The Weight of the World (5 page)

“
So
Dr. Davis told you?” Devon asked.

Jason
nodded. “She’s worried about you.”

“
Not
like Frank and I haven’t done this before... granted I can’t
remember it.”

“
You’re
a teenager first and a goddess second. I think it’s best for The
Pantheon as a whole if you avoid seeing an obstetrician,” Jason
said. “My speciality was pediatrics but I can still help you. It’s
not safe to see someone outside of the circle of trust in case
there’s something abnormal about your pregnancy.”

“
Abornmal,
as in?”

“
As
in Pantheon.”

Devon
took a deep breath. “Well, shit.”

“
She
said a bad word!” Haley shouted.

“
Sorry,”
Devon winced.

“
You
have my email,” Jason said. “We can set up an appointment and
figure out your cover. If you have any questions, email them. Don’t
rely on Google. The internet will scare the life out of you if you
just start Googling symptoms. Okay?”

Devon
stood up. “Got it. Okay, so I’m going to go before we draw
attention. Bye.”

Devon
started looking for Adam. She thought that because he was tall and
kind of dreamy that he would be easy to see. There were just so many
people here. Her neck was stretched high to look over the crowd; she
didn’t even notice Evan until she had collided with him. He was the
same height as Devon-- therefore smaller when she wore heals-- and he
nearly fell over when she walked into his back.

Evan
Fuller was anything but steady on his feet. He was an awkward
teenager who walked with a limp. Devon yelped when she crashed into
him and grabbed his arms to steady herself as she wobbled on her
stilettos.

“
Devon,”
Evan breathed as he turned around to see who had tried to bowl him
over.
This
was why summers in Florida were dangerous for teenage boys. Too many
hot girls with sun-kissed skin, walking around in barely anything. He
recognized her figure, dressed in cut-off short shorts, before he saw
her face.
Evan could see a bright red bikini top through her thin white t-shirt
and it took all of his willpower to force his eyes to meet hers. “You
okay?”

“
Yeah,
yeah I’m fine. Just looking for someone.”

“
Frank?”
Evan asked, guessing the obvious.

“
Actually,
no. Haven’t seen him in a week. I’m looking for this guy Adam. My
parents have me carting him around to entertain him.”

Evan
started to ask about Frank, but he closed his mouth before any poorly
chosen words had a chance to topple out. “How’s your summer?”
he asked.

“
Suck.
I won't be going to any of Teddy Wexler's parties this summer. I’m
grounded for pretty much ever.”

“
What
did you do?”

Devon
snorted, “Got knocked-up.”

“
Excuse
me?”

“
You
heard me,” Devon said, looking Evan square in the eyes. He had
nice, kind eyes. She could see real sympathy there. “I’m
pregnant.”

“
Oh.”

“
How’s
your summer?”

“
Well,”
Evan said. “I’m not pregnant?”

Devon
smiled at his bad joke.

“
I
finished my Night Prowler.”

“
Your
what?”

“
It’s
an all-terrain go-kart I’ve been working on for a couple of years.
I built it from scratch. You can race it on mountains. I’m hoping
to take it somewhere for a good test drive this summer.”

“
Oh,
that’s neat.” Devon was already looking over his shoulder for
Adam. Evan was very familiar with reading signs of disinterest.

“
Well,
see you,” he said.

“
Huh?”

“
Good
luck finding your friend.”

Adam
wandered through the crowd with a fresh twenty-dollar bill crumpled
in his fist. He wasn’t really interested in the ferris wheel or
trying to win any prizes. Ferris wheels were only fun to ride with a
girl and the prizes were all useless crap.

In
this crowd he knew no one and nobody knew him. He examined the
occasional face, looking for someone he might recognize.

Peter
Hadley’s was the first face his eyes fell on that seemed as
disinterested in the fair as he was. The weedy teenager was propped
against the striped side of a food concession hut, flipping through a
menu on a cell phone and looking lost. He looked up and his gaze
caught Adam’s. He did an awful lot of staring, but Peter found that
he didn’t really like it when the eyes were on him.

“
Can
I help you?” he asked, shoving his phone in his pocket.

“
Sorry,”
Adam said. “You were just interesting.”

Peter
laughed bitterly. “Am I?”

“
You’re
the only person here who doesn’t seem like he wants to be here.”

“
I
was hoping to run into someone.”

“
A
girl?”

Peter
squinted. “A friend,” he said, ignoring the fact that Penelope
Davis was a girl and that Adam was spot on in pinpointing Peter’s
hopes. “Who are you?”

“
Adam,”
he said. “I moved in next to Devon Valentine. Do you know her?”

“
Peter,”
Peter introduced himself. “And yeah, I know Devon. Everyone does.”

“
Her
family is nice,” Adam said, omitting any mention of the current
drama.

