"Good morning, class." Mr. Wilson said. Nobody seemed to notice. They kept right on talking, as if no one heard the bell ring. Loudly, he slammed his briefcase down on the desk in front of him. Mr. Wilson's eyes flashed as he smiled just a little menacingly. He was greeted with a stunned silence.
"Good morning." he said again. "Now that I have everybody's attention, I'd like to introduce you to our new student." He nodded to the back of the room, and everyone's heads turned to follow.
Carmine wasn't sure how she'd missed him when she came in. But there he was; coming up to the front of the room was a blond-haired boy with the most intense blue eyes she'd ever seen.
"Class, this is Adam." the teacher told them. He continued on, telling them about how they should all make him feel welcome or something, but Carmine couldn't be bothered to listen; she was too busy staring at him. How could he really be here? Wasn't he just a dream?
Sure, Carmine knew he was a demon, but she didn't think that meant he could actually be here. If he could stalk her in real life, what was the point of having her friends turn her? She sat perfectly still, trying her best not to attract attention to herself. Maybe if he didn't see her in class, he would just go away. She shifted casually behind the kid in front of her, hoping that would make her more invisible.
"Are you ok?" Conner asked, leaning across the aisle. Carmine looked over at him. He was staring at her, a worried look on his face. Behind him, Luke was wearing a similar expression. "You look kinda pale – I mean, more pale than usual." Conner added.
"I know him." Carmine barely whispered it. Of course, both Conner and Luke had no trouble picking up on what she'd said.
"How could you know him?" Luke asked. "He just moved here. You mean you saw him at the store or something?"
Carmine didn't say anything; she just shook her head an almost imperceptible amount.
"Then from where?"
Carmine didn't answer. She couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't get even more questions thrown at her. She was still trying to decide what to do when she realized that the teacher had finished his little speech and Adam was now walking down the aisle towards her. He found a seat almost directly across from Carmine – just one seat up. At least he was on the opposite side from Luke and Conner; she could just pretend to be more interested in them than in Adam. Carmine spent the rest of the period trying her best to ignore the new kid.
She kept catching glimpses of him out of the corner of her eye, but she couldn't tell if he was looking at her or not. She was dying to know, but she didn't dare check; there was still a slim chance that he hadn't recognized her, and Carmine really didn't want to draw attention to herself. In her heart, she knew without a doubt that he was there for her, but she still refused to let go of the thought that it was all a horrible coincidence – the other option was just too terrible to think about.
The bell rang, and Carmine could see that boy – Adam – turning to face her. So, he had seen her. She knew he was going to try to talk to her. Desperately, she racked her brain for any excuse as to why she couldn't do it today. She knew she'd have to talk to him eventually, especially if she didn't want him to think she was scared. But today, she just couldn't do it. Maybe in a day or two, but not now – not this soon. She turned back towards the door, thinking about making her escape. As she looked towards the door, Conner caught her eye.
"Carmine, can I talk to you a second?" he asked.
"Umm, yeah. Sure." she said. This was perfect – Conner could be a great excuse. No way Adam would want to talk to her with Conner hanging around.
Carmine waited where she was as Conner came around the aisle to her. She wanted to meet him at the back of the room, but she was afraid that if she tried to walk over there, she'd end up running like a terrified little kid – and she really didn't want to give Adam the satisfaction of seeing that. Conner approached, Luke following close behind.
"We just had a quick question for you." Luke told her. Carmine could tell he was stalling, waiting for Adam to leave.
The room slowly emptied, and Adam narrowed his eyes as he passed. Luke watched him all the way out the door.
"Well, that was easy." Conner said. "Looks like we don't have to worry about him anymore."
"For now at least." Luke told him, leaning back and trying to peer around the door. When he was finally satisfied that Adam was gone, he turned back to Carmine.
"So what was that about anyway? How can you say you've seen him before?"
"It's nothing." Carmine said quickly. Suddenly, the idea of facing off with Adam didn't seem so bad.
"I don't think so." Luke told her. "What's going on?"
"I met him before, and he kind of creeped me out – but it's no big deal." Carmine started heading towards the door, but Luke and Conner stayed right with her.
"What aren't you telling us?" Luke asked.
"Nothing."
"You're not leaving us in the dark again – last year was bad enough." Luke told her firmly. "If you won't tell me, I'll ask Anna."
Carmine rolled her eyes.
"Fine." she sighed. She and Luke both knew that Anna was the worst liar in the world. She'd tell Luke everything before he even had time to ask.
"He's been kind of...haunting my dreams, ok?" she said finally.
"What?" Conner asked, eyes widening.
"Are you sure?" Luke asked.
"Of course I'm sure." she retorted. "I've seen him like twenty times."
Luke raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything.
"So what do we do?" Conner asked.
"I have no idea." Carmine told him. She couldn't help but feel guilty; it was always her that came up with the group plans. If she didn't know what to do, they were sunk.
"I think we need to figure this out." Luke said finally. "But not here. How about we meet after school?"
"What about track?" Carmine asked. Luke studied her for a minute, thinking.
"Miss it?" he asked finally.
"I'd rather not." Carmine told him. "I mean, I've kind of missed a lot this year already."
"Then lunch tomorrow." he said.
"Ok." Carmine nodded finally. At least lunch tomorrow meant this whole conversation could be short. She really wanted to escape with the boys knowing as little as possible. That way, at least some of her dignity be spared.
The next day, Carmine slowly made her way to the courtyard for lunch. She really wasn't looking forward to telling everyone what was going on, but she knew she wouldn't have a choice. Even if she didn't bring it up, Luke definitely would. And she wasn't going to be able to play it off like it was no big deal either; he and Conner had seen how she acted in history yesterday. By the time she got outside, Mia, Conner, and Zev were already waiting at one of the round plastic lunch tables.
