Chapter Ten
I was wondering whether I should see if Mrs. Phils had returned to her office but just as I reached it I heard someone scream from down the corridor. That was Roseate, I was sure of it. I hurried toward the sound knowing that the Other Mother most likely had something to do with it and that she was probably using Roseate to lure me out of hiding. I skidded round the corner.
'Let go of her!' I yelled.
'Coraline, run!' Roseate cried. The Other Mother let go of Roseate in an instant and with a smirk advanced toward me. I turned and ran. I had a sudden crazy thought and dashed for the boys' bathrooms. She would surely never think I would go in there? It didn't look much different from the girls' bathroom really. I leaned against the wall and tried to catch my breath.
'What's up, Cora?' I turned to see Orto leaning against one of the walls in a very laid back fashion. It was odd. I didn't feel shy toward him at all. Infact, I felt bitterness. Why hadn't he come and helped me like Wybie had? It was strange; everyone else seemed worried, but there was no evidence to suggest he was in any way. He seemed almost happy. I scowled at him. Maybe Neila did have a point when she said Orto had changed, perhaps I had just never noticed it before. He was acting very strange, there was something up with body language, and his smile; it looked like it should've belonged to someone else, it seemed unnatural, there was no expression or meaning in it, yet there was and I knew there was.
'I was escaping,' I garbled, 'she was after me,' I looked at him again, 'what is up with you!' He was starting to scare me.
'Nothing,' he replied and after that he seemed to go back to normal. Had it just been my imagination? He rushed up to me and suddenly grabbed my wrist. He led me out of the boys' bathrooms in an instant and then began to race down the corridor dragging me along behind him.
'Orto what are you doing!' I asked impertinently.
'Don't go with him, Coraline!' It was Wybie. He looked scared. Orto stopped and I almost crashed into him. 'Coraline, I've figured it out! You mustn't go with him!' Orto tightened his grip on my wrist.
'Come on, Coraline, he's wasting our time,' Orto said angrily.
'He doesn't mean you well!' Wybie exclaimed.
'Come on!' Orto muttered, trying to pull me away. I wouldn't be pulled. Something had suddenly crossed my mind; Wybie hadn't believed me about the Other Mother but that had been true, what if what Wybie was saying about Orto were true?
'Coraline, please, you must listen!' Wybie begged.
'I'm listening,' I replied. He gave a sigh and smile of relief. Orto glared at Wybie, then at me.
'You're not buying this loser's act, are you!' he snarled.
'Why don't you take off your shades, Orto!' Wybie asked him, crossing his arms.
'Why should I do what you say, loser!' Orto spat, without warning he pulled me away with a large amount of power. I didn't want to co-operate with this treatment.
'He's not a loser!' I snarled at Orto.
'Huh?' Orto replied in a bored tone.
'I said,' I began, glaring at him, 'that Wybie is not a loser!'
'He's an inconvenience,' he drawled, then quickly added, 'We, um, need somewhere to hide you. Uh, the high school,' I co-operated. Perhaps he did care after all . . .
We went to the second floor of the high school building and into a large, very basic room with a coffee machine on a worktop. Orto locked the door after us. I felt the wind blow in from a large open window at one end of the room.
'I know you were trying to help me, Orto' I began, 'but just dragging me off was not polite! Your mother . . !' He laughed. I stared.
'My mother, will be very proud of me,' he answered. He gave a small smile. 'You see, I didn't want to go to Spain, so I got myself a new mother . . .' He took his shades off. I gasped and stared in horror at his button eyes. I instantly made a dash for the door but he blocked my way. He took an overly large needle from his pocket that the Other Mother had obviously given to him and pointed it at me like a blade. I backed away. Oh, how could I have been so blind! Wybie and Neila had been right.
Why would Orto like me? He evidently never had, he had only pretended he liked me, he had been doing it for the Other Mother. I realized then that it had been Orto that the Other Mother had been talking to on the phone! And I knew what they had been talking about; it hadn't been coincidence that Orto had asked me out that same day; it had been planned. What was I gonna do now?
