Collide (10 page)

My musings and general feeling of good will
lasted until I parked, and then my stomach knotted so severely
that, for a moment, I thought I was in danger of doubling over and
throwing up. I opened the door and sat sideways as I rested my
forehead on my knees. I pulled air in and out of my lungs slowly as
I worked to get my breathing under control. The air was crisp and
lightly tinged with the faint taste of winter, a mixture of cold,
ice and wood smoke that settled on the tongue before it vanished,
and helped to steady me some. Thankfully, there wasn’t a hint of
the apple cider that Appleton was fairly famous for on the air just
yet, otherwise I would have been in big trouble. Every year when
the apple crops are full to bursting, different orchards around the
area brewed up their own version of the liquid, and years of having
to deal with it had instilled in me a very healthy dislike of the
sight, sound and smell of it. As the old cliché goes, familiarity
breeds contempt, but in my case, it had bred a highly reactive gag
reflex.

The lack of cidery smells helped my stomach
settle and I straightened up and double checked to make sure that I
had successfully covered up the bruise Maria had given me the day
before. Satisfied that I was presentable and didn’t quite look like
a case for child abuse, I gathered up my belongings and began my
morning scan of the parking lot.

My stomach twisted again when I noticed that
Maria’s car wasn’t present, and though I waited up until the first
bell rang, her familiar Toyota didn’t make an appearance. I knew I
couldn’t wait any longer, I ran the risk of getting detention if I
continued to loiter around, and as I headed towards first period I
ran through all the places that Maria could possibly be. I didn’t
think she had a doctor’s appointment this morning, but as soon as
first period was over I was going to call her mother and just check
in and make sure that everything was all right.

I jittered my way through first period as I
alternated between ripping my fingers bloody in my agitation and
chewing on my nails. I think I only had one fingernail left by the
time the bell rang. I bolted out of the room, pulled my cell phone
out of my pocket and hit the speed dial as I swiftly navigated the
crowded hallways towards my next class. Maria’s mother picked up
after the first two rings.

“Hello, Mrs. Dupree, it’s Jane. I was just
wondering if Maria was feeling all right.”

I had tried to keep my rising panic out of my
voice, but I’m afraid I wasn’t very successful since Maria’s mother
quickly reassured me that Maria was home because she had said she
felt like she was coming down with the flu, and since she had been
running a small fever her mother hadn’t felt like arguing and
making her go to school. She told me that she’d tell Maria that I
said for her to feel better soon, and we hung up right as I reached
Chemistry.

Knowing that Maria was at home and that I
wouldn’t be running into her had me breathing a small sigh of
relief that I immediately berated myself for. But I couldn’t change
the way I felt, especially since I just didn’t know what I was
going to say to her after her little parting shot yesterday. So it
was kind of nice that I could have a day at school without having
to stress or worry about her, and I resolved to do my best to relax
and just enjoy the day (as much as one can actually enjoy a school
day, that is) in a way that I hadn’t been able to for a good
month.

My calm serenity was shattered at lunchtime.
The usual group, minus Maria, was already at the table, and I had
just settled down into place when Kat Laundrum came up and shyly
asked if she could join us. I grinned and waved her to one of the
empty chairs and took a moment to glance around the cafeteria and
made eye contact with Sheryl’s very angry visage. I could tell that
she was pissed about Kat being allowed to join us. She most likely
had figured that because we were Juniors and Kat a Sophomore that
we would pull the whole “upperclassmen sit with upperclassmen only”
card that so many other Juniors pulled, but our group had always
been welcoming to potential new friends, and we weren’t going to
stop that now just because she was a grade below us.

“Sheryl and her bunch boot you out?” I asked
as Kat sat down next to me. I saw Jeff sit up straighter in his
chair as he took in the newcomer, and stifled a giggle when he ran
a hand through his hair in an effort to look nicer, though he only
succeeded in making his hair stick out in odd little clumps in such
a way that his “Professor” image was even more reinforced. I
couldn’t blame him, though, Kat was gorgeous, with classic lines
that resembled pictures of Neferttiti’s statue and skin the color
of mocha that I envied for just how clear it was.

