Fever (2 page)

‘True. He’s not nearly
chic
enough,’ Jess joked. ‘But still. He could have gone to England at least. He wouldn’t have brought anything nasty home from there.’

‘Hmm, no. England isn’t exotic enough for a geography teacher,’ Eve commented. Most of the experts who’d weighed in thought that Mr Dokey had probably become infected with a rare disease while he was on vacation in Egypt. In February, he’d gotten permission to take a week off to go visit an archaeological dig, as long as he did a presentation about it for the school. A week or so after he returned, he’d become the first victim of the pla— of Flu X.

‘What shoes are you going to wear?’ Eve asked, getting back to the more pleasant subject of Jess’s date attire. ‘The strappy ones with—’ The sound of the French doors opening interrupted her. She looked over and saw her mom stepping out onto the paving stones that snaked through the grass over to the pool area. She was carrying two smallish cardboard boxes.

‘Hi, Mrs Evergold,’ Jess called.

‘Are you girls doing all right?’ Eve’s mother walked over and sat down on the edge of Eve’s lounger, putting her hand against her daughter’s forehead. ‘You feel hot,’ she announced.

‘Um, there’s a freak heatwave going on,’ Eve reminded her, making her voice light and teasing, not wanting her mother to get even more worried about the flu than she already was. ‘Everyone feels hot.’

Her mother laughed, but it came out sounding a little strained. ‘It
is
hot. I should have factored that in,’ she admitted. ‘But I want you to take your temperature later. You should do it at least once a day. You too, Jess.’

Eve nodded. She couldn’t help wondering what her mother would do if she did get a fever. It would probably mean that Eve had gotten Flu X. But then what? There was no cure, nothing that made it better, that anyone knew about. And that was terrifying. But at least no one had died from the disease yet.

‘One of my colleagues told me that the doctors analysing the blood of the infected people have become ill themselves,’ Eve’s mother said. ‘This disease is virulent. The speed at which it spreads … it’s, well, it’s frightening.’

Eve tried to remember the last time her mother had called anything frightening. Her dad was creeped out by any movie that had a shark – or mutant crocodile or anything else aquatic and deadly – in it. Plus, he was afraid of hairy spiders, and he totally admitted it. But nothing ever seemed to get to her mother.

‘I also heard on the radio on my way home that the mayor is considering closing all the schools in town. I hope he does,’ Mrs Evergold continued. ‘With something so infectious, it’s reckless to allow large groups of people to congregate.’

‘School might close? For how long?’ Jess exclaimed.

‘I don’t know. The town doesn’t have any protocol in place for a situation like this.’ Eve’s mother stood up. ‘But I want you both to start taking more precautions.’ She handed Eve and Jess the small boxes.

Eve opened hers and pulled out a disposable mask that hooked over the ears and covered the nose and mouth, like a surgeon’s mask. ‘Wear these whenever you’re out of the house – school, Ola’s, wherever. I’m going to go see if there’s anything more on the news,’ Eve’s mother said, then returned inside.

‘School had better close,’ Jess muttered. ‘Because I would not want to go walking in there wearing one of these.’ She reached over and flicked the mask Eve had taken out of the box.

‘You’ll wear it when you’re out though, right?’ Eve asked. ‘I don’t want you getting sick.’

‘Everywhere but on my date with Seth,’ Jess promised. ‘It would be impossible to kiss. And it doesn’t match the clutch I’m planning to carry.’ She set the box of masks down beside her. ‘Let’s just try to enjoy this amazing sun. There’s no demon crisis, at least, so there’s no reason we can’t just stay here by the pool for now.
Without
our masks.’

Eve didn’t mention that she’d considered the possibility that the plague
was
a demon crisis. All those doctors had to be right.

And if they turned out to be wrong, which Eve was sure they weren’t, Jess would be there for her. Jess didn’t have any supernatural demon-fighting powers, but that hadn’t stopped her from being right at Eve’s side the other two times demons had shown up in Deepdene. She’d been with Eve the day they learned that there was a portal between hell and earth right in their town. And she’d been there when Eve had managed to use her power to weave something like a psychic force field over the portal to keep all the nasties in hell where they belonged. If there was demon trouble, Jess always made it clear that it was her problem just as much as it was Eve’s. One of the dozens of reasons Eve loved her friend.

‘I’m going to check the school website. Maybe it’ll say something about it closing.’ Eve reached under the lounger where she’d stashed her pink Macbook Pro and pulled it out. A few clicks later and she was on the Deepdene High home page.

