Taken (Book #2 of the Vampire Legends) (8 page)

“Leave me alone,” Rachel said.

“Keep dreaming darling. I’m on your case
now. First you stole the guy I liked and now this. You really don’t know when
to stop do you?”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t do
anything.”

“Yeah right— if by nothing you mean
taking out the top players of the AHS football team.”

“It wasn’t my fault, Arielle. Now go
away.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I
own
this school— which you wouldn’t know because you’re the new girl. But you
better learn, because anyone who doesn’t know, messes with the wrong person. I
may look nice, but deep down, I can make your life a living hell.”

Rachel stared at her in shock. She didn’t
know what to say. The two sat there in silence staring at each other for a
minute and then Arielle spoke. “You better watch your back. If you so much as
look the wrong way, you’re dead.”

Arielle slowly got up from the table and
dumped Rachel’s Arizona Iced Tea all over her sandwich. “Have a good day!”
Arielle sneered.

Arielle glared at Rachel as she walked
away from the table and mouthed, “watch it,” as she put her two fingers to her
eyes and pointed back at Rachel.

Rachel sat there, stunned and scared.
Where were her friends when she needed them? She couldn’t believe what had just
happened.

She took out her cell phone and began to
text Emily. It was totally unlike all of her friends to not show up for lunch.
This had never happened before.

Emily: Where
are you guys? Come quick. I need to tell you what just happened.

Rachel stared down at her
phone, waiting for Emily to reply.  But she didn’t. She couldn’t sit alone in
the cafeteria any longer with her drenched PB&J sitting in front of her.
She felt like a schoolboy who had been hazed; now all that needed to happen was
for her to get her head flushed in the toilet. That would top this day off
perfectly, she though humorously to herself.

As she walked out of the
cafeteria, she didn’t know where to go. She walked down the silent hallways
towards the gym. She remembered the first day of school, when she walked around
the school aimlessly to avoid the cafeteria scene.

Rachel heard noises coming
down the hall. She turned to see what it was, and she saw Emily, Liv and Taryn
walking and whispering to each other.

Rachel turned around and
began walking towards them. “Hey Guys!” she shouted down the hall.

“Ah! Rach, OMG, you will
never guess what happened,” Emily said.

“Where were you guys? Nobody
was at lunch today,” Rachel said.

“Yeah, duh. We were all in
Dr. McNery’s office all morning. He kept all of us for questioning. It was
terrible.”

“Seriously? All of you?
Where’s Jen and Kate?”

Rachel saw Emily look at the
other girls with questioning eyes and then back at Rachel.

“Well, we’re not sure what’s
going on with them, but they were sitting in the Vice Principals office when we
left just now. They didn’t see us though. I hope they’re not in trouble.”

“Oh gosh,” Rachel said,
sounding frightened. “I wonder what happened.”

“I completely agree with
you,” Liv said, giving her a high five. “Don’t they have better things to do
than to harp over some dumb fight?”

“I can’t wait for this week
to be over!” Rachel exclaimed. “We need the weekend to come. All of us!”

“Cheers to that!” Taryn
said, holding up her hand as if she were holding a glass.

RING RING RING

The bell rang, and kids
began to flood into the hallways. Rachel was thankful that she had survived
lunch, especially with her run in with Arielle.

Now, she just had to make it
through the next two and a half hours and then she’d be home free— at least for
the weekend.

*

Rachel couldn’t wait to get
out of school when she heard the sound of the last bell ring. She gathered her
bag and ran out the doors of the school and waited for her friends. A moment
later, Taryn pulled up in her BMW and honk the horn. As Rachel walked over to
the car, she heard someone calling her name from behind her.

“Hey Rachel! Where are you
going?”

Rachel turned around to see
Sarah calling after her as she got into Taryn’s car.

“Oh, hey! Is mom here?”
Rachel quickly asked Sarah.

“Don’t think so,” Sarah
replied, looking around the parking lot.

“Phew, I’m supposed to be at
math extra help. Please cover for me if she asks.”

“Haha!” Sarah laughed. “You’re
growing up!”

“I told her I needed to say
after, but I’m going to the mall for a bit, please don’t tell.”

“Don’t worry, your secret’s
safe with me, Sis! Call me if you run into any trouble.”

Rachel was so happy with
their new relationship. She couldn’t believe how over the course of the past
week their relationship had completely shifted. She felt like they were really
becoming close friends, instead of enemies.

“Hey Taryn!” Rachel said, as
she hopped into the back seat. She didn’t want to sit up front, just in case
she saw her mom driving around.

A moment later all the girls
hopped into the car. The back seat was full and Rachel was squished in between
Jen, Liv and Kate. She knew it was illegal to ride four in the back, but there
was nothing she could do about it now. The car began to accelerate, and the six
girls were off to the Westchester Mall.

The car speed down route 22
and onto I-684 with Z100 blaring over the radio. Rachel couldn’t help but
remember their infamous trip into NYC the previous weekend. This was a de ja
vous moment for her.

Rachel looked at the
orange-lit clock on the dashboard, which read 2:43PM, and she knew she only had
about two hours until she would have to be picked up from school. She knew she
would have to remember to keep an eye on her watch.

“What happened to you two
today?” Rachel asked, turning to Jess and Kate.

“Ugh, it was awful,” Kate,
answered. “They kept us in the office all afternoon.”

“But why?” asked Rachel.

Taryn turned down the music
so she could hear what they were saying.

“They thought we had
information on the whereabouts of this Benji guy,” Jen said.

“It was totally crazy. Like,
why would I ever call Benji? I don’t even know him or have his number,” Jen
said. “I think the police have gone mad.”

“They accused you of calling
him?” Rachel asked.

