Aries Rising (12 page)

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Authors: Bonnie Hearn Hill

BOOK: Aries Rising
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As we pulled into the parking lot, I remembered how I felt when Jeremy had kissed me for the first time. How I felt that last day he said he loved me. Sure, the odds were against us, but no one could have told me that at the time.
I climbed out of the car, hugged her, and said, “I am happy for you. And, just for the record, Alex doesn’t stand a chance
against a hot Gemini.”
“Hi, Chili. Hi Paige. Hiiii, Logan.” Dina came toward us in the parking lot, still wearing her new flat hairstyle.
“Hi,” I said, just so she wouldn’t start telling kids I was snotty.
“So is it true?” she asked. “About the party?”
I exchanged looks with Chili and Paige. “What party?”
“The costume party for
CRUSH
,” she said, with a smirk. “Is it true that you girls are going?”
I shrugged. “Where’d you hear that?”
“Chili told Sol in journalism.”
“All I said ...” Her face turned pink.
“... Is that Logan is getting you and Paige into the party.” Dina beamed at me. “So, what I’m wondering is will this take place before or after the
CRUSH
model is announced?”
“Halloween,” I mumbled, feeling my own face flush.
“Before or after?” She cocked her head, ready to pounce on whatever I said next.
“I’m not sure. Before, I think.”
“That’s what I thought. See you later.” She left the parking lot, almost running, her A-line top hiking up above her new skinny jeans.
NOTES TO SELF
That talkative Gemini has gotten me in trouble. Now Kat is going to claim that we are influencing Graciela
to select Chili as our school’s model. Chili tried to explain that she was just so excited that she had to tell someone. And that someone happened to be the school newspaper editor. Now everyone is going to hate me. I need to talk to someone I can trust, someone reliable, like a Taurus. Maybe it’s time I actually called Jeremy. I take out my cell and look at the photo I took of him on the beach before he left. That thick, dark hair. Those Taurus eyes. I can still see the love in them. He didn’t fake that. He couldn’t have.
WHAT KIND OF FRIEND ARE YOU?
Aries:
Exciting
Taurus:
Dependable
Gemini:
Fun
Cancer:
Supportive
Leo:
Outgoing
Virgo:
Organized
Libra:
Tolerant
Scorpio:
Loyal
Sagittarius:
Optimistic
Capricorn:
Practical
Aquarius:
Honest
Pisces:
Creative
14
TRUST THE STARS. THEY ARE NEVER WRONG. SOME WHO
CLAIM TO UNDERSTAND THEM ARE. SOME WHO HOPE TO
UNDERSTAND THEM ARE. BUT NEVER THE STARS.
 
—Fearless Astrology
 
 
 
 
 
