Jenny Pox (The Paranormals, Book 1) (35 page)

The other girls promised such a thing would never happen.

***

On Monday, Ashleigh, Cassie and Neesha skipped first period to visit the Fallen Oak post office.  They mailed two hundred and thirty-one press kits to a carefully selected list of newspapers, magazines, radio talk shows, and television programs.

On Tuesday, the second week in February, Jenny discovered that someone had used a knife to carve lots of little crosses all over her locker.  They’d gouged through the pasty yellow paint and scratched into the metal underneath.  They also carved two words, right at eye level: WITCHES BURN.

Someone had gone after Seth’s locker with more of the little crosses.  They’d also taken the time to etch a pentagram into the metal, and then scratched big, fat “X” on top of that.  More words were scratched on his locker: EXODUS 22:18.

The next day, the Christians Act! group stood in a circle around the flagpole, holding hands for morning prayer before homeroom.  A clear majority of the girls were pregnant.  Ashleigh and Cassie were noticeably absent.  Neesha Bailey was leading the prayer. 

As Seth and Jenny walked past them from the parking lot, the whole group turned to look at them.  They then reached into their pockets, purses and bookbags and brought out small, blue square objects.  The group began yelling and chucking them at Seth and Jenny.

“Ow!” Jenny said, when one smacked into her forehead.  She caught it and looked at it.  It was a pocket-sized Bible, bound in blue pleather.  More of the books pelted her arms and chest.

“
Whore!” Darcy Metcalf screamed at Jenny.  Her stomach protruded under her shirt.  Apparently Darcy was no longer a group leader now that she was with child.  “Devil slut!”

“
You’re the one who’s pregnant, bitch!” Jenny yelled back. “Who’s the slut?”

This brought a lot of red-faced shouting, especially from the other pregnant girls in the group. “It’s your fault!” one of them cried. “You put a spell on us!”

“How does Satan’s cock feel, Jenny?” sneered pale, acne-cursed Larry DuShoun. “You like that big black devil dick?”

“
Excuse me?” Neesha asked Larry, with an arched eyebrow.

“
I mean, that big red devil dick, you slut?” Larry corrected himself.

“
Call her that one more time, Larry,” Seth said. “I fucking dare you.”

“
Seth, relax,” Jenny whispered.

“
I’m not scared to say the truth!” Larry yelled. “I read all about witchery on a website.  I know how it works.  Jenny Mittens is the Devil’s tramp, his concubine, his harlot—”

Seth dropped his bookbag and charged directly at Larry.  Larry screeched and ran away, across the grassy lawn, towards the parking lot.  He ran as fast as he could, but Seth had been a starting running back since middle school.

Seth grabbed Larry’s bony shoulders.  Larry whirled around and brandished a full-sized black Bible at Seth, as if he expected Seth to shrink from it like a vampire.

“
Get thee back!” Larry screamed, his voice breaking.

“
Don’t hurt him, Seth!” Jenny yelled.  Larry was gangly and narrow, and Seth could do real damage to him without much effort, even by accident.

Larry slapped the Bible against Seth’s face, and Seth rolled his eyes.  He snatched it from Larry’s hands, and Larry shrieked.  Seth returned the book to him by slamming it into Larry’s abdomen, and Larry doubled over and staggered back a few feet, clutching the Bible to his gut.  He finally lost his balance and fell backward in the grass.

Seth stalked toward the flagpole, eyes blazing.  The prayer circle had broken up, and now people pulled together into little defensive clumps.  Seth glared among them, waiting to see if anyone would dare approach him.  He flipped over the card table that Christians Act! set up every morning.  An open box of Dunkin Donuts Munchkins, a stack of pamphlets, and a paper donation cup full of change all tumbled to the ground and spilled out across the grass.

“
Get out of here!” Seth said. “All of you!”  He ran towards the largest group of boys, who scattered, screaming.  The other little clumps broke apart, and everyone ran towards the safety of the school building.

Seth stood by the overturned table, still angry and ready to fight, but there was nobody left.  Jenny picked up his bookbag and brought it to him.

“That was stupid, Seth,” Jenny said. “Really sweet.  Super sweet.  Like, amazing.  But stupid.  You haven’t been dealing with this crap all your life.  Now they just get angrier.  Who knows what they’ll do next?”

“
Whatever they do, I’ll take care of it,” Seth said. “No one treats you like that.  I promised to keep you safe, remember?”

“
I remember.” Jenny kissed Seth, then held him for a minute, her head against his thumping heart. 

“
We should report them to Principal Harris,” Seth said.

“
He’ll take their side,” Jenny said. “Everybody takes Ashleigh’s side.  Come on, let’s get to class.”

***

Friday night, Jenny rode to Vernon Hill in her dad’s Ram, sitting between her dad on the driver’s side and Seth on the passenger side.  She felt very safe between the two of them, safer than she’d ever felt.  These were her people, her family.

They spent more than an hour at Lowe’s, a place that her dad never left without buying more than he’d originally planned.  He picked up some lumber, tarpaper and shingles for the shed extension he wanted to build.  Together, they’d completed the fence between the house and the shed, and painted it with half a dozen old paints, which her dad had sealed and saved from jobs over the years.  The front side of the fence was red, white and blue, while the back was orange, purple and green.

Seth bought Jenny all the plants she picked out for her front yard, now that all the junk had been moved behind the fence.  She wanted azaleas, a couple of baby willow trees, and a Knock Out rosebush.  After they’d carted everything out and loaded it into the back of the Ram, Seth glanced furtively back towards the store.  Then he reached into his shirt and pulled out a big blue forget-me-not blossom he’d stolen from a plant inside.

“
This reminded me of your eyes,” Seth said as he handed it to Jenny.