“Well, not exactly,”
answered Jen. “But it was weird how they asked us if we’ve been in touch with
him and said they’ve checked our phone records.”

“They did the same thing to
me,” Rachel said. “Luckily, I hadn’t talked to him since the night of the
fight.”

Rachel thought about what
she had just said, and got sad for a moment. She really missed Benji and so
desperately wanted to speak to him. She was still a little skeptical and creped
out that he called himself a vampire— but she wanted to at least talk to him,
warn him about what was going on at school. She wondered if he had any idea of
the repercussions he had caused.

Rachel looked out of the
window and saw a huge cement and stone building with a W and an M intertwined.
She figured that stood for Westchester Mall. Taryn turned up the music as they
entered the parking garage and pulled into a spot next to another BMW and a
Mercedes.

This was Rachel’s first time
at the famous Westchester Mall. Her friends had been telling her about this
mall since they’d met. Rachel was pumped she was finally here to experience the
mall for herself.

As the six girls entered the
big white and gold doors that led them into the mall, Rachel could smell the
potpourri smell that infused the air. They got onto the escalator and Rachel
looked up. It was the most beautiful mall she’d ever seen. It was four stories
of sheer bliss. She looked up at all the different floors and then up at the
ceiling, full of skylight windows. The ground floor of the mall had marble
tiling and each floor above it was beautifully carpeted. She couldn’t help but
feel like Annie, the first time she entered Mr. Warbucks’ house. She stood
there in awe of this place. It was the biggest and grandest building she’d ever
been in. She didn’t know where to go first.

The girls walked over to the
directory and started spitting out names of stores they wanted to hit. “Abercrombie,
Sephora, Louis Vuitton, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom’s, Anthropology, Delia’s,
JCrew.” The list went on and on, and Rachel’s mind was spinning. Where was she?
She hadn’t heard of most of these stores, but she figured she’d go along for
the ride. She wasn’t really in the market for anything new— not to mention her
weekly allowance of $25 dollars probably wouldn’t get her far in this place.

Rachel looked at her watch:
it was 3:03pm and she had about an hour and a half until her mom would begin to
wonder where she was. The girls began to walk around the first floor, and they
entered the Tiffany & Co. store.

The walls were painted the Tiffany Blue
color and Rachel was in awe of the beautiful diamonds that filled each case.
She’d never been inside a Tiffany’s store before, but had heard all about them.
Apparently, in Westchester, every girl had something from Tiffany’s. All her
friends had the heart tag charm bracelet with their initials engraved on them.
The girls said they got them for each other last year as a Christmas/Hanukkah
present. Rachel was surprised, but then realized she was in a much different
town than the one she came from in Pennsylvania. She couldn’t believe that
these girls would spend $300 dollars on each other for a Christmas gift. 

Liv walked over to the
counter and called over one of the sales ladies. “Can I see this?” she pointed
to a mesh ring in the case.

“Yes, you may,” the sales
lady said in a professional voice as she pulled the ring out of the case.

Liv tried on the ring and
looked down at the price. Rachel saw the tag, and could not believe it: $895.

“I’m going to ask my mom for
this, for my birthday!”

Rachel watched as the girls “ood”
and “ahhd” over the ring she put on her finger. Liv handed the ring back, and
the lady handed Liv her business card

“Please give this to your
parents, and have them call me when they’re ready to purchase the ring.”

“Will do!” Liv said with a
smile.

The girls walked out of the
store and headed up the escalator into Neiman Marcus. They walked over to the
shoe department and began looking around at all the different pumps, sneakers
and flats. Rachel picked up one shoe and flipped it over to see the price. This
particular shoe had a bright red bottom with a small sticker, which read $795!
Rachel thought she had read it wrong. Seven hundred and ninety five dollars for
a simple pair of black patent pumps? She looked at the label on the inside of
the shoe, which read Christian Louboutin. She’d never heard of this brand, but
knew she was better off. She could never afford those shoes—or any of the shoes
in that whole shoe department. She picked up a few others Prada, Gucci, Fendi,
Manolo Blahnik, each one more expensive than the next. She couldn’t imagine who
would spend $2,500 on a pair of tan suede and fur trimmed boots, but apparently
they sold them, so someone must want them.

Rachel was in shock. This
was the opposite of any mall she’d ever been in and she felt a little ashamed.
She couldn’t afford anything in the entire store. She wished she were back in
Pennsylvania shopping at Aeropostale, JC Penney’s and Wal Mart. At least there
she didn’t feel like she was being judged by the amount of money she could
spend.

The girls walked out of
Neiman Marcus and upstairs to the Louis Vuitton store.

“Guys, I’ve been wanting the
LV Neverfull so badly,” Taryn said as they walked into the store.

“What’s that?” Rachel
asked.  She instantly felt like a moron. She figured she should have kept her
mouth shut and just watched.

“That’s it!” Taryn said, as
she pointed to a bag high on the shelf.

“Can I see that?” Taryn
asked the sales man.

“Sure you may, young lady.
What size? GM, MM or PM?”

“PM, please,” Taryn
responded.

The man pulled open a
sliding drawer underneath a glass case full of wallets, belts, sunglasses and
other LV accessories. He unwrapped the tan dust bag and handed her the
canvas-monogrammed bag.

“OMG! Is this not the most
amazing bag you’ve ever seen?” Taryn said, looking at the girls.

“Love that bag!” Jen said with
a smile. “I want the Speedy 35 though.”

“I think I’m going to get
it!” Taryn said whimsically to the girls, then looked back at the salesman. “How
much is it again?”

“The PM bag sells for $770,”
he replied.

Rachel watched as Taryn
looked at the girls for encouragement.

“Get it— you’ve been wanting
it for a while,” Emily said.