Now You See Me Read online

  Now she was sharing a house with someone she didn’t know as well. Still, it wasn’t like she had anything she needed to hide from her aunt. It should be such a simple decision, but she was tired. There had been so many decisions to make once her dad died. Fortunately her aunt had helped out with a lot of them.

  She left the door open and switched off the light. Instantly the room was plunged into darkness. She stood for a moment, waiting for her eyes to adjust a bit. She saw a soft glow coming from the window. She hadn’t lowered the blinds. She crossed over to it and stared outside at the darkened street. There were no street lamps. At least none that were working. It seemed odd to her. The faint light that had been shining came from the crescent moon hanging in the sky.

  A couple of the houses had lights on inside. She sank down on the window seat and stared out at her new world. Her eyes sought out Mal’s house. There was a light on in one of the upstairs bedrooms. She wondered if it was his.

  The next day was Sunday and she spent it finishing unpacking and buying some things for school with her aunt. Tanya also drove her by the high school so she’d know how to walk there. Fortunately it was only about a fifteen minute walk. It shouldn’t be a big deal.

  Monday morning she left the house early so she could get to school and get the administrative paperwork done and get her class schedule. She opened the door and made it down to the bottom of the steps.

  “Morning.”

  She looked up, startled. Mal was sitting on the curb, backpack next to him.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I figured I’d walk you to school. First day and all I didn’t want you getting lost,” he said with a smile as he stood up.

  “Oh, thanks,” she said both pleased and slightly unnerved at the same time.

  “I like your necklace. It’s an opal, right?”

  She touched the opal pendant. She wore it most of the time.

  “Yeah. My mom gave it to me when I was little. It’s pretty pathetic, though. It barely shows any other colors in it. Most of the time it’s just the same deadish white color,” she said, a bit self-consciously.

  “Maybe the fire inside is waiting to be discovered, let out.”

  “You are so weird,” she said before she could stop herself.

  “More than you know,” he said with a smile. “So, walk you to school?”

  She nodded and together they set out down the sidewalk.

  “How was the rest of your weekend?” he asked.

  “Okay. Lots of unpacking. You?”

  “Worked on an experiment for my physics class.”

  “You’re taking physics?”

  “Yeah. I knocked out biology and basic chemistry early.”

  “So, you’re a science geek,” she said.

  He laughed. “I guess so. I find science immensely useful.”

  “So, are you in the chess club, too?” she asked.

  He laughed. “Guilty. Well, I used to be. I’ve been too busy lately.”

  “With the science?”

  He shook his head, clearly amused.

  “Okay, so you think you’ve got me pegged.”

  “You said the high school here was as full of the standard cliques as my old one probably was.”

  “True. So, where did you fall? Cheerleader? Drama Diva? Brainiac?”

  She shook her head. “None of the above. More like surviving until I could get out of there.”

  “Keeping your head down and not drawing too much attention to yourself?”

  “Just one of the nameless rabble, that was me,” she said.

  “Yes, but you’ve gotten out of there. You could be anything you want here, you know.”

  She nodded. “I guess that’s true. I don’t know. Being popular always seemed like a lot of hard work and I have stage fright, so I feel my options dwindling as we speak.”

  “Well, you’re the new kid and it’s partway through the school year when everyone’s starting to get sick of each other so you should be quite popular whether you want it or not. At least, until the novelty wears off.”

  “Something to look forward to, thanks,” she said, feeling herself start to relax. She wasn’t sure why he had freaked her out so much on Saturday. Maybe knowing that he was one of the geeky guys was helping put her at ease. He no longer felt like a big, mysterious, unknown quantity.

  And as nice as that was, she was surprised to discover that she was also a little disappointed.

  “Unfortunately I won’t be available to walk you home this afternoon,” he said with a slight frown.

  “Why? Sports? Detention?”

  “Neither actually. I’m trying out for the talent show.”

  “The school has a talent show? Seriously?”

  “Yeah, and actually it’s quite serious. It’s been a thing for the last twenty years. It’s only open to Juniors and Seniors. The winner gets a ten thousand dollar scholarship for college.”

  “Wow, that’s a lot of money,” she said.

  He nodded. “Yeah, it’s run by a foundation set up to honor a student who died twenty years ago.”

  “Weird. I wonder if my aunt knew him? She went to high school here, too. So did my mom.”

  He shrugged. “It’s possible.”

  “So, what’s your talent? Do you sing?”

  He laughed. “I do sing, but no one who has heard me would call that a talent.”

  “Okay,” she said, unable to keep from grinning at that. “So, what do you do?”

  “I’m a magician,” he said.

  She wrinkled her nose up.

  “You don’t approve,” he was quick to notice. “You don’t like magic?”

  “The only magician I ever met was at my friend’s birthday party when I was five. All the guy did was keep pulling coin after coin out from behind my ear. What made it worse was that I could see him trying to conceal them in his hand each time. So, I have a pretty low opinion of magicians.”

  “Wow, sounds like he was a pretty bad magician. I’m sorry.”

