Hidden Moon (5 page)

He nodded, his beautiful amber eyes never left mine. Feeling awkward, I nodded and started toward my table.

“Good luck at tryouts,” his voice whispered so low I thought I had imagined it.

I resisted the urge to turn around and see if he had spoken as I kept walking and took my seat next to Brian.

“That’s weird,” Brian frowned as he looked at the table I had just left.

“What?” I asked, letting out the breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding.

“The way he was staring at you as you walked back over here. I think he likes you,” he murmured, not looking the least bit happy.

“Look out, Brian. You may have competition.” Ronnie grinned. “And you do have a point. I’ve never seen him look at anyone like that before. It’s kinda weird.”

I looked back at the other table, but no one was looking at us now. They had finished eating and seemed to be talking about something else. The bell rang, making me jump in my seat. The cafeteria came alive in a rush of food and trays that everyone shuffled around and made their way out of the door to their next class.

The rest of the day went by fast. Brian took me to art class as the last period of the day. I fell in love with Ms. Hayton, the instructor. She introduced herself in front of the class in a smock that once had been white, but now was covered with every color of the rainbow. She looked like she had been in a water balloon fight, with paint being the water. She had bright, blue eyes and short, frizzy brown hair that looked like a perm job gone wrong. Strangely enough, it looked perfect on her. She looked like abstract art.

She told us to draw anything we wanted. As long as we stayed busy, we could talk to each other as long as it didn’t disturb anyone. I started sketching out the trees I had memorized out of my bedroom window. I thought I was doing pretty well until I looked over and saw the lifelike image of a young Indian woman the boy beside me was drawing. He was one of the guys that had been sitting at Adam’s table at lunch. Like the others, he had the same dark black hair with a subtle blue tint, but where Adam’s hair came to his waist, this boy’s only came past his shoulder. He tucked a loose strand behind his ear as if it were a habit he did many times a day.

“That’s amazing,” I said, smiling. “I wish I could draw like that. The eyes are beautiful. She looks so real.”

He returned a polite smile. “Thank you. Ms Hayton is a wonderful teacher. You’ll be doing this is no time.”

“Who is the woman in your picture?”

“Mother Earth,” he replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “She is always depicted in our culture as a young, beautiful woman. She is full of life, and the giver of life. Most pictures painted or drawn by Native Americans that have a young woman in them are pictures of Mother Earth.”

“I never knew that,” I murmured, then shook my head and introduced myself. “Sorry, I’m Nikki.”

“I know. I’m Ed,” he grinned. “And that idiot over there is Erik.” He pointed to motorcycle boy with the short, spiked hair and a big goofy smile on the other side of him.

“Since we’re giving a lesson in Native American tradition,” Erik said, “Ed is not his given name.” His dark eyes sparkled with mischief.

Ed gave him a dirty look, and then pretended to be busy with his art.

“Nikki,” Erik said as he leaned forward to peer around Ed, “in case you didn’t know, some Native Americans still practice the traditional beliefs when naming their children.”

Ed scowled.

“Marianne, Ed’s mom, is one of those people. Plus, it doesn’t help that she has an odd sense of humor. In the old days, mothers wouldn’t name their children until they were a few years old. The reason was because so many of the children died when they were infants. Anyway, when they were sure the child would survive they would pick a name, based on what the child did or liked,” he explained in what I was guessing was his most serious face.

“Ed seems like a nice, reasonable name,” I said, trying to reassure Ed, whose brown face was starting to flush.

“It seems our good friend here had a certain fondness for only one thing when he was two years old. He loved playing in the dirt. He would have it from his head to his feet, even in his mouth. No matter what Marianne did, she couldn’t keep him out of it. She warned him that he would regret it if he didn’t stop, but he wouldn’t mind her. So she named him ‘Eats Dirt’. We’ve sort of shortened it to Ed. I think it becomes him more,” Erik grinned, trying to duck as Ed smacked him on the head with his binder.

