The Unseen Read Free Page A

and took a long sip out of one of them. His eyes bulged with excitement as he swallowed.
    “Wow!” David said excitedly.
    “That good, eh?”
    “It’s perfect,” David said. “It’s exactly what you wanted. Nothing has ever tasted more like Senior Ball than this punch.”David handed Kari a cup, and she drank a small taste of it herself.
    “You’re right,” Kari said, as she tried to get the poor-tasting mixture of cookie and peach punch out of her mouth. “That’s absolutely perfect.”
    A hand appeared on David’s shoulder a split second before it yanked him around, sending his half-full cup of punch flying into his tuxedo. A handful of jocks in white tuxedos, each sporting a different-colored vest and tie, formed a half circle in front of David. They said something, but Kari couldn’t hear it over the music. David tried to pull away, but they held him in place. She reacted by instinct and stepped forward, ready to swing at the closest boy, but was stopped by a strong arm.
    “But we just got here!” David yelled over the music to the boys gathered around him.
    “And now it’s time to leave.” A tall, dark boy towered over David. His size marked him as an athlete, and the way that the other boys stood around him trying to look tough designated him as the alpha male in the pack. Kari hated alpha males.
    “Leave us alone!” Kari shouted as she ducked under the arm blocking her and stepped up next to David.
    “So your girlfriend is real, then?” The boy sneered at David before looking Kari up and down. Girlfriend?
    “Leave her out of this, Terrence,” David said.
    “Back off,” Kari shouted at the same time. Terrence forced a laugh, and the rest of his crew followed suit. Kari glanced over to the punch bowl to see if the teacher who had been guarding it was going to step in. The teacher was missing. Of course she is; they are always missing when you need them.
    “This dance isn’t for you. This dance is the last chance for us to have a good time before we join the fighting. So how about you go and read your books and hide like the coward you are,” Terrence said.
    “If you’re so eager to throw your life away, how about you get started on that, and you leave us alone,” Kari said. Deep inside she knew she wasn’t helping, but the more thoughtful part of her was always slower than the reactionary side. Terrence’s friends went quiet.
    “Tell your pants to shut her mouth!” Terrence stooped, yelling the words into David’s face while the electronic music beat relentlessly on in the background. David looked to Kari for a single breath, his face telling her what he was about to do. Don’t do it, David! David threw his whole body behind punching Terrence in the face.

Chapter Three
    “You know,” Kari said, putting her arm around David’s shoulder, “high schoolers over here aren’t that different from back home, huh?”
    “Actually, I think these ones hit harder,” David said, holding the ice pack to his right eye. The fight inside hadn’t lasted long, thankfully. David’s punch had simply cleared Terrence out of the way so his friends could jump David. Kari had started screaming, and the teachers showed up in time to only allow David to earn a few bruises and a single black eye.The overwhelming crowd of eager witnesses blamed Kari and David for the fight, which led to their hasty expulsion from the dance.
    “Sorry about this,” Kari said. “I know how much you wanted to go to the dance.” David shrugged and grunted at the same time, admitting it was both true and OK.
    A boy in a brown suit and his date, who was wearing a huge peach dress, stepped passed where Kari and David were seated on the steps of City Hall. Kari watched them disappear into the security area as the music leaking from inside the building changed from a fast club song to a slow love ballad that Kari wasn’t familiar with. Well, honestly, this went better than I expected. David groaned as he recognized the new