Burning Hearts (2 page)

Sadie came up behind Jenna, giggling. Kit, at
his girlfriend’s side, kept silent as usual.

“
More like a vampire,” Sadie
suggested loudly. “She’s so pale. And that fiery red hair? Yeah,
she’s a vampire. She’s always sucked.”

Jenna lost her glove. She was incensed—ready
to blow—ready to murder. Her heartbeat was striking against her
chest like a jackhammer, threatening to burst out.

The cafeteria doors opened. Hungry students
went in. Noise filtered out, along with the smell of processed
meat. It was a distraction. It was also the knowledge that her true
friends were nearby, waiting on her. Jenna calmed instantly; her
heartbeat returned to normal; her chest remained unbroken.

There’d be no killing today. Val, Sadie, and
even Kit were off the hook.

But for how long, Jenna didn’t know.

THE MERRY MISFITS

“
I dunno what I’d do without
y’all!”

Jenna sat with her true friends at a
cafeteria table. She took out her bagged lunch of a sandwich,
snack-size chips, and a diet soda. Val was wrong. She wasn’t fat.
She wasn’t necessarily thin, and her clothes were a little snug
around her average five-foot-five frame, but she wasn’t about to
bust a button on her jeans.

“
Were they giving out happy
pills in last period?” asked Riddick Sharpe.

He looked badass with his black-haired Mohawk
and all-black attire, but he wasn’t a stereotypical silent loner,
often making quips, and always had a smile for her. He wrote poetry
in secret, but it wasn’t grounds for an investigation.

Jenna chewed up and swallowed a bite of her
cold cut turkey sandwich; it was still nice and fresh from lying
against the ice pack in her lunch satchel.

“
Nope. I’m just glad to see
y’all.”

Kylie Vale leaned forward. She had long brown
hair, chopped haphazardly, and was the liveliest of the group. “Oh,
my goodness!” She slapped a hand over her heart. “Did you meet a
guy?” She smiled. “That’s why you’re grinning like an idiot! You’ve
met someone! Who is he?”

Jenna rolled her eyes. “Puh-lease. I’m never
dating again.”

“
Never say never,” Caleb
Dasher advised with a smile.

He had curly sandy blond hair that fell over
his eyes. His dimples were Code Red on the Cute Radar and he never
said a bad word about anyone despite having the excuse to hate all
society. At twelve, he got into a car accident with a drugged-out
teenage girl, and lost his lower legs. He went everywhere in his
trusty wheelchair, tricked out with spinners.

“
Trust me,” said Jenna. “I’m
gonna be single for the rest of my life. I’m gonna be one of those
old ladies who’s got a bunch of cats, and when kids lose their toys
in my front yard, I’ll shake my fist at ‘em and yell, ‘Get outta
here you damn bunch of hooligans,’ and keep all their stuff in my
basement.”

Riddick chuckled. “You’ve really thought this
through.”

Jenna nodded. “I have a lotta free time on my
hands.”

“
Well, you’re depressing”
Kylie commented. “We all need to do something fun this
weekend.”

“
I was gonna light bugs on
fire with a magnifying glass,” Riddick said in a serious tone. “You
know as a tribute to the way things were before the age of digital
oppression.”

Prudence de Winter—or “Pru” as everyone
called her—gave a slight smile. She was mostly quiet, but nice. She
had a sleek black bob with blunt bangs and always smeared her full
pout with red lipstick.

Jenna thought her and Riddick would be
perfect together, and Kylie and Caleb. But she wasn’t going to play
matchmaker. She was the last person to give others advice on love
and relationships.

Caleb chuckled. “And is this after you
stakeout trees, shooting down birds with rocks and a
slingshot?”

Riddick snapped his fingers. “I totally
forgot about the birds! Horrible things! Tweeting all the time!
Crapping on cars!” He banged his fist on the table. “They need to
be stopped!”

Kylie placed a hand over her heart. “I hope
you’re not serious.”

Riddick shook his head; his gelled Mohawk
stayed perfectly in place. “Kylie, how long have you known me? I’d
never hurt any animal…unless it’s cute. I hate cute animals.
They’re plotting to take over the world, you know?”

Pru nodded. “He’s right.” She’d finally
spoken up. “Forget robots. Forget zombies. It’s kittens, puppies,
and baby birds. The enemy.”

Caleb lightly smacked his palm against his
forehead. “Why didn’t I see it before?!” he exclaimed
dramatically.

