“St. Croix.”
“See you around.” His gaze lingered on hers for a minute before he turned and walked away.
Adrienne released her breath, feeling lamer than she’d ever felt before. What girl her age didn’t know how to talk to someone so hot? Miserably, she realized no one in their right mind would email her after that bizarre exchange. He’d write her off as another wacky charity case there on scholarship, and she’d never be able to face him again.
You’re amazing. Her whole world almost exploded at the words.
Depressed before her second day of school even started, she trudged to the main hallway and made her way through the crowds of arriving students to her locker.
“Um, hey, you’re new, right?”
She pushed her locker door aside to see the girl who spoke, startled to see it was one of the gorgeous brunettes from the cheer squad.
“Yes,” she said.
“I’m Kayla.”
“Adrienne.”
“Awesome name. Look, um, this will sound odd, but we lost one of the girls on the squad recently. We don’t do tryouts here” Kayla rolled her eyes “because it’s lame. We invite girls to the squad. You’re a little smaller than normal but, um, Christie does our choreography and said you’re pretty quick on your feet. I guess you do musicals?”
Stunned by the conversation, Adrienne barely heard the question. She nodded.
“Well, we need a sixth member, because Darla went berserk last night and … anyway, long story. Would you be willing to stay after school and practice with us? Not as an official member, but just to see if you can actually learn our routines?”
“Wow. Yes,” Adrienne breathed.
Kayla looked her over from head to foot closely. “You’re a scholarship kid. Eh, should be okay. Darla was the token blonde. We need another blonde, and you look like you’re in shape. The whole football team is already talking about you after Jayden knocked you on your ass yesterday at lunch.”
“Oh, god. Everyone knows about that?”
“Oh, yeah. Jayden’s the quarterback. He’s the king of the school. Everyone watches him. I heard he knocked you flat.” Kayla laughed.
“Pretty much.” And caught me in his super strong arms. The memory made her want to sigh.
“Then you can like redeem yourself at the pep rally Friday. Go to the gym after your last class. We’ll see if you can keep up. Chat later.” Kayla moved away.
Adrienne watched her, bursting with happiness at the inclusion. Jayden may never talk to her again after how weird she was this morning, but the cheer squad wanted her to try out!
“Don’t do it, Addy.” Emma’s warning made her realize the smaller girl was standing on her other side.
“What? It’s incredible!” Adrienne almost squealed. “Even if I fail miserably, it’s so awesome!”
“You can’t trust them. I told you – they aren’t good people.” Emma frowned. “Besides, you’ll abandon me. They’ll turn you against me.”
“I will not! I’m not shallow like that.”
Her new friend appeared unconvinced. Adrienne gave her a quick hug that made the troubled girl smile. They walked down the hall together until they had to part ways for their first classes. Adrienne was in what someone had whispered was the elite school’s version of remedial math. It was still over her head. She sat in the back of class and brought up her homework on the iPad, distressed by it already.
She had two emails: one from the teacher with notes on the homework and another from Jayden Washington. She held her breath and opened his, cringing, in case he told her never to talk to him again after how strange she was.
Hey A, Did you want to have lunch today? – J
He was persistent. Adrienne smiled despite herself. She hesitated then typed a quick response.
Hi Jayden, Nice to meet you this morning. I promised to have lunch with my friend Emma today. She bought me lunch yesterday after you dumped mine on the floor. Maybe another time. – Adrienne
She wasn’t sure why she felt like getting in a dig at him. Maybe because she wanted him to think twice before talking to her again or to realize she wasn’t as stupid as she seemed whenever they’d interacted. Or maybe, she didn’t want to have to admit she was there on scholarship.
Expecting to drive him away, she sent the email and started paying attention to the instructor.
Adrienne checked her email every five minutes during the first class, even knowing she’d probably offended him. Disappointed he didn’t respond quickly, she stopped checking her email until after her third class. She’d emailed her daddy to make sure he knew her address and saw she had a note from him already as she walked through the hallways towards her final class before lunch. The king of brevity, all he said was that he got her email and he was working late.
She snorted and flipped back to her inbox, startled to see Jayden’s email pop up. Heart pounding, she opened it.
Hey, I’ll just have to take you out this weekend. There’s a fall festival downtown on Saturday. Wanna go with me? – J
She tripped over her feet and barely caught herself from a face plant on the floor. A few kids around her looked at her curiously. Adrienne moved out of the foot traffic to the wall and ducked into the bathroom, hiding in a stall to reread his email a few times in private.
Jayden, the quarterback and king of the school, was asking her out.
Did he know she was poor and that she read tarot cards on the weekends? What if he picked her up and met her daddy, who was unapologetically racist, or found out her backwards family was cursed by voodoo?
She sighed and closed her inbox, uncertain what to do. Setting her book bag on the ground, she pulled out her tarot cards.
“Okay, spirits. Tell me what to do. Go out with him or not?” she whispered. She shuffled the cards for two minutes, focusing on the question in her mind, then drew three and set them on the small shelf beside the toilet. The first card would be hers, the second Jayden’s and the third, an indication of what she should do. The first two cards were lined up on top of one another, the third beside them.
Replacing the deck in her bag, she drew a deep breath and turned over the first card.
“Hanged Man,” she whispered, considering briefly. “I need to let go of something. Or someone?” Ugh! Was it a sign she shouldn’t see Jayden?
She flipped over the second.
“The Devil. Jayden is trapped,” she said, frowning.
She flipped the third over.
“Queen of Swords, reversed.” Adrienne thought for a moment. “The sign of obstacles caused by others.”
It wasn’t a clear-cut yes or no, and she sensed the spirits were showing her a much greater truth than that of whether or not she should consider dating him.
She regarded the cards. The general feeling they gave her was one of concern rather than comfort or hope, and the story on the shelf before her didn’t feel complete. Instinctively, she reached into her bag to draw two more, hoping to create a story.
Devil. Death. Six of Cups. This story was familiar. How was it possible that Jayden had the same cards as the brother of the girl she’d seen at Madame Estelle’s on Sunday?
“Ace of swords, reversed. Be careful who you trust,” she whispered and turned the final card. “Six of cups. A connection to the past and need to look towards the future. I’ve seen them cards before, but the story wasn’t complete then either.” She dwelled briefly on the cards she’d read Sunday for the girl named Tara and then glanced towards the ceiling. “If any of you are here, can you help me put these in the right order?”