Chapter 3
Ned and Moze were finally nearing their destination: James K. Polk Middle School. Ned had finally stopped talking, and they both rested their minds during the silence. Both were reminiscing, their minds still organizing the events of two years ago into their proper chronological order.
Ned registered that they were almost there and quietly said to Moze, "We're almost there. Do you think we have time for one more memory?" Moze glanced at him, and was saddened to see that he looked exhausted. She wondered if that look was the one that was on her own face. It probably was. At the mere mention of the necklace during his talk, he seemed to lose all the energy in his body, and he became sluggish in his walking. They had to stop and sit on the sidewalk as he finished. The necklace was bad news.
Ned asked Moze a question. "Moze do you remember when you asked me if I ever hated you when you were wearing the necklace?"
"Yeah?" Moze was being cautious.
"Well, I have a question for you now, that's kind of similar: Did you ever hate me when you wearing the necklace?" His question was direct, and his blue eyes were probing. She could not muster the courage to face him, because the answer she had would obviously hurt him. She didn't want to cause any more hurt feelings or broken hearts. Shying away from the question, she asked, "Do you really have to know?"
She could feel the weight of his gaze on her back. "Yes." The reply was cold and clear. He wanted to know; no, needed to know.
"Ned . . . please."
"Moze, we agreed on this: no more holding back. No more lying. I will ask again: Did you hate me or not?"
She could feel a single tear run down her cheek. She turned around to face him and shouted releasing the pent up feeling inside. "YES! Yes, I did. I hated you Ned Bigby. I wanted to get my hands on your neck and wring all the life out of you. I wanted to cut you, slash you, and hurt you, physically and mentally and emotionally! I wanted you to die; I wanted to see you drown in a pool of your own blood!" She kicked a pebble on the ground at him. It hit him, but he didn't flinch away. "I hated you! I hated you! I HATED YOU!" With that last scream she used up all of her emotional energy and she finally crumpled into the ground. She curled up on the cold, hard ground and just cried.
Ned came to her, sat down next to her, and just held her. She cried into his chest and finally felt an immensely heavy weight lift from her heart and mind.
Ned was still there with her several minutes later. The fact that he had stayed by her side and whispered comforting words, instead of staying away from her as though she had some sort of contagious disease, meant more to her than he could possibly know. How could she deserve such a kind and decent person?
"I see that the flood has finally stopped." Ned's words were casual and friendly. Not hateful or spiteful.
She couldn't help but grin. She looked up and saw Ned's kind face peering at her. She hugged him close and said, "How did I ever deserve someone like you? You're so kind it hurts."
"It hurts?" he asked. He sounded puzzled.
"You should hate me! Despise me with your entire being!"
Ned shook his head. "I've said it before, Jennifer. I could never hate you."
She wanted to laugh and cry out at the same time. She settled for somewhere in between.
After that another silence came over them both. Then Moze said, "You wanted one more memory, right?"
"Yeah. We're almost there. You ready for it?" Ned asked.
"Yup."
There was one more memory before the chaos that had shaken their entire world. It wasn't a good memory; in fact it was a horrible one. But it was purgatory compared to the hellish nightmares that followed.
She stayed quiet for a couple minutes gathering her strength for one more round, and then began to speak quietly, "The weather, once perfect and pristine, was taking a turn for the
Moze
worse. The weather seemed to be following my mood. The day was almost over – I was glad. I was not enjoying the new high school. In fact I hated it. Why? That's a long story, but I guess we have a lot of time on our hands.
Where to start? I guess it started with you, Ned. I know I sound accusatory, but that's where it started. I begin there.
You had just come back from the office after depositing the necklace off at the Lost and Found section. You looked pale and exhausted – it was as though you had just run a mile. Worried, I asked "Ned, you look awful. You've only been gone a couple minutes, what happened?"
You looked at me, and I saw something strange reflect in your blue eyes – an emotion that I could not quite place. You were obviously uneasy and worried about something. Then the emotion passed and your eyes returned to normal.
"I'm fine, Moze. Thanks for asking." You tried to sound casual, but ended up overdoing it. I caught on, but something told me that you didn't want to press the matter any further. So I dropped it.
I shouldn't have dropped it.
