Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I had a bit of writer's block for a while, but I think the wait was worth it. Thank you again to Brent Holcombe and Cleo Lorenz for reviewing! And to everyone else who reads it, please review!
The next day, Nikki was surprised not to be awakened by some annoying trick of Ben's. Her door had been closed and May was already up as usual, made apparent by the neat bed next to hers. Nikki rubbed her eyes and sat up. If her sister was awake, that meant Nikki was definitely going to be late.
She climbed out of bed and realized that she still had yesterday's clothes on. "Yuck." Nikki glanced at the clock. "Whoa, I have to be ready in five minutes if I want a ride to school. Guess I'll have to forget about a shower." She ran her hand through her ruffled long brown hair regretfully. "Oh well."
Nikki had just enough time to change and grab her backpack before running down the steps to the kitchen with out even looking in the mirror. She gave her mom a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. "Bye, Mom. See you after school!" Mary Jane smiled and blew a kiss toward her daughter. "Love you, hon. Have a good day."
Nikki noticed her dad getting up from the table and gritted her teeth to keep from making some nasty remark. The words that popped into her head would have gotten her grounded for a month. She bit them back, but couldn't help feeling contempt for the man who was never home in the evenings and rarely in the mornings. In other words, between work and always being out, she rarely saw her father. "Oh yeah, see you later, Dad." Then she started for the door.
"Hey, slow down Nikki."
Nikki spun around. That was when she remembered that her contacts were still in the bathroom. "Just a sec, Dad," she called as she started back up the stairs. Suddenly, Peter was standing in front of her. He grabbed her hands to stop her. Nikki had never seen her dad move that fast in her life.
"Honey, are you sure you want to go to school today? You seemed really sick yesterday." His eyes gazed into hers searchingly, as if he expected her to tell him something. "Is everything alright?"
Nikki laughed forcedly as she tried to edge around him and pull her hands from his vice-like grip. "I'm fine Dad, really. I just forgot my…" her voice trailed off. It was at that moment that she realized her vision was perfectly clear. Nikki blinked twice. Then she looked back at her dad.
He had turned her hands so the palms were facing up and seemed to be studying her wrists. Puzzled and a little uncomfortable, Nikki jerked her hands away and hurried out the door. "I'm ok, Daddy. Forget about it."
She didn't see the concerned face that watched her leave. Peter rubbed his wrists distractedly until the door slammed behind his daughter. Then he walked over to the table and sank into a chair next to MJ, looking relieved but still worried. May had already left and Ben was still asleep so they finally had a moment to talk. "You don't think it's possible that she could have my – my powers, do you?"
Mary Jane sipped her coffee and shrugged thoughtfully. "I don't know, Pete, but I doubt it." She got up and began clearing the table. "Why don't you go wake Ben and forget about it. Besides, you didn't see anything on her wrists, did you?"
Peter shook his head and began heading up the steps, trying to let his wife's reasoning convince him that everything was fine. The only problem was that it wasn't working.
"Hey, did you hear about the ghost yesterday? Everybody says the school is haunted."
Nikki froze and backed away from the excited group of sophomores she had been approaching. She had desperately hoped the whole thing had been a horrible nightmare. As they continued their eager gossip, Nikki began to wonder how she could go into the building without being spotted and labeled as 'Ghost Girl'.
Three other girls were headed her way, though they didn't appear to have seen her yet. Normally, Nikki would have been happy to be with them. But today was different. Today her friends would ask question after question about what had happened and she did not want to answer them, nor did she have any answers in the first place.
Her shoulders sagging hopelessly and her eyes fixed steadily on the ground; Nikki wandered over to a group of foreign exchange students from Spain in order to avoid drawing any attention to herself. One year of Spanish hadn't taught her enough to make much sense of anything they were talking about, but the word 'fantasma' kept popping up in their conversation.
Nikki finally left the kids in frustration and decided she could skip school today with only a thin shard of hope that everything would be forgotten over the weekend. She left the school grounds and escaped to a nearby park.
Slumping dejectedly onto a bench, Nikki gazed about. It was a sunny spring day. The sky was blue, the birds were chirping in the trees, and the buses were rattling by noisily. Nikki groaned and dropped her head into her hands in despair. Was there nowhere she could go to get away?
As if to make the poor girl even more miserable, a newspaper thrown towards the nearby trash can missed and almost hit her in the head. Nikki seemed to see the paper heading towards her in slow motion. Instinctively, she leaned back and let it fly past her face.
Still a little stunned, Nikki shook her head to clear it and wondered about the quick reflexes. She forgot about it as soon as she saw the headline from where the paper had landed: Ghost Girl in Local High School! Fury overtook her and Nikki began shredding the newspaper to bits. She regretted it when the pieces stuck to her fingers like glue.
A man walking his dog stopped to stare at a girl shouting angrily and making a scene as she tore ruthlessly at a paper almost as if it was attached to her hands. He finally picked up the little dog worriedly and hurried on.
After a few minutes of taking out the past twenty-four hours of stress on the newspaper, Nikki managed to remove it from her fingers and slowly plodded home. Everything seemed to be completely falling apart.
She didn't notice the man approaching her until he practically stepped on her foot. Looking up swiftly, Nikki carefully tried to back away. She knew better than to trust some strange man on the street. He surprised her by being exceptionally respectful and kind.
"Sorry to scare you, miss," he apologized politely.
"Don't worry about it," Nikki mumbled warily. She was still trying to edge away and attempt to get the attention of some passerby. It didn't seem to be succeeding.
The man stuck out his hand boldly. Nikki took it hesitantly and found it in a strong grip as the stranger shook it. He seemed to be somewhere in his thirties and his mop of black hair was speckled with gray. The man was obviously not a street person and even appeared to be very wealthy. He was wearing slacks and a brown oxford shirt that he hadn't buttoned all the way up to the neck. "My name is Veron Odrade. I was pretty impressed when I heard about your little incident at school. Caused quite an uproar, I believe."
Nikki ducked her head embarrassedly. "Uh, yeah, I guess it did. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to…" He raised one eyebrow and clucked his tongue disapprovingly. "Get back to school? I wouldn't if I were you. You'll never make it out alive after all the questioning and attack of the media. I'd go straight home if I were you. By the way, here's my card if you ever need any help. I run a small supermarket in the city. Feel free to drop by anytime. Well, I have to go now. Take care!"
Nikki watched him disappear into the crowds on the street silently, thinking that his invitation had more implied to it than just to "feel free to drop by". She fingered the card for a moment and glanced down at it before stuffing it into her pocket. It read: Odrade's Fresh Food Mart and gave an address. Nikki thought it sounded vaguely familiar and realized that her family drove by that way whenever they went to visit Grandma May, whom her sister May was named for.
With a shrug, she began walking home. The walk turned into a run when she saw two of the tough boys from school making a beeline straight for her. She had gotten out of the more densely crowded area and found herself alone on an empty back road with two vicious looking brutes rushing toward her. For the first time, Nikki felt sheer terror shooting through her veins.