Bodmer waved at me in the hall. She wore one of her many pairs of black pants—flared ones this time—with a pleated burgundy top and the usual accompanying scarf. Today that scarf was purple and green.
“Cool about the
CRUSH
party, Logan. I’m proud of you. Get Alex Keen’s autograph for me, will you? I have all of his cookware.”
So the confiscated cell phone incident was behind us, and an Alex Keen autograph opportunity lay ahead. Good, except that Bodmer was speaking in her raspy, animated chemistry-teacher voice, which meant that what she had just said could
probably be heard all the way to Santa Barbara.
“The launch party thing is supposed to be confidential,” I told her.
“Why wouldn’t you want to share such wonderful news?” She reached up into her streaked tangle of curls, pulled out a pair of sunglasses, but didn’t put them on.
“Because not everyone thinks it’s wonderful.”
“What do you care? If you were worried about spite, jealousy, and cruel high school gossip, you wouldn’t be where you are, would you?” She started to put on the glasses. “Think it over. I’ll see you in class.”
“Wait,” I said. “I need to ask you something.”
“What is it? Are you okay? You’re not letting all of this gossip get to you, are you?”
“I’m fine. It doesn’t have anything to do with that.” I hated the way my voice broke.
“What then?”
“I was just wondering when your birthday is.”
She laughed. “I’m a Taurus. That’s what you really want to know, isn’t it? Fixed Earth saved by a Leo Moon.”
“So that’s where you get the hair,” I blurted. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean ...”
“Of course you did,” she said. “I believe in science, including the sciences we don’t yet fully understand. Other teachers around here don’t, so you might want to keep a low profile about all of that.”
“I have,” I said, and thought about Ms. Snider and her threat to end my internship if I didn’t give up astrology.
“Maybe not quite low enough.”
I didn’t like the way she said it. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve had some good luck in the last year. You’re having some good luck right now. All it takes is one jealous person to suggest that it’s more than luck.”
“What?” I asked. “That I’m a demon or something?”
She gave me that steady yet concerned look again. “All I’m saying is be careful about how much you talk about astrology, Logan. Not everyone understands that it’s just science. Not evil.”
“Evil? Now, that’s crazy.”
“Some thought electricity was evil. A light goes on, and insecure people get scared.” She patted my shoulder. “You’re on a roll right now. Just protect yourself, okay?”
“I’ll try,” I said.
“And Logan.” She grinned. “I think you’re awesome.”
“Thanks.” I wanted to say I thought she was the awesome one, but I was too upset by what she had told me.
I hadn’t gotten far, when Chili appeared from around the building. This morning, she had looked happy and in love in her blue-leopard print top and skinny jeans. Now she looked confused, maybe even scared.
She ran up to me and motioned me off to the side.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s Kat.” She looked around and then lowered her voice. “That little bitch is telling everyone that you’re not normal. That you are some kind of ...”
“... Witch?” I asked.
“How’d you know?”
“Bodmer.” I felt sick. “The rumor is already viral.”
“She’s saying that’s how you got the internship, how you got us invited to the
CRUSH
party. She says you’re going to use it to get me picked for the magazine swimsuit spread.”
“As if your face and body have nothing to do with it.” I was starting to get angry and remembered Bodmer’s advice. “If they’re so freaking stupid that they think astrology is witchcraft, that’s their problem.”
“Except,” she said, “Somehow Kat found out about what happened in Monterey.”
“So what? I solved a very old mystery.”
“And some people got in trouble. Kat’s telling kids that anyone who crosses you ends up in trouble.”
“Because of Monterey?”
“Not just that.”
Oh, that’s right. What had happened at the end of my sophomore year, when I had first discovered
Fearless Astrology
and figured out a solution to a totally different mystery. That’s what she was talking about.
“So Kat claims it’s witchcraft and not astrology that has helped me solve two mysteries? And she’s trying to make kids think I might use it on them?”
“You don’t get it,” Chili said. “Kat thinks astrology is witchcraft. She thinks you’re using it for your own gain, and that you’re willing to use it on anyone to get what you want.”
“Thanks, Chili,” I told her. “I have more important issues to worry about than what Kat or anyone else at this school
thinks about me. And so do you.”
“You’re right about that.” The Gemini multitasking mind clicked into hot-guy gear. “Alex, for instance. I got another text from him last night. Eeee!”
I bit back the impulse to say,
Be careful
. Tried to shut off the film in my mind of him sneaking into Arianna’s suite.
We hugged each other, went our separate directions, and I was left with how I really felt about this newest development. So astrology was now witchcraft according the gospel of Kat? I had been ridiculed, even hated, at this school before.
Other than a few Goth kids, no one looked or spoke to me. Not that they obviously avoided me. They just made it a point to be noticing someone else or heading another direction when they realized that I was anywhere near them. It didn’t hurt me the way it had the first time, and it probably wouldn’t have hurt at all if I knew that I still had Jeremy.
That night, my dad came home earlier than usual from the ad agency. I was at the kitchen counter with my laptop, trying to read about the sign of Sagittarius. It was the best I could do. Trying to do an Internet search for Alex Keen’s year of birth hadn’t turned up a thing.
“Hi, sweetheart.” He entered the room with less certainty now. Before he and my mom separated, he was the force and the energy in this house. “Anything you need?”
A family would be nice. Of course, I didn’t tell him that. “I’m okay, Dad.”
“Have you eaten?”
“Some leftover pilaf and shish kebab.”
“Want one of my instant fabulous pizzas?”
“I’m okay. I really am.”
Without food to prepare, he looked a little lost. I realized that cooking for me was his preferred method of communication.
“Could you use some extra money?”
Now that was extremely out-of-character for his Virgo self, which he would define as simply thrifty, and I might call cheap.
“I’m fine. Thanks.”
“Well, sweetheart, as an intern at
CRUSH
, you probably should be updating your wardrobe, shouldn’t you?” So this wasn’t about Virgo tightwad parting with money. It was about my internship.
“I’m doing all right at the magazine. And my editor likes the way I dress.”
“I’m really proud of you. Everything you’ve accomplished, you’ve done it on your own. You know that don’t you? Astrology only helped, but you were the one who made it happen.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Not everyone at school is seeing it that way at the moment.”
“Jillian told me.”
The art teacher
. What was he doing talking to Jillian Berry—Cherry Berry, as we called her—when he and Mom had barely split?
“Did she tell you that they’re calling me a witch?”
His pained expression gave me a glimpse of how he would look when he was old. “Anyone who equates astrology with witchcraft is uninformed. You can’t worry about them.”
“Not even when they’re the whole school?”
“They aren’t the whole school, Logan. It just feels that way
right now. You’re going to be fine. And if you have to lay off of the astrology for awhile, do it.”
“I can’t lay off, Dad. I haven’t told you this, but I’m trying out to write an astro column for
CRUSH
. Henry Jaffa supports me all the way.”
“Henry Jaffa? He’s pretty cool, all right. I can see how you would want to please him.” He sat down next to me at the counter. “I know you’ve got a lot of questions right now. Do you think perhaps before we discuss anything else, that maybe we need to talk about what’s happening with Mom and me?”
“No, I’m fine. Just fine. And I’m exhausted, Dad. I need to go to bed now. Let’s talk in the morning, okay?”
Then, before I could burst into tears, I jumped off of the stool and rushed down the hall and inside my room.
I sat on my bed, so scared that I could barely move. I was afraid to reach out to Jeremy once more, but I had to. It couldn’t be over until I knew what was going on with him. No way could I move forward until I knew the truth about us. I stared down at the phone in my hand and pressed the key to connect me to him. Was I really doing this? Yes, I was. And it felt so good and so terrible.
“You’ve reached Jeremy’s phone. He’s not here right now. Leave your message, please.”
I almost dropped the telephone. The soft, sexy voice on the recording was female, and not Irish at all. The inflection was closer to Boston than Dublin. What could that possibly mean? How could I possibly respond?
“I love you, Jeremy,” I said into the phone, as if I could
drown out her voice by doing so. “Please call me when you get this message. I need to talk to you.”
CRUSHES: HOW TO LAND A LEO
By Logan McRae
 