“Yeah, though I’m not missing much,” Kat said
with a smile after I introduced her to the rest of the table. “It’s
mostly just rumors and the usual vicious gossip. It, and they, were
getting old and boring.”

Jeff snorted. “Isn’t that what most groups
do? Gossip and spread rumors?”

“Only the ones that don’t have enough
collective intelligence to think of something more worth while to
talk about than what’s wrong with other people while the rest of
them are oh so perfect,” Kat said, her voice so dry I wanted to ask
her if she needed some more water.

“Truer words have never been spoken.”

I whirled in my seat so fast that I almost
fell out of it as Akira’s sardonic voice commented from behind me.
I gaped up at him stupidly as he settled his lanky frame into the
last remaining seat. He met Kat’s eyes and gave a small nod, which
she returned with a smile. I pulled the tattered remnants of my
shattered composure around me, shored it up with a good deal of
deeply ingrained manners, and introduced him to the rest of the
table. They all knew him, of course, he was our basketball team’s
star point guard, but none of them had ever really talked with him
before. I saw Kat glance across the room, and her smile turned into
a devilish smirk. Unable to resist temptation for very long, I
glanced over in time to see Sheryl make a strangling motion with
her hands in my direction. She caught my eye and I lifted an
eyebrow at her as I casually cracked my knuckles. She visibly paled
and hurriedly return her attention to her lunch, and I looked back
to see the rest of my table staring at me with varying degrees of
amusement.

“What?”

“Temper, temper,” Ryan chided as he wagged
his finger at me. I tossed my napkin at him and stuck my tongue out
for good measure, then turned to the other newcomer who was giving
me a bemused look.

“Why aren’t you sitting with your teammates?”
I asked.

“Their conversation was boring, and I wanted
to ask you a little bit about the Cherokee book I borrowed.”

“Like what?”

“Do you think your store will get any more
in? And how long will I be able to work with it?”

“I’m sure I can ask Mr. Baker to get a few
more in,” I answered, “And I need the book back this
afternoon.”

“Bummer on the book, but great on getting
more in! Do you want to check the library after fifth period and
see what, if anything, they have there?”

“Don’t you think that’s pushing time a
little?”

“Maybe, but I don’t think we’ll be late to
class, and if we need to, we can always swing by again after
school. Do you have any plans?”

“Um,” I floundered for a moment. “Yeah, I
have to go pick up my little brothers from soccer practice this
afternoon.”

“That won’t be until later, right? So you
could take a little time and we could go through our library’s
stacks easy,” Akira said.

“Um,” I began, only to be cut off when
Jessica, who, like everyone else at the table, had been looking
back and forth between us like we were a tennis match, suddenly
squealed, “Oh! You’re The Sun!”

That derailed the conversation completely as
everyone swiveled to stare at her. I even went as far as to
vocalize what the rest of us were thinking with a, “Huh?!”

“The Tarot reading I got last night from
Kaitlyn said that I was going to meet someone represented by The
Sun card today, and that’s Akira,” Jessica explained.

“What?” Ryan asked, and Jessica gave him a
very ‘duh’ look and sighed.

“The Sun represents energy, optimism and
reflects vitality, confidence and success. Akira is a very
confident and successful individual, we see that on the basketball
court whenever The Ravens play. He’s also got a lot of energy, I
can feel it radiating off his aura from across the table. Kaitlyn
was right yet again,” she said calmly in the same tone of voice
that someone else would have used to talk about the weather.

“Um, thank you?” Akira said, the inflection
at the end of his sentence turning it into a question rather than a
statement.

“You’re welcome,” Jessica said cheerfully,
oblivious to, or deliberately ignoring, the fact that Danny was
rolling his eyes at her, his typical response whenever she started
in on anything involving fortune telling.

I took it upon myself to explain to our new
table members Jessica’s unique little hobby.

“Jessica has a high appreciation . . .”

“You mean obsession,” Danny cut in and
grunted when Jessica elbowed him in the side. “Careful, sweetheart,
you don’t want damaged goods before our date on Friday.”

