A Simple Case of Angels by Caroline Adderson Page B

out of Nicola. A heavy feeling replaced it. A sinking feeling that weighed her down in her chair and caused her to tilt slightly to the left.
    Ms. Phibbs called out names. If she called you, you had to write a homework answer on the board. Last year they corrected their homework in groups, but this year they did it in this boring way. Meanwhile, a bad taste filled Nicola’s mouth.
    She looked around at the new classroom arrangement. There was a wide aisle not quite down the middle of the room. It was a split class, but the aisle didn’t separate the two grades. Some other logic had placed Gavin Heinrichs, who threw the Murder Ball so savagely, on the same side as Margo Tamm, who was known to “accidentally” bump and kick people and when they said, “Ouch,” reply, “Do you think I care how you feel?”
    Nicola was on their side, not Lindsay’s.
    At lunch Lindsay found Nicola, who was more or less hiding from her in the crowd of kids milling in the cold around the cordoned-off playground equipment.
    Lindsay said, “Are we visiting Shady Oaks today?”
    â€œActually, June Bug doesn’t need to go anymore because my mom promised they’d never send her to the SPCA.”
    â€œOh,” Lindsay said, squinching so the pink glasses rose and fell on her face. “What about her going to hell?”
    â€œThere’s no such place.”
    â€œAre you sure about that?”
    Mina had answered this same question. She’d said she wasn’t sure. So had Ignacio, back in the fall. The horrible taste welled up in Nicola’s mouth again and made her feel like spitting.
    â€œAnd what about Mr. Milton and the others?” Lindsay asked.
    â€œI was only going for my dog.”
    Nicola felt miserable the whole rest of the day.
    Lindsay spoke to her one more time at the end of school, after the class had finished their detention for not doing a page of homework that Ms. Phibbs hadn’t even assigned. The girls were in the cloakroom where their coat hooks were still side by side.
    Lindsay whispered, “Why is Ms. Phibbs so mean?”
    She seemed to have brushed off Nicola’s rejection. Nicola was relieved.
    â€œI had Ms. Phibbs last year and she wasn’t mean at all.”
    Lindsay said, “I bet she’s getting divorced.”
    â€œWhy would you say that?”
    â€œBecause that’s what happens when you get a divorce. You feel really, really sad.”
    â€œShe doesn’t seem sad,” Nicola said. “She seems mad.”
    â€œYou feel sad and mad.”
    They went downstairs and out the door of the school.
    â€œWhat are you doing now?” Nicola asked.
    â€œGoing to Shady Oaks.” And Lindsay turned and walked off, leaving Nicola standing in the cold until her eyelashes stuck together.
    * * *
    They had library time during school to work on their wildlife PowerPoint presentations, but not nearly enough. That night Nicola had to ask her mother to make Jared get off the computer. He slumped on the couch in the den doing his own homework, announcing every few minutes how much time she had left.
    â€œTwelve minutes.”
    Coyotes, like all dogs, can hear sounds from four times as far away as humans , Nicola typed.
    â€œTen minutes.”
    Coyotes can detect smells at a concentration 100 million times lower than humans .
    When her thirty minutes were over, Jared muscled her off the chair.
    â€œI have to save it!” Nicola shrieked.
    Then she stood behind him watching him play.
    â€œYou said there were nine kinds of angels.”
    Jared rattled them off. “Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, Angels. They all have special powers. ­Seraphim blow fire. I’m on the Principalities now. They join with other Principalities to form armies.”
    â€œBut not in real life, right? In the game?”
    He pounded the keys, ignoring her. “Die! Die! Yes! Here we