Stone Cold (18 page)

Conall glanced at Eden before he shifted his gaze toward the floor.

“Not in the way I’d hoped. You won’t believe what happened.”

“I can only imagine.”

“I called
Shawn and Bobby. We hid behind some bushes near the benches where Hannah wanted to meet. We wanted to make sure Jack was no where around before I walked up to her.”

Conall continued with the story
, telling Eden about seeing a girl he thought was Hannah talking to a man they thought was Jack.

“
We were pretty far away but when she turned around we could see her name on the back of her jacket. We knew it was her and the guy had to be Jack because his body guards were fast approaching.”

Conall had become very animated as he talked.

“Jack had his hand on her shoulder and that was all we needed to see so we took off running toward them. At the same time, a woman who turned out to be her mother approached and led her away toward their car.”

Eden
was listening with great intent.

“I can’t believe it! I can’t believe Jack actually showed up. What did he do when Hannah’s mom took her away?”

“That’s the thing. He didn’t do anything – he just stayed there with his body guards. It’s what I heard him say that has me on edge.”

“What did he say
?”

“Well,
neither Hannah nor her mother saw us running towards them but Jack and his body guards did. I was close enough to hear him say to her, ‘Until next time Hannah.’ There’s only one explanation for what he meant by that.”

Conall could feel the anger mixed with fear building up inside of him to the point where he couldn’t speak.

Eden already knew what he was going to say.

“You think Jack remembered she joked in her email about wanting to meet you at the fer
ry landing each year until you finally get to meet?”

He nodded.

Eden waited a few minutes to allow Conall to calm himself.

“So what happened after they walked to their car?”

“Bobby, Shawn, and I took off running because the body guards started chasing us but this time we were able to outrun them.”

“So you never got to talk to Hannah and you said she didn’t see you running up to them.”

“Yeah that’s right but I wanted to somehow let her know that I was there, that I did want to see her. When I knew I was far enough away from the body guards, I stopped and yelled her name as loud as I could. I started waving my arms in a really big motion like this.”

He demonstrated his wave for
Eden.

“Do you think she heard you?”

Conall was smiling from ear to ear.

“I’m sure she did and I’m sure she saw me too
because she turned around, looked in my direction, and waved back at me.”

Eden
couldn’t help but to feel happy for Conall. He was obviously disappointed that he didn’t get to talk to Hannah but relieved they knew each other had been there wanting to meet again.

“At that point, she got in her car and I had to keep running because the body guards were closing in fast. I met Shawn and Bobby a few minutes later and we hung out for the rest of the afternoon until I called you.”

“Any idea what happens next?”

“I haven’t a clue but if I have to wait until April to try this again then that’s what I’ll do.”

Conall relaxed and put his head back on the head rest. He was exhausted from the mental and physical strain he’d put on his body that day.

“
Eden I’m so tired and I don’t know how much longer I can keep my eyes open so I want to say it now before I can’t.”

“What is it?”

“Thank you so much for convincing mom and dad to let me come with you today and for helping me sort through everything that’s going on in my head about Hannah. I couldn’t do it without you.”

“
Well you’re my Con, Con. I’d do anything for you, you know that.”

Eden
looked over at Conall who was out like a light. She felt a slight ache in her heart knowing that soon she’d be leaving for college and would see less and less of him.

Wiping away a tear she whispered,
“What am I going to do without you lil bro?”

Chapter
15

Months had passed since the ferry landing debacle and Hannah had slowly but surely moved on in her life. She was in her sophomore year of high school and things were good.

There were fewer days when Conall was all she could think about but there was never a day when she didn’t think about him at least once. She had sent another email to his school but he hadn’t contacted her yet and she began to doubt if he ever would.

Most days she was too busy with school work and extra curricular activities to think about anything else.

Gina had been a Godsend, urging Hannah to get involved in things that would take her mind off of her romantic woes and for the most part, it was working.

Still, she couldn’t help feeling like a part of her was empty, like she was missing a part of her soul.
She wondered if Conall was feeling the same.

It was about five
months until she’d make the journey to the city again with her mom. Aunt Grace had fortunately made a nice recovery from her heart attack and was doing well. 

Not to slight Aunt Grace, but Hannah had high hopes of meeting Conall on the trip as well.

“It’s not possible that anything could go as wrong as before. “We’ve had our stroke of bad luck and now everything should work out fine going forward,” she convinced herself.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by
Gina and a group of girls dressed in volleyball uniforms that had surrounded her in the hallway.

“Hey, Hannah!”

They all greeted her in unison.

“You’d better get suited up. The match starts in about an hour and we have
to get warmed up!” Gina voiced.

“
Yeah. We need our star player out there.”

“Ha
. Thanks girls but we all know Gina’s the MVP. Besides, the team we’re playing hasn’t won a match all season.”

