Cry of the Sea (9 page)

They called him, but they couldn’t get
through. I knew he was busy on the phone with reporters trying to
convince them that the oil damage to the shoreline of Washington
was news—important news—and the public needed to be aware of what
was going on. That didn’t matter to the office staff. They were
annoyed by my dad, and I heard them muttering to each other about
how my dad was “neglectful”, “disrespectful”, and “a bad
influence.”

Like usual, I found myself in that really
weird state of mind where I hated my dad for not answering the damn
phone and sparing me this humiliation, and being so proud of him
for the hard work he does. These women led such small lives. They
had no idea what was happening down at the coast and that it might
actually ruin their next trip to the beach or the fish they were
going to eat for dinner one night this month. They really had no
idea that there was this silver sea creature with a woman’s torso
and giant, sad eyes covered with oil in a tank, only alive because
my dad and I found her this morning.

By the time Dad managed to call the school
back to verify that, yes, I had been helping him all morning, only
five minutes remained until lunchtime.

According to Vice Principal Slater, a
heavy-set woman with one of those short porcupine hairdos that has
some kind of gel/hairspray product stuck to every individual strand
and teeny-tiny eyebrows that had been plucked too much, my dad’s
reason for my absence was not an excuse. Vice Principal Slater
spoke calmly into the phone. “Mr. Sawfeather, it is important that
your daughter be at school. She has missed several days this year
because of joining you with your
work
.” She said “work” like
he was having me sort his drug paraphernalia before taking it out
on the street to sell from his trunk.

I was so glad Dad didn’t see how she rolled
her eyes. He’d have come undone. I was pretty close to it myself,
but I was afraid she’d shoot poison barbs from her hair at me.

I couldn’t hear my dad on the other line, but
I got the gist of what he said when Mrs. Slater replied, “Yes, I’m
sure your work is very important, to
you
, but school is
more
important for Juniper.”

“More important than saving the entire West
Coast from being destroyed?” I asked.

She shushed me. Like I was a three-year-old.
She put her finger to her mouth and went “Shh!” Into the phone she
continued her ridiculousness, “I will allow her to make up the work
she missed this morning, but not in the future.”

“I wouldn’t have missed fourth period if you
hadn’t made me stay in here.”

She pinched up those tiny eyebrows and then
turned her back to me. “This is the last time your missions can
take priority over her studies.”

I know my dad didn’t cuss her out on the
phone, but I know he wanted to. I wanted to. The restraint I felt
was intense. So were the canker sores I was creating by biting the
insides of my lips to keep them shut.

However, when the bell rang for lunch and I
was still sitting there in the hard chair in her cramped office
usually saved for the behavioral bottom feeders of the school, I
muttered a small four-letter word.

I was now late meeting Haley and getting to
the Student Council presentation. The only reason I showed up at
school at all, thank you very much.

The Mistress of Detention spun around, hung
up the phone, and glared at me. She was about to condemn me to a
lifetime of after school study because of my foul mouth. I saw her
hand reaching for that dreaded pad of yellow papers.

Except my phone rang. Haley calling,
wondering where the heck I was. And then
that
got
confiscated because we’re not supposed to have our phones at
school. Well, truth be told, everyone has a phone. Everyone. We
just aren’t supposed to
use
them at school. So, we use them
under stealth in the bathrooms between classes and at lunchtime.
And that’s never really been a problem.

Until now.

After robbing me of my ability to communicate
and of my patience, the Office Nazis let me go. I ran through the
building to meet Haley, breaking yet another rule: no running
through the school. Oddly, I got away with the first actual rule
that I broke on purpose.

The Student Council meets in an office near
the cafeteria. Haley stood in the hallway outside the room, cell
phone in hand, and started shouting at me as soon as she saw me
dodging people with trays of bean burritos and cheesy nachos to get
to her.

“Where have you been? Why didn’t you answer
your phone? They’re waiting for us!” Then, noting my oversized boy
clothes, “And what are you wearing?”

