Beautiful Souls (8 page)

    
              While I was half listening to the announcements, Emmy turned toward me with her wide, gladsome eyes when she heard the word
‘dance’.

  
              Emmy grabbed my hands, and we bounced ridiculously in a celebratory fashion as she squealed and giggled. I laughed at her excitement, and together we stood arm in arm until the bell finally rang, forcing us into our own seats.

    
              I guessed it. Will had asked her to Homecoming this morning before school started. Leo didn’t even have time to say a word to him, so he must have mustered up the confidence on his own --- thank goodness.  No more stressing over whether this boy was, or wasn’t, going to ask Emmy to the dance. This felt as much of a relief to me as I’m sure it was for Emmy.
Smooth sailing from here on out
, I thought to myself. Then reconsidered when I remembered that I would be finally meeting Zoey in my next class.

    
              Homeroom thankfully passed quickly, and soon enough Emmy and I were at our lockers exchanging books and folders for our first period classes. I tried to do the swap of textbooks as quickly as possible, all the while taking short glances down the hall in the same direction that Zoey had appeared the previous day. I attempted to hide wondering so that I could avert any attention I may draw toward myself.

     
              Now I was stalling. I shut my locker door, listened to Emmy rave with excitement over the perfect dress for the dance that she had scoped out at the mall days before. I had actually seen photos of the dress already, as she had texted them to me the minute she found it hanging in the store. I had to admit that the dress would look amazing on her, bringing out her uncommonly violet-blue eyes.

    
              Then finally, just moments later, there
she
was.

    
              Her hair was as flaming red as I’d recalled from yesterday. Zoey glided easily through all of the other students who appeared to be almost as captivated by her as I felt. She turned, her effortless stride floating her down the hall and directly into our shared Trig class.

    
              “Gotta go, Em,” I said, feeling absolutely spellbound by the sight of her. I stealthily walked toward the classroom doorway.

    
             
Please stay in control. Please stay in control. Please stay in control
, I repeated to myself time and time again. I made my way through the classroom’s threshold and found my seat.

    
              So far, so good. I actually made it without the visions, or collapse, like the day before. I found my seat in the back row of the classroom, and simultaneously glanced two rows over to where Zoey had seated herself at an empty desk. She turned my direction, and sent me a half grin when we made eye contact with each other.

    
              The class started soon after, and the teacher began with her daily lesson. Periodically throughout the hour, I shifted my eyes toward Zoey to see if she noticed me at all; to see if she possibly felt the same connection and pull that I felt, but to my disbelief she didn’t seem to be aware of anything out of the ordinary. Zoey only looked up from her textbook and work to acknowledge the teacher when she spoke, then she’d refocus herself back on her work.

    
              I couldn’t figure it out. How in the world had that connection to Zoey --- that same connection that I felt today and yesterday which sparked such a reaction in me to conjure visions --- left her feeling nothing. I didn’t understand it. I was baffled.

    
              I thought with such certainty that when I saw Zoey today, something amazing was going to happen that would explain all of the strangeness and visions from the day before. Could I have been wrong? Did the visions really have nothing to do with her, and were possibly just a coincidence? I didn’t know, but now more than ever, I needed to speak to her to make certain.

    
              The class continued as usual, and after another twenty minutes the bell had finally rung to dismiss us. I sat for a moment at my desk to see if Zoey was going to hang out for a minute after class, or if she’d immediately take off out the door. Luckily, she stayed seated while she packed up her books, and I took full advantage of this opportunity.

    
              I walked over to her desk and hesitantly introduced myself. I was especially nervous and attempted to stay within complete control over my actions in case the visions came bounding back.

    
              “Um, hi. I’m Becca.”

    
              “Yeah, I actually know that already,” she said with a voice that sounded about ten years older than she could have possibly been.

    
              “How…?” I started to ask, when I realized that my so-called fainting spell yesterday must have caused quite a stir around school. I’m sure that all of the other students had talked about my little incident endlessly. I was certain they had all thrown my name around more than I’d care to know. “Oh yeah, small towns, huh?” I laughed off with a chuckle.

    
              “Exactly,” she replied matter-of-factly, then lifted her bag over her shoulder and rose from the desk.  “Well, it was nice to meet you, Becca,” she spoke, then headed straight for the door.

    
              I noticed a slight shift of her eyes back toward me as she floated gracefully across the hard linoleum floor. I took this as an invitation to continue our introduction further.

    
              I followed her, hoping for an opening that would allow me to turn this introduction in to a conversation. I’d do just about anything to acquire more information about Zoey; anything that would hopefully lead to a tiny insight. Something that may tie up the loose ends of the strange events from yesterday.

    
              “Um, you know that there’s a dance this Friday after the football game, right?” I asked, simply pulling the first thought off the top of my head in order to keep the conversation moving.

    
              “Yeah, I do. I actually heard it on the announcements the past two mornings.”

    
              “Of course,” I said, feeling totally embarrassed. I shook my head at my ridiculous attempt at chitchat. If I was ever going to get this girl talking, then I was going to have to do a much better job than that.

    
              “You going?” I asked, hoping that her answer would be
“yes”.
Then, I could invite her to go with all of us as a group thing in order to spend a little more time in her presence, exploring this connection that had such a strong and captivating hold on me.

