Riser (Teen Horror/Science Fiction) (Book #1 in The Riser Saga) ((Volume 1)) (23 page)

I just didn’t know.

I didn’t want to start sweating in a fit of panic in front of everyone in the class so I settled on taking deep breaths. And besides, I couldn’t give Jill the satisfaction of seeing me in such distress. She was probably on orders to spy on me and I didn’t want to give Turner any indication that I was scared to death of him. And I was.

Mr. Alaster kept on looking at me but pretending that he wasn’t. And although I could tell he was concerned, it was making me more nervous.

“Settle down. Settle down. I still have a class to teach despite all the excitement,” Mr. Alaster said to an already quiet class. His mind was so focused on the reporters outside he hadn’t even noticed that the classroom was silent. “Click your readers to page four-hundred and six.” And he delved into a long and boring lecture that no one really paid attention to. Half the time I don’t think even he was listening to himself, his eyes kept roaming from me to the frosted glass square of the door and the silhouetted forms of the press on the other side.

The click of the PA system made Mr. Alaster jump slightly.

“Oh! Everyone quiet! An announcement!” Mr. Alaster waved his hands as if we were all screaming loudly.

Again, no one was talking. If I weren’t so terrified, I’d actually find his behavior kind of funny.

The Principal’s voice crackled through the speaker hanging over the door. “May I have your attention please?” A pause then a deep breath, “It has come to my attention that Vice President of Population Control Geoffrey Turner will be gracing us with his presence at our school today. This will be the first time he’s made an appearance here since the grand opening twenty years ago so I expect all of you to be on your best behavior. His sole mission is to express his condolences to one of our very own, Ms. Chelsan Derée after the tragedy that destroyed her home and family. Our hearts go out to you, Ms. Derée. The assembly will be after class. Have a good day and back to work.”

I could feel all eyes on me. I wanted to disappear from sight. I stared at the surface of my desk, hoping Mr. Alaster would break the tension by finishing his boring lecture on the history of paper. Instead I heard the grating voice of my worst enemy a few seats back: Jill.

“Maybe Chelsan would like to share her feelings. Losing your mom must be excruciatingly painful. Why don’t you tell us about it?” Jill sneered.

I tried to rationalize how anyone could be that mean. Some kind of trauma? Horrible parents? Massive insecurity? Or just plain evil. All of the above probably.

Mr. Alaster stepped forward so he was in direct eye contact with Jill. “If I hear one more crass and vilely inhuman comment out of you again I
will
be requesting your leave from this establishment! My job be damned, I will not tolerate your archaic, bullish behavior in my class again!”

Whoa.

Jill froze. She was completely stunned.

I had never seen Mr. Alaster that angry before. It was one thing to hear Jill say horrible things to me, I was used to that, it went into my “Jill filter.” But when Mr. Alaster put her comment into perspective on how mean it really was, it suddenly made the loss of my mom too real at that moment. It’s like when you get hit in the head by a ball and you’re in kind of a shock until everyone comes up to you to ask if you’re okay. And the floodgates open. And that’s exactly what happened. I just started to cry.

Apparently, even Jill didn’t have anything snide to say about that which was almost a disappointment. If I could just get angry, I could stop crying! This was so embarrassing! I covered my face so no one could see me, but mostly so I couldn’t see them staring at me. My mom was everything to me. I still couldn’t believe she was gone. With all the danger and excitement of the last few days I was able to shove back most of my anguish over losing her to simply survive. But hearing Jill and Mr. Alaster put it out there, I felt so bare and dirty almost. Like I needed a long shower to wash away my feelings of being exposed to the public about something so personal. It was hard enough that my mom died.

I felt Ryan and Nancy huddle around me like a protective circle of hugs. It felt nice and I started to calm down. “I’m okay.” I found myself mumbling through my hands.

“Take your time, Chelsan,” came Mr. Alaster’s sympathetic voice. He’d probably be fired when Jill’s father heard about what he said to his daughter. But I’d always be grateful to him for standing up to her.

I took a deep breath and pulled my hands down away from my face. “I’m good.”

Ryan and Nancy tentatively sat back down in their seats, their worried eyes still on me. The class was silent, watching. I looked up at Mr. Alaster imploringly.
Please start talking about something that doesn’t involve me,
I begged him in my head.

He seemed to catch my drift because he cleared his throat and continued his lecture on paper. The minutes dragged by painfully. Part of me wanted class to be over so I could get away from
the stares
, and the other part of me didn’t want it to end because I’d have to brave the press corps that was pawing at the door waiting for me to exit.

The bell finally rang and I felt my heart leap into my throat. I could hear the rustling of reporters outside. Jill stood up first followed closely by Joan. She hadn’t said a word since Mr. Alaster basically told her to shut up, and surprisingly didn’t appear all that upset by it. This, of course, made me worry. She was up to something. I had known her long enough to know that.

Jill and Joan were out the door and swallowed whole by the crowd of reporters. The rest of the class slowly started to file out as well, leaving me, Nancy, Ryan and Mr. Alaster staring at the doorway with trepidation.

“Assembly time.” Mr. Alaster said what we were all thinking.

“Yup,” I said as I tried not to make eye contact with any of the screaming news people.

Ryan grabbed my hand and locked his fingers tightly with mine. “We got your back.”

Nancy wrapped her arm around mine on the other side of Ryan. “We won’t let him touch you.”

