The Next Full Moon (2 page)

“Okay, okay,” he said, placing the feather on the table and turning to the door. “Let's go, earlybird.”

Her heart pounded with excitement as they drove to Morgan's house. Morgan was waiting outside, her bright pink
towel rolled up and sticking out of her tote bag. She ran down to the car, all long red hair and freckles and gangling legs and arms, and bounced into the backseat.

Morgan was Ava's best friend, even though she could be embarrassing with her loud laugh and sometimes—well, oftentimes—spastic behavior. But they had been best friends since nursery school and there was no turning back now. Plus, Morgan was the funniest girl in school.

The drive to the lake was beautiful, as they left their little college town and headed into the countryside, where the roads turned narrow and winding and everything was bright green and charming little cabins popped up on the side of the road. They crossed mountains that looked over entire valleys coated in a morning mist. Finally, they turned down the gravel lane that led into the lake parking lot.

The girls gathered their things and Ava assured her father that she'd be home by dinnertime, that Morgan's mother would be picking them up in the afternoon.

“What are you doing today, Dad?” she asked, feeling suddenly guilty for leaving him alone. He was alone so often.

“I think I might head to the creek, do some fishing,” he said. “Get a little sun.” He made a face at her.

“Maybe you should go out with some friends or something,” she said. “I hear some people actually like that kind of thing. Friends and stuff.”

“Ha ha. Now off with you both.”

Ava watched after him as he drove away and then she and Morgan rushed down to the lake. She tried to walk as calmly as she could, aware at every moment that Jeff could be there already. She scanned the beach, which was not yet full of people the way she knew it would be later. She and Morgan were the first ones there from their school. A smattering of other people were setting out towels and picnic baskets.

They set down their bags and towels in a prime spot, close to the water, and stripped down to their bathing suits.

As Ava started rubbing herself with tanning lotion, Morgan pulled out a huge pair of pink, heart-shaped sunglasses and put them on. “I'm sorry, my friend, but you are glowing,” she said.

“I laid out yesterday.”

“You're supposed to lay out in the
sun
, dummy.”

“I
did
, you dork. And look how white you are, too.”

“I'm a redhead, I'm supposed to be the color of porcelain. Like Nicole Kidman.”

“Whatever. Your glasses are stupid. They clash with your hair.”

“Stupid awesome, maybe.”

Ava sighed loudly and lay back on the towel. “Well. Don't come crying to me when you get heart-shaped tan lines on your face.”

They both broke into giggles. The sun beat down, already making them sweat.

“I wish it could stay summer forever,” Morgan said, after a few minutes.

“Me, too.”

“Let's move to California.”

“Okay. We can be movie stars there.”

“And have a pool.”

“And a convertible.”

Ava closed her eyes and pictured the two of them riding around in a convertible with scarves around their necks, blowing kisses as people waved at them from the streets. Jennifer Halverson would come running up for an autograph and Ava would push down her sunglasses and ask, “Do I know you?” Of course Jeff Jackson would be in the car with them and he wouldn't remember her either.

“Let's swim a little,” Morgan said, after a while.

“Okay,” Ava answered, reluctantly coming out of her reverie. The beach was much more crowded now. Towels and bodies were spread out in every direction.

They headed to the water, and Ava broke into a run. She never felt more happy or free than she did here. It was summer, finally! The lake was a dark, beautiful blue. Morgan dashed ahead of her.

“It's freezing!” Morgan called as she plunked her foot into the lake.

Ava didn't care. The cold never bothered her. She dove straight in, and, as always, it was like entering another world.
All the sounds went mute, the smells went away, and the world turned hushed and dark. She smiled into the water as she pushed forward. Twisting around, moving onto her back and her sides, coming up for air and then pushing back under. There were people all around and yet she couldn't have felt more alone than she did then. But in the best possible way.

She pushed her head above water again and swam out to the buoys. In the distance, a line of trees, like fringe, reached up to the sky.

