INFILTRATION

THE INVITATION

Raucous noise filtered in from other classrooms, drowning out the silence of the class Jinxabell was currently seated in, but this didn’t stop her from nodding off.

The walls in Maclaud school were so paper thin, one could practically hear when someone from the next class coughed , laughed, or even spoke.

She caught herself as she began lurching to the side and sat up straight. She pinched her arm, this time much harder than the previous one’s, wincing as pain seared through her skin.

She knew the spot would form a purple bruise later but that couldn’t be helped.

She looked around and noticed half the class was fast asleep, head down on top of folded arms on their desks. The rest were either scribbling irrelevant words in their exercise books while others listened to music from ear phones.

Jinxabell turned to look at the teacher who kept talking without even seeming to notice the state of his class.

She shook her head, disgusted with Maclaud as a whole.

She hated it here.

Everybody seemed to know everything about the other person.

When she’d first arrived, the news had spread like wild fire and people thought it was okay to stop her on the road while on her way from school, or even when going grocery shopping - total strangers she’d never set eyes on before.

They wanted to know where she had been all this while and why she came back when Old Danny gap tooth had died.

The nerve of them.

They were just too nosy and she, frankly, couldn’t stand them.

She had been going to school for all of one month and had yet to make a friend. Not that the other students didn’t try-they did. That was the problem, but she just wasn’t interested.

The female students in her class had regular sleepovers at each other’s houses and they invited her, but she always gave one excuse or the other not to go.

She couldn’t stand them, what with their patronizing tones and information about everything going on in every other person’s life. That was gossip-plain and simple. She knew they talked about her and how weird it was she never wanted to join any of them in their boring extra curricular activities, but she didn’t care.

She had one mission in Maclaud and she would see she got it done.

If she had her way, she wouldn’t even attend school at all, but that would not sit well with her mother, so she grudgingly continued.

The only person she wanted to liaise with didn’t want to have anything to do with her.

Terobe.

He had stood her up yet again yesterday, making that one week in a row. How dare he?

Who did he think he was?

She didn’t want to look desperate and make him think she liked him, except . . . she actually did like him. Maybe too much at this point.

The problem was, when she took one look at his slanted light brown eyes, square jaw and the way a strand of his hair always curled on his forehead, she just couldn’t help herself. She liked tall guys, and that, Terobe had in abundance.

She had seen how other females looked at him and how the guys envied him. She also knew all about his previous escapades raiding people’s homes and how he had evaded the sheriff on numerous occasions.

He was smart, she’d give him that.

He reminded her of someone else. Someone in her past. There was no connection between the two of them, but there was just something so alike about them.

She huffed to herself.

Well, she would just have to quell those feelings, because he didn’t have eyes for her.

The bell rang, indicating school was over, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

The class suddenly seemed to come alive, as students sprang from their seats, lethargy, a thing of the past.

As she hurriedly packed her books into her bag, she couldn’t get away fast enough.

“Hi, Jinx.”

She looked up to see Hailey standing in front of her, blocking the way to freedom. She had her two bodyguards on either side of her - the fawning twins, as she liked to call them.

Hailey liked to think she was the ‘IT’ girl in class and probably the whole school as well. Her father was the richest man in town, now that Old Danny Douglas had died.

As she stood looking at Jinxabell, her baby blues were especially shiny. She knew first hand, that Jinxabell had not joined any club in school, and she wanted her to join her’s, which was exclusively by invitation alone.

She was putting together a group of the children of the richest and influential people In Maclaud town, at least those that were in her class, and she wanted -no - she needed Jinxabell to be in it as well.

Jinxabell rolled her eyes and practically snapped. “What do you want?”

Hailey pretended not to notice her sullen look and nasty tone. “Well, I’m having another sleepover at my place tonight, and I’m hoping you can come. Don’t say no this time, please. You know we rich kids need to stick together.”

Jinxabell was fed up of the constant invitations. Add Terobe’s rejections to that and you had a very frustrating young lady.

“Did you fall on your head as a baby? Why would you even think I’d come to your house to listen to a bunch of air brained teenage girls yapping about other people’s private lives?”

“Oh don’t be ridiculous!” One of the twins on the left of Hailey said.

“Yeah!” Piped up the other twin. “Don’t be ridic, you’re always playing hard to get, that’s so lame, no wonder all the guys seem scared of -“

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Hailey boomed out. Her voice came out loud, surprising even Jinxabell. She had never heard her voice rise before, always choosing to speak in an irritating syrupy voice.

She turned to Jinxabell. “I apologize for these two, they really tend to shoot off sometimes.” She turned to the twins and spoke out, this time softly but in a firm voice . “Now, be good girls and apologize to Jinx.”

“We’re sorry.” They chorused in unison, their faces facing the floor.

Hailey turned back to Jinxabell. “So, what do you say, Jinx?”

Jinxabell was about to tell her to go to hell, but a thought suddenly popped up in her head and she smiled and nodded. “Alright, I’ll be there, just give me the add-“

“Oh, that won’t be necessary.”

Hailey opened her palm, and one of the twins put something inside it. She turned to Jinxabell with a triumphant smile and gave it to her.

Jinxabell took one look at it and almost puked.

A card bedecked all in hot pink, and speckled all over with glitter, was placed in her hand. It felt gritty to touch.

“Seven pm, sharp. Please be on-time, it’s going to be so much fun. See you then, cherio!” Hailey gave Jinxabell a wave and her trademark sickly sweet smile, then turned around and walked off, and the fawning twins followed suit.

“Cherio, yourself!” Jinxabell made a face behind them.

She mumbled to herself as she walked home. She was so deep in thought, she didn’t even bother keeping an eye out for Terobe as she would normally have done.

Once she got home, her mother was sitting in her usual place on the chair by the furnace.

“Hey, mother.” Jinxabell drawled as she threw her backpack on the chair before she slumped into it.

“Hey, darling, how was school?”

Jinx didn’t reply, she was staring fixated at her mother.

“Why are you wearing, like a million clothes?” She got up and began to walk towards her. “It’s pretty warm outside, and the sun is out, so why . . .”

She stopped speaking as she got within three inches of her.

“Your eyes - they’re hollow, and your face, you look—“

“Old.” Her mother finished in a flat voice.

Jinxabell, once more, slumped into the chair, this time for a different reason.

She was afraid. Actually, she was terrified, but it didn’t show in her voice.

As she sat up in the chair, her fists clenched involuntarily.

“Do you trust me?” She turned to look at her mother.

As her mother began to shake her head, Jinxabell spoke again, but in a much sharper voice. “Do you trust me, Olivia?”

Her mother nodded solemnly.

“That’s good then, because I have a plan.” Jinxabell smiled grimly as a steely look of determination crept into her eyes.