“Chelsan, I’m here if you need me. And if those screaming monsters are too much for you, you can always sneak in here for protection. They can’t enter a classroom under any circumstances. Okay?” Mr. Alaster managed a small smile of encouragement.

“Okay, thanks,” I replied shyly. Who knew Mr. Alaster could be that cool?

“Yeah, thanks, Mr. Alaster.” Nancy was genuinely grateful, too. “Actually, we need a few moments. Before we go out into
that
.”

“Of course. I’ll leave you three alone.” Mr. Alaster didn’t even blink. He headed straight for the door. “Move aside! Move aside!” He shoved his way through the press, pushing a little bit harder than he probably should have. He turned around and gave us a quick wink.

Ryan and Nancy both turned to me, game faces on.

“You ready for this?” Ryan asked though I could ask the same of him. He looked petrified.

“We could always duck out the back,” Nancy suggested, but we all knew that was impossible.

“I’m good. Let’s do this.” I tried to sound as pumped up as possible though it was the complete opposite of what I was feeling.

“So, no plan?” Nancy crinkled her nose in concern.

“Nope.”

And with that I charged ahead, Ryan holding my right hand, Nancy clinging to my left arm.

I felt as if I could dive on top of the reporters and they’d carry me to the assembly hall like I was at a rock concert it was so crowded. They were all screaming at me again and I tried to keep my head down.

“Over here!” I heard Bill’s voice above the rest and I tried to find him in the crowd.

That’s when the sea of people parted before us like a human pair of scissors except instead of blades it was two lines of men in dark suits and sunglasses. The reporters shoved up against the wall of men, but their defenses held strong. At the end of it all was Bill with a silly grin on his face.

He half ran over to us and nodded to the men in suits. “Money comes in handy sometimes. When I told Dad about how the press was hounding you, he sent a whole team of his best body guards over here.”

“Wow. This is just what I needed. Thanks, Bill.” I let go of Ryan and Nancy and hugged Bill as hard as I could.

The reporters were still yelling, but at least they couldn’t touch me. The guards barely flinched as the press tried to tear them apart to get to me.

Ryan pulled me away from Bill by clasping my hand in his again. It made my heart pound knowing how jealous he was, but Bill had really pulled through and I wanted him to know how grateful I was.

Bill shrugged at Ryan’s obvious territorial behavior and motioned us forward. “They’ll get us to the assembly hall.”

The men closed ranks forming a twenty-man circle around us and we made our way comfortably toward the assembly hall.

“I didn’t want to show you this, but I think you should know.” Bill turned to me cautiously.

“Just show us, Bill.” Nancy was having none of it. She was in one of her
get to the point
moods.

Bill pulled out his cell phone and popped up a holo-video for us. It was me in Mr. Alaster’s class, crying like a baby. Uuuggghh!

“That’s why Jill said what she did. She was trying to provoke you for this video.” Ryan shook his head angrily.

“Yeah, well, I was dumb enough to fall for it,” I groaned.

“Dumb? The most horrible, horrendous thing that can happen to a person happened to you,
two days ago
! I think there would be something wrong with you if you
didn’t
cry!” Nancy appeared more outraged at my response than about the video itself.

“Turner probably told her to do it. It’s all about the story and spin for him. He’ll make sure that everyone knows you’re too distraught to be a reliable witness, and with your step-dad gone, no one will believe you about the green smoke. He’s just covering his bases,” Ryan said and then kissed my cheek. It instantly made me feel better.

We arrived at the assembly hall without incident. The room itself was the biggest in the school. The ceiling was forty feet high and made out of a solar frosted glass that adjusted to the light outside, keeping the assembly hall the same day-like brightness no matter what time of day it was. Painted yellow walls complimented the dark-stained brown of the stage and fold out chairs placed out in neat rows for all the students. The main focus of the room was the stage that made up the entire back wall and came up about five feet off the ground. Maroon velvet curtains normally framed the theater like a picture, but today they remained closed, probably hiding my grandpa behind them.

The press was only allowed in the back of the room so we were safe as soon as we sat down in our seats. After making sure we were okay, the bodyguards stood against the wall waiting for us to finish so they could keep vigil once more.

Bill and Ryan sat on either side of me while Nancy took the aisle next to Bill.

I could see the holos of me crying on almost everyone’s phone. It was completely surreal. The only part of the video I could stand to watch was when Ryan and Nancy hugged me. I gripped Ryan’s hand harder and he stroked my hand with his thumb in response. My toes tingled in delight and it made waiting for the assembly to start more bearable.

Bill leaned down to my ear, “My dad said you can have the guards as long as you need them. Turner won’t be able to get to you.”

I wanted to tell him that if Turner wanted to
get to me
there was absolutely nothing any of us could do about it, but I didn’t want to say anything to upset him. Especially since he’d gone through all the trouble to bring his dad’s bodyguards here.

Ryan squeezed my hand to reassure me and kissed my shoulder.

“You don’t have to prove that you guys are dating. I get it.” Bill was fuming. Apparently he wasn’t as cool with Ryan as I had hoped.

“Are you sure about that? You seem pretty set on the fact that you still have a shot with her.” Ryan turned to Bill, just as angry.

“Guys, please don’t do this.” I tried to calm them down, but neither one of them was hearing me.
“Here we go,” I heard Nancy groan. “Boys.”