Reject High (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 1) (3 page)

CHAPTER THREE

detention becomes a comic book movie

Does the red door lead to Narnia?
Before I could think about it longer, the middle-aged black janitor twisted a key in the lock and walked off.

I’ll find out soon enough.

“Thanks Brad,” Rhapsody yelled after him. She pulled the metal handle and flicked the light switch on the wall. “Fourth step’s rotten in the middle,” she muttered over her shoulder. “Avoid it, if you like having both feet.”

I tested her word with the toe of my right shoe. Sure enough, the wood folded like a soft taco shell with even that little weight.

Two steps later, we were at the bottom and staring into a dark pit of a basement. Even with every available light on, the place still resembled the awful mouth of a haunted cave. With no windows or ventilation vents, it carried the funky odor of mold and fungus. A squeak sent a shiver through my body.
Mice? Bats?
I jerked my sweatshirt hood over my head to fend off a possible flying rodent. “How long do we have down here?”

“An hour.” She rummaged around on a cobweb covered shelf filled with old tools. 

My ribs ached. “What are you looking for?”

“These.”
She held up a hammer and handed a pair of needle nose pliers to me. I accepted them, but had no idea what she wanted me to do. I’m all thumbs when it comes to being handy
.

“Can I trust you?” Her hazel eyes avoided mine.  

She made me disappear into thin air, kissed me without warning, and wonders if she can trust me?
“You haven’t kept it real with me all day. Can
I
trust
you?”

She slowly drew in a breath before releasing it. “You know about Cherish?”

“Yeah, the girl who. . .”

“Forget whatever you hear about it. I know the truth.”

I wondered if what she had to say about Cherish connected to me, too.
“The truth? How?”

“We were best friends,” Rhapsody moistened her lips. “This was hers. She stole a pink bracelet from a thrift shop and gave this necklace to me.”

“Okay.”

“We got dungeon duty all the time.” Her face lit up. “She was schizo and did weird things before her diagnosis. That’s why they sent her here, and her dad made sure she stayed. So, one day we were goofing off down here, and she found
that.”
She pointed toward the back of the room.

I squinted in the darkness, but didn’t see anything. “What?”

“Hold on.” Rhapsody used the flashlight application on her cell to light the way.

Hidden inside a tiny crack in the stone facing, a dark green glint shined back at us. I investigated, drawing closer and poking it with my fingers. It appeared to be some sort of hard mineral rock. “What is it?”  

“Don’t know. Cherish cut a piece off and made it into a necklace. After she gave it to me, she got sick -
real sick.
Said she heard new voices, but nobody believes schizos. They just get more pills.”

That sounds familiar. Everyone in my family thinks ADHD is a joke, like another way of saying someone is stupid or bad. “Did you believe her?”

Her expression softened. “I do now.”

“What happened next?”

Rhapsody used the hammer to knock at the stone wall near the mysterious green. Soon, a half-dollar sized piece of the outlying stone crumbled to the ground. “Here,” she said to me, pointing out a jutting piece. “Pull it free with those, and whatever you do,
don’t squeeze.”

Again, I’m not good at this. I applied as little pressure as possible when grasping the delicate crystal and yanked. When it failed to give, Rhapsody hammered a rusty nail into its base to crack it close to where it emerged from the wall. Our combined efforts resulted in an inch-long prism with a smooth edge. I laid it on the center of my palm.
It looks like an emerald.

After dabbing a drop of glue in the center of a leather necklace setting, Rhapsody plucked the crystal away from my hand, pushed it down onto the glue and applied pressure. “I’ll shoot it straight, if you can handle it. Most people can’t.”

“Sure.”
Why is this chick so dramatic?

“Seriously.”

I didn’t doubt that, so I jammed his hands into my pockets to keep from fidgeting. “Got it.
”

“I can show you better than I can tell you.”

I braced myself for something ultra-simple. I’m sure I rolled my eyes when I looked away for a split-second. She vanished! I turned around, looking for her. No human being could have run up the stairs that fast, and even if they could, the door would be open or the stairs would have creaked.