And then behind her, laughter.

She turned.

Morgan was standing in the water laughing, talking to him. Jeff Jackson. Tall and manly. Well, maybe not manly, but surely the only boy in seventh grade who was almost as tall as her father, with broad shoulders, a dimpled chin, and bright blond hair.

He caught her eye and without thinking she immediately ducked her head underwater. Wishing she could hide away.

Then she realized how stupid she looked.

She wanted to disappear at the bottom of the lake. Why did she always have to be so dorky? Why couldn't she act like the girl in her fantasies?

She squeezed her eyes shut and played a movie in her head of what she should have done: smiled at him elegantly, tossing her hair like Jennifer Halverson was always doing.
Doesn't the water feel divine, Jeffrey,
she might have said as she
walked toward him, shaking her hips back and forth like an old-time movie actress.

Then she imagined what was happening right now. Lord knows what embarrassing things Morgan was telling him while she hid in the lake.

Suddenly she desperately needed more air. She shot her head above the water and immediately started to cough and heave.

Jeff and Morgan were standing right there watching her.

“Smooth move, ex-lax,” Morgan said, as if Ava wasn't horrified enough.

But Jeff was just smiling at her. The sun shining behind his head made his hair glow, as if he'd dropped straight down from heaven.

“Hey do you want to get a lemonade with me?” he asked.

Before she could stop herself, she turned around to make sure he was really asking her, Ava Lewis, to go and get a lemonade with him.

“He means
you
,” Morgan hissed.

Ava stared at him, stunned. He'd never spoken to her before. For a moment she thought this might be some kind of practical joke. A few months before a few of the popular kids had gotten together and told poor Beth Miller that Ian Franklin wanted to “go with her.” Everyone knew that Beth was madly in love with Ian. Beth said yes right away and went up to Ian, who actually laughed when Beth called him
her boyfriend. Beth had cried and gone home early. It was awful.

But this was Jeff Jackson in the flesh and he didn't seem to be joking.

She stared at him so long he started to smile, then break into laughter. “Come on, it's just a lemonade,” he said. “I won't kidnap you, I promise.”

“Okay,” she croaked. Her face burned with embarrassment. She was such a dork.

She glanced back at Morgan as they walked away together, and her friend smiled and gave her the thumbs-up sign. Ava quickly looked away.

Jeff was as smooth and relaxed as ever, striding beside her. They passed a group of the popular girls, who must have all just arrived, and she could feel them eyeing her. Especially Jennifer Halverson, who did not look at all happy. Ava walked with her chin up, trying not to think about them all staring at her—not only walking with Jeff Jackson but in a
bathing suit
no less. She sucked in her stomach.

“I never really talked to Morgan before,” Jeff said. “She's pretty funny.”

“Yeah,” she said. She tried to think of something to add but her mind went pathetically blank. It always went blank when she needed to say something important.

“She says you live alone with your dad, who's some kind of professor?”

“Yeah.”

“My dad is, too. That's what I want to be, a professor.”

“Of what?” she asked.

“I'm not sure,” he said. “Maybe bugs.”

“Bugs?”

“Yeah, I love them. I collect beetles.”

“Oh.”

Fortunately, they walked up to the lemonade stand right then, so Ava didn't have to say anything about his gross collecting habits.

“Two lemonades,” Jeff said, pulling out a five-dollar bill.

“Thank you,” she said, taking the drink. She took a sip, and it was like drinking candy. She smiled at him happily.

“You want to walk over to the carousel?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said, wondering if he was going to start looking for beetles. She thought if he did, she might die.

The music from the ride, old-timey and tinny, was blaring from the old wooden structure. It was one of Ava's favorite places in the world. Even with all the disgusting bug talk, she couldn't imagine anything better than this moment, right now. Summer was here, and she was drinking a lemonade by the carousel with the cutest boy in school.

That is when she noticed a weird kind of itching on her arms. She tried to scratch them nonchalantly as they walked over to the multicolored carousel animals bobbing up and down.

