The two women immediately sat up from their chairs, the harsh wind physically moving them. They struggled to stand, to keep their composure, but the wind’s absurd strength nearly knocked them down. Darcy noticed however, terrifyingly, was that the wind did not make a sound. No swooshes. No gusts. Nothing. She felt like she was going to faint.
“Marina’s will disappear. I will disappear. Griffin will disappear,” Marina whispered, tears forming in her eyes. “You are the one, Darcy. You have always been the one. Make things right!”
Without any notice, her entire surroundings turned pitch black. She felt the ground below her give way, causing her to fell through empty space. Her heart fell into the far recesses of her stomach, equal parts nausea and equal parts fear. It was then that she finally did faint.
Chapter 12
“Wake up, Darcy!” Claire screamed, her voice shrill and full of worry. Darcy’s new (or was it old?) best friend was hunched awkwardly over her, her lustrous long black hair swinging back and forth as though mimicking the volume of her voice. A few other students had gathered around to see what the big commotion was. Soon silent murmurs and whispers became audible around Darcy’s seemingly unconscious body which lay haphazardly atop the linoleum high school hallway. Apparently, it seemed normal to the rest of the kids in school that anywhere Claire and Darcy were, there was sure to be some sort of dramatic developments.
Her eyelids slowly fluttered, the whites of her eyes flashes of light, as she struggled to keep them open fully. Finally, once she opened her eyes completely, she silently took in the scene before her – Claire’s face full of shock, the other students watching and whispering, and other casual passers-by who clearly couldn’t care less that there was a student passed out on the floor.
The last thing she had remembered was that Marina was talking to her about “making things right” - whatever that had meant. She had literally no concept of what Marina was alluding to regarding the objective of this whole living in another life scenario which she found herself in, or who or what it was in reference to. She’d have to ponder that later when she wasn’t lying on the semi-sticky school hallway floor with her best friend in practical hysterics kneeling beside her.
“I’m ok, Claire,” she was finally able to whisper, her voice audibly shaky. Her friend grabbed a bottle of water out of her gigantic pink purse which could have easily fit a small panda bear, and quickly handed it to her. Sitting up, her head still a bit dizzy, she took a sip from the bottle that had a bright ring of red lipstick around the opening. She sincerely hoped Claire wasn’t a slut. Getting an STD was the last thing she wanted to experience as a teen. She was proud of herself to make it through her first set of teenage years without getting one and she wasn’t intending to get one now.
After swallowing a few more sips of water and regaining some semblance of reasonable composure, she stood up, gathering her fallen things around her. Still feeling a bit vulnerable but on the whole ok, she turned towards Claire who was already chatting with another girl who stood beside them. Judging from the physical closeness between the girls, Darcy noted that this must be a good friend to them both.
“You really scared us, Darcy,” the girl said, her emerald green eyes taking in Darcy’s slightly disheveled state from head to toe. Darcy instantly felt as though the girl was sizing her up and trying to figure her out. It wasn’t an altogether pleasant feeling, but it did sort of fit in with the rollercoaster of emotions she had already experienced that day.
“One second you and Claire were walking into school and the next you’re passed out in front of the cafeteria,” the girl continued, now looking at Darcy directly instead of the once-over from moments ago. “What gives? Are you feeling ok?”
Darcy managed a weak nod as the three girls slowly began to walk towards their first period English class with Mrs. Chadwick, who according to Claire, was the one teacher in school who thought iPod’s were something that people put over their eyes.
En route to the classroom, there were plenty more stares and ogles from the student body around them. Darcy didn't exactly hate the feeling of having all eyes on her, but it was strange for to encounter nonetheless.
“I’m so excited for Chrissy Barr’s party tonight!” Claire suddenly shrieked, clearly completely over the drama of Darcy’s apparent pass-out spell. Upon entering the nearly full classroom, all three girls seemed to sit completely in sync in their respective desks located at the rear of the room which sat conveniently empty.
