Jess, not so much. “That’s too bad,” she said, about to launch into her story. But I wasn’t the only one who was paying attention.
“What happened?” Lauren asked curiously.
“Well,” Angela said, seeming more hesitant than usual, though she was always reserved, “we drove up north, almost to the hot springs—there’s a good spot just about a mile up the trail. But, when we were halfway there...we saw something.”
“Saw something? What?” Lauren’s pale eyebrows pulled together. Even Jess seemed to be listening now.
“I don’t know,” Angela said. “We think it was a bear. It was black, anyway, but it seemed...too big.”
Lauren snorted. “Oh, not you, too!” Her eyes turned mocking, and I decided I didn’t need to give her the benefit of the doubt. Obviously her personality had not changed as much as her hair. “Tyler tried to sell me that one last week.”
“You’re not going to see any bears that close to the resort,” Jessica said, siding with Lauren.
“Really,” Angela protested in a low voice, looking down at the table. “We did see it.”
Lauren snickered. Mike was still talking to Conner, not paying attention to the girls.
“No, she’s right,” I threw in impatiently. “We had a hiker in just Saturday who saw the bear, too, Angela. He said it was huge and black and just outside of town, didn’t he, Mike?”
There was a moment of silence. Every pair of eyes at the table turned to stare at me in shock. The new girl, Katie, had her mouth hanging open like she’d just witnessed an explosion. Nobody moved.
“Mike?” I muttered, mortified. “Remember the guy with the bear story?”
“S-sure,” Mike stuttered after a second. I didn’t know why he was looking at me so strangely. I talked to him at work, didn’t I? Did I? I thought so....
Mike recovered. “Yeah, there was a guy who said he saw a huge black bear right at the trailhead—bigger than a grizzly,” he confirmed.
“Hmph.” Lauren turned to Jessica, her shoulders stiff, and changed the subject.
“Did you hear back from USC?” she asked.
Everyone else looked away, too, except for Mike and Angela. Angela smiled at me tentatively, and I hurried to return the smile.
“So, what did you do this weekend, Bella?” Mike asked, curious, but oddly wary.
Everyone but Lauren looked back, waiting for my response.
“Friday night, Jessica and I went to a movie in Port Angeles. And then I spent Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday down at La Push.”
The eyes flickered to Jessica and back to me. Jess looked irritated. I wondered if she didn’t want anyone to know she’d gone out with me, or whether she just wanted to be the one to tell the story.
“What movie did you see?” Mike asked, starting to smile.
“Dead End—the one with the zombies.” I grinned in encouragement. Maybe some of the damage I’d done in these past zombie months was reparable.
“I heard that was scary. Did you think so?” Mike was eager to continue the conversation.
“Bella had to leave at the end, she was so freaked,” Jessica inserted with a sly smile.
I nodded, trying to look embarrassed. “It was pretty scary.”
Mike didn’t stop asking me questions till lunch was over. Gradually, the others were able to start up their own conversations again, though they still looked at me a lot. Angela talked mostly to Mike and me, and, when I got up to dump my tray, she followed.
“Thanks,” she said in a low voice when we were away from the table.
“For what?”
“Speaking up, sticking up for me.”
“No problem.”
She looked at me with concern, but not the offensive, maybe-she’s-lost-it kind. “Are you okay?”
This is why I’d picked Jessica over Angela—though I’d always liked Angela more—for the girls’ night movie. Angela was too perceptive.
“Not completely,” I admitted. “But I’m a little bit better.”
“I’m glad,” she said. “I’ve missed you.”
Lauren and Jessica strolled by us then, and I heard Lauren whisper loudly, “Oh, joy. Bella’s back.”
Angela rolled her eyes at them, and smiled at me in encouragement.
I sighed. It was like I was starting all over again.
“What’s today’s date?” I wondered suddenly.
“It’s January nineteenth.”
“Hmm.”
“What is it?” Angela asked.
“It was a year ago yesterday that I had my first day here,” I mused.
“Nothing’s changed much,” Angela muttered, looking after Lauren and Jessica.