Entangled (10 page)

Someone had some explaining to do and they better start doing it fast. It took Gray a moment to tear her eyes from the empty shell of her locker. She made a quick scan of the hall, searching for the guilty party, but the crowd had thinned out and begun to make their way to second period.

The warning bell chimed. She smacked the locker shut and headed to second period.

Someone was playing a joke on her. Raj? No, that didn’t make any sense. Charlene? No. It couldn’t be. Not this time.

Gray took her seat in geometry class. Again she was met with peculiar stares and now, whispering.
“What’s she doing here?”
She pulled at her collar. The fuzzy sweater suddenly felt 100 degrees too hot. Sweat was beading in the crooks of her armpits, ready to swell and leak down her arms at any minute. She dug inside her backpack and arranged her geometry book on her desktop along with her spiral notebook and mechanical pencil.

Mr. Burke turned to face the class with his attendance sheet. The moment his eyes left the paper, they landed on Gray. “Miss Perez,” he said, startled. “What are you doing in my class?”

So even the teachers were in on it
.

Gray swallowed. Her heart was hammering inside her chest. Everyone was staring at her. It was like some horrible nightmare. Maybe the coven was punishing her for performing magic at school. Enough to manipulate reality?  She couldn’t begin to imagine the kind of power that’d take, followed by the repairs and brain washes at the conclusion of her day of humiliation. It didn’t make any sense.

“The same thing I do every day, learning math under your tutelage, Mr. Burke,” Gray answered. Maybe she could get him to crack a smile and admit he couldn’t keep a straight face any longer.

But Mr. Burke didn’t smile. His jaw tensed. “Is this a joke?”

She would have liked to ask him the same question, but Mr. Burke didn’t look like he was playing around.

Everyone seemed to be holding their breath around her.

“I don’t know,” Gray said slowly. “Maybe you can tell me what’s going on.”

Mr. Burke just stared at her.

Gray sat up. “Did I get transferred to another geometry class and someone forgot to mention it to me?”
Or to another school? Why was her locker cleared out?

“You’ve never been in my geometry class, Charlene.”

Charlene! Gray’s heart skipped. “I’m not Charlene!”

There were gasps all around her.

“Who are you then?” Mike Matthews asked from beside her.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake, you know very well I’m Graylee.”

Louder gasps, followed by a rush of whispers coming from all directions. It was like being sucked into the eye of a hurricane with chatter hurled and swirled all around her. Gray looked to Mr. Burke, imploring him with her eyes to make this charade end.

“Enough!” he shouted and the clamor stopped. Mr. Burke looked at Gray and spoke softly. “Miss Perez, please come with me.”

Gray stuffed her things inside her pack and vacated her desk. She was more than ready to get out of that room.

She joined Mr. Burke in the hallway, where he shut the classroom door behind him. Gray could practically hear the jabber begin anew the moment the door clicked in place.
Hyenas
. She’d like to see how her classmates handled a day in the Twilight Zone.

Gray turned to Mr. Burke. He looked upset so she was surprised by the gentleness of his voice. “Miss Perez, I know this has been a difficult time for you.”

“It has?”

Mr. Burke reached out and applied a soft amount of pressure to Gray’s shoulder blade, guiding her forward. “Not only losing a sister, but a twin,” he continued. “I know it feels like a part of you has died and it must hurt to let go of that part of yourself.”

Gray stopped in her tracks. “What?” No, it couldn’t be. Everyone was confused. Gray had missed something important. Blocked it out. It had to be Charlene. This was some kind of horrible mix-up. She gulped. “Did something happen to Charlene?”

Mr. Burke stared at her a moment then stretched the arm he’d previously had on her back into the hall. “Come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“To the office. I think you need to speak with Mrs. Knight.”

Sure, ’cause McKinley High’s career counselor would be able to straighten this all out. Not knowing what else to do at the moment, Gray followed Mr. Burke.

The office secretary lifted her head the moment Mr. Burke and Gray walked into the compact waiting room outside the counselors’ offices.

“I need Mrs. Knight right away,” Mr. Burke said.

The secretary nodded then stood. Wow, she was fetching Mrs. Knight by foot. Something was definitely amiss. Mrs. Knight walked out moments later. McKinley’s career counselor was the office beauty: slim long legs and dark silky hair that bobbed just above her shoulders.

“Good morning, Mr. Burke. Hello, Charlene. What seems to be the problem?”

“I’m not Charlene, I’m Graylee.”

Mrs. Knight’s eyes darted to Mr. Burke. He took a step back. “She’s all yours, Mrs. Knight. I left my class unattended.” Mr. Burke spun around and left.

Mrs. Knight’s eyes latched onto Gray. “Charlene, why don’t you step inside my office?”

Gray’s cheeks heated. “I’m not Charlene!”

“Follow me, please.” Mrs. Knight turned her back and started to her office.

Did she really expect Gray to follow her after that display? Gray grumbled and shuffled behind Mrs. Knight. What else was she supposed to do?

“Close the door, please.” Mrs. Knight was already seated behind her desk when Gray walked in.

Gray shut the door and took a seat in front of Mrs. Knight’s desk. The office was as tidy and prim as the woman seated in black slacks before her. She stared at the counselor and the counselor stared back. Unlike Mr. Burke, Mrs. Knight didn’t look surprised. “You know what’s happening, don’t you?”

Gray leaned forward in her chair. “No, I really don’t.”

“You haven’t taken time out to grieve. Remember our talk last month?”

Seriously?
“No.”

“I warned you that if you kept pushing your feelings aside they’d only build and end up bursting at any moment. You can’t block the pain forever, Charlene.”

Gray snorted. If she really had died, it would be just like Charlene not to grieve.

