Chapter Ten
Now that I knew more about Chaste, I became better friends with him. I also became better friends with Tara and Camille, but separately. I started hanging out with them outside of school. It was different depending I who I hung out with: Tara was more of a casual friend since we saw each other a lot. She showed me some of her favorite music. It surprised me how much good music she had known about that I hadn't. Chaste liked to do sporty things and check out boys with me. (I actually couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before.) I did things with Camille less because she was always with her other friends, but she always had me trying new and crazy things. She also loved to prank people with her ability. Once I was with her and I found out that if I had enough space, I could gather up enough speed to jump long distances.
"The track team doesn't know what they're missing," Camille laughed.
But I still loved hanging out with Evelyn, and a huge bonus was that Josh was often there too. Sometimes we'd make eye contact and I wouldn't be sure if I was looking at him, or if he was looking at me.
I had never hung out with him specifically, someone else was always there. But I still had become friends with him, too, and we even texted sometimes. With all my new friends and a new exciting school, I was happily busy.
Almost two months had gone by fast.
Now we were planning the school's Halloween party. Evelyn, the principal's daughter, was in charge of planning, so naturally the theme was animals. I was going as a cheetah. It was her idea, and if I hadn't liked it, she would've forced me into it anyway. It really was a cute outfit, it was yellow skinny jeans with a yellow shirt, both painted with cheetah pattern. I also had ears on a headband and whiskers painted on my face. Evelyn had a bluebird outfit, and Chaste was a giraffe. Josh, however, went as a panther. He wore all black, which strangely went perfectly with his tan skin and dark blonde hair. With only a little but of persisting from Evi, he wore black ears like mine.
Right now, the four of us were decorating the cafeteria for the party which would be later tonight. Most of the other kids were in their dorms getting ready.
"Hey, we match," I said to him, handing him a roll of fake cobwebs to hang up (but I was talking about the ears.)
"Aha! I knew it! You planned it!" he accused.
"Nuh uh! Ninety percent of this was Evelyn's doing!"
"That's true. So we gang up on her?"
"Maybe later. Is there anything else I can do to help?"
"Take that bin to the storage room, it's the stuff we don't need."
I nodded, grabbed the bin and headed out into the hall.
It was weird walking around the school with the halls empty. I only got to see it like this once, during my tour at the beginning of the year. Since then I never stuck around after school, so I always saw it busy and full of people. The white walls and floors were still clean and new, but when I was all alone they made for a menacing atmosphere.
It was a little better down on the less fancy bottom floor, but I was still thankful when I quickly found the storage room. I put the bin under a table to be dealt with late when I noticed something.
It was a white light, the whitest light I'd only seen one other place, coming from under the same door I was seeing it come from now.
It was my curiousness that made me open the door despite my longing to get back up to the cafeteria with everyone else. So I opened the door and found nothing, or at least I thought, until I found the source of the light. It was a necklace on the ground, tucked in a corner of the small closet and halfway behind a shelf. I picked it up and the light shone from my hand, giving me a good view of the necklace. It wa a circular pendant divided into four sections. Each section was a different color and had an S carved into it. That made for four S's, one green, one yellow, one red, and one blue. When I brushed the dust off the pendant, the yellow S glowed a little bit brighter and the light became a little bit more yellow.
I'm not sure why, but I really didn't want to put this necklace back where I found it, or even turn it in to see if someone lost it. I slipped the thin chain over my head. The pendant slipped under my shirt, hidden, and the light dimmed. Then it faded until you couldn't tell it was there.
I frowned and pulled the necklace back out to look at it. When I held it in my hand, the light shone again, bright as ever. But then I let go, and the light faded, almost politely.
Then I heard a voice. "Ari! Are you down there?"
It was Evelyn. "Yeah, I'm here," I answered.
"Come back up, we're gonna get a picture of the four of us before the party starts!"
I grinned, knowing that had been Evelyn's idea as well. "Coming!"
***
The party was a blast. We had decorated the cafeteria to look like a haunted maze, and at the middle there was a DJ, who was actually just a student with a technological ability. But it meant the music was good, and I had a lot of fun dancing. I had told Tara about the animal theme even though she wasn't in the me, Evelyn, Josh and Chaste group. But she came in an owl costume that had a lot of fabric, and I thought the costume and the owl both suited her. I actually hadn't been sure if she would come at all, so I was glad.
Soon I got tired of dancing and went to find somebody to talk to. Camille was over cracking up with her friends, who were dressed like vampires. Tara was talking to Becca and Laurie.
Evelyn and Chaste were nowhere to be found. I saw Josh, though, and went to talk to him.
"How's the party?" he asked.
"It's great, I think we did an awesome job on the decorations," I said.
"Me too," he said, smiling. "Want to dance?"
It sounds cheesy, but actual butterflies erupted in my stomach. "Sure."
We went out to the dance floor and caught half of a good song. Then the DJ put on a slow song. That's when I noticed how many couples that were dancing together.
To my surprise, Josh stepped closer to me and put his hands in my waist. I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn't think of anything to say. So I just smiled and hesitantly put my hands on his shoulders.
