Hunted (10 page)

"You're
right, I better go hobnob with the fans. It was nice to meet you, Mr.
Paige."

Cindi
watched Tristan walk away with a glimmer in her eye that I was pretty
sure my dad noticed too. He watched her watching Tristan for several
seconds and then cleared his throat.

"You
were both amazing out there tonight. I never would have guessed that
you'd do a lift like that, Adri."

I
blushed again. "It wasn't actually planned. I was headed the
wrong direction and then when I practically ran Jackson over he just
threw me into that lift so that I wouldn't look like quite as much of
a spastic idiot."

We
had Cindi's attention now. "Where's Mom?"

Dad
frowned. "I'm sorry, girls. I tried to get her to come with me
tonight. I reminded her a couple of times during the day that you
were both performing tonight, but when it came time to leave she said
that she had some prints that she was in the middle of developing. I
had hoped that she'd arrive still before the game ended, but I guess
it wasn't to be."

"Yeah,
most things with Mom aren't to be lately."

My
jaw dropped at Cindi's tone, but it looked like Dad had made as many
excuses as he was willing to make for Mom tonight because he didn't
respond to his youngest daughter's venom, at least not directly.

"Do
the two of you want a ride home or were you planning on just
walking?"

Cindi
shook her head. The unhappiness that had graced her face just a
second ago had already vanished. "It's going to be at least
another half hour by the time we talk to Miss Winters and get all of
our stuff together. You go ahead without us, Dad."

I
nodded. "Cindi is right. Thank you for coming tonight, but you
probably have a lot of work waiting for you at home."

I
could see the battle going on inside of his head. On the one hand
were his work commitments, on the other was living up to what he
thought was his fatherly duty.

"Are
you both sure? I can stay if you don't want to walk. It is dark
outside already."

Cindi's
smile was a perfect study in innocence. "Really, Dad. We'll be
fine. Besides, the odds are pretty good that one of the other girls
on the squad will give us a ride later anyways."

I
gave Cindi a confused look, but she gave me a covert 'calm down'
signal. Dad looked back and forth between us for a couple of seconds
and then nodded.

"Okay,
I'll head out now then, but if you two change your minds or can't get
one of the other girls to drop you off then just call me. I'll
happily drive back over here and pick you up."

Cindi
and I gave Dad hugs and then hurried over to where Miss Winters was
standing. There were only a couple of other girls there at that
point, but our making it over there triggered some kind of critical
mass. More and more girls showed up over the next couple of minutes
at a faster and faster rate until everyone was there waiting for the
post-game critique.

"You
girls all did really well. I'm proud of you all and the way you
helped keep the team in the game. I'm sure you're all exhausted by
now, so I won't keep you for a lengthy discussion, but this may not
be the last time we see everyone rush the field like that. If it
happens again when you're out on the field like that then the best
thing to do is just stay in the front of the crowd and then circle
back around after everyone stops moving forward."

We
all put a hand into the center again, yelled "Go Wolves"
and then everyone started splitting up. Based on Cindi having told
Dad to go home without us I'd been expecting a much longer analysis.
I picked up the bag with my things and then followed Cindi, only she
didn't ask one of the other girls for a ride, and she didn't head
towards the front of the school and the road home.

I
caught up with her on the forty-yard line and she was so excited she
practically beamed. "If the fans rush the field again I'm going
to do exactly what I did tonight."

I
shook my head at her in amazement and then slapped one of the lucky
mosquitoes that hadn't succumbed to the pesticide that the city
sprayed on all of the stationary bodies of water in an effort to keep
us all from being eaten alive.

"You
do realize that things could have ended up a lot worse, don't you? If
Tristan hadn't been there when everyone started moshing you probably
would have been hurt pretty badly."

Cindi
frowned at me. "Seriously, did you not feel the energy out there
tonight? This is the kind of thing that made me want to be a
cheerleader in the first place. Besides, it wasn't just luck that put
me close enough to Tristan for him to save me. I've been trying to
catch his eye for weeks now."

I
had to fight the urge to roll my eyes at her. Cindi seemed to crush
on a different guy every week. She wasn't shy or anything so it was
pretty incredible that she hadn't really had a boyfriend yet, but
things never seemed to work out. Usually the timing was off. By the
time the boy realized that she was interested in him, she'd generally
moved on to someone else. I was pretty sure that her saying she'd
been pursuing Tristan for weeks was a gross exaggeration.

Cindi
looked at me and it was almost like she read my mind. "I'm
serious, Adri. I really like Tristan. I stopped talking to you about
this kind of stuff because you always roll your eyes like you did
just now."

"I
didn't roll my eyes at you!"

"Yes,
you did. It's okay, I know I've been flighty in the past, but this
time things are different."

I
took a deep breath and tried to put my skepticism to one side. "Okay,
what do you want me to do? Is there some way I can help?"

Cindi's
smile was back and I knew I'd made the right decision. Even if she
lost interest in Tristan tomorrow, whatever she wanted me to do right
now would be worthwhile if it made her that happy.

"I
knew that the meeting with Miss Winters would be short, they always
are."

She
looked at me and took in my expression of astonishment with a giggle.
"I've been staying late after every game for weeks. At first it
was because I wanted to talk to the other girls on the squad, but
lately it has been because it gives me a chance to talk to Tristan."

"How
do you find time to do any homework around all of the cheerleading
and boy-chasing?"

"It's
not easy, let me tell you."

This
time I did roll my eyes at her. "Okay, so what do you want out
of me?"

"Just
come with me to talk to him. We usually exchange a word or two after
every game, but today was different. I think he would have stayed
there talking to me for an hour if Dad hadn't sent him away."

