The Academy - First Days (15 page)

I noticed the light in the window going dim. “I have to get
going,” I said. “Do you need anything?”

“I took a pain killer before you got here,” he said. He let go of
my hand. “Don’t worry about me. Go home before you get into more trouble.” He
turned slightly as if he wanted to move onto his stomach. Groans escaped his
lips and he gave up, falling on his back again. “I might not get to school tomorrow.”

“That’s too bad,” I said.

“Why?”

“You’ll miss taco soup.”

I crossed the room, flicked the light off and shut his door,
ignoring the questions he was asking as I left.

Victor:
“You need a violin for class tomorrow, right? Did you get
one?”

Sang:
“It’s okay. I’ll explain it to Mr. Blackbourne.”

Victor:
“I can go get you one.”

Sang:
“Don’t do that!”

Victor:
“Why not?”

Sang:
“Don’t spend money on me. It’s bad enough you pay for this
phone.”

Victor:
“Please?”

Sang:
“Goodnight, Victor. Stop worrying about me.”

W
ednesday

N
o
L
onger
I
nvisible

I dreamed I was trapped inside a car. I didn’t know how to drive
and I was turning the wheel, pushing the breaks. The car careened down a hill and
the ground was tilting. Cars raced around me. I was going to crash.

I
woke with a start, jumping out of bed and running for the
bathroom. I ran the cold water in the sink, splashing it across my face to
erase the nightmare. It wasn’t helping. The memory stuck. When my heart
settled, I stumbled back to my room, flicking on the light, grabbing my diary
to write in until it was time to get going.

Marie and I walked the short distance between our house and Kota’s
before the bus came. Danielle and her brother were already out there, standing
on the very edge of Kota’s driveway. Kota stood alone, his head down and
scuffing his shoes at the concrete.

“Kota,” I said, walking up to him.

His head lifted and his face lit up. “Hi.”

“No Nathan?”

His lips pursed and he shook his head. Marie walked around us and
headed straight to Danielle, waving to her. Danielle greeted her with a smirk
and they tucked their heads together, talking.

“I saw him last night,” I said quietly, not wanting the others to
overhear. “I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t show.”

His eyebrows shot up. “How is he?”

He didn’t know about this? Or was he surprised to hear I went over
there? “I think he broke one of his fingers. There were bruises all over his
body.”

He blanched. “I didn’t know it was that bad.”

Was that the truth? Did Nathan or Victor not keep him informed?
Did he not go see him? “What’s going to happen? The principal was asking about
him yesterday when he didn’t show up for gym class and now he’s going to miss
the second day of school.”

“Mr. Blackbourne is telling us to redirect any questions from
teachers to him.”

“It sounds like that’s implied to me, too?”

Kota’s eyes looked toward the others across the driveway and he
tilted his head toward me. “I’m sorry, Sang. I didn’t want to involve you at
all but it looks like you still ended up being in the middle. They shouldn’t be
asking you but I guess they’re associating you with us.”

I brought a finger to push at my lower lip. Flashes of Victor’s
elegant face bruised and Nathan unable to pull himself out of bed crept through
my mind. “Is this why you don’t tell me anything about what happens? So I can
honestly tell people I don’t know?”

Kota’s cheeks flushed and he nodded. “Yeah, that’s pretty much
it.”

How strange was it that before I had met Kota, I wanted nothing
more than to blend in with the other students, but here I was with the
strangest set in the whole school.

Nathan never made it to the bus. At the school, Kota and I were
the first of our group to arrive. We picked up our books at the school
bookstore and waited for the others at the bench in the courtyard. Kota perused
the textbooks, his and mine, inspecting the material. I was standing near the
bench and leafing through a book when hands popped over my eyes and I felt a
warm breath by my ear.

“I have something for you,” Gabriel sung in my ear.

“Don’t scare her, Gabe,” I heard Victor say. There was an
underlying command in Victor’s voice. A warning?

Gabriel’s hands fell away from my face. “What the fuck? I wasn’t
scaring her.” He pulled out a sheet of paper and put it in my hands. “I fixed
my stupid poem.”

I blinked at him, blushing. Fixed it?

It was about the same princess in the tower, the prince throwing
apples to her. A witch tried to make a bargain with him. She would give him the
sweetest apple that would win over his love’s heart if he traded his voice for
it. He agreed, won over the princess, and together they tricked the witch to
get his voice back.

I laughed when I got to the ending. “You changed it? What happened
to winning the girls over with the sad part?”

“What? I don’t want to make girls cry. Girls look all crazy when
they cry.”

“I like it,” I said. “It still sounds like song lyrics.”

“Right,” he said. “It might make a good song.” His lips pressed together
and he hummed a few bars.

I glanced up at Victor, who only looked bemused. The bandage was
blatant, but his bruise looked almost gone. I leaned closer to him, my eyes
squinting.

Victor took a step back. “What?”

“What happened to your bruises?”

“Oh,” he smirked. “Nothing.”

They couldn’t have healed already. I was sure by today they would
look worse. My own bruises always looked worse the following day.

I floated a finger toward his cheek to trace where one of his
bruises had been.

“Hey, hey,” Gabriel said, poking at my hip. “Hands off. You’ll
smudge my work.”

“Make up?” I asked.

Victor grinned at me. “Don’t laugh, okay?”

“Yeah,” Gabriel said. “I couldn’t just let him walk around looking
like a moving target all day.”

