Free Goddess of the Night by Lynne Ewing Page A

checking off-campus passes, but kids
loitered on campus. The air was too hot and sultry to walk up to Okie
Dog or Pink's or sit at Kokomo's in Farmers' Market. Morgan lounged
under a tree, fanning herself with an algebra test and sipping a Big
Gulp through a straw. Vanessa and Catty joined her.
    "Won't
this day ever end?" Morgan said. "It feels like it's been
going on forever."
    Morgan motioned
with her chin at something behind them. "Why is Serena following
you?"
    Serena
gravitated toward them and sat in a shady spot near the building.
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    "She's not
following us. She wants to get out of the sun like everyone else."
Vanessa opened her bottle of carrot juice.
    Serena wore
jeans hemmed with red feathers. FLOWER POWER was written on the front
of her green tank top. Pointy rhinestone glasses kept sliding down
her nose, and her hair was curled in tight ringlets.
    "She'd be
pretty hard to miss," Catty said. "We would have noticed
her."
    The hot day had
made everyone restless and kids were starting to squirt each other
with bottles of water. Steam rose from the puddles.
    "I saw
her." Morgan wrapped her hair on top of her head. "She's
been hanging behind you all day. Weird little goat. You should say
something to her."
    "Leave her
alone," Vanessa snapped.
    "Oh, phase!' Morgan bit back with a spark of anger. "Since
when does she need you to protect her?"
    "Morgan,"
Vanessa started, but stopped. It wasn't worth arguing.
    "Maybe
she's the one who's been following
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    you,"
Catty whispered, and unwrapped a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
that had melted through the bread. She wrapped it back up and wadded
it into a ball for the trash. "It's too hot to eat."
    "So how
was the big date?" Morgan said. She took a piece of ice from her
Big Gulp and held it against the back of her neck.
    Vanessa didn't
answer.
    "I warned
you about Michael." Morgan shook her head. "You're not
sexperienced. I won't hold it against you. But you shouldn't dive in
over your head."
    "Why do
you keep saying that? I thought the sexual revolution was about
choice," Catty said. "How can you hold that against
anyone?"
    "Give it
up." Morgan tossed the ice cube away.
    "Well, it
does seem like you want to make Michael sound bad," Vanessa
accused her. "He was really nice."
    Morgan gave her
a bitter look. "Whatever." She stood suddenly. "This
day is dragging. I'm going to the nurse's office so I can go home.
Heat exhaustion." She walked off.
    "What's
her deal?" Catty said.
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    I don't know.
Vanessa wondered if Morgan was still upset about Michael.
    "Why are
you still friends with her, anyway?"
    "We used
to have really good times together, don't you remember?"
    "No. She
never liked me, and now she's got to bust an attitude on everyone."
    "Catty--"
Vanessa had something else she wanted to talk about. Something
important.
    "Yeah,
what's up?"
    "I've made
a decision," Vanessa said. "Mom doesn't work tomorrow. I'm
going to stay home and tell her about . . . you know. Maybe she can
help me."
    Catty frowned.
"Are you sure?"
    "I don't
know what else to do. Besides, I'd rather she hear it from me than
see me go invisible on the nightly news."
    "All
right," Catty agreed, but her voice was dry with anxiety.
    A noise
startled them. Serena gathered her books and ran across the hot
blacktop. She slipped past the guards at the front gate, and didn't
stop when the guards yelled after her for
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    her pass. Kids
standing against the chain-link fence applauded her audacity.
    "Cool,"
Catty said.
    "Why
didn't she get a pass?" Vanessa wondered.
    "Must've
been in a hurry." Catty shrugged. "Let's go see if a
classroom is open where we can cool off"
    The day
stretched on forever. Morgan was right. It felt like someone had bent
reality and made classes twice as long. By the end of the day Vanessa
was worn out. She trudged across the empty basketball courts, her
sweater tied around her waist and shirt open to the third button,
when someone called her name.
    "Hey,
Vanessa." Michael ran up to her,