CHATROOM LOVE
Chapter Twenty-Two
Friday, Sept 21, 2001
It was Friday
morning and Rose had gotten a ride to school from Dawn. Jack, who hadn't
forgotten their conversation the night before, was worried, so he told his
friends the problem.
"So we think
Cal is back," Jack told Tommy and Fabrizio. "He's breaking the
restraining order, or he has found a way around it. I want you two to keep an
eye out on Rose and the girls. He might be using someone to get into the
school."
"No way,
man!" Tommy exclaimed. "You think it might be one of us?"
"I'm not
jumping to any conclusions. But we can't be too careful."
Fabrizio, whose
locker was three doors down from Rose's, looked at Jack. "I will keep an
eye out. My locker is right by Rosa’s."
"Thanks,
Fabrizio." Rose stood beside Jack, putting an arm around his waist.
"Tell me if you see anyone putting anything in there. Well, anyone other
than one of us."
"Sure,
Rosa. Your old boyfriend won’t be able to hurt you."
"If it is
him. We can’t be sure. After all, he’s obeyed the restraining order before, so
it might be someone else."
"Maybe,"
Jack told her. "I still think you should be careful, though."
"Perhaps
you have a secret admirer," Helga suggested.
Rose gave her a
wry look. "If it’s a secret admirer, I’m sure I don’t want to meet him. A
secret stalker is more like it."
"Why don’t
we go by Mrs. Hulstrom’s room and see if we can find out who the new
cheerleader is?" Dawn suggested. "It’s better than standing around
scaring yourself."
Rose shrugged.
"Okay." She had almost forgotten about the cheerleading tryouts in
her worry over who had sent her the note and the e-mail.
"Come
on." Dawn took off down the hall, the others following. She wanted to
distract Rose from her worries. True, notes like the one Rose had gotten were
scary, but she wasn’t sure that it really meant anything. It might just be a
prankster playing an obscene joke on her.
There was a
brightly coloured piece of paper posted on Mrs. Hulstrom’s classroom door. When
she saw it, Rose pulled away from Jack and hurried up to the door, wanting to
see what it said.
She shrieked
when she saw the name on it, jumping up and down.
"What? What
does it say?" Dawn asked, going to stand next to her.
"I did it!
I’m the new cheerleader!" Rose threw her hands up in the air in a "V
for Victory" sign and hugged Dawn, then rushed over to Jack. "I can’t
believe it!"
"I told you
that you were good," Dawn said, a bit smugly. "Didn’t I? Didn’t I?
And Mrs. Hulstrom agreed."
"How much
convincing did that take?"
Dawn shrugged, a
mischievous smile on her face. "Oh…only a little."
Another girl
walked up then. Staring at the laughing, rejoicing group, she went and looked
at the paper on the door, the turned around in a huff, stomping off.
"Bitch!" she hissed at Rose.
Rose turned and stared
after her. "What was that all about?"
"Well,
isn’t it obvious, Rose? That's Stacy Williams. She usually gets everything she
wants. She wanted to be the new cheerleader, and you got it instead."
"And she
likes Jack," Helga added.
"She
does?" Jack looked mystified.
"Well, why
do you think she always wants to look at your art, then?"
"I thought
it was because I was a good artist."
Dawn laughed.
"Honestly, guys can be so dense sometimes. Stacy likes you, and so she’s
even madder at Rose, because she has you."
"He is a
good artist," Rose interjected, putting her arms around him and kissing
his cheek.
"Yeah, I
am," Jack added, giving Rose a kiss on the mouth.
Tommy made a
disgusted sound. "Get a room, you two."
"Can’t. How
about some bleachers?"
"Oh, shut up."
Tommy shook his head. "You’re never going to let us live that down, are
you?"
"Nope."
*****
Rose waved
good-bye to Dawn and hurried toward her house. Noticing that her mother wasn’t
home yet, she let herself in, then tossed her things in a chair and raced into
the living room, practicing one of the new moves she had learned at
cheerleading practice that afternoon. Fortunately, there wasn’t a game until
next Friday, so she didn’t have to worry about performing her first day as a
cheerleader.
Humming to herself,
Rose pulled a can of Coke from the refrigerator and opened it, going to the
answering machine to check the messages.
There were
twelve new messages, nine of them from where the answering machine had picked
up, but no one had said anything. Frowning at the number of empty messages, a
couple of them with coughing or heavy breathing, she picked up the Caller ID
and began going through the phone numbers of those who had called.
