Pulse of Heroes (5 page)

Every time Michelle thought about that class
she got sick in her stomach. She had never had such a feeling about
anything before, even if she wasn't doing too well at school. This
year, she put a lot of pressure on herself to do well, and being so
far behind in Italian was spiraling out of control. This foreboding
started affecting Michelle at school very negatively. On the days
that she had her Italian class she felt agitated and depressed. And
right before the class, she would get sweaty palms and her heart
rate would go up to the point where she felt dizzy. There was one
mean kid in her class that obviously sensed her weak energy and
started picking on her. First it was just a mean look. But later,
he even threw crumpled pieces of paper at her, and when she turned
around to face him, he didn't even pretend like he didn't do it. He
would stare right at her, challenging her. She was too embarrassed
to tell anybody about it; after all, she was sixteen not six. Now
she had two problems to deal with: the fact that she wasn't doing
well in class, and the fact that a bully was tormenting her. She
started wishing that she had never switched into that class, and
that she had just stayed in German instead.

Michelle finished washing her hands and was
checking her complexion in the mirror. She looked pale and tired.
The warning bell buzzed above, and she knew she had to face Italian
class one more time. She had it on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays,
and today was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Just get through
the rest of the day, she was thinking to herself, and then she
wouldn’t have to be back until next week.

The second bell rang, letting all students
know that it was time to settle into their classrooms. Michelle
looked up at the clock. It was five minutes to 11. She really did
have every intention of going to class, but suddenly it just felt
like some switch turned off, and instead of walking out of the
bathroom she just stood there. Her legs felt immensely heavy and
her feet felt like they were sticking to the floor. It was the most
bizarre sensation. It was as if her own body was fighting her. She
had a minute to get to class; after that she would be late. If she
ran she could make it by no later than 11:05. But she didn't run,
and she didn't make it to class at all.

Michelle found herself in the girls’ changing
room, sitting on a bench with her knees pressed up against her
chest. What was she doing there, she thought? She was actually
cutting class, and she had never done that before. She felt
horrible. Not only for the fact that she was hiding in the girls’
locker room, but because she thought it was pathetic to be cutting
class out of fear alone. She had let herself down. Michelle knew
that it was only a matter of time before someone found her there,
so she decided to leave the school grounds hoping not to run into
the ‘truant witch’ Mrs. FitzSimmons. Everybody knew that she wasn't
a real witch, and in fact was a very nice lady and she even laughed
when she heard what the kids had named her. But as nice as she was,
if you weren’t in class you were going to get a yellow card and be
sent to the office.

Outside, the school felt eerily empty,
especially since it wasn’t and there were hundreds of students
tucked away inside the classrooms. Shuffling her feet, Michelle
slowly walked over to the back of the school where she would be
less likely to be found out, and from there she began walking the
school perimeter and praying for the time to pass. Once the bell
rang to mark the end of third period, she was able to exhale
deeply; she had survived. Of course, now she would have to deal
with questions as to her whereabouts during class. Michelle fished
through her locker to retrieve her cell phone which was buried down
deep, and texted Samantha to pick up something in the cafeteria for
her to eat. She would meet her at the bleachers.

It was a particularly beautiful day for late
November. The sun was emanating white light, the air felt crisp and
clean, and all the plants and trees were incredibly green and lush.
Yet for all its beauty, the day was also very cold. Michelle sat
down on the bleachers, bundled up in her puffy jacket, gloves and
matching faux fur trimmed hat. She had the hat pulled down so low
that she could see the edges of the fur sticking down into her
view. She was in a lethargic, dreamlike state when Samantha walked
up carrying her hot cocoa.

“Hey, space cadet.” Samantha handed her the
cocoa and pulled out a plastic wrapped Danish from the front pocket
of her own fuzzy hoodie. “They didn't have any fresh bagels, so I
got you this instead. I hope that's okay.”

“It's fine,” Michelle said, taking the
Danish. Samantha settled down and began to eat her own lunch.

No one said anything for a while, so finally
Samantha had to break the silence. “There is something wrong,
right?”