Whatever
response I would have come up with was preempted by the return of the
football team to the field. Most of the rest of the squad was still
hanging out on the bleachers, so it wasn't like we were the only two
girls who'd stayed to talk to the players, but I still felt pretty
conspicuous. Cindi didn't seem to share any of my misgivings.

I
was still trying to pick Tristan out of a sea of white uniforms, but
Cindi was already angling us down a slightly different trajectory. As
the football team started dispersing I was able to finally find
Tristan. Cindi had done a surprisingly good job picking our route. We
were going to walk within a couple of feet of him, but it didn't look
like we'd planned that, it just looked like we'd happened by him on
the way towards the parking lot. Cindi was even better at this
guy-chasing thing than I'd realized.

"Hey,
Tristan. Thanks again for getting me out of that mosh pit."

Tristan
turned and bestowed a confident smile on both of us. "Hey, no
problem, it was actually kind of good." He leaned forward so
that he could whisper. "I'm not really into that kind of thing
so you gave me a reason to get out without all of the other guys
thinking I was wussing out or something."

"I
feel the same way. I'm totally not into that kind of thing either."

I
had to stop myself from saying something. Cindi had just finished
telling me that she loved being in the mosh pit. I didn't like the
way that she was pretending to be someone different than she was, but
it wasn't like she'd thank me for pointing that out right now.

"You
girls headed home?"

"Yeah,
you?"

"There's
this big victory celebration over on Crater Lake. Hey, you two should
come with us."

I
could see the wheels turning in Cindi's head. She wanted to come up
with a way to go to the party, but we both knew that there was no way
that Dad was going to buy off on that, not on a school night. It only
took her a second to come to the realization that there wasn't any
way for her to manage it short of sneaking out.

"That
would be cool, but we're probably going to have to pass this time
around."

Tristan
shrugged. "It won't be the same without you, but that's okay,
maybe next time."

He
looked the two of us over and I was pretty sure that his gaze stopped
and rested on me for an extra second or two. He was probably wishing
that I'd kept walking or something so that he could just talk to
Cindi by himself.

"I've
got plenty of time before I need to head off to the lake. You two
want a ride home?"

I
was impressed that Cindi managed not to squeal in excitement. It was
starting to look like this might be the crush that actually went
somewhere for once.

Between
finding out that Cindi had the hots for Tristan, the stress of
cheering at my first game, and the thrill of being saved by Jackson,
I went to bed without even considering that I might have another of
the crazy dreams that had been plaguing me lately.

I
was tired enough that I dropped off to sleep almost as soon as my
head hit the pillow. My dreams started off normal. I was in the
middle of finding out that I'd forgotten to study for a test in my
history class when the classroom suddenly changed.

It
took me a second to figure out what was different. At first it was
just a subtle change in the amount of light in the room, but it
continued to grow as I tapped my pencil on my desk. It wasn't just
that there was more light in the room, the light seemed to almost be
coming out of the people.

It
was eerie enough that I looked around the room in an effort to see if
anything else had changed. I almost missed it, but the corner
furthest from the door was slightly blurry. It was like I was looking
at it through a dirty pane of glass.

That
was one oddity too much and I realized that this had to be another
dream. I pinched myself to try to confirm my suspicion, but contrary
to what I was expecting the pinch hurt.

I
hadn't taken my eyes off of the corner for nearly a full minute now
and I distantly heard my teacher asking me if everything was okay. I
was desperately scouring my memories. I didn't think that I
remembered getting ready for school that morning, but it was hard to
be sure. Every morning at my house was pretty much identical to every
other morning.

"Adriana,
is everything okay?"

I
looked away from the corner to answer my teacher and I realized that
the desk was in a different place than it had been when I'd entered
the class. It had to be a dream, but it felt too real. I needed more
time; I needed a second to think without everyone badgering me.

I
opened my mouth to respond and realized that everyone had stopped
moving. I'd wanted time, wanted people to
stop
and they had. I
was surrounded by a classroom full of other kids, but it looked like
a wax museum.

The
way that everyone had frozen in place was creepy, but the silence
bothered me even more. It felt wrong to be in a classroom, surrounded
by people, and not hear a single sound other than my own breathing.

I
looked back up to the corner of the room where I'd noticed the odd
light distortion, but it was gone. The corner looked just like it
should, but I could still feel a presence in the room that I couldn't
explain. I turned in my chair, looking for the source of my unease.

I
found it in the empty desk two rows over from me. It was shaped
differently now, more like a person, but still almost impossible to
see. That wasn't the only change. It was less like a dirty pane of
glass now and more like the disturbance in the air that you can see
on a cold day when you look along a dark wall that the sun has been
shining on for a few hours.

The
distortion moved slightly and I somehow knew it was staring at me.

"I
can see you. I know that you are there."

The
words came out evenly and with more confidence than I actually felt.
I'd had scores of safe, normal dreams, but both times that I'd run
into something odd like this before I'd been sure I was going to die.
I had an uneasy feeling that this was going to be another one of the
dangerous dreams.

Nothing
happened for a couple of seconds and then the air flickered and the
tiny Native American man from my skyscraper dream came into view.

"How
did you pull me out of my rest?"

It
wasn't until I heard how tired his voice was that I realized how worn
down he looked. The bags under his eyes and the odd color to his skin
would have been concerning all by themselves, but there were bandages
visible just past his sleeves and at his collar too. He'd obviously
been in some kind of massive accident, or possibly a fight.

Honestly
he looked like he should still be in a hospital, but that wasn't the
most unsettling thing of all. I could see some kind of golden light
leaking out of him. It was pretty faint where he was uninjured and it
was super strong in a couple of spots on his chest, which I was
pretty sure meant that he'd taken some serious injuries there.