“I guess so.”
After she finished cleaning the mirror and the smudges of lip gloss off the bathroom floor Tamara returned to her room. Maybe the little brats did enjoy playing with her makeup. Tamara rummaged through her desk drawers, being poked by pencils, lidless pens, hair clips, and various other items with sharp corners until her fingers finally wrapped around what she wanted. For her birthday Tina had gotten her a tube of sour grape lip gloss that she had never used, because who wants to be tasting sour grape all day? The faces that resulted from puckering her lips each time she tasted the stuff would surely cause wrinkles.
Sneaking past Amber wasn't as easy as Tamara thought it would be. Not wanting her dad to think she was arguing with Amber, meant she couldn't ask him to drop her off anywhere else. His big case was finally closed and he had won.
“Tonight we're all going for dinner! You can even invite Amber if you want.”
“I'll see if she can come.”
“Are you okay, Tam?” he asked, as the car pulled up to the curb. Tamara glanced around and not seeing Amber made a dash for it without answering her father's question.
“Have a good day!” she heard him call out as she pushed open the school doors.
“Tamara!” Amber called from somewhere outside, but Tamara ignored her. She didn't want to talk about what was happening. She just wanted to leave the faeries something equally valuable to what she had taken and be done with it.
The halls of Central Glade High were empty except for a few teachers gossiping in the science hall. Tamara ducked around the corner when she heard them laughing.
G
uess I'm not using the elevator, she thought as she headed towards the stairs. She dashed up the stairs, legs burning from the effort. Since the end of volleyball Tamara hadn't been as active as she should have been. After a quick survey of the first hall on the fifth floor, she decided to just go for it. Shouldn't the fifth floor be empty this time of morning?
Footsteps fell on the stairs as she sprinted to room five eighty five, urging Tamara on. She pushed the door open and sighed in relief when it was blissfully empty except for Sir Bedivere. Tamara removed the tube from it's plastic wrapper and lay it in front of him.
“We're even now, right?” she asked out loud.
Tamara wasn't sure what she expected to happen, but she felt let down when nothing happened. It was foolish, but she did. She meandered down the hall and stairs, heading to her locker.
“Tamara!”
She looked over her shoulder to see Hayden running after her.
“Hey,” she had to force a smile, because she hadn't forgotten their argument yesterday. Thinking about it still left her bemused. Hayden had insulted and complimented her in the same breathe. He had drug her into this mess by cutting open those damn apples and now refused to acknowledge that anything was happening.
Hayden grinned at her and despite her anger butterflies began to flutter around her belly. She crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay this morning,” he said.
“Why wouldn't I be?” Tamara asked, wondering if something had finallyconvinced him that she hadn't lost her mind.
“You were acting really weird yesterday.”
“Oh,” Tamara rolled her eyes after being let down for the second time this morning and classes hadn't even began.
“I didn't mean to piss you off,” Hayden said shifting his backpack from one shoulder to the other, “We're all upset about losing the tournament and all the crazy stuff going on. I don't know what happened to you yesterday at the library.”
“Yes, you do!” Tamara snapped, “You know because I told you, Hayden!”
“Yeah..” he paused, “but I wasn't there.”
“You just wait! You just wait until they do something and you have to believe what's going on.”
“Even if they are real, if you ignore them, they'll go away.”
“I doubt it,” Tamara said, turning on her heels.
“Tamara,” Hayden said again. Tamara liked how her name sounded on his lips and the way his brow creased in frustration.
“What?”