Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (30 page)

Anthony could tell she was
still angry over Hyun getting hurt in such a savage manner, and
without provocation. He knew this, despite the fact he had tried to
calm her down earlier. His explanation had not been enough to quell
the fire that still burned inside of her. Mikalah could be
hot-headed at times.

Although, the more he
thought about it, even within the discomfiture of the moment, he
was glad she had no time for bullshit. He was glad she could see
they were far past that place where teenage anxiety and fear of
ridicule was the norm. With those simple words, his baby sister had
shown them all they did not have time to act like children.
Regardless of their ages, their current reality made the fact
irrelevant. Anthony could have kissed her for that!

Kimberly peered through
her bangs at Anthony’s youngest sister. Her eyes hooded and were
not particularly friendly.

He immediately took
exception to her reaction and was about to say something when Hyun
spoke.

“
It’s Kimberly’s boyfriend
who is the root cause of all the problems that exist between us. It
has nothing to do with Kim herself. She’s a real good person inside
once you get her away from him,” she stated. But she earned a
scathing glare from the other teenager.

Yet, Kim stayed
quiet.

“
Yeah, I guess you can say
that’s the real problem, because I truly like Kim. It’s just her
boyfriend has always been so jealous when it comes to other guys
even talking to her.” Words busted out from Derek like a failed
dam, immovable in one instant, spewing the next.

“
You guys think I didn’t
know Sonny was an asshole to just about everyone, including me?”
asserted Kimberly, tossing her head and clearing her hair from her
face.

To Anthony, it sounded
more like a plea.

“
Besides, Derek, most
boyfriends I know wouldn’t like another dudes hitting on their
girls. Regardless, if they knew she had one or not. He’s just
marking his territory. Ok…? But hey, all that is in the past and
doesn’t really matter, right? I broke up with him, so all this
crap, as far as I’m concerned, is water under the bridge. And even
if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter worth a shit. I’d still be stuck
out here with you guys, a zillion miles away from that fucking
jerk. So just get over yourselves and give me a break.”

“
I never hit on you,
Kimberly. What the hell are you talking about?” wondered an
incredulous Derek.

“
Oh really?” It was not a
question. It was an accusation.

“
Um, yeah, really,”
clarified Derek, his face exaggerated with outrage.

“
Whatever,
dude.”

“
His
territory?
” uttered Sophie as if the words
had just sunk in. “Were you seriously letting some guy lay some
type of ridiculous claim on you, like you’re his property or
something?

Kimberly just blew air out
of her mouth in exasperation, ignoring Sophie.

“
You need to work on your
self-esteem,” added Anthony’s girlfriend under her breath. Her
words were still loud enough to carry on the ever-growing
wind.

Oh shit!
thought Anthony, unsure of where this was
going.

“
I wasn’t hitting on you,
Kim. I just wanted to talk to you. I was new at the school and I
had no friends. I thought you would be straight up - a real girl,
or at least I had hoped,” explained Derek.

Anthony could tell
whatever had transpired between them had hurt the boy like a hack
to the bone. It had to have for him to let it show in front of them
all, most of them, to a certain degree, were strangers.

“
When did this happen?”
asked Elena with an innocuous undertone.

Anthony knew she was still
steering the conversation. She was unearthing more than any of the
others would have wanted to reveal. Because they lacked the
interpersonal savvy Elena possessed in droves, they continued to
spew at the mouth.

There was pause before
anyone answered though.

Then Hyun let out a grunt
in frustration. “It was like a freaking year and a half ago. That
stupid bastard, Sonny, has harassed Derek every god damned chance
he gets. I mean, the moment he sees him, he’s like a fly on shit.
And for what? All Derek did was talk to Kim for no longer than a
few minutes.”

“
Didn’t I just say I broke
up with the asshole, you - !” began Kimberly.

“
Kimberly, I thought we
had an agreement,” uttered Anthony, stern. He had stopped in his
tracks, an intent stare at the girl through his thick
eyebrows.

She stopped as well, her
fists balled at her sides, staring back at him. Her face flushed
with emotion. Some, he could only guess at.

He waited for her to
explode, but she did not. She appeared to gather in a huge breath
and swallow everything. As she did so, her expression, her
demeanor, everything changed right before his eyes.

“
I know it was wrong, what
Sonny did, but he’s… well, he had a good way of making his point,
you know? I would always end up… I don’t know, understanding, you
know? Or maybe I was just trying to avoid worse things, I don’t
know…,” she trailed off, staring at the ground.

To the rest of them, she
was clearly uncertain of how to clarify what had gone before. They
could see it in the way she walked, the tension in her shoulders,
even the tightness about her eyes. They were easy to read. Kimberly
was without definition.

“
Children, please,
continue walking,” rumbled Kodiak.

Those who were trailing
them had stopped as well. The rear of their group was bunched
together, a ripe target for any enemy that may be stalking
them.

“
Sorry, Kodiak,” Anthony
mumbled.

They all continued on,
striding, not quite looking at each other. Each of them gave the
others transient, dubious glances out of the corners of their
eyes.

Meanwhile, from above, the
first flakes of snow from the oncoming storm began to
fall.

Anthony tilted his head
upward. He saw nothing but dark roiling clouds hanging in the sky,
feeling with a degree of certainty this storm was going to be
another bad one.

Out of the startling
white, he had a strange thought. He frowned, turning to look back
at Derek over his right shoulder. “Hey, Derek, do you guys all go
to Eagle Rock High?”

Derek was glancing up, his
attention focused on the falling snow. He looked confused for a few
heartbeats. He peered back at Anthony dumbstruck, stammering, not
making much sense.

