Journal of the Undead (Book 1): Littleville Uprising (5 page)

Evan quietly slid into the seat next to Emma. Her jaw dropped when she saw him next to her.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re clearly the best choice for a lab partner. You seem to have at least half a brain which is more than I can say for most of them.” He pointed around the room to demonstrate. “That means I won’t have to
completely
carry you through the year.”

“You? Carry me? Are you insane
?
This is ridiculous. Weren’t you listening? There is no way I can tolerate you for five minutes, let alone the entire year.”

Emma scoured the room. There had to be someone else, anyone. Mr. Raybach was pleased that his fifth period class had managed to pair up faster than most of the earlier ones, so he was not interested in Emma’s appeal to work alone. The class was assigned its first project as partners just before the bell rang.

For the rest of the day Emma’s inner monologue ranted. She had already decided that the project could be completed effortlessly without her partner. Emma rushed home, whipped through the list Jillian had left, and began working on the project. She even excused herself early from dinner to study. Taking a previous project and tweaking it with some updated data, she was ready to shove the completed project in Evan’s face first thing in the morning.

Emma dashed through the parking lot, leaving Matt behind as she sprinted straight to Evan’s locker to hand him “their” project.

Nothing puts a spring in your step like ruining someone’s day, bright and early in the morning
, she mused to herself.

Much to her dismay, she wasn’t the first or the only girl waiting for Evan at his locker. Ever since Whitney had staked her claim on Matt, the other uniforms decided to make their play for Evan. Evan was trying to be polite but, in his opinion, it was too early in the morning for so much silliness. Emma turned to walk away; the spring in her step was gone and an unfamiliar ache gnawed at her chest.

Thinking he’d seen Emma, Evan charged after her, leaving a trail of disappointed cheerleaders in his wake. Curiosity had gotten the best of him and he was dying to know why Emma, of all people, was looking for him.
Was it just my imagination or did she look disappointed
? he wondered as he raced through the halls and nearly plowed over her as he rounded the corner.

“Oh, good, here.” Smirking, she handed him a folder.

“What’s this?”

“The Bio project.”

Before he could respond, Emma scurried off to homeroom. She was pleased with herself and the look on Evan’s face was well worth the sleep she’d sacrificed to finish on time.

Stunned, Evan watched her walk away.
We were supposed to work on this together so I could patch things up with her,
his inner voice grumbled. As he flipped through the pages, he saw his chances for reconciliation slipping away and wondered how it had gone so wrong.

She dodged him between homeroom and first period but they reached their second period history class at the same time. She tried to slip past him but he caught her arm and guided her away from the door.

Before Evan could get a word out, Mr. Stringer’s gung-ho substitute herded them into the classroom. Evan tried to get Emma’s attention from across the room but she was careful to avoid eye contact. For the first time, Evan actually considered passing a note but he knew it usually ended in disaster. Inevitably, teachers always intercepted the note and read it aloud, so Evan refrained. When the bell rang, Emma slipped out before Evan had the chance to catch her. He was running out of ideas. He skimmed over her paper and it appeared to be flawless.

Evan went straight home after school and pored over Emma’s work. Barely surfacing long enough to eat dinner, his search was fruitless; no mistakes, not even a typo. Although Evan was an excellent student, dedicating that much time to homework made his parents curious. When his dad peeked in, Evan’s desk was covered with open books and loose papers and he was flipping through multiple tabs of research on his computer.

“I give up. I can’t find anything to contribute to this project. I hate to ask, Dad, but do you think you could give me a hand?”

Frank did his best to suppress his amusement as he reviewed Emma’s paper. He could not, however, hide his astonishment. Emma’s work was much more advanced than he’d expected from a sixteen-year-old. If he had not worked late with Alan the night before, Frank would have assumed that she had gotten her dad to help.

“Don’t worry, son. I’m happy to help. To tell you the truth, I kind of miss helping now that you’re too smart for your old man.”

“Yeah, I’m not feeling so smart anymore. I swear Emma Wexley is the most annoying person in the universe!”

“Sometimes they’re like that.”

“Who? The Wexleys?”

“No, silly … girls. I encountered one like that myself, once.”

“Really? What did you do?”

