Thursday, July 30, 2009

Chapter 14


It was Friday morning and Faith was running a little bit later than usual. She had stayed up late last night to finish up her paper on the Salem witch trials. Although she was tired, it felt good knowing that she had the weekend to herself and was all set to hand her paper in on Monday. She ran into the kitchen to grab a quick bite to eat and nearly bumped into Robert. He always seemed to be lurking around.

“Whoa. Sorry, Robert. Didn’t see you there.”
“That’s quite alright, Miss Faith. I see you are a bit later than usual today.”
“Yeah, I have to grab something that I can eat on the way to school,” Faith said rummaging through the cabinets for a pop-tart or a granola bar. “How are you feeling? You look better.”
“I’m feeling much more myself today. It seems that I have good days interspersed with poor ones. Today is a good day.”
“That’s good to hear Robert. Try not to let Aunt Libby overwork you,” Faith teased.
“Your aunt is most gracious and would never overwork an old man.”
“FAITH! Let’s go!” Alex yelled from the front door.
“Gotta go!” Faith hurried out the door into her cousin’s waiting car.

****
During school it seemed like a buzz of excitement was humming the entire day. Everyone was keyed up for the game tonight with the rivals of Chatwick Hollow Academy, Hillcrest Preparatory School. There were signs hung up in the halls that added to the fervor: “Hillcrest is going down!” “Chatwick is the Champion!”

One boy was trying to hang up a sign that said “Hillcrest Prep is for Suckers!” but one of the assistant principals was giving him a stern talking to. Faith shook her head, but a smile spread across her face.

“Kick some Hillcrest Prep ass tonight, Alex!” A random Jock-Boy said to Alex as he and Faith headed toward their last class of the day.
“Who was that?” Faith said with a giggle.
“Who knows? Everyone gets so worked up for games against Hillcrest Prep. It almost makes me nervous to lose.”
“Almost?”
“Yeah, almost. We’d never actually lose to that team. They might be one of the best teams in our division, but we are THE best team in the division,” Alex proclaimed smugly.
“Right.”
“You’ll see,” Alex said with a wink and sat down next to Faith.

****
That night at the game the bleachers were filled to capacity. Faith was too excited to sit, so she stood up against the fence that enclosed the field to watch the game. Streamers and signs were hanging everywhere. Blue and silver for Chatwick, and green and gold for Hillcrest. There had already been two fights broken up in the first half of the game and Faith couldn’t help but feel herself being pulled into the heated passion of the rivalry. With every foul called on the Chatwick team, Faith would find herself yelling at the referees just like any other crazed fan. Chase already had two personal fouls called on him and one technical foul. Nick and Alex only had one technical foul each. Luckily, Chatwick was looking at a win with the score being 7-2 heading into the last three minutes of the game.

Faith watched as the Chatwick team adeptly tossed the ball to each other, carefully keeping the other team from getting a chance at a steal. Chase was laughing as he and Nick tossed the ball back and forth, running towards the end of the field hoping to score another point.

Chase never laughed in front of her anymore. As the days passed, Chase withdrew from her more and more. It was now at the point where he wouldn’t even talk directly to her. Faith sighed and continued to watch as Nick tossed the ball over to Alex who threw it into the goal.

The crowd went wild.

Faith was pushed up against the fence as people surged forward in excitement. From behind her right ear she heard a familiar voice.
“He doesn’t want you. How could you ever think that he did? You are hardly the type of girl that Chase Pruitt would choose to date,” Reese taunted Faith.
“What is your problem Reese? What is wrong with you?”
“I’m just letting you know how it is.”
“Last time I checked, I didn’t ask you for your opinion. Get away from me.”
“Suit yourself,” Reese said as he moved back into the crowd. Faith watched as he walked away. Out of the corner of her eye she could’ve swore she saw the cloaked figure. Frantic, she looked back toward the field at the Three. They were all jumping up and down in a group. They had just won the game.
Good, Faith thought as she rushed toward to school. She’d wait for the Three outside the locker room. She didn’t feel like being by herself right now.

****
“What’s wrong, Faith?” Alex asked as the four of them were driving over to Finn Flaherty’s after the game.
“It’s nothing. Reese was just being a jerk. That’s all.”
“You mean he was being more of a jerk than usual?”
“Yeah. He said some awful things to me… something isn’t right. He was never mean like that to me. Even after that night at the cove.”
“What do you mean ‘awful things’?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Alex.”
“I’m going to kick the sh...”
“No. You’re not. Just drop it.” Faith dropped her gaze to her lap and let her sharp retort resound in the car. An awkward silence ensued.
The four of them stepped out of the car when the reached Finn’s and they grabbed one of the last empty tables. As Alex walked up to the bar to order some food he threw Reese and the people at his table a glare. Reese looked right at Alex and smiled menacingly. It took all the self control Alex could muster to keep himself from going over there to punch the smile off of Reese’s face. While Alex went to go and get the food Faith went over to the Jukebox to pick out a few songs to play. She didn’t want to have to sit there at the table with Chase only three feet away from her face and Alex wasn’t there to act as a barrier. It made her nervous and instead of sitting there fidgeting, she thought it would be better to get up and walk away from him until Alex returned to the table. She stood there mulling over the songs in the jukebox and when she found a few that she liked, she inserted her money and made her selections. Unfortunately, as she made her way back to the table she was intercepted by Reese. Fabulous.
“Get out of my way Reese.”
“What? I’m not good for you now?”
Faith looked up into Reese’s eyes and saw that they were completely opaque.
“Leave me alone, Reese.”
“Is there a problem here?” Chase asked moving to stand next to Faith.
“If there is, it’s none of your business.”
“But it would be mine,” Alex said standing on the other side of Faith.
“You’re not worth it anyway,” Reese said to Faith with a look of disgust on his face and headed back to his table.
“Can we just grab our food and leave?” Faith asked as they moved toward their table where Nick sat chewing on his French fries.
“Don’t let that asshole bother you, Faith.”
“It’s not that Alex. It’s just…something isn’t right with him. His eyes turned completely black when he was talking to me.”
“Black?”
“Completely black.”
“Didn’t they do the same thing back in Salem when the Dark Power put him into that trance?” Nick wondered.
“I think so. I can’t be sure,” Alex answered back. “Let’s head back to the house. We can talk about it more there. Here isn’t safe,” he said glancing toward Reese’s table.
They packed up their food and left. Reese smiled at their retreating backs.

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