“Rena, are you sure you we can still crash at your place after? My mom is being a total bitch these days with me getting in after 11 pm. She thinks that we’re still stuck in 1995 or something. She doesn’t get that it’s only at 11 that the party actually gets started. Ugh.”
Rena giggled. Her luminescent red hair framed her angular cheekbones so perfectly that Darcy felt hideous by comparison. The girl could have clearly been a model, much like Claire could have been. They could have very well been models for how much she actually knew about them and their extra-curricular activities.
Rena’s green eyes shone brightly, smart and sly, setting Darcy a bit on edge. Sensing her thoughts, Rena turned abruptly towards her.
“Are you sure you’re ok, Darcy?” she asked as all three girls noticed Mrs. Chadwick sit up from her desk at the head of the classroom. Darcy followed Claire’s lead and grabbed the binder out of her purse/book-bag.
“I think so,” she replied, not sure how else to respond. She was feeling confused and unsure but didn’t want to make the other girls worry. If she had to ‘make things right’ as Marina had mentioned, she couldn’t let on that she had no idea what that meant or even what this life was going to be like at all.
Mrs. Chadwick coughed loudly, clearly an attempt to get the loud chatter of the classroom to cease. Once quiet, the teacher began to teach, and Darcy felt thankful for having a moment to semi-relax - and to finally have a moment to breathe.
***
She had managed successfully to make it through half of the day’s classes without being conspicuously confused, or at least not letting the other students think that she was. She had already begun to feel exhausted of trying to be constantly aware of what her role was and how she was supposed to act, not only around her friends but with the student body as a whole. The only thing that should have been on her mind was what the lunch menu was going to be or what she was going to wear to Chrissy Barr’s party, but was she completely preoccupied with her conversation with Marina, which now felt oddly like a distant memory despite occurring just hours before.
English class had been uneventful, if only for the fact that she was able to take a much needed mental break and zone out. She had the nagging suspicion that this new teenaged Darcy wasn’t exactly the brightest bulb, or if she was, she was a spectacularly amazing actress.
Mrs. Chadwick essentially ignored her when she asked the class questions about Catcher in the Rye, a book Darcy had read at least 25 times. She had wanted to raise her hand on several instances but ultimately figured it might have been the wrong move. Had she done so, she may have set off some warning bells.
Darcy et al now found themselves within the school cafeteria, which was jam packed upon their deliberately slow-paced entry. The typical group divisions were there – the emo-kids sat moping around in one corner - melancholic, heavily pierced and blue-haired. The kids in the school band sat opposite them, talking about the upcoming Spring Concert. Other splinter groups that she couldn’t really figure out also sat in their respective spots of the massive cafeteria, firmly ensconced in high school dialogue that felt urgent and earth-shattering.
She followed the other girls’ lead towards the rear of the cafeteria, which was about twice the size and cozier than the Banana Republic at the local mall – and significantly bigger than any other dining area that she had ever seen, least of all within a high school.
When she saw where the girls were heading, it made perfect sense. It was something out of the books she l
oved to read – the tables they were moving towards were comprised of kids who all looked perfectly tanned, casually dressed, and beautiful. They were all variations of blonde, lean, and attractive. She immediately thought about how she would stick out from the pack before remembering that she was one of them. For now, at least.
Upon sitting at the table at the rear of the room, Darcy saw the few token jock-type boys that the three girls clearly liked to hang around with.
“Hey baby,” Luke Masters said, picking up Claire, causing her to squeal loud enough for half of the students in the cafeteria to look their way and smile. His strong arms easily picked the tiny Claire up, his dark hair short, his hands wrapped around the girl's waist. He stole a glance at Darcy before she sat down beside Rena, who was already chatting with some of the other students around them. She caught the glance, unsure of what it meant. Dismissing its importance, she took a sip from the bottle of water she had pulled out of her bag.
“Hey ladies,” Luke said after he had put Claire down. “How was Calculus?”
