NiGHTMARE Part 2 - DoN'T FaLL AsLeEP - ch 3

Lunchtime. Finally, an hour of freedom from teachers, and students. The whole morning, Nancy had to deal with eyes on her without understanding as to why. Now she sat outside beneath one of the trees on the far side of the school courtyard, far away from any unwanted gazes, eating a salad.

"Hey, Nance!"

Nancy turned to see her good friend Lance coming around behind the tree.

"Have a good first day back so far?" he asked her as he sat down in the grass near her.

"Okay, I guess," she answered, munching on a carrot, "It'd be a lot better if I didn't feel like everybody was staring at me all day."

"Well of course they are. You're pretty much famous now."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, because of... what happened last year."

"Oh God," groaned Nancy, rubbing her right temple, "So, what? Everyone has heard about it?"

"Yeah. It was all over the papers, and it even made the news."

"Fabulous." Nancy ate another leaf of lettuce and decided to move the conversation elsewhere. "I bumped into a girl earlier, quite literally, who's new here."

"Really? I don't think I've seen her yet."

"I'm sure she's around."

And speak of the devil, the said new girl came outside, looking around like a lost pup for a place to sit with a tin lunch box in her hand.

"That's her," Nancy said, pointing her out.

"You mean Marilyn Manson's daughter?" Lance remarked at the sight of her.

Nancy had to admit, she did look kind of Goth with her black hair and eyeliner. Sure, there used to be a time where she would steer away from someone like Eliza, but she had survived much, much worse than a girl in dark clothes.

"Oh, shut up," Nancy quipped, giving Lance a light slap against his arm. "Hey Eliza," she then called out, waving, "Over here!"

Hearing her name being called, Eliza looked over to see that she was being summoned by the girl she had met that morning, Nancy. Relieved to be invited by somebody, she walked over to join her under the tree.

"Hey, Nancy," she smiled as she sat three feet off from Nancy's right side. Then she looked over to the boy next to her. "Hi," she waved, "I'm Eliza. Eliza Crowe."

"I'm Lance," he waved back.

"So how'd your morning go?" Nancy asked her.

"Well..." Eliza drawled, then shrugged her left shoulder, "It was alright."

She didn't want to tell all about her day, about the things she had heard girls and other people whispering about Nancy. Teenage high school gossip was always too grand to be believed anyways. She would rather get to know the girl on her own.

"The worst part was just finding my way around," she said as she opened her lunch box and took out a bundle of purple grapes.

"We've all been there," said Lance as he opened a bag of potato chips.

"And still four more periods left to go," Nancy sighed. Then to Eliza, she asked, "What classes have you got next?"

Eliza pulled her crumpled class schedule out from her bag. "Um..."

Nancy inched closer and craned her neck, taking the corner of the paper and stretching it further that she might see too. "Okay, so next you've got... English, Geometry, French, and Art. Hey, at least we get to share art class together!"

"That's cool!"

"Oh wait, nevermind. You have Art seventh period, I've got it eigth. Darn!"

"Just as well, Eliza, if you're gonna share a class with this one," Lance snorted, poking Nancy in the arm, "You'd be better off just handing all your work over to her; save her the trouble of trying to copy."

Nancy responded with a mock gasp and a soft punch to Lance's arm, which caused his elbow to give out under him and him to fall to the grass, but Lance simply brushed the dirt and grass smears from his arm and returned to his position.

"Get over it Lance, we're not in Biology class anymore," Nancy drawled, "And maybe I should. I caught a peak at some of Eliza's drawings this morning, and she's pretty good!"

Eliza smiled and rolled her eyes and waved her hand, "Oh, you."

"May I see?" asked Lance.

"Yeah! Can we? I only really got to see one."

"No problem."

Eliza opened her bag and brought out a two-inch blue-skinned binder. She opened it, scooting closer towards Nancy and Lance and turning the book that they could see. In it was the same drawing of the old house Nancy had seen earlier that day. Even now it gave her an inexplicable cold chill. Eliza turned the sheets, allowiing them to see one drawing after the next. After the picture of the house there was one of a tree, its branches bare and twisted, drawn with scratches of charcoal that made the tree's bark appear all the more rough, then next was a flock of ravens, then finally, there was a drawing of a door parted open just a crack, while a hand with dark, rough skin, much like the skin of the tree, and long fingernails wrapped around the door, pushing it open. That one was too much for Nancy. The image was far too familiar for her, so she handed the book back to Eliza, supressing a cold shudder.

"You're so talented," Nancy smiled, "I'm jealous! I can't even draw a cat."

"Well, luckily you'll have me to help," Eliza replied, fluttering her eyelashes. That made Lance laugh a little.

"So, where did you move from?" Nancy then asked, scraping up the last few bits of ranch-soaked lettuce before setting the styrofoam bowl aside and taking a gulp of water from her plastic bottle.

"Me and my mom used to live upstate, but we moved here about a month and a half ago because of my mom's work."

"What does your mom do?" Lance asked.

"She's... a doctor," Eliza answered, chewing her bottom lip at the word "doctor", "She got a job offer at the hospital here, and so, here we are."

"Which hospital is it?" Lance then asked.

"Oh, it's, uhh..." Eliza rolled her eyes up as if in thought, but after a few seconds, she shrugged, saying, "I don't remember the name. Something with a G, like Gwendolyn, or Gwennevere, or something."

"I think you mean Genneveive's?" Lance said through a mouthful of chips.

"Yeah, that's it. And plus my mom wanted to move away from the city. She said she preferred the smaller towns."

"My dad felt the same," said Nancy, "My dad and I moved here when I was about five."

Another ten minutes or so of munching, chatting, and a few shared laughs later, and the bull rang and the three rose to part their separate ways.

"So what are you up to after school?" Lance asked to Nancy as he got up.

"Nothing, really," Nancy answered as she slipped the strap of her bag over her right shoulder.

"Me neither. You wanna hang out later?"

"Sure," she said, her voice accidentally going up a couple extra pitches. Suddenly remembering the third extra party with them, she turned towards Eliza, who was still on the ground, scooping her things into her bag and balling her garbage together to throw into the trash.

"Catch you later?"

"Sure," answered Eliza with a smile.