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I smiled, happy to be found. “You made it.”
“I saw you come in. I thought it would be pretty awkward if I just walked up to you.”
“I didn’t even see you.”
“I’m pretty good at stalking girls.” He pulled out his cell phone and tapped something in. “We’ve been waiting for you. I’m letting them know you’re here.”
Within moments they all appeared. North was in his black clothes, although his shirt was collared with a Gucci logo on the front pocket. Silas had a white collared shirt. Kota wore a white shirt with a green tie. Nathan, Gabriel and Victor wore slacks and different colored Ralph Lauren and Hilfiger polo shirts. To me, they were all dressed a lot nicer than most of the students, who wore ripped jeans, baggy t-shirts and sneakers. I realized Marie was right to wear what she had. She fit in better than I did with the other students. I was glad the guys were there. I didn’t feel so out of place with them around.
“It’s about time,” Victor said to me, frowning. “I’ve been here for hours.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. My cheeks heated and I pressed a finger to my lower lip. “Did you all have to wait for me?”
Glance were exchanged. Had it not occurred to them that I’m just one girl? They didn’t have to wait. I felt bad enough that any of them were hanging around for me. How much trouble could I get in to today?
“Don’t worry about it,” Victor said, stuffing his hands into his pockets and shrugging. “We don’t have anything better to do today anyway. I was just tired of standing at the door.”
With the boys standing with me, the line was a little crowded. Kota started talking about something with Luke and the others but over the noise of the crowd, I couldn’t hear very well. My eyes shifted to the other students. There was a group of girls not too far away looking in on us. One of them glanced my way, her face looking angry and it confused me. I turned away, assuming the look wasn’t meant for me. Still, it was intimidating.
“Did you all sign up already?” I asked.
Collective nods. “We won’t have schedules until we get them in the mail on Monday. We start Tuesday,” Kota said.
“It’s all a big pain in the ass,” Nathan said and then grumbled something under his breath that I couldn’t understand.
“You’ll have to watch your language,” Kota warned. “School might not have started yet, but there’s still rules.”
Nathan rolled his eyes but didn’t argue the point.
“We’ll get out of this line. We’re too big of a group,” Kota said. “Who’s staying with her?”
They all said “me” at once. I laughed but when they looked at me as if they didn’t understand why I was laughing, I stopped short.
“Victor and Silas, you stay here. North and Luke, go tail her sister. Just keep your distance. I don’t want to scare her. The rest of us will head out to that courtyard. Sang, when you’re done, we’ll meet out there and we’ll take a tour together.”
They were going to keep an eye of my sister, too? I blushed, not having thought of that. Again I admired the way Kota took charge of the group. Nothing was argued over. When Kota made a decision, they simply fell in line.
Victor and Silas stayed by my side while the rest disappeared into the crowd.
“What classes were you getting again?” Victor asked.
I pulled out the paper that Kota prepared for me and showed it to him.
“You’re missing one, you know,” he said. “You have to pick seven.”
I felt my heart flipping into a panic. “I thought the paper said six.”
“You have to pick one more just in case a class got filled up.”
I blew out a breath, feeling like grumbling.
“Don’t sweat it,” Silas said, smoothing fingers through his dark hair, brushing away the locks that fell into his eyes. “Just pick an art class.”
I hesitated, unsure of what to pick. My mind went blank as to what other classes there could be.
“What about a music class?” Victor offered.
“Would you be in that one?” I asked.
He frowned. “Probably not. I’ve got an advanced piano class to take.” He wrapped a hand around his opposite arm, rubbing at it. “Yeah, maybe not a music class. No one else takes one.”
“I guess the winner is art,” I said. “I don’t think I can take anything else. I mean, the interesting stuff is reserved for higher grade students.”
“What would you want?” Silas asked. “I mean, if there wasn’t a grade restriction.”
“Hm, maybe a language? Or a writing class? I’m not sure. I wish I’d looked more at the book.” I looked at my paper where before I had met Kota, Japanese and a few other classes had been scribbled in. I had crossed them out to put in Kota’s suggestions. My paper already looked like a mess. I supposed it didn’t matter. If I ended up in an art class with Gabriel, that wouldn’t be bad.
The line was moving. I was going to be next.
“Don’t worry about it too much,” Silas said, putting a hand on my shoulder. His face tilted to look down at me. “Just fill up with prerequisites. You’ve got time to learn the stuff you want.”
I nodded. It was all I could do. I shared a small smile with him.
“You’re up,” Victor said. He quickly reached for my hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze. “We’ll stand by out of the way.”
My eyes slid to see if my sister or my father were around and had noticed the guys touching me and Victor holding my hand. No one around seemed to notice.
It took twenty minutes working with a school counselor to line up my classes. I showed her my list and she tried to tell me three AP classes were too much. I insisted it was fine but she wouldn’t listen. She gave me AP English and AP Geometry. After that, she wrote down gym class, the typing class, without asking me, and the general biology class, and then wrote down American history.
“I think I prefer world history,” I told her.
“World history is an AP class. You can only have two.”
I frowned. This wasn’t the lineup I really wanted. I felt uncomfortable that she changed things and that I couldn’t confirm with Kota.
She asked if I had alternate choices. I suggested art and she said the art class was already full. I tried to look over the catalog but she got annoyed with me quickly. She wrote in choir and wood shop.
“It won’t matter,” she said. “You will probably get in your first choices.” She handed me the paper with her signature on it. “Go get your parents to sign this. Take it to room 103. It’s down the hall and to the left.”
Th
e table was surrounded by other students all grumbling after me that I was taking so long. My cheeks felt hot. Did she have to be so short with me? I scanned for Victor and Silas. I saw Silas’s tall frame over the other students. He stood across the hall.
I pointed to my paper in the air and then pointed to where I could see my dad. He nodded to me and then pointed to his own eyes. He’ll be watching.
I darted my way past the other students. I found my dad standing by the staircase.
“Marie’s done,” he said. “She went to the band room to see where it was.”
I imagined North and Luke was following her. I wonder if she noticed. “I just need you to sign this.” I handed him the paper.
“You already crumpled it,” he said. “Two advanced classes?” he looked at me. “Is that okay with you?”
I shrugged. “It’s fine. It’s all stuff I have to take anyway.” My heart was throbbing. I tried to shake it off. Maybe I was going to get in over my head with too many AP classes. There was nothing to do about it now.
He took a pen from his pocket and scrawled his name at the bottom. “Where do you take this?”
“There’s a classroom down the hall I think.”
“Get to it. Are you going to tour the building?”
I nodded.
“I’m going to wait in the car. I’ve got some phone calls to make. Try to keep it short. Find your sister when you’re done and head out to the car.”
I nodded and watched him go. When was the last time we talked? Before we moved? Even now when we had time to talk, he walked off to make phone calls. I thought I should be disappointed or sad but I wasn’t. I was empty. Strangers in a strange family.
I weaved my way again through the throng of students collecting with each other and talking about classes. I was trying to find my way back to Silas and Victor so they could walk with me.
At some point I was pushed as some students were goofing off. I ended up pressed up against a man in a large brown, corduroy suit. He turned around to look at me. He wore glasses, had brown hair, a bristle mustache and watery eyes. He had a light brown pair of slacks and an oddly colored orange plaid tie.
