‘I hear your mum did a seance the other day.’ Tessa scoffed, blocking my path as I tried to walk across the courtyard to class. Melanie and Laura flanked her, making it impossible for me to get past them.
Other students walked to class, either ignoring what was happening or so wrapped up in themselves they were oblivious. Thanks for the help. Peers my ass.
I curled my hands into fists, unclenched it, then curled it back up again. ‘So?’
‘So, what, she think she’s a medium or something?’ Tessa glanced at her cronies and laughed. They joined in with the cackle. If only they knew.
I glanced at Melanie, but her expression didn’t give away much. Her lips were pursed into a tight line, and her gaze was fixed on Tessa. Would I see something in her eyes if she looked at me?
Every so often, her face seemed to jerk unnaturally. It was for a split second, something most people wouldn’t notice. Was that a sign of the possession? Was Melanie in there somewhere, trying to fight off whomever was inside of her?
There was no sign of the ghost who’d accompanied her to the gravesite either. Where could he be spending his time when she was at college?
I tried to push past the three of them, but they blocked my way. ‘I have to get to English.’
‘What’s the point? We both know you’ll just follow in your mum’s footsteps and become the town weirdo.’
I’d rather be a weirdo than a narcissist.
Tessa tapped her foot, glaring at me. She wasn’t going to let me go until I replied. Class was due to start any second, meaning almost everyone was in lessons. Even if anyone did want to back me up, there was no one around to do it.
‘What, got nothing to say about your mum being the town ghost hunter?’ She spat the last couple of words, as if they were an insult. To my ears, they sounded like anything but.
‘It isn’t about my mum, or about me. If people believe we can help them, then we’ll work our hardest to, and if we don’t think we can, we’ll tell them. And you? You can’t be helped.’ I tried to force my way through, but Tessa put her arm out.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It means you can’t cure bitch.’
Tessa pushed me to the floor. My coccyx smacked against the concrete. I screamed.
Knowing she’d screwed up, Tessa and her cronies ran off without looking back. Bitches.
I bit my tongue, trying not to cry. My back was so stiff I couldn’t get up. Shooting pain erupted through my spine, starting at my coccyx, every time I tried to move. Wasn’t that just great?
‘Are you OK?’ said a voice I didn’t know.
I looked up to see a guy with olive skin and striking dark brown eyes staring down at me, frowning. Did I look that bad?
Probably. I felt that bad.
‘I can’t move,’ I said through gritted teeth.
‘Need some help?’
I tried to look around, in the vain hope that Josh was coming to sweep me off my feet, but, since the bell had gone off, that was unlikely to happen. It was get help from this guy, or sit there like an idiot until someone else came along.
‘Please,’ I said. A shooting pain was flying up my back on repeat. It took all the strength I had not to cry. I’d never felt pain like it before.
He bent down beside me. ‘Can you stretch your legs out enough for me to pick you up?’
‘One way to find out.’ After a couple of deep breaths, I stretched my legs out as far as I could get them. Which was a couple of inches.
He put his hand on my shoulder. ‘All right, don’t worry. I’m going to try to be gentle and take you to the nurse, but this might still hurt.’
‘I can’t sit here forever, right?’
‘Nope.’
He placed one arm around the middle of my back and the other under my knees. With what seemed like no effort at all, he picked me up, stood, and carried me across the courtyard to the nurse’s office. Who was this knight in shining black leather? I’d never seen him around college before, and I was familiar with most people – even if they weren’t familiar with me.
‘I’m Edie, by the way,’ I said, figuring we should at least know each other’s names if he was going to carry me halfway across campus.
‘Dominic.’ He met my eyes and gave me a warm, charming smile. My stomach fluttered, causing me to twitch. And the pain to start again.
‘Gah!’ I cried, curling into him farther.
‘Almost there,’ he said. ‘Hopefully the nurse can give you something.’
‘I really hope so,’ I said, barely able to hold back my sobs.
We reached the nurse’s office, and, thankfully, the door was open. She was sitting at her desk to the right. Her eyes went wide when she saw us. Leaving her desk, she guided us towards the bed in the next room.
‘What happened?’ she asked.
‘I fell.’
If Dominic had really seen what had happened, he didn’t correct me.
‘Hit my coccyx on the concrete courtyard,’ I added.
The nurse inhaled through her teeth. Yeah, it was that kind of pain.
‘How do you want me to put you down?’ asked Dominic as we hovered over the bed.
‘Um…’
‘Can you lie on your front?’ suggested the nurse.
‘Maybe? It’ll probably hurt less.’
Dominic gently lowered me onto the bed. I’d have to lie on it facing the bottom of the bed, but it beat lying on my back and triggering my injury even more.
‘Do you have any painkillers?’ I begged.
‘No, sorry. I’m not allowed to give them out,’ said the nurse. In her defence, she looked guilty for saying it.
‘What?’ said Dominic. ‘But she’s clearly in pain!’
‘I can’t, just in case she’s allergic.’
‘You’re kidding?’ I said.
The nurse sighed. ‘Wish I was. I can’t even hand out plasters anymore.’
‘What can you do?’ said Dominic.
‘Call her parents and advise them to take her to the doctor.’
‘That’s literally it?’ I said.
‘I wish things were different, believe me.’
*
‘Edie! Oh my god, Edie!’ Mum ran over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck.
‘Mum, seriously, I’m fine,’ I said, trying to push her away. Well, sort of. I was lying on my stomach, on the bed in the nurse’s office. Shooting pains were still repeating up and down my back, but they’d slowed in frequency.
