Falling From Grace (62 page)

I watched as Stacy’s head perked up, her brow furrowing with concentration, and then she started walking away from the parking lot.
 
“Stacy?” I called out, but she kept walking.
 
“Stacy where are you go-” She raised her hand up to silence me as she stopped, her head dipping down a bit before straightening, and then she turned, heading towards the baseball diamond towards the back of the school.
 
I followed her, trying to match her pace, but failing pretty miserably.
 
She was in great shape, while I felt like a sack of potatoes.

We kept walking, Stacy much further ahead of me than she had been when she took off, until we reached third base.
 
I was panting, while Stacy seemed irate.
 
“Wh-why are w-w-we h-here?” I wheezed, the air not wanting to cooperate with my lungs to get the words out with the appropriate amount of syllables.

Stacy looked at me as though she hadn’t realized that I had been following her.
 
“I heard Lark’s voice.
 
She kept saying to come to the baseball field.
 
Then she said third base
—
go to third base.”

“Maybe she’s talking about with a guy,” I joked, not knowing what else to say because I knew what was coming.
 
I just didn’t think it’d be
today
.

Stacy raised her hand again.
 
“Shh.
 
She’s saying something.”
 
She swung her head around, as though looking for something.
 
Her body turned, following her head like a tail would on a dog, and after three full rotations she stopped, shaking the dizziness away.

And then she screamed.

Because Lark was standing right in front of her.

“Holy Hell and everything covered in chocolate, how did you do that?” Stacy shouted.

Lark looked…fragile.
 
I had never seen her like this before, and it was scary.
 
I could see that she was terrified.
 
Today she would either be gaining a true friend, or losing the first one she had ever cared about.
 
I stepped back, not wanting to intrude on whatever happened.

Stacy’s head bobbed up and down as she answered an unspoken question.
 
I saw her eyes widen, her mouth open, and her hand raise up to cover it.
 
She turned to look at me, accusations written plainly in her eyes, and then whipped her head back at Lark, her jaw set stubbornly as this new bit of information set in, obliterating what she had thought was real and what wasn’t.
 
Her forehead wrinkled up in concentration, and I smiled at the familiar action, knowing what it was she was trying to do.

Lark’s head shook, and a small smile tipped the corners of her mouth.
 
She disappeared, eliciting a shocked “oh” from Stacy, who stared blankly at the empty spot that Lark had occupied just seconds before.
 
When she reappeared a few minutes later, she had something in her hand; it was my shield.
 
Stacy took the shield from her and wiped the tears from her eyes.
 
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

Lark finally spoke, a strange sense of easiness in her voice.
 
“I didn’t know if I could trust you.”

Stacy smiled.
 
“With such a huge secret, I guess I can understand that.
 
But why now?
 
What’s changed?”

The strain of having to be honest aside, I was curious as well as to what could have compelled Lark to make the decision to finally reveal the secret that she had kept to her for over five hundred years to a human.

“When I heard your brother’s thoughts, I realized how long you had kept your secret to yourself.
 
You didn’t exaggerate when you said you don’t even think about it.
 
I would have seen it.
 
I knew then
—
knew more than I’ve ever known anything else that I could tell you.
 
I could tell you everything and it would be okay.
 
I could trust you,” Lark’s words tumbled out.

Stacy laughed.
 
“How awesome is this secret?”
 
She directed her next question at me, “And I suppose you were never going to tell me?”

I shook my head.
 
“It’s not my secret to tell.”

Accepting that, she did something that was very Stacy.
 
She reached out and hugged Lark.
 
The small displays of affection that I had been a part of with Lark had told me that it was possible to not be surprised by a similar reaction on her part, but never did I expect to see what happened next.
 
With a loud shout of joy, Lark’s arms wrapped around Stacy and they shot straight up into the air, disappearing completely from my sight.

I could hear Stacy’s shrieks of excitement, but I couldn’t see her.
 
I held my hand above my eyes as I scanned the skyline for any sign of them, but seeing nothing, I sighed and prepared to have a seat on third base.
 
A slight breeze alerted me to their return.

“Don’t you dare sit on that filthy base in that dress,” Lark ordered.

Stacy’s cheeks were ruddy from the wind, and her eyes were glazed over with excitement.
 
“I cannot have imagined a better Halloween.
 
This is better than Christmas.”

“So did you actually tell her what you are, or have you decided to let her figure it out on her own?”
 
I looked at Lark, and waited for her response.

“She knows everything.”

I threw my hands up in the air.
 
“Well that’s great.
 
I had to play twenty-one thousand questions with your brother, and she gets a straight answer.
 
What’s the difference?”

Lark’s lower lip stuck out.
 
“Grace, I really cannot tell you.”

“Ugh!
 
She gets all the answers and I get ‘sorry, I can’t tell you’.
 
Consider yourself high up on the angel social ladder, Stacy.
 
I’m currently cruising here on the second rung.”

Stacy smiled.
 
“I’m sitting on that second rung with you, Grace.
 
Besides, you got to find out because Robert loves you.
 
I found out because my brother can’t keep a secret.
 
Even in his own head.”
 
And that was it.
 
The biggest secret of all was the one even the angel hadn’t known about.
 

“So are you in remission?” I wanted to know.