Michelle contemplated telling her the truth
of what she had just done, but she just couldn't bring herself to
do it. It was strange because she always shared everything with
Samantha. But, just like she hadn’t been able to walk to class, she
felt the same impediment when she tried to talk about it.

“No, I'm just tired,” Michelle answered.

“Are you sure?” Samantha insisted.

“Yeah. I don't know, maybe it’s just the
holidays.” Michelle was still staring into the distance, rather
than looking at her friend.

Confused, Samantha asked, “Is it because your
brother's girlfriend is going to be sleeping in your room?”

“Maybe,” Michelle answered, and at the same
time realized that she had completely forgotten about that. Toby
was bringing his new girlfriend to Thanksgiving dinner and Michelle
had suggested to him that she could spend the night in her room
because there was no way that their parents would feel comfortable
with Toby and her sleeping together. And besides, nobody enjoyed
being that intimate with somebody’s parents around. Well, at least
Michelle imagined that they wouldn't. Truth was that at that time
she hadn't really minded, but now as she thought about it in school
she realized that she wasn’t feeling very sociable.

“Do you even know her name?” Samantha asked.
Michelle had to think about that for a while.

“You know, I never bothered to ask,” she
giggled. Somebody blew a whistle from the track down below, and Tim
and three other guys began running while the wrestling coach stood
to the side with a stopwatch in hand. When they passed the
bleachers where Michelle and Samantha were sitting, Tim slowed down
and jogged over to the side.

Are you girls defrosted yet?” he shouted up
to them.

Samantha elbowed Michelle and whispered, “I
told you he's still trying to get your attention,” keeping her
teeth together. Michelle whispered back in annoyance, “I don't
care, Samantha.”

Samantha whispered right back at her, “What's
with you?” and a heartbeat later she stood up and yelled back down
at Tim. “Keep running, we’re still freezing. I’ll let you know if
it works!” Tim laughed and sped up to catch up with the rest of the
team. Michelle immediately shoved Samantha in disapproval.

“I can't believe you did that.” Michelle
couldn't wait for the day to be over.

When Michelle got home from school there was
an unfamiliar van parked outside her house with “SAFETY FIRST –
ALARM SYSTEMS” stenciled in big bold letters on the side door.
Michelle rolled her eyes and wondered how much worse her day could
get. She had cut class for the first time in her life, Tim was
obviously back together with Bethany, and she was failing Italian.
And now on top of all that, her parents were going to cage her up
like some bird inside her house because everyone was paranoid over
a measly little private school that was moving into the town.

Michelle walked into the house through the
open door and saw two men in blue uniforms wiring up the windows
and installing a security system panel by the front entry. They
both greeted her, and although the younger one was actually really
cute, she wished that they would just go away. There were amazing
aromas coming out of the kitchen and when Michelle recognized one
of them as homemade stuffing she realized that her mother was
already cooking for Thanksgiving dinner.

“Come here and try this. Tell me what you
think,” her mom asked, holding a wooden spoon dripping with
homemade gravy.

“What's up with the alarm system, Mom?”
Michelle asked instead.

Her mother set down the spoon and replied
nonchalantly, “Oh, you know. Everybody else is getting them. It was
a great deal this time of year, so I thought hey, why not?”

“Right. And you’re telling me this has
nothing to do with that boarding school moving in so close to our
house?” Michelle's voice was demanding.

“Tone down your voice, Michelle,” her mother
scolded.

Michelle was sorry. She hadn’t meant for the
question to come out quite like that. Her mother explained that she
and her father had wanted to get an alarm system for some time, and
with the great holiday specials, they thought this was a perfect
opportunity. It would be beneficial in lots of situations, not just
because of the new school.

When her mom asked her about her day,
Michelle was reminded about her cutting class and she felt
horrible. “It was okay,” she answered, and she avoided talking
about the subject any longer by walking over to the stove and
asking what was cooking in the big pot. Homemade cream of mushroom
soup, and it tasted scrumptious. Michelle did have to hand it to
her mom that she was the greatest cook ever!

