Inception (The Marked Book 1) (3 page)

3. FRIENDS AND RIVALS

The sound of the lunch bell blaring was music to my overstimulated ears. I felt an unmistakable pang of relief when I saw Taylor Valentine walk up to my locker and invite me to eat lunch with her and her friends in the cafeteria. She had already become my favorite person at Weston, and it wasn’t just because we both hated history, or liked the same shoes, or because she’d gone above and beyond all day—showing me to my classes, introducing me around, and breaking the ice when it got awkward. We just sort of
clicked
.

That wasn’t to say that the other students weren’t nice. Most of them were, but in a different way. There was a forced politeness about them, a shallow curiosity about the new girl, whereas with Taylor it felt genuine. She was herself right off the bat and had this kind of, “this is me, take it or leave it,” attitude, which pulled me in like a moth to a flame.

The cafeteria was overcrowded and buzzing with heavy chatter and laughter when we walked in together. Thankfully, most of the student body was too engulfed in their own conversations and lunches to bother noticing me as we headed over to the lunch line, though the sentiment was short lived.

“Yes she’s new! Get over it and quit staring at her,” snapped Taylor at some kid standing in front of us.

He turned around before I could see his face.

“You’d think they never saw a new student before,” she said rolling her eyes, and then leaned back against the aluminum divider railing. “So? How do you like Weston so far?” she asked, and then went on in a more hostile tone, glaring at another group behind us. “Aside from all the creepers, that is.”

“It’s fine—It’s great,” I said shrugging my shoulders.

“Yeah, I know, it blows,” she laughed. “The uniforms suck, the teachers suck, and our hockey team has the worst record in the entire league. If it wasn’t for all the cute, rich boys, I would have transferred out of here a long time ago.”

At least she had her priorities straight.

“Any of them yours?” I asked.

“Cute rich boys?” she raised her eyebrow. “Nah, not me. I’m far too capricious to be tied down to just one boy.”

I couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

“Meanwhile, I totally saw you and Trace Macarthur making googly-eyes in history,” she accused, her lips curving upwards.

Trace Macarthur
. His name swept through me like a summer breeze.

“Nikki looked like she was about to go postal on you,” she continued, laughing.

“Nikki?” I asked her casually, though I had a fairly good idea who she was referring to.

“Nikki Parker, his
girlfriend
.” She tweaked her eyebrows.

Of course she’s his girlfriend. That’s just the kind of luck I have.

“They’ve been on and off since sophomore year,” she continued, blindly re-applying her cherry lip gloss. “Apparently they’re off-again, but I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time before she gets him back. I mean, it’s not like she has any competition. She’s freaking Nikki Parker and no one around here is crazy enough to go after anything that
belongs
to Nikki Parker. You know what I mean?”

“I’m getting it.”
Loud and clear
.

“Anyway, there’s plenty of other hotties just ripe for the picking. And with all that,” she said, gesturing over to me brazenly, “you’ll have no trouble picking them right off the top branch, one by one.”

I couldn’t help but laugh with her, though her not-so-subtle heads up was certainly not lost on me.

After paying for our food, we walked back into the main cafeteria where I followed her to a secluded table of her friends; several of whom I recognized from previous classes together, though none more so than Trace Macarthur and Nikki Parker, who stood out at the forefront of the pack.

Nikki was leaning into him, her arm wrapped around his neck as though draping him in a luxurious sheath that was herself. They appeared to be looking down at something—the table, the tray of food, nothing in particular—laughing privately as we walked up to them. If I didn’t know better, I might have thought they were still a couple. A happy one.

Trace straightened out as soon as he saw me, like my presence affected his person, while Nikki’s stare went arctic. If looks could kill, I would have already been a pile of grizzled bone dust.

“This is Jemma,” announced Taylor. “You know Benjamin from History,” she said pointing to the blond guy who shared his book with me this morning, and then to the couple. “That’s Nikki and Trace. And this is Hannah Richardson, Carly Owens, and Morgan Sinclair,” she concluded, gesturing to the slender blond, baby-faced brunette, and the voluptuous red-head, respectively.

“Hi,” I said, giving an awkward wave.

“Hello,” said Morgan, coolly. Her sea-green eyes shifting up from her Blackberry as she summed me up.

“Nice to meet you,” added Hannah, her smile was lopsided though welcoming. “I think we’re in chemistry together?”

“Yeah, I think so,” I agreed and sat down in between her and Taylor, with Nikki directly across from me. Morgan, Carly and Ben were on her free side.

“So how’s Weston treating you?” asked Ben. “Is it everything the brochure claimed it would be?”

“Yeah,” I laughed. “It’s fine—good. Everyone’s been really nice.”
Well, almost everyone
.

“Fine? Nice?” he chortled and took a sip of his soda. “Come on, you can do better than that. Grade our paper.”

“It’s school,” I shrugged impassively. “What else is there to say?” I’d moved around enough to know that most schools fell into the “once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” category, but I didn’t bother saying that part out loud. Maybe he thought his school was more special than the rest of them. I didn’t want to burst his bubble.

“Did you go to a private school before, too?” asked Carly. She was twirling a strand of her shoulder-length, chestnut hair around her finger, seemingly disinterested, though her wide set caramel eyes pined me with their full attention.

“No, it was public.”

“I went to a public school once.” She said it proudly as though it were this incredibly rare event only few experienced.

“You did not,” barked Morgan.

“Yes I did,” she insisted. “For like half a semester, before we moved here.”

Silence.

Awkward
.

