Tainted, Book One: Possessed

16. Soul Mender

Kerry

As usual, Gemma and Gigi met me Monday morning outside Ms. Weatherbee's class. Giving them a little wave, I realized I was happy.

Seeing Gemma made me happy.

Yeah, Gigi was drop-dead gorgeous and her accent was hilarious, but Gemma? I went to bed thinking about her and woke up thinking about her and spent a good part of every hour of every everloving day thinking about her.

I asked how their weekend had been and they said they'd gone shopping on Saturday afternoon while Jax checked out a new video game. On Sunday, the three of them had played football with Tara, Maddy, and Morgen, then crashed in Jax's room to watch a movie.

"What about you?" Gemma tilted her head and smiled at me. "What did you do?"

"We went for a hike on Sunday and found a great place. It's too far to go in an hour, but someday you have to come see it with me. You and Jax, too, Gigi. It follows a river up into the mountains and ends at a waterfall. It was amazing."

"Ooh, I'd love to see that!" Gemma's eyes were bright as she looked up at me.

"Me, too!" Gigi smiled. "We should plan an excursion one weekend. Before the weather gets too cold. Or maybe in the spring."

Their excitement for something I'd enjoyed made me smile - at least until we entered the classroom. Seeing Argaud's warden in Ms. Weatherbee's place was a kick in the balls.

After the bell sounded, he introduced himself as Garrett Park and passed out packets.

"Ms. Weatherbee has left an assignment that is due at the end of this class. She said it will count as a quiz grade and you may work with a partner or in small groups. Get started and keep the noise down."

While the packets were being handed out, I looked around the room. Something was different...

Ah. There was a new girl at the desk across from Gemma. I looked her over, noting she seemed short, was on the thick side, and had long blonde hair. I couldn't see much of her face because she wore big shades with black lenses.

Gigi turned her chair around and slid three packets onto my desk. Gemma wrote something on the top of one and turned it toward me. Looking at it, I was pretty sure it was my name. She'd drawn a little smiley face in the tail of the y, which made the good side of my mouth go up.

"Hello," I heard her say and glanced up to see her talking to the new girl. "I'm Gemma Shepherd. These are my friends, Kerry Harker and Bridget Carnahan."

"Everyone calls me Gigi." Gigi smiled brightly.

The girl turned her head. I guessed she was looking at us, but her sunglasses were so dark, I couldn't see even the outline of her eyes.

"I'm Chessie," she half-whispered.

"Want to work with us?" Gigi asked.

The girl nodded and turned her chair to join us.

Not much on conversation, is she?

Sitting back, I crossed my arms over my chest and watched them scribble away. Chessie's face turned toward me from time to time, and I guessed she was wondering why I wasn't writing anything. Or maybe she was able to sense the taint and was afraid to be so close to me.

Either way, I thought it was better to ignore her.

They worked on the assignment, and I actually helped at one point, sketching out a symbol from Ms. Weatherbee's lecture last week. The new girl didn't say much beyond a few quiet words, even though both Gemma and Gigi worked hard to make her feel like part of the group. Neither asked her any personal questions, which I thought was strange. They'd practically interrogated me on my first day.