Mrs. Knight’s lips formed a tight pucker. The counselor looked dead serious. This was getting a little frightening. What kind of evil magic had Gray gotten in the middle of? And why had she been targeted?

“I’d like to go home,” Gray said.

“I think that’s a good idea, Charlene. Go home and take time to grieve your loss.”

Gray narrowed her eyes. The woman was purposely saying her sister’s name every chance she got. Even if she was under a spell, there was no reason to be such a bitch.

“I’ll call your mother and let her know we spoke and that you’re headed straight home.”

“My mom’s out of town.”

The frown on Mrs. Knight’s face deepened. “Your mom left you alone?”

Gray didn’t like Mrs. Knight’s tone when she asked the question—like her mother was negligent or something.

“Yeah,” Gray responded, sounding a bit snooty. “Well, I am seventeen.”

“I don’t think you should be alone right now,” Mrs. Knight shot back. “When is your mother returning?”

“Friday.”

“Next Friday?”

“No. I don’t know. I think she meant this Friday.”

“Today’s Friday.”

Okay, now they were really messing with her. “Today’s Wednesday.”

“Nooo,” Mrs. Knight said slowly. “Today’s Friday.” Then dawning seemed to appear on her face. “Friday, April first.” She looked Gray over from head to waist—the rest of Gray’s body disappeared behind the edge of Mrs. Knight’s desk.

Gray squinted across the desk. “So this is like a joke?” That made absolutely no sense—an April Fools’ joke in February?

“Is it?” Mrs. Knight quipped. Her frown looked as taut as a rubber band and ready to snap if it became any deeper. She snatched a piece of paper and pen.

The movement startled Gray.

“Does your mother have a cell phone?”

“Yes.”

“Number?”

Gray frowned. She didn’t have to sound so rude. Gray recited the numbers reluctantly, not that she cared if Mrs. Knight called her mom; she was just smarting over her general attitude.

“Can I go home now?”

“Not yet.”

Great.

Raj held the amulet three inches in front of his face and stared till it went out of focus. This had become his habit for the past two months. He barely touched his Zippo any more. He was slouched in his seat, one elbow propped on the desk—the moonstones, the charms, the initials GP dangling in front of him.

Beyond the amulet he could see students arriving to class. They were silhouettes, mannequins without faces.

“Did you hear about Charlene Perez?”

Raj barely registered the words.

“… pretending to be her dead sister.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“Maybe she’s having a nervous breakdown.”

“Or is playing the sickest April Fools’ joke in history.”

Raj shot out of his desk, closing his fingers around the amulet as he walked swiftly out of the room. His feet carried him over the polished hallway. He didn’t even know where he was going. Raj squeezed the amulet in his hand so tightly the crystal felt as though it would cut into his palm.

He rounded a corner and made for the student center. The halls were clearing out as the last seconds before the final bell hovered in the air. It rang as he crossed over the school crest in the middle of the student center. A wall of light caught his eye from the triple sets of double doors beside the main office. Raj headed for them.

As he neared, a figure stepped out of the office lobby room into the deserted hallway. Her hair was pulled into a long braid and she was wearing jeans with some kind of floral embroidery. Raj’s heart lurched inside his chest.

It wasn’t possible.

“Gray!” he yelled.

She looked over her shoulder, startled. Her eyes widened and she began walking faster.

Raj picked up his pace. When she saw him gaining ground she began running.

“Gray!”

He wanted to stop her in place, make her stand still. He had to confirm it was her. He had to know. But he’d promised her.

Raj began sprinting.

She pushed through the double doors out into the breaking light. Raj reached the doors right before they clicked shut, shoved them open, and hit the pavement on the walkway leading out.

Gray had shot across the pickup lane into a patch of grass between the teachers’ parking lot and the road. Raj sprinted toward the grass. Gray had just about made it to the road. She slowed and looked over her shoulder one last time before vanishing.

“Gray!” Her name burned all the way down Raj’s throat.

He’d lost her again. Oh god, he’d lost her again.

Gray’s feet smacked the pavement. She didn’t stop running until she’d reached home. She couldn’t even think straight enough to remember she was invisible until she reached for the light switch in the kitchen. Gray filled herself in as though she were an Etch A Sketch. The spell was a quick scribble in her head.

Gray pulled the newspaper out of its plastic cover and spread it over the countertop.

The date read:
Friday, April 1, 2011.

At least it was the correct year.

Gray flipped through, looking for any headlines that might stand out. Nothing out of the ordinary. Her stomach growled. God, she felt like she hadn’t eaten in ages. At least it was no longer hurting from her sugar-induced agony the night before… or month before or whatever!

Time warp! she thought suddenly, then dismissed it as quickly. That didn’t explain any of the anomalies going on at school.

Gray went to her room and began opening drawers. Aside from the tidiness, everything was still there—unlike her locker. Gray paced the room. She walked through Charlene’s room next. She’d only caught a fleeting glance of her sister’s domain that morning. Everything was exactly as she remembered it. Charlene hadn’t even bothered taking down the pictures of herself and Blake framing the edges of her wall mirror.

Going through her mother’s room caused a moment’s hesitation, but Gray needed answers. She skipped the dresser and went straight to her mom’s desk. For all her exterior organization, Mom’s interior spaces were a mess. The top drawer was filled with recipes she’d ripped out of magazines, receipts, greeting cards, pens, paperclips, and rubber bands. Gray opened the next drawer. This one looked neat at first. Mom had lined up her stapler, tape, and calculator, but in the space behind those items were more scraps. The third drawer was deeper. Mom’s dream journals and spell books were tossed inside along with her French-, German-, and Norwegian-English dictionaries.