The Edge of Saint Bridge

 

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Opening

 “Come on, Tom, just cut the lock off already,” John complained. I look over at my co-workers, and they stare back in annoyance.

"I can't," I tell them, shaking my head. John rolls his eyes.

"Don't start that again. For the past two hours, you've come up with every excuse in the book. The lock cutters don't fit; we should wait for Andy," he says in a moking tone. "Just get it over with and cut the fucking lock!" I look back at the gate and the giant lock that's been rusted shut.

"Maybe we should get lunch first," I say in desperation. "These projects are always easier on a full stomache." They shake their heads and mutter in frustration.

"You know what? I think we will go get lunch, and by the time we get back you better have that gate open or you can say goodbye to your job." John nods at the other workers, and they all take off their hardhats and put their things down. I watch as they leave, some of them throwing nasty glares in my direction. I sigh and look at the gate again. It's at least nine feet tall, made out of rusted metal. The words "Saint Bridget Prep" form an arch at the top, adding at least another foot to the gate's height. Through the bars I can see what had once been Saint Bridget. I suppose its tan walls and bell tower had once been beautiful, but now they seem creepy and desolate. The grass in the courtyard has grown out of control, the windows are smashed in, and there's signs of decay everywhere. I find it pretty hard to believe that they're trying to turn this place back into a real school, but I guess some people just do pretty crazy things. I hold up the lock cutters and glance back at the lock again. I suppose I'm going to have to cut it off eventually, and the thought makes me shudder. I don't know why, but there's something about this place that feels like it shouldn't be touched. I take a deep breath and lift the cutters up to the gate.

"Don't do that," a voice warns. I jump and drop the cutters. "Sorry," a young girl next to me says, "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's fine," I say, trying to catch my breath. I look at the girl, who can't be more than sixteen. She's wearing a school uniform I don't recognize, and her long, brown hair kind of reminds me of a hairstyle my sister had when I was a kid. I notice how close she stands to me, and I wonder how I didn't hear her approaching. She looks me in the eye for a few seconds, then frowns slightly.

"You can feel it, can't you? You know there's something weird about this place." I nod, wondering how she knows. "The look on your face told me," she says, as if she can read my mind. "Lots of people get that feeling here. They don't always like to admit it, but they all know this place is different."

"What's so different about it?" I ask. "It's just an old building."

"That's just it, it's an old building. They can feel its memories," she says sadly.

"What's that supposed to mean? People can't feel memories, especially not a building's." She looks and me and smiles slightly.

"But of course they can. People can feel emotions, and memories are practically the same thing." She's staring to give me a weird feeling too, but that's probably just the weird way she talks.

"Okay..." I trail off as I glance back at the gate. "So are you saying this building has emotions?"

"No, I'm saying it has memories. Emotions are just the things associated with them." I look at her in disbelief, and there's a few seconds of silence.

"Let's say for a moment that this place does have... memories," I say. "Why would they creep people out? What happened here that was so bad?"

"Which story do you want hear, the one the locals tell, or the one the police released?" she asks.

"Whichever one's the truth."

"Then you don't want to listen to either of those, neither knows what really happened."

"And I suppose you do?" I joke.

"Of course," she says seriously. "Do you really want to hear it?" I nod. "Well I'll try to tell it as accurately as I can." She looks over through the gate sadly, as if remembering something she wished she didn't. "It was about, well how long would it be now? Thirty years ago at least. The year was 1984, and Saint Bridget was the most prestigious high school in Arizona. It was an all-girls Catholic school, with an all-boys school, Saint Jerome, just next door. The school year was just starting, and no one had the slightest idea of what the new year was about to bring..."

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Stephanie

This morning, the U.S. Department of Education announced the schools that had been recognized as this year’s National Blue Ribbon Schools. On the list of receiptants was Saint Bridget Academy, a local all-girls Catholic high school in the heart of Phoenix. The school’s principal, Sister Helen, says she is very proud of the school, and attributes it’s success to the staff and their wonderful students. Saint Bridget Academy, or Saint Bridge, as the students call it, was founded in...

August, 1985

I look up at the gate in front of me, taking a deep breath. Here goes another year, I think nervously. The first day is always nerve-raking, even when you're no longer a freshman. I smooth out my uniform skirt, taking comfort from the feel of the familiar blue and green plaid. I'm about to step through the gate when I hear a voice calling my name.

