Double Lie {A Jelsa Tale}

But Life Goes On

Friday.  One day before Jack's party and one day after rescuing Olaf, my new puppy.  Since nobody had claimed him the firefighters gave him to me.  I was almost shocked to realize life didn't pause after my little adventure.  Anna immediately stole my superhero outfit and threw it in the wash while I tried to scrub the smell of smoke out of my hair and Olaf.  He seemed to be totally fine aside from missing large patches of hair and being spotted with burns.  I had to buy burn ointment to smear on him, which turned his white fur blue.  When I finally when to school the next day I felt worn out but completely normal.  It took me a while to realize that the whole school was buzzing.

"What's going on?" I asked Jack between classes.  He closed his locker and gave me a weird look.

"Haven't you heard?" he responded.  "There's a new hero in town."

"Oh, yeah.  I heard something about that."

"Seriously, how late are you staying up?  You're totally exhausted."

"I had a ton of homework.  History is killer this year."

"Tell me about it."

"Hey, Jack!" a cheery voice called.  A gorgeous brunette slid up to Jack's locker, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"Hey, Belle," Jack replied.  "How are you?"

"Awesome.  Did you hear about Overland's new rival?"

"Rival?"

"Yeah, that Frozen girl. She's totally stealing his thunder."

"I don't know, it didn't really seem that way. It sounded more like they were working together."

"Trust me, this new girl superhero is bad news. Where'd she even come from? I bet you anything she's a villain in disguise trying to get Overland killed."

"Super villains don't have powers," I broke in. "Barely anyone has powers anymore aside from Overland."

"Think what you will," Belle warned. "But mark my words, Frozen will either end up betraying Overland or she'll end up dead."

She glanced over her shoulder and bit her lip.

"Also, did you meet the new girl?" she asked in a lowered voice.

"I didn't know there was a new girl," I said.

"Yeah, she just barely moved in apparently.  She's sorta . . . well, she's sorta weird."  Belle lowered her voice until she was practically whispering.  "I got this funny feeling there's more to her than meets the eye, if you know what I mean."

Belle turned away and vanished back in the crowd of students. I closed my locker, suddenly feeling queasy. I hadn't realized people would think I was a traitor in disguise. It wasn't like Frozen, I mean I, could do anything to Overland. He'd been at this hero business too long. He probably suspected I could be a traitor even before I thought of it.  At least this new girl, whoever she is, was helping draw away attention from my secret identity.  But it probably wouldn't help her make any new friends if people shared Belle's attitude.

"About my party tomorrow," Jack started.

"Yeah?"

"I had to move it.  Something really important came up.  Normally I'd leave it alone, but in this case . . ."

"I get it.  Just take care of whatever it is, and let me know the new date later.  Sound good?"

"Sounds great."  Jack waved and vanished in the crowd of students.  I double checked that I had everything I needed before following him.  Besides, I wanted to meet this new girl for myself.

- - -

Either I never came across the new girl or I didn't know what I was looking for.  Either way the rest of school passed rather uneventfully.  At dinner I noticed Anna was picking at her food more than usual.  I put my plate on the floor so Olaf could lick it clean.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I went over to see Miss Carthage today, but she wasn't there."

"Maybe she went shopping or something."

"She wasn't there all day."  Anna set down her fork.  "She hasn't left her home for years.  Why was she suddenly gone?  It's not like her."

"I'm sure she'll be back soon.  Just keep your eyes open, ok?"

"Ok."

Anna went back to eating as I cleared the table.  Sure Miss Carthage not being home was weird, but there had to be a good reason for it.  The welfare home probably finally came for her.  Or maybe she got sick and someone took her to the hospital.  Either way I didn't have the heart to tell Anna.