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“What was that about?” North asked.
“Sang’s had her first marriage proposal,” Luke said, chuckling. He squeezed my hand.
His laugh was infectious, so I started to relax. “He couldn’t have been serious,” I said. “He was just teasing me or something.”
Victor’s mouth hung open. Kota pushed his glasses up his nose, looking confused. Gabriel laughed. Silas and North twisted around, scanning the courtyard to where the guys had disappeared inside.
“Who was he?” North asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve never seen him before. I think it was random.”
He didn’t look convinced. “What was his name?”
“The guys called him Mike.”
Gabriel was still snickering. “We’re going to have to keep a closer eye on you.”
North dug into his pockets and pulled out a handful of folded notes in his pockets. He opened each of them on his lap, flattening the papers and checking the signatures. “Nope. No Mike.”
“What are those?” Kota asked.
“Notes for Sang,” North said. He crumpled them together and stuffed them back into his pocket.
My mouth slackened and my head cocked at an angle toward him. “Are you sure? What do they say?”
North shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. If a guy can’t say it to your face, he doesn’t get to pass you notes.”
I shared a glance with Luke. Luke smirked at his brother. “You mean she’s getting notes in class from boys?”
“There’s a particularly persistent one in our history class.”
“Which one?” I asked. It left me uncomfortable that guys were passing me notes and I didn’t know what was going on. Had North infiltrated all of those for me and I just now noticed the one in class? Were there others? Was it that bad to get notes? I wondered if they all said bad things and he was protecting me from them.
“Doesn’t matter,” North said firmly.
I looked at Victor to see if he had some insight. Victor’s face was blank, and he only shrugged. “I didn’t see it.”
I wasn’t quite convinced and thought maybe he did know and he fibbed. Either he didn’t want to get in the middle of this or he agreed with North. I couldn’t be sure.
“Oy,” Gabriel called out. “You can’t just take her shit. Someone was giving that to her.”
North tilted his head around until he was eyeing Gabriel. “Excuse me?”
Gabriel glowered at him. “Sang’s never had notes passed to her in class and you’re taking her first ones. That’s like a fucking life experience or something.”
I blushed. How would Gabriel know if I’d never been passed notes in class? But then it must be obvious. Someone like me wouldn’t get notes.
“Then you write her one,” North said. “No face, no note. That’s chicken shit. This isn’t first grade where you’re drawing boxes with the whole ‘do you like me, check yes or no’ choices.”
Luke leaned into me, his lips nearly tracing my ear as he whispered, “I bet the girls checked the no boxes for him when he was in first grade.”
“I can hear you,” North said, leaning back on his hands to look up, his intense dark eyes fixing on my face. “Sang, do you want them?”
If it had been moments ago, before North had said anything at all, I might have said yes. He did have a point though. In a way it was kind of creepy to get a note passed to me from someone I didn’t know. What would anyone have to say to me? “I guess not. Just let me know if they say anything like, ‘I’m going to eat your liver’. I might want a heads up.”
He smirked at me. Everyone laughed.
In the middle of Japanese class with Victor, I was bent over a notebook, practicing some hiragana that we were supposed to be learning when the door opened.
“Hello Principal Hendricks,” Dr. Green said. “Welcome.”
Principal Hendricks entered the classroom. He smiled, his eyes swept over the room, singling me out and he gave me a wink before he crossed the room the short distance toward Dr. Green.
I snapped to attention in my chair, blushing. What now?
Victor’s breath teased the hair at the back of my head. “Are we in trouble?”
“Maybe.”
Victor grunted.
Principle Hendricks leaned in to Dr. Green to speak, but his voice was deep enough that we heard it from the back of the class. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I wondered if I could borrow Victor Morgan for a moment?”
Dr. Green’s eyes slipped to Victor. I caught that look he shared. He had that same silent communication ability. Dr. Green didn’t miss a beat. He turned his head back to Hendricks. “Of course! By all means.”
Victor stood up by his chair. I absentmindedly rubbed at the dip in my throat as he walked up to the front of the room, standing straight as an arrow and awaiting instructions.
When Hendricks took a look at him, he frowned. “What?” he chuffed. “Your face, son. You look terrible.”
Was this about yesterday? Was he going to ask him questions about why he wasn’t in school? Victor didn’t look too bad. His make-up had held up. The bandage was still on his cheek.
Victor’s eyes fixed on me for only the briefest moment, the fire lighting up, before turning back to him. “How can I help you, sir?” he asked in the smoothest way I’ve heard him speak yet.
Hendricks nodded his head toward the door and Victor followed. After they left, I caught Dr. Green’s eyes. We exchanged bewildered looks. It didn’t seem like any of us knew what this was about.
Victor was gone for the entire class. When the bell rang, I grabbed his bag, too. Dr. Green held up his hand as I came forward in class toward the door.
“Miss Sang,” he said. “Can you stay for a minute?”
I sucked in a breath. His kind eyes were begging me without asking out loud.
I shuffled the book bags and the case in my hands as the others left the room. Dr. Green crossed his arms and leaned against the front desk. I liked his green striped tie and noticed his lean muscles as his forearms pressed his white collared shirt to his body, promising a fit body underneath. “How often have you seen Mr. Hendricks in the last week?”
I blinked at him and counted off the top of my head. “Maybe four or five times?”
“Is that normal for you? Does that happen around you often?”
I wasn’t sure exactly what he was meaning. “I don’t think so.”
“I didn’t think so, either.”
The door swung open and Victor entered the classroom. His cheeks flushed as he looked at us standing together.
“Victor,” Dr. Green said. “What happened?”
“He had me interviewed by some journalist for the newspaper,” Victor said. “Victor Morgan now attends Ashley Waters. The press loves it.” He crossed the room, taking his book bag from my hands. “But we don’t have time right now. We’ve got to get to class. Come on, Sang.”
I looked back at Dr. Green but he only smiled softly and nodded, flipping his hands at me as if I should hurry and follow.
I hurried so I could walk alongside Victor. He was frowning, pushing his hair away from his face as he walked.
“What did the reporter want?” I asked. I walked close to him in case he wanted to be quiet.
“They were doing a special report about the new kids in school in a ‘special program’.” He heaved a sigh. “It’s bad, Sang. We weren’t supposed to be caught out like this.”
“Should we go talk to Mr. Blackbourne?”
“I’m going to go do that,” he said. “I’m getting you to class first.”
“I can go myself,” I offered, “if you need to hurry and go talk to him?”
His fire eyes flickered at me. He grasped for my hand, tugging me along. “It’s on the way.”
T ooth A nd N ail
Gabriel and I were separated for all of gym class as we were instructed on where to sit in separate groups from boys and girls. The guys and girls were both taken to th
eir designated locker rooms to try out our locker combinations. Since we didn’t have anything else to do, the girl’s coach had us wait in the locker room until the end of class.
