I don't think that I ever did fully recover from what happened in the office that day. After sitting in the bathroom for a few more minutes, I snapped right back into reality and headed to my classroom.
Ms. Clark could already tell something was wrong when she saw how pale my face was. As soon as I walked in, she stopped her lesson and looked up at me and said, "What's wrong?" For the very first time, I think I had actually seen a bit of concern on her face. Being the demon that she was, I didn't really expect her to have any feelings.
Still feeling in shock, I managed to mutter, "Eveything's okay." I could feel my classmate's eyes digging into my head as I walked back stiffly to my seat.
"Are you sure everything's okay?" Grace whispered while staring at me curiously.
"No . . . I'll tell you about it after school . . ." My voice trailed off.
I looked up at the clock. Just two minutes left of class. Although I knew there was no way I'd be able to pay attention those last two minutes.
I could still hear the secretary's voice ringing in my head, "Your aunt called . . ." It just didn't make sense. How could my dead aunt possibly call the school? I didn't have any other aunts. She was the only one. If I had realized that the next few days were all just going to be a set-up, I wouldn't have gone to Grace's house after school that day. I would have gone straight home and called the police. My life surely then would have played out a lot differently . . . I just didn't know what was going to happen.
I immediately jumped out of my seat when the bell rang. Grace followed me out of the room and into the hall. We walked to our lockers in pure silence. One thing I liked about Grace was how she always seemed to understand how I felt, even when she didn't know what I was thinking about. She easily caught onto the fact my mind was busy and should not be disturbed.
As we hit the turn leading down to our lockers, I saw Jaden Roberts walking towards me. Once he was close enough to me, I could see that the look on his face was the same as Ms. Clark's had been. He was concerned.
"Hey, Bella," he said with a heart-warming smile. I noticed that his bright blue eyes were staring right into mine.
"Hi Jaden." Grace smiled at me as if to say, "I'll leave you two alone." My eyes darted from Jaden to Grace and back to Jaden. Grace had walked farther ahead and was now almost out of sight.
"You looked kind of . . . Sick in sixth period. I just wanted to make sure you really were okay."
"Oh yeah . . . My stomach was hurting. But it's feeling a lot better now," I lied. I wanted to tell him the truth. I wanted to tell him about my aunt. But I knew I'd have to wait. I wasn't really sure if I could completely trust him yet. We only became friends this year so I had a lot to learn about him. But what he was going to do this weekend would completely change my mind about him.
"Well, at least you're feeling better."
I walked over to my locker and Jaden followed me there. He leaned back against the locker next to mine while I entered my combination.
"So, Bella . . . I was thinking that maybe we should - " He stopped right in the middle of his sentence and stared at the ground. "What's that?"
When I had opened my locker a little blue envelope had fallen out. I bent down and picked it up. "I don't know," I said. I turned the envelope over in my hands. My name was written in sloppy cursive on the back. "I guess we'll find out now."
As I began to tear open the envelope, I noticed Grace was standing next to me. Leaning over my shoulders, Grace and Jaden watched me pull a crumpled up note out of the envelope.
If only we had known that that would be the first envelope, but not the last.
