Cursed (11 page)

Adrienne’s second day of school started without the rain. The busy New Orleans morning fell away as she stepped onto the private campus with its sycamore trees and manicured lawns. The historic Southern architecture of the school was pristine: graceful white buildings with columns, cobblestone drives and walkways, lush gardens. She’d loved the campus since first setting foot on it. It was like an oasis in the middle of the busy city. The scent of honeysuckle and lavender and the beauty of the grounds made the trip to class almost magical. She passed through the administrative buildings and paused at the fork in the walkway. One direction led towards the sports stadium and practice fields while the other went towards the school.

The football team was practicing. She could hear them on the near practice field. Wanting to see if the guy from the cafeteria played sports, she checked her watch and decided to check the field. She had a few minutes before she was meeting her voice instructor.

Curious, Adrienne started towards the practice field, not intending to go too close. A coach somewhere was belting orders to the players, and she tried not to smile. The players were coated in mud from the rain yesterday. Clutching her iPad to her chest, she stopped across the narrow cobblestone street from the field, watching the quarterbacks toss balls down field while their quieter coach physically altered their stances or throwing positions.

She wasn’t the only one watching. The man dressed all in red stood on one sideline, the dark opening of his hood facing her. Catching sight of him from the corner of her eye, she twisted her head to focus on him.

He was real. She’d seen him twice now. What did he want? Why didn’t he just talk to her, the way the spirits of her ancestors did?

Innately, she knew she needed to fear him. Her body reacted, screamed for her to run. But if he could hand her answers …

A loud curse and a burst of laughter turned her attention back to the football players. One of the quarterbacks was rubbing his chest as he bent to retrieve a football he’d missed. He straightened, and she was surprised to see him staring in her direction. With the helmet on, his face was hidden, but he waved.

“Washington! Stop flirting and pay attention!” the coach called.

Adrienne flushed and moved away. She had no idea if it were the guy from the cafeteria or not and turned away to leave, embarrassed by the attention. She automatically glanced towards the sideline. The man in the red robe was nowhere to be seen.

Maybe I imagined it.
Still, the strange sighting left her uneasy. She hurried into the music school for her lesson.

“You memorize some lines last night?” Christie, the instructor, asked as she entered.

Adrienne nodded. “I knew most of them. I was Cosette at my old school, though the production wasn’t to this scale.”

“It’s an annual holiday tradition here. You’ll blow them out of the water.”

Adrienne smiled. Christie had given her the lead part in Les Miserable without a tryout and was working on catching her up to the rest of the kids, who’d had a month of practice already.

“Let’s do some warm-ups,” Christie said and sat at the grand piano at one side of the music room.

Adrienne set down her things and crossed to stand by the piano. The forty-five minute lesson passed quickly. Christie was a challenging teacher, one whose ability to hear pitch was flawless. Adrienne always thought she was on key, but Christie could detect the faintest flaw.

The lesson was soon over, and Adrienne hummed to herself as she gathered her things. She opened the door to the music room and froze.

“You still owe me a name.” The guy from the cafeteria was leaning against the wall across the hallway. He glanced up from his smart phone. The sparkling eyes, tall frame and relaxed confidence floored her. She’d never met anyone who had the sort of
presence
that musical directors used to lecture her classes about.

Like a total idiot, she was speechless again.

“Or, you can not tell me and just let me buy you lunch. I owe you,” he said at her hesitation.

That someone as strong and handsome as he might be interested in her …

At least until he realized she was cursed.

She panicked and closed the door, safe in the music room with the piano. Kicking herself mentally, she tried to figure out why she was being so silly around him. Her heart was flying, her ears buzzing. Okay, so she liked him. But she’d liked other guys before and never acted like such a flake. She’d never really interacted with boys, though, unless they were the brothers of her friends she grew up with from her old school. She didn’t know
how
to talk to this guy.

It was time she learned. She was seventeen, for God’s sake! On the count of three, she’d open the door and tell him her name. Then, if she wanted to run, she could.

More nervous than performing in front of a crowded auditorium, Adrienne drew a deep breath.

One. Two. Three.

She opened the door. He was gone. She stepped out of the music room and saw he was down the hallway.

“Adrienne,” she called.

He stopped and turned. Her face felt warm again, but she held her ground this time, telling herself it was silly to run from some nice guy she’d just met.

“I’m Jayden,” he said. “You’re amazing.”

She stared at him.

“I mean, you sing amazingly.” His smile was quick, a little nervous. He rushed on. “I heard you yesterday morning after practice. Not that you’re not amazing, too. Just … I heard you sing first then saw you and it fits.” He stopped and cleared his throat. “Nice to meet you, Adrienne.”

He was as flustered as she was. It made her feel better, knowing she wasn’t the only one.

“If I walk down there to shake your hand, are you gonna run again?” he asked.

“Probably,” she admitted, clutching the iPad more tightly to her chest.

“Okay.” He laughed. “Um, I’ll email you through the school system. What’s your last name?”

“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.