The Joker

Surprise

Chapter 6

Surprise

The next day I dressed a bit more carefully than I usually would, seeing as I was going out after school. I wore a skirt, dark blue with chiffon-y fabric on top that came to my ankles at the back, but above my knees at the front, and a black knit singlet top. 

I got my first surprise of the day, when I walked into the kitchen, to see Kat making waffles with ice-cream and maple syrup.

“What’s all this?” I wondered aloud.

“Isn’t waffles and ice-cream your favorite?”

“Yeah, it is,” I amended. “I was just wondering why you decided to make it this morning.”

“Oh,” she replied, a rosy glow arising in her cheeks though her smile suggested I was missing something. “I just felt like it. Is that a crime?”

I shrugged deciding the story behind her strange behavior was believable. I’d known Kat to do adventitious things.

After a quiet breakfast with Kathy—one where she flushed every time our eyes met over the table—I laced my Chucks and hopped into the waiting red convertible.

“How was your morning?” Chloe queried politely as the wind whipped through our hair—mine newly straightened—making a whirlwind of color around each of our heads.

“Fine,” I answered, suspicious of her tone and the knowledgeable look in both the girls’ eyes as I retold Kat’s strange behavior. I could see Daniel’s grin in the rearview mirror; he obviously hadn’t even attempted to conceal it, oblivious as he was to my being able to see it.

He was, therefore, taken at unawares when I asked him in an accusatory tone, “What are you smirking at?”

He jumped slightly, causing the steering wheel to spasm and the car to go onto the wrong side of the road.

Horns blared and we swerved out of the way of oncoming cars. I could see the faces of the angry drivers, either shaking their heads or holding their hearts—I would wager they were thinking ‘damn teenagers!’

“Nothing,” he replied, which was perfectly true now, though I had to suppress a nervous grin myself.

By the time we got to school there was barely anyone there. Kass, however, seemed to have got up early, and rushed forward to give me a hug as soon as we pulled into the lot.

“Uh..?” My hands pressed on her shoulders, forcing her to stagger backwards.

She read my bewildered features with an anxious expression and bit her lip.

“What was that for?” I asked, my hands hovering in front of me in case she decided to attack again and my face still displaying confusion.

Her eyes flickered towards Laura, who was doing something with her hair, for a fraction of a second and then said quietly, looking anywhere but at me, “I just…er…I was just so…uh…happy to…see you?” She sounded like she was questioning her own answer and the swiveling of her eyes between each of my companions did nothing to ease my suspicions.

In Algebra she kept her eyes averted and didn’t say much, which was about as natural as a spikeless hedgehog. She looked nervous, like Kat was this morning and, again, I got the feeling I was missing something.

I could tell that something was going on, but the only people who could get this idea out of my head were the Sangue di Fenices.

There was something about the way they were acting so natural that it seemed that nothing was happening as far as they were aware. It was hard not to trust the Sangue di Fenices.