“
There
you are,” said Devon as she found Adam through the crowd. She
stopped next to him and nodded to Peter. “I guess you two have
met.”

“
Is
he a friend of yours?” Adam asked.

“
We
were kind of kidnapped together this winter,” Peter supplied.

“
Come
again?”

“
Some
delusional psychopaths. It was in all of the papers. There were a
bunch of us.”

Adam’s
blue eyes were wide and wondering. The pair seemed incredibly casual
about being the victims of such a potentially scarring crime.

“
Mom
texted. She wants me home so she can be sure I’m not with Frank.”

“
It
was nice to meet you, Peter,” Adam said.

“
Yeah,”
Peter replied.

Peter
turned his back and slipped into the crowd, ready to go home.

Summer
vacation was no excuse for June Herald to slack off. Keeping busy was
the easiest way to keep her mind off of her ex, Zach. It wasn't easy
to forget him when they met once a week for The Pantheon. She had to
look at his stupid face every Sunday afternoon.

She
had gotten the idea for the fundraiser from a news article back in
March. June had formed a group (she had borrowed members from student
council and Valerie Hess' virgin club) dedicated to buying Kindles
for the special needs students in the Miami school system.

June
had set up a booth just outside of the south gate to the fairgrounds.
She had built elaborate displays out of foam core and plastered them
with colorful stock images of multiracial children reading. Two
younger girls flanked the booth and handed neon fliers to people who
passed by. June stood close to the table, ready to pitch her plan to
anyone who approached.

The
fair had been mildly successful, so far. June had spoken with a
mother of a visually impaired child, who invited her to come speak at
her church. A few teachers from the district had signed up for her
email list, too.

It
was some time after nine when the trouble started. June was showing
her Kindle to a curious elderly gentleman when another man stepped
in. “I've got the Fire,” he offered, “if you'd like to see it.”

June
looked up from her Kindle. The younger man was perhaps in his early
forties with a high hairline and large ears. He was wearing blue
jeans and a t-shirt with a brown curdoroy blazer. His black hair was
slicked back and his brown eyes trained on June. “It's in color,”
he said, flashing a smile. June returned the smile and flipped her
long red hair, despite her unease. Was he hitting on her?

She
looked down at his screen, as a courtesy, even though she had seen
the Kindle Fire and wasn't that impressed with the battery life. Her
eyes fell on a verse of poetry in the text.
Golden-throned
Hera, among immortals the queen.
It was a page from Edith Hamilton's
Mythology.
She froze. It had to be coincidence. There was no way this man knew.

“That's
very nice,” she said. She forced a smile back on her lips and
nodded her head. “Though, perhaps it is more than the schools need.
Battery life is a more valuable feature for this application.”

The
man nodded. “You have a mailing list?” he asked.

June
turned to the table and picked up the clipboard with the email
sign-up sheet. “We do. We'll be sending out periodic updates about
the campaign.” She handed him a pen and watched carefully as he
signed his name.

Julius
Spade. She committed it to memory.

“Have
a good night,” he said, handing back the pen and slipping his
Kindle into the interior pocket of his blazer. “I'll be keeping an
eye on you.”

Nick
Morrisey watched Tyra Washington walk away from him, her dark hair
swaying wide with her fury stomp. He had pretended to look hurt until
he was sure she wasn’t going to look back, then he leaned against
the light post behind him and pulled out his cell phone to set his
Facebook status to single.

He
looked up from his phone just in time to see his fellow Pantheon
member, Valerie Hess, wave goodbye to a female friend. She was one of
the only people wearing long pants and her modest lavender blouse
might as well have been a nun’s habit, seen
among
the crowd of girls walking around the fair in shorts and bikini tops.
She
was alone. Nick turned his red visor upside down, jammed it down over
his mop of black curls, and swooped in.

“
Heya,
Hess. How’s the summer treating you?”

Valerie
took a deep breath and let it out, steeling herself to deal with
Nick. “Great. Relaxing. How is your summer?”

“
Rescued
a kid from a rip current this morning,” he said, as if that
happened pretty regularly. “Saved his life. It kind of brought me
back to my unfinished business.”

“
As
a lifeguard?”

“
You,”
he said, stopping in her path so that Valerie had to focus on him.
She was a pretty Chinese girl with a quiet presence. Nick liked
bombshells, but what he really liked was to ruffle Valerie’s
feathers.

Valerie
rolled her eyes.

“
You
have to admit,” he said, “we have great chemistry.”

“
You
have to admit, you like girls who put out in under two weeks and I
want none of that.” Valerie was incredibly annoyed, but she kept
her tone level. She remembered how he had stood outside the
abstinence club pledge drive this winter and made fun of her choices.
There was no way she would ever consider getting caught up with a guy
like him.

“
We’re
Pantheon, Valerie. We need someone to lean on.”