to cheer me up, but I’m
happy now, so how about you take this,” I said, handing her a pink
blazer I didn’t think I’d wear. “And this. And this too,” I said.
She screamed and pulled the black mini skirt over her jeans, then
pulled them off. The nuns were definitely going to hate her
outfit.

“Oh … that reminds me,” she said. She
snapped twice and black pumps appeared in her hands. “Your shoes.
Unless I can have these too.”

I stared at them. There was something
inexplicably troubling about them.

“Oh!” I covered my mouth, embarrassed. “I
stole those from Lydia Shaw.” Her eyes widened and she threw them
on my bed like she wanted nothing to do with them now. “I’m sure
it’ll be fine. I’ll just give them back.”

I threw a few pillows on top of them until I
would turn them over to Sophia, ashamed of my theft from the famous
woman.

I told Emma about Sienna and Whitney and how
unpopular I was while she plucked my eyebrows and forced mascara on
me. With make up on, there was no way I was also putting on heels –
stolen or my own. I went with black flats, toppling her
strut in
like a model to show how awesome my life is
plan.

We assembled in the living room. Sophia
snapped and we landed in a SUV, all in our own seats.

Cameras flashed in the window, and I
groaned. Nathan turned around in the driver’s seat. “This is
awesome! They think we drove in?”

“Yes,” Sophia said. She reached over the
seat from the third row and touched my shoulder. “Just breathe,
dear,” she said. For a moment, my mind blanked. I stared at her,
waiting to be reminded of when she’d said that before. Her eyes
were watery then. I was panicking. It must’ve been when I was here
last, when I decided I was evil enough to take two lives.

Nathan opened his door and the press went
nuts, snapping me out of the daze. Emma and Paul got out too. I
waited, like Sophia would change her mind and get me out of
here.

“Come back when you’re ready to go.”

“I’m ready now.”

She laughed. “Stay for a little while, dear.
Call if I’m not inside,” she said. Nate opened my door, and I
stepped out, causing an uproar of questions and flashing lights. I
looked back to Sophia, but I couldn’t see inside the truck from out
here.

“Ten minutes after a heavily tinted vehicle
arrives at the school, Leah emerges with three teenagers,” a
reporter said, facing a camera, not us. Nate wrapped an arm around
my waist as we pushed through the crowd.

“Leah! Leah! Care to comment on were you’ve
been?” Ken asked. I answered because Nate and I had watched
him.

“A few places,” I said.

“What do you think about the rumors that a
witch abducted you?” he asked.

“I think it’s crazy,” I said.

The cameras followed us into the gates and
all the way to the doors of the main hall. Like I couldn’t hear
them, they reported that my behavior (showing up looking glamorous
with teenagers I shouldn’t know and holding hands with one of them)
was suspicious. They added a new theory to the case – I’d run away
all on my own and somehow used visual effects to pull off the flash
of light.

Paul opened the door, and I held my breath.
The feel and smell of the building made me want to wrap my arms
around myself and stare at my shoes. Like he’d sensed it, Nate
tightened his arms around me. The nuns were waiting in the hall in
front of the main office.

Sister Margret approached me first. “Leah,
I’ve been praying nonstop for you. I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m sorry that you won’t be returning. We
wish you well.”

Great. Could we go now?

Sister Phyllis limped closer. “Her Honor
said you requested that the things in your room be donated.” I
nodded, even though Lydia had made that decision without me. It was
the correct one. I didn’t want to go in there or take anything from
my old life into my new one. “And we wanted to thank you for the
wonderful idea to start an anti-bullying program and also for
donating the rest of the money in your student account to that
cause.” Another great idea that wasn’t mine.

“No problem,” I said.

They ushered us down the hall. “Chris, I
have a cause. Would you like to donate?” Paul said.

“What’s it called?” I said. “The boys with
fancy scarves cause?” We cackled in the hall. It had the same
effect as spitting on the floor, showing that I was over this
place, this building, being Leah. I was completely relaxed when we
came to the gym doors.

Every head in the room turned to us. I
looked up at the ridiculous banner that said: Welcome home,
Leah.

The girls I grew up with and the guys I’d
never interacted with applauded over the music. I couldn’t focus on
any of their faces. It reminded me of when I snapped, hallucinated,
and beat up Remi.