Suddenly the door handle began to turn. Orto ignored it, at first. He had locked it after all. But then, to both our surprise, it opened. Orto stared. In the doorway stood Wybie, Roseate, Neila, Annette and Waverly.
'I can pick locks, Orto,' Wybie snarled. In frustration, Orto made to stab me. I managed to dodge. The next thing I knew was Wybie was on top of him. 'How dare you try to harm her!' Orto punched Wybie hard and managed to get him off him. Orto glared at me.
I made a quick and rash decision; I went for the window. There was a pipe close by, I took hold of it and began to climb down. I looked down to see the patio below and directly below me was a pond. I climbed as quickly as I could down. The pipe was rusty and loose and suddenly it began to come away from the wall. I screamed. I fell. It was lucky the pond was quite deep because otherwise I could've hit my head on the bottom. I climbed out of the water, soaked thru. I looked up. Wybie was looking down from the window.
'I'm okay!' I shouted up to him. He waved, then disappeared from sight.
'Are you okay, darling?' I turned my head to see my mother; or, so I thought.
'Uh-huh,' I replied picking myself up and gave her a smile. I was so relieved to see her.
'You're soaked thru, treasure. We must get you home and get you cleaned up,'
'Where's Dad?' I inquired.
'He's already, gone home,'
'Huh? Why?'
'Well, my sweet, we thought you might've run home, like you did before, so your father drove home to look,' she replied. It seemed simple enough. 'I'm afraid that means we're going to have to walk home, doesn't it?' She gave a small laugh which made me, for some unknown reason, feel uncomfortable.
'Are you, alright, Coraline?' I turned to see Mrs. Phils hurrying up to us.
'She'll be much better, after she's rested,' my mother replied, 'she's completely bushed, poor little thing.'
'Well, I'm just glad she's safe,' Mrs. Phils said with a smile.
'Oh, yes,' my mother told her, 'she's perfectly safe with me. We'd better get home.'
'Yes, of course,' she said, 'Goodbye, Mrs. Jones. Goodbye, Coraline!' she called after us. We waved back.
It took us fifteen minutes for us to walk home. We said very little during that time. Mainly comments on the surroundings or weather. It was strange that she hadn't asked what exactly had happened but maybe she was just happy that I was okay.
'Won't be long 'til we're home, Coraline,' She put her hand on my shoulder. I shuffled away. It just didn't feel right somehow . . . 'Are you alright, sweetheart?'
'I'm – I'm not sure,' I replied. I felt as if there was something very wrong but there was surely nothing.
'You're over tired, you'll be fine once you get some rest . . .' I nodded. I thought she was probably right.
When we got home, I realized that my father wasn't there.
'He's probably gone back to the school, I'll send him a text in a minute. Won't you go and sit down in the drawing room, my dear.' That's strange, I thought, my mother never normally let's me sit in the drawing room. I walked slowly in and sat down. My mother walked in a little later.
'Did you call, Dad?' I asked her.
'I texted him saying, I got you home safely.'
'Hang on,' I said suddenly, standing up, 'you can't text! You said there was little use in it! You never bothered to learn!' And now that I thought about it, when did my real mother ever call me 'darling' or 'treasure' or 'sweetheart'! I stared at her in terror. How could I have been so stupid! She had used exactly the same trick before!
I made a run from the room as fast as I could. I had thought I was safe but I was far from it. I took my cell phone out of my pocket as I ran and dodged the Other Mother's efforts to grab me. I scrawled down to Wybie's name and texted in the letters SOS. I knew I couldn't risk calling him. The house was now in shambled, things broken, other stuff lying on their sides.
I wasn't really watching where I was going. I was doing anything just to dodge the Other Mother's advances. This may have seemed the best thing to do, just to focus on that, but I knocked my head hard against the wall. Suddenly everything went black.
I had knocked myself out.