Hide & Seek

Chapter 2

Ellie’s Point of View

One thing you learned from being invisible was to be a little more attentive. That skill was flying red flags all day for me as Max Crawford kept glancing my way. At first, I thought I was imagining it, but after the fourth backward glance in English, I was sure. With every sweep his eyes took over me I got more anxious and when the bell rang, I almost sprinted from the room, all too happy to escape his gaze. But I had no such luck. I had scarcely settled into my trademark back corner seat in History, before he sauntered in. His eyes scanned the room, paused on me for just a second too long, and then he settled himself into a seat not too far from mine. Again, I was monitored throughout the entire lesson on the Civil War, and it riled me up so much that at the end of class I had no idea what had been discussed.

With much trepidation, I entered Visual Arts moments later and took my seat. As I retrieved my laptop and books from my bag to prepare for class, my eyes scanned door for his inky black hair. Students quickly piled into the room, and it was only when Mr. Simon finally closed the door after the last one entered that I felt myself relax.

My inner peace was short-lived, however, because when I entered my next class I found him already seated in his vantage position. I felt his eyes follow me as I made my way to my seat. When the bell rang to signal lunch, my nerves were strung out and I hurried from the room. By the time I reached the cafeteria I had relatively calmed myself down. I met Sam at our table in the corner.

“Hey…are you okay?” She asked in concern, and I took a long, deep breath.

“I don’t know yet. Let’s get some food.” I suggested and she followed me to the queue. She was curious but didn’t say a word until we were seated at the table.

“What happened?” She questioned and I frowned.

“What is it, Ellie?”

“Max Crawford looked at me strangely today.” I decided to keep the other glances that occurred throughout the day to myself for the time being. I still needed to contemplate the peculiarity of them.

“Crawford? Nah! He probably didn’t even see you.”

“I’m telling you, he’s up to something, Sam.” I stated in determination.

“He’s not up to anything…I’m sure.”

“What now?” Erin asked as she and Maggie joined us.

“Ellie thinks Max Crawford is up to something.” Sam rolled her eyes.

“Of course he is, he’s dreamy…guys like him are always up to something…” Maggie mused dreamily and we gave her a simultaneous pointed look.

“What? I’m sorry…but look at him.” She exclaimed.

“Maggie, we do not like him, remember?” Erin asked and Maggie nodded slowly. Maggie wasn’t very bright, but she had a heart of gold and she was as loyal a friend as they came.

“Do you remember why?” Erin asked and Maggie nodded again.

“Because he is not a nice person?” She questioned carefully and we all smiled at her. Her perspective was always so innocent.

“Yes…well, that, and he once shared Travis Edgar’s delight in harassing Ellie.” Sam mumbled. I frowned as I started pondering again.

“He did?” Maggie asked, even though I’m sure she had witnessed some of the incidents.

“Yep! He threw her bag into the fountain once…ooh and he glued the pages of her Chemistry textbook together.” Sam remembered and I sighed.

“I remember he set fire to her science project…the volcano…and didn’t he put a dead rat in her locker one time?” Erin asked and Sam shook her head vigorously.

“No, I think that last one was Travis, actually.”

“Oh…right…Max always had more style than that.” Erin mused and they all looked at me expectantly.

“As I was saying…I think he’s up to something.” I stated and Sam rolled her eyes.

“Why?” Maggie asked.

“Because he looked at her.” Sam commented dryly.

“Wow! Really?” Maggie seemed excited and she was met by frowning faces. She lowered her head and mumbled something.

“Why does that mean something again?” Erin asked confused.

“Exactly!” Sam exclaimed.

“I don’t know. The way he looked at me, it was…off.” I suggested and they fell silent for a moment as if contemplating my statement.

“Well, the fact that he LOOKED at you, alone, is…off.” Maggie finally mentioned and I couldn’t help but to smile at her.

As a foursome of friends, we gelled well together. We were all good friends, but in the end Sam and I were closest to each other, and Erin and Maggie were best friends. They made a very interesting pair, Maggie being so sweet and innocent, and Erin, a bit rough around the edges. It always felt to me as if Erin was continually shielding Maggie from any cruelness dealt her way.

The bell rang and we casually gathered our trays and made our way to dispose of them.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, Ellie.” Sam stated with a reassuring smile, and I sighed again.

“Uhm…guys…uh…Ellie? Is that what you meant?” Maggie pulled on my sleeve, and we followed her wide-eyed gaze to the subject of our discussion. He was all the way across the room, and she was right, he was gaping right at me again. A moment later, Rick jerked him out of his haze and pulled him out the side door. A shiver ran up and down my spine.