Jenna laughed. “Ah, I love y’all.”

Riddick looked deeply into her eyes.
“Seriously, are you high? And where can I get some?”

“
I’m not—”

Jenna was cut off from the nearby noise of a
girl laughing. She turned to see the Stuck-Ups—her former
friends—sitting three tables over. Sadie was giggling like a hyena
at something or someone. She kept looking over at Jenna’s table,
pointing, urging Kit to look and condemn too; he preferred to keep
stabbing a plastic Spork at his food.

Jenna turned back to her Misfits. “There’s
your cuz,” she reminded Kylie with a half smile.

Kylie rolled her eyes. “Don’t remind me I’m
related to that sorry excuse for a human being.”

Sadie Pierce and Kylie Vale were unfortunate
cousins. When they were kids, they used to be close, but as the
years passed, they drifted apart; it was all Sadie’s doing.
Apparently, the Pierces were the upstanding folk of Oasis, whereas
the Vales were a bunch of “drunks, bastards, and convicts,” if you
believed Sadie’s gossip.

“
Freak!” yelled another one
of the Stuck-Ups.

Jenna knew that voice and turned to focus on
Daniela Ross. Her long brown hair was in a braid at the side of her
head. It was the new style going around and Daniela had boarded the
Conformity Train. She sat on the lap of her boyfriend, Barrie
Novak, who used to flirt with Jenna. He had long auburn hair that
was slowly turning brown. He seemed more interested in Daniela’s
body than staring at Jenna.

Daniela and Barrie sat next to Emma Wane and
Aidan Clare. Emma had recently chopped all her blond hair off into
a pixie cut and added pink streaks to the front. Jenna hated to
admit it, but it looked good. Aidan, who was experimenting with
dreadlocks, had his brown hair tied up in a small bun.

“
Yeah, she’s such a freak!”
Emma agreed. She nudged Aidan. “She’s such a weirdo, right
babe?!”

Aidan shrugged, noncommittal. After Kit, he
was the second guy Jenna had been closest to. Barrie was always a
sleaze. Even when Val had turned everyone against her, Barrie
caught her alone at school, saying that if she’d go out with him,
he’d leave the Stuck-Ups. So of course when she refused, he joined
in on the Let’s Bash Jenna Movement. If only Daniela knew how
fickle her Barrie could be when it came to girls. Jenna had been
the closest to Emma, thinking they were BFFs. Her jabs hurt the
worst, along with Val’s, who’d told her on more than one occasion
that he loved her.

While the girls sneered, the guys ignored.
All except Val. He folded his arms over his chest, staring at her.
Jenna was confused by his look. He wasn’t sneering; he wasn’t
judging; he wasn’t plotting. He was just staring. For a moment,
Jenna thought she saw a fleeting look of melancholy.

Was Val sad? Did he miss her?

She continued to stare at him until he
casually brought his middle finger up and flipped her off with a
grin stretched across his face.

She turned back to her friends, shaking her
head. “I can’t wait to get outta here.”

“
Wanna skip?” asked
Riddick.

Jenna shook her head. “I meant Oasis.”

“
Where are you gonna go?”
asked Caleb.

Jenna shrugged. “I dunno. Anywhere.” She
sighed. “Before I commit murder.”

“
Ah, go ahead,” Riddick
urged. “I’ll visit you in prison. Slip you cigarettes and razor
blades in a hollowed-out copy of Pride and Prejudice.”

Jenna chuckled. “Oh, I’m sure the ghost of
Jane Austen would love that.”

Kylie smiled. “Ooh, I wish I could meet
someone like Mr. Darcy.”

“
Darcy was a jerk,” Pru
declared.

“
He was proud, is all,”
Kylie countered.

“
Pride is okay,” Caleb
stated. “It’s vanity that’s the problem.”

“
I’m more of a Jane Eyre
fan,” Riddick confided. “That girl went through hell and she
could’ve gone crazy, but she didn’t.” He smiled and put his arm
around Jenna’s shoulders. “And neither are you.”

Jenna smiled. “Thanks—but that was a
story.”

He removed his arm and took a swig of his
soda, swallowing loudly. “And ours are too if someone were to write
it all down.”

“
The Merry Misfits,” Pru
suggested.

“
Merry?” Kylie furrowed her
brow. “Doesn’t that mean happy?”

“
I was being sarcastic,” Pru
clarified.

“
We are happy,” Caleb
countered with a dimpled smile.

