Starcrossed (11 page)

during lunch for the next few days,” Ariadne explained quickly,

avoiding eye contact as she moved away from Helen.

“Thank you,” Helen managed to push out between her clenched

teeth. She went back to the cafeteria to intercept Claire.

“Aren’t we going to eat outside?” Claire asked, still moving toward

the exit. She spotted Ariadne and Cassandra out there and

then turned back toHelen with an incredulous look on her face.

“Seriously? It’s not like we have to sit at the same table as them.”

“I know. I just don’t want to be anywhere near them,” Helen said

defensively as she fiddled with the clasp on her lunch box. Claire

rolled her eyes.

“Hey,” Matt said, catching up to them. “I thought we were going

out on the patio. There’re still plenty of tables . . .” His voice trailed

off when he saw the Delos girls. Matt had just enough willpower to

stifle a whistle at Ariadne’s glorious cleavage—pretty impressive

since Ariadne was wearing a tank top and bending over at that particular

moment. Helen knew she was ruining Matt’s eye candy and

Claire’s sunshine, but she just couldn’t eat outside.

“You guys go out. It’s fine,” Helen said as she abruptly left them

and headed toward the cafeteria.

“Lennie! What the hell?” Claire called after her in frustration.

“Could you please get your head out of your ass?”

Claire’s voice carried right around the corner with Helen. The

word ass seemed to echo in the air as she found herself facing

Hector and Jason at their lockers. They were talking with Gretchen

and Amy Heart, a senior girl on the cheerleading squad, both of

whom were flirting their brains out. Gretchen and Amy looked at

each other and then turned in unison to stare at Helen as though

she was something they had just found in a hankie. The Furies

started to whisper. Helen took a deep breath and tried to block

them out.

“Hi, Helen,” Hector said with a bright voice and eerily blank eyes.

His body leaned ever so slightly forward in her direction, as if he

couldn’t stop himself from trying to reach out and grab her. Jason

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playfully smacked his brother on the chest with far more force than

normal people like Amy and Gretchen could guess at.

“Rude?” Jason reminded Hector.

“Just saying hi to Helen. Hi, Helen. Helen Hamilton, hi. Get out

to ’Sconset lately?” he jeered.

“No, she hasn’t,” Lucas said from behind her. Helen spun around

and glared at him. “And I would know,” he said so quietly there

was no way normals could hear it. But Helen could.

All of a sudden she felt like she’d had enough intimidation for

one day. Goaded on by the Furies, she took a tiny step toward Lucas.

She saw him inhale sharply, and understood in a flash that Lucas

had probably spent just as much time trying to scrub away her

scent after their little tumble in his front yard as she had spent trying

to scrub away his. The thought made her so happy she almost

laughed.

“Tell Noel the olive oil she sent was the best I’ve ever tasted,”

Helen said with a wicked little smile. She saw Lucas’s eyes snap

open a little wider with fear, and she knew she had guessed right.

There was something different about his mother. “Anytime she

wants to try my bruschetta she’s more than welcome to stop by.”

Lucas made a move toward Helen, but Jason was suddenly at

Helen’s elbow, pushing her gently to the side as he forcibly pulled

Lucas tothe lockers. Helen took the opportunity to be on her way,

but she couldn’t resist one final jab before she left.

“Tell your aunt I said hi,” Helen breathed through bared teeth as

she passed Hector, mimicking his menacing tone perfectly.

She didn’t stop to wait for a response. As she sauntered down the

hall she could feel all three Delos boys staring holes in her back,

but it didn’t make her the least bit nervous. She was so pleased

with herself that she even forgot to slouch.

Tuesday wasn’t much better, but at least Helen had stopped trying

to alter her schedule to avoid the Delos kids. Instead, they were

altering their schedules in order to avoid her . . . so, of course, she

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was running into them all day long. It seemed like every time she

turned down a hallway she bumped into one of them.

To make matters worse, her friends were starting to get annoyed

with her. Claire thought Helen was being a spineless wuss. Matt

got all sullen and huffy every time Helen flinched because she and

Lucas had made eye contact.

On Wednesday, the Delos clan changed tactics. First thing in the

morning, Helen went to her locker and found Jason waiting for her

there, leaning up against the wall like he’d been put there to decorate

the place. Jason had the kind of body that was built to lounge,

very catlike, as if he was capable of stretching out and taking a nap

at any given moment. He was more gracefully built than his cousin

or his brother and when he stood next to them he seemed small,

but in the same way a panther is small when compared to a lion or

a bull. To Helen, seeing him by himself in the relatively empty hallway,

he was big. She forced herself to keep walking forward, and

when he glanced over at her she noticed that he had the most outrageously

long eyelashes she’d ever seen on a boy.

“Do you have a sec?” he asked in a stiff but polite manner. Helen

could see him concentrating, probably trying as hard as she was to

block out the Furies.

“All right,” Helen answered, keeping her eyes on the floor. She

could see that the kids with lockers near hers were taking their

sweet time getting their stuff together. She really wished they

would leave, but no one at Nantucket High would pass up an opportunity

for a front row seat at another possible brawl.

“Some of us think it would be a good idea if we tried to smooth

things over,” he said quickly, as if he wanted to get it done with as

fast as possible. Helen thought for a moment.

“Some of you? You mean there hasn’t been any unanimous decision

made yet? About me, I mean,” Helen said pointedly.

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“No, sorry,” he said, understanding her meaning immediately.

“But we think—well, at least a few of us think that we should at

least try to be nicer to each other.”

“I don’t see how we’re going to be able to do that, do you?” Helen

replied, not meaning to sound unfriendly but unable to stop herself.