“Ellie, Max is definitely up to something.” Sam stated and the other two nodded. I looked at them, worried.

After lunch, my state of mind improved gradually with every class I entered to find Max absent. In Maths class I even smiled at Cindy in my merriment, and she scowled at me in return. When the end of the day bell rang, I found Sam waiting for me at the main gate.

“Hey! Where are Erin and Mags?” I asked as we started walking.

“Maggie’s mom picked them up. They’re going to go see Maggie’s dad.” Sam explained and I nodded. Maggie’s father used to be a big-time businessman in New York, but that was before he got sick. Now he spent more time in hospital than at home. I felt sorry for her. When I had first found out about him, I used to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night to go and see him. I spent hours just sitting there with him, ‘cloaked’.

I could never quite figure out why his condition touched me so until I told Sam about it, and she suggested it was because, even though he was sick, he was still there. My parents, on the other hand, had just disappeared. There had been no proof of anything. It was as if they had simply vanished into thin air. That statement had a different meaning to me, of course.

“Listen,” Sam brought me back to reality. I blinked at her.

“This morning was really a close call. You should be careful.”

“I know. I’ll pay more attention.” I replied.

“I don’t know why you can’t just study at home…like a normal teenager…” She mumbled and I giggled.

“Where’s the fun in that?” I quipped.

“I’m not looking for fun! I’m looking for safety. You’re still doing the ‘ridiculously-early-morning-study-thing, right?” She asked and I nodded.

“Well, promise me you’ll be out of the class at least fifteen minutes before Mr. Simon arrives.” She ordered and I smiled before nodding.

“I promise.”

“Good and be careful of Billy. He may be high most of the time, but he can be quite sneaky.” She warned. “Do you wanna come over to my house for a bit?” Sam asked.

“I can’t, I’m sorry. But I need to go and revise an entire chapter on the Civil War.” I explained and she pulled a sour face.

“C’mon! Those people will still be dead tomorrow.” She mused and I laughed.

“Nope! I must take Grandma Rosie to the bank too.” A thoughtful smile stretched across her face.

“Ahh! Are you finally putting your gift to good work?” She asked and I laughed again.

“We’re not robbing the bank.” Her face fell in mock disappointment.

“That’s another thing, why are we walking if you have a perfectly adequate car at home?” She questioned.

“I don’t want to leave Gran without transportation; besides, I like to walk.”

###############

Max’s Point of View

Something was obviously wrong. I figured the sudden attention I paid to Ellie would make her a little uncomfortable, but there was something else.

She was practically cringing away from me. I was hoping to spot that inner beauty again, but she never granted me the opportunity.

The bell rang to signal lunch and I watched her sprint from the room as if hell itself was on her tail. It wasn’t, I would know. I remained seated until almost everyone had left and when I looked up, Rick was waiting for me by the door. I gathered my stuff and met him with a deep frown.

“Tell all!” He ordered as we slowly started for the cafeteria.

“I…” I paused with my hand raised slightly, “I think I did something…I don’t remember…” I sounded vague, yet I hoped Rick would be able to shed some light on the matter.

“When?” He asked simply. His composure was one of his best traits.

“Some time ago…” Still vague, but he was keeping up.

“Who did we do this to?” He asked as if we were speaking hypothetically.

“Ellie Stevens.” He looked at me as if I was making a joke, but when he caught my blank gaze, he coughed.

“You seriously don’t remember?” He seemed shocked.

“Remember what?”

“Dude, you used to pick on her…a lot…”

“What do you mean?”

“As a bet…you once called her at two o’clock in the morning and told her in a heavy voice that you were her father come back to haunt her. That was of course before we knew that her dad wasn’t dead, but only missing. She didn’t take it well.” Rick explained and I stared at him appalled.

“That was her?!” I winced. The accident may have changed my perspective, but it did not remove my past and all the idiotic things I had done.

“Unfortunately, yes. You also glued the pages of her Chemistry textbook together…the day before a Chem test.” He told me conversationally and I groaned. “You also…”

“Okay! Okay! I get it. I was an a*s…why were you even friends with me?” I asked despondently as we started for the cafeteria again. He was quiet for a moment as if he was seriously contemplating my question.

“I’ll tell you some day.” He finally replied cryptically and I rolled my eyes.

“So, what is it about Ellie that has you so riled up? What did you see?” Rick asked carefully when we were seated. We were always extra cautious when we spoke of my ‘hallucinations’, as to not be overheard.

