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I glanced back. Victor and North had already passed in their tests. I was the one who had taken longer. They were looking down, reading or looking at some other homework.
When I got up to Mr. Morris’s desk, I contemplated what to do. I stood aside after I turned it in and leaned toward him a bit. “Mr. Morris?” I whispered.
“Hm?” he said and lifted his head. “What?”
I glanced at the other students, who seemed to have cleared for now. “How are you? I haven’t heard from you in a while.”
“I never heard from you,” he said. “Weren’t you going to feed me information?”
True. “I wasn’t sure how best to. May I text you later? Is it safe?”
He nodded.
I’d kept his phone number from before. It was in my phone, with Gabriel.
I returned to my seat, my fingers at my chest, tracing the outline of the phone. I opened a textbook, but I didn’t really look at it.
A strong hand landed on my back. North warmed my spine with his palm.
I leaned into it, needing to feel that steadiness. He was probably tired of listening to me fidget.
North knew about Lily.
He talked with the other guys on the team.
I needed to talk to him, too. Maybe...maybe if he knew what was going on, he could help me figure out how to handle Gabriel.
Class ended. I collected my book bag in a hurry and was at the door well before North and Victor. I waited outside the trailer for them.
“What are you in a hurry for?” Victor asked. “Are you hungry?” He looked at North. “I forgot to bring food today. I wasn’t at home this morning.”
“Kota will have some,” North said. “Silas does, too.” He had his bag over his shoulder, and reached out to me, taking mine from my hands. “What’s up with you today? You took longer than even Victor to finish the test.”
“Hey,” Victor said, grumbling. “I finished before most of the others did.”
“You’re not stupid,” North said. “You just read thoroughly and second-guess yourself. I saw you erasing half your answers.” He turned to me. “You didn’t seem so confident. Didn’t you study?”
“I didn’t have much time this weekend,” I said and sighed. I stuffed my hands inside Gabriel’s hoodie pockets. “My head’s a mess. Last night...”
“I get it,” North said.
“You need to eat,” Victor said. “Keep up your strength.” He nudged me and then walked beside me, close enough that his fingers brushed the back of my hand as we walked.
North trailed behind us. I glanced back once at him. He had his head down, his eyes lowered, deep in thought.
When we got to the courtyard, Gabriel wasn’t there.
I sat, eagerly watching the doors, waiting for him. The others around me started opening food they brought, mostly Kota and Silas. Luke had bought a couple of potato chip bags from the vending machines between classes and shared those. He split a candy bar with Silas.
Gabriel still didn’t show up. I nibbled on one of the sandwich halves Kota had passed along. Silas was talking with Luke about a cake for Gabriel’s birthday. North, who was eating carrot sticks and one of the sandwiches sat next to me.
“Where’s Gabriel?” I asked him. “He’s not here yet.”
His eyebrows lifted and then he glanced around. He then focused on Kota. “Where’s dum-dum number…four?”
Kota automatically lifted his head, glanced around and then started counting off. First he touched himself, mouthed, “One”. He pointed at Nathan, mouthed, “Two.” He went down the line quickly, and I couldn’t really follow. “He’s actually number five. And he was told to wander around with Sang’s cell phone and keep it away from her. There’s been a few suspect teachers coming across him at odd intervals. McCoy got out of his car once, holding his cell phone, but then got back in his car again. He might be getting info from teachers, but we can’t be sure.”
“So he’s walking around alone?” North asked. He snapped a finger at Luke and then jerked his thumb toward the door. “You. Go find him. Stay next to him.”
“I get to skip class?” he asked, jumping up with a potato chip bag. “Awesome.”
“He doesn’t need to...but I guess it doesn’t hurt.” Kota sighed, and reached in for a sandwich and passed it over to Luke. “Make sure he eats.”
“Sure,” Luke said, and grabbed his book bag, walking to the door.
“Why didn’t you do that sooner?” North asked.
Kota shook his head. “I had Mr. Blackbourne keeping an eye on him wandering around. He’s got a visual. To give himself a break, Gabriel occasionally locks himself into their office.”