“The only thing that’s damaged about you is
your head,” Jessica sniffed primly. “You fail to appreciate the
divination arts, but I shall change your opinion eventually.”

“Good luck with that,” Danny grinned as he
leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“She really likes having people read her
fortune through Tarot cards,” I finished up after I tossed a glare
at Danny. I really hated it when I was interrupted.

“How often does this happen?” Akira asked,
curious.

“About once a week at least,” I said. “She
tends to go through a different fortune teller . . OUCH! Tarot
reader every month or so.”

I rubbed my shin and shot Jessica a
particularly evil glare for the pain she inflicted under the table,
but she just gave me a very innocent and sweet smile that made me
want to pull some of her hair out.

“I . . . see,” Akira said slowly, though I
could still see confusion written all over his face.

“That’s so cool!” Kat exclaimed. “I’ve been
studying Tarot myself, and while I’m not very good, I would really
like to talk to others who practice it, maybe get some tips.”

“I’d be more than happy to introduce you to
Kaitlyn,” Jessica said as her eyes lit up in a way that I knew
didn’t bode well for Kat.

Jessica had a tendency to stick with a reader
until one of their predictions didn’t come true, and then she’d be
off looking for a new one. Or, in what I considered to be one of
the worst reasons to ditch someone, she’d change readers if one
didn’t tell her EXACTLY what she wanted to hear. For example, she
went through three different readers in a week asking if she and
Danny would ever start dating until she found one individual who
told her that, yes, she and Danny were meant to be together (all
the rest, according to her, had given some vague mumblings about a
great romance but wouldn’t name names) and that she should follow
her heart to help her wishes manifest themselves. The very next day
Jessica asked him out on a date and they’ve been an item ever
since. She claims that it’s all because of the reader’s prediction,
but I personally thought it had been more of a self-fulfilling
prophecy.

Kat and Jessica both vanished behind a wall
of words as they discussed Tarot and the meanings behind different
cards and which card represented each one of us at the table with
words like “The Sun”, “Wheel of Fortune”, “Major Arcana” and “Minor
Arcana” being bandied about. The rest of us quickly tuned them out
and turned to a more interesting topic of conversation, which
consisted of the project that Akira and I were working on.

“So what exactly do you need at the library?”
Ryan asked.

“We’re doing a comparison of different
folklore,” I replied. “We’re comparing two Japanese mythological
beings with two from the Cherokee mythology and need to see what
books are on hand. So far what we’ve found has been rather
interesting.”

“Which myths are you doing?” Jeff asked.

“We’re not 100% sure yet, but trickster types
feature pretty prominently in both cultures, and there are other
similarities such as possibly comparing
Oni
to someone
called Spear-finger, who’s an ogress in the Cherokee book I’m
reading,” Akira replied.

“Sounds fascinating! What have you found
out?” Danny asked.

“So far they all seem to be nature based, and
Oni
and Spear-finger are both described as being very
ferocious individuals, though their appearances are different,” I
said.

“
Oni
are large, extremely strong and
very ugly,” Akira said and his voice once again took on that tone
that made me question whether or not he’s talking about myth or
fact. “They’re usually very hairy, massively tall, wear tiger
skins, and have a mouth full of sharp teeth with prominent fangs
and horns on their heads. They can sometimes masquerade as human by
applying a minor glamour spell similar to the one that vampires are
rumored to use, but they always, always have to wear a hat of some
sort to hide their horns. That’s usually a very clear indication
that you’ve encountered an
Oni
. Ask them to remove their
hat, and they’ll refuse.”

My breath hitched a little as my mind tried
to dredge up a memory that I just did not want to look at, so I
quickly took up with what little I could remember about
Spear-finger when Akira paused.

“By comparison, Spear-finger’s true form is
that of an old woman with stone hard skin that weapon’s can’t
penetrate, and a long, stony forefinger made of bone on her right
hand, which is where she got her name. She would use it to stab
people and steal their livers. She would trick children into laying
their heads on her lap so that she could comb their hair, and when
they were lulled she would attack. Rather nasty individual.”