Paradise

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Three

Yvette was right. I felt completely normal on the other side. I drew in deep breath after deep breath, enjoying my pain-free insides. Despite, having no pain, I still couldn't bring myself to stop thinking about it. What had caused it? Had it really been the food? It was completely baffling. If Soren had really poisoned me-- I just couldn't understand why. I thought we'd bonded. I thought we'd become friends.

"We should head back to the gym," Yvette said, startling me. I instinctively looked at the clock on the wall behind the teacher's desk. We'd only been gone about forty-five minutes. My mind reeled. I couldn't believe the time difference! It felt like I'd been there hours—days, even, but no, it'd just been a little over half an hour.

"That still blows my mind," I said.

Robert was starting to come to. I heard him stirring on the floor where we'd placed him. Without another word, Ms. Albert and Yvette left the classroom, leaving Robert and me alone. I rushed to his side, fixing my expression into one of concern. I had to make this convincing. .

Just before he woke, I exclaimed, "Robert! Are you okay?"

He looked up at me, and I swear his green eyes had never looked so striking before. His brows pushed together, making these cute, little dints in his forehead. I hated lying to him, but it wasn't like he'd remember what had happened, anyway, so trying to tell him the truth would only be a waste of breath.

Plus, he'd think I was nuts.

"Y-Yeah," he said, sitting up. I moved away from him to give him room. "I mean-- I think so. What happened?"

"Uh, we were dancing-- but I-I'm sure you remember that," I said, laughing uneasily. "T-Then, you know, we went to look for Kendall. You thought she would be in here, but when she wasn't-- you just sorta passed out on the floor." I shrugged my shoulders. It took everything in my power not to completely throw in the towel and tell him the truth. I thought of the day when I'd rescued Ms. Albert from the other dimension and she'd lied right in my mother's face without so much as a flinch. I wasn't quite that good yet, nor did I want to be. Lying made me feel bad.

Robert rubbed a hand up the back of his head, brow still furrowed. "Wow, really?" he asked. "That's so weird."

I nodded. "Yeah, and it was really scary. You could have hit your head or something." I lowered my eyes, unable to look at him. "I-I was going to go get someone, but then you started to wake up, and I didn't want you to wake up alone--" I stopped. My face was all red and warm.

I looked back up and our eyes locked. Robert smiled at me and something excited fluttered in the pit of my stomach.

"That's really nice, Penny," he said. "Thank you."

"Uh, no problem," I said with another uneasy laugh.

"Why don't you help me up?" he asked, tilting his head cutely.

I giggled as I stood. "Uh-okay," I said, extending a hand to him. When his hand found mine, and clenched it tightly, the excited, fluttering thing in my stomach exploded into my chest, multiplying. I pulled him to his feet and he towered above me. "So—um, h-how's your head?" I asked after a moment. He just kept staring at me, this hint-of-a-smile lingering at the corners of his mouth, making me uncomfortable.

"It's fine," he said.

"That's good," I said, nodding for a good fifteen seconds. "So ... um, Kendall," I said, fingering a strand of my hair. "Wonder where she is."

"Oh, yeah," he said, chuckling softly. "I guess I should go look. Well, see you around, Penny."

I waved half-heatedly. "See you around," I said, before retrieving my clutch off the teacher's desk and unzipping it. My cell-phone was safely inside. Daphne had no reason to steal my stuff, so I don't know why I'd thought she would. Still, it was best to make sure. My parents would flip if I lost it already. I could only imagine my father's reaction. It'd be horrifying.

I looked at my cell-phone, the evening's exhaustion finally hitting me. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to go ahead and call my mother to come pick me up....

I guess I could have went after Yvette or Ms. Albert, or even Robert once he discovered Kendall was nowhere to be seen, but I just wasn't ready. I didn't want to talk to Kendall or Ms. Albert yet, and my brain was way too tired to come up with another lie for Robert. And he'd definitely want some sort of explanation. After all, Kendall was just here earlier and now she wasn't. He'd be really confused.

I was confused just thinking about it. I had no idea what would happen once the real Kendall came back to school. It was going to be a mess; it was already stressed me out just thinking about it.

"Stop it," I told myself, silencing my thoughts. "Just stop it."

I was tired and I wanted to go home. I doubted I'd even manage to keep my eyes open on the drive back. That was good, though. I needed to rest. I needed a lot of rest and then, maybe, I could work on coming up with something. But not until I'd had at least ten hours of uninterpreted sleep.