The Athena Effect by Derrolyn Anderson

fierce, knife wielding girl at the cemetery, her devastated, tear-streaked face at the pound… And his favorite, the radiant girl that smiled up at him as she petted a lamb. How could she be all of them?
    She wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met, and just thinking about what to say to her made him nervous. He decided that he should drop it; he would forget all about her and move on. Deep down inside, he had to admit that he doubted he could.
    ~
    Caledonia had also dragged herself to school that morning. The weather was mild, so she’d spent the night curled in the brush next to the graveyard, getting up to pick the leaves out of her braid, trying her best to make herself presentable until she could get to the school bathroom and splash some water on her face.
    It took some doing to dodge Calvin that day; he seemed to be everywhere she had to be, and he nearly made her miss getting a school lunch. She couldn’t afford to miss her lunch. She used every trick she knew to blend in, hide out and evade him. She wondered why he even bothered hunting her.
    He may not have seen her, but she saw plenty of him. Leaning up against a bank of lockers with a bored look on his face, he was as handsome as the first time he’d caught her eye at the bus station. A girl came over and draped herself onto him, and Cali felt a little surge of annoyance. She hated that it bothered her, swearing to herself she’d never be like one of those girls.
    All of her romantic notions came from books, and the casual way he went from girl to girl disgusted her. Calvin was no gentleman like Mister Darcy, and he could never be as loyal or passionate as Heathcliff. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she must protect her heart from him. She didn’t want what he had to offer.
    She had to wait a long time after school for Calvin to leave. When she finally made her way down the street to her aunt’s, it was late afternoon, and she was feeling drained. She stepped inside the house with trepidation, wanting only to take a shower and get some fresh clothes. Her aunt heard the door, and came around the corner, wiping her hands on a dishtowel.
    “Cal, can you come into the kitchen? We need to talk.”
    She followed her aunt in and stopped short when she saw Phil sitting at the kitchen table. He glowered at her, his eyes sending a warning.
    “Phil tells me that you’ve been running around with those trashy bikers while I’ve been at work. He says you got dropped off here last night on a motorcycle.”
    Cal was stunned at her accusatory tone, “I haven’t done anything wrong… I just took a ride from a friend.”
    Her aunt looked at her sadly, “You should be happy that Phil cares enough about your well-being to let me know what’s going on. Cal– I know you’re naive, but those people are trouble… I thought I warned you to stay away from them!”
    “But–”
    “Listen, you’ll be eighteen soon, and then you can move out and do whatever you please. I just want you to know I won’t tolerate any foolishness under my roof. If you’re smart, you’ll stay far away from those losers.”
    “But–”
    She smiled patronizingly, “Don’t look so upset. We wouldn’t say anything if we didn’t care.”
    Cal’s wounded eyes met Phil’s gloating ones over Angie’s shoulder, and she felt like throwing up.
    She climbed the stairs numbly, exhausted and defeated.
    Caledonia resumed her pattern, dodging Phil at night and napping in the afternoons before an increasingly harried Angie left to work her double shifts. One day she woke up to find Phil standing over her bed, watching her sleep with hungry eyes. She jumped up with a cry, running to tell her aunt.
    To her dismay, Angie believed Phil’s story about needing to get something from one of the boxes of his things that remained untouched in her room.
    “Don’t be so selfish,” she had scolded Cal. “You should be grateful that Phil was nice enough to give up his office for you!