Forty-One After Midnight (Completed)

Chapter Nine

"NICOLE!"

I opened my eyes and looked up to see Laney standing over me. She was grabbing my arm and shaking me. I groaned and sat up.

"You're going to be late. Class starts in five minutes."

Since when did she care about me being late?

I sighed and sat up. She left after that and I quickly got out of bed to get dressed and get ready. I was about a half hour late to class and Ms. Langley did not look overly happy with me when I walked in the door. The rest of the class stared as I went to take me seat.

I was still ridiculously tired as I sat in my desk and tried very hard to keep myself from nodding off. My eyelids felt heavy and every once in a while my head would start to go down, but at the last minute I'd snap back up and be fully alert. In a way it was a good thing that I was late and missed half the class. That was less time I had to try to stay awake.

Before I got to history that day I ran into Mrs. Reeves in the hallway. She stopped me and took me off to the side to talk to me.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I took a trip to the main office last night and found some things that may be of interest to you."

I looked down at the folder she was holding out to me.

"Her records?" I asked.

Mrs. Reeves nodded. I took the folder from her and stuck it in my bag.

"If you need anything else just ask."

"I think you should be part of our next meeting. Actually, you should be a part of all of them. We meet in the library. After dinner. We'll eat quickly and head down there as soon as we're done. What do you say?"

She thought for a moment, looked around to see if anyone was nearby, possibly hearing our conversation, and then nodded.

"Sounds good."

She smiled.

"Great... and Mrs. Reeves?" I stopped her before she started to walk away. "Thank you," I said, gesturing toward my bag.

She smiled again.

"No problem," she said, and then turned to walk away.

Laney had her eyes glued to me. I felt very uncomfortable sitting in class that day as I noticed her staring from her spot all the way across the room. Then I remembered why she might be staring. The day before. I ditched her. She hadn't had time to say anything the night before, because I had been asleep by the time she got back to our room, but today I imagined I was going to have to face the consequences. I rubbed at my forehead and looked away. There was no way I was going to save myself from this.

Kyle didn't seem to notice. He sat in the row behind me and a little to the right. I had to awkwardly look like I was stretching in order to get his attention. When he finally looked I patted my bag. He must have known what I meant, because a smile spread across his face. I smiled back and turned around and listened to what Mrs. Reeves was saying. For once.

When class was done I tried to walk out with Laney to go to lunch like I had been getting used to, but I guess she was pretty pissed at me for ditching her the other day. She wouldn't so much as look at me as she grabbed her things and hurried out the door. To make matters worse, even Callie wouldn't talk to me and our little music lessons were permanently canceled. I sighed. At least having two sets of friends came in handy sometimes. I walked down to the café alone and joined my investigation buddies at their usual table.