Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini Read Free Book Online Page A

Matt guided her while she cried, awkwardly patting her
    hair and getting her to walk toward the nurse at the same time.
    Claire walked on Helen’s other side, shaken and silent.
    “What did he do to you, Lennie?” Matt asked hotly.
    “I’ve never seen him b-b-before in my l-l-life!” Helen hiccuped
    and cried even harder.
    “Great idea, Matt! Ask her questions! Can you shut the hell up
    now?” Claire snapped, trying to get hold of herself.
    They walked the rest of the way without talking. When they got to
    the nurse’s office, they told Mrs. Crane what had happened and
    made sure to add that Helen had come to school with heatstroke
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    that morning. Mrs. Crane had Helen lie down with a cool towel
    over her eyes and went back into her office to call Jerry.
    “Your father’s on his way, dear. No, no, keep your eyes covered.
    Darkness will help,” Mrs. Crane said as she passed by Helen’s cot.
    Helen heard her rush out to the hall to speak to someone briefly,
    then come back in and sit behind her desk.
    Helen lay under the towel, grateful that she was being left alone
    and in relative privacy. She couldn’t think two coherent thoughts
    in a row, let alone explain herself to anyone. What scared her the
    most was that for some reason she knew that what she had tried to
    do was right, or at least that it was expected of her. Deep inside,
    she knew she would have killed that boy if she could, and she
    didn’t even feel guilty about it. Until she saw her father.
    He was a mess. Mrs. Crane told him everything that had
    happened, explaining that Helen was suffering from a serious case
    of heatstroke and that it may have caused her strange outburst. He
    listened patiently and then asked Mrs. Crane for a moment alone
    with his daughter, which she gave them.
    Jerry didn’t say anything at first; he just sort of hovered over
    Helen’s cot while she sat up and fidgeted with her necklace. Finally,
    he sat down next to her.
    “You wouldn’t lie to me right now, would you?” he asked softly.
    She shook her head. “Are you sick?”
    “I don’t know, Dad. I don’t feel right—but I don’t know what’s
    wrong,” she told him earnestly.
    “We’ve got to take you to the doctor, you know.”
    “I figured,” she said, nodding. They smiled at each other, and
    then suddenly they both turned their heads at the sound of hurried
    footsteps coming toward the nurse’s office.
    Jerry stood up and faced the door, putting himself in front of
    Helen. A tall, impossibly fit man in his early forties burst into the
    room. Helen jumped off the cot and stood on the other side of it,
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    glancing around instinctively for another exit. There wasn’t one.
    Helen had the feeling that she was going to die.
    In the corner of the tiny office, one of the sobbing sisters appeared.
    She was hunkered down on her knees, her face covered by
    her filthy hair, moaning names and saying “blood for blood” as she
    hit her forehead repeatedly against the wall.
    Helen put her hands over her ears. She pulled her eyes away from
    the horror in the corner and mustered enough courage to look back
    at the large man. A spark of recognition passed between them. She
    had never seen him before, but somehow she knew that she should
    be very afraid of him. At first his angular face was set with determination,
    but it quickly morphed into shock and then confusion. His
    eyes zeroed in on Jerry, and a nearly comical look of disbelief derailed
    what might have been a terrible fight.
    “Are you . . . are you the father of the young lady that attacked my
    son?” he asked in a halting voice.
    Jerry nodded curtly. “My daughter, Helen,” he said, gesturing
    back to her. “I’m Jerry Hamilton.”
    “Castor Delos,” the big man replied. “My wife, Noel, won’t be able
    to make it. And Helen’s mother?”
    Jerry shook his head. “It’s just Lennie and me,” he said with
    finality.
    Castor’s eyes darted to Helen and back to Jerry and he pursed his
    lips as if he had set something right in his head.