Trance by Linda Gerber

Author:Linda Gerber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2010-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

All day at school, I couldn’t stop thinking about my phone call with Kyra. It got so I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. I went through my classes on remote, there but not there. With each passing hour, the walls around me seemed to get tighter and tighter.

By the end of the day, I couldn’t bear to be stuck inside any longer. I needed to clear my head. Finally, in my last class, Spanish, I just picked up my books and left. No, that’s not exactly accurate; I told Señora Rodriguez that I had to use the restroom and then I just never returned to class.

Instead, I went straight to the locker room and changed into my running gear and walked out to the track. The seventh-period P.E. class was still out on the football field playing some watered-down form of lacrosse, but no one questioned me as I began my warm-ups. That’s usually how it happens; if you pretend like you’re where you’re supposed to be, people tend to leave you alone.

I kept running when they finished their game and wandered off the field, running when the bell rang, running when my teammates started trickling out to the field after school for conditioning. If I couldn’t outrun the sting of her rejection, at least I wanted to sweat it out of my system. By the time the rest of the team started to trickle out to the track, my legs were numb and my chest was on fire, but I kept going.

Michelle jogged up beside me on the track. “You didn’t wait for me!”

I spared her a glance and then focused on the track again. “I’m sorry,” I puffed. “Got. Out. Early.”

“Whoa,” she said. “You’d better take it down a notch. You’re sounding winded.”

“I’m fine,” I said automatically.

“So what are you doing tonight? Trey and some of the guys are having movie night at his house and they invited us to come.”

“I have . . . to work,” I wheezed.

“Oh.” She looked like she was going to pout for a second and then her face brightened. “Ooh. Then you can see that cute music-store guy.”

I shot her a sideways glance. I don’t know why it bugged me that she never seemed to be able to remember his name, but it did. “Jake,” I corrected.

“That’s him. I do like that boy.”

I slowed to a walk and she slowed with me. “No,” I rasped. “Go. On.” She pulled ahead with a steady stride.

That’s when Coach Mendenhall blew his whistle and gathered the team by the pole-vaulting mats. He gave some instructions for the day’s drills and then he released everyone . . . except me.

“Greenfield? Could I speak with you for a moment?”

Just the tone of his voice was enough to make my stomach sink. “Yes?”

He waited until everyone else had cleared out of earshot, then he tucked his clipboard up under his arm. “I spoke with Mrs. Spinelli today.”

“Oh.”

“You shouldn’t be here, should you? Why didn’t you tell me about your mishap yesterday?”

“It wasn’t a mishap,” I protested.

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