That afternoon, Kota said he was going to the Academy with Victor. Silas and North had their first football practice. Luke and Gabriel joined Nathan and I on the bus for the ride home. I was under orders from Nathan to check in at home, with Luke as my shadow. We were going to hole up at Nathan’s house for the evening.
Marie walked with me to our house. The swelter made the thin hoodie I wore today feel heavy against my skin. Luke took the back trail around Nathan’s house. He’d wait for Marie and me to enter before he scaled the house to my bedroom window.
I waited until Marie went into her room before closing and locking my door. Luke slipped quietly into my room, dashing into the attic. This was a critical point. Marie could barge in any minute and I didn’t know how my mom was doing.
When the attic door closed behind Luke, I thumped down the stairs louder than necessary to give Luke an idea of where I was. I peeked in at my mom. She was awake but her eyes drooped as she gazed at the television blaring the news. She didn’t notice when I was standing there so I pushed the door against the wall to make some noise.
She turned her head to me, her dull eyes focusing on my elbow, my shoes, at the frame of the doorway above my head. “What?” she grumbled.
“Just letting you know I was home,” I said.
“Go clean your room,” she demanded. “I don’t want to hear a peep out of you today.”
“Can I bring you something to eat?”
She picked up a cup of soup from her night stand to show to me. “Get out of here.”
I ran back upstairs. I tapped on the attic door before crossing the room to pick out a pair of short blue shorts and a thin t-shirt. I checked on Marie before I got to the bathroom to change. She was gone. I suspected she was on her way to Danielle’s house. It occurred to me that our mother hadn’t asked about her. I dismissed it. Maybe she would never have asked for me at all today. Popping in to check on her just set back the unseen timer on when my mother thought to actually check on us.
After I dressed, I poked my head into my room. Luke was ready at the window. He shuffled out onto the roof and I took the back stairs. We met in the garage and we took off for Nathan’s house.
I knocked just so we weren’t scaring them and because it was awkward to me to just walk in.
Luke held my hand, grinning at me and shaking his head. “You’re too nice.”
Gabriel answered the door wearing a pair of jeans and a bright neon green tank shirt. He smirked at me, crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the frame of the door. “Oy,” he said. “Hey there, Trouble.” His eyes went to my hair. “Nope, nuh uh.” He held out his hand. “Give it up.”
I felt my eyebrows pop up. “Why?”
“Pay the toll. You can come in if you give me the clip.”
I sighed. “It’s too hot to have my hair down.”
“Stop it,” Luke said. He slipped off the blazer he was still wearing, undoing the tie at his neck.
Gabriel rubbed at his head. “I’ve been looking at that thing all week and I haven’t said anything. I hate it. I want it back. I was gonna do her hair anyway.”
Nathan appeared at the door. He was in running pants, sneakers and a red Nike shirt. “Oh good, you’re here.” He held a few water bottles in his hands. “Come on, we’re going out.”
“Let me get this stupid uniform off first,” Luke said, chucking off his shirt as he trailed into the house.
Ten minutes later, Luke had changed into a pair of jeans, shirtless and with sneakers. I followed Nathan through Kota’s backyard. Gabriel and Luke trailed behind us. We all carried water bottles. Bees buzzed around the dandelions in the grass. It felt more like a summer day and I half forgot already about school and homework.
“Why are we going into the woods?” Gabriel asked, sounding more curious than concerned. He had his arms up over his head, resting his forearms on top of his hair. With his arms up, his shirt lifted to reveal the red edge of his boxers above the hem of his jeans and a little bit of his tan skin at his hip.
“I promised to take Sang,” Nathan said. He leaned into me to whisper close to my ear. “I really needed to get out of the house.”
“No worries,” I whispered back. I didn’t mind. We’d been cooped up at school and with hiding from my parents at home.
“Stop talking about me,” Gabriel whined. When I looked back, he was pouting but as he caught my eyes he winked and smiled.
We stood at the edge of Kota’s yard. The trees behind his house thinned out at one spot and there was a brown dirt path between two palm trees that crossed above our heads. The palm trees seemed out of place to me. I forgot how far south my family had moved sometimes.
Nathan led the way under the two trees. There was a broad, cleared path just behind the tree line, the ground flattened wide enough to perhaps make a paved road in the future. Or maybe someone had wanted to but changed their minds and left the spot abandoned. The grass was overgrown, up to our mid-calves.
Nathan headed east and was lifting his knees to crunch down on the grass. I wished I had worn jeans this time, but I fell behind him so I could follow along in his trail. Luke shadowed me. Gabriel blazed his own trail to my right.
