Portal (8 page)

Although I felt balanced, I just stood on the ice for a few moments to make sure. Then I put one skate in front of the other and pushed off, it seemed to come naturally. As I slid along the ice, I felt well grounded. So I tried a few back wards moves and stops, no issues. I felt fairly confident that my hockey skills were intact.

Dr. Lee hadn’t sent for me today, which was probably for the best. I felt more confident talking to him now that I was sure of myself.

I made it home by five. A couple of bikes were parked outside, Harry’s and Kellan’s. The thought of Kellan made me feel slightly queasy, so I decided to try to sneak up the stairs quietly. However, when I heard laughter and screaming from the family room, I couldn’t help peeking. Ella and Kellan were battling it out on Guitar Hero and Harry was dancing along with Gertrude. I guess Ella had fully recovered. Well, that explained the elaborate GH set up. I had a brother! Mom and Rupert were cuddling on the couch, laughing so hard that tears were streaming down Mom’s face.

Gertrude was the only one who noticed that I’d come in. She jumped out of Harry’s arms and lunged herself at me. She took me by surprise and I stumbled, lost my bearings and fell flat. As I clumsily scrambled to get myself up I noticed the whole room had gone quiet and all eyes were on me. I felt my face go red as I plonked myself down on the nearest chair, carefully avoiding Kellan’s eyes.

“Are you ok, Arizona?” Mom asked as she came over to me.

“Yes, just fine,” I said trying to brush it off. “How are you doing, Ella? Feeling better?” I continued trying to divert attention away from me.

Ella came over and climbed into my lap for a hug. It felt very awkward, but I put my arms around her.

“I just beat Kellan at Guitar Hero. What could be better!” she said proudly.

I could hear Kellan mock crying in the background.

“I ordered pizza. Hope that’s ok with everyone,” said Rupert.

“Kellan, are you staying for dinner?” Mom asked.

“No, I better get home, tons of homework for physics.” He got up and bear hugged Ella, thumped Harry and Rupert on the shoulders and kissed my mom’s cheek. He slowly turned around, smiled and pulled at my sleeve and said, “See you at physics, Shrimp,” and left. I suddenly felt hollow. Inexplicably, I didn’t want him to leave. A lump was rising in my throat.

Rupert brought the pizzas into the family room and we helped ourselves. I sat down on one of the overstuffed chairs and looked around. Ella and Harry were sitting on the floor stuffing their faces. They were obviously very close. Harry seemed to follow her every move and helped her anytime there was even the slightest sign that she needed anything. She in turn adored him, but seemed to like to try to annoy him. So, nothing new with her, she’s such a brat!

Ella kept flicking bits of cheese onto Harry’s face, but he just laughed and play tickled her back. I felt a bit envious. All my life I had wished for an older brother who would look out for me and always be on my side. My relationship with Ella was strained or at least that’s how I remember it being in Princeton. We avoided physical contact, never hugged, touched or spent any time together. She knew how to push my buttons and I didn’t take kindly to it. And here she was, flicking cheese without any consequences.

I turned around and looked at Rupert. I wondered what his story was. I gathered that he could play the guitar. Could he be some kind of musician? I wondered where he rode off to on his bike. He looked at my mother with doting eyes. He rested his head on my mom’s lap and she absentmindedly stroked his hair. I wondered what she was thinking about. Where had they met, how long had they been together and the bigger question… why did we call him
Dad
? I could feel myself getting worked up again and I wanted to scream. So I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

Mom seemed to be her usual self, still bossy, but she appeared more relaxed and content. I had caught her looking with irritation at her Blackberry a couple of times this evening. I wondered what that was about. I opened my eyes again and looked over at her. She looked amazing for her age, she must be getting close to 45, but she didn’t look a day over 30, well maybe 35. I saw her trusted Kelly bag sitting on the floor by her seat, some things never changed.

My eyes were drawn to her hands. What was that around her finger, dirt? I looked more closely, it looked like a tattooed ring. I noticed that Rupert had the same tattoo. They had tattooed wedding bands? That was very
alternative
of them, almost silly! I held back my giggles by clenching my jaw shut.

Mom’s phone rang, and she seemed slightly annoyed as she answered. The conversation was one sided with Mom replying in one-syllable words. She looked at Rupert and whispered but I could still hear, “Problem at work, I’m going to have to go in for a while. Come with me?”

Rupert sat up and said, “Harry, you’re in charge. Get Ella to bed and read her a bedtime story.
Harry Potter
, it’s by her bed. Arizona, you have homework? We’ll be back in a couple of hours. I’ll be on my cell.”

They got up and kissed each of us before they took off on Rupert’s Harley.

As we got up to head upstairs, Harry asked, “Shrimp, do you need help with your physics homework?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t looked at it yet. I’ll come and find you if I do,” I said, not aware of any physics homework.

He scooped Ella up in his arms and carried her upstairs. I decided to take Gertrude for a stroll before tackling my homework. I found her leash and we ventured outside. Lazy little Gertrude did not seem to want to head out in the dark so it was a quick stroll. We went back inside and I went upstairs to deal with the homework.

I stopped outside Ella’s room and watched Harry read to her. I was overcome with jealously – I needed Harry to be
my
brother. Ella beckoned me to climb into bed with her, so I did. We listened to him read; Ella was asleep before he had finished the chapter. I got up, Harry tucked her in and we left her to dream her dreams.

“I’ll be in my room if you need any help, Shrimp.”

I absentmindedly yanked at Harry’s sleeve as a thank you and went to my room. I was almost scared as I opened my homework calendar and looked at the work. It seemed that this was basically a repeat of junior year, so I had done most all of this before, but with really bad grades in all the classes. Physics was a new one though, not a clue why I was taking physics. Had my mother forced me into it? I looked at the homework. Centripetal force problems, no idea what that meant. Despite skimming the textbook, it still made no sense. Was Harry really any good at this? I walked over to his room, the one that had been locked before. He was sitting by his desk, writing some kind of report. He looked up as he heard me come in.

