AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His gaze swept over the other students and then landed on us. He nudged his glasses up and his eyes darted to me, to Nathan, and then settled on Gabriel. There was a slight hint at curiosity but it was gone in an instant with an accepting nod. He must have been used to the boys opting to ride home with him at the last minute.
Nathan waved shortly at Kota. “We’re in trouble.”
Kota glanced briefly at me and then at Gabriel. “What now?”
Nathan started explaining and was just up to the part about Mr. Blackbourne telling me to take it easy when Gabriel nudged him in the ribs hard.
“Ow,” Nathan said. He rubbed at the spot. “Gabe, what–”
Gabriel made a zipping motion over his lips and jerked his head toward the school.
We all turned and I spotted Marie, my sister. Her T-shirt was tight against her thin frame, and her long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her head was down as she walked toward us.
“Everything okay?” I asked her as she got close. She’d been taking the bus lately. I didn’t think she liked riding with the boys.
Marie’s head picked up as she got closer. Her eyebrows scrunched together, and she glared angrily at me. She turned her attention, noting the three boys. Her lips clamped shut, and she clutched at the straps of her book bag. She wasn’t going to answer.
Was something wrong? I wasn’t sure how to ask in front of the boys. I locked gazes with Kota, silently asking for help.
He didn’t miss a beat. He opened the front passenger door. “Want to sit up front?” he asked her.
Marie gave him a slight nod, a small thank you, and wedged herself into the seat. Kota closed the door for her.
We all got in. I sat in the back between Gabriel and Nathan.
The ride was silent on the way to Sunnyvale Court. I occasionally exchanged glances with Gabriel and Nathan. They asked me the same questions I was asking them mutely. What’s wrong with her?
Marie said nothing, and the moment Kota parked the car in the driveway of our two-story, gray house, she jumped out and ran inside.
We clustered around Kota’s car in the driveway. My sister had retreated into the house and I felt guilty about not being able to do more for her, and sad that she wouldn’t let me. The last few times I’d tried, she never talked, and she pushed me out the door. Although before, she’d never seemed this upset. It was unsettling.
“I don’t think she likes riding with us,” Gabriel said. “I don’t know why she does it.”
“She doesn’t have that many friends,” Nathan said. “And the ones she has don’t have cars. You know how crowded those busses are. I can’t really blame her wanting a break from it.”
“How do you know she doesn’t have many friends?” I asked. I never saw my sister much during school and didn’t know who she hung out with except for Danielle, a neighbor. Usually our schedules were so different that I never saw her at all. Ever since our mother went into the hospital, it was like she avoided me even when I was home.
Gabriel smirked at me. “Have you seen your sister? She sits at the band geek table.”
“How do you know which table she sits at?”
“I go through the cafeteria before I get to the courtyard,” Gabriel said. He hooked an arm around my neck and hugged me close. “She probably just had a rough day. Don’t worry about her. She probably didn’t want to ride the bus. Those busses are shit.”
Maybe she was still adjusting. At least she had the boys and me looking out for her. Even if she couldn’t appreciate it right now, the boys bought groceries, and took care of a lot of things we couldn’t do for ourselves. I tried to believe Gabriel and the others, that she had a rough day.
Kota collected his book bag and mine. “Okay, Mr. Blackbourne’s given us orders. Sang, do you want to come home with me?”
I nodded. If Marie was feeling down, I thought it best to give her some space. If I went with Kota, she’d have the house to herself. I looked at the others, confused. “Are you all not coming with us?”
“They’re going to go fetch vitamins and healthy food.” He turned to Nathan. “You want dinner shift?”
“I’ll make dinner,” Nathan said. He turned to Gabriel. “You coming?”
“I’ll go,” he said. He squeezed me around the shoulders again and then released me, heading for the car. “I don’t want you buying her just rabbit food and tofu.”
“Hey, tofu tastes pretty good if you fry it right. And I don’t care what she eats. She could eat a whole damn cow if she wanted. I’m tired of her looking like a stick, and being about as lively as one lately.”
