The Ghost of Lizard's Rock (8 page)

Dan stared at her hand and
then slapped it. No one had ever done that before without first
checking his hand.

As if on cue, we all broke
into laughter at the same time, but then everything went quiet - we
all realized one of our friends was missing.

Oliver stood up, “I’ll
find him.”

We looked at each other
and were instantly reminded of the wrong that had just happened to
Jacob.

The Picture

The bell rang for several
seconds as we stood outside the lunch room on the pavement. It was
time to return to our classroom. I looked around for Oliver and
Jacob. There was no sign of them. A moment later, Oliver walked
around the corner by himself.

“I couldn’t find him,”
Oliver was truly worried for Jacob.

Mr. Anders waited for
everyone to get seated, “Where’s Jacob?”

“Well,” piped up Maddison
immediately, “it was so funny!”

The heads of every student
in the room looked at her at the same time in disgust.

She did her little
princess look and bobbed her head back and forth a couple of times,
“I thought it was totally hilarious.” Only Rebecca and Heather
laughed with her.

Mr. Anders got on the
phone and called the office. Someone had seen Jacob walking away
from the school towards the woods across the street, but he hadn’t
been seen since.

The rest of the afternoon
was fairly quiet as most of us wondered what had happened to
Jacob.

Mr. Anders broke the
silence just before the last hour of the day, “It is time for PE.
You are required to dress down so bring your shoes with you and
your homework. You will be dismissed from the gym.”

He continued to explain,
“Seventh grade is very different from elementary school in that you
are required to change for P.E. and wear the school gym
uniform.”

Anders looked into the
eyes of the class to make sure they clearly understood his
message.

“Everyone will be given a
pair of shorts and a t-shirt to change into. It is your
responsibility to take care of it, wash it and make sure that you
have it at school on days when we have P.E. The school will provide
you with one only. If you lose it or want a spare set you must
purchase them yourselves.”

At the front of the
classroom were stacks of t-shirts and shorts. They were folded and
placed into piles with our names pinned on the top. At
registration, our parents had filled out forms with our
sizes.

Mr. Anders began calling
out our names and handing out the gym uniforms. I watched as Mr.
Anders set aside Jacob’s on the desk beside him.

One thing we all knew was
that Jacob hated gym class. He hated everything about it because
everyone expected him to be good at sports just because he was head
and shoulders bigger than everyone else.

Jacob also hated it
because someone always made a point of physically attacking him to
prove they were the dominant person.

No one ever listened to
Jacob or his dislike for sports. In a town like Tiny being a jock
is instant popularity so no one understood why Jacob would turn it
down. Being good at sports meant you were one of the guys, but
being a guy who didn’t like sports made you someone other than
that.

Jacob had to listen year
after year to the taunts of people calling him fat boy, big baby,
and some things that just shouldn’t be repeated.

Sometimes the other boys
would even make fun of his changing body and his so-called ‘man
boobs’. All of these things were extremely hurtful to Jacob, but he
kept the hurt to himself where nobody could see it – or so he
thought. His friends knew what was happening.

“Kati,” said Mr.
Anders.

I walked up to the pile
and returned to my desk with my new uniform. A few minutes later,
loaded down with all our possessions, we left for the gym with Mr.
Anders leading the way.

Ms. Carson was already
standing by the dressing room doors, waiting for the girls, clip
board in hand, when we entered the gym.

Each of us told her our
name as we walked by. I noticed that she placed a check mark in the
box beside our name.

I entered the dressing
room nervously and noticed Allie by herself in the nearest corner
of the room.

Allie seemed relieved to
see me, “I’ve never dressed down before. This is so -
awkward!”

I knew exactly how she
felt and replied nervously, “Me neither.”

I changed into my gym
clothes as quickly as possible. I looked over at Allie. She was
already dressed and waiting for me.

Maddison caught my
attention at that moment. I noticed that she and her friends were
whispering about something as they stared at me from the corner of
the dressing room. The three of them giggled as they ran out the
door and into the gym.

Allie and I followed
behind them.

Every once in awhile
Heather or Rebecca would turn back toward me and giggle in a sort
of evil way. I wondered what they were up to.

The boys were directed
outside by Mr. Anders and the girls were told to line up on the
line in front of Ms. Carson.

Ms. Carson spent most of
the class telling us the rules and procedures of gym class.
Stretching and calisthenics followed this.

Already, many of the girls
were gasping for air including the ‘princess’.

“I want you to start
jogging around the outside line of the gym floor,” directed Ms.
Carson.

There were many grumbles
from the girls.

Maddison was the loudest,
“I’ve got a side ache Ms. Carson. Can I just sit down for a
minute?”

Reluctantly, Ms. Carson
agreed and pointed to a bench on the side of the gym. It didn’t
take long before Maddison was joined by Heather and
Rebecca.

I was surprised when Allie
ran by me like a deer. A minute later, she lapped me again, but
slowed down to talk to me.

“You’re really good,” I
said between gasps for air.

“I used to love running,”
answered Allie. She smiled at me and took off again.

I thought, “Used
to?”

Ms. Carson finally blew
her whistle finally and directed us to the showers.

Allie and I quickly
entered the room, undressed, and showered ahead of most of the
girls.