“Hey wait up!” A girl’s voice shouted from behind us. My heart stopped in my chest. For a moment I was worried it was Marie.
Instead, Jessica was running up, following Gabriel’s trail in. The edge of her glasses had fogged a little and her cheeks flushed.
“What’s she doing?” Nathan asked, wiping his hand against his cheek.
“Maybe she wanted to come along,” I said.
“I don’t know about that,” Nathan said. “I didn’t think she was the outdoor type.”
“She can go, can’t she? It’s Kota’s sister. Let her come.” I had a warm spot for anyone in Kota’s family. They were always so friendly to me. “Hey,” I called to her. “You wanted to come with us?”
She slowed when she got close. She was wearing khaki pants and a rose colored blouse that suited her shoulder length dark hair. She glanced at the guys, hesitating.
I wondered if she was as intimidated as I felt when I was around them. I smiled to her and stretched my hand out. I knew I had to make an effort to be friendlier. It felt a lot easier with Jessica. Maybe because she looked like Kota and she was younger. “Come on,” I said.
She reached out to take my hand and I helped her over until she was standing behind me.
We set off again, letting Nathan lead the way. At certain points the grass was up to our thighs. With Nathan’s persistence, we weaved our way through.
We soon got to a part where the grass had thinned out considerably. The main path curved northward. There was a small dirt road to the right that twisted away, shaded in an archway of walnut trees.
Nathan pointed to the dirt road. “Don’t go back there,” he warned. “There’s a big pile of sawdust they never came back to clear. That’s pretty much it. It’s dangerous so stay out of it.” He glanced back at me, making his point clear. He was specifically telling me. I hid an eye roll at his assumption that I would do anything dangerous on purpose.
Since the grass was short here, it was easier to walk beside each other. The boys moved ahead of us and Jessica and I tailed them. They hovered at the entryway to the dirt road, talking about a good way to post a sign or block it so no one would go in there. Academy boys were always working.
I struggled with something to talk to Jessica about. There was little I actually knew about her other than being related to Kota. We’d been so busy that I didn’t have a chance to get to know her when I was over at Kota’s. I forced my lips apart to start talking. “How do you like your school, Jessica?”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I wish we didn’t have to wear uniforms.”
I blinked at her. “Do you go to a private school?”
“Yes,” she said. “Not to the Academy though.”
“Why not the Academy?”
“Kota won’t let me.”
I perked up. He didn’t want his own sister going, just like he didn’t want me going. “Why not?”
She shrugged. “I don’t think I want to go anyway. They are always working and always at the school. They never get a real break. They’re there during the summer, too. I like school, but not that much.”
I struggled with the idea of Kota not allowing his own little sister to go to the school he went to. Was it because of the things they were doing now? Was getting beaten up and being subjected to crazy situations like helping Ashley Waters a requirement? I wondered how the others felt. They hadn’t objected to Kota’s request.
Crunching sounds and voices filtered to my ears, noises that didn’t belong to us. I wasn’t quite sure where it was coming from. The guys continued to argue about what to do and didn’t seem to have noticed.
“Guys,” I said softly.
Luke was saying something about a barn. “Let’s show it to her.”
“There could be wasps,” Nathan said. “I don’t want to take her there until I’ve had a chance to clear it out.”
“Guys...” The sound of footfalls was getting closer but I still couldn’t locate the direction.
“Sang doesn’t want to see some old barn,” Gabriel said. He splashed some of his water in his face. “Let’s go swim.”
“Guys!”
They all turned to me. I held a finger to my lips to indicate they should be quiet.
Once they stopped talking, they caught on to what I was hearing. Their heads turned but it was Nathan who turned around, looking down the dirt path.
We watched as Derrick emerged from further down the dirt path. He was wearing jean shorts and Converse high tops, but was shirtless. Following him were two boys who looked to be about Jessica’s age. One had straight blond hair cut to his shoulders, was gangly, and shorter than Jessica. The other one had dark curly hair, was thin but taller than her and deeply tan.
We stared at each other for a moment. Both groups seemed surprised the other one was there.
“Hey,” Derrick said, waving.
“Hey,” Nathan said. “What are you doing back there? It’s dangerous.”
“We were checking the surrounding woods to see if there was more than one saw dust pile,” said the blond. His face was pale, his eyes dark and he wore jean cutoff shorts and a white t-shirt and glasses. I couldn’t be sure but it looked like he was scowling.