"Stephanie!" I spin around to see my friend CeCe running towards me. 

"Salut Cecilia! Ça va?" She rolles her eyes at me and I laugh.

"You know I have no clue what you're saying, Steph." 

"Well maybe if you had paid any attention in French last year you would," I say jokingly. She rolls her eyes again, but she's laughing too.

"So, Sophmore year..." she trails off, looking at the school in front of us.

"Yeah, it's supposed to be like, the greatest year ever," I say. She laughs, her blond hair swinging around her. I notice she got a new hairdo, it's definately bigger and more platinum than it was two weeks ago.

"They say that about every year, and every year it turns out to be totally bogus." 

"Well who knows, maybe this year it'll be true. Only way to know is to jump in." I walk through the gates without waiting for a reply. I can feel the difference the moment I step on campus, I'm back home. I smile and close my eyes for a second, stopping in the middle of the drop-off lane. Suddenly, I feel myself being yanked to the side. 

"What the fu-" 

"Woah Steph, language," a familiar voice interupts. I open my eyes to see two very similiar looking girls standing in front of me, one laughing, the other looking pretty pissed off. 

"Tammy, Niki!" I exclaim, hugging them both. 

"What were you doing in the middle of the road? You could have died," Niki snaps at me. "Death is not a good way to start the year, Steph."

"Calm down Niki, I'm not dying today," I tell her. 

"Who's not dying today?" CeCe asks as she walks over to join us. 

"CeCe!" Tammy and Niki both sqeel at the same time. They all exchange hugs, while the head secutity guard, Ms. Kelman, glares at us. I point her out to the others, and they laugh. She's just standing there at the edge of the round-a-bout in her bright pink floral shirt, just like she is every school morning. The others laugh when they see her.

"Looks like somebody's still mad about Homecoming," Tammy giggles.

"Look, if she didn't want the entire campus covered in streamers, she should have said something," I say.

"She did," CeCe tells me.

"Five times," Niki adds. We all start laughing, causing Ms. Kelman to shoot another glare in our direction. We quickly move out of the round-a-bout and towards the courtyard. 

"So where are your lockers this year?" I ask them. 

"Same place as last year, upstairs Donaldson," Tammy says happily, gsturing in the direction of the Donaldson building. 

"Downstairs Donaldson," CeCe boasts. Everyone looks at her enviously.

"How did you manage that? I thought only Seniors got those lockers. They're like, the best in the school," Niki says increduolously.

"I guess it's just my charm," she replies. We all laugh except Niki.

"I got put in the ghetto," she mutters. Another round of laughter echos through our group. The ghetto was the single worst place to have a locker. It was outside on the edge of campus, built next to the school's oldest buildings. At Saint Bridge, to have a locker in the ghetto was pretty much synonymous with having a locker in hell.

"That's what you get for bragging about your amazing locker in Donaldson all last year. Now you'll get to understand what we all had to go through," I tell her. 

"The crowdness, getting pushed into lockers daily, the darkness, and the dust," Tammy teases.

"Don't forget when the locks refuse to open in the winter," CeCe pipes up. 

"Or those days when it's so hot out that the metal burns you fingers." We all laugh again, and Niki frowns at us. She looks like she's about to say something, but she's interrupted by a shout coming from the other side of the grass. We all turn to see a girl with bright red hair standing at the edge of the courtyard.

"Jess!" Tammy yells in excitement. She runs towards the girl and tackles her in a bear hug. Jessica stuggles to catch her balance, but she's laughing at the same time. Tammy lets go and drags Jessica towards our group.

"Hey Ringwald," I say jokingly as I give her a high five. She frowns at me and I laugh.

"Are you really going to call me that this year?" I nod and she fakes a pout.

"If you don't want to be called that, get a new hairdo," I tell her, pointing out her short red hair that held a striking resemblance to Molly Ringwald's.

"What? Is it too," she flips her hair dramatically, "movie star for you?" We all start laughing, and she joins us.

"Don't worry, Jess," Tammy pipes up, "I don't think you look like Molly."

"You don't?" Jessica and I both say at once.

"Nope," she smiles, "I think you look like a squirrel." This earns another round of laughs from the group.

"A squirrel?" Jessica rolls her eyes. "Seriously?" Tammy nods enthusiastically.

