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When he hung up, I stayed on the couch, staring at the phone and wondering if maybe he wasn’t just feeling lonely and I’d made a mistake by being so nonchalant about him coming over.
At seven am, I squatted inside the attic space in my room, staring into a custom made wardrobe and trying to read Gabriel’s mind as to which skirt went with which blouse.
Nathan was hunched in the attic doorway nearby. “Just pick something.”
I grumbled, pulling out a sporty cotton skirt in a dark blue and a light gray cotton blouse. They were the most comfortable looking things, and on a personal level, that was all I really wanted. Gabriel might have a conniption, but it looked okay to wear to me. Since I’d been gone for so long with the startling revelation from my parents and from my father being gone, I would probably be noticed. I didn’t want to stand out so much on my first day back by wearing some of the nicer things he’d bought.
I crawled out of the attic. Nathan was already dressed, wearing the uniform still required by the principal for Academy students, with dark pants and the formal white dress shirt unbuttoned all the way to reveal his white undershirt. The blazer was a dark blue and had a patch with wings and keys and a hidden heart. I hated that they had to wear the things, but the patch made me smile when I saw it. I secretly enjoyed that Gabriel kept the hidden heart in the design.
I changed quickly in the bathroom. When I was done, Nathan wasn’t in my room, and neither was my book bag or my violin case. I pulled some sandals on and rushed down the stairs to look for him.
Nathan was in the kitchen, sticking his head into the fridge. Marie waited behind him. My heart stopped. I knew she knew they’d been spending the night and so far she hadn’t said anything. I’d been too angry with my parents leaving that I didn’t consider that she might be uncomfortable with having them around. We hadn’t talked much since our father left. I wasn’t really sure how to approach her.
Nathan pulled back with four Starbucks coffee bottles in his hands.
I blinked after Nathan. “Where’d we get those?”
“I brought them from my house yesterday.” He passed one off to Marie. “Kota’s going to be here in a second with the car. “Do you want a ride to school?”
A ride? We were riding to school in Kota’s car? When was he going to tell me? And now he was asking Marie?
Marie shook her head, twisting the cap off of the coffee. “Danielle’s new boyfriend has a car. I’m going to wait at her house and he’s going to give us a ride.” She turned to me. “She’s going to spend the night here this weekend.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Okay?” Was she asking? Or was she informing? I wasn’t too sure I liked the idea of Danielle knowing our parents were gone, but what could I say to that when Nathan had spent the night yesterday?
Nathan frowned but said nothing. He handed off the rest of the coffees to me, picked up my things and his own book bag and nudged me toward the door. “We’re going,” he said. “See you later.”
Marie sipped her coffee and ran back upstairs.
We went out in the garage and walked toward the driveway. Nathan nudged my hand with his. “You shouldn’t let Marie have Danielle over.”
“What? Why? You stay the night. How could I ask her not to have her own friend over?”
“I don’t think I like the idea,” he said. “If word gets around that your parents are gone, and if Marie really wanted to, she could start throwing parties, or Danielle would bully Marie to do it.”
I hadn’t thought of that. It would be insane to try to throw a party now. “But I’m not in charge. What could I say to her?”
Kota’s old model sedan pulled into the driveway. Nathan ran around the car and opened the front passenger side door, eyeballing me expectantly. I sucked in a breath at the unnecessary niceness but said thank you as I got in.
I handed a coffee over to Kota as Nathan was getting in. Kota grinned at me, taking it and snapping the top. He took a long, slow sip. His lips squelched after. “It’s too sweet.”
“She likes them,” Nathan said, reaching for one.
“It’s baby coffee,” Kota said. “It’s probably more a sugar rush than a caffeine buzz she’s getting.”
“Have to work her up to the other stuff.”
Kota put the car into reverse and started down the road. He picked up his phone as he headed out of Sunnyvale Court, punching at an icon and putting the phone to his face. “Victor? Just checking in. Haven’t heard from you. Yeah, I’ve got Sang and Nathan. We’re riding in today.”
“Hi, Victor,” I said.
“And Sang says hi,” Kota repeated. “No. You’ll see her in a second.” He hung up and smiled at me. “Victor says hi.”
“Didn’t even bother to say hi to me,” Nathan said, following with a sarcastic huff.
