You Were What You Eat

22. Trouble at School

The next day, Anna made it into English just as the bell was ringing. Of course, Mrs. Boyd wasn't there. Why did she even bother to be on time if the teacher never was? Dejectedly, she sank down into her chair.

"Late night?" Summer asked. Anna looked over to see the petite girl smiling cheerfully in her direction.

"Yeah." Anna replied. "I couldn't get to sleep."

It wasn't entirely true since Anna didn't exactly need sleep. But she'd learned it was a good excuse to explain why kids around here were more subdued than usual.

"A lot on your mind?" Summer pressed.

Anna ignored the invitation to talk. Instead, she just nodded at her desk, tracing the patterns in the fake wood with her eyes.

"It's all this vampire talk, isn't it?" Summer guessed shrewdly.

Anna froze for a moment, taking in what Summer had just said. Slowly, she turned her head towards Summer, a stunned look on her face.

"What?" Anna asked quietly.

"The whole school's talking about it." Summer explained. There was a look on her face that Anna couldn't read.

"Word travels fast around here." Anna replied dryly.

"It does." Summer confirmed.

Anna shrugged, but Summer was not to be deterred by Anna's lack of a response.

"So, I heard Carmine Zwaanstra's the one starting the rumors." Then, with what Anna thought looked suspiciously like a smirk, Summer asked, "So what do you think about that?"

"Well...I don't know..." Anna replied, wishing Summer would talk about something – anything – else.

"Oh? I thought you of all people would have an opinion on it."

Anna wasn't sure what Summer meant by this, so she just kept quiet. Summer, on the other hand, seemed to have plenty to say.

"Nothing good will come of it, believe me." Then, looking intently at Anna, Summer's tone suddenly became much more serious. "You should tell her to stop talking so much about the supernatural. Start looking for more mundane answers."

The conversation had taken an unexpected turn, and Anna was curious. Why would Summer care?

"Does it bother you?" Anna asked. Now she was the one pushing the conversation.

"No." Summer said a little too quickly. But Anna had seen her eyes widen just a little before quickly resuming their usual sparkle.

"Then why can't she say what she likes?" Anna asked as innocently as she could manage.

Summer didn't say anything for a minute. Instead, she stared at Anna, as if sizing her up. When she did speak, she seemed to take on the tone of a particularly patient teacher explaining something that should have been obvious to the student.

"Well...there's no such thing as supernatural beings, are there? Vampire or otherwise. And even if there were vampires, she couldn't do anything anyway."

"Who said she's going to do anything?" Anna asked. She tried to sound neutral, but there was a hint of a challenge in her words. If somebody thought Carmine was going to act on her hunches, Anna wanted to know who it was – she really needed to know how credible that story was. Summer paused a minute before replying.

"Nobody's saying that." she said finally. Then, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "Look, all I'm saying is that it's important she doesn't do anything stupid. She could get somebody hurt."