“I married her.” With a wink, Major Stone left his son to finish his work. “Lights out in fifteen minutes.”

Evan worked quickly to finish, thankful he wouldn’t be bested by his nemesis. Yet his dad’s words seemed to haunt him.
I married her
. He tried to push the disturbing thought from his mind. Emma felt more like the bane of his existence than a romantic interest no matter how cute she looked when she was angry.

He presented his revised project to her in their next Biology class. As she read over Evan’s additions, Emma mentally kicked herself for leaving so much room for improvement. Her expression proved what she wouldn’t dare to admit; she was hoping to impress him. Instead, she felt the bitter sting of failure. Surprised by her reaction, Evan fidgeted in his seat. Taking credit for work that wasn’t entirely his made him uncomfortable. Before he knew it, he had blurted out the truth; he’d had to get help from his father.

“My dad was really impressed with your work. Seriously, he might try to recruit you.”

Emma was confused by Evan’s confession and his behavior. It was inconceivable to her that he could have any feelings for her that weren’t negative.

Late September

Sitting at the kitchen table, with a plate full of untouched food in front of him, Scott Raines was a million miles away. His wife leaned forward, gave his hand a gentle squeeze, and smiled. She knew her husband was under a great deal of strain. Even though he rarely spoke about work, Carla Raines read the newspapers and watched the evening news. In her humble opinion, the world had gone to hell in a hand basket.

“Did I overcook your steak, honey?”

“Huh?” he grunted absentmindedly, “I’m sorry. The steak is fine, sweetheart. It’s just been a rough week.”

To prove his point, Scott Raines stuffed a few bites in his mouth and chewed slowly. He wondered if raw human flesh was as tough and chewy as his steak. There had to be a reason for the upswing in cannibalism. He peeked in on his children in the living room as they watched television. Innocent and unaware, they had no concept of the dangers lurking outside. For that, he envied them. Raines managed to force down a few more bites before he tossed the rest of his dinner in the trash.

It was hard for him to unwind. Pretending everything was fine during the few hours he had at home proved impossible. As if the flesh-eating crazies weren’t bad enough, the flu plaguing most of the country had hit Collegeville hard. Too many officers were sick and under doctors’ orders to stay home. He was one of the few healthy ones left to pick up the slack. Officer Raines kissed his family goodbye and went back on duty.

At the station, the skeleton crew was trying to convince their chief to take the night off. They were all overworked but Chief Robbins hadn’t gone home in three days and he’d developed flu-like symptoms. It was Raines who finally convinced his boss to go home and get some sleep. Helping the chief with his jacket, Officer Raines insisted on driving the old man home personally. Robbins had grumbled a bit to save face but accepted Raines’ ride without too much fuss.

As he was getting out of the car, the chief instructed Raines, “Oh, by the way, the rookie is sick. He called me earlier. Do me a favor and check in on the kid, would ya? He sounded like crap and I know he doesn’t have any family close by. I should be back in the morning so try to hold down the fort while I’m out, okay? Tell ‘em I said you’re in charge until I come back.”

Raines drove back to the station alone and in silence. He was concerned about his partner. For the past few days, Kepler had looked horrible and his cough sounded like a death rattle. Raines made a mental note to ask Carla if she would make some of her homemade chicken soup for the kid. In the meantime, Collegeville was in his hands.

***

It was late Saturday morning when Emma finally crawled out of bed and shuffled to the shower. Her heart palpitated unsteadily as she pulled on her most comfortable jeans.

“Just calm down,” she ordered her reflection. “You won’t have to see him until Monday.”

She continued to remind herself that she wouldn’t have to see him as she pedaled her ten-speed toward the Stones’ house. While the sun persistently played hide-and-seek with the clouds, Emma hoped for a rare change and the weather forecast would be accurate. The storm was supposed to stay south of Littleville. With a little luck, she’d be able to take Lucy to the park. Thinking about the weather was easier than thinking about Evan’s strange behavior at school.

Again she found her heart fluttering as she pressed the doorbell upon arriving at the Stone residence.

Kate greeted Emma at the door and welcomed her in. “Emma, you’re right on time. I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to watch Lucy for us.”

