Chapter Two
Questions
I didn't see Dinah the next day at school, and that worried me a little.
'Perhaps she's still upset about her mother or whatever it was that had upset her,' I thought as I walked from my last class to the parking lot.
There, I spotted Ms. Gordon and trotted over to her. "Gabby! Hi," she said, surprised to see me. I'm pretty sure she was expecting me to question her decision to give me a C on the last paper I handed in, but I was watching TV all weekend, so I knew I deserved the grade I got.
"Hi, Ms. Gordon. Do you know what's up with Dinah? She seemed so unhappy yesterday, and today, she's not in school.' My teacher watched me for a second, noting my concern, and in my head I felt a deep sadness that I somehow knew Dinah was feeling. I don't now how, exactly, but in my gut I knew Dinah needed someone to lean on. My teacher sighed.
"Dinah got some bad news, and she'll be gone from school a few days." I nodded, feeling sad that I couldn't be there for my new friend. 'What bad news did she get? Why would she be gone so long because of it? I hope her mother's okay. I hope her mother didn't die or something- That is the only thing that would keep me from school for so long.' I thought. I looked down at Ms. Gordon, wishing I knew what more to say.
"Tell Dinah she can come over any time, and that she's not alone. Tell her I'm here for her." Ms. Gordon smiled sadly, but she nodded.
"I'll pass on the message, Gabby. Thank you."
"Thank you, too." That earned me an odd look, and I waved before turning to walk home. At the crosswalk nearest the school, I saw Kelly. To be honest, ever since I befriended Dinah, I sort of left Kelly behind. She'd decided she didn't like Dinah. 'She's too weird' Kelly had said, and never made any effort to talk to her. I walked slowly up to the crosswalk next to her. She looked up at me, and then turned her body to fully face me.
"Where's your girlfriend?" She asked, her voice not unkind, when she saw there was no one near enough to hear her. Of all of my friends, Kelly was the only one who knew about my sexuality, and she was really good about keeping that a secret at school. Though I am not ashamed of being a lesbian, I don't feel that it's all of New Gotham High's business what my sex life, or lack there of, was like. I was relieved that Kelly was still keeping that a secret.
"She's at home, I guess, and she's not my girlfriend." I said, crossing the street when the white pedestrian symbol showed. Kelly looked at me after she reached the other side of the street. She seemed a little nervous. Like the day before with Dinah, I felt it, as if she didn't need to say it, I just felt she was nervous. 'This is so weird' I thought to myself when I recognized this feeling, 'I was never this receptive to this sort of thing.'
We were silent for most of the first block, and I too, got a little nervous.
"Listen, I'm sorry about my behavior lately, Gabster," she said, using a nickname I haven't heard since we played tetherball on the playground in the sixth grade. This made me look up at her with curiosity. "I know I've been a bitch since the day she got here, and I feel bad- I really do- but there is something about her... She scares me, Gabby. She's got this look about her, an aura that says she's dangerous." Kelly looked at me and nodded her head as if to reinforce her words. "And I know that you're determined to be friends with her. I'm not sure if it's because you like her or what, but I'm afraid to go near her."
"Dinah's not dangerous, and I don't want to stop being her friend because you're scared of her. I don't want to stop being your friend either. You're the first person to befriend me when my family first moved here."
"And I don't want to stop being your friend, either. We survived middle school and the first year of high school together... But I can't be your friend when you're with Zipper Girl. I don't want to be a dumb broad who makes you chose between me and her. We're neighbors. When we're both free, open the gate and let yourself in." By this time, we'd gotten to my house about 3 blocks away and were standing in front of the driveway.
"Her name is Dinah, and there's no reason to be afraid of her." I said, trying in vain to change Kelly's mind about my new friend. Kelly only shrugged, and I frowned in thought, not liking what she is truly saying to me. "Then we're no longer friends in school?" I asked, knowing that this would be the only time I would get to really see Dinah because I don't know her phone number or Ms. Gordon's address. Again, there was a shrug from Kelly, which was starting to frustrate me. "Okay then... I guess I'll call you." I felt a little bit angry with her for not wanting to give Dinah a chance. I mean, for Pete's sake, she wouldn't even say her name! Kelly only nodded once more and walked to the next house over and let herself inside. I knew that she'd set her backpack down, leave the house again, and walk down the street the other way to pick up her twin younger bothers from the elementary school. I used to go with her, and had even thought of going today, but something stopped me from offering.
Kelly was nervous around me the whole walk home, almost as if she feared that I would tell Dinah what she'd said. I wouldn't of course, but it made me sad that she almost feared me as well. Has the whole world gone insane?