There were
several out of area codes on the Caller ID. Shrugging, Rose set it down. Out of
area calls were often from telemarketers, who didn’t usually bother to leave a
message, although why they had sat through the answering machine’s pick-up, she
didn’t know. She was about to go upstairs when the phone rang again.
"Hello?"
No one
responded.
"Hello?"
Rose frowned, hanging up the phone, then checked the Caller ID. Another out of
area call. Suddenly suspicious, she clicked back through the phone numbers,
feeling a chill go down her spine when she realized that all of the out of area
calls were from after 3:30, by which time she was usually home.
The phone rang
again. Exasperated, Rose picked it up. "Hello?"
Once again,
there was no answer.
"Listen, I
don’t know who you think you are, but you’d better stop calling here. You’re
not funny."
Slamming down
the phone, she picked up her things and carried them upstairs, only to be
interrupted by the phone once again.
Picking up the
extension in her room, she snapped, "I thought I told you to stop
calling!"
"Rose?
Rose, what’s wrong?"
"Jack!"
Rose sat down on the edge of her bed, her heart pounding. "Sorry. I’ve
been getting a bunch of hang-up calls."
"From
who?"
"I don’t
know. The Caller ID says out of area. I thought it might be telemarketers, but
the person has called twice since I got home about fifteen minutes ago, and
didn’t say anything either time."
"You think
it might be Cal?"
"I hope
not. I mean…hang-up calls are so juvenile."
"So is
leaving a note in someone’s locker, but you got one of those yesterday."
Rose sighed,
twirling the phone cord around her finger. "I don’t know, Jack…maybe it
isn’t Cal at all. Maybe he has nothing to do with this. Maybe it’s just some
kid being stupid."
"Like that
girl who yelled at you this morning, Stacy, or whatever her name is."
"Maybe."
"Or that
janitor who was fired for putting a camera into the girls’ locker room."
"What?!"
"I’m
kidding, Rose. I’m just kidding. That was at my old school."
"Jack!
Don’t scare me like that! I have enough to worry about already."
"Sorry,
Rose."
They were silent
for a moment before Rose spoke. "Jack…what if it really is Cal?"
"Maybe you
should tell your mom. Have you told her about that note and that e-mail?"
"No. Jack,
I don’t want to worry her. I mean…things were such a mess for such a long time
after Dad died. I don’t want to start any problems up again."
"But
somebody is trying to cause trouble."
"I know,
but…maybe it’s nothing. Maybe…maybe it’s some kind of cheerleader initiation or
something."
"Uh-huh."
Jack sounded sceptical.
"Well…Jack,
it just can’t be Cal. He has a restraining order, and he’s stayed away from me
all this time."
"How long
has it been since he got the restraining order?"
"The judge
put the restraining order on him last November. He was pretty mad about
it."
"You did
see him at the country club the other day. Maybe he thinks he doesn’t have to
follow it anymore, since you talked to him."
Rose’s hand
clenched around the phone. "I guess I shouldn’t have talked to him, but he
was being such a jerk…but if he thought he didn’t have to stay away from me anymore,
why would he sneak around making hang-up calls and sending me e-mails like
that? Wouldn’t he just come out and talk to me?"
"I don’t
know, Rose. I only met him that once. All I know is that he seems like a real
jerk."
"He is. Jack…this
may sound weird, but he scares me. There’s not very much that makes me feel
that way, but he does. There’s just something about him…like when he gets
something, it’s his and no one else’s, and if he has to share it, he’d rather
destroy it than let anyone else have it. He would get so mad at me for talking
to other guys—and that’s all I did, was talk—that he would slap me and push me
around. It was like I was an object to be kept—or thrown away, if he was tired
of me."
"Rose, I
think you should call the police, tell them that you think it’s him. Maybe
someone could get him to stop if it is him, or if it isn’t, you wouldn’t have
to worry about him anymore. And you should tell your mom. It sounds like she’s
pretty protective of you."
"She
is." Rose paused, twisting the cord around her hand. "Okay, Jack.
I’ll do that…but I don’t know how much good it’ll do, if it is Cal. He has a
lot of money and power."
"But that
didn’t stop him from getting a restraining order in the first place."
"No…but
still—"
"Remember,
Rose, if anything happens, you can always come to me or my family. And Dawn
would help you, too, and I’ll bet that Tommy or Fabrizio or Helga would try to
help you if you needed it."
"Yeah."
Rose rubbed her forehead. "This is so bizarre, though, Jack. I’m not sure
what to make of it."
"I don’t
know, either, Rose, but whatever happens, I’ll be there."
"I know you
will. Thank you, Jack."
"You’re
welcome, Rose."