She half ran down the path. Somewhere in the place my heart should’ve been, I felt a distant pang of guilt.
Logan blew out a long whistle as he threw on a shirt from his book bag. “You’re fucking ruthless, man. Remind me why we’re friends, again?”
“Because you know my arm is your best shot of getting your poor ass a scholarship.”
“Oh,” Logan said, following me inside with the beers in tow. “Right.”3KennedyI sat at the kitchen table, watching my mom scramble to find all of her things for work.
I tried a few positions while she wasn’t looking, searching for the one that looked like it was absolutely dripping with casual energy. I settled for resting my chin on my knuckles. “Hey.” I wasn’t sure, but it almost sounded like I hadn’t been strategically planning when and how I’d ask this question for weeks. “With your new schedule, it would be so much easier for you if we just skipped the homeschooling thing.”
“Your brain would rot out of your head.” She sounded distracted as she was digging through boxes for something.
“No.” I tried not to let the disappointment bleed into my voice. “I mean I could go to regular school. It’d be my senior year, and I could at least get to feel what it’s like to have a little bit more of a normal life.”
Unfortunately, that got her full attention. “Out of the question. You know I’ve done everything I can to keep your father from finding us. Do you really thinking slapping your name all over the internet on class rosters and God only knows what else would be a good idea?”
I’d expected that response and had prepared an argument. “I won’t join any teams or whatever. Just… normal stuff. At worst, my name would be in maybe one place, and I won’t show up for picture day. I looked it up, if they try to reschedule your school photo too many times and fail, they’ll just leave you out of the yearbook. It would just be a name on the internet. No face, no details. Please, mom.”
She finally found what she was looking for and rushed toward the door. I wheeled my chair behind her, waiting for a response while I held my breath.
“No. It’s too dangerous. And spending all day away from the house with your condition? No,” she said again, shaking her head as if to herself. “It’s impossible. I’m sorry, sweetie. I’ve got to go.”
I waited until I heard her car pull out, then I went outside. A few hours ago, I’d started hearing the faint thumping of music in the direction of the gate, and I wanted to get a closer look.
Getting my chair across the grass and up to the dirt road that led back to the gate wasn’t exactly easy, but my arms had grown strong from all the time I’d been spending in the chair lately. There were dozens of cars parked outside the gate, but I didn’t see any sign of people.
I decided I could at least get a little closer, so I made my way up to the gate itself and saw that the doors were wide open.
If they didn’t want people to come in, they would keep them closed, right?
I made my way down a winding path flanked by tall, dark forest on either side. I was getting close enough that I could hear loud voices and distant splashing now.
I thought I was almost to the source of the noise when I heard the sound of footsteps coming from just ahead of me. In a moment of dumb panic, I tried to ease my chair off the road and into the softly sloping underbrush. I lost friction and went sliding a few feet until one of my wheels caught on a rock, sending me flying from the chair and into a bush.
For a few seconds, all I could do was try to focus on calming the dizziness, so I didn’t throw up all over myself. Once it started to subside, I realized the people I’d heard were all standing on the path, squinting down toward where I’d undoubtedly just made several very loud noises.
“The fuck was that?” Asked a guy with a deep voice.
“Probably a bear,” said another guy.
The group of people were just silhouettes to me in the faint moonlight. I could tell from the broad frames that four of them were guys. Two girls were leaning on either arm of one of the guys.
“Yo,” one male voice said once they seemed to get bored of staring into the darkness toward me. “I saw there was a shitty car parked out front of that shack in front of your house. Looks like you got yourself a new neighbor.”
“Yeah. Some girl in a wheelchair. I saw her out back with this weird fucking spear thing. She was covered in sweat, too.”