The Thief (18 page)

“
Is there a soap opera that
lives in your brain?” Ryan snapped.

“
So that’s a yes. How do you
feel about bowling?”

“
You are a
moron.”

“
Mini golf?”

Camille blocked out their continuing
argument. Any event that kept Sakamoto away from her was good, as
far as she was concerned.

She was disappointed that the other girl was
away, though. Gabriel had said to keep an eye on her, and besides
that, they needed to figure out when they were going to put
together this lame experiment display for the school festival. They
only had two weeks to get it in order, and Camille wasn’t exactly
an expert on group dynamics. She hoped Jul returned soon so that
she wouldn’t have to manage both boys on her own.

By the time chemistry came around, though,
Sakamoto’s attention had wandered again.

He sat down next to her in Jul’s empty
chair. “I miss Jul. This is boring. Hey, are you ticklish?”

“
No,” she said flatly. She
would end his life if he tried anything.

“
Scary scary,” he said. “So
the metal arm thing, I think I’ve got it figured out. You’re
actually a cyborg, am I right?”

She tried to ignore him, like Ryan seemed
to. Maybe she needed to learn how to hide behind a book like he
did. She was already down Jul’s help - all the equations in science
class were hard enough without Sakamoto being even more ADD than
usual.

“
Robots are antisocial,
you’re antisocial,” he went on, oblivious. “Plus it would explain
how freakishly strong you are.”

What?
Her eyes zipped to him, but he just wore that same small,
unreadable smile. She thought it genuinely strange that for all his
chatter he never seemed to have much of an expression.

“
Cyborg, right?” he
said.

“
Yes,” she said, cautiously.
“Cyborg.”

“
No, I don’t like that
either,” he said, leaning back. “Cyborgs don’t get mad. How about a
Hulk? Wait, can there be more than one of those? I could ask the
nerds, they’d know...”

Was he toying with her or was he really just
an idiot?

“
He’s just an idiot,” Ryan
said, apparently able to read her expression. That’s when she
noticed what he was reading. It looked exactly like the journal Jul
had, but hers had been blank. What he was holding was full of
sprawling ink sketches. They couldn’t be the same, but the cover
was identical. Noticing her attention, he immediately shut it and
put it away.

On the way to the cafeteria, she was
surprised to spot Jul hovering around her locker, looking
indecisive. So she’d come to school after all. Camille considered
just walking past. Jul’s business was none of hers, and
realistically she didn’t have the vocabulary to carry on a real
conversation. And yet...

“
You’re sick?” Camille asked
her.

Startled, Jul looked down at her. “Oh,” she
said, with some relief, “well, yes. Just a cold. I went for um, a
walk in the rain, and I guess it got the better of me. I thought I
should stay home, but Bea - I mean, my grandmother - she said a
little cold wasn’t anything worth skipping school over, so...” she
looked over her shoulder anxiously. “Here I am, I guess.”

Something had the girl on edge, but Camille
couldn’t think of a good way to inquire. So instead she just said,
“Lunch?”

“
Oooookay,” Jul said
distractedly, glancing around again. “Before the rush. Yeah. Good
idea.”

They picked up trays and got in line. The
cafeteria generally had two or three choices, different every day.
Despite her dislike of the principal, having Japanese leadership
was probably the reason they sometimes had things like ramen,
katsudon, and beef curry on the menu. They didn’t taste quite like
they did in Japan, but she had to admit it was nice to get some of
her favorite comfort foods on occasion. Today, however, she was out
of luck. Spaghetti, hamburgers, and some kind of chicken and
vegetable pie. She distrusted the pale sauce that oozed from the
crust.

Jul also looked disappointed at the
menu.

“
Could I get the spaghetti
without any meatballs?” she asked meekly.

The lunch lady just scooped up a serving and
handed her a plate.

“
Thanks anyway,” Jul sighed,
shoulders drooping.

Camille got a plate of the same and moved on
to the drink fountain.

“
Hey...um...” Jul said,
picking up a bottle of water. “Can I sit with you? I’d rather not,
um, sit alone. If you don’t mind.”

