The Academy - First Days (21 page)

Silas spotted me first. He bent over until his hands were on his
knees. He gasped and swallowed. “Please tell me you brought water.”

I dropped my book bag and pulled out of it several large bottles I
had gotten from home.

They both grunted in what sounded like a positive way, and fully
dropped their hammers onto the tile. They collected the bottles from my hand.

“Thank god,” North said. “We tell Kota we can handle it, and we
forgot to bring everything.”

“What else are you missing?” I asked, stepping around a broken piece
of cabinet to put my bag down and out of the way.

“Luke, for one,” North said. “He was supposed to be pulling the
carpet in the chapel and check in every once in a while to help us haul out
this shit. I haven’t heard from him in a couple of hours.”

“I’ll go check on him,” I said. “I brought crackers, too, if you
guys are hungry. They’re in the bag. Just dig in it.” I picked up one of the
water bottles to take to Luke.

“Thank you,
aggele mou
,” Silas said. He leaned back against
one of the few cabinets left. He opened his bottle of water, drinking heavily.
Lines of water slipped past his mouth at the corners. The drips weaved across
the muscles in his neck and along his chest. I forced myself to turn and walk
toward the door, not wanting to get caught staring.

North flickered a half smile at me when I walked past him. He
planted a hand on top of my head, his fingers massaging my scalp. “Keep my
brother in line, will you?”

Nothing was said about the fight. Did they not know or were they trying
to mask that they did know? I pursed my lips. I wasn’t sure how to approach it
now that I hadn’t said anything. Maybe Kota didn’t want to tell them.

In the chapel, I found Luke on his back on the stage at the far
side of the room. The floor had been cleared of debris, half the carpet was
rolled up against the wall.

“Luke?” I called out. I had to climb over a roll of carpet that
was blocking the door. “Did you need a hand?”

He sat up, smiling. Locks of his blond hair fell into his face,
but most of it was held back with my clip. “I think we need twenty. Two will
do, though.” His shirt was off, too. His leaner body glistened with sweat. He
approached me, holding his hand out.

I was caught up in watching his stomach and chest that at first I
didn’t understand what he was wanting. I remembered the water bottle and handed
it to him. “You’re doing a good job.”

He took the water, opening the top and slurping down a couple of
gulps. He poured some water out onto his hand and slapped it to his forehead
and neck. “I think I’d rather be whacking down cabinets.”

“They wanted help hauling.”

“That’s the boring part,” he said.

“Let’s go help them and maybe they’ll let us swing the hammers,” I
said. The idea was actually sounding fun. It was better than being stuck at
home or worrying about Kota or the others.

He smiled. “You’re dressed kind of nice to be doing this.”

I looked down at my shorts and blouse. I was still wearing the
torn blouse with the missing buttons. He was worried about my clothes? His looked
more expensive. “I’m just going to end up washing these, anyway.”

He rubbed the back of his hand across his brow and crossed the
room. He picked up his blue, button-up shirt and tossed it to me. “Put this on
so you’re not getting your stuff dirty.”

I blushed, holding the shirt up and looking at the Calvin Klein
logo. Wasn’t that an expensive brand? “Over my own shirt?”

“Take that blouse off.”

My eyes widened at him. “Luke...”

“Not right here, dummy.” He smirked and landed a gentle chop on my
head. “Not unless you want.”

I blushed. He was such a tease! Why did they all enjoy picking on
me so much?

He laughed, hooking his arm around my neck and pulling me around
so we were heading back out of the chapel. “Sang, your face is priceless.”

I found the restroom so I could put Luke’s shirt on. The hem of
the blue shirt was long enough that it covered my shorts. It made it look like
I wasn’t wearing any at all. I rolled the sleeve cuffs up my arms. I folded my
shirt and went to find the others in the kitchen.

Luke had taken up Silas’s sledgehammer. Silas stood by the door,
his arms folded over his broad chest. I walked up behind him, my hand
reflexively touching his back so he knew I was there. As my fingers pressed to
his smooth back, he jumped at my touch and spun on me.

“Shit,” he said. “You’re too quiet.” He put a palm to his chest
over his heart. “You can’t sneak up on me like that.”

North laughed. “You’re scared of a little girl, Silas?”

I narrowed my eyes at North for calling me a little girl as if I were
a child. I knew he didn’t mean it like that but it still stung a little that he
would suggest it.

Silas only smirked at him. He reached out for me, putting an arm
around my shoulders. His fingers closed over my collarbone. “Come on, Sang.
We’re going to watch Luke kill himself.”

He pulled me forward until I was standing next to him. His body
warmed me and he continued to hang his arm on me. My heart pounded. Was I back
to being uncomfortable around touching again? Maybe it was because he had his
shirt off and my mind kept thinking of his abdomen and chest. If I turned my
face, I could get an up close and personal view.

“Ha,” Luke said, his laugh definitive. He twisted his hands over
the handle of the hammer. His eyes sought out mine and he winked at me.

“Don’t get distracted,” North warned. He was standing a couple of
feet away from Luke, just out of reach of the swing of the hammer. His lips
tightened and his eyes became stern, as if unhappy they had been interrupted.

Luke lifted the hammer slightly off of the floor, pulled back. He
twisted his body, using the momentum to smack the hammer against the cabinet in
front of him. The door broke off one of the hinges. A large crack splintered
the center of the door with a large dent in the middle but the cabinet itself
mostly remained intact.

The guys laughed. I couldn’t help but smile. Luke pursed his lips.
In a huff, he lifted the hammer again, swung it over his head and let it fall
hard on top of the cabinet. The slam was deafening. It cracked the top in half
but the cabinet still held.

