The Ghost of Lizard's Rock (11 page)

That’s all it took for me
to burst into tears and sobs.

“I feel horrible!” The
words exploded out between my sobs.

“I know,” said Eric as he
held me tightly.

After a few minutes, I was
finally able to stop crying. I backed away from Eric gently and
placed my hand on his chest, “Thank you.”

“I made some spaghetti,”
said Eric.

“I’m not very hungry.” I
replied. “I’m just going to have a shower and go to bed. It’s been
a long day.”

My foot had just touched
the first step when Eric clumsily cleared his throat and mumbled,
“You okay?”

“Yah,” I answered with a
sigh. “I just want to have a shower and forget today ever
happened.” I started up the stairs and then stopped again, “Don’t
tell mom okay?”

He stared at me without
saying a word.

“Eric, I’m serious. Don’t
tell her. She has enough going on and if you tell her she’ll want
to go to the principal and that will make everything
worse.”

“
I won’t say anything for
now,” agreed Eric. “But you should tell her yourself before she
hears it from someone else.”

I hurried up the stairs
without looking back at my brother and dumped my things onto my
desk before starting to get undressed.

“This is far from over,”
Eric turned to go back into the kitchen. “Sooner or later, you will
have to stand up to that girl.”

I stared at the thong and
bra as they lay in a pile beside my closet with the other clothes
I’d worn today. They felt so special just hours earlier. Now, they
were the symbol of a never-ending nightmare.

“How could anyone be so
mean?” My stomach felt nauseous as I stepped into the pounding
water of the shower. “I never did anything to her.”

I kept replaying the
entire day over and over in my head.

“What am I going to wear
tomorrow?” I placed my arms in front of me on the shower wall. “I
got rid of all my old clothes and have nothing to wear except for
my new wardrobe.” At that moment, I would have been happy to just
wear some of my old blue jeans and a faded sweatshirt.

The warm water pulsated
over my shoulders and neck from the shower as I stood there. The
water’s heat was beginning to relax some of the tension in my
muscles. I reached around to the faucet and turned down the cold
water even more - the heat felt so good!

My eyes looked down at the
draining water beneath my feet. Every trace of the new me appeared
be swirling down the drain. I took a deep breath and let it out
slowly.

As I walked into my
bedroom, the old book from the cave caught my attention. I had laid
it on my desk before getting in the shower and had totally
forgotten about it.

I pulled on my pajamas and
decided to lie down on my bed for a few minutes and look at the old
book. I quickly fell sound asleep with my soaking-wet hair and
never even heard the phone when it rang.

“Hello,” answered Eric
politely. He was half expecting his mother to call and check on
them.

“Everything alright with
the two of you?” said his mother’s voice.

“Sure,” answered Eric. His
eyes looked up the stairs. “Kati was so tired she went to bed
early.”

“It must have been a big
day for her,” added his mom.

“I’m sure it was,” thought
Eric.

“I’ll see you both
tomorrow,” said his mother. “Love you both.”

“Love you too,” replied
Eric. He placed the phone back in its cradle.

Eric started to walk away
when the phone rang again.

“Did you forget
something?” asked Eric thinking it was his mother.

“I don’t think so,”
answered Oliver cleverly. “I called to see if Kati was
okay.”

“She’s asleep,” answered
Eric. “I’ll tell her you called if she gets up again.”

“Thanks,” replied
Oliver.

“Oliver,” asked Eric, “who
did it?”

“Maddison,” answered
Oliver.

“Thanks,” Eric placed the
phone back in its cradle again and started up the stairs as quietly
as he could.

He opened the door to his
sister’s bedroom as quietly as possible. His heart was nearly
broken by what he saw. She was curled up on her bed with her
favorite stuffed teddy bear sound asleep.

Without making a sound he
pulled down the blind, set the alarm, and threw a blanket over his
little sister. A moment later, he stepped out of the room and
gently closed the door.

“Maddison?” said Eric as
he walked back down the stairway and picked up the phone. A moment
later he was talking to someone, “You heard?”

The buzzing of the alarm
clock woke me from a restless sleep. I stared blankly at the
ceiling for a moment as an ominous sense of dread filled my brain.
I began racing through the events of yesterday again wondering how
it all could have happened.

I thought, “Yesterday
morning felt like a lifetime ago. I could not believe that it was
just 24 hours ago that I had nervously fixed my freshly
straightened hair and was worried about what mom would think of my
new look. Now I have a whole new level of worry setting
in.”

I groaned quietly and
pulled the covers over my head - considering the possibility of
hiding out in bed all day.

I inhaled deeply and in
one quick motion exhaled and jumped out of bed. There was no way to
pull off being sick on the second day of school. Mom would know
there was something wrong. Facing my reflection in the mirror, I
started to tug a brush through my tangled mass of hair.

“Kati! Hurry up!” Eric’s
voice called up the stairs. “Bus in 5 minutes.”

I looked in the mirror
again and decided to officially give up. I grabbed my hair elastic
and resorted to a ponytail and a dab of lip gloss.

“Coming,” I looked down at
the old book for a moment and grabbed a couple of things from my
dresser, running out of the room and down the stairs. Eric was
already heading for the door and tossed me an apple.

“Thanks,” I caught it with
my free hand. “Where’s Mom?”

“Asleep,” answered my
brother. “She got in only a few hours ago. It must have been a hard
day for her at work.”

“Yah,” I mumbled under my
breath. “I know that feeling.”

Eric must have known was I
was thinking and smiled at me as I passed by.