  She shook her head. “I’m sure you’re better than that,” she said, feeling bad that she had inadvertently implied that Mal probably sucked, too.

  “Thanks. Tell you what? I won’t pull anything out from behind your ear. I’ll let you do that.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You know, if there was something behind my ear I’d think I’d feel it.”

  “Would you?” he asked, eyes wide, clearly feigning innocence.

  And then she could swear she felt something tickle the back of her ear. She moved her hand to lift her hair. “Okay, very funny, what did you-”

  She screamed, startled, as her hand touched something. Suddenly a dozen butterflies were circling her.

  “Oh! They’re beautiful!”

  “I’m glad you like them,” Mal said with a broad smile.

  “How? How did you do that?” she asked.

  His grin widened. “A good magician never reveals his secrets.”

  “I didn’t even know you touched me,” she said, still awestruck.

  He shrugged.

  Moments later the last of the butterflies had flown away. They continued walking.

  “You’re going to win that talent contest,” she predicted.

  “I hope so. Anyway, today’s only the audition. If I make the cut then I have time to come up with a really amazing act.”

  “Well, I’m amazed at the butterflies, so I’m sure that it will be spectacular.”

  “Aha, I see I’ve made a believer out of you. That didn’t take much,” he said teasingly.

  She punched him lightly in the arm.

  “Well, here we are,” he said, his smile faltering a little. “Classes start in about twenty minutes.”

  She turned and saw that they were in front of the school.

  “I have to check in at the office,” she said.

  “It’s through those doors, second door on your right,” he said.

  “What, you aren’t going to escort me?
” she asked.

  He shook his head. “I don’t like going in there. You’ll be fine, though. I’ll see you at lunch? Unless, of course, you decide to take advantage of the clean slate and make some friends in a new clique.”

  “Well, I was thinking of being friends with someone in the science geek group,” she said.

  He nodded. “Good choice.” He took a deep breath. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks,” she said, sobering.

  She turned and walked into the building, wishing he was going with her. He’d managed to keep her from stressing out on the walk there. Now, though, she had butterflies in her stomach instead of swirling around her head. She wished her magician friend could do something about that.

  Twenty minutes later she made it to her homeroom class just before the bell rang. She looked around, hoping to see Mal, but was disappointed that he wasn’t there.

  “Good morning, everyone. I’d like to introduce our new student, Opal Grant. Opal is from Los Angeles. Everyone please make her welcome.”

  Opal gave a little wave as everyone turned to look at her. Some smiled, some didn’t, but all were openly curious.

  The teacher, Mrs. Jennings, made some announcements. After all the business had been taken care of, people were free to talk.

  “I’m Ginger,” the girl next to her said.

  “Nice to meet you,” Opal said.

  “Is Los Angeles nice?” she asked wistfully.

  “Yes, but I’m sure Salem’s nice, too,” Opal said.

  Throughout the next few minutes several others introduced themselves and asked a few questions about Los Angeles. She was just glad no one asked her why she’d moved. She was already feeling a little overwhelmed and she certainly wasn’t ready to go there.

  Her next class was biology. She had been told that there would be a mix of sophomores and seniors in the class. The teacher was Mr. Grossman. He had dark slicked back hair and dark eyes and wore a maroon shirt with black slacks.

  “Alright class, we’re moving on now to the section of the course where we look at the biology of mammals which includes a number of familiar animals. We will also be covering human biology in this section. It will be quite fascinating for many of you, I’m sure. Of course, our new student, Miss Grant, is from Los Angeles so I’m sure she knows all there is to know about biology.”

  He swept a look at her from head to toe and she stared at him in shock. What did he mean by that? She felt herself flushing. She glanced around, wondering if anyone else had caught that. He was still staring at her and there was no way she could misinterpret the look in his eyes. She’d just never had a teacher look at her that way. She flushed even more and fought not to squirm in her seat.

  He finally turned away and began writing on the white board. She grit her teeth, determined to get through the class even if the teacher was a pervert.

  Mr. Grossman didn’t look at her again, but she was still relieved when the bell rang and she could get out of his classroom. Fortunately her English and Trigonometry classes turned out to be much more boring. Still she was glad when the bell rang and they were released for lunch. She needed a break.

  She wondered where she was going to be meeting Mal. She should have asked him. So far she hadn’t seen him in any of her classes. She’d hoped he’d be in at least one of them.

  She headed to her locker and stuffed her books inside. Around her there was a sea of students putting books away and meeting up with friends on their way to the cafeteria. She turned and looked at them, hoping to see a familiar face.

  A tall guy in a letterman jacket stopped in front of her. He was good looking and by the arrogant sneer on his face she could tell that he knew it. He wanted something from her. She tensed up.

  “Hey, new girl, how’s it going?”

  “Fine, thanks,” she said.

  “I’m Seth Whitmore. I’m the quarterback of the football team.” He punched the air with his fist.

  “Go Wizards!” several guys chorused a few feet away.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said, not liking him at all. Every instinct was urging her to tell him to get lost. He had such an air of confident arrogance, though, that it made her apprehensive. There had been bullies back home, but most of them left her alone. Here, it was a whole different ballgame and she wasn’t sure what to expect.

