75
Jennifer sat on Heather’s right, looking out the school bus window intently enough to make Heather wonder whether the scenery along the route to Los Alamos High had changed. Mark sat by himself two rows up. That was probably a good thing. She didn’t want to talk to him right now. It had been a long time since she had been this mad at anyone, and for it to be Mark that she was angry with was a new experience, one that she could have done without.
Heather had awakened on the first day of school with that special thrill of anticipation that this day always gave her. What in the world had possessed him to bring her down like this?
Heather had known for a while that Mark was less than thrilled with the idea that her parents had her on antipsychotic meds. Until this morning, he had never directly challenged her on the subject. But whatever good sense he had shown heretofore had evaporated as they waited for the bus. He’d actually had the nerve to say that her mom and dad were drugging her out of her mind and that she was crazy for knuckling under to their wishes.
If she hadn’t been quite so mad, Heather was sure she would have been reduced to tears by the verbal assault from someone she loved so dearly. She wasn’t going to let that happen, though. Mark wasn’t the one suffering from the horrifying mental fugues that had been ripping apart her reality, leaving her trembling with fear that she might completely lose her mind. He had no right to judge her or her parents. No right.
A sudden jolt as the rear tires of the bus climbed up over the curb as it turned into the high school, brought Heather’s thoughts back to the present. New bus driver. Heather hoped the bumpy entrance to the school grounds wasn’t a sign of things to come. In response to her mental question, the image of her old Magic 8-Ball toy came to mind, the answer swimming into view through the blue liquid beneath its lens.
“Don’t count on it.”
Without bothering to dwell on the unpleasant thought, Heather allowed herself to be swept from her seat, carried along by the excited throng toward the entrance to the high school entryway, and then into the hallway beyond. When she glanced around, Mark was gone, as was Jennifer. So much the better. All she wanted right now was some sense of return to normality, something that the bustling high school hallway promised to deliver.
First-day activities consumed her: class schedules, new teachers, book issue, locker assignment, assembly. Most of her classmates seemed genuinely happy to see her.
Only Paulette Carlton and her troupe of snobettes got in her face.
“Look what we have here,” Paulette exclaimed with an expert flip of her long, blond hair. “A certified, national science contest award winner. Nation’s biggest cheat.”
The other three girls, all members of the cheerleading squad, laughed loudly as they passed by in Paulette’s wake, Heather’s scowl lost on their backsides. Watching them from this angle, Heather could understand their popularity with the boys: lots of waggle and vocabularies that didn’t include the word no.
Grabbing her chemistry notebook from the locker, Heather pushed the pride of Los Alamos High School’s cheerleading squad from her mind and headed toward her next class.
A small group had gathered just outside the classroom, and to Heather’s dismay, she saw that Paulette and the kitty cats were among them. Just as she was about to put her head down and duck by the cluster into the classroom, Heather caught a glimpse of the person at the center of everyone’s attention.
Jennifer Smythe stood smiling and chatting amiably, the group around her as enthralled by her presence as if Elvis had just walked into the building. Heather stopped to stare. Even the cheerleaders appeared to be trying to crowd nearer, as if they couldn’t bear to be excluded from Jen’s inner circle of admirers.
Unable to believe the evidence presented by her own eyes, Heather edged closer, ignoring the sound of the bell calling her to class. Suddenly, Jennifer’s laughing eyes caught her own and a feeling of gentle longing filled her mind. As Heather watched Jennifer turn that sparkling gaze from person to person, a chill spread through her body.
With the probability equations forming a torrent in her head, Heather understood. Her shy little friend was in the midst of becoming. The only question was…becoming what?