SKIPPING TIME

Chapter 7

Jess sat in class with his head laid across his arms, not even pretending to pay attention. His mind kept trying on different possibilities for what had happened.  He'd looked at the painting and he'd seen...something. Flashes of neon. Wind. Big buildings.  All surrounded by that premonition of Cacee in danger.

He chewed  his bottom lip as his hands drew into fists. Despite how hard he was trying to be rational, something in his gut kept twisting. What if Cace was in danger? When he'd been with her he'd been so busy trying not to stare his brain hadn't computed what he was seeing. It wasn't until she'd left that he'd realized the differences in her. The dark shadows under her eyes. The way she looked more sickly-pale than normal-pale. How she'd lost the last bits of little-girl roundness in her cheeks and chin. She looked older. And, ill or not, the more-mature angles of her face suited her. She'd gotten even prettier.

But he figured she must've shed at least five or six pounds in the twelve days since he'd last seen her. And her eyes hadn't seemed as purple as they normally did. He'd long since noticed that the happier Cacee was, the brighter those strange eyes shone. But today? Today her eyes had been an almost-ordinary blue.

Why? Why was she unhappy? Why did she look so tired? Why was she losing weight? Did it have anything to do with the danger he'd sensed?

He squirmed in his seat and tapped his heels under his desk, willing the time to pass faster. He'd make a mad dash for the buses, catch her before she boarded and talk his driver into letting her ride his bus home. He'd talk to her. Find out if she was okay. And he'd find out the name of that damn painting.

A bit of his tension unwound, just as the intercom clicked. "Mr. Buxley, can you send Jess Renazari to the principal's office?"

"Will do."

The mandatory chorus of, "Ooohh's and uh-oh's" filled the class.

Jess kept his face calm as the teacher handed him a pass but, once in the hallway, his feet dragged. What now? Would they call him to the principal's office for letting his grades slip so much this month? No way. So, what? Abruptly recollecting his black eye, he slid his shades out of his pocket and: Ding! The light went on. Shit. His stomach tried to squiggle up his windpipe as he stared at the pair of sunglasses in his hand. Please no. Please tell me that guy didn't report me. He swallowed hard and put the shades on anyway, praying he'd guessed wrong.

The woman behind the desk gave him a prim frown when he flashed his pass. "The principal wants to see me?"

"Go down the hall and around the corner, you'll see the door with Principal Asher's name. He's waiting for you."

Outside the principal's office, Jess took a deep breath before straightening his back and opening the door. "You wanted to see me Principal Ass..." Shit. He coughed a few times, "Asher?"

The principal's bald head lifted from a pile of paperwork. Jess saw cold eyes behind thick glasses. The rest of his face was jowls that acted as parenthesis to a ridiculously large mustache. "Take the shades off, Mr. Renazari."

Jess tried the migraine excuse that had worked so well on Cacee.

Asshole strummed his fingers on his desk. "I said remove the glasses."

Jess slid the shades in his pocket, trying to look like he didn't give a shit that his eye was nothing but a giant bruise.

Asshole shook his head, and his jowls flopped like a bulldog's. "A migraine, huh?"

Jess didn't respond.

Asher motioned for him to sit...

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