Moon and Storm

Part Two

Monday morning came far too soon, and for once, the deer was not waiting outside for her. Not that she expected it. The deer had gotten her attention, and had shown her what she was needed for. There was no reason to keep coming back, and she probably wanted to stay close to her boy anyway.

Stone and Echo seemed disappointed by its sudden disappearance from their lives, but Star remained pensive and quiet, watching her sister as she moved through the kitchen and got them all breakfast. "She told you something," Star said when the boys were focused on greedily devouring their pancakes. "And you heard her."

"Maybe I did," Moon replied. "Eat."

Moon's mind wandered all throughout the school day, and she found it hard to focus on her work. When lunch period rolled around, she packed up all of her belongings and sneaked a sandwich into the computer lab with her. Between stolen bites, she looked up the news story her mother told her about the day before, hoping to find a picture of the boy who had disappeared into the woods, but there was no face to attach to the stories and all she got was a name: Cory Larson, 15, from Beaverton. He ran away from home one night after a disagreement with his father and was last seen disappearing into the forest. All local attempts to find him had turned up nothing. A related story spoke of a neighbor who was in stable condition after being attacked by a vicious fox during one of the attempted rescue missions.

"Cory probably got eaten by the wild animals. I mean, look what they did to my leg."

Angrily, Moon shut down the computer.

"You don't know what you're talking about," she muttered to it, though she wasn't at all sure that the boy she met in the forest was Cory. He seemed about the right age – only a year younger than her – but there was no proof one way or another. The boy in the forest didn't seem like a kid who'd run away only a month ago after a disagreement. There was something else there, something the deer wanted her to uncover, and she was determined to do just that.

She was not paying attention as she left the library, the bell that would toll the end of lunch still a good ten minutes away, and so she was not expecting it when someone brushed forcefully past her. The hard knock against her shoulder sent her tumbling into the lockers to her side and a group of snickering voices surrounded her.

"Oops," one of the girls said. "Sorry, didn't see you there Moony."

Moon glared. For years, the girls had been making her school life a walking nightmare, and she was already in a foul enough mood from the articles she'd just read. "You did it on purpose."

The girl gave an exaggerated intake of breath and placed her hand to her chest. "On purpose! Such accusations!"

Another girl laughed. "C'mon Moony, it's all in good fun. Play along."

Moon righted herself and tried to walk away from them, but they quickly followed, surrounding her again. The first girl wrapped an arm around Moon's shoulders. "So what were you doing in the library, Moony? Studying?"

Moon didn't grace her with an answer, but this didn't deter the girl at all.

"I wouldn't bother if I were you. You know what moons do, don't you? They orbit bigger and

better planets, that's all, and they reflect the light from the sun. That's all you are. Just a dense little rock, orbiting more important people, reflecting everyone else's brightness but without any of your own. I don't even know why you bother coming here everyday—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Moon did something she had never done before. She hauled back and punched the girl straight in the nose. The girl went over backwards, hands flying to her face, but Moon could see the blood and it made her sick. Before anyone could realize what had happened, Moon made a run for it. She pushed past the other girls, heading for the double doors at the end of the hallway, her breath catching and her heart pounding close to her ears. A teacher's voice called out through the din, shouting her name in a very stern tone, but she ignored it and kept running.