The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove (33 page)

locker and made a small thud. I froze in place hoping she hadn’t heard, but she

turned and shined her bright flashlight right in my eyes.

Although I couldn’t see, I dropped my book bag and ran toward her. She

bolted away. My leather-soled shoes slipped on the polished linoleum, but I knew

where she was going.

She rounded the corner to the music practice rooms and I was right behind.

She’d vanished again!

There was an explanation, I told myself and looked carefully around.

That’s when I saw it: a section of the wood paneling that didn’t line up evenly

along the wall.

When I examined it, I discovered a push-release latch. I shoved in gently

and it popped open. I swung the door open and saw a dark tunnel, only about four

feet high and four feet wide. Ahead the flashlight flickered against the wall.

My smallness gave me an advantage and I moved swiftly in a low crouch

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after the girl. She bashed her head on the ceiling and stumbled. I took one jump

forward and tackled her.

“Shit!”

It was a man’s voice.

I grabbed the flashlight and shone it in his face as he rolled over with me

atop.

Jack Monroe blinked in the bright light and said, “How’s it going, Jane?”

“You!”

He said, “Cozy in here. I’m like a troll taken down by elf in her warren of

tunnels.”

I realized that our bodies were intertwined. I looked into his green eyes and

his long, dark lashes. His arm came up around me so that I was balanced atop his

strong body and I felt his chest rise and fall. One side of his mouth tugged

upward and desire surged in me, shocking me more than anything else.

“I can’t believe you’re laughing about this!” I said angry and confused,

turning away from him.

“Come on, it
is
kind of funny,” he said. He stayed on the floor of the

tunnel. “Did you close the door behind you?”

“I was trying to catch you.” I pointed the beam of the flashlight along the

wall and noticed the same birch paneling that was used in the auditorium. The

flashlight’s beam only pierced about twenty feet of darkness.

Jack said, “Okay, go back and close the door on your way out. See you

around.”

I grabbed his ankle as he began to scramble away.

“No, you don’t. You’re coming with me.”

“When did you get so bossy? I kind of like it. Beat me, whip me, make me

write bad checks.”

“Shut up.”

We turned in the narrow space and made our way back to the hall. He

closed the secret panel.

“What’s this tunnel for?” My heart was racing and couldn’t look at him

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directly until I got control of myself.

“It’s an escape route in case vampire-haters come to round us up,” he said

and we walked to my locker. “Although that may seem incredibly paranoid to

you.”

“No, SWAT teams used to raid my old neighborhood. I understand being

careful.” I talked just to get away from the feeling I’d had. “We’d hear the

helicopters overhead and then their search lights would blast into our yards and

our houses and the pit bulls would go crazy and the cops in their black gear and

assault weapons and the gunfire...”

We’d arrived at my locker. I used the flashlight to examine the interior.

The velvet box was gone.

Holding out my hand, I said, “Give it back.”

Jack reached into the pocket of his sweatshirt and brought out the ring box.

Taking it, I said, “Why? Why do you hate me?”

He stepped close and said in a low voice, “I don’t hate you, Jane. I’m

trying to save you.”

The feeling came back and I wanted to press myself against Jack and feel

the roughness of his beard on my face and taste his lips. I took a step back.

“Lucky won’t hurt me.”

“Let’s get out of here, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

As we walked away from the school, I looked backward. The chem lab’s

lights were on. It always struck me as so heartbreaking that Mr. Mason was there

by himself at night.

“Does Hattie know you’ve been leaving the messages?” Hattie got to kiss

Jack and more, whatever she wanted.

“No. I didn’t want her to get in trouble if I got caught.” Jack reached over

and pulled at my bag. “I’ll carry it.” He hefted it on his shoulder. “What the hell

do you have in here?”

“Books.”

“You could have said something funny, like ‘the weight of the world.’”

“You’re the king’s fool, not me.” I glanced at his profile and wanted to

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touch his dark curls. “How many secret passages does the school have?”

“There’s one on the third floor, right across from the science rooms, and

one by the library. There’s one in Flounder. They lead to inside staircases and a

sub-basement that has tunnels out. You’re not supposed to know this.”

“Where are we going?”

“For pizza.”

“Why can’t you tell me what you know
now
?”

“I think better when I’m consuming melted cheese and tomatoey crust,” he

said. He looked up at the night sky.

The moon had risen and shone icily among the clouds.

Jack smiled at me and said, “It was my childhood dream to discover a

halfling at midnight.”

“It’s not midnight.”

“It’s midnight somewhere in the world. Maybe we’ll meet your kin,

gremlins and elves, and you can sing one of your fairy songs to me.”

I turned my head so he wouldn’t see my smile.

Once down the hill, Jack led me to a lane off the main street to little

restaurant. It had red and white checked tablecloths and candles in wine bottle.

Clusters of plastic grapes hung from a trellis on the ceiling, and the walls were

painted with murals of gondolas on canals. The customers were all old.

A waiter came to us and said, “Hi, Jack. Here or to go?”

“We’ll get a table, thanks.”

“Sit wherever you want.”

Jack chose a table in an empty corner. He leaned back in his chair, and the

candlelight brought out his cheekbones, his strong nose, his firm jaw, and his

sensuous, expressive mouth.

I suddenly realized that I’d been attracted to Jack from the first moment we

met.

He said, “Only the old coots come here and me. The food is good. What

do you like on pizza?”

“Pepperoni and mushrooms.”