The group laughed and began talking amongst themselves as they agreed with Hannah. She was lucky to have found such good friends to hang around with, especially after the way junior hi
gh had started and ended.

She couldn’t help but think how her life might be right now if she hadn’t elected to go to a different school in her district than if she’d gone to where most of her junior high classmates had gone.

No one knew her from before except for Gina. She’d had the chance to begin with a new slate and to her surprise, her new classmates readily accepted her into their circle. They truly liked her and she finally felt like she was a part of something. It felt good.

“There’s something I have to do first. I’ll meet you guys out there in a few.”

Hannah grabbed her things and ran down the empty hall. The students were gone for the day so she made it to her locker in record time.

She opened it
and retrieved her uniform. In a hurry, she grabbed the books she would need for homework that night and shoved them into her backpack. As she was closing the door, Hannah noticed an envelope that had fallen on the floor from her locker. She picked it up and turned it over. On one side it read, “For Hannah.”

“What is this?
” she said aloud to no one in particular.

She turned it over in her hands several times.

“Oh well. This will have to wait until later. No time right now.”

She put it in her backpack and ran back down the hall to the locker room.

Minutes later she was on the volleyball court. The mysterious envelope in her backpack had been forgotten about for the time being. Her mind was on the match.

The opposing team was made up of her former classmates from junior high. They recognized her of course but she was different now.

Hannah had grown another inch or two. She was still lean and lithe but her curves had developed and her muscles were toned. She no longer wore braces and her blonde hair had grown from shoulder length to the middle of her back.

It was impossible not to notice her. She was the late bloomer a
mong the roses who had already started to wilt. While the ‘it’ girls from junior high were beginning to gain weight and develop problem skin among other things, Hannah had emerged from her cocoon as a beautiful monarch, ready to spread her wings and fly.

“Oh look girls, it
’s Hannah Perry. I wonder how long it’ll take before she runs off the court crying?” taunted a girl from the opposing team.

Even though Hannah had her back to the net, she knew that voice well. It belonged to Hattie Craig or Chatty Hattie
as everyone called her. She’d been the leader of the popular girls in junior high and it was obvious her role hadn’t changed. Hattie had always made it her purpose to torment her whenever she got the chance. Unfortunately it had ended in tears on more than one occasion and not in Hannah’s favor.

She pretended not to notice.

“I said, look everyone. It’s Hannah Perry - the cry baby. Looks like she had to change schools because she finally got the hint that no one cares about losers like her.”

Several of the girls on Hattie’s team joined in, getting a laugh at Hannah’s expense.
But to Hannah’s surprise, most of the girls were telling Hattie to shut her mouth. 

Hannah continued to ignore the taunts and jabs. Her teammates rallied around her when they became aware of what her former classmates were trying to do to her.

Finally the match was about to begin.

Hattie’s team served first. The ball went back and forth across the net several times. Finally, the setter on Hannah’s team gave her the perfect set. She time
d her jump perfectly and spiked the ball over the net at a sharp angle toward her target.

The ball slammed into the defender’s face and ricocheted out of bounds giving the point to Hannah’s team.

The defender was none other than Chatty Hattie.

Hannah said nothing as she walked back into position. She didn’t have to.

Her teammates were high fiving her but she kept her eyes fixed on Hattie who was speechless for maybe the first time ever.

Hannah
could see tears welling up in her eyes and wondered if Hattie was finally feeling some of the humiliation she’d put her and others through for all of those years.

Hattie never said another word nor did her teammates throughout the entire match.

It was a landslide victory for Hannah and her teammates as they continued to land hits like the one Hattie took.

After the match
, during the traditional good sportsmanship handshake between teams, Hannah could tell that many of her former classmates acknowledged her as a force to be reckoned with. They were in awe of her transformation and she felt like they wanted to bury the hatchet and start anew which was fine with her.

Even Hattie had been humbled and gave her a congratulatory handshake and hug while Hannah apologized for taking aim at her face.

*****

That evening, Hannah opened her backpack to do her homework and the mystery envelope was the first thing she saw.

“Let’s see what this is all about.”

Inside the envelope was a card with a heart on the front.

“This is getting good.”

For a moment Hannah thought maybe somehow Conall had found her and had had someone place this in her locker.

Her heart started to pound a bit faster as she opened it to look inside.

It was blank except for a handwritten message.

“Will you go to the homecoming dance with me?” she read.

Beneath it were two boxes. One had the word “yes” next to it and the other the word “no”.

She continued to read, “Check the box that applies and put it back in your locker after school tomorrow but leave it unlocked for me to get it. For now my identity remains a mystery but if you like surprises I hope you’ll take a chance and choose yes.”

Hannah had to admit she was definitely intrigued but a little nervous at the same time. She didn’t have
a date yet to the dance and she’d planned on going stag with Gina and other girls who also didn’t have dates.