Chapter two
“I am not holding the bus for you all day, Miss Willoughby.” Frank, the bus driver, shouted into the morning silence.
The girl and I stared at each other, neither of us willing to budge our gaze. There was something there, something between us eating away at my soul. Fear held me rooted to the spot. My hands began to quiver. My lips trembled. There was no way she was a just a ghost. She was something else, but what?
“I’m leaving, Miss Willoughby.” Frank pulled the lever to close the doors and the high-pitched squeal released me from her entrapment.
I dashed for the bus. “Sorry, Frank.”
I moved down the aisle and plopped into the seat next to Myka. She would settle this drawn out question I had lingering in my head. “Did you see that girl in the upstairs window of Mr. Danson’s old house?”
“No.” Myka peered out the window, trying to see around the moving truck. “Is she our age?”
“I think so. I didn’t get that good of a look at her.” It was a little lie. I saw her well enough to know she was the same scary girl from my dreams.
“Maybe she’ll go to Decatur.”
“Yeah.” I gave a quick answer so that we could drop the subject. Myka didn’t know about my ghostly visitors and I intended to keep it that way. There was no need for her to question my sanity anymore than necessary. I shifted the conversation. “Did you finish reading Hamlet?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t care for it.”
“Me neither.” However, I didn’t finish reading it. I just couldn’t force myself to even skim the work. They really needed to assign books that engaged the teens of our time rather than those bazillions of years ago. Maybe then some of us would actually do our homework.
“Oh my God! There he is!” Myka grabbed my arm, gawking out the window, captivated by Marshal Higgins. He was in line to get on the bus with all the rest of the students at his stop.
“How do I look?” She pleaded, desperate for approval. She strummed her perfectly brushed soft-brown hair with her fingers and straightened the pleats of her skirt so they lay flat against her thin thighs.
“You look great.” Like you do every morning, I thought, with a slight roll of my eyes. She wasted hours each day making certain not a single part of her appearance was out of place for the ten-minute bus ride with Marshal Higgins. And he had yet to notice her. It was pathetic.
“Hi Marshal,” Myka wheezed as he passed our seat and headed to the back row, and like always, there was no response. “I love him.” Myka whispered as she sunk back in her seat coveting her little piece of Heaven. “Did you see him look at me?”
I glanced at her uncertain if her and I witnessed the same scene. He deliberately turned his head the other way. “Yeah, it was great!” I lied to her again, but this time the lie was to protect her sanity, not mine.
“I heard he was going to break up with Brandy today.”
“Uh-huh.” I started to zone out. What Marshal and Brandy were doing ranked right up there with what Brad, Angelina, and Jen were feuding about this week in the litter of magazines that lined the front of the grocery store, I plain did not care.
Frank pulled around the bend into school and within a few moments, the students were pouring out the twin doors. Of course, Myka grabbed my shirt to keep me in place until Marshal passed. She fancied a moment of peace with her eyes stuck to his booty, which, admittedly, was not bad looking. He was, after all, captain of the football team and state-wrestling champion.
Right when I was looking down at the steps ready to brush pavement, a football slammed into the side of my head. I fell off the curb into a freshly melted puddle of mud mixed with motor oil.
The thick smears of gunk now seeping through my jeans leaving brown stains everywhere, made the tiny ketchup spot on my shirt seem obsolete.
“Are you okay?” Marshal hurried forward. He grabbed me by the arm and lifted me to my feet. His hands were strong, yet so gentle. It caught me completely by surprise. I had no idea someone could touch like that…not that I was interested, just making an observation.
His eyes met mine and I felt myself completely and totally entranced for the second time today. I had never been this close to Marshal Higgins before and it suddenly struck me how great he smelled. I could stand here and sniff him all day.
“Oh my God, Rachel.” Myka’s sudden shrieking forced Marshal and I apart.
He quickly bent over and picked up my backpack from the mud, eager to escape Myka.
I turned to face her, giving her my best super model pose. “Think my mother will love this year’s picture?” I shook some of the mud off me but it made no difference. Dirt would inevitable mark any trail I blazed for the next few hours.
“Oh crap. I’m so sorry.” And from the pained look on Marshal’s face, I knew he truly meant it. “Ummm…do you have someone you can call to bring you new clothes?”
“No, but don’t worry about it.” I didn’t care. Clothes weren’t priority to my life no matter how much my mother wished a “love to shop” curse upon me.
“Shit. I have Nelson for math first period. There is no way I can skip, but second I’ve got James. He’ll let me out. If you can get out of your second I’ll arrange a ride to get you home to clean you up.”
“That’s not…”
“Yeah, that works great.” Myka shouted, jumping to my side. “We’ve got Hendy second. And since we’ve both finished reading Hamlet there is no reason for us to stay.”
Marshal’s eyes strayed onto Myka with a certain amount of reluctance, which I couldn’t blame him for. She’d made it clear since his first day of school last year that she loved him. The drama had to be bothersome. He turned back to me. “Meet me outside gym between periods. Cool?”
“Sure.” I reached out my mucky hand to shake his. To my surprise he took it with a smile.
“See ya then.” He headed off up the steps to the school, the football in one hand, his backpack in the other, and Myka’s bleeding heart trailing.
“Oh my God!” she shrieked. “We’ve got a date with Marshal Higgins!” She started jumping up and down next to me like some sort of monkey.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her it wasn’t a date.
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