Emma smiled but quickly moved on to business. With great efficiency, she addressed potential health issues, allergies, emergency contacts, and rules of the house. Kate was momentarily stunned with the barrage of questions but Frank, whose opinion of Emma increased daily, was relieved. He had been concerned about leaving Lucy with a girl they barely knew. Emma’s thorough questions had instilled him with confidence that his little princess would be in very capable hands.

“A list of emergency contacts is in the kitchen,” Kate instructed. “We also left some money on the counter if you want to order pizza for dinner.”

“Be careful not to let Lucy con you into giving her too many sweets,” Major Stone added, “or you’ll have to peel her off the ceiling.”

“Well, that only leaves one question,” Kate said. “What’s your hourly charge for babysitting, Emma?”

Emma’s face burned with humiliation as she silently cursed Jillian. Without making eye contact, she explained that she was not permitted to accept payment and why.

Appalled, Kate gasped. “We can’t take advantage of you like that! Frank, maybe we should cancel our plans.”

Suspecting that was part of Jillian’s scheme, Emma pleaded with them to go ahead with the arrangement. Both Frank and Kate resented the position Jillian had put them in but grudgingly agreed to continue with their plans. After apologizing again to Emma, they kissed Lucy goodbye.

“Remember, Emma is in charge. And she’ll be enforcing your 8:30 bedtime so no stall tactics, young lady,” Frank ordered before dropping another kiss on top of Lucy’s head.

Frank and Kate Stone waved to the girls as they pulled out of the driveway and drove off.

Lucy couldn’t wait to tell Emma about her magic presentation. The other kids were awed and she hoped to learn more. Even though she wasn’t completely comfortable at Littleville Elementary, Lucy no longer dreaded school and she had Emma to thank for it. Still chattering, she took Emma out to the backyard to see her tree house.

“My dad and Evan are building it for me. They even made the rope ladder in my favorite color; purple! There’s a spare ladder in my closet too, just in case ‘cause purple rope is hard to find.

When Lucy’s stomach growled, they went inside to eat lunch. Emma was just taking Lucy’s grilled cheese sandwich off the skillet when Evan burst through the door muttering something about phone messages.

“W-What are you doing here?”

“I
live
here,” he snapped as he played back the messages on the answering machine.

Emma bit her tongue. Evan always seemed to fuel her desire to curse. He was supposed to be camping with his cousin, Mike, but according to the message, Mike’s car had broken down on the way. Muttering a few profanities, Evan deleted the message and turned to Emma.

“I sat at the campground all morning waiting for him. Why didn’t you call me?” he demanded.

Stammering, Emma tried to explain that she and Lucy had been outside and hadn’t heard the phone, but the accusing tone in Evan’s voice made her angry.

“I don’t exactly make it a habit to listen to other people’s answering machines. Okay?” She glared at him while handing Lucy her sandwich.

An expression resembling regret flickered across his face and he took a few deep breaths to calm himself. “Hey, look, I’m really sorry. I had no right to take it out on you. That was way out of line.” Evan’s eyes pleaded for forgiveness.

Again, Emma found herself baffled by Evan’s behavior. Oblivious to the conflict, Lucy washed her latest bite down with some juice before speaking.

“Can we leave for the park after I eat?”

“Now that I’m home, Emma, you don’t have to stay. I’m sure you have better stuff to do on a Saturday.”

Lucy’s lower lip curled into a pout and she looked up at Emma as if her heart was breaking.

“For your information, I promised your parents I would stay here until they got home. I also promised Lucy that I would take her to the park. If it’s all the same to you, I don’t plan on breaking either of those promises. Lucy, as soon as I finish cleaning up in here, we’ll go to the park.”

Thinking on his feet, Evan asked her not to run the water for about ten minutes. Before she could object, he ran upstairs. Showered and dressed, Evan worked on a plan to invite himself along. When the girls left, he was going to be ready.

Emma was still drying the skillet when he approached the kitchen doorway. He could hear Lucy telling her about the kids at school. The sudden change in her tone made Evan linger in the hallway to listen. After a little prodding from Emma, Lucy admitted that some of the kids at school were being mean and making her feel unwanted.

“You shouldn’t let anyone tell you that you don’t belong or make you feel like you’re not good enough, Lucy. If you let enough people say it, you might start to believe them.”