“I know,” I said, breathing hard. “I’ll
explain later.
You
look really cute though.”

And she did. Haley had on this really neat
combination of pale green and brown. Khaki pants, green turtleneck,
with a chocolate brown knit poncho over it. I really liked it, even
though I would never have thought of putting those two colors
together because I would look like an Andes mint. She even had her
hair down and curled, instead of up in her usual ponytail.

She smiled at the compliment, and before the
smile could fade, I grabbed her hand, took in one more big breath
and opened the door to the tiny classroom usually reserved for
tutoring or small group lessons. The four members of Student
Council raised their heads to us as we burst into the room. I could
see that each of them was about to say something about how it was
too late and lunch was nearly over. However, my momentum was way up
and my patience way thin, so I didn’t even wait for the Council to
say anything before I started speaking my piece. Once my mouth
opened, I kind of couldn’t stop it.

“Hi guys,” I said. “Sorry I’m late, I was at
the beach all morning rescuing sea animals hurt by an oil spill. It
was slightly more important to me than American History and
Chemistry, because, you know, these are living, breathing creatures
that are dying. A lot of them were dead already, and it took time
to walk through all of that and search for the still-living ones.
It had to be done because you never know what you’re going to find.
There could be something really important out there that needs
help, something that needs to be discovered and saved. The Founding
Fathers are dead and can’t help, really. Memorizing what elements
make superglue stick is also not going to help.”

Everyone looked very puzzled, including
Haley. I didn’t care. I went on.

“Another thing more important to me than
colonists and chemicals is getting to live past forty, which won’t
happen if the environment collapses on all of us because we aren’t
taking care of it. Our oil spills kill animals; our trash is
killing ourselves. Now, that may not matter to all of you, but it
does me, and Haley, and several other people in this school who
would like to be in our Recycling Club.

“What is this club about, you ask?” I went on
before anyone actually could ask. “We just want to get some trash
cans specifically marked for recycling. We want to gather the
recyclables once a week and take them to a recycling center. We
will keep an eye out for containers littering our campus that could
be recycled, and we will put out information to let the students
know how to participate in our club and mission.

“What do I need from you?” I went on again,
seeing them itchy to interrupt. “Nothing. I mean, it would be nice
if you occasionally put your Aquafina bottles or Red Bull cans in
the recyclable bin. That would be cool of you. Otherwise, all we
really need is for you to give us the big
Okay
. Because,
really, our club is nothing that interferes with your other plans
around this place and is only going to help you and the school in
the long run.”

I stopped.

Haley stared at me for a moment in shock. I’m
not sure her expression had flipped over to totally upset or angry,
although it wasn’t exactly “Way to go, June” either. I hadn’t done
the presentation as we had planned. She had handouts and a Power
Point document with bullet points. She was supposed to be the one
talking—not me. I had skipped all that. After another beat, I
turned my attention to the four seniors in front of us to see what
would happen next.

The four of them sat in chairs behind one
long table. Marlee Gephalt, our school treasurer, wasn’t looking at
us. She was busy picking all the raisins out of her salad. Ted
Cowley, the group secretary, didn’t have a pen out to record any of
this. Don’t think I saw paper either. He did have a phone in his
hand though and seemed to be endlessly texting somebody. Gary
Donnelly, the vice president, had his feet up on the desk in front
of him and was leaning so far back in his chair he had to be seeing
only his size eleven Jordans and not our faces.

Then there was Regina Williams, class
president and royal B. Her Blonde Highness leaned way forward and
rested her chin in her hands like a little schoolgirl, pretending
to be amazed and awed by us. She stayed this way for almost a full
minute after I had finished speaking as though she hadn’t noticed I
stopped.

Finally she asked, “Is that it?”

Haley cleared her throat and answered
hesitantly. “No.” Regina’s eyes cut over to my friend like she was
an irritating bug. “I mean that we have some charts and... stuff.”
Her voice dwindled off as she noticed Regina was no longer looking
at her and was focused on me again.

