"Oh, shit." Kylie stared at the text message thinking it would disappear, or that she'd see a "just joking" magical y appear at the bottom. Nope. Nothing disappeared or appeared. This was no joke.
But please. Sara couldn't be pregnant. That didn't happen to girls like them. Smart girls ... girls that ... Oh, hel . What was she thinking? It happened to everyone and anyone having unprotected sex. Or sex with a faulty condom.
How could she forget that little film at school, the one Mom had to sign for her to see? Or the pamphlets Mom had brought home and unceremoniously left on Kylie's pil ow like a bedtime snack?
Talk about a mood kil er. She'd arrived home from one of the hottest dates she'd had with Trey, wanting to enjoy the high from his hot kisses and bold caresses, only to find the statistics of unwanted pregnancies and equal y unwanted sexual y transmitted diseases waiting for her. And her mother knew Kylie always had to read herself to sleep. No sweet dreams that night.
"Bad news?" someone asked.
Kylie looked up to see Toad Girl sitting in the aisle seat across from her, her legs pul ed up to her chest and her chin propped onto her knees.
"Uhh. Yeah ... no. I mean..." What she meant was it was none of her damn business, but being that blunt or rude never came easy for Kylie-wel , not unless the person real y pushed the wrong buttons-buttons that her mom seemed to know so wel . Sara cal ed Kylie's unwil ingness to state her mind the "too nice" disease. Her mom would have cal ed it manners, but because her mom excel ed at hitting Kylie's buttons, her mom considered Kylie lacking in the manners department.
Kylie pul ed her phone closed just in case Toad Girl might have super twenty-twenty eyesight. Then again, she guessed the person she should worry about having super eyesight was the blond guy, with his ... She cut her gaze to where he sat and found him staring at her with ... blue eyes. O ... kay, at least one thing was clear, it couldn't get any weirder.
"It's nothing real y," she said, forcing herself to look back at the Toad Girl and not stare at her multicolored hair. The bus came to a quick stop and Kylie's suitcase dropped to the floor. Aware that the blond guy stil stared, and afraid he might take the empty seat as an invitation to come sit beside her, she moved over.
"My name's Miranda," the girl said, and smiled, and Kylie realized that other than her hair and her pet toad, the girl looked pretty normal. Kylie introduced herself, giving the floor a quick check to confirm the toad hadn't decided to visit.
"Is this your first time at Shadow Fal s?" Miranda asked.
Kylie nodded. "Yours?" she asked out of politeness, then she looked down at her phone, stil clutched to her stomach. She needed to text Sara back and say ... oh heck, what was she going to say to Sara? What did you say to your best friend who just told you that she might be ...
"My second time." Miranda pul ed her hair up and bunched it on top of her head. "Though I don't know why they want me to come back, it's not like it helped me the first time."
Kylie stopped trying to mental y write the text and met the girl's hazel eyes-eyes that hadn't changed colors once-and curiosity had Kylie almost stuttering. "What ... what's it like? The camp, I mean. Tel me it's not too bad."
"It's not terrible." She released her hair and it fel into waves of black, lime green, and pink around her head. Then she glanced to the back of the bus where the pale chick now sat up and leaned forward as if listening. "If you don't mind the sight of blood," she whispered. Kylie chuckled, hoping beyond hope that Miranda would, too. But nope. Miranda didn't even smile.
"You're joking, right?" Kylie's heart did a cartwheel in her chest.
"No," she said in a completely unjoking manner. "But I'm probably exaggerating."
A loud clearing of a throat echoed in the bus. Kylie looked up to the front to where the bus driver stared into the big mirror. Oddly, Kylie felt as if she stared right at Miranda and her.
"Stop that," Miranda hissed in a low voice, and clapped her hands over her ears. "I didn't invite you in."
"Stop what?" Kylie asked, but the girl's odd behavior had Kylie shifting farther away. "Invite me where?"
Miranda didn't answer; she frowned up at the front of the bus and then bounced back into her seat. That's when Kylie realized she'd been wrong. Wrong about the fact that it couldn't get any weirder. It could, and it did.
Not terrible. If you don't mind the sight of blood. Miranda's words played like scary music in Kylie's head. Okay, the girl admitted to exaggerating things, but come on, losing even a little blood was too much. What kind of hellhole had her mother sent her to? she asked herself for what was probably the hundredth time since she'd gotten on the bus.
Right then Kylie's phone buzzed with an incoming text. Sara again. Please don't tell me ... u told me so. Kylie pushed her own problems aside to think about her best friend. They may have had a rough few months, but they had been best friends since fifth grade. Sara needed her.
Kylie started texting. OMG, wouldn't say that. Don't no what 2 say. R U OK?? Do ur parents no? Do you no who the father is? Kylie deleted the last question. Of course Sara knew who the father was. It had to be one of three guys, right? Unless Sara hadn't been honest about what she'd done on the dates with her two last guys.
Oh, God, Kylie's heart went out to her best friend. Even considering Kylie's terrible circumstances of her parents' divorce, Nana's death, and being sent to "bloody" Shadow Fal s Camp with some very strange people, Sara had it worse.