Camille saw her flick a glance to the end of
the line, where Ryan and Sakamoto were at odds again. Jul had
always sat alone until now. She was avoiding one of them? Her money
was on Sakamoto. It must be because of what he’d done to her
journal.

“
Okay,” Camille said,
getting a cup of some kind of fruity red drink claiming to be from
Hawaii.

Once they sat down, Jul relaxed slightly,
though she continued to survey the room, sipping absently on her
water. Camille wondered what Jul’s purpose had been, asking for her
company specifically. Was she supposed to be intimidating? Or had
she just been the closest person at the time? Camille twirled her
fork in her spaghetti, thinking that this really shouldn’t bother
her. It didn’t matter either way, right? She was just supposed to
keep an eye on the girl, for Gabriel. She didn’t need a friend.

Suddenly Jul went rigid. Camille glanced
over her shoulder; Ryan was headed in their direction, carrying a
tray, attention zeroed in on Jul. Camille looked at her,
baffled.

“
Umm...ahh...” Jul stalled,
then her gaze landed on the two closest people. “Mac! Destin!” she
said with forced cheer. “You guys should sit with us. You know.
Take up all the chairs.”

Mac Dupree seemed too excited by her
invitation to notice her unusual phrasing. “Absolutely!” he said,
sliding his tray onto the table. His tall friend was more hesitant,
but sat down as well.

Camille snuck another glance at Ryan. He had
veered away, expression sour. Jul’s ploy had worked, whatever her
reasons. Why on earth was she avoiding Ryan? Sure, he was in a
perpetual bad mood, but he seemed pretty harmless from what she’d
seen.

She turned back around, surveying the table.
Whatever Jul was avoiding, she wasn’t sure this was better. The top
half of Destin Heron’s face was permanently obscured by a thick
curtain of dark hair; the bottom half was already hidden behind an
American comic, something to do with spaceships and aliens. Jul’s
attention was fixed on her spaghetti, single-mindedly pushing the
chunks of meat out of the way. Camille was fine with tucking into
her own pasta in silence, but it seemed Mac wouldn’t stand for
it.

“
Should have gone for the
chicken pot pie,” he said.

“
Same problem,” Jul
shrugged.

Mac gestured to her plate. “Cold pasta,
nasty tomato sauce, old hamburger meat.” He swept a hand over his
own plate. “Chicken. Vegetables. Potatoes. A glorious flaky crust.
They have absolutely nothing in common.”

“
They both have meat in
them.” Jul smiled sheepishly.

“
You’re a vegetarian?” he
said, like she had a horrible disease. “I am so sorry, you must
live in pain every day.”

Jul shook her head, smiling. Her straight,
dark hair swept around her shoulders. “I just don’t like meat,
alright? That’s all.”

“
Don’t tell me you are too?”
Mac asked Camille.

In response, she speared a meatball and
popped it into her mouth.

“
See, look, even the gold
ranger is more sane than you.”

Camille’s eyebrows went up. Did he just call
her a Power Ranger?

“
Being vegetarian is
actually really healthy,” Jul explained.

“
Well there’d better be some
benefit if you’re going to pass up all the food that tastes good, I
guess.”

“
Keep it up, you’re doing
really well,” Destin muttered.

“
I mean, whatever,” Mac
floundered. “It takes all kinds, right?”

He was so obvious it was painful to watch.
Camille sighed and pushed away her pasta.

“
It’s pretty bad, isn’t it?”
Jul said.

Camille nodded, knowing Jul
meant the food, not Mac. The dark-skinned girl could be pretty
oblivious too, in her own way.
Why am I
still sitting with these people?
she
wondered, slumping down in her seat.
Because if I leave, Ryan will probably come back.
Maybe she could swipe a couple of cookies on the
way out...

“
Told you, should have
gotten the pot pie,” Mac said loftily.

“
Pot
pie...
” Camille muttered, trying out the
name. “Weird sauce.”

“
What? No, the sauce is
awesome,” Mac objected.

Destin reached around his comic and nudged
his untouched plate towards her. “You can have mine, if you want.
I’m not hungry.”