"See," Tammy continues, gesturing to Jess' hair,  "its all bushy, like a tail." Jessica rolls her eyes again, but laughs.

"Oh good Lord," Jessica mutters.

"It's good to have you back, Jess," CeCe laughs. 

"Yeah Jessica," I add on. "Don't you ever go away for the summer again, you hear me?"

"Yes ma'am," Jessica announces, mimicking a soldier. She throws me a salute, and I respond by giving her a hug. 

"We missed you, Jess," Niki tells her. 

"Trust me, I missed you too. Next time I try to go spend the summer at my grandma's, don't let me." 

"Oh don't worry, we won't," Tammy replies. "We're not going to let our little squirrel out of our sight." Everyone laughs, including Jessica. The bell tower starts to ring out, and I count eight tolls.

"Shit," I exclaim. All five of us are fifteen minutes late to class. "We missed homeroom. Again."

"Didn't we do that the first day last year? Jeez, deja vu," CeCe laughs. Everyone nods in agreement, eschanges another round of hugs, then we break apart and run to make our first period class. I run to the Arts Center for my English class. As I reach the door, I take a second to catch my breath, and I see a small feather laying on the pavement. I smile, remembering how my mother used to say a feather symbolized an angel nearby. Who knows, I think to myself. Maybe this will be the best year yet.

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Caitlin

It's the start of September, and you all know what that means: High School Football! To get in the spirit opf the season, Valley Magazine interviewed one of the valley's most promising young athletes, Eric Schultz. Eric is a junior at Jerome Colleg Prep, an all-boys Catholic school in downtown Phoenix. We asked him a few questions about high school to break the ice. What is your favorite part of going to Jerome? "I don't really know, it's hard to choose just one. Everything about Jerome is great. The students are super supportive, and the teachers are all enthusiastic about their jobs. Is it distracting having girls from Saint Bridget in some of your classes? No, I think it's great that we share classes with the girls at Saint Bridge. They're all really nice and it's great to actually see some of the opposite gender every now and then. I think having an all-girls school right next door is the best thing that ever happened to Jerome. How do you feel about Jerome's football team this year? Well, practice has barely just gotten started, but...

I look down at the test in front of me, feeling like I've just been hit by a ton of bricks. I completely forgot I had a test today, let alone had I studied for it. The past three weeks had pretty much gone by in a blur, and I couldn't remember anything I'd been taught. Approximately what year did the Mesopotamian civilization come to an end? I have no clue. Sometime in the BC's, that's for sure. I shake my head and move on to the next few problems. After answering a few, I turn to look at the vocab. Are these even real words? I groan in frustration and fill in random bubbles. After about half an hour of guessing, the teacher announces our time is up. I sigh and put down my pencil. I've failed this test, that's ovious enough. I stand up from my desk and turn it in,silently praying that I haven't done as terribly as I believe I have. The bell rings the moment I sit back in my desk, and everyone scrambles towards the door for lunch. Another hour over, three more to go. I grab my backpack and walk out the door, silenty nodding to my teacher on the way out. I leave the classroom and head towards the end of the hall where the staircase is. As I'm about to take a step down the stairs, my foot catches on a loose shoe lace, and I go flying forward. I scream out in surprise and brace myself for the impact. Instead, someone catches me, saving me from hitting the hard steps. I stand still for a second, recovering from the shock, then turn to face the person who caught me. It's a boy, probably also a sophmore, with some-what long, black hair. 

"Thanks," I tell him.

"No problem," he replies. "I'm Kade." He sticks out his hand and I shake it.

"Caitlin. So, you go to Jerome?" I ask him.

"No," he says sarcastically, "I go to Union High and I just snuck in to use the bathroom." I grin and we walk down the stairs together. We reach the bottom, where Kade's greeted by a friend of his named Jason. After a few short introductions and a conversation about our first few weeks so far, we all end up sitting together at a table in the corner of the cafeteria. 

"So you're a sophmore, right?" Jason asks. I nod. "Do you know Stephanie?"

"Stephanie... Mills?" I ask, thinking about the girl behind me in geometry. 

"No, Stephanie Wayfield," Jason corrects. "She's my girlfriend. She's also a sophmore." I dhake my head, and he nods understandingly. I can't help but notice the discomfort in Kade's eyes when Jason mentions Stephanie. I silently wonder what happened between them to make Kade react like that, but I quickly shake my head and dismiss the thought. A couple seconds pass in awkward silence, only to be interrupted by a group of girls who walk over to join us. 