“She’s…beautiful.” I explained with a frown and Rick chuckled.

“Well, yeah!” He replied as if it was obvious and my head jerked up to meet his gaze.

“I mean…inside. She rendered me speechless…I couldn’t breathe.” I tried to elaborate and he simply smiled all knowingly. My eyes searched his for a second or two, but I only saw his usual persona. Sometimes it felt like he knew more than he let on and that confused me.

“Okay…so she’s pretty…inside out. What is the problem?”

“She’s also sad. If I did something to contribute, which clearly, I did, I need to fix it.” I muttered. He narrowed his eyes.

“I messed up! I need to start somewhere; I might as well start with her.” I explained and he nodded. The bell rang and we returned our trays. As I turned to leave my gaze found her auburn hair in the crowd. She stood with her back to me on the other side of the room, but I immediately recognised her. She swung around and caught me staring again. Within two seconds I was captivated by her inner-persona. Everything stopped again. I heard Rick’s voice faintly from somewhere to my left, before I was jerked in that very direction. This broke our eye contact and as Rick dragged me from the room I felt that strange heaviness again.

He practically threw me against the wall of lockers before letting go of my arm. I was slightly out of breath.

“You weren’t kidding.” He spoke and I sighed.

“Okay! I’ll help you if I can, but you’re going to have to keep yourself in check…meaning, no staring.” He told me and I nodded.

“Thank you.”

***

The rest of the day I was on my best behaviour. Luckily, I did not share another class with Ellie and so temptation was to a minimal. When I caught a glimpse of her in the hallway I lowered my gaze to the shiny floor as if it was the most interesting thing I had ever seen in my life.

After school, I had basketball practice. I used to be the quarterback in the football team, but when I returned after the accident, most of my team mates scared me. They suddenly seemed to growl at me instead of talking and sometimes I imagined them as ferocious beasts with canines and claws.

It was dark by the time I pulled into the driveway of my house. It was more like a mansion. When I entered the house, I was greeted with the delicious smell of roast chicken. Evelyn was making my favourite. I found her in the kitchen, still preparing the meal.

“Hey Lyn!”

“Mr. Crawford, you’re late. Your mother was getting anxious.” She spoke in her Mexican accent and I smiled down at her. She was short, but that did not diminish her skills as housekeeper and cook in the household.

“Practice ran late.” I replied simply and she nodded before retrieving a bottle of water from the fridge and handing it to me. I nodded my thank you. Of everyone that lived in this house, I loved Evelyn best. Her inner-persona was almost an exact replica of what she showed the world and I admired her for that.

It was not like I didn’t love my parents, but I always felt out of place in their company, even before the accident. I found them in the living room. Dad was reading the business section of the paper and mom was typing away on her laptop. Each said their hello, but neither of them even looked up to acknowledge me.

“Yeah…so, I’m going to take a shower before dinner…” I mumbled before turning on my heel and disappearing up the stairs.

I still hated to look at myself in the mirror, scared that I would see the distorted face of the boy I saw that first few days after the accident.

My own inner-persona had scared me senseless. It took weeks before I saw someone I could actually live with.

I finished in the bathroom and ran back downstairs. What followed was another quiet family dinner. The only sounds audible were the occasional scraping of cutlery to pristine, porcelain china. My gaze fell on my mother’s half-closed laptop on the countertop and an idea formed in my head. I could Google her, couldn’t I? In order to help her I should have all the information I could find. After dinner, I almost ran to my room, switched on my own laptop and settled into a comfortable position on my bed.

I typed in ‘Eleanor Stevens’ and found 231 hits. Okay…so apparently it was a common name. I added ‘Cascades High School’ and punched enter. There was only one hit on the school’s website. What? No f*******: page? Who didn’t have f*******: nowadays? I clicked on the link and waited for it to load.

I scrolled through all the gibberish that all such websites seemed to have until I found the subject of my search. It was an old school newspaper article, dated almost a year ago.

THE CLAYTON TRIBUNAL ANNOUNCES COMPETITION WINNER

AFTER MONTHS OF DELIBIRATION, THE WINNER HAS FINALLY BEEN SELECTED OF THE EXCITING PHOTOGRAPHER’S COMPETITION SPONSORED BY THE CLAYTON TRIBUNAL. CONGRATULATIONS TO ELEANOR STEVENS WHO WOWED US WITH HER CAPTURING OF SERENE BEAUTY IN HER PHOTOGRAPH TITLED ‘INHALE’.

The photograph followed and I scanned it quickly. It was an intricate mess of massive, pasty trees and different shades of green, with gentle mists hanging over it all. It was quite beautiful and I imagined it would have been a treat to experience it for real.