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Jack ordered and after the waiter had brought us our sodas and a basket of

breadsticks, he said, “You’ve got some dust here.” He was about to brush my

shoulder, but I jerked away, too afraid of how I’d react to his touch.

“How do you know when I’m away from the locker?” I said.

“I can see through the basement windows of Flounder when you’re there

late with Ms. Chu, or up in the chem lab.”

“Now that I know
how
, I want to know
why
.”

“That’s more convoluted. What have you heard about Bebe?”

“Only that she was another scholarship girl who lived in the

groundskeeper’s cottage. She was supposed to be your brother’s Companion, but

then she went to Europe with her uncle.”

“Does that sound entirely credible to you?”

“Which part specifically?”

“The part where she goes to live with her uncle.”

“I had a roommate his grandfather came and got him. Two months later,

the grandfather dumped him off at a bus station with ten dollars and a bologna

sandwich.”

“It’s funny how you say that so matter-of-factly. That’s what you expect

from the world – SWAT raids and abandoned kids,” he said. “I knew Bebe pretty

well, and she never mentioned any uncle. One day she was here, happy to be

hanging out with Lucky, and the next day she was gone.”

“Maybe she changed her mind.”

“I don’t think so. She knew that Lucky was her ticket to the good life.”

Although no one was nearby, he leaned forward and dropped his voice. “I think

something happened to her.”

“You don’t think your brother did anything?” I asked, thinking of how

excited Lucky got when he was tasting blood.

“Lucky’s egocentric, not dangerous,” Jack said. “It wasn’t him. We were

in San Francisco the weekend she disappeared. When we got back, my parents

were on the phone behind locked doors. The Council sent a security advisor, and

they never send anyone unless it’s important. Then my parents announced that

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Bebe had gone to be with this unknown uncle.

“Mary Violet says that Bebe hasn’t called or written. What do you think

happened?”

“My parents claim that she’s called them while traveling, but I don’t

believe them and Lucky doesn’t care now that you’re here to be his Companion.”

“Jack, why didn’t you talk to me about this instead of trying to scare me?”

“I couldn’t tell you at first because you didn’t know about The Family.

Then I thought you wouldn’t listen to me,” he said. “If you left Birch Grove or

complained about harassment, the Family would be put on alert. I’d get more

time to convince Lucky that there was a cover-up and I could try to convince my

folks not to go forward with the initiation until things are cleared up.”

“If you think something really happened to Bebe, you should have gone to

the police.”

“The Evergreen police won’t investigate if the Birch Grove headmistress

says an emancipated minor left for Europe with a relative. Besides, I’d never

expose the Family,
my
family to trouble. They’re good people, even though they

screw up sometimes.”

“Maybe your parents were covering up the fact that they’d paid Bebe to

leave, or maybe she took off on her own,” I said. “Kids run away all the time.

It’s no big deal.”

The pizza came and, as we ate, Jack and I went over what we knew –

which was not enough.

“What did Hattie say when she found out Bebe was gone?” I asked.

“She was thrilled. She hates the Companions and swears she’ll never marry

a man who has one.”

“That’s why she dates you.”

He smiled, his teeth gleaming white in the dark restaurant. “Yes, why else

would anyone date me?”

I could have told him, because you’re funny and caring, because you’re

strange and wonderful, because you make my every nerve tingle, because I love

the touch of you, the smell of you, the sound of your voice, your eyes the color of

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leaves….

But I said, “I know living with secrets is hard for Hattie. I know she hates

the Companion relationships.”

“You have no idea, Jane. She’s an amazing girl, though, and I’m going to

do everything I can to see that she gets all the love she wants.”

Lucky, lucky Hattie.

Jack asked the waiter to call a cab. Then he paid the bill and we walked out

to the sidewalk as the cab pulled up to the curb.

“Jack, I don’t think you can be so sure that Bebe didn’t leave voluntarily.

Maybe the money wasn’t enough of a reason for her to stay.”

He opened the passenger door and said quietly so that only I could hear

him, “Even if it wasn’t, halfling, and it was, she had one thing in common with

you. She was a lonely girl madly in love her fantasy of the rich pretty boy.”

I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t find the words, so I stood there

stupidly.

Jack reached into the cab, handed the driver money and said, “She’s going

up to Birch Grove.”

I got in the cab and Jack closed the door. I stared straight ahead and

thought, he thinks I’m predictable and foolish. I replayed all our conversations in

my head, and it seemed clear that he’d always treated me as an object of pity.

AT HOME
I took the composition book from its hiding place and documented

everything. Then I drew a new chart with myself in the center of this one. In the

outer circle, I wrote down all the people I’d met at Birch Grove and their possible

interest in me.

When I was done, the lines connected and intersected around me, like

strands of a spider web tangle around a moth. I put the notebook away and

counted my money to make sure it was all there. Then I hid the Companion ring,

too.

I woke in the middle of the night and remembered something that never

made it into my notes: Ms. Chu had said that another student started writing a

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story about scholarship program. Had that girl interviewed Bebe?

The next day, I went to the Flouder basement at my lunch hour. The door

was locked.

I ran upstairs to Ms. Chu’s office. She was reading a magazine, and a salad

was on the desk in front of her. She paused with a forkful of lettuce halfway to

her mouth neatly lipsticked mouth. “If it’s not urgent, Jane, I have office hours

later.”

“I was wondering if I could see something in the archives, Ms. Chu.”

“Now?” She looked longingly at the mixed greens on her fork.

“You told me that someone had started writing an article on the scholarship

program. I wanted to compare it to the article I wrote.”