We took our seats at the desks and waited for the teacher to come in and give instructions. The bell rang, and he came in.
"Class, I'm Mr. Sweeney. Please take out a sheet of paper and a Number 2 pencil. You are being given a pop quiz to test you on your knowledge so far. It will not affect your grades."
Ned, you gave a start, as though you had been jolted with electricity. "Sweeney? But he's a teacher at Polk!"
Mr. Sweeney smiled. "You must be Ned Bigby. I've heard stories about you from my older brother. He mentions that you're one of his favorites."
You stared at him. I stared at him as well, and it finally clicked. He did look a lot like Mr. Sweeney from Polk. He was like a younger version of Sweeney. I sighed. It looked like there would be no true escape from the memories of Polk; the hallways of our new school were littered with similarities from our old school.
"You have all period to finish the test. Take your time, and do your best. You may begin" he stared up at the clock "now."
The test began and so did the rest of my horrible, horrible day. It would be the first of many things to go wrong, thanks to the infamous Murphy's Law. I had no idea that by the end of this day, my relationship with you, Ned, would begin to deteriorate and I would be wearing a ruby necklace that would put everything we had in jeopardy.
The test was hard. Painfully hard. I, Jennifer Ann Mosely, straight-A student was finding myself in a dilemma. I could not help but look around nervously, and saw that everyone including Ned was almost done. Ned looked as though he were having the time of his life; he was breezing through it. I on the other hand was racking my head – it was difficult to me, but easy to Ned? What was wrong?
I looked up at the clock. Time was running out. Desperate, I pulled out all the stops and just guesstimated on every question.
When I was done, I put down my pencil and sighed. This was not good – the test had been difficult. I was not feeling good about this. I was afraid that I was going to get a not so hot grade on this test. I turned around and had myself a look at Ned.
He was sleeping. I stared at his happy sleeping face and immediately felt a little better. He had that kind of effect on me. Even if I failed this quiz, there was no way I would fail the other ones. Besides everyone had a first time for everything.
I took a look outside the window. The clouds were starting to gather and there was definitely a storm coming on the way. But, hey, the day couldn't get worse right?
Right?
Wrong. Dead wrong. Things got worse, a lot worse. First, the rest of my test results were poor. Everyone else did just fine – what the heck was wrong with ME? I never had this problem back at Polk. I asked Ned for some advice.
"Moze, relax. Everyone has some difficulty finding their groove at High School. Don't worry about it. You'll get back on track before you know it."
"I don't know, Ned."
"Don't worry about it; you're the smartest girl I know! You'll be back to top Moze condition in no time."
I smiled. Ned's eternal cheerfulness was infectious. Hopefully he was right. I would find my place at this High School. I mean everyone else was doing fine, so that meant that I should be able to adjust too, right? Right.
But the day continued to go on just as badly. Very badly. But the worse part was at the end. I was waiting in line in the gymnasium for the volleyball tryouts. I was a little nervous but on the whole I was feeling relatively confident. I couldn't fail this; it was volleyball – I was number one at my school. Number one. No one beat me.
Suzie Crabgrass was right in line next to me – we talked excitedly about what we would do if we got in. Our turns for the tryouts came and went and soon enough, we were both outside waiting for the results.
They came. The coach went outside and tacked a list of all the people who made it I went up, obviously expecting to see my name. . .
It wasn't there. I checked again. And again. And again. Ned and Cookie were right next to me looking for my name as well. It wasn't there.
It wasn't there.
Suzie had made it though. Suzie Crabgrass my number one rival at Polk had made it. She had made it to the volleyball team. She had made it.
"Moze."
I couldn't believe it. Suzie Crabgrass had made it and I hadn't. There was something wrong.
"Moze."
I could not believe my luck – my first day of school had gone badly. And now this. This was not a good sign.
"Moze."
I was getting angrier by the second. I was incensed; infuriated. This was not right, not fair!
"Mosely."
My vision began to go red.
"Jennifer!"
Ned's voice jolted me out of my murderous thoughts. "What?" I snapped.
"You're crushing my arm." So I was. I released Ned's arm and he rubbed the spot where I had gripped it. He looked pained. "Look, I'm sorry you didn't make the team."
"No, it's okay."