“Not much fun writing Eats Dirt Young Eagle in those little blocks for your SAT test. I’m going to get it legally changed when I turn eighteen next year, whether Mom likes it or not,” Ed mumbled under his breath.

I smiled at him. “I think it’s unique.”

“Your trees are looking good,” he commented, as if he wanted to change the subject.

“Thanks, they’re the ones outside my bedroom window,” I said. The ones where Adam had stood, I added silently.

Seeming to read my mind, Erik popped his head around Ed again. “Nikki, thanks in advance for helping Adam. We want him to pass so that we can all graduate together next year, so if we can help at all just let us know. He’s really smart. I just don’t think he likes English class all that much. I guess he figures if he can speak our native language and English, then having a class to teach him something he already knows is a waste of time. He doesn’t like the idea of a study partner, but I have no idea why. I think he’s more open to the idea now. At least I hope so, since we bullied him into it.”

“Well, we’ll see how it goes. I’ll try, but he’ll have to try, too,” I said, resigned.

The bell shrilled again, announcing the end of the first day of school. I found Brian standing in his customary spot, leaning against the wall outside the door, his hands shoved in his jeans pockets.

“I’m beginning to feel like a stalker,” he joked, grinning at me. “Are you ready to see what the cheerleading squad has to offer? Ronnie has spent the last half hour in chemistry, pestering me about making sure I get you to the gym after school.”

“I hope I don’t disappoint her. I’ve never been a cheerleader,” I said, still trying to find a way out of it and not succeeding.

“You may not have been a cheerleader, but I saw trophies sticking out of one of those packing boxes the mover guys left in your living room when I was over Saturday. You’ve been in some kind of athletic something-or-the-other,” he prodded.

“Gymnastics and tumbling,” I sighed. I knew as soon as the words left my lips I’d lost the argument. I may as well get ready to be a cheerleader.

Brian gave me a triumphant grin. “Don’t worry, it will be easy. They never do anything complicated that I’ve ever seen. You’ll be a pro at this, no problem.”

He steered me into a large gymnasium lined with bleachers down one wall. Beth, Brian’s friend from lunch, was the only one sitting in the bleachers. She had a notepad in her hand. When she saw us she waved.

“Beth’s on the school paper. She must smell a story.” Brian returned the wave.

I groaned. Great, that was just what I needed. More trouble.

Ronnie came running up to us, grinning from ear to ear. “Great. I’m glad you’re here. Brian, go sit with Beth or something. Come on, Nikki.” She took my arm and tugged me toward a group of cheerleaders. Bland Wolves was stamped across the front of their green and white outfits.

The tallest girl stood in the middle of them, her hands crossed in front of her chest. She gave us an aggravated look. She had long blonde hair pulled back in a silky ponytail which swayed back and forth as she shook her head to the question one of the other girls had asked her.

“Tiffany, this is Nikki,” Ronnie said. “She wants to try out for the squad.”

Tiffany looked at me. “You’re new. It doesn’t matter; you won’t make the cut anyway.”

I had been tempted to throw the tryout. But now she had made me mad and I was determined to show them things I was sure her little backwoods squad had never seen before. I’d show them someone who wasn’t going to back down.

Tiffany sighed and walked out onto the floor. “Well, let’s get this over with. I’ll lead. You just try to copy what I do when I get finished. Got it?”

I gave her a curt nod and waited for her first move.

She started with a jump split in the air. Her legs kicked to either side, and then she landed on the balls of her feet. She looked at me and lifted a perfectly arched eyebrow. I jumped higher up than she had, before I kicked out my legs, landing as easily as she had.

Next, she did a series of cartwheels that landed in a split. I duplicated the movement and added two back flips to the end, before I landed beside her in a split.

The cheerleaders clapped. Tiffany scowled and got up off the floor. She didn’t look at me. “You’ll do,” she muttered.