When we got to school, the other guys were already there, clustered around a couple of the benches in the center courtyard. I felt edgy, and wanted to stand. Part of it was the coffee that rattled through my empty stomach like a Mexican jumping bean in a tin can. Mostly I was nervous about being back after having spent so much time away, and feeling like so much had happened. While there was a school holiday taking Thursday and Friday off last week, having been gone the entire week made it feel like a lifetime.
There was a faux sense inside me that students were watching, and they all knew. There’s Sang, the girl with a dead mother and parents who didn’t want her.
Gabriel was chatting with Kota. After a few moments, he spotted me. His eyebrows furrowed, and he shoved his fingers through a lock of blond hair, mixing it with the russet brown. “Oy,” he said. He curled his fingers at me, and patted the spot next to him, scooting over. “Come sit.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him I felt like standing. I wedged myself onto the corner of the seat. My thigh pinched up against his.
He sat back, planting a hand on the bench right behind my butt. “I give you all those nice new clothes, and you’re fucking them up.” He tugged at the sleeve of the gray top. “You have to wear something brighter with that skirt. Now you’re just too dull.”
“I just wanted something comfortable,” I said.
“What’s not comfortable? Name something you have that isn’t comfortable and I’ll throw it out.” He studied my face. “Trouble, look at me, sweetie.”
I had thought I was looking at him, but I realized I was staring at the collar of his white shirt and at the red tie, not looking at his face. I met his crystal blue eyes. My insides quivered enough that it rattled my arm against his.
“Whoa,” he said. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Sang, you’re shaking.”
“She always does that,” Silas said. He smiled from across the courtyard, winking at me with those dark brown eyes.
“It’s the coffee,” Nathan said. “She hasn’t eaten anything else.”
“Here,” Luke said. He shuffled into his book bag, pulling out a couple of beef jerky sticks.
Gabriel caught the sticks one handed in the air. He bit down on the edge with his teeth into the plastic to open it and handed me the first one. “Here.”
Heat ran over my face, but I did as I was told. I still felt shaky, but at least there was something in my stomach.
The bell rang. Gabriel pouted. “Never enough time.” He gave me a quick little side hug before heading off to class.
I fell in line with North and Luke heading to homeroom. They were talking about the diner. I put my head on the desk, just so I wasn’t in the way of their conversation.
Mr. Ferguson mumbled the last of the names out for roll call. There was a buzzer on the intercom and a voice erupted from the speaker. “Mr. Ferguson, is ... Sang Sorenson in there?”
My head shot up off my desk. Luke sat up, gazing at me with his lips parted. A hand brushed at my back and I knew North was just as awake and paying attention.
Mr. Ferguson held the button below the intercom. “Yes, she’s here.”
“Have her come up
to the office, please. Thank you.”
My mind flew into a frenzy. They knew about my parents. I’m an abandoned kid. They were going to cart Marie and I off to some shelter or something worse. My heart thundered in my chest. I really didn’t need this on my first day back.
“Leave your stuff,” Luke said. “I’ll take it to class.”
I nodded, releasing my book bag and the violin case to him. When I was standing, North’s eyes met mine and it looked like he was asking me if he should go along, too. I didn’t know how that would work so I drifted my hand in the air in a motion to suggest that he should stay. “Probably nothing,” I muttered to him.
I wished I felt that was true.
I walked alone through the empty hallways. My sandals echoed against the tile. I smoothed out the dark blue skirt I was wearing, trying to push the hem down to ensure I was well within regulation. I tried to tell myself this had to be something trivial, like paperwork I forgot to get my parents to sign. Maybe I dropped something and it was being returned.
I entered the waiting room for the main office and the secretary asked me to have a seat. I felt flustered, wondering why they had asked me to come up if they were busy. I sat in one of the burnt orange chairs that almost matched the worn carpet. There was a buzz of movement, and paper shuffling, and phones ringing behind the half wall that separated the waiting room from the secretary’s desk.
The bell rang for class change. I swallowed. Kota and Gabriel would know I was called up. Luke was stuck carrying my things to class. Would I make it back in time to grab my things before the next class started?
I touched at the phone I carried in my bra as if to reassure myself it was there. I was tempted to ring up Mr. Blackbourne or Dr. Green and let them know I was uncomfortable, but I thought if it turned out to be some menial paperwork that it would be stupid to bug them.
Principal Hendricks’s hulky figure appeared in the opening to the hallway. His piercing gaze settled on me. “Miss Sang? Would you follow me?”
My mouth parted. I leapt up, intending to reach in for my phone but another administrator emerged from the front door, and I had to hurry to catch up with Principal Hendricks.