"No, it's not. Moze, I know you've been having a bad day and all, but I want you to know-"
He was cut off by a large stampeding sound. A large crowd of people came around the corner and spotted him. Cookie's voice came from somewhere within the crowd, and it yelled "Run, Ned! RUN! They're looking for you!"
Ned gaped. "What?!"
"RUN!" It was too late. Ned had hesitated for too long – the crowd came in pushed me aside, and took my best friend away.
Ned tried to yell for me. "Moze! MOZE!"
I could only stare helplessly as they dragged him off. They were chanting, "Guide! Guide! Guide!"
Cookie dragged himself right next to me. He looked like he had been beaten up by a group of five year olds. I asked him, "What do they want with Ned?"
"They want his Guide. They've been hearing stories about Ned over the years, and now that he's here they'll want his tips. I calculate that by the size of that crowd, compared to the size of the school, Ned's gonna be pretty popular by the end of this week." He looked at me with an analytical look in his eye. "How are you doing, Jennifer? I know you didn't make the team, and all, but –"
"Forget it, Cookie. I'm fine." I turned around and left. "Tell Ned, I went home."
"But-"
"Just tell him."
On my way out, I passed by the office. Or I thought I did. I actually stopped – something inside had caught my eye.
A necklace. A pretty ruby necklace. It glittered darkly under the artificial lights. I stepped inside and picked it up, fascinated by it. A lady came by and asked, "This is the Lost and Found section; that necklace has been here since this morning. Is it yours?" She looked at me pointedly.
The necklace beckoned speaking in my voice (but I didn't know it at the time). You deserve something nice, especially after today. Why not? Take the necklace. "Yes. Yes it is."
I smiled, put it on, and left the building feeling strangely happier than I did before. The necklace glowed faintly around my neck. It was an odd feeling; I guess you could compare it to using drugs. It was like one of the out-of-body experiences people talk about in interviews. It was like I wasn't me; like I was watching somebody else on a big TV screen from far away. Like watching a movie.
A horror movie.
Moze finally stopped speaking. Resting her head on Ned's shoulder, she was starting to nod off when Ned gently slapped her face rousing her from her fatigue.
"So that's how you got it."
"Yeah, so you see, you didn't give it to me."
He snorted. "I might as well have given the necklace to you. I shouldn't have just left it lying around like that. It was my fault you got your hands on it." He sounded immensely guilty. I didn't like to hear him like that. "I knew the necklace was bad news. I should have just left it there. I shouldn't have." Moze shushed him.
"You couldn't have known, Ned." No one could have.
He nodded, but that guilty look stayed on his face.
We picked ourselves up and continued toward James K. Polk Middle School.
Sometime afterward, we arrived with time to spare. We stepped inside, anxious to reunite with our friends who were waiting for us.
But nobody was there. It seemed vacant and empty. Not exactly the welcoming party we were expecting. We explored the school, looking for signs of life. Nothing. No one was there.
Where was everybody?
A voice spoke from behind us. "Ah my two favorite high schoolers. Everyone's waiting in the gym for you guys." Gordy. Grinning, both of us turned around and sure enough, our favorite janitor in the world was standing there behind us. We ran to him and hugged him. It was a joyful moment.
Soon we extracted ourselves from him, and he said , "Go on now. They're waiting for you guys. Better hurry."
"How are you doing Gordy?" Moze asked.
"I'm fine, Jennifer, but you guys really need to get going."
"Aren't you coming with us? Don't you want to hear the story?"
Gordy grinned and said, "Of course I'm going with you guys. I wouldn't miss this for the world."
Ned grinned and asked, "What about your shift?"
"Eh, I'll let the night guy get it."
They headed to the gym. When they opened the doors, they had to squint. It was dark. There was only one light on, and it illuminated a group of chairs arranged in the circle. Every one of their friends was seated in the circle. They appeared to be waiting.
"They're here."
Okay, maybe I lied a bit when I said that this chapter would be picking up the pace a bit. Hopefully, though, you guys still like it. I'm really sorry if you didn't (blame me, blame me, but no flames please) . I thought this chapter was still too slow for my liking. But I definitely guarantee you things ramp up in the next one. Like I said before, be patient and you will be rewarded! Please, if you want to read more, give me good reviews. Thanks.