"So, Conner was saying that something interesting happened in class yesterday." Zev said when he saw her. Carmine tried not to glare at Conner. He didn't quite make eye contact.
"Yeah." Carmine said finally, and she could feel herself already starting to blush.
Carmine sat down next to Mia and Zev, across from Conner. It wasn't long before Anna and Luke showed up, filling the already crowded table. Since everyone was here, Carmine figured it was time to tell her friends what had happened – and let the boys in on some of what had been going on with her. There was no way she could keep all of this from them now anyway.
"So, about this Adam kid..." Luke said, before Carmine even had a chance to open her mouth.
"Adam?" Anna asked. "Who's Adam?"
"This new guy in our history class." Conner told her.
"Yeah, he's in my science class." Zev said.
"And my P.E. class." Mia nodded. "He's cute."
Zev gave her a sideways look. "Really?"
"What? He is." Mia shrugged. Zev just shook his head.
"Great, so he's everywhere." Carmine said dejectedly.
"So who is he?" Luke asked, looking at Carmine. Finally, it was her turn to talk.
"He's the one who I kept seeing – when I went to sleep." she told them simply.
"Wait, how is that possible?" Zev asked.
"I think he's a demon." Carmine told him. "The kind that gets in your dreams."
"But why you?"
"Just lucky I guess." Carmine mumbled. Zev laughed.
"Yeah, but really?" he asked again.
"If we know that, it might help us figure out what he's after." Luke told her, correctly reading her expression.
Carmine sighed. She was pretty sure it was because of all those nightmares she'd been having. After all, if she hadn't been having them, he wouldn't have needed to save her from them. She probably wouldn't have ever even met him. But Carmine didn't say any of that. She felt kind of awkward telling a whole group of people how she was a junior in high school who had nightmares – even if that group was made up of her friends. But she knew she was going to have to tell them something. She decided to just run through it as fast as possible, and maybe leave out some of the finer points.
She found herself quickly explaining everything that had happened to her – how she'd been having bad dreams, how this boy had come in and stopped them. She told them about how it all seemed fine. But then she started sleeping more and more, and how everyday she'd just felt more and more drained. The only thing she didn't tell them was what exactly had happened in her dreams – either the indulgent ones with Adam or the nightmares before.
"So that explains why Anna and Mia decided to...let you become like them." Luke said. Carmine couldn't tell how he felt about that.
"It was the only thing we could think of to save her." Mia said a little defensively. "Is not like we had a lot of time – you saw how bad she was."
"And now you don't need sleep." Zev remarked. "Good way to prevent nightmares."
"How long were you having nightmares – before Adam, I mean." Conner asked.
"Late spring, early summer." Carmine admitted slowly.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Anna's eyes widen; she hadn't actually told her friends that part. She hoped none of them made the connection between what happened last spring and her nightmares. No one said anything, but Carmine could see both Mia and Luke doing the math in their heads.
"So what do we do about him?" Anna asked.
"Do we need to do anything?" Luke asked after a minute of hesitation. "I mean, he hasn't actually hurt anyone. Maybe he'll leave us alone if we don't bother him."
"But he almost killed Carmine." Mia reminded him. "We can't have him going around hurting our friends."
Luke stared coolly at her for a minute but didn't say anything. It was like he was trying to figure out how to phase a particularly nasty comment – Carmine thought she saw him trying to fight off a sneer. Fortunately for him, Mia seemed to know exactly what he was thinking was before he had to say the words out loud.
"That's not fair!" she told him. "We've never hurt anyone just because we wanted to. And we've never almost killed someone like that!"
"No?" Luke raised his eyebrows.
"No." Mia told him with finality. Luke didn't look convinced, but he didn't say anything.
Carmine glanced over at Anna; her face was red, and she looked like she wanted to melt through the bench and into the floor. Carmine couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with her – Mia and Luke made comments like that to each other all the time. But Anna had never looked so mortified before. Suddenly, Carmine found herself trying to remember if Anna had ever killed anyone. She hadn't – had she?
"You guys, this isn't helping." Carmine told them, shaking herself from the thought. She didn't know exactly why they didn't get along, but she couldn't stand having her friends fight. Especially when their current mess was more or less all her fault.
"Sorry." Mia mumbled, more for Carmine's benefit than Luke's.
"Have you talked to Adam yet?" Anna asked suddenly.
"What?" Carmine asked. "No, why would I do that?"
"Well, why not? He might not be that bad. And maybe his showing up here is just a coincidence."
"I seriously doubt that."
"You never know." Anna told her. "Besides, right now you're worried about something that might not even be a problem. You may as well ask – at least then you'll know for sure."
Carmine really didn't want to talk to Adam, but it was hard to argue with Anna's logic. And Anna always made everything sound so completely reasonable, of course she'd be the one to suggest trying to be friends with her tormentor.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Carmine said slowly.
"You should at least try." Anna told her.
"I guess." Carmine said grudgingly. She was still pretty sure she wouldn't be following up on it though.
"You probably should talk to him – figure out why he's actually here." Zev told her, seeing the look on her face. "If nothing else, you don't want him to think you're scared."
But she was scared. Her friends might still be half-convinced that there was nothing dangerous about Adam, but that was only because they'd never talked to him before. Carmine knew he could manipulate almost any situation. But at least Zev's logic was reasonable. And even though she definitely was scared, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to let Adam see that. So, it looked like she really was going to talk to him. Now all she had to do was figure out when to do it.
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