Walking in the Shadows (21 page)

“She’s insane—on crack
,
I swear. Vampire teacher wants to do a
section on the murders!” I spat
,
my body beginning
to shake
.
“I can’t bear it Tad, to listen to people judge what happened to my parents—to put me under the microscope. I can’t—it’s wrong!”

“There is no way
in hell
!”
Tad exclaimed as his fist hit his desk and sent pencils and pens skittering across the room.

“Please, I don’t know who else to talk to
,
and I know there is no way they will let me drop that class. It’s bad enough I have to hear about it from kids around me everyday—to have it analyzed…the things they might say…”
I broke off
,
my voice cracking in anxiety.

“No one is saying anything—Jennings needs to be put in her place
about this vampire shit,
” Tad reassured me
as he
rushed out the door.

I watched him walk
to the
s
uperintendent’s office
with
kids rushing
out of the way when they saw the look on his face. They knew he was a man on a
mission
,
and
he was not someone anyone wanted to trifle with. I walked to the wat
er fountain near the office and
pretended to take a drink. There was no rea
son to be pretending to n
ot listen because Tad was
yelling
more
than talking
.

“You cannot allow her to make that a part of her curriculum. She shouldn’t even be talking about
it with
the students.
She’
s upsetting
them and
you never know who’s
been directly affected b
y this. It’s wrong that she can walk around here
and say whatever she feels like,
” Tad blew up without further explanation.

“
Calm down
Knightley,” t
he superintendant began in obvious shock
.
“
There’
s no reason to be so up
set. I agree with you
and can guarantee you this will be addressed to the fullest extent. I appreciate your concern for the students. Besides
,
with what the news is saying we don’t want anyone to get further up
set
—
you
haven’t heard
the news? They’
re saying that they fear the killer may strike again soon.”

My stomach dropped at his words. I probably should have filled Tad in on that minor detail, but to hear it again, much less let it pass from my own lips was unbearable. I had to lean in closer to hear Tad’s faint reaction.

“Wh
at?” Tad mumbled in response, and I could feel the fear releasing from him unchecked.

“It’s unfortunate but true.”

I coughed as Tad came out of the door
with
his face red
and his hand tangled in his hair
.

“Why didn’t
you tell
me that part?” h
e asked
in a harsh whisper.

“I w
as trying to ignore it,
” I replied.

He closed his eyes
.
“Then
I should try to?”

“I guess.”

“I’m not as good at that as you,” h
e
retorted
,
and I knew I blushed
.
“I didn’t mean it like that
…oh
…yes, read chapter three to seven for tomorrow and be ready for an open discussion.”

The superintend
ent walked out and smiled at us
.
“Knightley,
there will be a meeting today at 3:00, please spread the word.”

The bell rang
,
and I was amazed at how much could happen in te
n minutes. I took a deep breath.

“Thanks fo
r the refresher on the homework,
”
I said.

Our eyes searched
one another for some solid ground, but there wasn’t any
. T
he bell rang once more
,
forcing ou
r eyes to tear from one another as we walked in opposite directions.

The turmoil I had felt about Miss Jennings’ words had kept my head spinning all night. Whether or not she knew it, the woman seemed to have it out for me. First, she was constantly nagging Tad about how he shouldn’t love me. She was right, and maybe that was why it bugged me so much, but what she was doing now was different. She was digging into me again without knowing it with her obsessive vampire talk. There were a lot of people out there that were “reignites”, but her concentration on the murderer was just asinine. I didn’t care when I saw her face contorted in a permanent grimace the next day
;
it served her right. I couldn’t relish my win over her for very
long;
as I had slipped and told Jaz that I was required to go to the winter formal next week.

“No way! You have to go to the winter formal
? I love that guidance counselor!”
Jaz
cried out as she clapped with happiness
.
“But you know what
sucks?
I already got my dress
,
so we can’
t go shopping together.
”

“
My boss bought me a dress for the winter formal for Christmas—she thought it would be a good idea I went too.
” I looked
over my shoulder at Miss Je
nnings
.
“What crawled up Jennings butt and died?”

Jaz
looked over her shoulder at her
.
“Apparently all the teachers had a meeting yesterday and were told they can’t even mention the word murder on campus. With what she was telling us about how she wanted to teach about it, it must have rubbed her wrong. I bet she was the whole reason for the meeting…nuts the stuff she said to us—did you say anything to anyone about it?”
Jaz asked with a shrug.