In two months, no matter how bad things were, Kylie would go home. By then, she'd hopeful y have gotten over the shock of losing her dad, and Nana. And maybe over the summer, Soldier Dude would lose interest in her and disappear permanently. But in two months, Sara would have a bel y the size of a basketbal .
Right then, Kylie wondered if Sara would even go back to school. God, Sara would be so embarrassed. To Sara, fitting in was ... everything. If blue eye shadow was the rave, you can bet Sara would have blue eye shadow before the week was out. Heck, she'd missed nearly a week of school when she got a big pimple on the end of her nose. Not that Kylie liked going to school with a big zit, but duh, everyone got a pimple every now and then.
But not everyone got pregnant.
Kylie could only imagine what Sara was going through.
Kylie reread her text, added a little heart, and hit send. As she waited for Sara to text back, Kylie realized she'd never been happier than right now that she hadn't given in to Trey.
"Ten minutes for bathroom breaks," the bus driver said.
Kylie looked up from the phone to the convenience store. She didn't have to go, but considering she wasn't exactly sure how much longer the ride would be, she dropped her phone in her purse and stood up in the aisle to fol ow the others off the bus. She'd taken two steps when someone wrapped a hand around her arm. A very cold hand. Kylie jumped and swung around. The pale girl stared at her. Or at least she assumed she stared at her. With her almost-black sunglasses, Kylie couldn't be sure.
"You're warm," she said as if surprised.
Kylie pul ed her arm away. "And you're cold."
"Nine minutes," said the bus driver firmly, and motioned Kylie forward.
She turned around and walked out of the bus, but she felt Pale Girl's stare bore into the back of her. Freaks. She was stuck with freaks al summer. Cold freaks. She touched her arm where the girl had held her and could swear she stil felt the chil . Five minutes later, bladder empty, she started back to the bus and saw a couple of the other kids paying for drinks. Goth Girl looked over at her from the front of the line. Then the boy with al the piercing who'd sat at the front of the bus walked past Kylie without saying a word. Deciding to grab some gum, she found her favorite grape flavor and went to stand in line. When she felt someone step behind her, she looked back to see if it was Pale Girl again. Nope, it was the boy from the back of the bus, the one with soft green eyes and brown hair. The one who reminded her of Trey. Their gazes met.
And held.
She wasn't sure why he reminded her of Trey. Sure, their eyes were similar but it was more than that. Maybe it was the way his shirt fit across his shoulders, and the certain air of ... distance. Trey hadn't been the easiest person to get to know. If they hadn't been assigned as lab partners in science class, she didn't know if they'd ever have gone out.
Yup, something about this guy seemed hard to get to know, too. Especial y when he didn't even speak. She started to swing back around when he raised his eyebrows in some kind of weak greeting. Taking his lead, she raised her own brows at him and then turned around. When she faced forward, she saw Miranda and Pale Girl talking by the door and they were both looking right at her. So, they were now ganging up on her, were they?
"Great," she muttered.
"They're just curious," the deep voice whispered so close to her ear that she felt the warmth of his words against her neck. She looked over her shoulder at him. This close, she could real y see his eyes, and she realized she'd been wrong. These weren't Trey's eyes. This guy had flecks of gold around his pupils.
"About what?" she asked, trying not to stare.
"You, they're curious about you. Maybe if you opened up a little..."
"Open up?" Okay, that annoyed her. She'd been giving him the benefit of the doubt about being the normal one, but not if he was going to start acting as if she was being the unfriendly one. "The only ones who spoke to me were the blond guy and Miranda, and the other one, and I talked to al of them."
He quirked the other eyebrow at her. And for some reason that pushed her button. "Do you have a nervous twitch or something?" she asked, and then bit her tongue. Maybe she was overcoming the too-nice disease. Sara would be proud. Her mom ... wel , not so much. Her mom.
Just like that, the image of her mom standing there in that parking lot fil ed Kylie's mind.
"You don't know ... do you?" the boy asked, and his eyes widened, his gold flecks seemed to sparkle.
"Know what?" she asked, but her mind seemed stuck on her mom. On the fact that she hadn't even hugged her good-bye. Why had Mom done this to her? Why had her parents decided to split? Why did any of this have to happen? The familiar knot, the need-to-cry knot, formed in her throat. He looked over at the door and when Kylie fol owed his gaze, Miranda and Pale Girl were stil there. Had al three of them gone to the camp before and they were like buddies and she was the new kid on the block? The new kid they'd decided to pick on?
The lady behind the counter spoke up. "Hey, you wanna pay for that gum?"
Kylie looked back at the cashier. She dropped a couple of bucks on the counter and left without getting her change. She brushed past Miranda and the other girl with her chin held high and without blinking. She dared not blink for fear the flutter of her eyelashes would bring on tears. Not that their snotty attitudes made her want to cry. It was her mom, her dad, Nana, Trey, Soldier Dude, and now even her concern for Sara. Kylie couldn't care less if these weirdoes liked her or not.