“Where are you?” I called out.

“I’m right here,” she said in a shrill voice as she reappeared in front of me.     

I’ll admit it – I was pretty freaked out. It did explain what happened in the bathroom.  I blasted off questions, including a lot of curse words. Could she blame me? She just disappeared, like she never existed.

“Dude, slow down.” She handed me the necklace. “Put this on, and never take it off.”   

Can I do the same thing?
I slipped it on over my head and concentrated. Nothing. “How do you do it – make yourself invisible?”

“Focus, Cap.”

“I tried that.” I blinked hard. “See?”

“Like talking to a freaking brick.” Rhapsody clenched her jaw, grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.
“Stop.
Listen to what I’m telling you.
Don’t say anything about this.”

Who would believe me, anyway? I pulled on the front of my hooded black sweatshirt and dropped the necklace underneath it. “Secret’s safe with me.”

She dropped her hands and let go of me. “I’ve got more guesses than answers.”    

I decided not to say a word until she explained how our detention had just become an intense, comic book movie.

“I know how to start it, but keeping it up is hard. Until that little stunt you pulled in the bathroom, I didn’t know it’d work on other people.”

Up until then, everything Rhapsody said left a lot open for interpretation.
This vow of silence can’t last much longer, especially if she’s going to cut out details.
I put on a smile for her sake. “Okay.”

Rhapsody checked her wristwatch and started arranging dusty items on a nearby shelf. “We’re halfway done. If you can do two things at once, help me clean up. Welker will call home if we don’t do anything. I can’t have that kind of drama in my life right now.”

Me either, so I made myself useful by stacking dusty cardboard boxes of old books, one upon another. While we worked, Rhapsody clammed up again. “Can you?” I asked her.  

She dusted her hands off against her vest. “Can I
what,
Cap?”

“Do two things at once? You stopped talking. You’re chewing gum and working. So talking makes
three
things,
and the answer is no?” I guess sarcasm rubs off on me.

“Nice.” She twisted a strand of her hair.

“So, if Cherish didn’t. . .”

“No,” Rhapsody cut me off, “she
didn’t.
At least, I don’t think so. I’m not sure.”

I dropped the box of math books. “Then, what happened? Someone. . .”

Her voice cracked. “I don’t know, but I’m gonna find out.”  

We worked in silence until Janitor Brad propped open the red door at exactly four o’ clock.

More confused than ever, I climbed the steps. The hallways were deserted, except for Janitor Brad and some other custodians who polished the floors with giant red machines.

“This way,”
she said, pointing to the right. “The late bus leaves from back here.”   

“I thought you weren’t my ‘freaking tour guide’ anymore?”

On the way to the bus, I got a text message from Debra. “Where are you?”

Every Friday she sprung for my favorite - sausage pizza from Giovanni’s. I messaged her back a believable lie – “4got 2 take meds & missed bus. Can u pick me up @ school?”

“OK,” she sent back. Our apartment is like, five miles away, so it’s not a big inconvenience.  

“What happened?” Rhapsody sounded interested in my text message, but why?

“Stepmom’s picking me up.”

“Gimme your cell and I’ll put in my number. We should talk this weekend.”

It was the only time in my life that a girl offered to give me her number without me asking for it first. Okay, not asking,
begging,
or going through her friend. I gave it to her. 

“Text it later.” She got a little too close to me before giving it back.

We walked outside together. She boarded the late bus and sat at the window on the side facing me. She didn’t wave at me or even look my way. The vehicle pulled off, its tailpipe belching black smoke.

Minutes later Debra pulled up in her gold Jupiter sedan, with my brother Zachary gurgling in the backseat. I got in, forgetting Selby had tenderized my left cheek, the one in her immediate view. She gasped and grabbed my chin.

“Fighting on your first day? Are you kidding me?”

