SECRECY

Chapter 5

"Suze, get up!"

Urgh. School all ready? It felt like only minutes — no, seconds — ago that I was climbing into my bed, ready to go to sleep.

"If you're not down here in five minutes I'm leaving without you!" bellowed Jake.

Hmph. You can leave for all I care. I hate the first day of school. It sucks.

Nevertheless, though, I got out of bed and — like a sloth, in my opinion — walked to my adjoining bathroom. It was a good thing I took a shower last night, because, frankly, I had practically no time to get ready that morning. I was hoping to look good for the first day of school, but I just hate having to get up so early for school.

About ten minutes later, I was running down the stairs.

"God, it's about time, Suze," Jake said.

I only just a grumbled a response and grabbed an apple off the table for breakfast. Then all of us — Jake, Brad, David, and me — piled in the Rambler.

On the way to school, I thought about what teachers I would have and who would be in my classes. God, I hope CeeCee and Adam are in my classes, like they were last year. That was awesome last year.

I hope Jesse is in my classes, too.

Wait, did I just think that?

Oh, no. I did.

What the hell is happening to me? Why am I thinking about him so goddamn much? Yeah, I missed him and all, but even I know that this isn't just about missing your best friend.

Then what the hell is it?

"Suze."

I looked up questioningly at Jake and realized we were at school. Let the fun begin.

We had to stand outside for the first ten minutes for assembly. Girls on one side, boys on the other. Seems kind of sexist to me, but whatever.

As I was scanning the crowd, looking for people I knew, I saw a familiar face.

Jesse.

When our eyes met, I smiled at him and he smiled back. I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't take my eyes off of him, and he didn't take his eyes off of me.

It seemed as if we were the only two people around in that moment.

Well, until someone decided to ruin the moment.

"Susannah Simon!"

My head snapped to my left and I noticed Sister Ernestine glaring at me from the beginning of the line.

Great. School technically hasn't even started yet and all ready I've pissed Sister E. off.

Oh, well.

"Miss Simon," her voice boomed, "can you please pay attention for once in your life?"

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I said, "Sorry, Sister Ernestine."

She just gave me one of those 'that's-what-I-thought' looks and went on calling out the rest of the students' names.

- § -

I was sitting in my homeroom, Mr. Walden's classroom, talking to CeeCee, since she was in my home room, along with Adam, like it usually is. Then, totally unexpectedly, Jesse walks through the door.

He sees me and smiles and takes a seat in the back somewhere. Recognizing Jesse, she smiled at him too.

I felt Jesse's eyes on me as I talked to CeeCee. I wanted to turn around and see what the problem was, but I didn't.

However, I did turn around when I heard his voice.

Oh, no. Kelly was talking to him. Her hand was on his shoulder and she was practically thrusting her boobs in his face. Talk about disturbing.

Well, maybe not for Jesse, since he's a guy and all.

But contrary to my belief, Jesse seemed appalled by her and her proposition of hanging out after school. Jesse was a nice guy, though, so he politely turned her down.

I silently cheered to myself.

Kelly, though, she seemed a bit miffed by it. She sharply turned from Jesse and sat as far away from him as possible and next to Debbie, her best friend, and the class slut.

Mr. Walden finally walked in then. He noticed me and said, "Suze, Father Dominic wants to see you for a moment."

"All ready, Suze? God." I glared at Adam and told him to shut up. Immature, but whatever.

Confused, I took the pass from him and walked out the door and towards his office.

What could Father Dom possibly want all ready? I mean, he usually does stuff like this on the first day of school, to see if anything has happened over the summer, but he doesn't usually take me out of home room, usually lunch or something, or religion class (which I really don't mind missing, if you know what I mean).

Meredith, the secretary, told me to go right in to his office. I pulled the door open and sat down in one of the chairs, like I have done so many times before.

"Susannah," he said, "having a good first day?"

I blinked. "Um . . . not really," I answered, truthfully.

"Why ever not?"

I shrugged. "Not really in a good mood today. I was woken up too early."

He rolled his eyes. "I expect you know why I called you down here."

I knitted my eyebrows together and looked at him curiously. "Actually, no, I don't."

"Jesse," he said. "I put him in a lot of your classes. You are to show him around this week. Your mother tells me that you two know each other well."

I nodded. "Yeah. But why didn't you just put him in Jake's or Brad's classes?"

He blinked. "Susannah, your step-brothers are . . . not as sufficient in classes as you are."

"Okay . . ." I said.

He handed me a pass. "Should any problems arise, come to me."

I nodded and walked back to class.

- § -

By the end of the week I was getting angry glares from the popular girls. Apparently I 'snagged' the new hot guy.

Right.

Jesse and I weren't even — and never would be — together.

But these girls think that hanging out with him after school sometimes means I'm dating him, contrary to my assurances that we are not, in fact, dating.

Jesse just ignored it and told me to let them think what they wanted.

He was too laid back. I mean, if you let those twits think whatever they wanted, they would run rampant and start all these stupid rumors.

I hate rumors. And I absolutely despise the people who start them.

When I told Jesse this — that if you let them think what they wanted, they'd go and start a bazillion rumors about you — he just rolled his eyes and told me not to worry about it, and then walked off to go eat lunch.

I just groaned and walked over to my locker to get the books for my class after lunch. When I shut my locker door, I found Kelly there, glaring at me.

Kind of weirded out, I asked, "What do you want?"

She sniffed at me. "Why is it," she started, "that you get the completely hot guy and I can't?"

I was about to tell her, yet again, that Jesse and I were not going out, but then I remembered what he said. And then I had a great come back. Perfect timing, too.

"Well," I said, "maybe its because he doesn't like stupid blonde bimbos, Kelly."

The look on her face was priceless. She clenched her fists at her sides and then walked off in a heated rush.

I laughed to myself. Oh, this was too good. Maybe Jesse was right. Let them think what they want.

I shook my head and walked to the courtyard. I found CeeCee and Adam at our usual table, talking and eating their lunch. With them were Marta and Josefina. Catalina, Mercedes, and Esperanza were sitting somewhere else, with people of their own age.

I smiled at them and took my seat next to CeeCee. I opened up my Andy-made lunch and took a bite out of my sandwich.

"Oh, Suze," Marta said, "Jesse was looking for you."

I looked at her and noticed she still had that glint in her eye. "What did he want?" I asked. "I mean, I just saw him, like five minutes ago."

She shrugged. "I dunno."

I looked around to see if I could spot him in the courtyard. Usually he sits with Jake and his friends, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, where is he?" I asked.

She looked over at the table and said, "Oh, I don't know." She paused. "Maybe he went out to the graveyard or something."

Graveyard?

No. He couldn't possess the same uncanny want to go and sit in the graveyard, like me. That would just be too weird.

"You sure?" I asked her.

She nodded. So I got up and went to go walk towards the graveyard. I don't know what it was, but this place just attracted me to it. I really have no clue why, though. I mean, to a normal person, this place would be somewhat . . . creepy.

But considering what I do on a daily basis, its quite the opposite.

As I was perusing the perimeter of the graveyard, I could have sworn I heard hushed voices. Curious, I got closer and ducked behind a bush.

And the sight that was before me shocked the hell out of me. And there was also a little bit of relief, too, I guess.

Standing there, was Jesse. If an average person were to see this, they would say he was talking to thin air, or, possibly, to himself.

But being a mediator, I could see perfectly well who he was talking to.

A ghost.

A/N: Review, please!

Disclaimer: The Mediator characters belong to Meg Cabot, not me.