“Awful,” Rena instantly replied. All Darcy could manage to do was to shake her shoulders. The less she said the better, at least until she was able to go home and properly process what was happening. Until then, she going to make every concerted effort keep it together and maintain any false illusions alive and reasonably believable.
“Hey Darcy – let’s go pick up those boxes,” Luke abruptly said, getting up from his chair beside Claire. He at once stood behind her in a flash as though he had floated all of the way to the end of the long, wooden table that wouldn’t have been entirely out of place at Pottery Barn.
“Do you guys have to get them right now?” Claire quickly chimed in, pouting like a child. “We just got here.”
Darcy had absolutely no clue what Luke was referring to. She waited for the dialogue between Luke and Claire to pan out before making any decisions.
“It’ll be too busy after school,” Luke said, pulling on his jacket and tapping Darcy on her shoulder like an eager child. She hadn’t realized how tall he was – over six feet, and with teeth that could light up a room.
“Yeah, Luke,” she added, trying to sound as casual as possible, taking another sip from her water bottle. “Besides, we just got here. Can’t we at least eat first? I’m starved.”
Rena quickly stared over at her, obviously annoyed. She mentally filed away that reaction for meting out later.
“Oh come on, Platt. Don’t be lazy,” Luke chided, taking her gently by the arm. She quickly threw on her jacket and grabbed her purse. “We’ll be like two minutes. Let’s go!”
Before she knew it, they were outside of the cafeteria, walking down an empty hallway, which had all the classroom doors closed. The multi-colored lockers that lined the long corridor, ranging from blue to yellow to red, housed textbooks and teenaged secrets. Luke walked slightly ahead, not uttering a single word, which she found a tad peculiar. They took a sharp left at the end of the hall and he opened the door to an enormous room that was full of boxes and assorted papers.
She heard the door slam shut behind them while Luke turned on the lights. The room seemed to be a printing room of some kind with many boxes stacked in high piles all around the periphery of the room, as well as in its center area which were sorted into various high columns. She glanced at some of the boxes labels – some said “Freshman,” others said “Foxes” and others were labeled “Turtles.”
While looking at what seemed to be a gigantic printing press, she felt Luke’s hands around her waist, the same hands that had just been around her best friend's shoulders.
“I couldn’t wait to see you,” he whispered into her ear, pulling her close to him. He breathed gently onto her hair and kissed the top of her head. Shocked, she didn’t move, and was unsure of exactly what to do. Luke tilted her face up and looked into her eyes.
“You’re so beautiful,” he went on, bringing his hand up to her cheek, softly caressing it. She instantly pulled back before things escalated and got out of hand.
“Luke, stop it!” she screamed before realizing that yelling wasn’t probably the best thing to do in her current situation. She just needed to get him off of her, and fast at that.
“What’s wrong?” he asked sincerely. He looked genuinely hurt, his forehead furrowed, his eyes full of surprise. She felt bad for being so loud and brash with her reaction, but she had been caught off guard and the interaction had felt so wrong on so many levels. In fact, it made her want to run away from the school and take a long, long hot shower – with bleach and ammonia and other token household cleaning agents.
“We can’t do this. Claire is my best friend,” she spoke up, quickly walking towards another pile of boxes. It was almost as though they were in some maze-like labyrinth with each column of boxes filling her field of vision. She was trying to put as much distance between her and Luke as possible in the shortest amount of time.
He soon followed her, clearly persistent and focused. She had the distinct impression that his feelings for her were authentic, but there was no disguising the fact that he was her best friend’s boyfriend. She would never do something to deliberately hurt a friend.
“Of course we can do this,” he laughed, his hands resting on her shoulders from behind. “We’ve been doing this for almost 6 months.”
She slowly turned around to face him and beheld the wide smile on his face.
Six months! she thought. I’ve been cheating with my best friend's boyfriend for six months!
