Shadow Keeper (3 page)

“Damn,” Carson said. “I’d love to take that for a test drive.”

“Same here, but you’ll have to get in line behind me.”

“Brendon!” Sherry gave me a shocked look, but she quickly broke into giggles. “You’d better behave yourself.”

“What?” I raised my eyebrows and tried to press an innocent expression on my face. “I was talking about the car.”

“Sure you were.”

I glanced back at the girl. Her one hand gripped the open door. Her other held a backpack. She wore a blue tee shirt over a pink one. I never understood why girls wore two shirts. If they’re cold, why don’t they put on a jacket?

“I’ll be fine, Mom,” the girl said to the driver. “I’ll wait right here for you to pick me up.”

She stepped back and shut the door. When she turned around, her head was down. Her long, blonde hair hung loose and I couldn’t see her face. Just as she reached the ramp that led to the entrance of the school, she glanced at the four of us standing there. Her gaze darted to the sidewalk. She threaded her fingers through her hair, drawing it back across her face.

One glance was all I needed to catch the sparkle in her blue eyes. She didn’t wear any makeup—not that I noticed. Her eyelashes weren’t smeared with black goop, and her dark blonde eyebrows were undefined. Her clear skin glowed, and her lips glistened in a natural rosy shade. She seemed really shy. This might be the only time I’d be this close to her, so I made my move. “You must be new here.”

She shot me a quick look before glancing away, but her gaze returned, and she stared into my eyes.

I flashed my best smile. The corners of her mouth twitched, but she glanced down and her hair fell across her face. I couldn’t tell if she finished her smile, so I searched for something to say to make her look at me again, but my mind went blank.

Sherry came to the rescue. She thrust out her hand and introduced herself.

The new girl shook Sherry’s hand. “My name is Lisa Stratton.”

Lisa
. I burned the name into my skull.

“These are my friends.” Sherry motioned with a flick of her hand as she introduced each of us.

When Sherry got to my name, Lisa looked directly at me and smiled. “You have really nice eyes.”

I stumbled for something clever to say, but her compliment threw me completely off guard, and I blurted out the first thing that popped into my head. “My little brother thinks my eyes are weird.”

She shook her head as if disagreeing. Her gaze drifted, and she stared at the school entrance. Her body shifted like she intended to bolt for the front doors.

“Do you know where your first class is?” Sherry asked.

Lisa wrinkled her forehead, then thrust her hand into the backpack and pulled out a white sheet of paper.

Sherry craned her neck to look at the schedule. “Oh good, we have first period together. I’ll walk there with you and show you where it’s at. And you’re in my history class and gym.” Her finger slid to a spot halfway down the page. “You have Advanced Spanish right after lunch. Brendon’s in that class.” Sherry glanced at me, a sly smile on her lips. “I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to walk you to the last class so you don’t get lost.”

“Absolutely.” I fought the huge grin tugging at my lips. “It’ll be my pleasure.”

Chapter Three

Calculus class ended and I dashed down the hallway to the lockers to stash the books and snag my lunch. I was about to head outside when I spotted Carson dragging his feet down the hallway.

“Move it, Carson. It’s lunchtime.”

“What’s the hurry, X–man?” He dialed the combination on the padlock and opened his locker. “Are you that starved?”

“We’re meeting Paul and Sherry at the Burger Barn.” I grabbed the books from his hand and threw them inside the locker. “I don’t want to be late.”

“I’m in no hurry to listen to them fight.”

“Neither am I, but Sherry is bringing Lisa.”

“Who’s Lisa?” His face scrunched up.

“Don’t you remember meeting the new girl this morning?” I slammed the locker shut and spun the dial on the combination.

“Oh, yeah.” His eyes lit up. “The orange Hummer.”

“Yeah.” I shoved my forearm against his shoulder and nudged him to the exit.

“Say, do you think you can talk her into giving us a ride in the Hummer?”

“I don’t know.” I led the way out the door and cut across the grass. “Taking a ride in her car is the last thing on my mind right now.”

“You like her.” Carson started with his donkey laugh. “That’s why you’re in such a hurry.”

“Yes, I do. So don’t mess this up for me. All right?”

“Don’t worry, man. I got your back.”

The Burger Barn sat kitty-cornered to the school grounds. As we crossed Yolo Street, I spotted Paul sitting outside at one of the wooden picnic tables. Sherry and Lisa sat across from him. I quickly formulated a plan. “Okay, Carson, you have to sit by Paul so it won’t look too obvious when I sit next to Lisa.”

“I don’t want to sit by Paul. He’s a butthead.”

“No, he’s not.”

“Man, he’s cheating on Sherry.”

My anxiety level cranked up a notch. “That’s between Paul and Sherry. I think she already suspects, so don’t go blurting anything out.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m not going to tell her. Besides, I don’t want to be the one to hurt her.”

Carson walked around the table to where Paul sat, but instead of sitting next to him, he plopped his butt on the tabletop and put his feet on the bench. “Where’s my lunch?”

“You have to go to the window and order it, you dumbass,” Paul said.

“Oh, wow,” he said in a voice heavy with sarcasm. “I never thought of that.”

I tried to ignore my two obnoxious friends as I took a seat next to Lisa.

“Paul.” Sherry crossed her arms and glared at him. “I thought we agreed not to use profanity.”

“That wasn’t a swear word,” he insisted. “
Ass
is in the bible.”

When she continued to glare, Carson hopped off the table. “You want anything, X–man?”

Shaking my head was all I could manage. He knew I never bought anything for lunch. Suddenly, I felt self–conscious. I was trying to impress the new girl, but how could I do that if I ate my lunch from a brown paper bag?

Lisa turned on the bench and nodded to the sack on the table. “Do you have food allergies too?”