Early Thanksgiving morning, Michelle was
jolted awake by the loud sound of the alarm system going off. The
sirens were deafening, and without even realizing that she was
awake yet, she jumped out of bed and ran downstairs. Her dad was
fidgeting with the panel, while both cell phones and the house line
were ringing in unison. Toby and his girlfriend were standing at
the front door in complete shock. It was an absolute madhouse, and
nobody could hear what anyone else was saying. Eventually her
father was able to turn the system off, and her mom explained to
the alarm people that it was ‘user error’. Michelle's parents had
forgotten to warn Toby about the alarm system, and he just did what
he had always done; use his own key to unlock the front door. It
turned out that he and the girlfriend had decided to show up extra
early by actually driving at night instead of leaving on
Thanksgiving morning. “Oh, don’t worry. They won’t mind,” he had
assured her. What a way to meet the family, Michelle thought to
herself, although she did see the humor in the situation, with all
of them running around half asleep in their pajamas. Poor Toby she
thought, he looked so embarrassed. Finally, after all the proper
introductions were made everything returned to normal, and the rest
of the day proceeded uneventfully.

That Friday, Michelle, Toby and his
girlfriend set out to take a walk in the woods towards the site
where the new school was being constructed. Michelle told Toby all
about the situation and he was curious to see the progress. They
exited through the gate in the backyard and walked through the
shadowy pines, their shoes crunching along dry leaves and moist
earth. It took no longer than 20 minutes and they were at the
perimeter of the property. Previously, it had been marked by a low
wooden fence that encircled it, but now the old fence was no longer
there and in its place was a tall cement wall that rounded the
property, about nine feet high. They walked around the wall for a
while looking for an opening, and eventually did find a section
where it was still under construction.

“This is private property,” Toby said. “If we
go in there and get caught we could get in trouble.”

“But there's nobody here. The place is
totally deserted,” Michelle said.

All three of them stood there and listened
for a while to see if they could hear anything but the only thing
they heard was the rustling of branches in the soft breeze.

Michelle led the way. “It's the day after
Thanksgiving. Nobody works today.” Michelle always felt brave when
her older brother was around.

They all followed her lead, walking around
and checking out the site of the new emerging building. They found
it amazing how quickly the giant structure was shaping up. “They
must have had 100 men working here all at once to get this thing
off the ground so fast!” exclaimed Toby. Michelle didn't really
understand what he was talking about because in her eyes all she
saw was the metal framing. But Toby was studying engineering, and
he explained to her that all there was left to do was to install
the outer and inner walls, and at the rate they were progressing,
that could be done in another two weeks. They continued walking
around the grounds checking things out, and eventually they arrived
at the front driveway. At first Michelle didn't think anything of
it; it was just a car parked next to some other vehicles and work
trucks. But just as they were about to turn around and head back,
Michelle realized that she had seen that particular car before. It
was the same one that Samantha had almost swerved into on Halloween
night! It was one of the newer models of the Ford Thunderbirds. Of
course, it could have been another car that just looked like it,
but it was the unusual color that caught Michelle's eyes. The
Thunderbird was clearly off-white, but had small specks of
opalescence embedded in the paint. On Halloween night under the
glow of the halogen streetlamp, she vividly remembered seeing the
different colors reflecting in the light.

Toby was amused that Michelle was taking such
an interest in a car. “Michelle, I think it will be quite a while
before mom and dad help you get one of these.” He walked over to
the car and examined it more closely. Impressed, he let out a
whistle. “Those are expensive leather seats, and white too.
Somebody’s got mucho bucks!” He then noticed that there was an
alarm light flashing inside the vehicle. “Let's go. If we get any
closer, we're going to set this thing off too.” One alarm snafu for
the weekend was enough. Michelle agreed. She had seen enough of the
car anyway; it only brought back memories of that evening, memories
of the night she could have died, memories she would like to
forget. Michelle didn't say much during the walk back to the house.
She was lost in thought, reliving that Halloween evening, churning
one question in her head over and over again; what if the car
hadn't halted so abruptly in front of the tree?