The Academy - First Days (5 page)

“I’m the one that left the house.”

He turned onto his side again. He cupped my chin in his hand.
“Listen to me, Sang,” he said. “Your mother has issues. I get that. She can’t
keep you locked up like this. You’re not a bad girl. You’re not drinking or
smoking or selling your body.” He let go of my face and brushed a strand of my
hair away from my cheek. “I don’t like to think of you being holed up here
because your mother can’t handle reality. You shouldn’t be on your knees or
swallowing vinegar or any of that shit. It’s not healthy for you.”

“What can I do?” I asked. “She’s my mother.”

His face twisted and he looked pained. “I know she is,” he said
quietly. “I’m surprised she lets you go to school. From what you’ve told me, it
sounds like she’d try to home school both of you.”

“My dad won’t let her,” I said. “She used to say she would, but he
insisted that we go to school like everyone else. He said if she did home
school, the state would be way more interested in us. Besides, she was sick so
much, he thought she couldn’t keep up. If she failed to report to the state,
they’d come around and investigate. She didn’t like that.”

He sighed, let go and sat back again. We gazed back into the sky.

I tried to come up with something else to talk about. I was tired
of my problems being the center of attention. “North? Are you and Luke going to
start the diner with your uncle sometime soon?”

“We already purchased the property, so we better.”

“Is that what you want to do when you graduate? Work with your
uncle?”

“No,” he said.

“What would you rather do?”

“Travel.”

“On your bike?”

“Or a better one. Or in a plane. Depends on where I’m going.”

“Where would you go?”

He turned his head toward me. “Where would you?”

I thought about it. “To the beach. A nice one with bright blue
water and white sand.”

“We’re not far from the beach,” he said. “We’ll go one day.”

Butterflies did flips in my stomach. “With the guys?”

He paused and I wasn’t sure he was going to answer. “We’ll see.”

While we sat together in the dark, staring up at the stars, his
musk mixed with the salt breeze that drifted from the east. I breathed in
deeply, letting it fill my lungs. I fingered the grit of the tile below us.
Stars twinkled and shifted across the sky.

North knew exactly what I needed. Somehow, amid all the other
things going on, he sought me out in the darkness. He knew I needed that
escape. I needed to know that somewhere out there someone could come for me. I
needed to know I wasn’t alone any more.

How he knew I needed it, or if that was what he was thinking, I
don’t know. I felt better simply knowing he came for me. Someone out there
cared enough about how I felt to comfort me. I could deal with my parents. I
could deal with anything they wanted. If North, Kota and the others could be
patient with me, I would find a way.

We were only out there a few more minutes before North insisted I
get some sleep. He helped me climb over the roof.
Once
I was inside again, I leaned out the window. If it were up to me, I would have
stayed out there with him all night. I was sorry he needed to go but he was
right. We had school and other things to do. “Goodnight, North,” I said.

He leaned down and brought his face close to mine. His coarse
fingers swept across my cheek. I steeled myself to not pull away. “Goodnight,
Sang,” he whispered.

With that, he moved back the way we had come, climbing the roof and
dropping out further than I could see.

A little later, the sound of a motorcycle started up in the
distance and faded away. I did my best to listen, trying to memorize the sound.
I wanted to always know when he came near. Next time I wouldn’t hesitate to
open the window.

T
UESDAY

F
irst
D
ay

I dreamed about a frost that was sweeping over a field. I was
running to stay ahead of it. The frost froze animals and plants solid. If it
touched me, I would freeze to the spot forever.

I
woke two hours before I needed to get ready. I wrote in my diary
about my dream. Most of my diary consisted of a record of the dreams I had. I
tried looking for patterns sometimes but after a while, I stopped trying to
analyze so much. It was now just a habit to occupy my time. There was rarely
anything else for me to do in the house.

When it was time, I put on a simple short green skirt and a light
pink blouse. I buttoned the blouse up to the top, thinking of Dr. Green and his
opinion on fashion. I brushed and twisted my hair and clipped it, the end
strands traced my neck. I strapped some sandals on and picked up my book bag,
which had a couple of notebooks and a few pens and pencils. I wasn’t sure if we
would pick up books today but I wanted to be ready.

I also found some very old makeup compacts in a box underneath the
sink of the bathroom. Marie often picked up odd and end leftovers from her
friends at school like that. I used the closest color on my knees, hoping to
mask the bruising. When I was done, the area looked dark but it managed to hide
the purple splotches. I tucked the compact into my book bag just in case I
needed to redo it later.

I couldn’t make myself eat breakfast. I was thinking of how I
would be spending the entire day with the guys. Plus with it being a new school
year, I didn’t want to have a nervous stomach after eating something.

I walked outside into the already sticky morning air. Marie stood
at the end of our driveway. She was wearing jeans and a dark blue t-shirt that
looked too big for her, even on her tall frame.

“Why are you bringing that?” she asked, pointing a long finger at
my book bag. “You don’t show up for the first day of school looking like a
complete nerd. And why are you wearing a skirt?”

“Everyone at our last school wore skirts. I wanted to look nice.”

“Your shirt’s buttoned up all the way. You look stupid.”

I pursed my lips. This wasn’t the type of fight I wanted to deal
with this morning.

“Just stand away from me. I don’t want to look like we’re
related.”

“We are related.”

“We can pretend we’re not,” she said, flustered and taking a few
steps away from me until she was on the other side of the wide driveway.

I blew out a sigh, wrapping my fingers around the straps of my
book bag. I scanned the street. Kota stood alone in his driveway. I couldn’t
see Nathan out in front of his house. I hoped he wouldn’t miss it and be late.