Slowly, the attention turned away from us
and back to drinking punch and nodding to music.

“This party is lame. Let’s spice it up, Em,”
Paul said. He pulled her to the middle of the gym. Jaws dropped
everywhere when they started dancing entirely too close
together.

“Do you want to dance?” I bucked my eyes,
and Nate laughed. “Maybe later.” We sat at an empty table. The
buzzing of human thoughts made my head spin. How had I done this
all day, every day?

When the devil walked over, I clutched
Nate’s hand. “Want me to bite her?” he whispered.

“Maybe.” We chuckled. It was the perfect
moment for her to see. To meet Christine.

Whitney trailed a few paces behind Sienna as
they made their way to us.

“So happy you’re alive,” Sienna said, with
the fakest smile ever. “You look … different. Who’s your
friend?”

She looked back at Whitney, and they
giggled.

“Nathan. Her boyfriend,” he said. Neither of
them believed him, but I was
so
over Sienna and Whitney and
everything about them. In a week, I’d experienced real life and
real problems, so they looked as small and insignificant as they
had in my dream. I didn’t feel anything. Not sadness or rage. They,
and everyone in this room, meant nothing.

“Want some punch, babe?” I asked. Like the
perfect boyfriend he was, he leaned in and kissed me. It was soft
and quick but enough to make them gasp. He took my hand and pulled
me between my former enemies. I didn’t need to look back to know
I’d left them stunned.

He fixed our cups and we perused the snack
table. Emma and Paul were busy grinding on the dance floor. Paul
took off his scarf and draped it around her back, pulling her
closer.

“Can we leave yet?” I asked.

“We’ve been here all of five minutes,
babe.”

He reached his arms around to my stomach as
he leaned on the table. He swayed slightly to the left, then to the
right. I looked back and so did he, avoiding my eyes. “Stop trying
to dance with me, Nate.”

“Too late.”

I let him dance, but I didn’t move much. I
listened to the buzzing around me as he held on to me. They were
all wondering how I’d managed to make friends while being
kidnapped. The meanest ones were wondering how I’d manage to make
friends at all. One voice was calling, no singing, my name.

Christine. Oh … sweet … Christine
. It
was a girl. A familiar voice.
Christine, I know you can hear
me
. Remi? I scanned the room. More couples had joined Emma and
Paul on the dance floor. Emma inched lower to the ground, finally
pushing Sister Margret too far.
She looks nice in your clothes.
I guess you stole my friend
.

I looked through the harmless students for
her.

I didn’t shiver. I wasn’t afraid. My heart
shattered, breaking for her, wanting to bring her home with us.

Then I saw her and my heart broke even more.
She stood in front of the locker room door. Her dark hair was in a
long braid. Her leather pants looked painted on, and her top was
almost nonexistent. I had bras that covered more. No one seemed to
see her but me.

I looked back at Nate. His eyes were fixed
on Paul and Emma getting lectured. He laughed, probably hearing it
from here.

It’s not over. My master wants you, and I
begged to be the one to deliver you. I owe you one.
She
disappeared into the locker room, and I ran after her.

I blew through the doors. “Remi!” I
screamed. It felt like I had to save her from Kamon because there
was no one to save my mother from his master. “Don’t go back!
You’ll be his property!”

It was silent except for a dripping
faucet.

“Chris!” Nate said, bursting through the
door. “What’s wrong?”

“I saw Remi. I thought … I saw her,
anyway.”

“She’s gone.” I jumped. Lydia Shaw crossed
her legs on the wooden bench between the lockers. “I assumed Kamon
would send someone here tonight since this has been all over the
news, and you did exactly what she wanted you to do.” She stood,
and I bowed like I was supposed to. Nate followed. “She saw me and
jumped through the window she came in from.”

“Why did you let her go? We need to help
her.”

“Not we.
You
belong in there, dancing
with your boyfriend. Remi and Kamon are my problem. You are not a
part of that world. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, sinking. I felt like
I’d disappointed her, and it hurt. I’d stupidly run after Remi. It
could have been a trap with sedatives involved. Thank God she was
here to scare her off.

“If I promise to do everything I can to help
Remi, will you promise to ignore her?” I nodded. “Good. Nathan,
great job of slowing yourself down out there, but keep a closer eye
on her for me,” she said.