It was more of a beat down, so I wasn’t lying when I said it wasn’t a fight. “I’m fine. They would’ve called if it was a fight. No tolerance – remember? Rough game of dodge ball.”

“You know what? I don’t even want to know.” She put the Jupiter in gear and pulled off, yelling at me a mile a minute. “Look, this is your last shot, and I don’t want you in a group home or juvenile hall. Is that where you want to go?”

The aroma of garlic and cheese called my stomach.
Jason. . .eat me!
“No.”

Debra braked at a stop sign at the end of the school’s driveway. “The real world doesn’t care what kind of problems you’ve got, Jason. You can’t keep doing this!”

Great, another lecture on being a screw up. “Yes, ma’am.”

She pointed a finger in my face. “Don’t pull that ‘yes, ma’am’ thing with me, boy. Listen to me when I’m talking to you.”

There was nothing to say. She worked hard at raising me. When she and my father Ray got married, I’m sure she did not sign up to be an ex-wife barely a year later. She also got sole custody of their baby and a teenager who wasn’t hers. Then again, no one expected my mom to die when I was twelve, or Ray to give me away. He’d counted on Debra taking me in, but even if she hadn’t, I wouldn’t be in his deep pockets, regardless. 

While Debra bothered me about something else, my phone chimed with a text message. I checked the display while she defined the difference between “making something of yourself and letting a circumstance make you.”

Having fun? It’s a blast here on the yellow limo.

Not even,
I text messaged back. At the next stop light, I unbuckled my seatbelt, reclined the seat, and reached my hand past Zachary and into the white box for a slice. It had cooled enough for the cheese to solidify and not slide off of the crust. She’d chew me out for eating in the car, but it was worth it. Besides, if she didn’t want me to eat it, she should’ve bought it after picking me up and not before. 

“Boy, I told you a hundred times.” Debra ignored the honking behind her and waved her left hand outside of the window. “Sit down and put your seatbelt back on!”

Not before I get to the biggest piece.
“They’re driving around you.”

“That’s not the point.” She took a deep breath as I eased back into my seat. “I tell you to do something, you
do it.
No questions, no comments, just do it.”

I bit into the slice and heard a chorus of angels singing. “Got it,” I mumbled. “And yes, I just took my meds.” That was always her first question when I did something that ticked her off. My attitude rattled her chains, but most times I couldn’t help it.

On the good days she counted to ten and used strategies from therapy. Today she did the opposite and confronted me. When she does that, I have to do the opposite of what she wants. Otherwise, it feels like my brain is going in reverse at top speed. 

Debra glared at me while I ate. She looked like she wanted to snatch the pizza slice out of my hand and toss it out of the window. That wouldn’t solve anything. One time when she did that, I one-upped her and threw the entire box out of the car. Neither one of us ate that night. She puts more pressure on herself than she ever put on me.

Now I feel guilty.
I rolled down the window and chucked the half-eaten slice into the street as a peace offering. Debra smiled and turned on the radio. 

CHAPTER FOUR

I become the karate kid

I used to think
my
home life was pretty screwed up.

Late Friday night, while I ate pizza at home, Rhapsody text messaged me about her day-to-day life. Every morning, when she rides her regular bus, Asia Jackson and her crew call her names. I thought she’d just go invisible on them.

“2 much effort 2 avoid jackasses,” she said.

Rhapsody said her house is a block away from the bus stop, and it’s the community eyesore. It’s painted a terrible shade of lime green, has broken window shades, and there are shingles missing from the roof. On rainy days, they set out pots to catch the water.

She lives with her parents, George Lowe and Ruby Martinez. They’re not married, but they’ve lived together forever. She has both their last names, but goes by Lowe. George is mixed, Cape Verdean and Caucasian, and Ruby is a full-blooded Panamanian. That explained Rhapsody’s natural tan and accent. Where is Cape Verde? I didn’t want to sound stupid and ask.
Maybe I’ll just look it up on the internet.

“Ruby’ll b happy we talked & even happier we kissed :).”

