Heart

Thirteen

Alan didn’t pick me up the next morning. And even though it was odd of him not to do so, it was okay, since my parents allowed me to drive the family car. But of course it was actually a nice day when I didn’t have to walk. The sky had a tinge of overcast to it, but the sun brightened it up by generating a soft pale yellow glow. It was just enough sun for me; I wasn’t the hugest fan of sunburns.

I didn’t worry too much about Alan not picking me up; after all, he did run late occasionally. But just because I didn’t worry about it, didn’t mean I didn’t think about it. And maybe I should've been a little more concerned, considering what happened to me yesterday. But hey, this was Al the black belt, he could take on anybody. So, my thoughts were fleeting.

I had to admit, though, I really wished he was with me when I arrived at the school. I almost always ride with Alan, but people still recognized the family car. Students made exaggerated arcs around the vehicle when I drove down the lanes, looking for a parking space. I gritted my teeth in response and tried to ignore it all. However, some jerk-face made that kind of hard to do when I turned down yet another lane. There were two empty parking spaces, and I had my eyes glued to one of them when out of nowhere, this dirty Ford squealed in front of me and swooshed into the vacant area, making me slam on my brakes. I watched in angry disbelief as the driver made sure he took up both parking spaces.

“Jerk!” I barked, even though he couldn’t hear me. His car door opened, allowing him to calmly step out and throw me a gloating sneer.

God, were people this shallow? Did they know me at all? I’d grown up with most of them--they should know that I was absolutely not guilty of that kidnapping. I was just a high school student! Where could I have even come up with the resources to do something like that?

My jaw tightened, followed by my hands on the wheel. That nimrod was lucky I had a decent human mind when he crossed in front of my extremely hard, steel bumper--or otherwise he would have been flattened.

It took me longer than it should have taken for me to find another parking space, but I did manage to get to my class on time. Of course, I had to sprint to the room and had barely entered a second after the tardy bell rang, but I got in there. Like, my foot was in the doorway exactly when it stopped. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in my seat--fortunately, however, the teacher wasn’t in the class yet. I was safe.

A girl turned around when I sat down behind her, which made me look up warningly. She gave me a scorned once-over before she got the nerve to say something.

“So how’d you do it?” she inquired, her tone full of attitude.

I scowled at her. “Simple: I didn’t.”

“The police think you did.”

“So? They think a lot of people did it.”

“Mainly you, though. You’re the one who threatened to kill her.”

“You can’t tell me that no one else at this school wasn’t thinking about doing the same thing.”

The girl shrugged. “But you said it.”

I felt my lip beginning to curl, and if it wouldn’t have been extremely retarded, I probably would have growled at the chick. Instead, I settled for searing her with my optical daggers--which worked quite well. She uncomfortably twisted back around to face the front of the room.

Hey, maybe I was finally developing a useful weapon: laser vision. Why couldn’t that have shown up when Gabriella was still around?

I glanced sharply down at my desk, slightly surprised at myself. I mean, when did I become so cold- hearted? Sure, the girl was a witch, but her family didn’t deserve to go through this whole fiasco. The Ice Queen was still a human being.