There was a caption below the photo.

‘Eleanor: I think nature is a love letter to us all. But just like no one takes the time to write one anymore, they don’t take the time to read this one either.’

That was very cryptic and not helpful at all. I still knew nothing about her. Well, accept that she was surprisingly good at taking photos. There was not even a picture of her. I groaned.

Sometimes I found myself wishing that things would be easy and then I would remember that once upon a time they were. I just hadn’t realized it back then. No, then I was too busy making mistakes and messing up lives. It had taken me a while to find this ‘Max’, the one that looked further than his own nose, and I was determined not to lose him again. I was still finding myself, would still be finding myself for years, but I had the core and to that I clung with everything in me.

I had no idea why Ellie was so intent upon remaining invisible and I doubted that it was entirely my fault, but I felt like I may have played a part in her slow withdrawal from society. Maybe I could try to make amends in a way. It would not be easy, but it would certainly be worth it.

I dug around in my desk drawer and found a note pad. Love letters, right? Okay, then. I was no writer, but I had time, time to come up with the perfect words. The beauty of my plan was that I could be an anonymous admirer and she would never know. It was an excellent way to test the waters and to assess how bad the damage was that I had inflicted.

I spent days working on that letter, writing pages and pages of things I never told anyone else. In the end, it was only a single sheet. I carefully folded it and enveloped it, writing her name on the crisp white envelope. I glanced at the clock, more out of habit, but the time surprised me. It was after midnight already. I slipped the envelope into my bag and prepared for bed.

Somewhere in the early hours of the morning, before I fell asleep, I had devised a plan. If I had her schedule figured out right, she would have Visual Arts, first period, the next day. I knew Mr. Simon never locked his classroom, which granted me the perfect opportunity to slip the note into her desk.

I left the house extra early the next morning. My Jeep was the first car in the parking lot. When I entered the school building, only Billy, the janitor was there. He halted with the mop when he saw me.

“Dude…” He glanced at his watch, “did you wet your bed or something?” He asked and I laughed. There were many rumours circulating about Janitor Billy, but the truth was that he dropped out of college after being expelled for smoking m*******a on campus – a small mistake that certainly changed his whole life. In the end, he was not a bad person. When I looked at him, he always seemed lost.

“Nah! I just thought I’d duck into Mr. Simon’s classroom and study for a bit.” I mentioned and I watched him closely to see if he realized I did not have Visual Arts as a subject.

“Okay…I don’t know why anyone would want to study, but go right ahead…just don’t touch his books.” He nodded in that direction and did not need another invitation.

I swung open the door and quickly scanned the room, finding it empty. There was an open textbook on her desk. Ah-ha! It was the perfect location for the letter. I knew I was being a coward to leave a note instead of talking to her, but it seemed easier. I dug around in my bag for the envelope as I slowly made my way to her desk. Halfway down the aisle I caught sight of something in my peripheral vision and jerked to a halt. My head snapped up and my eyes locked with her hazel ones. She was sitting at her desk and was now gaping at me with wide eyes. Her face was pale and she did not move. After a few seconds, I swallowed convulsively and then frowned. I was not seeing that vulnerable beauty. I was certain that it was still there, but I could not see it and that puzzled me.

“Uhm…hi.” I finally spoke and then flinched at my lame introduction. Yeah, Hi…I’m Max – the guy who tormented you occasionally since middle school, nice to meet you. How does one introduce oneself? How do I remove the elephant from the room?

She did not reply, in fact, she still did not move a muscle.

“Uh…I didn’t think anyone would be here already.” I mumbled, my eyes, nervously shooting around the room. Still, no reply.

“Do you speak?” I asked and she swallowed and blinked twice.

“Dude! What did I say about the books?” Billy suddenly announced from the door before striding down the aisle past me. He grabbed the textbook with Ellie looking on and cringing back in the seat. She looked terrified and it confused me even more.

“I said; don’t touch Mr. Simon’s books. Only a few students are allowed to, three to be exact, and you’re not one of ’em…and who are you talking to anyway?” He asked as he strode past me again. My frowning gaze was on his back.

“To Ellie…” I turned to point at her, but her seat was empty and my frown deepened. I glanced back at Billy and he raised his eyebrows.

“Right…listen; whatever you’re smokin’…don’t get caught.” He muttered simply before turning on his heel and leaving the room.

I scanned the room again. It was empty. There was only one window open, I ran to it and scanned outside – nothing. I was losing my mind. Surely, I was seeing things…