Ronnie flew over to me as if she had just grown wings, nearly knocking me to the floor in a big hug. “I knew you were going to be great. That was amazing. Where did you learn those back flips? Tiffany never has been able to do those. You showed her up. I think this is so cool.” She chattered nonstop beside me as Beth and Brian got up and came over to us from the bleachers.

“Awesome,” Beth grinned. “I love seeing Tiffany get showed up. I’m glad I came and watched. It’s too bad I didn’t get Bernie over here with his camera, that last flip would have looked great at the top of the page.”

“Oh, you’re going to put it in the paper.” I suddenly felt less sure of myself.

“What’s wrong, Nikki?” Brian teased, “Afraid of a little publicity?”

“Do you have to put that in the paper?” I asked Beth.

“Well, no,” she frowned at me. “I don’t have to, but I think it would make a good article. It would give some of us a boost around here, to know that some people can make Barbie doll over there look bad.”

I remembered Tiffany’s attitude and my temper flared back up. I grinned a little too widely. “Do what you want. If it helps, I’ll do another flip for the camera.”

“I’ll take you up on it another day,” she promised. “I think Bernie has already gone home. I’ll make sure he’s around next time, even if I have to drag him here by his camera.”

Brian threw an arm around my shoulder. “Are you ready to go home? I don’t want to worry your mom.”

He dropped me off at my house and told me he would come pick me up in the morning for school. I waved as he drove back down the road, and then opened up the front door, throwing my backpack on the couch as I went by.

“Is that you, Nikki?” Mom called from the kitchen.

“Yeah, it’s me,” I said. I found her sitting at the old Formica table, sipping a glass of tea.

“How did your day go? I was getting ready to call Anita and ask if she saw you guys, when I heard you come through the door.”

“Not too bad. I met some of the guys from the reservation, I have to be study partner with one of them a couple times a week, so don’t worry if I’m late tomorrow. Oh, and I made the cheerleader team.” I went to the old refrigerator and pulled out a coke, then went back over to the table to sit across from her. “So, how was your day? Any luck with the job?”

“I got it. I start day after tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to go in for drug testing, a physical and all that mess.” She waved her hand as if dismissing the mundane details. “So, cheerleading, and on the first day, too. I am so proud of you. I bet you’re going to make a lot of new friends with those girls.”

“Sure, Mom.” I tried to smile. I thought of the one enemy I was sure I had made with the human Barbie. “I’m going to go up to my bedroom. Call if you need me.”

I curled up in the chair in front of my window and put my sketchpad in my lap. I stared out at the trees. Their thick branches made a canopy above all the small, delicate plants that thrived around their gnarled roots. I opened my pad and started sketching.

I drew everything but the place where I had seen Adam stand. I stared at the paper. It looked like a frame of trees and plants, as if it waited for someone’s picture to be framed inside. It was empty. I frowned and lifted my eyes up to look out the window to decide what to draw in the empty space.

The smallest bush beside the trees was moving. It swayed the slightest bit, as if someone had brushed past it as they walked away. I jumped up from the chair and ran out of the room and back down the stairs, pulling on my shoes before I hit the landing.

“Mom, I’ll be outside,” I yelled, not waiting for a reply.

I ran to the edge of the woods and stopped. I hadn’t been so close to the edge of the yard before. Now I could see there was a small path in the exact spot, where I had been staring. It wasn’t very noticeable, just worn down grass that showed someone or something had traveled the same steps, back and forth a few times. It looked recent. The grass was still green. It stopped at the edge of the brush in the exact place where I had seen Adam.

I thought I heard the sound of someone moving a few feet away and stepped into the shade of the trees onto the path. I walked a few steps, then stopped and listened again. Absolute silence. Even the birds quieted. The small hairs on the back of my neck were standing up again. I jumped when I heard Mom call for me to come back inside to eat. As I turned and started to walk back out, I felt eyes staring at me.

I swung back around, looking for anything out of the ordinary. I saw nothing.

I went back into the house with the unsettling feeling that someone was watching me.

A voice seemed to whisper in my head,
Close. Much too close. Be more careful next time.