Chapter 214: Pressure Of Normal
I'd spent years wanting to be normal. Most of my life in fact. This was the first year at school where I didn't crave it anymore. Now that Gram had her power back, her magic no longer pushing against me and my demon, I could actually just be me. Funny thing, I found I was happy being a witch. Even better, I really kind of loved it.
But old habits die slow and painful deaths wrapped up in cheerleader fakery and cafeteria food. The closer I came to the front steps of Wilding Springs High, the more the pressure of normal and fitting in returned until I was just Syd Hayle again, no one special, nothing to see here, move along.
It sucked, really. I was finally in the same school two years in a row. This was a miracle. Because of coven related accidents and the need to hide who we were from the real world, I'd never had the opportunity to really make friends. Until last year. The past eleven months had been not just filled with magical mayhem, but I actually had friends for the first time in my life. Real ones, too. Not the fluffy fake kind. But as I stepped through the main doors and turned toward our spot, the nook in the sunlight, I remembered things had shifted yet again.
No Simon. My little friend with the thick glasses, so much younger than the rest of us, brilliant mind hiding behind a sweet smile, was off to college, thanks to his over- achiever parents. Blood, my big Goth buddy, now lived in Prague with his parents. Beth had other interests too, the geeky, sweet girl with the ready smile involved with her boyfriend, John. Hmmm. Todd? Jim. I think.
And Pain... the blue-eyed emo yin to Blood's yang wasn't around anymore either. Now Mia Dumont, lost daughter of that wretched coven, she left town when they did, abandoning her adoptive father to deal with the death of her mother on his own.
I still wondered if she knew her precious family killed Dorothy Hammond.
No, I didn't have proof. But I knew.
Even Brad, my one-time boyfriend, was off playing football at Notre Dame. I was happy for him, even if he turned into a jerk after dumping me at his prom.
That left Alison and me. The two amigas. Instead of a crowded nook full of chattering friends, she stood there alone, looking lost and very vulnerable. I forced a smile as I approached her in answer to the brittle one fixed on her face, almost flinching away from her as she grasped my arm and pulled me close. Her blue eyes brimmed with nerves, lips trembling as she tried for one of her patented Alison smiles.
"You're here." Her voice vibrated, giggle escaping her. "I thought you'd never come."
Two weeks in hospital hadn't really done her much good in my opinion. But at least her mother Angela hadn't reverted to the Queen of Worst Moms Ever. In fact, the few times I'd seen her, she seemed kind, even happy to see me. It made me wonder what my mom might have tampered with when she cleared the woman of Andre Dumont's thrall.
Whatever it was, legal or not, I hoped the change took. Alison needed all the help she could get. Trouble was, I didn't know if I had the energy to remain team captain of Save Alison From Herself.
At least she wasn't drinking anymore. That I knew about. Not like I was with her 24/7. She could have been and I'd never know it until she melted down again into a puddle of nothing.
Bad friend, Syd. No judging.
"Sorry," I said. "Weird morning." Not like I could fill her in or anything. Well, except one thing. "Meira's all freaky."
Alison frowned, hyper focused on me, almost like if she could just hang on to the words I said, she'd be okay. "What's up?"
"She's not herself." I shrugged, realizing I really didn't want to talk about it. "No biggie. Shall we?"
Alison hooked her arm through mine, over-bright smile back. "You bet."
As we turned, I wondered if this was what the rest of the year would be like. Then, I spotted someone watching us. My third big shock of the day made me stop and stare back. Page hovered just outside our patch of sunlight. Her normally flowing hair hung limp, eyes almost dull but desperate. She tried a smile, coming across kind of spooky, like horror movie scary. Alison squeezed my arm, snapping me out of my freeze.
I wished I could feel sorry for Page. We'd been friends once, back when she was a fallen angel, when she hung out with Simon and the others. That ended when the cheerleaders took her in again and more, made her their leader. Then she went all psycho nasty, doing what she could to ruin everything for me and my friends.
Until the Dumont brothers, Jean Marc and Kristophe made her their creature and she almost got my Uncle Frank killed.
It was difficult for me to get past that.
I was actually surprised to see her at school at all. The last time I'd run into her she'd been mostly an empty shell, staying at the same hospital as Alison. Mom must have taken pity on her after the Enforcers wiped her mind and rebuilt some of her memories.
My mother was a bigger woman than me. I'd have let Page wander forever.
It didn't look like Mom did her any favors, really. This Page was an echo of her old self, a dime-store trash heap with a broken soul. Alison's nails dug into my arm as she hissed in my ear.
"She's fallen again." Big shocker. Maybe the cheerleaders wouldn't be so horrid this year. Then again, who knew? They seemed to be drawn to the part. "The whole party thing this summer, remember?" Did I ever. I arrived just in time to save a very drunk Alison from being raped by the Dumont brothers while Page filmed it. All so they could make me lose my temper. They had no respect for normals.
Or my temper for that matter.
Odd Alison even brought it up. It was the same night she lost it, her spiral into depression sending her for a bout in the loony ward. I guess it was easy for her to forget her own failings while she looked down the throat of someone else's.
Page wavered, body swaying like a tree in the wind, as if debating approaching us. There was no way I was willing to even have a conversation with her so I set off, Alison now in tow from her grip on me, keeping my gaze straight ahead and away from Page.
Too bad she didn't take the hint. I made it two steps before she entered our patch of sunlight.
***