The bus appeared from around the bend and stopped in front of our
house. Marie got on first. The brown seats were ripped in places and patched
with duct tape in others. Five other kids clustered together in seats toward
the front. Marie went for the very back seat. I picked something in the middle.

Kota got on next. I slid further into the seat to give him room.

“Morning,” he said, smiling and sitting next to me.

A happy warmth swept through me. He wasn’t ashamed to sit next to
me on the bus like my sister. He wore a Ralph Lauren collared shirt with thin
blue stripes, with a blue tie at his neck and tan slacks. “I like the shirt
you’re wearing,” I said, forcing myself to say something nice despite being
unsure and shy.

His cheeks tinged. “You’re looking pretty good, too.”

I blushed but I caught sight of his green messenger bag. “Are you
using that to carry books around?”

He picked it up and put it in his lap to look it over. “What’s
wrong with it?”

“Aren’t you in really smart classes?”

He laughed. “Yeah.”

“Then won’t their books be really heavy?”

“Ah,” he said. He opened the flap and looked inside. “It’s pretty
sturdy.”

“I was worried it might hurt your shoulder. You know, putting so
much weight on it all the time.”

The smile on his lips softened. I wasn’t sure if I said something
stupid. “Well if it does, I’ll switch shoulders.”

Nathan ran out from his house an instant before the bus got close.
The bus driver motioned to him and Nathan bent over to hear what he had to say
before nodding and heading to the seat near us on the other side of the isle.
He wore a red dress shirt, making the red in his hair diminish to the brown.

“The bus driver said we should probably collect at one house,” he
said. “He says we’re close enough that he shouldn’t have to stop three times
like that.”

Kota looked at me. “Will your mom let you do that?”

I shrugged. “If the bus driver says we have to.” It made me
nervous to figure out how to mention it. I’d have to consult with Marie, which
didn’t seem like a good thing to do right now. I thought I would just make sure
to let her know after school and we would have to both agree not to tell our
mother about it.

The bus turned the bend in our neighborhood and stopped at a house
in the middle of the other side. Derrick was standing at the end of the drive
and he turned to face the bus. I remembered him as the boy who had once tried
to play basketball with Marie at my house until my mom dismissed him. He was
standing with a girl who looked just like him.

“Is that Danielle?”

“Yeah,” Nathan said.

Danielle was as tall as her brother, with brown hair cut in an
even bob around her chin. She had high cheekbones and a wide forehead. Her big
brown eyes glared critically at the bus. She turned to her brother, snapping
something at him. He frowned but got on the bus.

They both headed for the back seats. After a few moments, I heard
my sister talking and Danielle responding.

“She didn’t look too mean, I guess,” I said. I wasn’t really sure
about that but didn’t want to sound rude. “We could be friends.”

Nathan shook his head, smirking at me. “Just wait.”

The rest of the bus ride took thirty minutes. We sat in silence
together as we watched students get on and off. When the bus arrived at the
school, we followed the crowd into the building.

“I told the others to meet us in the cafeteria,” Kota said. “We’ll
pick out a table.”

At first the school seemed to echo with our footsteps. The smaller
hallways were empty. As we drew closer to the main hallway though, students
clustered together along the walls, making it difficult to navigate. Nathan
switch from being on Kota’s other side to walking along beside me. They closed
in around me until our arms were touching as we headed toward the cafeteria.
Nathan stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked uncomfortable.

“Don’t be nervous,” I whispered to him. I knew the school’s
reputation was a bad one. It was why Academy students were there in the first
place, right? Still, I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to pick a fight with
Nathan. His collared shirt only slightly masked his muscles. He wasn’t someone
to be taken lightly.

His eyes shifted from the groups of kids. “I don’t know why they
have to stand around like that.”

“It’s the first day,” Kota said. “They’re not going to be
interested in trouble right now.” As he said this, his eyes started to glance
from different groups as well.

I pressed my fingertips into my palms. I focused on the path ahead
of us. I didn’t want to catch someone’s eyes and draw attention to myself.
Invisible was something I could handle. The guys, however, were making me
nervous.

In the cafeteria, we found an empty table close to the large
windows looking over the courtyard. There was no sign of North or Victor or the
other guys. Nathan sat next to me and Kota took a spot on the other side of the
table to help preserve some room. We dropped our bags onto the table so we
could spread out and claim the space.

“Should I text them?” Nathan asked, glancing around at some of the
students at the other tables.

Kota turned in his seat, looking down some of the connecting
hallways. “They should be here soon,” he said.

“Is this seat taken?” A familiar smooth baritone spoke next to my
ear. My hand fluttered to the base of my throat, my breath caught as I turned
around. Victor pulled back. His wavy hair was brushed back away from his
angular face and he was wearing a white button up shirt and black slacks. He
kept a couple of buttons undone at his neck. The sunlight through the window
caught in his silver medallion resting against his collarbone. He took the seat
next to me, his fire eyes subdued.

Gabriel had followed him. He hovered over me and snuck a hand
toward my head. Confused, I twisted my head away but he was quick. I felt the
clip loosening and my hair falling around my shoulders.

Gabriel smirked. “I’m keeping this,” he said, holding my hair clip
between his long fingers. His two locks of blond hair blended with the rest of
his brown hair behind his ears. He wore a thin red tie and his collared white
shirt was untucked from his tan slacks. He wore ruby studs in his earlobes
today. The three rings along the crest of his right ear were the usual black.