Kota stood beside me as Nathan pulled the car out of the drive. Gabriel waved to me as they started down the road. I finger waved back and he smirked at me.
When they were gone, Kota sighed and turned to me. “Do you need anything from your house?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t think of anything I really needed. I had clothes at Nathan’s house, and I was pretty sure I had a few things at Kota’s house, too. “Think it’s okay to leave Marie alone?”
“Danielle should be by after school. She’ll keep her company.” Kota turned to head down the drive.
Danielle didn’t sound like the best sort of company, but it was all Marie had, so I didn’t want to say anything further about it. I’d never talked to Danielle, but the guys didn’t like her and at one point, she stole my clothes. I didn’t understand why Marie was friends with her but it wasn’t my choice. It was hers.
As we started walking down the road, a brown, old car rolled up, and parked on the curb a few houses down from Kota’s house.
Kota paused in the road. I glanced at the car, recognizing it as Mr. Morris’s. The principal, Mr. Hendricks, had Kota followed nearly everywhere. It was uncomfortable, but as long as we were watched, Kota couldn’t do much Academy work, and that made Mr. Hendricks happy. “Mr. Morris is taking a shift again,” I said.
“I see him,” he said. Kota’s eyes darted from his house to the brown car, as if he was trying to figure something out.
I tugged at his arm. “Is everything okay? Should I go tell him you plan on being home tonight? Maybe he’ll give us a break.”
“No,” he said. He turned to me. “I don’t want you talking to him anymore, or to anyone else following us. Okay?”
I shifted on my feet, unsure. He hadn’t said anything about the night I went with Luke and stopped Mr. Morris from following us. That time, I’d promised Mr. Morris I’d report information back to him about the guys. I thought it might be useful. “But shouldn’t we work with him? Couldn’t we get information from him? Maybe he knows something we don’t and it would help you figure out what Mr. Hendricks is up to.”
“Maybe he could help us,” he said. “But we haven’t confirmed why he’s working for Mr. Hendricks in the first place.”
“For money,” I said, recalling the conversation I’d had with him. “He said he doesn’t get paid enough.”
“I think there’s more to it,” he said. “I’m pretty sure Mr. Hendricks has a couple of partners working with him, I just don’t know who. It might be Morris or it might not. But don’t worry about it for now, just stay away from him. Mr. Blackbourne has taken over giving him the information you promised him. He’ll figure it out.”
The vibe I got from Mr. Morris was that he was under pressure from Mr. Hendricks and thought the surveillance was pointless. I glanced once more at the sedan, but then relented. Kota and the others may have decided they needed to be more careful. Given recent events with Volto, I couldn’t blame them. We still had no idea who Volto was; he could be anyone.
If Mr. Blackbourne took over what I was supposed to be doing, I had to let it go. They must have had a plan, and I had to trust them.
I followed Kota down the road and to the garage door of his house. Max, his golden retriever, was out on the lead. Kota ignored Max’s happy barks at our arrival. Max approached me, following us inside the garage, as far as the lead would allow. I
dropped my fingers behind his ears, giving him a small scratch.
Kota stuck his key into the lock, twisting the handle, and shoved the door open. He stepped back, stretching his arm toward the open door. “Coming in?”
I passed him, stepping into the short hallway inside the house and then paused to wait for him. The rest of the house was dark, ominous.
Kota dropped our things just inside the door, and stepped back out. He unhooked Max’s lead. The retriever made a dash for the open door. Max paused long enough to sniff my leg once before trampling on through the house, smelling every corner as if inspecting.
I had to smile. I wasn’t sure if he was glad to be inside or if he was trying to do a security check. I suspected the latter. Max was Kota’s dog, after all.
Kota came back inside, shutting the door. “Where do you want to sit?”
I eyeballed his bedroom door and then the hallway that led to the rest of the house. “Is Jessica here?”
“She must have been home,” Kota said. “She let Max out. But I have a feeling she’s at a friend’s house. She would have popped out and checked on who was coming in if she was here.”
If his sister wasn’t going to be home for hours, and his mother didn’t usually get off work until late, and Nathan was away...