Evan detected a trace of sadness in Emma’s voice and wondered if that was why she had difficulty making friends. He paused, timing his entrance perfectly. Emma was just asking Lucy if she was ready when Evan crossed the threshold.

“I didn’t see your car out there, Emma. If you don’t want to walk, we could ride our bikes to the park.”

“We?” Both girls looked at Evan; Emma was seething inside but Lucy was overjoyed.

Evan pedaled ahead, taking the lead and smiling at his luck. Emma kept pace with Lucy while staring daggers into the back of Evan’s head. By the time they reached the park, Emma’s fury was ready to bubble over. Squealing with excitement, Lucy dashed off toward the swings while Emma locked up their bikes.

“You are unbelievable. Your parents seem to think I’m capable of taking care of Lucy. Why don’t you?”

As she stalked off, Evan stood there questioning how she could be so smart and yet completely stupid at the same time. He wondered if she deliberately misconstrued every gesture he made or if her brain was on a completely different wavelength. He desperately wanted to set the record straight, but if he got into an argument with Emma it would upset his sister. Because Lucy was having a great time, Evan kept his mouth closed. He held his tongue at the park and followed silently as Emma led them to an old-fashioned ice cream parlor. She picked a corner booth and handed Lucy a menu.

“When I was little, my mom used to take us to a corner shop that kind of looked like this.” A melancholy smile tugged at her lips as she passed out the menus. “Matt and I found this place when we first moved in. Everything is good, so get whatever you want, Lucy.”

Evan gasped when he saw the exorbitant prices and wondered how the shop stayed in business. The owner, an elderly man, came to the table and welcomed them. After introducing himself, he chatted with his customers before asking if they were ready to order. Lucy timidly pointed to a picture on the menu and asked if she was allowed to have it. Simultaneously, Emma and Evan responded with opposite answers. Evan’s “Absolutely not!” was countered with Emma’s “Of course.”

“I said you could have anything you wanted.” Emma’s eyes sparkled, challenging Evan to contract her.

“Lucy, I said no.”

Patiently waiting for their order, the kind old man smiled at them. It was not the first time he’d seen a dispute over a child’s order. Lucy stared at the floor, unsure what to do. Emma placed the order for Lucy and, just for spite, ordered the same for herself.

“Shall we make it three, Evan?”

“Evan likes banana splits,” Lucy whispered.

Before Evan could protest, Emma ordered his sundae and the owner scurried off to start their order before someone changed their mind. Moments later he returned with huge dishes of ice cream dripping with thick sauces. Lucy could barely see over the fluffy peaks of whipped cream but she dug in jubilantly. Emma feared Lucy would end up with brain freeze until Evan interrupted.

“Slow down before you get sick! You shouldn’t have ordered that anyway. It’s wasteful. You’ll never be able to finish that monstrosity.”

Buzzing with a sugar overload, Lucy informed him, “Daddy said Emma was in charge and
she
said it was okay.”

Lucy resisted the urge to stick her tongue out by shoveling more ice cream in her mouth. The table was silent as they enjoyed their sweet, creamy treats.

“With these prices, you’re going to spend more than you’re making. You’d better charge my parents double, Em.”

“She’s not getting paid,” Lucy tattled. Through a mouthful of ice cream, Lucy repeated everything she’d overheard about Emma being grounded and not getting paid to babysit.

Horrified, Emma gasped, “Lucy! It’s rude to eavesdrop but it’s even worse to repeat it.”

Lucy’s big blue eyes brimmed with tears as she whispered an apology.

“Oh, Lucy, please don’t cry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m really sorry. Shh, everything’s okay.”

Emma gently brushed Lucy’s tears away and escorted her to the restroom. When the girls returned, their table had been cleared and Evan was gone.
Great
, Emma thought,
now he really hates me
. Sighing, she went to the register to pay. The owner informed her that the polite young man had already taken care of the bill. Evan was standing outside leaning against the window and waiting when Emma marched over to him and held out a twenty-dollar bill.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Emma, put that away. It’s bad enough you’re not getting paid. There’s no reason to end up in the hole.”

“Would you stop being difficult? I told Lucy it was my treat,”

“You’re the one being difficult. Most people would just say ‘thank you.’ Now come on, we’d better get going. It looks like rain.”