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I shifted from foot to foot, glancing at the messed up bed. Was Danielle planning on having boys over? Was she planning to use my room? I shivered. “What are we going to do?”
“We’re staying here this weekend,” he said. He shuffled through the closet, pulling out a white T-shirt, dark gray pants and the dark blue blazer for the faux school uniform. “We’ll get Kota, or someone else to stay too, if we have to. The only thing we can do is occupy your bedroom. We can run anyone else out.”
“Maybe we should stay at Kota’s or Victor’s for the weekend.” I didn’t want anyone in my room, but if Danielle was going to try, I didn’t want to be here. I also didn’t want Nathan and Kota getting into fights; it would draw too much attention. We were supposed to be keeping a low profile. I was scared. I didn’t know what Danielle was capable of and I didn’t want to find out. I wanted to avoid it.
“Sang,” he said. He dropped the clothes onto the bed, walked over and held my shoulders as he looked at me. “You can’t back down. You can’t let Danielle take over. She’s using your sister to do what she wants with this house. If you have to stay here, then you need to fight back.”
I shook my head. “If she wanted to, she could say something to the police, or maybe...”
“We’re running that risk right now, anyway.” He sighed, rubbing his palms against my arms. “Maybe we’re fooling ourselves, Peanut. Maybe we were wrong to let you stay here.”
“What else can I do?” I asked. “Where else would I go?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we’ll get our own place somewhere,” he said.
“Our own?”
He nodded. “I was thinking about it last night. You and I could move. We’ll find an apartment. Maybe one where Silas lives. We can both work at the diner now. You and I could do it together, I bet.”
“Could we?” I hadn’t thought about it. I glanced at the jar on top of the bookshelf; I didn’t think I had enough to afford an apartment.
“Then we wouldn’t have to worry about your parents, or mine, or anyone finding out about anything. We could just... And I’d take care of everything. And with Kota and Victor and the others around and the Academy, we’d be okay.”
“The Academy would help?”
“They’ll always be there,” he said. “For us. As long as I’m here.”
“What if I joined?”
His eyebrows shifted. “You?”
I nodded. “If I could join, I wouldn’t have to keep going to Ashley Waters, right? I’d be in the Academy.”
He slid a palm across the back of his neck. “I don’t know, Peanut.”
“We’d go to the same school,” I said. “I’d be able to help out.”
“You don’t even know what it is,” he said. “You don’t know what we do.”
“You help people,” I said. “Family first. Family is a choice. And you do...” I stopped, unsure. The truth was, there was still very little I did know about the Academy. They had jobs to follow, rules I didn’t know the full measure of. I still didn’t know where the Academy was. It was good that I didn’t. Principal Hendricks still asked about it. “I mean, I could be useful.”
“It’s dangerous, though,” he said.
“It’s dangerous now, isn’t it?” I asked. “Mr. Blackbourne thought I could, and so did Victor.”
His eyes widened. “Victor said?”
I nodded. Was that important? “I know Kota’s worried, but I thought maybe if everyone else was okay with it, he’d see it wouldn’t be too bad.”
Nathan twisted his lips, shaking his head. “I’m not going against Kota,” he said. “But let’s worry about it later.” He grabbed his clothes. “I’m going downstairs to your parents’ bathroom to shower. Get dressed. We need to talk to Kota and the others about this.”
???
By the time I’d washed and dressed, Nathan was ready. He was sitting by my bookshelf, checking it out while he waited. He had one of the books out, staring at the cover.
“This is your journal, isn’t it?” he asked, holding it out to me.
I checked while stuffing a text book into my book bag. “Yeah.”
He opened it up briefly, flipping through the pages and then turned it over, holding it upside down. “You wrote it in Korean, didn’t you?”
“Just borrowed the lettering,” I said. I went back to sorting out my book bag, trying to recall what I needed for school and what I could leave behind. “It’s in English, but it’s just coded, I guess.”
“Can ... can I practice?” he asked.
“What?”
“Mr. Blackbourne mentioned it once. And now that I’m looking at it, I thought it might be useful. I don’t know when, but if some of us knew this.”
That sounded reasonable. I didn’t think it would be very useful in too many places, but Mr. Blackbourne had already used it once to get a coded message to me. Maybe he was right. “You want me to write it out.”
“Can I maybe practice by trying to decode the journal? Is it that private?”
I thought about it and shook my head. “It’s mostly just old dreams. Maybe a few rants about my family.” It really didn’t bother me. I relayed bad dreams to North and the others a lot, so if Nathan read some of my past dreams, or even some of the times I vented about life, I didn’t mind.
He nodded, smiled a little. “I’m not like Kota or Mr. Blackbourne,” he said. “They get this stuff in an instant. Some of us still have to practice.”
“If you want,” I said, zipping up my book bag. “We have to go.” I said.
He followed me downstairs to the kitchen. He split a banana with me and we each had a coffee.
Nathan dashed upstairs to grab his shoes. When he returned, he held out his hand, a wad of cash was collected in his palm.
“Here,” he said.
I stared at the money. “What?”
“You should take some with you,” he said. “I saw the jar.”
I took the cash from him, squeezing the dollar bills. “Why?”
“Should have given you some before,” he said. “Just in case. Keep it in your bag or with your cell phone, if you can.”
I didn’t count the money, and folded it up and placed it next to my phone in my bra. It was itchy at first but I made sure to place it between the phone and the bra.
Nathan watched as I did it, and then smiled. “Those are the best pockets,” he said. He turned, taking my book bag along and heading for the door.
Nathan wanted to get to Kota before Marie, and possibly Danielle, came out wanting a ride to school.
When we got there, Nathan opened the car door for me, getting me to slide in the middle next to Kota before he sat on the passenger side. “We’ve got a problem,” Nathan said.
“Danielle?” Kota asked. “Silas told me.”
Nathan nodded. “I didn’t know she was there last night. She popped in on us this morning.”
“It can’t be helped now,” Kota said. His hand found my knee and he squeezed it gently. “You okay?”
“I don’t know what to do,” I said.
“Don’t hold hands with anyone today. Let’s see if Danielle talks. We’ll let Silas and North figure out the best move when they talk to the football team. There’s a chance she won’t say anything and the situation won’t change. Don’t avoid Silas, but don’t let him hold your hand or hang out too close unless he tells you to. We’ll just avoid the topic for now and feel out what others are saying.”
“There’s something else,” Nathan said. “I thought Sang and I should...”
Kota held up a hand. “Hang on. Let’s get to school first. We should talk with the others.” He glanced at me. “Where’s Marie?”
Nathan grunted. “I’ll go find her,” he said.
“Wait.” Kota unbuckled his belt. “I’ll go. If Danielle is still here, we don’t need to add any more fuel to this.” He ducked out of the car, and jogged toward the door inside the garage.
A couple of minutes later, Kota re
turned alone, frowning. He wedged himself into the driver’s side seat. “They’re not going to school today.”
“Wait,” I said. “Marie can’t skip again.”
“We can’t force her.” Kota put the car into reverse, backing out of the drive.
“Someone should stay,” Nathan said. “I should. We can’t leave those two together alone in the house.”
“They said they had to get ready,” Kota said.
Nathan shifted in his seat. “They sounded like they were expecting a party at the house tonight.”
“We’ll keep an eye on them with the cameras. If they start doing anything too damaging, we’ll send someone back.”
“I think they’re inviting boys over,” I said. “She wanted a skirt from me.”
“Is the attic door closed?” Kota asked. “Is the light off?”