“My favorite is the deer with the antlers and jewel eyes,” she said, to distract him.

“Where?”

She turned, shifting her back to him and furiously scratching her arm, and pointed. “That one.”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “I like that one. But my favorite is the lion.” And then he gave her a funny look. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

“Like what?” she asked, dropping her arms and turning back to him with wide eyes. It was a look she'd practiced in the mirror. Wide eyes, like Marilyn Monroe.

“Um, I think you're like bleeding or something. In back.”

The carousel spun around and around, flashing its lights. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jennifer and her friends approaching.

Bleeding? She felt the oddest sensation then, a prickling across her arms and shoulders, down her back. As if she'd gotten tangled up in brambles in the forest. And then she started to itch all over.

“Are you okay?”

She tried to stammer an answer, but just made a strange strangled sound instead. She wanted to scratch herself
everywhere
. What was happening to her? She thought about Lucy Spiegel, how she'd spent a whole day last year walking around school with her skirt tucked into her underwear. And now here Ava was, standing in front of everyone in her new
bathing suit, with some hideous thing happening to her body that she couldn't even see. Her mind spun in horror.

Before it got any worse, she turned and ran. Past the lemonade stand, past Jennifer and her friends, past the beginning of the beach line and over to the bathrooms. Her skin prickling and itching. She touched her arms as she ran, and felt little bumps that hadn't been there before. Thankfully, the girl's room was empty and she rushed inside and slammed the door shut.

Scratching furiously, she peered into the mirror at her own horrified face and then at her arms and shoulders, the strange bumps she'd felt under her fingers. As if . . . something was growing from her skin.

Just then, another feather drifted into the air. Bright white, like the one in her father's workroom.

Was it coming from... her? It seemed her body was always playing tricks on her nowadays. Everything growing, changing, becoming monstrous and gross and strange...

Outside, someone started banging on the door. “Are you okay, Ava?” It was Morgan. “Ava, what's going on? Why'd you run away like that? He's gonna think you're crazy.”

She moved right next to the door and pressed her lips to the crack.

“Morgan,” she said, whispering as loudly as she could. “Can you bring me my cell and my clothes?”

“What's going on? Ava, you're being crazy!”

“Just bring them! Please!”

“Okay, okay. You know, other people need to get in here.”

“Then hurry! Run!!”

All she wanted now was to get out of there. Get back to her pale pink room and shut the door. Then she could cry as much as she wanted to. All she had to do was hold herself together till then.

A few minutes later, Morgan was back, yelling for Ava to open the door.

Ava opened it a crack, grabbed her clothes and phone, and then pushed it shut again. “Just give me a minute,” she yelled, slipping back into her clothes and trying to dial her father at the same time.

He answered on the first ring. “What is it?”

“Dad,” she said. “Please come get me. Right away.”

To her surprise, he didn't ask any questions. “I'll be there in fifteen minutes,” he said. “Will you be okay until then?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Then wait for me in the parking lot.” They hung up, and she looked once more into the mirror, ignoring Morgan and other voices now, just outside the door.

Other than her watery, terrified eyes, she looked normal.

A normal almost-thirteen-year-old who couldn't stop scratching her weird, pale, not-even-slightly-tan skin.

She slipped on her T-shirt and shorts, then opened the door and left the bathroom. An angry woman pushed past
her inside.

“What's wrong?” Morgan asked, her face pained. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Ava said. She felt bad for her friend, who was so worried, but what could she say to her? She had no idea what was wrong. All she wanted to do was curl up and die. “I just want to go home.”

“Okay.” Morgan reached out and hugged her, and Ava hugged her back. “I'll tell Jeff you only freak out like a looneytunes on Sundays.”

Ava smiled. Morgan was a good best friend even if she was a huge dork. “I'll text you later.”

Her father raced into the parking lot like an ambulance driver, looking visibly relieved to find Ava all in one piece.