“
Oh, Seth, a forget-me-not!” Jenny sniffed it and twirled it in her fingers.  “You know what these are?  Ladies wore them to show they were thinking about their lovers.”

“
Uh, yeah,” Seth said. “I totally knew that.”

Jenny rolled her eyes.  She tucked the flower into her hair, then lay her hands on Seth’s face. 

“Thank you.  It’s beautiful,” she said.  And they kept looking at each other.

Her dad cleared his throat. “Y’all want to stop at the Waffle House on the way back?  I’m getting kinda hungry.”

“Okay, Daddy.” Jenny forced herself to turn away from Seth.

The Vernon Hill Waffle House, like most of its species, was a low brick diner under a big yellow sign, with glass walls overlooking the interstate below.  There were a few old men at the counter, a black family with little kids in one booth, a very white gang of darkly-clad teenagers in another.  The book pile in front of the teenagers indicated they were into the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade.

They took an outside booth, with a window, and a waitress appeared and laid out their napkins and silverware on their table.  She was fortyish, a little plump and very sunburned, her frizzy yellow hair tied back from her face. 

“
Hey, honey,” she said to Jenny’s dad. “Nice to see you back.  Bringing the kids this time?”

Jenny lifted an eyebrow at her dad.

“This is my daughter, Jenny,” he said. “And her boyfriend Seth.”

“
Hey there, Jenny and Seth.” Her gaze lingered on Seth. “I guess some girls have all the luck.”

Jenny blushed.

“I’m June,” the waitress said, and the yellow nametag on her pin-striped shirt confirmed it.

“
That’s pretty,” Jenny said. “Like June Carter.”

“
That’s right!  My daddy named me for her.  I still listen to my Carter Family albums.  You never hear them on the radio anymore.”

“
Me, too,” Jenny said. “My momma left with me a bunch of their old records.”

“
Didn’t have to say ‘old,’” June said, with a laugh. “All right, what y’all drinking?”

After she left, Jenny turned to her dad and whispered, “What was that?  Do you have a secret Waffle House romance, Daddy?”

“Naw, she’s just waited on me a couple times, when I come to Lowe’s.”

“
She remembers you, though,” Jenny said. “And she called you ‘Honey.’”

“
It’s Waffle House, Jenny.  They call everybody that.”

“
She’s kind of hot,” Seth said. “Why don’t you ask her out?”

“
That’s not a good idea.  Waitresses get tired of that,” he said.  The way he said “idea” rhymed with “mighty.” 

“
She won’t get offended,” Jenny said. “It’s kind of a compliment, if you think about it.”

“
I don’t know.” He watched June lift a slice of apple pie from the display by the cash register. “Been a whole mess of years since I dated anybody, Jenny.”

“
There’s only one way to change that,” Jenny pointed out.

“
Maybe I’ll ask her sometime, when it ain’t so busy.”

Jenny looked around.  Most of the tables were empty.

“Daddy,” she said. “Somebody told me that life goes by just like that.” Jenny snapped her fingers, though the effect through her blue wool gloves wasn’t quite what she wanted.

“
Want me to hook it up, Mr. Morton?” Seth asked. “I bet I can.”

“
He could, Daddy,” Jenny said. “Ladies can’t say no to Seth.”  Her dad gave Jenny a sharp, questioning look, and she ducked her head and took a sudden interest in her silverware.

“
I appreciate it,” he told Seth. “But I don’t think so.”

“
Do you like her?” Seth asked.

“
So far as I know,” he replied. “But you can’t just ask a lady on a date when she’s working.”

Seth dug around in his pocket. “Somebody give me a quarter.  I’ll pretend I’m just going to the jukebox, and I’ll talk to her.”

Jenny found one and flipped it to Seth, who winked at her and got to his feet.

“
I thought I said no,” her dad said, while Seth walked away. “You kids don’t listen too good.”

“
Too late now,” Jenny told him.  She watched Seth step slowly toward the jukebox, which was behind her dad and out of his line of sight.  June passed the table to drop off their drinks, and Seth stopped her on her way back behind the counter.  He lay a hand on her arm, and June immediately straightened up and smiled as any aches and pains in her body dissolved.

“
What do you recommend?” Seth held up the quarter.

“
54B,” June said.

“
Listen…” Seth leaned in and whispered to her, and Jenny couldn’t hear him.  June’s eyes widened and she looked at the back of Jenny’s dad’s head.  They whispered to each other for a minute.  Then June circled back behind the counter, while Seth dropped in the quarter.

The Waffle House was filled with “Black Velvet.”  Seth wore a cocky smile as he sat down.

“I think she’s interested,” Seth said. “She said as long as you don’t drink.  She’s had enough drinkers.”

“
Never touch it.” Her dad smiled at Jenny.

June seemed extra friendly when she brought their food.  She managed to ask Jenny’s dad three times if he wanted anything else.

When she eventually dropped the check by the table, Seth flipped it over and tapped it.  On the back of the yellow paper, she’d signed her name in big cursive letters.  There was also a smiley face.  And a phone number.

“
I should have bet somebody money on this,” Seth said.

“
What did you say to her?” Jenny’s dad asked.

“
I told her you raised your daughter by yourself,” Seth said. “Instant melt.  You should use that one.”

“
It’s kinda personal,” her dad said.

“
It’s kinda going to get you laid,” Seth told him.

“
Seth!” Jenny clapped her hands over her face, wishing she could turn invisible.  That, at least, would be a useful power.

But her dad was looking over at June, who pumped vanilla flavoring into a glass of Coke.  She saw him looking and gave a sly little smile.

“Sunday is Valentine’s Day,” Seth said.  He slid the ticket closer to Jenny’s dad. “And she doesn’t have anybody.  I’m just saying.”