“You can’t avoid Mom
forever,” said Eric as he easily threw his arm over my shoulder and
walked with me to the bus stop.

I didn’t pull away from
the safety of being shielded by my big brother nor from the stares
of the other kids already waiting for the bus. A rush of adrenaline
surged through my body as I heard the distinctive flip sound of
cell phones and the clicking of the keys.

Staring at the apple in my
hand, I decided to take a small bite and began chewing it slowly.
The taste of the juice in my mouth was wonderful! I closed my eyes
and took a deep breath and then opened them again.

Eric tightened his grip
around my shoulders for just a moment and whispered to me in my
ear, “You can do this.” Eric pulled his arm away just as the bus
pulled up to the stop.

I looked up into my
brother’s wonderful face and nodded my head without saying a word.
A moment later, I was walking up the bus stairs with Eric behind
me.

The noise on the bus was
deafening until I stood beside Judi. A strange quietness began to
spread throughout the entire bus leaving only the whispers of a few
kids here and there.

“Good morning Kati,”
greeted Judi with a big grin on her face.

“Good morning Judi.” I
smiled back.

I felt Eric gently nudging
me forward, “Good morning Judi.”

“Are you ready for the
day?” replied Judi.

“Absolutely,” exclaimed
Eric.

I moved toward the middle
of the bus, trying not to look into anyone’s eyes. The seat I sat
in yesterday was empty again. I quickly slid across the seat and
looked out the window. Everything just felt strange and
uncomfortable.

There was a part of me
that wondered if Maddison was sitting on the other side of the bus
delighted at what she had done to me yesterday. I slowly turned my
head to see if Maddison was in the same seat as
yesterday.

Much to my surprise
Maddison, Rebecca, and Heather were missing. Maybe this day
wouldn’t be so bad after all.

I turned back around and
listened to the chirps of phones all around the bus and wondered
how many were looking at the picture at that very
moment.

Judi closed the bus doors
and headed down the road to the next stop. I closed my eyes and
found myself enjoying the back and forth swaying of the big bus. It
was almost like being in a rocking chair.

“Hey,” said Allie as she
slid into the seat beside me. She looked over at Maddison’s empty
seat and turned back to me. “How about we nuke em all?”

I looked into Allie’s face
in total disbelief, “Where’s the real Allie?”

“Right here,” said Allie
as she scrunched her lips and bobbed her head up and down a couple
of times. “I thought about it all night.”

“What did you think about
Allie?” I stared into her dark eyes and forgot all about my own
problems.

“I think we should take
Maddison and those other two girls, place them in a giant
microwave, and nuke em,” Allie stared into my surprised eyes
without showing any emotion.

I didn’t know what to say
– so I said nothing!

“Gotcha!” laughed
Allie.

It was exactly what I
would have expected from Oliver, but would have never guessed Allie
was capable of such a thing. I laughed so hard that my side
actually began to hurt.

“Nuke em!” I repeated
Allie’s words again and laughed even harder.

Kids seated all around us
began to wonder what was so funny. The funny thing about laughter
is that even if you don’t know what’s funny, it still puts a grin
on your face.

Judi looked back through
her mirror and smiled.

Just that fast, all my
troubles seemed to disappear. I reached around Allie with my arms
and hugged her tightly. “Thanks.”

“You got it,” replied
Allie. She hesitated for a few seconds. “Does that mean we can’t
nuke em?”

I looked into her face and
laughed until the tears flowed out of my eyes and over my
cheeks.

“What’s so funny?” Oliver
was standing above us with Dan just behind him.

“Allie,” was the only
thing I could get out of my mouth as I wiped away the tears and
tried to stop laughing.

Oliver and Dan sat down in
the seat in front of us wondering what was so funny.

We arrived at the school
right at the sound of the first bell. Everyone hurriedly walked
down the aisle of the bus. Judi wished each of us a great day as we
passed by her.

“Come on!” shouted Oliver
as Allie and I reached the door of the bus. “The first bell has
already rung.”

The four of us ran up the
sidewalk and in the front doors. It seemed like most of the
students were still moving about in the hallway and waiting until
the last second to enter their rooms.

Jacob stepped out of the
bathroom and walked directly toward us. His eyes were focused on
Kati.

“Can we talk?” asked
Jacob. He looked uncomfortable when he realized that Oliver, Dan
and Allie were all listening. He glanced from the group to Kati’s
face and back again. “Alone?”

“
Uh Kati,” Oliver said
moving toward their room. “Come on. I can’t be late.”

I looked into Jacob’s
downtrodden eyes, “You guys go on. We’ll be along in a
minute.”

Oliver, Allie, and Dan
left the two standing alone in the hallway wondering what was going
on.

“I can’t go back in there
just to be picked on again,” blurted out Jacob. “I won’t do
it!”

“I know it will be hard,
but if we don’t go back in there – they will think they have beaten
us.” I tried to look as assured as possible. “We’ll both just have
to muddle through it.”

Jacob looked down at his
feet, “I guess that means we won’t be skipping school today and
going back to the cave.”

“Not today.” I bumped my
shoulder into his large body. “But very soon!”

Josie’s Journal

The rest of the day didn’t
really go as badly as Jacob or I had anticipated. Every once in a
while I would catch a glimpse of someone looking at their cell
phone and looking back at me. For the most part, people were too
busy to give it any more attention.

Even Maddison, who showed
up at school after all, appeared to be avoiding me.

At lunch, Oliver told us
what Michele had done to Maddison. That explained why she had
suddenly left me alone all day long and skipped the bus ride
home.