Camille eyed the dish
suspiciously. This ‘pot pie’ seemed to be having some kind of
identity crisis. It wasn’t sure if it wanted to be a pie or a stew.
It smelled alright, though. And she
was
really hungry...

“
Thank you,” she said,
reaching for it with her fork.

“
How do you get that tall
without eating anything, man?” Mac wanted to know.

“
Magic beans,” Destin said,
turning a page.

Despite the weird color, the pie thing was
good, Camille decided. She pulled Destin’s plate closer.

“
See?” Mac told Jul. “The
pot pie claims another convert.”

“
That doesn’t mean I - oh!”
Jul exclaimed, staring behind her.

Camille felt something cold drop on her
shoulder. Applesauce dripped down the front of her shirt. She
looked up and saw a girl who might have been beautiful if she
weren’t so smug.

“
Oops,” Hayley Dupree said,
standing over her with a tray of food and looking utterly
insincere. “Sorry, my hand slipped.”

Immediately, Camille picked up her cup of
punch and chucked it in Hayley’s face. Her expression was
priceless. The red sugar water ran all down her white blouse.

“
You little bitch!” she
shrieked, swiping at her outfit frantically.

Mac was laughing loudly.

“
My hand slipped,” Camille
echoed her, grinning.

“
Ugh!” Hayley shrieked,
tossing her water at Camille. Ice skittered all over the table. The
rest of the cafeteria had gone silent, watching them.

Camille shrugged. There were other ways to
win fights than using her fists. She grabbed a handful of her
spaghetti and flung it at the girl. Hayley dodged most of it - the
rest hit her pristine little friend, who squealed and upended her
tray on Jul. Apparently that was the starting bell for chaos.

“
FOOD FIGHT,” someone
yelled, and then the cafeteria was a warzone, handfuls of meals
flying across the room. Jul sunk down in her chair, and Destin hid
under the table. Mac managed to get a handful of jello into
Hayley’s hair before she fled the room, yelling for the principal.
Well. Might as well enjoy it while it lasted. She grabbed some more
spaghetti, looking to tag Sakamoto, but he was nowhere to be
seen.

Five minutes later, she was in Umino’s
office, bits of ice still melting in her hair.

“
What a charming interlude
you’ve caused,” the principal said frostily.

“
Hayley caused it,” Camille
stated.

“
Ms. Dupree explained it
all. What she did was accidental. What you did was on purpose. Now
how are we going to make amends?”

Suddenly the door burst open, and there was
Jul, breathless. “Ms. Umino, it wasn’t her fault, ma’am, Hayley
started it! Ask Mac and Destin, they saw it too!”

Umino regarded Jul sternly for several
moments. “Even if that were true,” she said, finally, “the fact
remains that Ms. Teague exacerbated the situation.”

Exacerbated?
Camille wondered.
What
the hell does that mean?

“
I just, um, I just wanted
you to know she didn’t start it,” Jul said meekly.

“
Very well, Ms. Graham.” The
principal rose, straightening her suit jacket. “Still, reparations
are in order. Since you seem so enthusiastic in supporting Ms.
Teague in her endeavors, I am assigning you both to weekend
cleaning detail, effective through the end of the semester. If you
want to make a wreck of the indoors, you can contribute to its
upkeep.”

Jul’s light chocolate skin flushed. “Yes
ma’am.”

“
And the
ganguro
?” Camille demanded. Rin Umino
was from Japan, she’d know exactly what a ganguro was - dyed
blonde, fake tanned, over-applied makeup. Was there a comparable
word in English?

A twitch in her facial muscles was the only
sign of recognition. “Ms. Dupree has suffered enough indignity
today,” the principal said, her eyes narrowing to a glare. “You
need to fix your attitude.”

Hayley needed to fix her outfit. Camille hid
a grin.

“
Hai,
sensei,
” she acknowledged, making a deep
formal bow.

Umino clearly saw through the overdone
gesture. “As I said,” she intoned, lip curling. “Your attitude. I
will be speaking to your guardian about this incident.”