“Allergies?” I glanced at the purple padded lunch box in front of her. “No. Do you?”

“Peanuts.” Her lips twisted into a grimace. “My mom worries that the fast food places use peanut oil to cook with, so she always packs my lunch.”

I almost went with the same story. The alternative was to blurt out the truth: My family’s poor, and I didn’t have money to buy lunch.

“That looks good.” She leaned closer. “What is it?”

“Roast beef.” I unwound the plastic wrap from the bread roll stuffed with thin slices of beef, and pulled sliced tomatoes and lettuce from a different baggy to add to the sandwich. “My grandma always bags these separate so the bread doesn’t turn soggy before I get a chance to eat it.”

“That’s so sweet.” Her lips curled into a smile. “Do you live with your grandmother?”

“Yeah, and my mom, and my little brother and sister. We live up the valley near the Indian casino. Have you ever been there?”

“No. I’m not old enough to gamble, but we’ve driven by it.”

I couldn’t hold back my laughter. “I didn’t think you were
that
old.”

She put her head down. Her long, silky hair slipped across her face, shielding her expression.

My belly twisted into a knot. I’d offended her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed.”

“That’s all right.” She snuck a peek at me. “Things seem to come out the wrong way when I talk.”

“I don’t think so. What you said was cute. That’s why I laughed.”

She looked at me again. This time, I caught a little twinkle in her blue eyes. She also smiled.

“You’re a junior, right?” I asked. “You must be about sixteen.”

Her head nodded. She took a tiny bite of what looked like a turkey sandwich on whole wheat.

Carson returned with his food and spread it on the table top next to where he parked his rear end. “Anyone want some?”

“Sure.” Sherry grabbed a couple with her fingers. “I love chili cheese fries.”

“How about you, X–man?”

I shook my head.

“Why does he call you X–man?” Lisa asked.

“Cause he’s the man,” Carson said before I could answer. “He’s always got my back.”

“He’s called me that since fifth grade. My last name has an x in it,” I explained when her eyebrows knitted together.

“Oh. Alexander.” She made a cute little giggle. “I get it.”

“So tell me, Sleeping Beauty,” Carson said around a mouthful of double burger. “Do you and the new girl have a lot of classes together?”

Sherry and Carson took over the conversation while Lisa and I ate lunch. Paul barely spoke, even though he’d already devoured his hamburger. I didn’t know if it was because he was afraid of saying another swear word, or if things between him and Sherry had reached the point where there was nothing left to say.

Lunch was almost over when Sherry jumped up and started cleaning the mess on the table. “We’ve got to get moving, Lisa, so we’re not late to class.”

“You can go with Paul,” I said. “Lisa and I have Spanish next. I’ll make sure she gets there on time.”

Sherry’s lips twisted together as she gave Paul a sideways glance. Instead of walking to him, she grabbed Lisa’s wrist. “We girls have to straighten ourselves up first so we look presentable for class.”

“Sleeping Beauty.” Carson’s bushy eyebrows lifted. “That trip is not necessary for either one of you.”

Silently, I agreed. Lisa looked flawless. “I’ll see you in Spanish class.”

She smiled at me from beneath her waterfall of blonde hair. “Save me a place close to you, so I’ll have at least one person nearby that I know.”

“You got it,” I said.

Right after the girls took off, I snagged the sack that still contained an apple and banana, and Grandma’s oatmeal cookies. I nudged Carson off the table with my foot. I wanted to get to Spanish class before Lisa showed up so I could rearrange the seating. As we hurried across the lawn to the entrance of the school, I tried to picture the classroom in my brain. Mentally, I moved the kids sitting around me before asking Carson’s advice. “How do you think that will work?”

“When did you get to be such a control freak?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The way you want to move everyone around in class just so you can sit next to the new girl. And at lunch, you made me sit by Paul.”

“Maybe you’re right.” I rubbed my fingers across my forehead. “It’s just that I’ve never felt this way about a girl before. I really want to get to know her better.”

“Why? She doesn’t seem like your type.”

I hadn’t had a lot of girlfriends, so I was curious about the kind of girl Carson would pick for me. “What is my type?”

When Carson went deep into thought, his eyebrows furled together and his lips twisted askew. “I don’t know, but the new girl’s too bashful. She barely said two words at lunch. I like my women more outgoing.”

“You mean, like Sherry?”

Carson’s head snapped around, and he stared at me through squinted eyelids. “She’s Paul’s girlfriend.”

“For now, but who knows how much longer.”

“It doesn’t matter. Sherry likes smart, pretty boys. Not big, dumb ones.”

Until now, I hadn’t realized how Carson felt about Sherry. I searched for something encouraging. “Sherry’s
pretty
boyfriends always seem to dump her for someone else. Maybe she’ll figure out looks aren’t as important as a guy who’ll treat her good.”

A shrug of his shoulders was his only response. He didn’t want to talk about Sherry, so I went back to figuring out how to get Lisa into a spot next to me. When we entered the classroom, I lowered my voice so no one would overhear. “Are you sure you’ve got the plan straight, Carson?”

“Yeah.” He led the way down the aisle to our desks. “When the new girl shows up—”

“Her name is Lisa.”

“Whatever.” He scrunched up his face, and I almost heard the gears turning in his head. “I’m supposed to let her have my seat.”

“Not there.” I grabbed his arm to stop him from sitting in his usual place behind me. “You sit in my desk, and I sit at yours.”

“Well, if you want her to sit in your spot, then why don’t you offer it to her yourself?”

I scooted into his desk, hoping the visual aid would help him understand. “Because I want to sit behind her.”

“Then where am I supposed to sit if I give up my place?”

“I don’t know.” I glanced around. Behind me to the left sat one of the football players on the junior varsity team. “Vanetti, go sit somewhere else.”