“I don’t like it,” North said. “Not walking around for so long when we’re expecting someone to be following. Especially McCoy.”
“He’s fine,” Kota said.
“Sang’s worried about him,” North said.
Kota looked at me, his eyebrows lifting in puzzlement.
It made me feel better that Gabriel wasn’t going to be alone, but disappointed he wouldn’t be coming here. “It’s safer if Luke is nearby,” I said. Maybe that would be good. Maybe Luke could cheer him up. To change the subject though, I had a question. “So Gabriel is number five?”
North spoke up, cutting off Kota. “We’ve all got numbers, according to him.”
“It’s how I keep track of everyone,” Kota said. He took a bite of his sandwich, chewed and swallowed before he continued. “It just makes sense for me. I count off people.”
“And you’re number one?” I asked.
“I always account for myself first, to get it out of the way and I’m not off a number,” he said. He pointed to his head. “It’s complicated up here.”
“What number am I?” I asked.
“Ten,” he said.
“I’m last?” I asked. There were ten of us in our group. I wasn’t sure if I should be disappointed or not. It wasn’t like it was a race and I was the last one. It wasn’t really a ranking, either.
“You’re the newest, the most recent. You got the next number.”
“So you call her ten?” Nathan asked. “Aw. Make her number one.”
“It’s just...” Kota fumbled. He sighed, breathing in deeply and then touching the corner of his glasses. His cheeks tinted pink. “It’s how I think. It doesn’t mean anything. It helps keep things in order.”
I felt bad now for asking. It was embarrassing Kota. “I don’t mind being ten,” I said.
He smiled weakly. “It works for me.”
The others started getting into discussions about school and other things. Kota talked with Victor about his cell phone system and how McCoy might invade it to track where we went.
I pulled out Gabriel’s cell phone. First, I used it to contact Mr. Blackbourne about Mr. Morris. I wanted to talk to Mr. Morris, but I didn’t have his number with me now, and I thought Mr. Blackbourne would be of better use here.
Sang: I spoke briefly with Mr. Morris in class. He wants me to feed him information via text message.
Sang: I thought it might be useful to ask him about Mr. McCoy. His number is logged into my cell phone.
Mr. Blackbourne: I’ll devise a set of false information for him to pursue, in exchange for information we might need. Thank you for letting me know.
I appreciated the immediate answer. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing. I wanted to talk to Mr. Morris myself, but I had no clue what to offer. Plus, having Mr. Morris talking to us might help with getting rid of McCoy. Mr. Blackbourne would notify Gabriel what to say, or in some way do it himself, I was sure.
I thought of what else I could say to Gabriel. It was difficult to measure if he was upset or simply busy. He’d said to call Lily. I thought maybe I’d call her and then I’d have a chance to relay to him what she said and see how he responded.
But I couldn’t call her here. I wasn’t ready to talk to her yet. I wanted to talk to Gabriel.
I glance
d at North, who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. I stared at him a bit. His dark eyes drifted. I wasn’t sure if I should interrupt him. He hadn’t shaved that morning, and the coarse dark hairs on his chin made him appear older than sixteen. I admired his dark complexion and the deep brown, almost black hair. He was scary looking at times, especially when he was angry, but when he was calm, like now when he was thinking, he was darkly handsome.
I needed to talk to him about Lily, though. He seemed okay with the idea. Maybe he could help me think of a way to convince Gabriel it would be okay. I was also curious what he thought of it all.
I wasn’t sure how to draw his attention, so I reached gently for his arm.
He pulled back instantly, sitting up sharply. His distant eyes focused and then looked down at me. I’d spooked him.
“Sorry,” I said.
He grunted. “It’s nothing,” he said. “What?”
I glanced at the others and then at him. “I wanted to talk to you...” I grimaced. I wasn’t sure where to start. I implored him with my eyes. I wasn’t sure how to drag him off during lunch.
He glanced at the others and then down at me. “You want to talk?” he asked. “Talk.”
