A Grave Problem

24. Monday Morning

Mia was so nervous about what would happen in school on Monday that she actually tried to get her mom to let her stay home. Of course, her mom didn't believe she was sick; she just assumed Mia had a test or something she was trying to get out of. So instead of lying safe in bed for the day like she'd hoped, Mia got on the bus and headed nervously off to school. She knew she was going to have to go back eventually – she'd just hoped she could put it off for a day or two.

She really hoped Zev wouldn't remember what happened, and she spent the entire bus ride wondering what she would do if he did. Math was her first class of the day, and even though Zev was in her class, Mia was pretty sure she'd be ok. Not only did Zev sit across the room, but Mia had the added protection of having Carmine right next to her. She knew there was no way Zev would try to confront her if she was hanging around with Carmine. Mia would never take that risk herself. After all, if Carmine didn't know and Zev confronted them, he would end up with two people who knew about him instead of just the one. And Carmine was definitely the kind of person who would tell everyone if she didn't have a reason not to. Zev was smart enough that he wouldn't want to risk telling Carmine what had happened, just in case she didn't know yet.

Normally Mia was one of the first students to get to class. As soon as the bus pulled up, she switched her books out at her locker and headed to math – she didn't have anything better to do. But today, she decided to go to the cafeteria. A lot of students either ate breakfast there or did last-minute homework, so it was usually pretty crowded.

Mia found a seat at one of the most crowded tables, put her head down, and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. She was pretty sure that Zev, Luke and Conner would never look for her here, and even if they did, there was no way they'd do anything with so many kids around. Mia stayed there, pretending to do homework until she only had two minutes to get to class.

Mia hurried into class with just enough time to sit down before the bell rang. She said a quick hi to Carmine and grabbed her book out of her backpack. She was careful to avoid looking at Zev.

Mia had planned on spending the whole class period staring at only the teacher and her notebook, but she kept catching herself trying to sneak glances over at Zev. Every day, the fact that he was in her class had been one of the things that made her look forward to math. Now, she wasn't sure what she was going to do. She thought about switching classes, but she knew that would never work. Not only would Carmine ask her why she'd switched, but it would look too suspicious. There was still a chance that Zev didn't remember what happened. And even if he did, he might not know it was her he'd seen in the woods. No, Mia figured her best chance was to pretend like nothing had happened; if she changed her schedule, odds were good that Zev would know the reason.

Mia tried to watch Zev out of the corner of her eye, to see if he acted any different. If he was nervous, or distracted, it might mean he knew it was her. Every time she looked over at him, he seemed busy taking notes. Mia had just decided that for math, at least, the coast was clear when Carmine leaned forward and nudged her.

"Are you ok?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Yeah." Mia replied, equally as quiet.

"You seem really nervous. You sure everything's alright?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"You keep staring across the room." Carmine thought for a minute. "Is it Zev? Is everything ok? ...Did something happen?"

"No, nothing happened... I just... I don't know." Mia trailed off.

She wanted to ask Carmine if she thought there was anything odd about him, but she stopped herself. If Carmine had actually thought that, she would have mentioned it in the year or so since she'd started hanging out with him. She thought about trying to give Carmine hints about what was wrong; if she guessed for herself, it couldn't be Mia's fault, right? But as soon as the thought entered her head, she dismissed it. It wouldn't matter if she told Carmine or not – if Carmine ever found out, Mia was sure she'd be blamed for it. Right now, she was trying to deny she'd been there that night. And even if that didn't work, she wanted to at least be able to say that she wouldn't tell anyone about him. If Carmine found out, there was no way she'd be able to say that.

Mia hoped that by making sure her friends didn't know, Zev would see how normal everything was and that he didn't have anything to worry about. If Carmine suddenly started acting different, they would know that someone had told her – especially if she figured it out before the next full moon. The only other option would be to say that Carmine herself had been the one who'd seen them, and Mia would never set her friend up like that. So what was she supposed to tell Carmine?

"I was just thinking...maybe I don't know him as much as I should." she said finally.

"Yeah."

Even though she couldn't see Carmine's face, Mia knew by her tone that she hadn't believed a word of what Mia'd said. She sighed inwardly. She'd have plenty of time to convince Carmine that things just weren't going to work out with Zev – and that it was nobody's fault. At least she'd managed to keep from telling Carmine what she'd found over the weekend.

Mia spent the rest of the class going out of her way to keep from staring at Zev. It was hard, but she managed to drag her concentration back to geometry, and even managed to take a few notes. She'd never been so glad for math to be over. One class down. Now all she had all of history to think of a way to avoid him when P.E finally rolled around.