Is there a full moon that I don't know about? And what is up with the humming? I knew the answer to that last question and didn't like it. The truth was, the humming had been there, low and constant since the night before. I could almost tune it out, but when I was alone with myself like I was then, walking slowly up my driveway while digging out my keys, it never seemed to stop. It drove me crazy... er. Who knows, maybe it isn't the rest of the world that's gone wacky. Maybe it's just me. If that's the case, then something is terribly wrong. I'm too young to be locked away in Arkham, claiming to hear my new friend's voice. And the dreams... Those dreams. Did that actually happen to Dinah? That can't be. The woman who saved me had feral eyes like a cat, and she moved so quickly and gracefully... At the same time, it wouldn't be the first time someone's claimed to have been saved by a mysterious rescuer cloaked in darkness. They were all over the news, people with extraordinary powers, some used for good, others... But I- Well, Dinah- claimed to have seen this person in HER dream. It felt as if this figure, this woman was why I- I mean Dinah- was in New Gotham.
It doesn't quite make sense. If this actually happened, then why am I dreaming about it? If it didn't... then why did it feel so real? What did I really know of Dinah? That she preferred Pretty In Pink to The Breakfast Club? That she bawls like a baby whenever she sees A Walk To Remember? What does that tell me? For all I know, Kelly could be right, and Dinah could be dangerous.
If not Dinah herself, then her past. Why else would she run away to a creepy old city like New Gotham and feel at home? 'That doesn't seem right, either,' I thought, 'Dinah is just a shy girl from Zippertown USA looking for acceptance. I better than anyone know what that was like, having uprooted and moved from San Diego when I was eleven.'
I shook my head and walked inside my house. I checked the messages just in case my mom or dad called with instructions for the night. No one but a telemarketer called. Something about life insurance. I then took out my lab homework, shaking my head at Matt Kendal's semi-readable handwriting. We were supposed to do a worksheet on the lab we'd done, and while I was doing the physical work of the lab, Matt was supposed to be taking notes and filling out the worksheet, only, it didn't quite happen that way. He didn't write out any specifics of the lab, so I told him I would write out the answers at home and have him do the lab experiment later in the week while I took the notes. I didn't want to fall behind in science or I will never catch up, and having a lab partner like Matt wasn't helping any.
I guess couldn't complain too much about it, really. It gave me something to do so that my mind wouldn't go insane with questions and thoughts. From the kitchen table where I had my homework sprawled out, I saw Kelly through the window. She no longer had her backpack on, and she seemed lost in thought. I had more questions about her behavior in the back of my mind, but I really needed to do my homework before my mind got too distracted, so I looked back down at my lab homework and began to work.
No strange dream that night or any other that week. The humming seemed to lessen, or I've been able to tune it out better, I'm not sure which.
Everyday after school I'd take a detour to Ms. Gordon's class to deliver Dinah's lab homework, since it was the only class we shared besides Ms. Gordon's. Part of me hoped that my teacher would tell me more about whatever it was that got Dinah so upset it that got her out of school for so long, but Ms. Gordon let nothing slip, and I was getting even more worried. With Kelly refusing to hang out with me within New Gotham High School's walls, the week was a long and lonely one, filled with questions that needed to be answered.
Finally, on Friday afternoon, I walked up to Ms. Gordon's classroom as I'd done the rest of the week. This time, unlike the rest of the week, I had come empty-handed. Before I could say anything, I heard "Miss Andrews, why am I not surprised?"
I turned to see Ms. Gordon in the back of the room, reaching up to mess with one of the posters that had fallen. I walked over and held up the top right corner. Without a word, she handed me the yellow tac, and I went to work putting the poster back in place. "Look-" I started to say, but my teacher cut me off.
"Gabby, I want you to know that I appreciate your concern for Dinah. The last few days have been very rough on her. What happened is a long and complicated story, but she is very strong, and I'm sure she'll bounce back from this."
"Ms. Gordon, at this point, I don't care about the details of what happened. Sure, I'm curious, but more than that, I just want to know if she's okay, and I want to hear it from her." To my surprise, she laughed. It was a small chuckle that ended as soon as it had started, but still it was enough to make me wonder what I'd said that was so funny. My teacher then looked at me. She studied me for a moment, and then said, "What happened to Dinah... I have a feeling things will get worse before it gets better, and she's going to need someone to be there for her. You're a nice, strong willed girl, and Dinah needs that in a friend." From the look on her face, there was a message, a moral, a hint of some sort in her words -I just knew it, but what exactly she was saying beyond 'Stand by her, Gabby, she needs you', I couldn't tell you exactly what it was.
I nodded my head and unstrapped my backpack long enough to grab at a notebook I used to write notes to Kelly during class (tell no one). The fact that it was now useless to me was not lost on me. I searched for my favorite blue pen and wrote down my cell phone number. "You know, in case she wants to tell me this 'long and complicated story'... Or anything," I said. "I'd call her, but..." I trailed off, but in my head, I finished, 'I don't know anything about her, let alone her phone number.' Ms. Gordon smiled and I put my backpack on again. Awkwardly, I left her classroom with nothing more to say.