I did the same thing as I did yesterday after school: head to the library and spend my afternoon with The Loser Club. It was much more enjoyable than yesterday. I ignored the strange signs from them. The one that caught me off guard the most was when Foster somehow shocked me. I even saw sparks.
"Ouch!" I flung my arm in the air.
"I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me!"
"It's fine," I said. I rubbed my arm. There was a faint mark where the shock happened.
"You sure you're okay?" he asked. I've never seen someone so concerned.
"Paris?" Axel said. I looked up at him. "I have a few bandages that I can use to wrap that."
I nodded. "Yeah. Thank you."
Axel and I both sat up. I followed him out the door towards his locker. His locker was locked a few yards from the library. As we walked out, I could hear whispering from the remaining four.
"Ignore them," Axel said as he held the door open for me. "They're just mad that Foster hurt the new girl."
"New girl? You guys are more new than me," I said. I still held onto my arm.
Axel put in the combination to his locker and opened it up. A first aid kit sat up on the top shelf. He pulled it down and opened it carefully. He grabbed a bandage and held out his hand. "Can I see your arm?"
I let my hand that was holdin onto it drop. I placed my arm in his hand. They felt strong. I didn't want him to let go.
He wrapped my arm gently. I watched him slowly go over the wound. It felt really awkward just standing there as he fixed me up. I noticed him look at me every few seconds.
"Can I ask you a question?" I said, breaking the silence.
"Sure," Axel responded. He tore off the excess bandage.
"Why are you guys keeping secrets from me? I know something is odd about you guys and you won't tell me."
Axel kept his head down this time. He put some medical tape on my bandage to keep it in place. "We're just not used to being open about ourselves," he said. I wanted to believe him, but there was something else he wasn't telling me.
"I just have this weird feeling about the five of you," I said. I put my arm down. "You all keep saying weird stuff and you guys don't even bother to explain."
He shrugged. "What is there to explain. We're weird."
"No. There's something else."
"Fine. There is. But I'm not telling." He looked me straight in the eyes. The way he spoke the last sentence made me shiver. I couldn't tell now if he was lying or not.
I pulled my arm away and put it down by my side. "Thank you," I said.
"Welcome," he said. I turned around on my heels and walked back to the library. Axel caught up to me in a few strides and walked by my side. I wanted to grab his hand. I fought the urge not to.
He held the door open for me. I nodded to show him my appreciation and stepped in. Foster got up from his seat in a flash and made his way towards me.
"I'm so sorry!" he began. "I don't know why that happened! I feel completely sorry!"
"It's fine! No worries." I smiled at him to show I was okay.
I wasn't sure if he was still okay, but he nodded and returned to his seat. Axel and I trailed behind and sat down in our previous seats.
"Well, that was fun!" Lae exclaimed.
No one really said much. We all went back to our work. It took a few minutes for conversation to pick back up again.
I chimed in a couple of times, but my mind was off in other places. No where did I see Foster rubbing his arm on a balloon. So how could he have shocked me? And with an actual spark? I didn't understand.
We all ended a little early so I had a few minutes to wait outside. It was day outside: the leaves were starting to change color and the temperature dropped to about the 70s, which was nice.
Axel walked up to me as I went to go sit down at the bench I sat at before. I waved goodbye to Lae and Sage who both got into their cars and drove off. Foster rode with Sage. Rai apparently carpooled with Axel, but I didn't see a car anywhere.
"How's your arm?" he asked. I had pulled out my phone, hoping he wouldn't talk to me.
"Good. All good." It stung a little but I didn't want anyone babying over me because of a little incident.
"Well, I need to get Rai home. See ya tomorrow." Axel walked off towards Rai. The two headed down the side of the school and disappeared behind a giant brick wall. I sighed. That was the worse.
I texted Mom to tell her we were done early. I waited on the bench, taping my foot in boredom. I decided to pull out my earbuds and listen to music to keep my a little bit occupied until Mom got here.
I plugged them in my phone and opened my music. I pressed shuffle and my new favorite song Paper Rings by Taylor Swift came on.
I leaned back and closed my eyes, letting the sun shine on my pale face. I didn't realize I had dozed until I heard a honking noise from far off in the distance. And jumped awake.
Mom sat in the car giving me a stern look. I grabbed my things and slipped into the passenger seat.
"Sorry. We got done early and I, well, you know what happened after that."
Mom rolled her eyes. "If you're so tired, you should just go to bed earlier."
I held my tongue from saying that I do go to bed early. It was tempting, but I wasn't going to start a fight with her.
Once home, I ran up the stairs to my room. I closed the door and began dropped my backpack in the ground. I flopped on my white and blue bedspread, the throw pillows shifting from their original places by a touch.
I let out a big breath. I thought about all the strange things that had happened today. Specifically after school. How in the world could Foster be able to shock me and leave a mark. I realized Mom never asked about my injury. I didn't really feel like telling her anyway.
The thoughts of the afternoon spun in my head that I didn't realize how much time flew by until Mom yelled me down for dinner.
I swung my legs over and walked out of the room, making some weird noise as I sat up. I walked a steady pace down the carpeted stairs to the kitchen.
The kitchen was dressed with white cabinets and cream-colored countertops. The theme was a rustic barn theme with pale brown chairs, a wooden rooster centerpiece for the breakfast bar, and even some cute towels to match. Mom grew up on a farm with just her dad and three brothers. Even though she moved out to the suburbs, she never let her country roots die away.
After Tom left for college, I started eating at the breakfast bar more often than not. Dad always worked late nights and Mom was too busy running around the house cleaning and finished paperwork. I sat down at the closest barstool towards me, my legs crossed.
A plate of homemade mac n cheese was placed on front of me with a tall glass of water set down next to it.
"Thanks Mom," I said quickly before stuffing my face with food. I always wonder how she is able to cook dinner every night with the little time she has.
"So," Mom started, "how's your new club going?"
I swallowed a mouthful of mac n cheese. "Pretty good. It's only been a few days though so it's not we're all best friends."
"I know," Mom replied. "But it is nice to see you hanging out with some new people."
"I hang out with people!" I retorted.
"Really?" Mom gave me a look. She held a plate in her right hand with the dinner spoon in her left.
"Book characters are my friends! I hang out with them all the time!"
Mom rolled her eyes and began scooping out some dinner in her plate. I shrugged and continued eating.
The subject of my new friends dropped and we talked about my schoolwork instead. All my grades were As, thank goodness, so there wasn't much to worry about. Mom just liked to stay on top of things.
Once the dishes we're clean and the kitchen was sparkling in the artificial light, I headed back upstairs. I had left my phone on my bed so I expected a ton of notifications from all my social media apps. There was just one that surprised me.
Hidden in the thousands of tabs of Instagram likes and Twitter retweets, a green message tab was seen. Someone texted me?
Practically all the time I get messages from grandparents and ones from my cousin, Reed. Reed was the same age as me, just a few months older, and he loved to send me funny pictures he finds. This one wasn't from Reed.
It was a random number I didn't recognize from here. I opened the message, confused at who was talking to me.
Hey! It's Leanna! Just wanted to say hi! I wanted to ask if u wanted to come to the Fall Festival in Grandview with us next week Friday. Text back when u can! See ya tomorrow!
Happy faces of emojis ended the message perfectly. I tried hard not to smile, but I did. They're inviting me to hang out with them! I couldn't believe it. I rushed out of my room to go tell Mom. Maybe all those weird things about them were just superstitions and they all were great people instead.