Regina raised her hand like she was
addressing a teacher with her question. I nodded uncomfortably, and
she asked, “So, do you guys mean that you’re going to be digging in
the trash to get the cans out?”

Marlee glanced up from her salad. “Ew!”
Finally not looking at a raisin, she took in my appearance. “Whose
clothes are you wearing? A boy’s?” She got up and sauntered over to
me in her khaki mini-skirt that tested the school rule of being
“fingertip length”, peeked at the label of my oversized sweatshirt,
and then sniffed really hard. “And are you wearing Axe
cologne?”

I sighed. “Yes. I borrowed some clothes and
showered after leaving the beach this morning. This was all he
had.”

“He?” Regina asked. She winked at the others
and high-fived Marlee as her friend came back to the table. Ted and
Gary started chuckling at some private joke.

I didn’t get it at first.

“Yeah, this guy who works at the Marine
Rescue Center in Aberdeen,” I said. “He let me clean up at his
house.” They all laughed some more. “I mean it’s better than
smelling like fish, isn’t it? You wouldn’t have wanted to see me
like I was this morning.”

“I don’t know,” Ted said in this nasty,
teasing voice. “Maybe I would have.”

Gary laughed so hard he fell out of his seat,
his giant shoes taking out his soda can on the way down. Luckily
for him it was empty.

Regina smacked Ted hard on the shoulder. “No
you wouldn’t have.” He stopped laughing and rubbed his shoulder. I
guess they were a couple? I should have known that, but I didn’t
follow the popular crowd’s comings and goings like most people
did.

Haley started edging backwards toward the
door. I grabbed her hand and stopped her.

“So, are we getting approval to start the
club or not?” I asked firmly.

Ted shrugged. Marlee shook her head. Gary was
still laughing. Regina offered a wicked smile she probably
perfected in the mirror. “Sure, start your trashy club. It’s only
fitting.” I thought Gary would explode if he laughed any harder.
Ted snickered again, trying to hold it in with a hand over his
mouth.

“It’s a recycling club,” Haley said quietly.
“Not a trash club.”

“Whatever,” Regina said.

Gary sputtered, “Does that mean they get used
over and over again?” and then started guffawing harder than
before. Ted joined in, and Regina cracked a smile.

Okay, I got it.

Did I care? Not really.

Did I care that Haley had her lips shut so
tight that they were turning white instead of saying something in
my defense? Yeah. A little bit.

I was done with them and their teasing and
wanted to say something nasty and walk out. Only I still needed
their stupid signatures on our form. Without saying anything, I
slapped the paper down on the table. Through their sputtering fits,
they each put their scribble on it.

“Are we done then?” I asked, taking back the
paper.

“Sure,” Ted said. “Thanks for fitting us in
and coming to see us.”

More laughter.

Haley and I headed for the door.

Regina’s voice followed us out. “Now go do
your walk of shame where we don’t have to see you.” She shut the
door behind us. The laughter in that room was so loud I could hear
it out in the corridor and over the bell ringing to end lunch.

Haley took off toward the cafeteria without
saying anything to me. I chased after her.

“Haley, slow down,” I shouted. “What’s the
matter?”

“Are you serious?” she asked. “You just
embarrassed me so much.”

“They’re just being jerks,” I said.

“Don’t you get it?” Haley said. “They think
you’re a slut and slept with that guy this morning.”

“Oh, they’re just joking around. Mean joking,
but nothing serious.” I reached out an arm and stopped her. “You
don’t think I skipped school to sleep with some guy do you?”

She started to say something, caught herself
and stopped. “No,” she mumbled. “Of course not.”

She did. She really did think I’d been with
some guy all morning and not at the beach rescuing sea animals. How
could she think that? I tried hard not to accept that she’d take
the insinuations of some preppy social club over what she knew
about me. Haley and I had been next-door neighbors for ten years.
She’d seen my family rush after every conceivable natural disaster
during that time.