"Jason!" one of the girls squels. Her long, blond hair swings behind her as she walks, and her overly perfect smile seems to take up half her face.

"Hey Steph," Jason says, turning in her direction. So she's Stephanie, I think. Well that clears that up. "Have you met Caitlin yet?" He questions. Stephanie shakes her head to say she hasn't. "Well Kade over here just saved her from taking a trip headirst down the stairs." Stephanie seems to flinch slightly when she hears Kade's name, but plays it off with a smile.

"Nice to meet you Caitlin," she says sweetly. "This is CeCe, Jessica, Tammy, and Niki." She points to each of the girls behind her, and each one waves slightly when introduced. I wave back shyly, not quite sure what else to do. There's another few seconds of awkward silence, during which I notice the care Stephanie's taken to stand as far from Kade as possible. Again I wonder what had happened there, but no one else has semed to notice, so I say nothing. Then the girl Stephanie had identified as Tammy reached us and pokes CeCe's hair. CeCe ignores her, and she does it again, then again, and again.

"What are you doing?" CeCe finally asks in annoyance. 

"It's so poofy," Tammy says in wonder, poking CeCe's hair again. She was right, CeCe certainly did have very big hair.

"Well stop it!" she snaps as she swats Tammy's hand away. The one named Jessica walks up behind her and pokes her hair also. CeCe throws her head back and groans in frustration. Niki takes a few steps away from them, as if trying to pretend she doesn't know them, and Stephanie simply laughs.

"You are all so weird," she laughs. 

"And you're not?" Jessica asks her, laughing.

"Hey, watch it, Hollywood," Stephanie warns. They both crack up laughing, and I throw a weird look at Kade. He sends me one back that seems to be an apology. I guess he finds the girls just as weird as I do. I slowly start to gather my books off the table, getting ready to leave. The group is now arguing over something to do with Molly Ringwaldwhich I can tell seems to be something they argue about a lot. Strange. I stand up and tell the group I'm leaving. The girls and Jason all say goodbye, but Kade doesn't seem to have heard me. I push in my chair and start to walk for the cafateria doors.

"Hey, wait up!" a voice calls after me. I turn around to see Kade grabbing his bag and racing towards me. "Were you seriously going to leave me there? With all of them? Alone?" I laugh.

"You weren't alone. Jason was there!" He shakes his head and glances back at the table.

"Yeah, but Jason's..." he trails off, searching for the right words.

"With Stephanie?" I suggest. His face darkens for a second when he hears her name, confirming my suspicions.

"Yeah." He doesn't add anything, just glances back towards the table a second time.

"What happened?" I ask after a few seconds of silence.

"What do you mean?" he asks in confusion.

"You and Stephanie. Something happened between the two of you. What was it?" He shakes his head in denail and opens his mouth to say something. "I can see the way you two behave around each other," I say before he can speak, "it's really awkward. Yet no one else seems to notice." He shakes his head again.

"Nothing ever happened."

"Sure, nothing happened, exactly the way nothing happens when a meteor shower hits a nuclear power plant." He laughs slightly, but is still shaking his head. I give up and change the subject.

"So... you're on the football team. What's that like?"

"How'd you know I was on the football team?" he asks, puzzled.

"I've been stalking you for the past two years, duh," I laugh. "It's on your binder." He looks down at the white binder in his hands. A large sticker is thrown across the front with the words, "Jerome Prep Football, #66. Go Deltas!"

"It's... sporty, I guess." If there was a record for the world's most awkward conversation, this would probably have been it. I nod, praying to be saved from this. Any second now... I think quietly. Any second... Then the bell rings, and I breathe a sigh of relief. 

"I guess I've got to go," Kade says, sounding as relieved as I am. "I have to get back to Jerome before class starts." I nod and say goodbye. He leaves, heading towards the side gate that leads to Jerome. I have about five minutes before my astronomy class starts, so I start walking to Donaldson. I decide that Kade is pretty nice, just kind of strange. I'm still convinced there's something weird going on between him and Stephanie, but I decide to let the subject go for now. I look after where he went, then walk through the arch to Donaldson just as the bell finishes its eleventh toll.

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