Read Online The Keeper's Vow by B.F. Simone - Free Book Online Page B

together.
    Would he be there?
    What would school be like?
    She swirled the cereal around in her bowl.
Who else was in the program? How many already knew what she’d just
found out? She’d tried not to think about it yesterday, but it was
all she could think about. Her school. Her school was more
than a bunch of teachers hustling to get her to do homework. And homework. Did this mean no more papers on irrelevant dead
people?
    Katie was terrible at school. She worked
just hard enough to stay in the middle of the pack, that in itself
took a lot of strategic planning: which assignments to do—which
ones to do to the minimal degree. If only her math teacher knew how
often she did use math, he wouldn’t shake is head every time
she entered the room. But, her heart sank a little as she thought
about Brian and Allison. They were always busy. They stayed at
school longer than Katie on most days, and they were always
studying. Katie had always thought they were just more serious
about school, it had never occurred to her they were keeping a
secret.
    Her cereal sat soggy in the in he bowl and
she poured it in the sink as the clock slowly ticked closer to
7:25.
    It was time to go.
    Just as she grabbed her book-bag she could
hear her dad opening the bathroom door. There was a pause.
    “Katie? Are you up yet? Katie you’re going
to be late.”
    “I’m downstairs,” she yelled back, looking
for her keys.
    “Really?”
    She opened up all the pockets in her bag
fingering for her keys. When she found them, she yanked them up and
yelled, “Bye, Dad!” before rushing out the door.
    She hurried to the opening of her
neighborhood. She halfway ran from her dad and halfway ran into a
strange new chapter in her life. As she neared the usual meeting
spot she could feel her heart pounding faster.
    This was it.
    She was being pulled to a new world
completely. Everything was going to change. She turned the corner
out onto the main road and stopped.
    No one was there.
    She looked at her watch. It was exactly
7:25. They always met at this spot at 7:25 that is how it’s always
been. Why, of all days, did they choose today to be late. Or worse,
not show up at all. Had they gone straight to the school and no one
bothered to call her? She pulled her bag around to grab her cell
phone, but sighed when she remembered it was still at school. She’d
discovered that she’d left her cell phone Saturday night when she
wanted to call Allison.
    Katie hated not having a home phone.
    She waited.
    Nothing.
    Thirty more seconds.
    Nothing.
    Her hands were clammy and she scratched her
arm more times than necessary. Panic settled in. She didn’t know
why. It wasn’t like she didn’t know how to get to school on her
own. It wasn’t like she’d never walked to school by herself before.
But today—today was different. Today was like going to a new
school. She didn’t know what to expect. Maybe there was a secret
entrance she was supposed to go in through. Why hadn’t anyone
prepared her for today? Why hadn’t anyone prepared her for any of
this.
    Her heart pounded as she stood on the corner
trying to decided whether to wait or leave.
    Katie searched the street.
    Finally, Allison was walking toward her—five
minutes late.
    “You’re late,” Katie said, trying to pull it
together. She felt like an idiot.
    “Actually I’m two-minutes early.
You’re always seven-minutes late.” Allison said. Her expression
told Katie the next question was going to be, “are you
okay?” but instead she said, “I called you last night but your
phone kept going straight to voicemail—are you okay? You’re totally
spazzing out.”
    “I’m not spazzing out.” Katie said,
adjusting her book-bag.
    They started off down the street. Katie was
irritated. All weekend no one bothered to contact her. Maybe they
did call her cellphone, but there was email too. It wasn’t that she
really needed someone to call just to find out how she was, but why
hadn’t they tried harder?