‘What happened?’ She looked to Dominic, who was sitting in the chair next to the bed, reading a women’s magazine he’d picked up from the nurse’s selection.
He looked up. ‘I didn’t see, I just found her on the floor and in pain, so I brought her here.’
Mum’s defensiveness softened. ‘Thanks.’
He smiled at Mum again, then gestured behind her, to where Mr Hazelock, the college’s head teacher, was standing and talking to the nurse. Mr Hazelock walked in and immediately addressed me: ‘Is it true that you were pushed, Edie?’
I looked from Mr Hazelock, to the nurse, to Mum. I couldn’t see Dominic, since he was sitting behind me. Mum nodded. It was her way of encouraging me to tell the truth.
No one liked a snitch. That wasn’t old news. But bullies didn’t learn if nobody called them up on their behaviour. They thought they could get away with it. I preferred to think of myself as a whistleblower.
‘Yes. Tessa was insulting Mum’s work and she didn’t like my reply, so she pushed me.’
‘I see,’ he said, trying to keep his face neutral. It didn’t work. He looked angry. Not that I blamed him.
‘What was your reply?’ he asked.
‘That at least if I do go into ghost hunting like Mum, at least I’ll be helping people.’
Mum’s eyes went wide. She obviously hadn’t expected people to find out about the seance. Changing her focus, she turned to Mr Hazelock: ‘Why does Edie’s reply matter? She wasn’t the one who got violent.’
‘I’m just trying to get the full story,’ Mr Hazelock replied.
Everyone looked to me in anticipation.
‘I may have also said something about how you can’t cure bitch,’ I added, smirking.
Dominic stifled a laugh. Mr Hazelock glared at him. He fell silent.
‘Sounds like a gross overreaction to me,’ said Mum, folding her arms over her Back to the Future T-shirt and blocking out the picture of the DeLorean on it.
‘Yes,’ said Mr Hazelock through gritted teeth. ‘Did you witness any of this, Dominic?’
‘No, I just saw her on the ground and in pain,’ he replied. ‘But if you ask me, nothing justifies pushing someone like that. It looked painful.’ He turned to me: ‘is it painful?’
‘Yeah,’ I said through gritted teeth. It was a sharp pain that only grew worse every time I tried to move. If I tried to move, it shot up my spine, fizzling away somewhere up my mid-back. And because the pain was so bad, my back totally seized up.
‘Does she need to go to A&E?’ Mum asked the nurse.
‘I’d take her to the doctor’s to get her checked out, just in case,’ said the nurse.
Mum glared at Mr Hazelock: ‘And what will you be doing about the perpetrator? It’s one thing for her to insult me, but to use that as an excuse to get violent?’
‘I’m going to investigate what happened and will respond accordingly,’ he replied.
‘“Respond accordingly”? Do you have any idea how bad back problems can be? My mum couldn’t get out of bed some days her back was so bad. And she got that injury when she was Edie’s age!’
Way to make me feel better about my chances of healing from the pain. Thanks Mum.
‘I understand, madam—’
‘Don’t you “madam” me! Do you really understand, or are you just telling me that because you think it’s what I want to hear, hm? Because let’s be clear here: my daughter didn’t slip. And given that it happened on the courtyard, where the concrete is not only painful when you land on it but more likely to do some damage, don’t you think that you should be considering how this could affect her future? Does the person responsible not deserve to be punished?’
‘Of course, but I want to get all the facts straight before making a decision. It’s my role to remain neutral until I have reason to be otherwise,’ he said. He looked terrified, though. Mum had on her Don’t Mess With Me Face – my favourite of her expressions. I mean, it was terrifying. Which was why it was so effective. Luckily she didn’t use it on me very often.
Mum ground her teeth together. ‘Keep me informed. And resolve this. Quickly. Or the local papers may find themselves getting a phone call about how you handle bullies.’
‘Mum!’ I said.
‘Be quiet, Edie.’
‘Would you like a wheelchair to get you to the car?’ the nurse offered, thankfully changing the subject and diffusing the tension.
‘Yes please,’ I said.
*
Dominic helped Mum put me into the wheelchair, and walked with us to the car. I sat on my side as I was wheeled away. It was awkward because pretty much everything that wasn’t lying on my front was painful for one reason or another. It just made me hate Tessa even more.
Dominic talked about nothing in particular during the short walk. I appreciated the distraction. When we got there, he helped me into the car, too. I really wished he was Josh, but I couldn’t deny that I enjoyed the view – and his company.
‘Thanks for your help,’ I said.
He gave me a sideways smile. ‘Of course. I couldn’t leave you like that, could I?’
‘You didn’t have to stick around,’ I said.
Mum backed away a little, pretending to look for something in her handbag while we talked. Subtle.
‘Sure I did. I had to make sure you were all right and in safe hands. Since clearly the nurse couldn’t do anything.’ He rolled his eyes and we both laughed.
‘Yeah, some help she’d been. But I guess at least she told Mr Hazelock. I feel bad grassing on Tessa.’
Dominic frowned. ‘Don’t you dare feel guilty for that! She deserves whatever punishment she gets.’
‘Does she? Maybe it was an accident.’
‘Edie, come on.’
‘I guess I’m not used to fighting fire with fire,’ I said.
‘Sometimes there’s no other way.’
Mum finished pretending to look for whatever was in her handbag – meaning she got bored – and climbed into the driver’s side. ‘Ready to go?’ she said to me. ‘I’ll drive carefully, promise.’
‘Take care,’ said Dominic, closing the passenger door without saying anything else. No asking for my phone number or suggesting we should keep in touch. Nothing. Odd. Very odd indeed.