    
              “I’m not sure yet. Are you going?” she asked me in return.

    
              “Yeah, I am. I’m sort of going with my best friend, Leo. We kind of grew up together and hang out a lot. We’re probably going with my friend, Emmy, and her date, Will. Have you met any of them yet?” I asked, still trying to keep the conversation active.

    
              “No, I don’t think I have.”

    
              At this point in the conversation, we were walking out into the hall and she was about to turn the opposite way from where I was headed. I couldn’t let her escape down the hallway and out of sight just yet; so before we split ways, I wanted to leave her with an opening that would give me a reason to talk to her at another point in time.

    
              “You’re more than welcome to come with all of us, if you’d like.” I threw the invitation out there not knowing how she’d respond. But there it was, nevertheless. “I’m sure they’d all be really happy to meet you,” I added with a hesitant grin. My invitation sounded so fake, contrived, as the sound of my own voice which I didn’t recognize rang through my ears. Who was I right now?

    
              “I might just take you up on that,” she smiled, and I was pleasantly surprised by her answer.

    
              “You have a brother too, right? Luke?”

    
              “Yes, that’s right.”

    
              “He can come too, if he’d like.” I added, “And dates, of course, if either of you have a date to bring along. We’ll make it a whole group thing.”

    
              “I’ll have to talk to Luke and see what his plans are, but thanks for the invite. That’s really, um, nice of you.”

     
              Her hesitation seemed strange, and it confused me. I thought the conversation had been going rather well now that I’d relaxed a bit.                   “Oh, sure. Just let me know what you guys decide.”

    
              “Sure, Becca. Thanks again.” With those final words, she walked off down the hall.

    
              Every single boy in sight stared, even though they all tried to play it cool and pretend they didn’t notice her stunning beauty at all. She glided through the junior hall with her wispy fire-red layers blowing in the breeze that was created by the simple act of her walking down a hallway.

    
              I stopped at my locker where Emmy was already waiting for me. I also observed that Leo had been watching from a distance, and he was rapidly making his way through the busy hallway in my direction.

    
              Emmy’s knees bounced with anticipation and excitement. She looked as if she were going to pounce on me the second I was within arm’s length.

    
              “So, like, what’s she like?” Emmy implored.

    
              “She’s strange,” Leo interjected rudely, as he approached the two of us. He shook his head with disapproval as he lowered his eyebrows and looked off in Zoey’s direction.

    
              “What are you talking about? She was perfectly nice just now,” I defended. I was baffled by Leo’s immediate dislike of Zoey. He’d never written someone off so quickly like that before. It just wasn’t his personality to actually dislike somebody, at least not anyone that I’d ever known about.

    
              “She didn’t speak to a single person yesterday while you were gone, Becca. There’s something not right about her, or her brother for that matter. I think you’d be better off keeping your distance,” Leo continued with his new-found, disapproving manner.

    
              “Yeah, none of us have gotten the chance to talk to, like, either one of them yet. They kinda kept to themselves yesterday, and we still don’t know anything about them. Well, other than what we’ve heard from everyone in town.” Emmy and I both laughed at her last remark. “So, what’d you find out?” Emmy asked, her anticipation unchanging.                   “I didn’t find out anything. I just thought it would be nice if they could start meeting people around here, so I invited Zoey and Luke to come with all of us to Homecoming.”

    
              “Like hell,” Leo mumbled, still glancing back and forth from me to where Zoey had just turned at the end of the hall. He still wore the same disapproving scowl across his handsome face.

    
              I frowned with disapproval. “What’s wrong with you?” I snapped at Leo, losing my patience with this new attitude of his.

    
              “Nothing,” he claimed apologetically. “I just didn’t get a good vibe from her or her brother. They’re different,” he responded, obviously trying to be a bit more sympathetic toward my feelings now. He was attempting to cover his dislike and agitation, but as well as I know my best friend, I could see that his feelings still lingered and would remain.

    
              “What’s wrong with different?” I asked, completely thrown off by Leo’s attitude. I’d started to rethink my new-found attraction toward him.

    
              “Sorry, that’s not really what I meant. I just think that they’re strange.”

    
              “So you mentioned, but I don’t have time for this right now. I need to get to my next class,” I said, glaring toward Leo as I passed, completely frustrated.

    
              Leo flashed a regretful glance my direction, and I just told him that I’d talk to him later.

    
I honestly had never seen Leo react this way to someone he’d barely met, or anyone at all for that matter. I didn’t even know if he’d actually met either of the Fitzgeralds officially.

    
              Leo had always been a little protective over me because of our obvious bond shared over the years growing up together, but this was way out of character for him. He was usually so kind and accepting, and now he was being the strange one.

    
              The rest of the day moved slowly from that point on. I talked with Leo and Emmy during lunch, where we all made plans to meet up at the dance. Leo still wanted me to wait for him after the game, so I told Emmy that we’d just meet her and Will in the gym for the dance.                   I was physically present in my afternoon classes that followed lunch, but my mind wasn’t there. I was so confused and full of questions about Leo’s conclusions of Zoey, but he did promise me at lunch that he would keep an open mind about her.