NOVEL NEXT 12. Concerned & Clueless
As soon as the bell rang I was out the door. I almost ran from the computer lab all the way to Kaylee's locker. The halls were only just starting to fill up when I got there, and I paced back and forth while my heart raced as I waited for the cute redhead.
When I spotted her approaching I hurried over to her, "Kaylee!"
"What's up Cass?" she asked as I walked with her back to her locker. "You look uptight, what's wrong? Where's Paige, or did she stay late in the computer lab again?"
I shook my head, "She wasn't there Kaylee. She never showed up after gym."
"Hmm," she frowned as she pulled her jacket out of her locker and put it on. Then she exchanged some books, loading up her backpack with what she needed to take home.
After another half minute she finally said, "Paige probably skipped programming to go over to Brooke's place. She said she wanted to stop by and see if Brooke was at home, remember?"
"I don't know," I frowned. "Paige doesn't seem like the type to skip that class? I mean, that's almost like saying she'd skip gym."
Kaylee closed up her locker then walked with me over to mine. She shrugged, "I don't know about that. I know she's good with computers and she likes that class, but I'm sure she's got a high enough grade she can afford to miss one or two programming classes. And she was really worried about Brooke."
We got to my locker and I opened it up to get my jacket and swap books and stuff too.
While I was doing that the cute redhead asked, "Anyways what's got you so worried about Paige cutting class?"
I sighed and leaned closer as I whispered, "What if she's missing?"
Kaylee gave me a look so I elaborated, "Look at the pattern? Brooke was missing this morning, then Miss Hawthorne was away, now Paige is gone too. What if it's something..."
I lowered my voice again, "What if it's something supernatural? What if someone or something is going after Club Luna members?"
She frowned for a few moments as I shut my locker, then the two of us headed for the school's back doors together.
As we walked she shook her head and responded quietly, "I don't know Cass. Mr. Guthrie's away today too and he's as far from Club Luna as you can possibly get? It's probably just a coincidence. My guess is there's a family emergency with Brooke's mom? Same thing happened back in June. I think Brooke's busy dealing with that, and Paige skipped her last class so she could go check on her girlfriend."
I sighed as we emerged from the school building and started across the yard towards the ravine.
"So what about -" I blinked and stopped as something she said just hit me. "Wait, her girlfriend? Brooke and Paige are girlfriends?"
Kaylee turned and gave me a funny look, "Yeah, they're girlfriends. What did you think was going on between them?"
My cheeks heated up as I shrugged, "I don't know? I guess I assumed they were just close friends?"
The redhead put her hand over her mouth as she giggled, "Oh my goddess Cass seriously?! Brooke and Paige are just good friends the way your moms are just good friends! How can you be so clueless when you have two mothers?"
I blushed even brighter as I mumbled, "They've been really subtle about it ok? I've never seen them hugging or holding hands or kissing or anything, I didn't even know they were gay."
Kaylee stifled another giggle, then her expression became more serious.
She sighed "Yeah. I'm sure you and your moms know, this town isn't always so accepting of that sort of thing right?"
"Yeah," I frowned. "I know. I guess I'm a little naive about this stuff? My moms never made a big deal about their relationship, and I think they've been lucky nobody gives them any grief about it."
"That's good," she gave me a smile then gestured, "Anyways let's get going?"
We started walking again, but we were both quiet as we cut through the ravine. When we emerged on the other side we stopped as usual before going our separate ways. Kaylee said, "I'll text Paige and Brooke again when I get home. And you too, cutie. We'll keep in touch, but I'm sure everything's ok."
I frowned again as something else occurred to me. "Kaylee? When was the last time you saw Marissa? Have you seen or heard from her at all today?"
"No," she shook her head. "I haven't seen her since the club meeting on Friday? That's not unusual though, she's in grade ten, she's not in any of our classes."
"She joins us for lunch though right?" I pointed out. "Not every day, but fairly often?"
Kaylee shrugged, "I guess. But it's not that unusual not to see her. If you're worried about her, then text her or something? I'll do the same. Anyways I'm going to head home now, I'll message you later ok?"
I frowned and bit my lower lip, "Kaylee wait a sec?"
"Yeah?" she asked. Then she gave me a sad smile, "You're really worried about this thing aren't you? You really think everyone's vanishing?"
"Yeah," I replied quietly. "I'm worried. What if... What if one of us goes missing next?"
It was obvious from the look on her face she didn't think that was likely. But after a moment she gave me another sympathetic look and said, "Ok Cass, tell you what? Let's exchange something, some little token or object. That way if you go missing I'll have something of yours to scry with, and if I go missing you'll have something of mine to focus on."
Part of me knew she was just trying to humour me, but I couldn't shake the worry that there really was something going on. And even though I didn't actually know how to scry, I hadn't been taught how to do any spells at all in fact, it'd make me feel better knowing we had something like that to connect us.
So I agreed, "Ok Kaylee. That's a good idea."
It took me a few moments to figure out what I had with me that would work. I took my keyring out of my backpack and carefully unhooked one of my good luck charms from it.
It was an old coin or medallion or something, a little over an inch across. The metal was brown with age, and it had a little hole drilled through near one edge. A metal ring through the hole connected the coin to one of those larger rings you could attach keys to.
"Here," I said as I handed it over to Kaylee. "I've had that for ages. My mom gave it to me when I was little, it's kind of a good luck charm?"
She smiled as she accepted it, "Thanks Cass."
I watched her carefully tuck it into her jacket pocket, then she undid a bracelet from her right wrist.
She had me hold my hand out, then she hooked the bracelet onto my wrist instead. As she did that she explained, "I've had this for about six or seven years? My grandma gave it to me for my birthday one year. I'll take good care of your lucky coin, you look after my bracelet."
