looked down the long, winding brick wall. Standing there, half turned away from me like she wasn't sure which way she wanted to go, was a girl. The light from the moon, and my new and improved fledgling ability to see well at night, let me see her even though there were no outside lights near this part of the wall. I felt myself tense. Had one of those hateful Dark Daughters followed me? No way did I feel like dealing with any more of their crap tonight.
I must have actually voiced the frustrated groan I thought I had made in my mind, because the girl looked up toward where I was sitting on top of the wall.
I gasped in shock and felt fear skitter through me.
It was Elizabeth! The Elizabeth No Last Name kid who was supposed to be dead. When she saw me her eyes, which were a weird, glowing red, widened and then she made an odd shrieking sound before whirling around and disappearing with inhuman speed into the night.
At the same instant, Nala arched her back and hissed with such ferocity that her little body shook. "It's okay! It's okay!" I said over and over, trying to calm the cat and me. Both of us were shaking and Nala was still growling low in her throat. "It couldn't have been a ghost. It couldn't have been. It was just...just...a weird kid. I probably scared her and she--"
"Zoey! Zoey! Is that you?"
I jumped and almost fell off the wall. It was too much for Nala. She gave another tremendous hiss and leaped neatly from my lap to the ground. Completely and utterly freaked out, I grabbed the branch for balance and squinted out into the night.
"Who--who is it?" I called over the pounding of my heart. Then I was blinded by the beams of two flashlights aimed directly at me.
"Of course it's her! Like I couldn't recognize my own best friend's voice? Jeesh, she hasn't been gone that long!"
"Kayla?" I said, trying to shield my eyes from the glare of the flashlights with my hand, which was shaking like crazy.
"Well, I told you we'd find her," a guy's voice said. "You always want to give up too soon."
"Heath?" Maybe I was dreaming.
"Yep! Whoo-hoo! We found ya, baby!" Heath yelled, and even in the awful flashlight glare I could see him hurl himself at the wall and then start to scramble up like a tall, blond, football-playing monkey.
Incredibly relieved it was him and not a boogie monster, I called down to him, "Heath! Be careful. If you fall you're going to break something." Well, unless he landed on his head--then he'd probably be okay.
"Not me!" he said, pulling himself up and over so that he was sitting beside me, straddling the wall. "Hey, Zoey, check it out--look at me; I'm king of the world!" He yelled, throwing out his arms, grinning like a total fool, and breathing alcohol- scented air all over me.
No wonder I'd refused to go out with him.
"Okay, there's no need to forever make fun of my unfortunate ex-infatuation with Leonardo!' I glared at him, feeling more like myself than I had in hours. "Actually, it's kinda like my unfortunate ex-infatuation with you. Only it didn't last as long, and you didn't make a bunch of cheesy but cool movies."
"Hey, you're not still mad about Dustin and Drew are you? Forget them! They're retards." Heath said, giving me his puppy- dog look, which used to be really cute when he was in eighth grade. Too bad the cuteness had stopped working for him about two years ago. "And, anyway, we came all the way over here to bust you out."
"What?" I shook my head and squinted at him. "Wait. Turn those flashlights off. They're killing my eyes."
"If we turn them off we can't see," Heath said.
"Fine. Then turn them away. Uh, point them out there or something," I gestured out away from the school (and me). Heath turned the beam of the one he'd been clutching out into the night, and so did Kayla. I was able to drop my hand, which I was pleased to see had quit shaking, and stop squinting. Heath's eyes widened when he saw my Mark.
"Check it out! It's colored in now. Wow! It's like...like...on TV or something."
Well, it was nice to see that some things never change. Heath was still Heath--cute, but not the brightest Crayola in the pack.
"Hey! What about me? I'm here too, ya know!" Kayla called.