“Need help, Shrimp?”

I nodded, “Any idea what centripetal force is?”

“Sure, let me see what you have to do.” He took my assignment and explained the problems. It was actually very simple and we finished the work in no time.

I looked around his room. It was hockey themed with some bike stuff thrown in, a typical boy’s room. There were lots of posters (all framed), a row of helmets (some biker and some hockey), signed hockey memorabilia, sticks and pucks. Harry watched me looking at his stuff with amusement.

“Why did you lock your room when you went away?” I asked curiously.

“So you wouldn’t come in and meddle with my stuff!” he laughed.

I was a bit hurt, but I guess that made sense. I knew all about little sisters not being able to keep their hands off personal property. I guess I was
his
pesky little sister.

“What were you and Kellan talking about at breakfast?” I asked.

He looked bemused, “Can’t really remember. I guess I told him about camp and we discussed the tryouts.”

He sat up and looked at me with a mischievous grin, “What’s going on between you and Kellan? Did you fight about something while I was away? You guys acted strange at breakfast.”

I shrugged, “Oh nothing…Harry, can we hang out after school tomorrow? I’ve missed you.”

“Sure, I’ve missed you too, Shrimp. I have a date with Maria at six, so why don’t we hang out right after school?”

I nodded happily as I got up to leave.

“Shrimp, are you coming to watch the tryouts on Thursday?”

“I’ll be there,” I said carefully.

I kept my face down as I entered physics class, trying to keep a low profile. How should I approach Ariele? She was one of my best friends; I needed to talk to her but was almost afraid to. I needed her to know
me
, Arizona Stevens. But how would I explain my current pathetic predicament! I was so preoccupied worrying about her that I almost ran into Kellan. Well perhaps not
almost
, my face got rather close and personal with his chest as it rebounded off it with a thump. He smirked at me or that’s what it looked like anyway. I guess it could be his version of a smile. If so, he needed to work on it.

“Shrimps first,” he whispered into my ear as I tried to squeeze pass him through the doorway.

I suddenly felt intensely irritated. It was one thing for Harry to call me Shrimp, but it annoyed me when Kellan did. I’m not sure why. It seemed less affectionate when he said it, almost teasing. I gathered that he was one of my brother’s (a
brother
… it sounded so odd. My mind wandered momentarily, but I shook myself back to the present) best friends, however, surely I didn’t have to put up with this? No, I definitely did not! I turned around and snarled at him, baring my teeth.

“Stop calling me
Shrimp
!” I glowered at him with my fists clenched at my side, ready to punch him if I needed to. The expression on his face changed immediately to one of shock. I instantly regretted opening my big mouth.

“Are you ok? I’ve called you Shrimp since we were eight! What’s going on with you? You’re acting very bizarre. There is something different about you. Did something happen?” he looked me over carefully, narrowing his eyes.

I realized that I had made a big mistake. I was horrified. The hurt in his eyes was unbearable; it made my stomach heave. I tugged at his sleeve nervously.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean it. You
know
that.”

Thankfully he nodded and his mouth broke into an infectious smile. I felt a sense of relief wash over me. I walked over to my seat with Maria. She was pinching my elbow and she gave me a clearly disappointed stare. She shrugged her shoulders at Kellan and more or less pushed me down on my chair.

“O-M-G, what’s up with you?” she hissed clearly irritated.

“I don’t know,” I whispered back wearily.

She went around to her desk and sat down. I could feel everyone looking at me. This was clearly out of character. I wondered if Ariele was sitting at the back and if she had noticed my little fit. She’s the only one who wouldn’t give this a second thought. After all, this was quite normal behavior for Princeton Arizona. This is how I always was.

I wasn’t feeling brave enough to turn around to see if she was there. The thought of meeting Kellan’s gaze was more than I could deal with at the moment. I could hear Justin laugh from behind me and it took all I had not to turn around and wallop him. It was really hard to suppress my natural instincts, but I felt I had to. This was so clearly not how the Arizona they knew would behave. Well, I can’t be perfect all the time! At least, I looked like Arizona Darley today. Ella had helped me get back to
normal
. I
looked
pretty and well polished. I would have to work on the attitude.

I did feel bad for Kellan. He was clearly hurt and disappointed in me. Best to find a way of making it up to him, although I wasn’t sure exactly why I felt I had to. I rummaged around in my bag, pulled out my physics folder and pretended to go through my homework.

After what seemed like eternity, a very late Dr. Lee entered the classroom and everyone went silent. I was a bit taken aback. I had expected a burly ex-hockey player, but Dr. Lee looked like your everyday science nerd who had never skated in his life. I guessed he had hidden talents, however, I was starting to wonder if this team was any good. I gave myself an imaginary kick. How could I be so judgmental? After all, I, a petite girl, was expecting to be accepted as a serious candidate to play for the varsity team.

“Miss Darley, I got your note this morning. Please come to my office during lunch,” he said as he adjusted his bow tie.

Maria shot me a curious look, as did the rest of the class. I put my head down and pretended to concentrate on my work. Thankfully, with Harry’s help last night, I was able to keep up with Dr. Lee as he moved on to equilibrium and torque. I was actually starting to enjoy this class. Physics seemed to be fairly intuitive and I seemed to get the various concepts without too much effort. Memorizing all these equations would be a challenge though. Dr. Lee seemed to command attention and there were no whispers or chatting during class thankfully. We put our homework on an open folder on Dr. Lee’s desk on the way out.

Kellan brushed past me on the way out the door and said, “Beat you at Guitar Hero later, Shrimp?”