Kay, next chapter. Hope you all like it. The next one is like 3/4 done, so I should have it up by...well, probably late tomorrow night or Tuesday. Don't know . Anyway, here's the chapter!
Chapter 20
I didn’t know what to make of the letter that Nadia had given me. I just stared at it. Was she trying to tell me something? Obviously. But I didn’t know what. Slowly I pocketed the note, and headed back towards my room; the calculator forgotten.
That night I didn’t sleep well. Each time I looked at the clock it seemed to be at the same number. I began to wonder if it was broken.
I went from my back, to my side, to my other side, to my stomach, and then back to my side. I put my arm behind my head, next to my side, then under my pillow. This was pathetic. My mind didn’t want to stop thinking. Every time I tried turning it off and forgetting everything that was troubling me something else would pop in. I just wished there was a switch.
What was wrong with Nadia?
This strange night with mom
Vaughn
School
Ricky…
The next morning I awoke feeling like I had been hit with a train, but different from when I woke up sick with the flu. This was just being sick with life, and all of the obstacles it kept throwing in my way. I knew I couldn’t let it get me down through, or people would see through me, and ultimately weaken me more.
Vaughn had made everything in my life seem so good and wonderful at the time.. My world turned upside down the day I met him, but as of now, this relationship was causing me more troubles then bliss.
~*~*~*
I walked into school the next morning with hundreds of pairs of eyes watching me. I could feel them burning into my skull all the way down the hall to math.
For once in my life, I had trouble concentrating in class. The numbers that Mr. Garber wrote on the board weren’t making any sense, like they usually would. The white chalk scrapped the blackboard, but my mind wasn’t letting me focus. I looked down at my notebook and realized that I had only written down my name at the top of the page, with my pencil sitting uselessly by my paper.
At lunch, I sat with nobody. Not that I had a usual group of people that I sat with, but most of the time I was able to find someone; not today. Nobody would sit with me; I was the girl who betrayed the whole school. Who would want to sit with someone who was labeled that way?
I wondered how many people actually knew Vaughn. Could they be any more judgmental?
I took the lunch my mom had packed me to the back of the cafeteria. People moved out of my way, as if they would catch some horrible disease if they even came in proximity of me. This was absolutely ridiculous! I felt like getting up on the table in front of me, and announcing it to the entire school, but I wasn’t feeling that bold.
As I sat down, people left the table to move with other friends. I was a disease. I took out a red apple, and bit into it, and watched the rest of the school move around me. A group of girls sat a couple seats down. I could clearly tell they were talking about me by the way they kept pointing and then whispering excitedly. Members of student council sat at the next table down. They were also whispering and kept glancing in my direction.
“What are they going to do? Kick me out of the school?” I whispered to myself sarcastically, as I bitterly bit into my apple.
I moved on to the neatly packed turkey sandwich, and watched people move from table to table. My vision was blocked when a large body sat down across from me. His piercing blue eyes made my whole body cold. Frozen rains fell on me, causing me to shudder. He didn’t say anything, just sat back with his arms crossed over his chest, and a smirk that could turn your blood icy blue.
People gawked at the scene. Why was the most popular guy in school sitting with the least popular girl?
I attempted to ignore him, but it was impossible. I tired not to look nervous. I didn’t think I succeeded in that task either. Finally he opened his mouth to speak.
“What’s wrong, Sydney?” he asked in his bone chilling voice.
“Nothing,” I mumbled.
“Don’t feel protected without your Vaughn by your side?” he said.
I didn’t respond. That was exactly how I felt, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. Vaughn couldn’t be everywhere I was; I had to take a leap into the plunging, dark, icy water by myself.
He leaned forward on the table, and gazed deeply into my eyes. It wasn’t in a loving manner either. I turned my head from him.
“Don’t look away from me, Sydney. We know how that ended last time.”
My head snapped towards him. I narrowed my eyes, and tried hardening my expression. I leaned in forward, so that I was very close to him.
“Don’t talk to me!” I said stressing every word that escaped my lips.
He leaned away from me, with an amused expression upon his face.
“It seems weak Sydney is trying to act strong and tough.”
“I’m serious,” I told him.
A shadow fell over the table at that moment. I lifted my head to meet my sister’s eyes.
“Is there a problem here?” she asked, directing her question at Ricky.
Under Nadia’s glare he seemed to shrink, and lose his threatening tone. He was silent for a moment, as he looked up at her.
“No, your sister and I were just having a little conversation,” he stutered. He looked over to me. “I’ll see you later, Sydney.” He left quickly.
I stared at Nadia, with a confused expression on my face.
“What was that?” I asked after a moment.
“What was what?”
“That!” I said, pointing my finger towards Ricky.
“He looked like he was harassing you,” she said, simply.
“And you wanted to help?” I asked, skeptically.
She looked down at her feet. “Despite what you may think, Sydney, I don’t hate you.”
The sincerity of her voice shocked me, but I wasn’t fooled easily.
“Oh, really?”
“Really,” she told me, taking a seat across from me. I couldn’t think of a time when Nadia and I had ever sat with each other in a public area, except when we were little kids.. She barely even acknowledged my existence.