“What? Y?”  I typed back. I thought about it, but
that
couldn’t be the reason. Rhapsody might not particularly like
me
, but she liked boys, right? If she kissed me for another reason, she certainly wasn’t going to let on either way.  

“TTYL,” she said.

“TTYL” was the last I’d heard from her until Monday morning, when she boarded my bus. She might have gotten in trouble or gotten tired of talking. We must not live too far apart after all, since I just got on a stop ago. Since nobody sits with freshmen but freshmen, I moved my bag and she joined me in my seat. We got moving again down the residential road.  

“Morning, Cap.” With her head bowed, she removed the electric blue headphones clipped to her ears and turned off her MP4 player. 

“What’s up with you?”
Did I hurt her feelings or something?

“When I got home, Máma was waiting for me.”

I’d never heard her say anything remotely Spanish before. “Gotcha. Everything okay with your dad?”

Her lifeless eyes said it all, though she denied it in a whisper. “Fine.”

How could I reassure her? I touched her knuckles with my fingers, and rather than pull back, she slumped against the bus seat. I could tell she needed to say something,
anything
to somebody.

“So, I get home, and Máma tells me ‘get in, we’re going to the hospital to see Pápa’,” she said, confirming my suspicions. “I go inside and get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then she calls me fat.”

Rhapsody wasn’t a big girl. “Okay.”

“Martinez women are pears, and Lowe’s are sticks with boobs. Guess which side I take after?”

One useful thing Ray taught me before he ditched us was to never answer a question like that.

“I got in, and it’s the first thing she says. ‘You ate lunch, right’?” She jabbed her right index finger in the air. “‘Take it easy. You don’t exercise or anything’.” She let off a string of Spanish cuss words.

Maybe Rhapsody ate more when she got upset. Debra usually buys a pint of Chunky Monkey ice cream and watches reruns of crime shows. If I even looked at her eating, she’d growl, like a mother bear protecting her cub.

“Okay. . .”

“I’m
muchacha bonita
, like ‘pretty for a thick, Panamanian girl’. It was just a sandwich.”

Rhapsody got teary-eyed, but I didn’t want to stop her. She needed this.

“So she says, ‘You haven’t gone yet, have you?’ No way I’m spilling my guts to a stranger.” I think the irony of her statement hit her right then. “You know, no priests, counselors, psychologists.
Nada.”

The bus stopped outside of Reject High. Though I wanted to hear the rest of her story, it did not stop me from watching for Selby. I hated looking over my shoulder. He didn’t scare me, but Debra made me promise in church yesterday not to use my fists for fighting anymore. Breaking promises isn’t a big deal to me, except for when God’s involved.

In typical Rhapsody fashion, she closed up again. We parted ways before first period, I headed to class, and she to wherever. She could’ve gone to class, but I doubted it. Blowing them off here was too easy. As appealing as it was to hang out in a girls’ bathroom for three hours, I passed today.

What a mistake.

First period Freshman Language Arts
might as well have been Drill a Hole through My Skull class. For forty-five minutes, while the teacher rambled on and on about poetry, I daydreamed about how much fun I could have had listening to the album I downloaded last week while hanging out with Rhapsody
in the South Hall bathroom.

Next, I suffered through math and U.S. History. Last before lunch was art – the only thing that somewhat didn’t bore me. Our instructor played R&B music while we painted and drew. Some of the girls sang along to the tunes, which was annoying, since they made up words for lyrics they didn’t know. I glanced around the room to check out everyone else’s work before starting mine. 

Then, I saw her.

A girl too perfectly gorgeous to be human – she had long, curly brown hair, smooth brown skin, and pink lips. I stared at her body, too, more than once. When she caught me looking, I pretended to study the vase next to her, the one that we were assigned to sketch or paint. The teacher should’ve called names for roll instead of counting bodies. I’d just have to ask the girl for her name after the bell. I could think of worse things, but all of them – including bungee jumping with a long rope – seemed like a better option at the moment.