‘Anything?’ Jess asked.

‘Just the usual. Lunch menu. Sports schedule,’ Eve answered. ‘Jenna’s online. I’m going to IM her and see what she’s heard.’

Jess grabbed her cell. ‘I’ll text Megan. Megan always knows everything.’

Eve’s fingers danced over the keyboard as she wrote the IM to Jenna.
School might close. Heard?!?

A response from Jenna popped up almost immediately.
Srsly???? So don’t want to do bio hmwrk
.

Gonna try 2 find confirmation. Get back 2 U
, Eve answered.

‘Megan says she’s watching the news with her mom. We’re up to eighty-one sick people,’ Jess told her, with the phone still to her ear. ‘She says she hasn’t heard anything about school closing. But in other gossip news, a while ago Briony’s dad called her, looking for Briony. She didn’t come home last night.’

‘He must be freaking,’ Eve said.

Jess held up one finger, listening to Megan, then she said goodbye and hung up. ‘Megan said Briony’s dad is really worried, but he thinks she probably took off to see the old boyfriend in Massachusetts. She’s been on the phone with him a lot lately.’

‘Yeah, she was talking about him the other day, and how her dad didn’t approve.’ Eve held her hands out, pretending they were weighing scales. ‘So we have cute old boyfriend on one side, and a town with a plague and a disapproving dad on the other. I’m thinking—’ She dropped the hand that represented Deepdene to the ground.

‘Briony has to think this town is cursed,’ Jess commented. ‘She got here right when the hell hounds were on the loose. So first those murders and now Flu X. Even without the cute guy, I can understand why she’d bolt.’

‘Hey, Luke’s online.’ Eve smiled as she saw his screen name pop up – Sinbad. He’d chosen it because he was a minister’s son and so he knew sin was bad. And also Sinbad, the ancient heroic sailor, was kick-ass. According to Luke, he’d battled, among other things, a Cyclops with teeth like a boar’s tusks, and a snake so big it could swallow an elephant.

And Luke had battled demons side by side with Eve too. Like Jess, he had no powers. But, also like Jess, he didn’t let that stop him. If there was badness to fight, he was there. Eve felt like she knew him so well, even though she had only met Luke at the beginning of school this year. He and his dad had moved to Deepdene from California so his father could take over as minister at Deepdene Church after the previous minister had died from cancer.

‘Are you telling him you luuuuurve him?’ Jess teased as Eve began writing an IM to Luke.

‘Telling him about Briony, since they went out a couple of times,’ Eve replied. Although she had to admit, at least to herself, that she had wondered once or twice if she was falling for Luke. She hoped not. The boy was a player – Briony was just one of the many girls he’d gone out with since he came to town – and getting involved with him as more than a friend would probably leave Eve with a broken heart.

The thing was, Luke was more than just a player. He was brave. He was smart. He was pretty sweet a lot of the time. And, yes, he was a complete cutie with his longish blond hair and his green eyes. Make that green eyes with little golden flecks. He was—

He was not answering her. How long did it take to answer an IM? Jenna had replied in about a second and a half. Eve could see he was online. To ignore her was just rude.

‘Is Luke saying something bad? Is someone else sick?’ Jess asked.

‘No. He didn’t answer yet,’ Eve said. Because he was busy chatting with some other girl? He
was
a player. She couldn’t let herself forget that.

‘Oh. It’s just that you just looked upset,’ Jess commented, propping herself up on one elbow.

‘There’s a lot of upsetting stuff happening,’ Eve reminded her. ‘Eighty-one people sick. No known cure.’ And Luke possibly blowing her off for some fun girl who’d never drag him into a demon beat-down.

Eve reached the end of her
Vogue
, and realized she didn’t remember one thing that was in it. Not one pair of shoes. Not one bag. Usually as soon as she started flipping through a new issue, a shopping list began forming in her head. This time her head had been too full of the epidemic.
And Luke
, she admitted to herself. She let out a sigh.

‘Want to do this relationship quiz?’ Jess asked.

‘Unlike you, I’m not in a relationship,’ Eve pointed out.

‘Just use Luke. It will help you decide if you should take him on as a boyfriend,’ Jess answered.

Eve laughed. ‘You sound like it’s all my decision.’

‘It is. I keep telling you that.’ Jess pulled a pen out of her bag. ‘I’ve seen the way he looks at you. You give the guy one encouraging word and he’s yours. Guaranteed.’ She looked down at her magazine. ‘OK, first question. If your guy were a popsicle, what flavour would he be? A – Lime, B – Cherry, C – Orange, or D – Grape.’