This Sun-ruled guy is used to center stage. Whether he is a quiet Leo or the in-your-face entertainer Lion, he loves—and expects—attention. Shower him with it, and he’ll be happy to share the spotlight with you.
Don’t embarrass him in public, though, and don’t make a joke at his expense. Leo expects his audience, including you, to be an admiring one.
Three ways to get him to admire you:
• Be entertained.
Encourage his antics. Laugh at his jokes. He’ll be pleased that you’re pleased—and that you have such good taste.
• Dress the part.
He wants a date who can share the spotlight with him. Cute, attention-getting clothes will help him picture you in that role.
• Be friendly.
Chat up his friends (but don’t flirt). Be likeable and fun-loving.
What to say when he asks you out: “I’m so glad you called. I was just thinking about you.”
15
BE READY FOR CHANGES IN YOUR LIFE. THE GOOD
ALONG WITH THE NOT-SO GOOD. FOR FIRE SIGNS
(ARIES, LEO, SAGITTARIUS), CHANGE COMES WITH
THE TERRITORY, A WAY OF LIFE. FOR EARTH SIGNS
(TAURUS, VIRGO, CAPRICORN), CHANGE IS OFTEN OFF
LIMITS. YET AIR SIGNS (GEMINI, LIBRA, AQUARIUS)
OFTEN CRAVE CHANGE LIKE, WELL, AIR. AND WATER
SIGNS (CANCER, SCORPIO, PISCES) FREQUENTLY
REFUSE TO AND FORGET HOW TO CHANGE, UNTIL THEY
FINALLY WAKEN TO THE REALITY OF THEIR SITUATION.

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