“W
hy would you think that?” I replied
,
hugging my book tighter to my chest.
She wasn’t telling me anything that I didn’t know, but I needed to act the part of an innocent bystander.

“Well, someone had to have told on her?”

“Maybe she’
s been harassing other students about it too? I mean there are other people who talk about it, right?”
I suggested
,
picking at the plastic book cover.

“Yea
h, with the way it’s been plastered
all over the news latel
y everyone’s talking about it.
I know I said there’s nothing to worry about, but
it’s
starting to scare me…I mean
…” s
he drifted off
as she swallowed
.
“There’
s only one pattern—the release of the movies. It’s hard to be excited for
Crimson
Reign
and
Mac
when everyone’s talking about real life vampires.”

“You’re tell
ing me,” I mumbled
,
sucking in a deep breath.

“Huh? I thought you didn’t like
Crimson
Reign
.”

“O
h, yeah. No interest,
” I recovered
,
trying to look distracted.

She narrowed her eyes at me
.
“Are you a closet
Crimson
Reign
lover?”

“
It’s the murders that get to me,
”
I replied with a huff.

She squeezed my shoulder
.
“They get to all
of us
…imagine being that poor Abigail girl, she’s our age you know…no parents and now people
are
accusing her of being involved. Even though the news channel had to apologize—just the feeling that everyone’s saying all kinds of crap…you know?”

I pulled myself away from
her.

“You have no idea,
” I whispered
to myself.

“You okay?” Tad asked
,
coming around the corner of the bookshelf
that
I had hid myself behind.

I looked up f
rom the book I had been
staring at
.
“Sure.”

He leaned against the bookshelf frame
.
“Could have fooled me.”

“Nice glasses,
” I observed
, and I was glad to have a distraction from my own thoughts.

“One of my contacts broke in the middle of
a
class. You should have heard the gasps when I put these suckers on. I didn’t think they were that bad
,
but I gues
s so,
” Tad sighed
his cheeks turning
pink;
“I can’t see two feet in front of me without them though.”

I stood up and put the book back
.
“You know
,
I don’t think it was that they looked bad.”

“You like them?” h
e asked
with raised eyebrows.

“
Mhmm
...
s
chool girls gasp in unison having thought there was no way Knightley could look any better, but alas you have prove
n them wrong with those glasses,”
I said
,
pointing at him.

The blush deepened
.
“You think that’s what it was?”

“I know that’s what it was.”

“Thanks, but I know you
’
r
e
upset…hiding behind books is
your shelter,
”
Tad commented
,
looking over his glasses at me.

“Your glas
ses fixed the situation,
” I replied
with a
n all too fake
laugh.
They had partially distracted me, but I could still feel the sickness at the edge of my stomach.

“How?”

“Just imagining what
Jaz
is going to come up with.”

“
Ughh
…she has a boyfriend
,
why does she obsess over me?”

“Brad? He’s not twenty-two years old, muscular, with an air of mystery and oh—a teacher!”
I explained
,
rolling my eyes.

“Fine…but why are you upset?”

“There’s no way to fool you is the
re? Or change the subject
?”
I observed
as I placed
my
hand
half-hearted
ly
on a book
that
I had no interest in.

“Nope, sorry.”

“Jennings looked like she was going
to ea
t me alive today,
” I replied, and my stomach rolled as acid built because of the name.

“Yeah, she got her ass handed to he
r. But so what, she deserved it,” h
e
answered
crossing his arms
.
“Could it have to do with what’s bugging me
,
too?”

I sighed
.
“What’s bugging you
,
Mr. Knightley?”

He rolled
his eyes
.
“I hate th
at,” h
e began
and when I shrugged in response he continued
.
“The fact
that
everyone is saying the murderer is going to strike again.”

“
Yeah, the talk is getting to me,
”
I acknowledged
.

“Have you looked into it? There’s no reason that certain people were murdered…there’s no real pattern. Any of us could be next, there’s no sp
ecific target,
” Ta
d explained, but I already knew.  I didn’t want to be mad at him for stating the obvious, but I still felt the anger start to crawl under my skin.