“
Yes,” interposed Kimberly
before Derek could recover. Her tone sounded sarcastic, though she
seemed being trying to hide it. “We all go the Eagle Rock,
why?”

Anthony looked back and
forth between the two, and then shrugged as Derek continued to
stare back in silence.

Kimberly glanced off into
the forest for a second, before her eyes shifted back to Anthony,
waiting for his reply.

“
I was just wondering,
because it seems so far all us older kids go to Eagle Rock, except
Andrew. He’s a Panther.”

Smiles came to most of
them. The mentioning of their cross-neighborhood rivals - the
Panthers of Benjamin Franklin High School - was ironic. It did not
mean they would think about or treat Andrew any different. It meant
there was a little hazing in order now. One could not let a stone
of that size lay unturned, Panther and Eagle alums had been going
at it for generations, by God!

As an afterthought, “Does
your boyfriend go to our school as well?” Anthony asked, turning
back to Kimberly.

She shook her head that
Sonny did not go to their school.

“
He would’ve graduated
last year, if he hadn’t dropped out of school,” added Hyun in a
rush. It was as if she were trying to express her thoughts before
Kimberly could stop her.

Anthony felt his eyebrows
rise a quarter of an inch at that. He peered over at Sophie, who
was keeping her gaze forward, expressionless on purpose. He could
feel both of his sisters staring at him, but he ignored them as
well. He turned forward much like Sophie had done. “Oh, I see,” he
said, quiet.

“
He hadn’t always been a
loser or anything like that before the drinking and the drugs got
too deep of a hold on him. He dropped out of school because of it.
Then, he got this harebrained idea that he could make it rich
dealing, which was really nothing more than an excuse. You can’t
make money when you’re using more of the freakin’ product than your
customers are buying,” explained Kimberly. She ran a hand through
her hair, tired, as if speaking of her ex- was exhausting. “After a
while he just turned into someone else, someone in search of
instant gratification. He could turn so mean so fast, especially if
he didn’t get his way or his fix or his… Well, you know what I
mean.”

“
Ah, I see,” was Anthony’s
immediate utterance, repeating himself. He did not know what else
to say. For some strange reason, it made him feel almost as
uncomfortable as it made Kimberly. It was as if throughout the
entire conversation they were dancing around something. Whatever it
was, it was something extremely personal to the point of being
unsavory. He did not want to inquire about it in detail, and
neither did the others. As if it was too much to handle at a time
like this, they left it unsaid. It was better that way.

He did not know what it
was.

“
Does your ex-boyfriend
still sell drugs?” came Elena innocent question. By her wide eyes
and expectant face, Anthony knew she was morbidly fascinated at the
thought of illicit activity. This was not something out of a movie
or a TV drama. It was real. Though she was young and had lived an
isolated life so far, she was still intrigued by those who walked
on the other side of the tracks. It was her thirst for knowledge he
was witnessing. She brimmed with curiosity.

Kimberly tried to smile at
his sister, but failed. She sighed and crossed her arms across her
chest. “He tries, I guess, but most of the time,” she explained
after a time, “he just gets high and drinks. He gets into fist
fights or does other stupid shit.”

“
It’s for the better you
broke up with him, Kimberly, because he’s only going to hurt
himself even more. In any event, he’ll hurt you too. He’s not a
good boy or man or whatever. You’re too pretty to waste yourself on
a boy like that,” stated a magnanimous Louis from farther back.
Somehow able to talk though he chomped through a Three Musketeers’
bar with relish. When he realized they were all staring at him, he
tried with all his might to mask the wave of embarrassment washing
over him. He failed. His entire face went beat red. It was obvious,
he had said much more than he had intended.

Where the hell did he get
a candy bar?
asked Anthony with his inward
voice. Still, he was more confounded the little boy could have such
crystal clear insight at his age. He was so quiet and unassuming;
one could never tell if Louis was paying attention to anything at
all. Yet, from time to time, he proved the exact
opposite.

Kimberly smiled at Louis.
She seemed warmed by the boy’s words as if they had given fuel to a
much needed spark. It had gone too long unlit. She still seemed
sad, but only by a bit. She just stared the boy. Even when he had
buried face in the candy bar - in blissful chocolate heaven - she
was still gazing his way.

Louis is a smart
dude.

Anthony peered ahead
through snow that had increased two-fold since he had last taken
the time to consider it. He realized they had passed what should
have been the location of a popular gourmet coffee shop. This put
them about two blocks from where the Eagle Rock City Hall would
have stood back in their world. Coming down the gradual slope of
Colorado Boulevard, the large building would have been on their
right hand side. Its' towering pine trees would have dominated the
landscape.

He tried to look through
the thickening fall of the snow, but could not make out any other
distinctive features ahead. “Hey, Mugz?” he called to the dog-man,
who was loping, with little noise, in front of the
bear-dogs.

The furry Familiar turned
around with his eyebrows raised, but did not utter a
word.

“
Hey, can you see a large
group of pine trees ahead of us off toward the right of the trail?
They would be about eighty feet tall. Their branches about half
that in width,” asked Anthony, hoping they were where he thought
they might be.

Mugzy, continued walking,
peered through the abrupt murk of the day. The snow was beginning
to swirl to some degree. The wind was getting stronger by the
minute. The dog-man’s large, pug-like visage craned forward upon
his neck.

Anthony watched after him,
waiting to see if he had found anything. But after a while, the
dog-man did not give any sign he had spied what Anthony was hoping
to find. He walked and stared, saying nothing, his head bobbing
from side to side, as he searched.

“
I wonder if he can see
anything in this crap, because I sure can’t,” commented Sophie over
the heads of Anthony’s sisters. She had one hand shielding her eyes
from the intermittent glare.