* * * * *
Marie Summit had been making a mental note of all the two sets of twins' relations with each other since the beginning of the school year, spreading whatever gossip she could about them, and especially enjoying spreading gossip she knew wasn't true. Now she and the others knelt outside the cave. Alex had been pulled out of the hole by a beefy ninth grader from the high school. Actually, the hole was only four feet deep, not very high but too high for him to have hauled himself out with his arms.
Claudia was spraying and bandaging Alex's injured calf and ankle, not saying anything about what had made her falter upon nearing the hill ( after all, what was so special about it? Marie asked herself) but was obviously still thinking about it. She certainly wasn't mentioning how she heard Alex so far away--something which Marie felt deserved an explanation. Marie hadn't heard it, and she prided herself on her keen sense of hearing, which was so necessary to her craft. Oh well, if Claudia wasn't able to come up with a satisfactory opinion, she could think of one or two.
Other extraordinary developments did not escape Marie's careful observation. Frankly, she found them all to be extremely interesting. Especially now that Alex was shining with admiration and looking at Claudia the way Marie wished that Jason Robinson would look at her. But even if Claudia weren't too busy tying Alex's bandage, Marie didn't think she would notice. After all, hadn't they been at odds since pre-school? Was Claudia supposed to believe that Alex's change of heart was sincere after nearly a decade of teasing?
It was funny because no matter what gossip she'd spread in the past, Alex's changed attitude was a complete surprise to Marie. She'd never imagined that any of her predictions might come true, which was why she had said them. Spreading the truth was generally against her policy, but then again, the rest of the school hadn't witnessed what she had (and wouldn't believe it if they had), and she just knew that Caera and Claudia would deny everything she said to make it a juicier story. Marie smiled as the thought of the headlines in her next gossip column began to formulate.