I looked over at Maddison
on the other side of the room, “I guess the good fairy must have
waved her magic wand over Maddison and all her aches and pains are
miraculously gone!”

Allie laughed at the
comment.

I turned my back to
Maddison, finished drying myself off, and began dressing. I never
heard the almost silent click of the cell phone camera behind me as
I bent over in nothing but my pretty new pink thong and
bra.

I slipped into my new
designer jeans. I was barely aware of the giggles from Maddison’s
area.

Ms. Carson stepped into
the center of the dressing room, “You may leave as soon as you are
ready.” The teacher began walking around the room picking up towels
left on the floor.

The giggles from Maddison
and her friends were no longer quiet. It was full-fledged laughter
as they stared at Maddison’s cell phone. A moment later, Maddison
pushed the ‘send’ button and quickly put it in her
pocket.

Ms. Carson walked over to
see what was happening, “Is there something wrong
girls?”

“Nope,” answered Maddison.
“It has been a fantastic day!” She laughed loudly.

Kati wondered what they
were up to.

“We’d better hurry,” said
Allie, “so we don’t miss the bus.”

The two hurriedly walked
out of the dressing room and into the gym.

Kati immediately noticed
several students standing around in small groups looking at their
cell phones.

One by one the students
turned to look at Kati. Some had huge grins on their faces while
others look horrified.

Oliver seemed to appear
out of nowhere with Dan beside him.

“Come with me,” Oliver
quickly escorted Kati out of the gym and into the hallway with Dan
and Allie following.

I was beginning to sense
that something very bad was about to happen. I immediately thought
of Jacob.

Dan handed me his open
cell phone and looked down at the floor. The phone chirped as I
fumbled getting a hold of it.

It seemed as if time had
frozen as I stared at the screen.

“Kati,” said two boys as
they walked by, “You look great in pink!” The boys laughed loudly
and disappeared around the corner.

I couldn’t move or say a
word. I continued to stare in horror at the picture of me in my new
pink thong and bra as I bent over to pull up my jeans in the
dressing room. The picture had been taken by someone directly
behind me.

My water-filled eyes
looked up from the screen. A couple of classrooms down the hallway,
Troy and a couple of his buddies stood staring at their cell
phones.

I looked back down at the
screen again. Right under the picture was the words, ‘Posted by
Maddison at 2:30 p.m. Kati’s Best View’.

As I stared at the screen
the site began to update as people posted comments and clicked that
they “liked” the picture. Everyone was looking at the picture of me
in my underwear - everyone!

I was angry and extremely
hurt at the same time. Everything around me seemed confusing and
out of balance. Voices seemed far away and hard to
understand.

One of Troy’s buddies saw
me standing there, “Looking good Kati!”

Troy looked up at me with
a look of confusion on his face.

I felt like a balloon that
was growing larger and larger – ready to explode at any second. I
handed Dan back his cell phone.

“Kati,” said Oliver, “Are
you okay?”

I couldn’t answer Oliver.
In an instant, I turned and ran down the hallway in the opposite
direction from the bus and out the side door of the
school.

Oliver looked down at the
cell phone in Dan’s hands, “Come on guys. We can’t miss the
bus.”

Allie, Dan, and Oliver
walked side by side down the hallway to the bus. No one said a
word.

Secrets of the
Cave

“Run!” It was the only
thought in my mind. “Run as fast as you can. Run. Don’t think. Just
run!”

I was running blindly –
trying to get as far away from the school as I could. It would only
be a matter of time before everyone under the age of 25 would see
the picture. Things would spread like wildfire on Face Space and
then everyone and I mean everyone would see it.

“Run. Don’t think.” I
screamed at myself silently as I pushed my body to keep
moving.

I don’t know when the
tears started to flow but soon the mascara that I had so carefully
and cautiously put on after gym class was now streaming down my
face and making my eyes burn.

I ran across the street
and into the woods at full speed, jumping over logs and other
debris along the trail.

I furiously wiped the
tears away with the back of my hand.

“I - won’t - let - her -
make – me - cry,” I thought.

I continued to push myself
forward until my lungs began to burn.

Suddenly, it was as if I
had hit a brick wall! My feet went up and my head went down. I
found myself lying on the ground gasping for air.

I had been so busy running
that I hadn’t even seen Jacob in front of me. I had managed to run
into him at full speed and bounced off his chest.

Jacob stood above me, “You
okay?”

“I think so,” I sat up and
began brushing off my new clothes. It didn’t appear that anything
was damaged.

Jacob stared down at me
without saying anything.

“You can’t imagine what
Maddison did to me this afternoon,” I blurted, as if I needed to
explain it to Jacob.

“I can,” answered Jacob.
He pulled his cell phone from his shirt pocket.

“Oh,” groaned Kati. “I
guess you can.”

Jacob reached down and
helped me to my feet.

I brushed the dirt off and
began walking down the trail beside Jacob in silence. It was good
to know that he was okay.

“Sorry about running into
to you.” I said with a sheepish smile.

“No problem,” he answered.
“You okay?”

I laughed a weak laugh and
shook my head. “Well, by now the whole world has seen me in my
underwear.”

We walked along in silence
again for a bit longer until a thought popped into my mind. “Jacob,
why are you here?”