‘That’s key in deciding if he’s good relationship material?’ Eve asked doubtfully.

‘Absolutely. And Seth is definitely orange, like sunshine. Sunshine you want to lick,’ Jess added. ‘What about Luke?’

Eve wrinkled her nose. ‘It’s kind of a dumb question. I mean, no offence. But guys as popsicle flavours?’

‘Just pick one.’ Jess tapped her pen against her magazine.

‘Lime, I guess.’

‘Which happens to be your fave,’ Jess commented. ‘Your psychology is showing.’

‘That isn’t—’

The sound of Eve’s cell ringing interrupted her, and she jumped to get it. Distraction was good. She didn’t need to do any more thinking about Luke. Who couldn’t even be bothered to answer a simple IM.

She glanced at the caller ID. Luke. Well, he hadn’t answered her before, but calling her was even better, right? She couldn’t help smiling. ‘Hi, Luke,’ she said as she picked up.

Jess smirked at her, a see-I-know-all smirk. Eve ignored it.

‘What’s up?’ she asked Luke.

‘Sorry I didn’t answer you before,’ Luke said. ‘My dad … We just got back from the walk-in clinic. He has it. He almost passed out during the Wednesday men’s lunch group.’

He was trying to hold it together, but Eve could hear the tremor in his voice. Of course he was freaking. It was his
dad
. And Luke had already lost his mother. He never talked about it. All Eve knew was that she’d died in a car accident when he was really young, about five years old.

‘Oh no, Luke. That’s horrible,’ Eve exclaimed. ‘His dad. The flu,’ she mouthed to Jess, and her friend’s eyes darkened with concern.

‘It pretty much had to happen,’ Luke said quietly. ‘I mean, he’s the minister. It’s his job to be around people. He spent the whole day yesterday making calls on everyone in the congregation who’s down with it. This morning before the lunch too.’

‘He’s a good man, doing that,’ Eve said. ‘How bad is it?’
Stupid question
, she thought, nibbling at her lip the way she always did when she was nervous. If you had Flu X it was bad. Period.

‘He’s not feeling all that sick, but his fever’s pretty high,’ Luke told her. ‘But, you know—’

‘Yeah,’ Eve answered. It didn’t feel like there was anything else to say. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she added anyway. Why was it so hard to find the right words sometimes?

‘Look, I know this is a big favour, but I was wondering …’ Luke hesitated.

‘I owe you a couple of dozen favours at least. What?’ Eve prompted him.

‘I need a place to stay. The doctor checked me over, and I’m fine. At least so far. But he wants me out of the house or else I’ll definitely catch it too. The Deepdene town council has arranged for nursing teams to give in-home care to all the infected people. They don’t want sick and healthy people living in the same houses. So …’

Luke. In her house? For days? Eve couldn’t tell if her fluttering heart meant she was thrilled or anxious beyond belief. ‘That makes perfect sense,’ she told him. ‘Let me ask my mom. I’m sure she’ll say you can stay.’

Jess sat up fast and grabbed Eve’s arm. They had one of their eye conversations. Jess’s eyes:
Luke is staying with you
? Eve’s eyes:
OMG
. Just
OMG
.

‘I thought I’d be able to stay with Ben Flood or one of the guys on the team.’ Luke had joined the football team when he first moved to town, and then he moved on to basketball with everyone else when the season changed. ‘But Ben’s sick and so are a bunch of the other guys. We’ve had b-ball practice every day lately, and everyone’s in the locker room together afterwards …’

‘That’s like a huge petri dish for germs,’ Eve said, automatically repeating what her surgeon mother always said as her mind whirled with the pros and cons of a Luke stay-over.

‘Yeah. It’s no surprise the flu spread through most of the team,’ Luke agreed. ‘But I’ve been checked out by the doctor and am showing no signs – at least for now … Anyway, I didn’t know who else to call.’

‘I’m the first one you should have called. Have you ever been in Ben’s room? The flu probably isn’t the worst thing you could catch in there,’ Eve told him. ‘I’ll check with my mom and call you back.’

‘You’ve been in Ben’s bedroom?’ The volume on Luke’s voice had gone up a few notches.
Is he jealous?
Eve wondered, and the thought made her smile.

‘We were partners on an English project last year,’ Eve said. ‘I’m hanging up. Call you in a few.’