Read Online The Fever by Megan Abbott - Free Book Online Page B

from behind the door, “do you ever feel like something bad is about to happen, but you don’t know what?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Deenie said. Bad things, for her, were always a gruesome surprise.
    â€œI bet Lise never guessed what would happen to her,” Kim said, shaking her head. “Whatever happened to her.”
    â€œMaybe she did,” Deenie said, always wanting to disagree with Kim. “Like when you’re about to get your period, or when Lise got mono that time. The whole week before, she kept saying her neck felt thick.”
    â€œYeah,” Gabby said. Her voice sounded funny, like on the phone last night. Slow and soupy. “I felt a little like that this morning. Last night. My head felt so heavy.”
    Deenie turned and faced Gabby’s stall, but she couldn’t think of anything to say.
    â€œI know just what you mean,” Kim said, nodding fervently, as if Gabby could see her. “I feel funny too.” She leaned toward the mirror, examining herself. “My teeth even hurt.”
    Deenie watched her. Kim’s big tusks crowding her mouth. Guys called her the Horse, her braces elaborate, like the inside of your phone if you break it. Deenie wished she could feel sorry for her, but Kim made it impossible.
    â€œWe’ll get good news today,” Deenie said. “Our girl’s strong.”
    â€œIt’s so messed up,” Kim said, standing in front of Gabby’s stall to make sure she could hear. “Lise should be on that stage with you today, Gabby.”
    Gabby opened the stall so quickly she almost hit Kim in the face.
    Her performance shirt bright white, the hem of her dark skirt swirling at her feet, she was holding her vibrating phone open in her palm, staring at the flashing screen.
    No one said anything for a second, Kim squirming a little.
    Then Deenie’s phone chirped, and less than a second later, Kim’s squawked.
    The texts seemed to come from three or four friends at the same time.
    Lise’s mom won’t let any visitors & hospital called in s.o. from public health!!
    nurse tammy reported something abt Lise — what IS hap­p ening ?!!
    Health dept people here now – WTF?
    â€œHealth department?” Kim said. “Why…”
    Gabby curled her fingers around her phone and looked at Deenie.
    Kim was saying something else, but Deenie wasn’t listening.
    *  *  *
    When Tom walked into first period that morning, the students were arrayed in little clumps of speculation. The back corner, the windowsill, the deep resin lab sinks. Bowed over their phones, a pinwheel of purple, pink, mesh, leopard, all their slick cases.
    â€œPhones off and out of sight,” he said. “Let’s go.”
    Herding them through the hallways took a long time, all the last-minute stops at lockers, and a notebook slipped from sweaty hands, careering down the stairwell and making everyone jump.
    But once they arrived, everything changed.
    The solemnity of the auditorium always did something to students. Lights dimmed, you couldn’t see the water-stained ceiling, didn’t notice the squeaking risers. The darkened space, all the guffaws and giggles brought low, to hushes and the odd screech. The stage lit a soft purple. The formal way student musicians always sat, their eyes locked on their easels or on Mr. Timmins, the sweaty, loose-shirttailed music teacher.
    There was the feeling of something important about to occur, made all the more important by the circumstances of the day before. It all felt a little like church.
    Instead of promoting a tentative freshman to Lise’s second chair, Mr. Timmins had decided, in some gesture of something, to do without, leaving Lise’s folding chair conspicuously empty. Its black metal base seemed to catch all the light on the stage. You couldn’t take your eyes off it.
    The music began, the dirge-y strain of “Scarborough Fair,” which