“I mean in private. Can we talk upstairs?”
His eyes slide to me. I give him a nod, and he rises from his chair. As they go outside, every head at the table follows them.
“Are they close?” Roger voices the question on everyone’s mind.
“Umm… sort of?” I slide fried ham onto the table to go with the glazed carrots. “They’re both pretty independent. I wouldn’t say their paths cross a lot.”
“And is school going well for her?”
“Yeah, I think so.” Except, do I? April talks about schoola lot, but it’s all circumscribed into her study regime. I took that to be a good sign, but school is more than tests and assignments. Most of what I remember about Port Alberni’s classroom is my time with Mom. In Astolia, the lessons were so rudimentary, it was my classmates that stuck out to me. Those are an important part of school, too.
“I mean, teenagers never really tell you anything,” Roger chuckles, giving me an out.
“Right?” I sure as hell never told my mother I was sleeping with Curtis. Sometimes I like to picture them in Heaven together, her giving him a disapproving glare when their souls are exposed to the cosmic consciousness and she realizes what we shared.
But I never thought about April hiding things fromme. She didn’t when we were in the woods. Why would she? I was all she had. I was her mother, sister, best friend, you name it. What if someone else is taking that friend role in her life now?
It would be for the best. Or at the least, it would be more like what life looked like pre-Quake, and everybody tells me I’m supposed to want that for her—to live an echo of the past.
I try to be talkative. With Sid off with April and James bedding whatever her name was, we’ve been whittled down to the younger crew, plus me, Silas, and his boyfriend. We all know how well Silas does carrying the social obligations, so someone has to engage Roger.
Try as I might, I keep looking toward the door, wondering when April is going to come back. What secrets could she want to tell Sid instead of me?
When my paranoid behaviour becomes impossible to ignore, Roger gives me a weak smile. “It’s probably not anything serious.”
“Yeah.” I try to laugh. “It’s probably…”
A muffled shout reaches my ears.Sid. Both my pulse and my body leap, so I’m already at the door when it bursts open. April is in the lead, cheeks flaming. She pushes past me with a hard thrust of her shoulder.
Sid shakes a finger at her. “Hey! That isnothow you treat your sister, young lady.”
April’s back goes rod straight, her hands balling into fists. One of which, I realize, is holding a piece of paper.
“Sid, calm down. It’s okay.” I hurry to her side. “Something going on?”
“Youhave to sign this.” She shoves the piece of paper at me so hard, it’s like a punch in the stomach.
“Have to sign wha—” I unfold the page, and the words die on my lips.
Dear Mr. Charles and Ms. Hollins,
I am writing to inform you that April Hollins was involved in an altercation today, where she struck another student. Behaviour of this kind is not tolerated at Gulf Islands Secondary School and as such, she is required to attend detention following classes from November 13th – November 17th.
We require your signature as her legal guardians to certify that you have been informed of the situation.
It goes on, describing what I need to do if I want to consult with a member of staff and how the actions they take might escalate if she repeats this behaviour, but I’ll have to go over the details another day.
“April, what the hell?” I round on her. “This is why you—did you ask Sid to sign this and not show me?”
“You don’t have to scream about it. He wouldn’t do it.”
“April!” On a certain level, I’m impressed. She’s embarrassed and did her damnedest to make it so thatonly Sid had to know. But my mind is reeling. April has a temper, but she’s never been physical in how she expresses herself. Hell, I used to wish she had more fight in her. That kind of thing is useful out in the woods.
But we aren’t in the wild anymore. Society’s standards for tameness are different from mine.
“What happened?”
Her fists tighten, and it dawns on me how public our setting is. I grab her by the wrist. “Let’s talk upstairs. Roger, I am so sorry—”