"Thanks Kaylee," I smiled as I looked at the thin gold-coloured chain around my wrist. "You be careful ok? Stay safe. I'll text you tonight, and see you in the morning."
She smiled, "You too."
We finally separated as we headed in opposite directions to get home.
• • • • •
Tuesday morning I stood on the sidewalk next to the ravine and waited for Kaylee. She was five minutes late, and I couldn't shake the heavy anxious feeling in my gut.
We'd texted each other like twenty times last night. Ok maybe forty times. Both of us also texted Brooke, Paige, Marissa, and Miss Hawthorne a few times, but none of them ever replied. We even tried starting a group chat for the whole club, but me and Kaylee were the only ones in it.
The last few texts between us were right at bedtime, and she was finally starting to believe me that maybe this was serious after all. Like if Paige did skip her last class to check on Brooke, she should have texted us back one way or another at some point in the evening. Same with Marissa, even if we didn't see her at class she should have responded to at least one text.
So me and Kaylee agreed to meet earlier than usual, then head into school together to work on the problem.
As I waited for her I tried to convince myself it was ok. She slept in, or she forgot we agreed to meet early, or something came up and she was running behind.
For the next fifteen minutes I kept telling myself that as I stood there waiting, but there was no sign of her. I even texted her five or six more times, but she didn't text back.
Finally when it was getting late I had to quit waiting. I turned and cut through the ravine by myself. I trudged alone through the trees like I'd done countless times before, then walked silently across the schoolyard and in through the back doors.
When the bell rang I was sitting in my regular seat at the back of Miss Hawthorne's class room. We had English this morning, but there was still no sign of our regular teacher. Instead Mr. Graves was there, scowling at everyone as he prepared another unpleasant exercise for all of us.
Almost all of us. From my seat at the back I had a perfect view of the two empty desks near the front, where Kaylee and Paige normally sat.
An hour later I was in Geography, and just like English there were two empty seats. There was no denying it, Kaylee and Paige were both missing. Neither had texted me back this morning. I hadn't heard from Brooke or Marissa or Miss Hawthorne either.
When Geography was finished I picked up my books and backpack and quietly made my way to my locker. I put my books in and took my lunch out, then walked alone into the cafeteria. I sat by myself at an empty table at the far end of the cafeteria and took out my sandwich and a bottle of water, but I had no appetite.
I almost felt like I was in some sort of nightmare. Yesterday morning I thought my life was almost perfect, I had friends and I was part of a club and everything was going great. Now just one day later I was alone, and it almost felt like the previous month had been all but erased.
If not for the fact that I was still a girl named Cassandra and I still had Kaylee's gold bracelet on my wrist, I'd have almost believed the past month never happened at all.
So far today had been almost exactly like every other school day of the past three years. I came to school alone, I attended class alone, sat at the back of the room where nobody paid any attention to me, then I came to the cafeteria alone and had lunch by myself.
And nobody else in class this morning seemed to even notice anything was wrong. Mr. Graves didn't comment on the two missing students in English. And Miss Chen didn't say anything about the empty seats in Geography.
I let out a long deep sigh and stared at the bracelet on my wrist again. It was supposed to help me focus on Kaylee, but I didn't actually know how to scry. I watched Paige try it a couple times yesterday, and I never once thought to ask her or Kaylee to teach me how to do it. Now I was kicking myself for that.
A minute or so later I was still staring at the bracelet and thinking of my missing friends when someone slumped into the chair next to me and announced in a triumphant voice, "Cassandra my friend, without a doubt we have definitely got ourselves a werewolf situation!"
"Huh?" I blinked and looked up, and found myself staring at a very smug-looking Marissa.
She was in one of her fancy white blouses, a long thick black wool skirt, her ankle boots, and she had a fashionable little black vest on over the blouse. There was a wide smile on her face and a sparkle in her eyes as she nodded her head in confirmation.
She had a swig of her cola then stated, "It happened again over the full moon Cass. Gord Potts' family farm lost another sheep. That's four for four! Four full moons in a row, four sheep lost to 'wild animal' attacks."
She even did the air quotes with her fingers as she talked.
"Last night I snuck over there and had a look at the scene. I can't do the divination stuff Brooke does, but I don't need magic to say that was a werewolf attack. It's confirmed!"
After another swig of her soda she finally asked, "So anyways, what's going on? Where's everybody else hiding, why are you having lunch by yourself today?"
I was staring at her with wide eyes and my jaw was probably hanging open. She was acting like everything was normal, like she wasn't missing for a whole day, like she didn't know anyone else had vanished either.
"Cass?" the energetic blonde asked as she frowned at me. "Why are you looking at me funny?"
"Marissa?" I asked back at her, "Where have you been? Why haven't you answered any of our texts or emails or calls?!"
She drained the last of her cola then shrugged, "I turned my phone off yesterday when I was stalking Gord. I guess I forgot to turn it back on. Why, what's going on? What'd I miss?"
"Everybody's missing!" I exclaimed. "Miss Hawthorne, Kaylee, Brooke, Paige! I thought you were gone too! I thought everybody was gone!"
Her eyes widened as she finally seemed to understand what I was getting at.
"Seriously? All of Club Luna's gone missing, except us two?"
I nodded, "Yeah. Marissa I have no idea what's going on or what to do about it. I feel lost and scared..."
The blonde witch's eyes stayed wide, but her lips started to curl upwards into a big excited grin.
She gave me a slightly wild, excited look as she asked "You know what this means Cass?"
"No," I shook my head. "I just said, I don't know..."
Marissa put a hand on my shoulder and stated confidently, "It means the two of us are going to save the day. It's up to us Cassandra. The werewolf can wait, you and I have to save Club Luna!"