“That’s nice,” I said, unsure of how else to respond.

Nikki stared at me across the way before bringing her elbows onto the table and interlocking her fingers under her chin, feigning interest. “So where do you hail from,
Jenna
?”

“It’s Jemma.”

“
Jem-ma
,” she repeated, exaggerating my name as she said it. It sounded like she was making fun of me, and worse, she was using my own name to do it.

I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and pretend not to notice. “I was living in Cape Coral before. It’s a little coastal town in southwest Florida,” I answered nervously, then glanced around the crowd, trying my best to appear friendly—nonthreatening. I wasn’t particularly in the market for any more trouble than I already had.

“Why’d you leave?” she asked. Her eyes were a sharp, almost translucent aqua that kind of gave me the creeps. “I mean, you must have been all the rage back in Cape Whatever.”

“Nikki,” said Trace, reproaching her. It was the first time I heard his voice—smooth and deep, with sort of an edge to it.

“What?” she asked innocently. “I just want to know what brought her to Hollow. I’m sure we all do, right guys?” Her phony tone was starting to grate on my nerves. 

My eyes darted around the table. I noticed Hannah stopped making eye contact with me altogether now. It looked as though she was unsure whether or not she could still be friendly with me now that Nikki was clearly on the offense.

“My father passed away. I’m living with my uncle now.”

“Don’t you have a mother?”

“Jesus, Nikki!” This time it was Taylor who called her out. “Give the girl a break.”

“It’s okay,” I assured her and then turned back to Nikki. “She left when I was two. I don’t have any memories of her. I also lost my grandparents before I was born. Both sets. Would you like me to go into my extended family as well?”

“
Saw-ree
,” she snipped as though
I
was the one being the rude bitch all day. “Didn’t realize you were so touchy.”

“Sorry about your dad,” said Carly, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear and looking wholly uncomfortable.

“Thanks.”

She wasn’t the only one who was uncomfortable. I felt Nikki’s negative energy all around me, billowing in the air and suffocating me with its weight. She wanted me gone—away from her, or him, or maybe all of them—and at this point, I wanted nothing more than to oblige. I just hoped my legs could get me out of there fast enough.

“Well it was really nice meeting all of you,” I lied, rising from the table with my tray in hand.

“You too,” said Carly, half smiling.

“You haven’t even touched your food,” noted Taylor, the disappointment heavy in her eyes.

“I guess I wasn’t that hungry,” I told her and left out the part about how Nikki had all but pulverized my appetite. “I’m late anyway. I have to meet up with some teachers to see if I have any chance of getting caught up on all the work I missed.”

“Well hang on a sec, I’ll come with.”

“You don’t have to do that, honest. Enjoy your lunch. I’ll catch up with you later,” I said and jetted off before she had another chance to protest.

By the time the final bell rolled around, I was completely drained, dejected, and ready to get as far away from Weston Academy as I possibly could. The day had been long, the stares exasperating, and the catch-up homework demoralizing.

I crouched down at my locker, struggling to get all my new textbooks into my schoolbag, and realized fairly quickly that it wasn’t going to happen. No matter which way I worked them (vertical, sideways, horizontally stacked), the result was always the same: too many books, not enough space.

Eff my life
.

I gave up and straightened out, holding the remaining textbooks cradled in my arms just in time to be on the receiving end of a bony shoulder-slam. I stammered back into my locker hard, dropping all my books in the process.

“Watch where you’re going,” snapped Nikki, her indignant eyes
daring
me to say something back to her. “What a total spaz!” I heard her say to Morgan as they walked away laughing.

If I had any doubt before, it was definitely official
now
: Nikki Parker hated me. I leaned my head back against my locker door and sighed. This was going to be a long semester.

Seconds later, Trace appeared in front of me. His arresting blue eyes spiking my temperature as he bent down before me and picked up my books from the ground, one by one, and then handed them back to me without saying a word.

He didn’t even wait for a
thank you
.

I stood there, dumfounded, with my mouth slightly unhinged, staring at his delicious broad-shouldered back as he disappeared down the hall.

“I love watching him walk away, too,” said Taylor who was now standing beside me. I hadn’t even noticed her walk up.

I blushed. “I wasn’t looking at his, I mean, I wasn’t—”

“Sure,” she laughed. “You don’t have to defend yourself around me, babe. Nikki, on the other hand...”

“Yeah. I got it,” I said knowingly, pulling my blazer out from the locker and then securing it with the assigned lock.

“So anyway,” she said, flipping her hair to the side as we started down the hall together, “I’m glad I caught you before you left. We’re going to
All Saints
tonight, and you’re coming with. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“All Saints?”

“It’s this bar everyone goes to. There’s tons of hot guys. And pool tables, and dancing, and decent food if you get there early enough. But did I mention the hot guys?”

“I don’t have a fake ID.” Besides, I had vampire-research to do and phone calls to make. Mainly to my inaccessible sister who was refusing to cooperate with me.

“You don’t need one,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “They’ll just stamp your hand at the door.”

“Oh.” I scrambled for another excuse. “I don’t know,” I told her, shaking my head. “I’m pretty tired, and I still have a lot to unpack.”
A whole, entire duffle bag
.

Her face scrunched up. “You can
so
do that tomorrow. I’ll even help you if you want. C’mon, you have to come. Everyone’s going to be there. And you know what they say, when it Rome…something or another.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her misguided logic.

“Pleeeease!”

She was making it extremely hard to say no. And did I really want to shut down the first friend I made here?