Midnight Shadow

Chapter 6 - Drama

The next couple of weeks was more of the same. At first, the murder was all anyone wanted to talk about. But after a few days it faded into the back ground. Now, three weeks later, the topic of most discussion was an upcoming basketball game against East High, the imminent holidays and an argument between the schools resident celebrity couple, Jennifer Hayes and Matt Jones. If I could have beaten my head against a wall without knocking it down, I would have.

3 more days...  I told myself. Thanksgiving was Thursday so it was a short week. I hadn't had so much as a sniff of anything irregular around the Hill's home and I was relaxing just a little bit. Mrs. Hill wasn't like most of the foster mothers I'd lived with over the last twenty years. She wasn't trying to do too much during the holiday. Or maybe it was just that she was so incredibly well organized that nothing ever overwhelmed her. Either way the typical rush of activity normally surrounding holidays seemed foreign to the Hill's and I loved it. It was easy to relax and focus within the serene walls of the home. School was another matter entirely. Like my fellow students I was ready for the end of each school day but for very different reasons.

3 more days.

It had become my mantra for the first four hours of the school days. I mused over that as I sat in the corner of the cafeteria, my usual spot. The rush of excitement was everywhere among the students and it made it difficult to concentrate on anything. I was drowning in an emotional tidal wave of excitement and shock over some recently discovered details. I sighed to myself as I listened to the hushed conversations across the deafening roar of the early lunch crowd.

"Yeah! I heard that too. She told him he wasn't even the best looking boy in the class!" a mousy brown haired junior whispered to another girl.

"What??? Matt is gorgeous! Who else could even come close to Ma.... OH! But he's so... So... brooding!" the friend whispered back as her eyes flickered up, to my intense surprise, at me. Me? I was taken back, were they talking about me? I silently cursed myself for not paying closer attention to my surroundings the last couple of days. Within moments I heard it. There was quite a bit of whispering going on and a good deal of it seemed aimed in my direction. What was going on? I stared down at my book on the lunch table with my forehead in my left hand but I was beyond reading at that point. I started reaching out to the students methodically searching for the emotions typically associated with gossip. Fear of being overheard, suspicion, excitement over new information, jealousy.... It was everywhere. But there was a definite division there in the lunchroom. It was clear as a bell as I sat there focusing on the whirlpool of feelings flowing around me. I was the overwhelming favorite topic of conversation. I stared down at my book and listened very intently to the group of junior girls I first spied on a moment earlier.

"...so she told him that if he was so sure that any girl in the school could be his to go for it. She was tired of being with a boy anyway!" the gasps of shock, awe and horror were comical. Just another high school drama. I rolled my eyes in exasperation. This always seemed to happen. I couldn't help the way I looked, it was part of the transformation that had made me immortal. I seemed to appeal to everyone around me. Girls swooned in their minds when I smiled at them, Guys hated me for my looks... or wished they were in my shoes. I pitied them... if they only knew what being in my shoes really meant.

"But how did HE come up?" one of the other conspirators asked quietly.

"Well, Jen told him to go pick another girl if we was so perfect. She found someone else irresistible and wanted him." More gasps choked the group.

"Well" said a higher pitched whisper "She's got a point, Matt's been jealous since he showed up" she giggled in the huddle.

"How do you know that, Katie?" snapped a lower mean voice.