I sighed. At least they were thoughtful. I handed the poem back to
Gabriel. “You hang on to it.” I dropped my bookbag off my shoulders. “I’m going
to the restroom. Would you watch my bag, please?”

Gabriel picked it up, pulling it closer to his own.

Victor dropped his bag, too, and started following me.

“Victor...” I said, gazing back at him. “It’s okay. You don’t have
to walk me over there.”

He paused, frowning and glimpsed over his shoulder at Kota.

“Do you guys have to follow me to bathroom?” I asked. That really
seemed awkward.

“I suppose not,” Victor said. He moped but he stuck his hands into
his pockets and went to stand next to Kota.

I felt their eyes on me as I walked away.

I walked over to the main hallway and stopped short just inside
the doors, hesitating. I wasn’t really sure where the restrooms were. Walking
alone down the hallway that was already getting crowded wasn’t making me feel
as confident as I had been when I was with the guys. It amazed me at how
comfortable I had gotten at relying on the boys for something as simple as
directions and their company. Last year at my old school, I was alone and had
to rely on myself so much. It felt like a million years ago.

I found some bathrooms down a hallway. When I was finished, I
checked my blouse and skirt in the mirror. I smoothed them out, taking my time.
I wanted to prove to them it was okay for me to do something alone. In a way I
guess I wanted them to worry less about me. They had so many problems as it was
now.

Back out in the hallway, it was more crowded than before. Kids
were sitting on the floor, their legs stretched out. I had to step over calves
and shoes to get by as they refused to pull back and out of the way for people
walking through.

A cat call sounded and echoed. I remembered the boys from the day
before and this time I focused on the path ahead of me. They were just goofing
off. I wanted to avoid eye contact to not draw attention to myself.

“Sing!”

I reacted because I recognized the voice. I cringed when I
recognized it as Greg, sorry that I had responded at all.

An arm plopped around my shoulders. Greg’s big lipped grin rocked
close to my face. The smell of smoke was heavy as if he had just put out his
cigarette. “Hey,” he said. “Where are you going?”

My heart thundered. I had to get rid of him and get back to the
courtyard before the guys came looking for me. I remembered the last time Greg
and his friends ran into Kota, Victor and Silas while we were at the mall. The
last thing I wanted was to lead him straight back to Kota and start another
fight.

“I’m going to the cafeteria,” I said. “I’ll see you later.”

He held on to me by my neck, tugging at me. “Don’t go so soon.
You’re always so busy when I see you in the hallway.” He towed me around until
I was facing a group of guys. They were all dressed like him, baggy jeans, and
oversized shirts. “Guys, this is Song.”

“Sang,” I said.

“Sang,” he repeated.

The others bobbed their heads at me. One of them mumbled something
but his words were so mashed together I couldn’t understand him. The others
around him laughed. I couldn’t help but blush and they laughed some more.

“I need to go,” I said again.

“What? Is your boyfriend waiting on you?” Greg said, swiveling his
head around to look. “That reminds me, I still owe him something.”

“I don’t...” I wanted to say I didn’t have a boyfriend, but I
wasn’t sure exactly what to say. Saying no might encourage more attention and
saying yes might make for additional trouble for Kota and the guys.

“Sang!” Luke’s voice echoed through the hallway, drawing the
attention of not only the group of boys around me, but everyone else in the
hall. Luke and North stood together at the start of the hall. North shoved his
fists into his thighs. Luke dropped a hand on his arm, like he was North back.
Luke waved at me.

“I have to go,” I told Greg again. I could see this getting ugly.

“What are you, his bitch?” He squared off his shoulders, sizing
them up. “Why is he calling at you like that?”

I wanted to point out how he called for me in a similar way but I
didn’t want to get into that. I wrenched myself from under his arm and started
backing off. “Don’t worry about it.” It was probably a stupid thing to say but
at that point I just wanted to get out of there.

“Where you goin’ girl?” he called after me as I hurried down the
hall. “Greg’s shortie doesn’t just walk off without a kiss.”

I shivered and didn’t look back. Laughing echoed behind me.

“You okay, Sang?” Luke said. He had a few blond locks framing his
face, but the rest of his hair was in the clip he had borrowed from me
yesterday. He reached out when I got close, putting an arm around my shoulder.
“What’s going on?”

“Apparently I can’t go to the bathroom alone,” I said, my heart
thumping. I sought out North’s eyes. He zeroed in on Greg and his friends, his
hands pressed against his legs. I brushed my fingertips across his hand,
tugging him in the opposite direction. “North...”

His grumbled and dissected me with intense, dark eyes. “What did
he say to you?”

“He was teasing me. I don’t want a fight. Please? He’s not
following.”

He glanced back at the kids. He turned around, dropping a hand on
the back of my head, his fingers massaging at my scalp. “I hate this school.”

To my
relief, North and Luke didn’t say anything about Greg when we got back to the courtyard
and as we waited for the first bell to ring. Homeroom was quiet. Greg said
nothing, completely ignoring us. Still, as we waited there for our first class,
I got the feeling things were bubbling under the surface. I noticed how the
other students looked at us. Were we really that different? Some part of me
wished we blended in more than we did. Whispers with our names hovered around
us like mosquitos.

Hiding in
the shadows seemed so much easier. With the boys, I stood out so much more and drew
so much attention.

I was no
longer invisible.

W
hatever
Y
ou
N
eed