“Well, technically, yeah.
 
I’ve been cancer free for over ten years now, but I don’t like to think about it.
 
I don’t, really.”
 
She gazed away towards the woods behind the school.
 
“That was a tough time for my family.”

Lark and I stood beside her, the three of us forming an odd, silent trio.

Then the noise of the school crowd took over as we heard the rush towards the football field.
 
The assembly was over.
 
The game would start in an hour, and after that, who knew.
 
It was Halloween.
 
One costumed person had been unmasked already.
 
What else lay in store?

We were routed by Newark High.
 
Our poor football team had been completely destroyed before the first quarter countdown had ended.
 
Graham had been sacked so badly, he had to leave the game before the second down.
 
Newark scored three touchdowns and a three point field goal in the first seven minutes of the game.
 
A state record, the crowd murmured, the double meaning not lost on everyone.

By the time the game had ended, Heath hadn’t scored a single point, and Newark’s three digit score had the newspapers buzzing with talk about world records and professional potential.
 
All I could see was Graham sitting on the bench with his head in his hands, all of his college football dreams seemingly wiped out by one determined defensive lineman.

As the crowd got up to leave and head on over to the carnival, I headed towards the locker room.
 
I couldn’t get the image of Graham’s dejected face out of my mind.
 
I saw Lark and Stacy watch as I left, disapproval plain on their faces, but I simply couldn’t leave him to wallow in his misery alone.
 
I was his friend, and he had chosen to be mine.
 
I couldn’t throw that choice back in his face.

Robert isn’t going to like this.

I shrugged my shoulders as I kept on walking.
 
Robert isn’t here.
 
He stood me up.
 
I’m not going to worry about him right now.
 
Graham’s hurting and I cannot ignore that and let him do it alone.

I heard the dual resigned sighs and the echoing of footsteps as the two followed me.
 
I smiled and waited.
 
“Thanks, guys.”

Stacy grimaced.
 
“I don’t know why you feel the need to comfort the Princess.
 
He’s probably just going to blame the other team and whine like a baby.”

Lark shook her head.
 
“No, he’s not.”
 
Those three words caused Stacy’s mouth to hang open in shock.

As we walked towards the locker room that reeked of loss and defeat, I saw a familiar face.
 
Iris Hasselbeck, Graham’s mother, stood outside, waiting for her son, a thin line of irritation the only hint that a mouth existed on her face.
 
“Hi, Mrs. Hasselbeck,” I called out to her.

She turned to stare at me, her face filled with mild shock.
 
“Oh, hello Grace.
 
I didn’t expect to see you here.
 
Did you come to see Graham, too?”

“We all did,” Lark responded, holding her hand out to Iris.
 
“I’m Lark Bellegarde, and this is Stacy Kim.
 
We’re friends of Graham’s.”

I turned to gawp at Lark’s comment.
 
She had said it, which meant I couldn’t refute it, but when did the two of them become friends with Graham?

“Well, that’s nice.
 
I’m glad to know that he’s been able to keep
some
pretty girls around,” Iris said acerbically while looking at me, taking Lark’s hand in hers and smiling at the beautiful face that was so different from my own.
 
Of course.
 
She was upset at me because Graham broke up with Erica.

Both Lark and Stacy looked poised to attack, and Lark snatched her hand out from Iris’s grip when Graham walked out of the locker room entrance, his pads and helmet in one hand, his jersey in the other.
 
He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and I allowed myself the opportunity to look at his bare chest.
 
I felt the short intake of breath as I became aware of just how physically attractive Graham was.

It appeared I wasn’t alone.
 
Stacy and Lark were both ogling
—
Lark through either mine or Stacy’s eyes, for sure, but ogling nonetheless
—
and I could see that Graham was quite pleased by that.
 
He saw me and smiled.
 
“So you brought your guard dog and your fashion coach.
 
Where’s the warden?”

I rolled my eyes ignored his question.
 
“We’re here to see how you were doing and to see if you wanted to go to the carnival with us.
 
They’re going to be announcing the winner of the costume contest soon and I thought you might want to spend time with three Greek Goddesses instead of with thirteen jocks.”

Graham’s expression was one of skepticism, but also pleasure as he quickly handed his speechless mother his equipment and pulled on his jersey.
 
It hung on his body, which made him appear much like the boy I would rather remember than the young man who had been standing there semi-unclothed.
 
I shook my head to remove the thought from my mind and took his arm when he offered it to me.
 

He offered his other arm to Lark, probably because he knew Stacy would have refused.
 
“Well, let’s go ladies,” he said, tossing a quick farewell to his mother as we walked past her, a smug smile on all of our faces.
 
The four of us headed towards the large field that lay between the football and baseball fields.
 
It was lit up with the bright lights from the midway and the various rides that were spinning, rolling, and flipping amid the screams of its riders.
 
The smell of sugar and fried foods assailed the senses, and I became eager to hurry, my stomach rumbling from the lack of breakfast and lunch.

We found out that there was a few minutes left before the announcement of who had won the costume contest, so we rushed quickly to the stage that had been set up facing the school.
 
There was a large crowd of costumed people both sitting and standing around the stage.
 
Lark looked them over and smiled to herself.
 
We’re the best dressed ones here.
 
I’m fairly confident that we’ll win.