“You’re terrible,” North said. “Sang could do better than that.”

Luke blew out a heavy breath. “Let her.”

Silas looked down at me. “Want to give it a try?”

I brightened, nodding. “Yes!” I had to admit, it looked like a lot
of fun.

They all laughed. I wondered why it was funny.

Silas let go of my shoulder and nudged me forward. “I’d pay to see
this.”

“Come here,” North said, curling his fingers at me. He had me
stand beside him, holding his own hammer out to me. “Do you know how to use
this?”

I locked eyes with him, hovering a finger to my lower lip but not
touching, almost forgetting it was swollen. I shook my head. I’d swung a
regular hammer before but I never even attempted to lift a sledge.

“You’re right handed?” he asked.

“Yes.”

He pointed to where I should stand. “Hold the bottom with your
left hand.” He held the end of the sledgehammer in an example. “Then near the
head, hold it in your right.”

My fingers tingled. I was nervous that the others were watching
me.

North slipped behind me. His chin hovered over my head, his body
pressing into my back. He wrapped his fingers around mine as he showed me how
to hold the hammer.

“When you’re ready,” he said, moving his body in a motion like the
swinging move he wanted me to do. As he was doing it, all I could feel and
think was how his body flexed against me. The heat made my insides flutter.
“All you have to do is lift it. Get it up over the top. Let gravity do the
rest.” His nose pressed to my hair and his breath tickled the back of my head.
“And don’t you dare hurt yourself.”

He backed off. I couldn’t see the guys behind me but I felt the
weight of their eyes. I sucked in a breath, lifted with my legs and pulled the
hammer around. I strained at first, trying to just pick the hammer head up off
of the ground. I felt the weight of it. It slipped in my palms and fell back
against the ground. It was heavier than I expected.

The others giggled behind me. I heard someone, North perhaps,
moving forward as if he wanted to help.

Now or never.

I adjusted my hands on the hammer in a grip I knew would work. I
heaved the hammer up. It sailed over my head. Momentum finished the swing.

The hammer slammed against the top of the cabinet, crushing
through the surface. My bones rattled as the hammer crunched through the
Formica. The head of the hammer dropped down into the bottom section of wood,
disappearing among the debris.

Clapping and hooting startled me. I felt more embarrassed now than
before I started when I thought I couldn’t do it. I had my hand still on the
hammer and tried to tug it out of the mess of wood but I couldn’t get it to
budge.

“Here, Sang baby,” North said. He reached out and took the hammer
handle from me. He gently nudged me out of the way. He pulled once, noting how
the hammer was hooked into the cabinet. He yanked hard again trying to get it
loose. He huffed when it wasn’t moving.

“I broke it,” I said. My mind replayed the way he said my name.
The tingling sensation returned. It made up for the fact that he called me a
little girl before.

“Of course you would be the first girl on the planet to break a
sledgehammer.” North jerked on the handle and the hammer popped free. He
dropped it near his feet. “But not today.”

“She took out the cabinet,” Silas said. “One Sang, zip Luke.”

“Hey,” Luke said, making a face. “I started it for her.”

“You two haul this stuff out,” North said, hands on his hips and
nodding to the pile of splintered wood they had collected by the door. “There’s
a wheelbarrow in the back of the truck. See if you can get it in here. Take it
out to the Dumpster. And get her a pair of gloves.”

“I want to do it again,” Luke said.

“We’ve wasted enough time today,” North said. “I want to get all
this cleared out and you’ve still got homework.”

Luke rolled his eyes. North responded with a grunt, picking up his
sledgehammer and swinging it against the cabinet I had broken. With a few
swings he had it cleared from the wall and was starting to move down the line.

Silas’s face became granite as he hauled up his sledgehammer, and
approached the cabinets. Luke and I stood by and watched the two of them
working. They moved in a fluid motion. On occasion they glanced at one another
as if they were watching out to make sure the other was okay. I was in awe of
how their muscles moved as they were working and the way they seemed
comfortable with their silent system.

Luke nudged my arm. I looked at him and he motioned to a large
section of wood that we could haul out. I helped him wedge it through the door
and we carried it together out of the building. No rest for the wicked.

G
rounded

I
t was dark when we pulled the last of the carpet into the rental
Dumpster. I was sweating through Luke’s shirt. My muscles ached. I leaned against
the side of North’s truck, trying to catch my breath.

It was hard for me to imagine the church as a diner before but
after the cabinets were cleared out of the kitchen and we finished rolling up
the carpet in the chapel, it was looking less like a church but even less like
a diner.

Luke’s chest was heaving. He bent over with his hands on his knees
after hauling the carpet out. “Glad that’s over.”

Silas strolled toward us. He had my bag in his hands. He held it
out to me. “You’re not a bad little worker bee,” he said, his eyes dancing. He
poked a finger at my nose. “You’re hired.”

I stood up straight and smiled at him, feeling a second wind. I
took my bag from him, letting it drop at my feet. “Will you guys be back
tomorrow?”

“It depends on what happens tomorrow,” North said, coming up next
to Silas. “We’ll see.”

It felt like this was something they dealt with on a regular
basis. Were they ever not able to make too many plans ahead of time because of
their obligations to the Academy? Or was it they liked to change things often
enough and moved with how they were feeling? Things seemed to happen at such a
fast pace with them.

North’s face flickered and he reached into his back pocket, pulling
out his cell phone and answering it. “Yeah? What? No, she’s here.”

Uh oh.

North’s eyes widened and sought out mine. “What the fuck do you
mean she’s grounded? What happened?”

I pursed my lips, avoiding Silas’s and Luke’s eyes on me by
staring at North’s feet instead. My shoulders hunched as I cowered where I
stood.