She felt flushed, her face characteristically reddening. Luke leaned in slowly, kissing her tenderly. She didn’t pull away, as much as she knew she should have, knowing that what she was doing was wrong and not the type of thing she would ever, ever normally do. His hands slowly raised up her arms, causing chills to move down her spine. She shuddered because his lips felt so good on hers – soft and kind. She touched his arms, feeling the muscles underneath the denim jacket, squeezing them lightly.
She leaned into him and he grabbed her tighter, kissing her harder and harder until she thought she would explode. Finally, she pulled away, the guilt within her taking control of the situation. She knew that it would absolutely devastate Claire to find out what they were doing, least of all just a short distance away from where she sat in the cafeteria. Darcy had absolutely no desire to be that kind of girl who hurt her best friend, no matter how good the hurting may have felt.
Suddenly the door opened and Rena stepped in. Darcy pretended to grab something out of a box, rather unconvincing in her actions. Luke also made a feeble attempt to pretend to find something he was looking for, but they both could not have appeared guiltier.
“Hey guys,” Rena said. “I thought you might need some help with those boxes.” Darcy turned around, trying to smile. Rena seemed to be oblivious to what had just happened between the two of them.
“The Turtles want their yearbooks,” Rena went on. “They want to bring them to their away game at Valley.”
The Turtles, along with The Freshman and The Foxes were school teams that comprised Flint Ridge High’s sports teams. The school was known for rearing talented athletes that ended up getting scholarships to some of the best schools in the country. It made sense seeing as the school seemed to have an enormous football field located at the rear of the sprawling institution.
“Here they are,” Luke said, his voice confident and strong as though nothing had happened. He grabbed three boxes easily and quickly made his way out of the room, leaving Rena and Darcy alone. Darcy grabbed one box and she felt like she was going to fall over because of its weight, but soon regained composure and made her way to the door.
“Let’s go, Rena,” she said as Rena herself picked up a box without any hesitation. Rena smiled and followed her out of the room, and back down the deserted hallway.
***
The rest of the day passed by at a snail’s pace. The sun had continued to shine brightly for the entire afternoon, making it difficult to guess what ti
me it was exactly if you couldn’t look at a watch or at a clock. This was certainly the case for Darcy, who for all in her haste that morning, forgot to put on a watch. The school had a rather firm ‘no cell’ phone rule so she couldn’t pull her own mini-computer of a phone out of her bag and lament as to how much longer it would be before she can just go home and lay on her bed and think the hell out of her evening.
She impressed herself at she managed to breeze through the rest of her classes without any major hiccups or disasters – the various events that had happened just earlier that morning were certainly enough. She had even made the feeble but honest attempt to volunteer an answer in her Geography class (if there was one thing she was confident about it was her impressive knowledge of Europe despite never having physically been there). The teacher, Mr. Gordon, seemed to be taken aback at her willingness to learn, as did the rest of the students in the class. Rena, in particular, seemed to find her enthusiasm and newfound knowledge slightly unsettling.
“What are you doing? You positively hate geography,” Rena had whispered to her once Mr. Gordon turned his back to write Darcy’s response on the chalkboard. All Darcy could do was shake her shoulders. Saying nothing was better than saying the wrong thing. While she felt like telling Rena to cut her some slack with her obvious frequent judgments, she knew she had to rely on her effective body language more than usual until she began to figure things out get more comfortable being a teenager. Again.
In the parking lot after school, the students quickly made their way to their cars and bikes respectively, the joy of having finished another school day palpable in the air. Darcy did not mind school, she never really did, but clearly this was not something her friends thought was acceptable.
“You should have seen Darcy brown nose through Mr. Gordon’s class!” Rena giggled, walking alongside Luke and Claire after the 3:30 pm bell signaling the end of the school day reverberated throughout the school's beautifully manicured lawns, hallways and picnic areas. Darcy had purposely chosen to walk behind them, taking in the school’s historical architecture, not to mention its incredible view of the town of Martin's Falls below them. She did not exactly feel like chatting it up just then and was comfortable in relying upon her friends to carry any menial conversations.