When class ended, I packed up my work and hustled out, but got no closer than arm’s length to her because of the crowd. What was I supposed to call out? “Hey, girl who’s way out of my league?” or “Hey, People Magazine’s Most Beautiful Freshman, 2013?”

“Hey, wait up,” was all I could think to say in the lowest tone of voice I could. She did turn around, but so did Asia, plus two other girls and four guys.

As I stepped into the hall, I smacked into Selby.
Does the dude have a lo-jack on me?
Blood rushed to my head, and my mouth went dry. I remembered my promise, as Selby pushed me against the lockers and poked me in the stomach with what felt like his index and middle fingers.

“Stay away from
her.”
He gritted his teeth and pushed further into my gut.

What was he trying to do, some sort of pressure point technique from a Kung-Fu movie? I propped my legs against the lockers for leverage, and pushed him away. He fell back on his butt in the middle of the hallway and stared at me, like
I
was the one who should be on the ground. He closed his right hand, like something was in it, and fled through the crowd.

I followed the herd to the lunchroom. Without warning, Rhapsody appeared at my side. “I thought you’d meet me in the bathroom,” she said with a heavy sigh. 

“We’ve got dungeon duty in a few hours. I thought you’d had enough of me, already.”

“You didn’t say how
your
weekend was,” she said. “Discover a new talent?”

Instead of telling the truth, I wanted to have a little fun first. “Actually,” I whispered in her ear. “I
am
a little different.”

Her eyebrows lifted. I had her. “Really?
How?”

I purposely stared at her chest while I talked. “I can see through anything.”

She gasped. In about five seconds her ears turned red and she froze in place. I had forgotten about Ruby calling her fat. To someone who thinks she’s overweight, having a stranger see her naked is probably the worst possible thing that could happen. I’m sure she wanted to run away, but I must have been totally convincing, like she thought I’d see her butt, too. 

“L-l-look away!” she shrieked. Her head started to fade. Acting faster than I thought possible, I took off my shirt and put it over her head. That started disappearing, too.

“Easy,” I said. “It was just a joke! Someone might notice.” 

Just as quickly as she’d started to vanish, Rhapsody calmed down and reappeared. “So
not
funny,” she said, handing me my shirt and clutching her red cafeteria tray to her chest.

“I’m not different, not at all. Sorry.” I put my shirt back on and apologized until she made me stop.

Rhapsody punched me hard on the arm. “Look,
if
you could see through my clothes, you’d tell me, right? And not just let me walk naked around you?”

“Yeah, I promise.” I made a mental note not to pull a trick like that on her again. “So, you get embarrassed and that does it?”

She finally let the tray down onto the metal railing. “I didn’t know about that. I think of something that makes me angry or upset.” Her voice trailed off. “That’s how it works for me. When I get myself together, that turns it off and I reappear.” 

“I can’t get mad.” I pointed to the dried-out hamburgers and under-baked French fries. The lunch lady dropped a round aluminum wrapper and a handful of crinkle cuts onto a chipped white plate and handed it to me. “So, sad or afraid it is, I guess.”

“Can you do that?”

The first thing to come to mind was Ray, who pulled the trifecta – he made me angry, sad, and afraid I’d end up being rejected by everyone. “I guess. Hey, does Selby have a girlfriend?”

She blinked and smiled. “Didn’t know you liked
guys
, Cap.”

I showed the checkout lady my North High student ID card and waited for Rhapsody to do the same. “Funny. He just threatened me to stay away from a girl, but he didn’t name her.” 

“It could be
anyone,”
she said, grabbing a fistful of napkins on the way out. “Football players decide they like someone, they mark her like branding cattle. Even if she’s not his, she’s
his
.”

So, it could be Beautiful Girl, or any other female in the school. “Wonderful.”

“It might be Asia – she’s a bobble head. He used to be with Sasha Anderson.” She sneered. “That girl’s been with
everybody
, though.”

I had no idea who Sasha Anderson was, but I planned to stay away from her.