Jenna nodded. “That’s right. We’re seniors.
We’re passing…barely…all our classes.” She gestured among everyone.
“And we all get along. I’ll admit, when I was with the Stuck-Ups,
we didn’t interact. And when I got tossed out, y’all could’ve lemme
sit alone, friendless,”—she smiled—“but y’all didn’t.”

Kylie wiped a tear away.

“
You know who should’ve gone
crazy?” Riddick said, clearly trying to get off topic.

Jenna turned to him and smiled. “Who?”

“
Harry Potter.”

“
I don’t follow,” said
Caleb, shaking his head.

“
Think about it,” Riddick
continued. “That dude lived in a cupboard under the stairs for
years. A freaking cupboard! If that was real life, Harry would’ve
murdered the Dursleys.”

“
Magic?” Pru suggested as an
explanation.

Riddick shook his head. “Nah. Ain’t no magic
trick badass enough for Harry to keep his sanity while basically
being locked in a mini closet.”

The bell rang, ending their discussion of the
lives of fictional characters.

When Caleb wheeled out from under the table,
Riddick exclaimed enthusiastically, “I’ll take you to class,
buddy!”

“
But I wanna!” Jenna
whined.

Riddick chuckled. “I know you do.” He tugged
gently on her red hair. “I was just messing with you.”

Jenna relaxed and got behind Caleb, ready to
push him down the hall. “Later, peeps,” she said in farewell to
Kylie, Pru, and Riddick.

“
See y’all later,” said
Kylie, waving before heading off.

Pru just gave a smile and a wave, leaving in
another direction. Riddick was already walking away, listening to
his iPod. They’d meet back later at the end of school; it was
always a daily celebration.

Jenna and Caleb’s next class was easy-going.
Art with Ms. Jane Rush-Holliday meant students could explore their
inner Monet or Picasso by sitting with their friends, listening to
music, and even chewing gum.

She rolled Caleb to the elevator; it was a
privilege for faculty, staff, those with disabilities, and the
every-once-in-a-while student with a broken leg.

Caleb used his student ID as a key card to
unlock the doors. Jenna rolled him inside, much to the chagrin of
the students who had to deal with backed up traffic down the
hall.

As they rode up, he said, “I know your
secret.”

She smiled, but had no idea what he was
talking about. She hoped that he was playing and decided to play
back.

She stood in front of him. “I have so many!
Which vice do you know about? And are you gonna tell? If so I’ll
hit you. Not in the face. Don’t wanna leave a noticeable mark. I’ll
use a thick heavy phone book, slamming it against your chest.”

“
You know for a psycho, you
hide your maniacal schemes very well.”

“
Thank you.”

“
Well, I only know two of
your secrets.” He raised a finger. “One, you’re only my friend so
you can ride the elevator.” He raised another finger. “And two, you
still sleep with your stuffed bear at night.”

“
Ugh!” she groaned, raising
her fists, pretending to be found out. “You got me, Caleb.” She
smiled. “But you’re wrong on one thing.”

“
Oh, yeah?” He leaned back
in his wheelchair. “Which one?”

“
I sleep with a
stuffed
bunny
.”

Caleb was trying not to smile. “Oh, sorry, I
must’ve got that wrong. All those nights I was sitting up in that
tree, staring at you through my binoculars, I guess I saw
wrong.”

“
You sneak up a tree, look
at me in my bedroom, and all you care about is who I sleep with?
Caleb, Caleb, Caleb!” she jokingly admonished.

“
I tried to get a good look
at you, but that Puritan nightgown covered you from head to
toe.”

She shrugged. “I’m old-fashioned. What can I
say?” She tugged gently on his earlobe. “Now how’d you manage to
get up a tree?”

“
Jet pack,” he replied
deadpan.

“
Ebay?”

Caleb nodded, continuing the charade.
“Relatively cheap too.”

STRANGE HEIRLOOMS

Jenna sat next to Pru while Riddick sat
across from them on the bus. Caleb had already been picked up by
his mom, and Kylie’s dad had come for her.

When Jenna had dated Val, she’d the luxury of
catching rides in his flashy yellow Camaro—but no more. Her parents
could pick her up, but they worked every day at the family
business: Love’s Funeral Home and Crematorium. She didn’t mind
riding the bus as long as Riddick or Pru was with her. They lived
on the same street as Jenna with Kylie and Caleb only a few miles
away in the same suburban neighborhood.