My heartbeat was fast, feeling Josh so close to me. I hadn't ever really slow danced with anyone before, and I isn't know where to look. But I saw Josh smiling, ad figured I must be doing okay. I smiled back. But I was very aware of when he stepped a little bit closer to me.
The song ended and a new one started. Someone bumped into me from behind, startling me out I my daze.
"Do you want to go somewhere else?" Josh whispered.
"Sure," I said, a little disappointed, since I figured he meant off the dance floor. But he surprised me, once again, by leading me out of the cafeteria.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Do you know somewhere private?"
The sentence made more butterflies shoot into my stomach.
"Somewhere other people can't accidentally stumble into?" he continued.
"Well..." I bit my lip. There was one place I knew of. Josh followed me down the stairs to the bottom floor.
***
I found the hidden door to the secret room and led Josh up the stairs. He looked around in surprise. "How did you find this room?"
"Evelyn showed it to me," I said.
"Does anyone else know about it?"
"Chaste, I came here to talk to him once," I said.
"Well, I don't think we have to worry about him," Josh said, and moved closer to me.
He put my hands on his shoulders again and his on my waist. It gave me goosebumps.
Gently he stepped to the side, and then back again. I followed, and it became a slow dance side to side.
"I like it up here better," he said. "There's no one else to run into us." He stepped a little bit closer.
I nodded shyly.
"You haven't said much," he told me.
"I don't know what to say," I admitted.
"That's okay," he said, and slowly leaned in.
And he kissed me.
***
The night ended with our group of four staying after to clean up. Josh would shoot me wide winking smiles when I caught his eye. It made my heart melt every time.
We finished up and went home after everyone else. I walked home myself and went to bed, still thinking about the same thing. I had no idea what this meant, but I was happy with it.
The next morning I met Chaste in the elevator room. We went down together to see that everyone was gathered in the commons. "What's going on?" I asked, seeing Evelyn.
"I don't know," she replied. "They've stopped everyone out here."
"Everyone" was way too many people to be gathered all in one place.
After a few minutes, Mr. Pulcher came out. Some people were a little surprised to see him, he usually stays in his office or up in the house.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make. We have a student who has gone missing."
Everyone gasped. Chaste, Evi, and I all looked at each other.
"Sophomore Laurie Sims went missing last night at the Halloween dance. She didn't come home, so her parents called but no one knew where she was. Her parents, friends and the local police spent the night searching, but she was nowhere to be found."
Laurie Sims, Becca's friend. I wondered what could've happened to her.
"If anyone knows anything, please come to the office as soon as possible."
He paused, then continued. "We are very serious about finding her. So if you know anything at all, please report it. You all can go to class."
On my way to my first class, Josh came up beside me. "Have you heard anything else about this?"
"No, I have no idea," I told him honestly. "Why?"
Suddenly I got the urge to turn around, and I saw Carlos walking a few feet behind me, looking moody as ever.
Josh was about to say something but he looked behind me. I turn back around and pull Josh out of the way by a vending machine. "You've been going to this school longer than me. What's his problem?"
Josh shrugged. "He's always kinda been like that, but this year he's been worse."
I groan. "That's exactly what I already knew."
"I don't know anything about him. Why do YOU wanna know?"
"I don't know, he hates me for seemingly no reason. I'm kinda interested in knowing why."
Josh grins. "Your face is all red."
I looked at him, letting all my annoyance show on my face.
"You're so cute like this," he grins.
"Oh....uh....thanks..." I say, not expecting it.
He grins again and leans down, kissing my cheek. He moves down and kisses me on the lips.
"That was unexpected," I admit.
"I know. Let's go to class."
I nod, smiling and we walk to class together.
In science, I get really bored from Mrs. Newman's droning and remember that I'm still wearing the pendant with the four S's. I pull it in front of my jacket and begin to twirl it. The yellow S starts to light up.
Oh, yeah. It does that. I drop it before anyone notices.
It had never occurred to me to tell anyone about it, but I'm not sure why. I like wearing it so much, maybe I'm afraid someone will claim it. Which I knew was terrible. But it's not every day you find a glowing necklace.
I almost start playing with the necklace again in drama, but Evelyn looks over. She tells me to meet her in the secret room after school.
"Why can't we just meet at your house?" I ask.
"That's not as fun! Plus, my dad is there."
"True."
In CA, I played dodgeball against a robot. It was supposed to measure my reflexes. I wasn't happy about it since I had played dodgeball in gym just before, but this time I unleashed my ability.
Evelyn is sitting in one of the beanbags when I go up the stairs to the secret room. "So, why the secret meeting again?" I ask.
She grins. "I haven't gotten a chance to talk to you, like really talk, about all this."
I sat down in the beanbag next to her. "Uh huh."
"So, what do you think?" she asked. "Tell me everything."
So, I did.
***
So, was the kiss cheesy or was it cheesy? Yeah, sorry. I am NOT good at that, but IT WAS TIME FOR A KISS SCENE!! Woohoo!
So, if someone could comment and tell me what they think, that would be gr9. ^_^ I'm kind of insecure about these chapters because I always feel like the action is moving too slow. But then I read it and I'm thinking it might be too fast. So tell me what you think pleeeease. :D