"Very much so." She giggled.
I took the binder away from her and stood up with it over her head. She tried to reach for it, coming very close, but I switched hands. It really helped that I was taller than her to do this. Rachel kissed me on the cheek which made me drop the binder. She picked it up beaming and went to her room with her glass of ice tea.
29
Rachel
I sat on the ground in front of the house with my hair blowing in the wind, making it what my mother would call a rat's nest, one big knot when I go try to brush it. A few days after being called down to Principal O'Doherty's office the memory was fresh in my mind as I kept replaying it over in my head to understand what he had meant. Even after lying to Nick I felt it was best he didn't know. It was for the best. It wouldn't be like he could do anything about it anyway. Plus if we needed to do more research Nick would use this as an excuse.
I opened the Principal's door and saw Mr. O'Doherty sitting at his desk with his hands folded resting on the top, his face on me with no emotion. I took a seat in one of the three chairs in front of the desk, trying to keep calm so he wouldn't think that I was guilty of something.
"Mrs. March, do you know why you're here?"
"No sir I don't." I just looked at him, not letting him know that my heart was racing, that my hands were sweating a little from fear, and that my mind was spinning. He just stared at me. He opened the top drawer then closed it after he placed my purple, green, and blue stripped gloves on his desk.
"Do you know these gloves?"
"Yes sir I do."
He started to smile in that evil way he did when he gave us the 'assignment' and the time he told us that we were really married. The very smile that every evil villain had that made you shudder in fear.
"Just about half of the female student body has those gloves."
His smirk disappeared. "Look, don't be smart with me, miss. I know these are yours. After the first time someone went through here I hid a camera in my office. I saw you in the camera. You're a good student which is a good disguise if you ask me," He kept his voice down as a vein throbbed on his forehead and his eyes were glaring down at me.
Good, he didn't see Nick was there too. With that thought a little relief went through my mind.
"Sir, I've no idea what you're talking about," I said, pretending to be innocent with my eyes growing big.
"Look, just give it up you're not going to win Mrs. March."
I jumped up and marched to the door. "I'm not Mrs. March. I am not married and my last name is Hertz. So stop accusing me of doing something I didn't do."
"I know what you're doing."
"I'm not doing anything." I let my voice sound pathetic as I stared at him. "I would rather be dead than be married at this age anyway," I mumbled softly.
His smile came back rather more sinister than before. I didn't even think that was possible, but apparently it was.
"Your words, not mine, just remember that."
His words made my heart skip a few beats as I ran out the door.
Since that day his last words haunted me. What had he meant? Yet, since that day I hadn’t been feeling well. Nick had only noticed that I wasn't well this morning. That didn't help his guilt at all, making him even more overprotective.
Nick opened the door. "Rachel come inside, you're not well."
"I'm fine." I hated being sick. I will do everything in my power not to tell people that I don't feel well. Nick just picked me up and brought me to the couch and went back to close the door. Once that was closed he came back over to me. He was really babying me now, which annoyed me. I wasn't a porcelain doll for Pete's sake. I could take care of myself. Though I do like that he is protective of me, but this was a little much.
"Rachel what's wrong?"
"Well, I have a headache that won't go away. I can't get enough sleep. I'm just exhausted. Also my stomach bothers me a little." I bit back a whimper as I felt a pain stab my insides.
"You should drink something."
"Just a glass of iced tea please, Nick. No food though because I don't think my stomach can handle food right now."
I rolled onto my side and buried my head into the pillow. If I was home my mom would take care of me, bring me something to drink and something light to eat in bed. Nick came over and sat at my feet. Nick just looked at me for a second.
"What did you lie about, Rachel?" he asked quietly.
"What?" I stared at him confused at what he was talking about.
"The other day you said 'What makes you special, I lie to everyone.'"
"Oh, that." Why was I feeling so sick? I didn't want to have this conversation. I wasn't well enough for it. I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for the next century.
"I do that just to protect myself or whatever. Like some random person asked me what were my favorite flowers and I said sunflowers and daisies were my favorite flowers. When really my favorite flowers are tulips, the other two are my second and third favorite. Stupid little things that have no impact on others, but I think would be better that they didn't know."
"Tulips? That's good to know."
He gave me a small smile, which I tried to give back. A shooting pain went through my whole body again. I fought back the tears not letting Nick see the