She heard one of the girls loitering nearby tisk at her.

“We just want to be friends with you. Or if not friends, then at

least not enemies. Think it over,” he said, and then left.

It took Helen three tries to get her lock undone with everyone

standing around staring at her. Using all her energy to not attack

Jason as he walked away, she had none left over for patience. She

wanted to scream at everyone for judging her, but that would never

be possible. What would she say? I’m not usually a bitch—I’m just

super-grouchy because I’m being stalked by three blood-crying

ghosts who won’t let me sleep at night?

At lunch, she was surprised to see Ariadne and Cassandra sitting

at her customary table with her friends. Even from a distance

Helen could see that Matt was flushed with repressed hormones.

Gretchen and Zach, who never sat at their lunch table, were there,

too, kissing popular ass. Helen wavered in the doorway for a moment,

thinking she might still have a chance to sneak away, when

Ariadne spotted her and waved her over.

During that uncomfortable lunch, Ariadne was as nice as could

be to Helen, and even though there was a brittle quality to Cassandra’s

smiles, there were plenty of them. Despite this genuine attempt

at friendship, Helen was so agitated by the insufferable presence

of the Furies hovering just outside the corner of her eye that

her testy behavior earned her several scandalized looks from

Gretchen and a few worried ones from Claire. As they left the cafeteria,

Claire pulled Helen aside.

“Would it kill you to be nice?” she asked.

“You have no idea how hard I’m trying,” Helen replied though

tight lips.

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“Try harder. You’re coming off like a total snob, and I know

you’re not one so don’t even start.” Claire continued over Helen’s

protestation: “I can tell there’s something weird going on. Something

that you’re not telling me about. I’m fine with that. But

you have to start pretending you like them or people like Gretchen

and Zach are going to make sure that your life here is miserable

until graduation.”

Helen nodded submissively. She knew she was getting good advice,

but her life was already miserable enough without cozying up

to the Delos family. Still, the next day she did her best to make an

effort and smiled at Ariadne and Jason as she passed them in the

hall. The attempt wasn’t pretty—it came off more like a toothy

grimace than a grin—but it was well received by the twins.

Hector was a different story. Apparently, he didn’t share in the

opinion that they should all try to get along, and after another harrowing

day of forcing herself not to flinch when she saw Lucas,

Helen had to pass by Hector on her way to track. As if pulled by invisible

wires, Hector changed direction and started following her

across the field. He was calling her name under his breath, like he

was singing a song to himself. Helen glanced around desperately

for another person, a witness in case something happened, and

sighed out loud when she saw a few girls headed in her direction.

They looked at how Helen was practically running away from Hector

and stared at her like she had grown horns. Most girls at school

would have run toward Hector if he was smiling at them like that.

All Thursday night, Helen was kept awake by the moaning of the

Furies, as though one of the Delos kids were near. On Friday,

Helen had to get up at dawn to drive Kate and Jerry to the airport.

They were flying to Boston to attend a small-business owners’ conference

for the weekend, and Helen was looking forward to a few

days on her own. Between the lack of sleep and the daily harassment,

Helen felt ground down to bare bone. All she had to do was

make it through one more day at school and then she could crawl

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into bed and hide until Monday. Maybe, eventually, she would

even be able to fall asleep.

Unfortunately, what she thought was the Friday Finish Line was

actually a trip wire, as she found out when she got to school. At

first she didn’t understand why she was getting bumped into so

much, and assumed it had to be some new trend that she had

missed, until Claire began yelling at everyone to back off. Then

Helen started to listen to what everyone was saying when they

bumped into her.

People she had never even spoken to were whispering “bitch” and

“slut” as they passed her in the hallway. The whole day brought

one insult after another. Three separate times Helen had to run into

the girls’ room to hide. She managed to make it through the day

without seeing any of the Delos kids, but in exchange she had become

the bull’s-eye on everyone else’s target. By the time she was

changing for track, she was such a nervous wreck she didn’t know

if she was going to cry or throw up. Once outside, she caught up to

Claire on wobbly legs. Thankfully, the other girls gave them a wide

berth as they ran the trail.

“Why do they even care?” Helen burst out in frustration. “What

does it matter if I like the Delos kids or not?”

“Because that’s not the whole story,” Claire said gently.

“What did you hear?” Helen asked, desperate for any

explanation.

“There’s this rumor that Lucas and Hector are fighting over you,

so of course all the girls hate you now,” Claire said like she hoped

the rumor was ridiculous, but wasn’t entirely sure if it was.

“You’re joking, right?”

Claire shook her head. “I guess Lucas and Hector got into an actual

fistfight after school yesterday at football practice. That’s why

they weren’t in school today. They got suspended.”

“What happened?” Helen asked, stunned quiet.

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“Lucas saw Hector following you out of the girl’s locker room and

he lost it. He started yelling at Hector to stay away from you. I

guess Lucas sort of said . . . that you were his,” Claire said timidly.

Helen shook her head. Lucas had meant that Helen was his to kill,

but she couldn’t exactly explain that to Claire.

“All the girls hate me because Lucas is a delusional stalker? How

is that fair? I loathe him,” Helen said passionately. She paused.

Another thought occurred to her. “But that only explains the girls

hating me. There’s more, right?”

“Oh, yeah. It gets way worse, because they didn’t just get suspended,”

Claire continued, her brow scrunched with worry. “Zach said

that Hector and Lucas went at it in this really scary way, right there

in front of the whole football team, the coaches, everyone. It was

bad. Like death-match bad. Jason got in between them and managed