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When he's done, he tugs the boy's shoulder. It takes two tugs to get his attention.
"Yeah?"
Lev holds out the notebook, making sure he docs it in such a way that it's not too obvious. The boy looks at him and says:
"Hey, that's my notebook."
Lev takes a deep breath. Connor's looking at him now. He's got to be careful. "I know it's your notebook," Lev says, trying to say as much as he can with his eyes. "I just . . . needed . . . one . . . page. . . ."
He holds the notebook a little higher for the kid to read, but the kid's not even looking at it. "No! You should have asked first." Then he rips out the page without even looking at it, crumples the paper, and to Lev's horror hurls it toward the front of the bus. The paper wad bounces off the head of another kid, who ignores it, and it falls to the floor. The bus comes to a stop, and Lev feels his hope trampled beneath thirty pairs of scuffed shoes.
14 Connor
Dozens of buses pull up to the school. Kids mob every doorway. As Connor gets off the bus with Risa and Lev, he scans for a way to escape, but there is none. There are campus security guards and teachers on patrol. Anyone seen walking away from school would draw the attention of everyone watching.
"We can't actually go in," says Risa.
"I say we do," says Lev, acting more squirrelly than usual.
A teacher has already taken notice of them. Even though the school has a day care center for student mothers, the baby is very conspicuous.
"We'll go in," says Connor. "We'll hide in a place where there aren't any security cameras. The boys' bathroom."
"Girls'," says Risa. "It'll be cleaner, and there'll be more stalls to hide in."
Connor considers it, and figures she's probably right on both counts. "Fine. We'll hide until lunch, then slip out with the rest of the kids going off campus."
"You're assuming this baby wants to cooperate," says Risa. "Eventually it's going to want to be fed—and I don't exactly have the materials, if you know what I mean. If it starts crying in the bathroom, it will probably echo throughout the whole school."
It's another accusation. Connor can hear it in her voice. It says: Do you have any idea how much harder you've made things on us?
"Let's just hope it doesn't cry," says Connor. "And if it does, you can blame me all the way to harvest camp."
* * *
Connor is no stranger to hiding in school bathrooms. Of course, before today, the reason was simply to get out of class. Today, however, there's no class where he's expected, and if he's caught, the consequences are a little bit more severe than Saturday school.
They slip in after the first period bell rings and Connor coaches them on the finer points of bathroom stealth. How to tell the difference between kids' footsteps and adults'. When to lift your feet up so no one can see you, and when to just announce that the stall is occupied. The latter would work for both Risa and Lev, since his voice is still somewhat high, but Connor doesn't dare pretend to be a girl.
They stay together yet alone, each in their own stall. Mercifully, the bathroom door squeals like a pig whenever it's opened, so they have warning when anyone comes in. There are a few girls at the beginning of first period but then it quiets down and they are left with no sound but the echoing drizzle of a leaky flush handle.
"We won't make it in here until lunch," Risa announces from the stall to Connor's left. "Even if the baby stays asleep."
"You'd be surprised how long you can hide in a bathroom."
'You mean you've done this often?" asks Lev, in the stall to his right.
Connor knows this fits right into Lev's image of Connor as a bad seed. Fine, let him think that. He's probably right.
The bathroom door squeals. They fall silent. Dull, rapid footsteps—it's a student in sneakers. Lev and Connor raise their feet and Risa keeps hers down, as they had planned. The baby gurgles, and Risa clears her throat, masking the noise perfectly. The girl is in and out in less than a minute.
After the bathroom door squeaks closed, the baby coughs. Connor notices that it's a quick, clean sound. Not sickly at all. Good.
"By the way," says Risa, "it is a girl."
Connor thinks to offer to hold it once more, but figures right now that would be more trouble than it's worth. He doesn't know how to hold a baby to keep it from crying. Connor decides he has to tell them why he went temporarily insane and took the baby. He owes them that much.
"It was because of what the kid said," Connor says gently.