  “So, Friday night you and me. I’ll take you out...show you the town...it’ll be magical.”

  “Um, thanks, but I’ll have to pass,” she said, trying to be diplomatic in her answer and struggling.

  His eyes narrowed and his grin faded. “I don’t think you realize what you’re doing,” he said, voice full of menace.

  She was aware that around them others had stopped talking and were turning to watch. She flushed. This kind of attention she didn’t need.

  He took a step toward her and she glanced around, looking for a teacher or someone who could intervene. She didn’t know what he was going to do, but she was sure she didn’t want to find out.

  “Hey, Seth,” a voice called out sounding friendly.

  She turned and saw Mal walking up to them, a smile in place. Seth half turned, saw him and scowled. “Hey, Mal.”

  “I see you’ve met my girl,” Mal said, stopping next to her.

  “Your girl?” Seth asked.

  “Yeah,” Mal said, putting an arm possessively around her waist.

  Opal stared at him, wondering if he’d gone crazy. The quarterback was nearly twice his size. He was just asking for trouble.

  Seth blinked and then took a step back. “Sorry, Mal. I didn’t know she was your girl.”

  “No worries, man.”

  And the smile had disappeared from Mal’s face. “I’d appreciate it if you’d look out for her when I’m not around.”

  Seth nodded. “Yes.” He turned to Opal and she was stunned to see that his eyes were full of terror. “Welcome to the school,” he said.

  “Thanks.”

  Seth turned and hurried off, several others going with him.

  “So, Babe, how has your day been so far?” Mal asked, turning to her but keeping his arm around her waist.

  “Okay. What just happened?”

  He smiled and glanced around. “I’ll tell you later.”

  A mousy girl that she had seen in a couple of her classes scurried up to them. She clearly had something to say but she kept her eyes intently on the floor.

  “What is it, Amy?” Mal asked without even looking at her.

  “I thought you should know that Mr. Grossman was hitting on Opal in class.”

  “He was, was he?” Mal asked. Something in his eyes changed and they became darker. “I’ll take care of it, thank you.”

  Amy bobbed her head up and down then turned and scurried off.

  “It was no big deal,” Opal heard herself saying though at the time it had upset her.

  Mal smiled at her, but it didn’t reach his eyes which were cold and glittering now. “A teacher hits on an underage girl during class? Actually that is a big deal. But don’t worry. He won’t make that mistake again.”

  Something was wrong here. A science geek didn’t get treated this way.

  “Who are you?” she whispered, heart beginning to pound.

  He laughed. “Today, I’m your boyfriend apparently. Let’s go get some lunch.”

  “Everyone here is afraid of you,” she said.

  He shook his head. “Amy’s afraid of everyone and everything and Seth owes me a favor from years ago. That’s all.”

  It was more than that. A simple favor owed wouldn’t bring that kind of fear to the quarterback’s eyes. Maybe Mal had something on him, knew some sort of secret the other guy didn’t want shared.

  Mal let go of her. “Lunch?” he asked.

  “Yes, please.”

  He led her toward the cafeteria. As they walked she looked around her at the other students. Some averted their eyes as they passed while others stared openly. A chill danced up her spine. She couldn’t help but w
onder what they knew about Mal that she didn’t.

  4

  “Where are your friends?” Opal asked after she and Mal had gotten their food and taken a seat at one of the tables. She looked around, expecting others to join them.

  “My friends don’t go to this school,” he said.

  “Oh, then who do you normally eat lunch with?”

  “Myself,” he said.

  “That’s weird.”

  “Is it?” he asked as he opened his orange juice carton.

  “Yeah. I’ve never seen anyone eat lunch alone at school before.”

  He shrugged. “Like I said, my friends don’t go here. If you’d like to eat with some of the others, though, you’re free to do so.”

  She glanced around the room and saw several people that she’d met that morning. Everyone of them that saw her, though, quickly glanced away.

  “So, what’s the deal? What really happened back there at the lockers?” she asked, turning back to Mal.

  He grimaced. “I got in a fight a couple of years ago. Ever since then people have pretty much let me alone. If you don’t mind, I’d rather talk about something else.”

  “Okay,” she said. She was going to talk about her classes but then remembered his ominous promise to deal with Mr. Grossman and decided that might not be a good topic either.

  “Are you in any of my afternoon classes? I have history with Mr. Peters, P.E., and study hall.”

  He shook his head.

  “Seriously? We’re in none of the same classes? You do go to this school, right?” she asked smiling.

  “Yup, legally they can’t stop me.”

  It was an odd thing to say and she raised an eyebrow.

  “Well, I told you I’m taking physics. I’m also taking advanced chemistry, and a couple of classes like English I’m taking as sort of independent study from Mr. Jeeter and a couple other teachers with a different curriculum.”

  “Wow, you must be really smart.”

  He shrugged. “I knocked out most of the basics early on. The goal is to coast next year.”