Gravity - By Abigail Boyd Page 0,74

stopped, and everything was black and silent.

I felt warmth on my cheeks, and I could smell the ocean. I opened my eyes and saw blue sky above me.

I could feel my limbs resting on a bed of sand. On a beach. Before I had much time to contemplate this, Jenna leaned over me. The necklace with her name on it dangled from around her neck. The sun caught the tiny rhinestones and they twinkled.

And then the sky was dark, raining. Large droplets splotched my skin. I felt paralyzed, unable to move much. The smell changed to something briny and complicated.

Jenna was still leaning over me, although now the necklace was missing. Her face was as blank as it had been the first time I saw her, like she was inspecting an alien. Curly hair like brambles fell around her face. Seeing her gave me no solace. Only fear.

I noticed with a chill that her eyes were entirely black. No longer sky blue, it was as if the pupils had taken over everything else. Who else had I seen with black eyes...with I start I realized it was the little dead girl. That meant...

My vision flickered again, and we were on the beach. I felt myself able to sit up, and began to do so. But as I moved the vision again wavered. We were on the shore of a lake, the muddy bank beneath me. My fingers sank into the muck. The green water boiled.

Again to the beach. Sunlight glittered off of the lazily moving waves.

You've never been to the beach, Jenna. I thought. You always wanted to go but your parents never had the time...

I tried to speak.

But I was tumbling again. The sun became the yellow orb of the tennis ball, whirling straight for me.

White hot pain split my face in two. The blackness swept up and pulled me under. A roar of noise filled my ears like water. It hurt.

Hawthorne Gymnasium crashed back to reality. I didn't remember opening my eyes; they were just open. My entire head and face hurt, radiating back to my ears. My eyelids were puffy, so I could only see through little slits.

I found my limbs again and brought my hand to the wetness on my upper lip. Blood coated my fingers. My mouth was full of the rusty metallic taste, choking me. Not to mention I had the worst migraine ever, even worse than my unfortunate head injury at the orphanage.

I sat up. My t-shirt was dyed with blood, the entire front so red it looked fake. I silently thanked the universe for my strong stomach. Seeing that much blood come from my own body terrified me. For a split second I wondered if I was going to die, before I pulled myself together. No one could die from a tennis ball.

The gym was chaos. Kids were shouting, screaming. Everyone had stopped playing and had formed a circle around me. A forest of faces, some scared, some flushed with excitement like this was the best entertainment they'd had in weeks. The attention I hadn't wanted was all on me. I caught a few phones filming me and I cringed, not wanting to see this particular video pop up online and knowing there was no way to prevent it.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Theo's voice rang out clearly, like a very pissed off bell.

"It was an accident!" Lainey replied, the ever-present self assured quality in her voice gone.

I searched the crowd for them, and found them by the red patch of Theo's hair. The people around them were backing away. Theo stood with her fists clenched, rising on her toes as if to unconsciously appear taller. Lainey held her ground, but she looked like she was shaking.

I heard Coach Fletcher's voice in the back of the crowd.

"Get out of my way!" she shouted.

I tried to stand, but I was still disoriented, not only from the pain and the shock but from the vision of my absent friend that I had just been wrenched from. Reality didn't feel real or right. It felt more like watching a badly filmed movie.

Theo stepped up so that she was now nose to nose with Lainey. "You can't get away with this," she said, putting both small hands on Lainey's shoulders and pushing her.

Lainey stumbled a fraction of an inch. A switch flicked on inside her.

"Get your grimy hands off of me!" she squealed. She pushed back with her palms flat, sending Theo staggering into