“I didn’t want it to get out,” she told me, referring to my relationship with Vaughn.
I cocked my head to the side.
“I didn’t!” she insisted.
“So, Evan just happened to find out, then?!” I asked, sarcastically.
“I told Jane, that’s it! She was always really good at keeping secrets, and I thought I would be able to trust her with this one, but she apparently couldn’t keep it from her boyfriend,” she told me with a slight roll of the eye.
“So, you had nothing to do with it then?”
“Sydney, honestly, I didn’t!”
Nadia was acting so different from her regular self. I didn’t understand the sudden personality alteration. I changed the subject quickly, attempting to catch her off guard.
“What’s going on with you?”
“What? What are you talking about? Nothing is going on with me!” I could tell that she didn’t even believe herself as she spoke. Her answers were too fast, like she took offense to them.
“Nadia, you never sit with me in school, let alone defend me. You haven’t told mom and dad about Vaughn, and you didn’t intentionally tell the whole school either. You’re acting…nice,” I said, not believing that I was describing my sister.
She looked nervous. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have to go,” she told me, grabbing her purse and running out of the cafeteria.
Okay, now I knew there was defiantly something going on.
~*~*~*~
I waited for Vaughn by the parking lot after school. I didn’t dare start walking if he wasn’t there. I didn’t think Ricky was going to try anything today, especially with Vaughn threatening him yesterday, but I still felt slightly vulnerable.
I sat down on the curb and pulled my legs up to my chin, and rested my head there. I didn’t have to wait long. I saw a pair of legs suddenly in front of me. I looked up, hoping to see green instead of blue. I did.
“Hey, you got here fast,” I said, pulling myself up.
“I practically ran,” he said. I laughed.
“You didn’t have to run,” I told him.
“Yes, actually I did.”
I rolled my eyes at the serious tone of his voice.
“Okay, let’s get out of here before someone sees you,” I said, pulling him away from the school.
“Ya, the school’s giving off a weird evil vibe.”
“Shut up,” I told him, joking.
“So, how was day two?” he asked, once we were clear of McWilliams.
“Okay, I guess. I sat alone during lunch, nobody talked to me, but everyone talked about me.”
“Interesting,” he said.
“Actually, it was. Ricky came up to me.” His head snapped towards me.
“And you didn’t feel the need to tell me this the second you got out of the school? Let’s go,” he said, pulling me back towards the school.
“Vaughn!”
He continued to pull me in the opposite direction we were heading, ignoring me.
“Vaughn!” I said this time more forcefully, and planting my feet so he couldn’t move any further.
He turned to look at me impatiently.
“Before you go marching off like a mad person, can you listen to me for like a second?”
He turned to look at me fully, looking guilty. “Sorry, go ahead.”
“Thank-you. Anyway, I was eating lunch and all of a sudden he just comes up to me and starts talking. Not really about anything particular. I was a little freaked out, but I told him to leave me alone. He wouldn’t leave, but then all of a sudden Nadia’s there.”
Vaughn looked surprised.
“I know! So, Nadia’s there telling him to leave me alone too, and then suddenly he gets all nervous, and runs off in a big hurry.” I paused. “It was weird.”
“Can we have a Nadia for our hockey team? Just put her on the ice and scare Ricky. We’ll win for sure then,” he joked.
I smacked his arm, once again. “I’m trying to be serious here.”
“Oh, I’m very sorry then,” he said, putting on his best serious face.
I laughed at the sight of it. “God, Vaughn please don’t make that face,” I told him, in-between fits of laughter.
“Mom always told me that I didn’t have a good serious face.”
“And she was right.”
He laughed. “Thanks, Sydney.”
“It’s the truth.”
He just laughed.
We made it to my street a couple minutes later. “Well, I guess this is good bye,” I said.
“I guess so,” he said, as he leaned in to kiss me.
“Thanks for walking me home.”
“Anytime.”
“I’ll call you later,” I said, waving him off as he baked away.
I turned around to walk the rest of the way home, but felt like somebody was watching me. I looked to my side and saw nobody. I closed my eyes and prayed that when I turned around fully I wouldn’t see Ricky.
I slowly twisted my body around, and was relieved to see Nadia approaching me.
“Hi,” I said, trying to sound happy to see her. I was surprised to find out it wasn’t that hard.
“Hey,” she said, returning my tone. “I saw you and him,” she said, gesturing behind us.
“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say to that. “I know you don’t like him, and don’t think that we should-“
She interrupted me. “Sydney, stop!” She held up a hand. “I’ve actually decided that I no longer care. It seems so ludicrous to make all these silly rules about who you can and can’t date. He’s just a person like all of us.”
Okay, who kidnapped my sister and switched her with this nice, accepting, understanding girl?
“Okay…,” I said slowly. I couldn’t think of anything else to say to her. Nadia was stumping me for words lately.
We continued walking until we reached our house. I looked over at her. Her eyes looked tired, blank and scared as she looked up. I could see the same innocent eyes I saw when I meet her the day my parents brought her home from the hospital.
I told myself that day that I would take care of her, but I couldn’t do that if she didn’t tell me what was bothering her.
What was troubling my baby sister?
~Andrea
**I'm going to send the PMs after I eat dinner !