The Academy - Introductions (27 page)

Homeroom Room 135

AP English - Trailer 10 - Ms. Johnson

AP Geometry - Room 220 - Ms. Smith

Violin - Music Room B - Mr. Blackbourne

AP World History - Trailer 32 - Mr. Morris

Lunch

AP Biology - Room 107B - Mr. Gerald

Japanese - Room 212 - Dr. Green

Gym - Gymnasium - Mrs. French

Seven classes. Barely room to breathe. Now looking at it and
thinking ahead to the upcoming year, it seemed overwhelming. Maybe it had been
a mistake to be so enthusiastic about this.

“What’s wrong, Sang?” Nathan asked. His head tilted in my
direction, a rusty brown eyebrow arching.

I pursed my lips, twisting them slightly. “I was just wondering if
this was a good idea.”

Kota looked up from his paper, coming over to kneel next to me and
sitting back on his heels on the floor. “May I see?”

I handed it to him. Our fingers brushed as he took it from my
hands but he didn’t seem to notice. None of them ever seemed to notice touching
as much as I did. If they grabbed my hand or bumped my hip, they passed it off
as if it were nothing. Coming from a family that never touched, there was a lot
to get used to around my new friends.

Kota’s eyes scanned my schedule, reading off the list under his
breath.

Nathan got up, peering over Kota’s shoulder. “Holy shit,” he said.
“How’d you get seven?”

“She doesn’t have a study hall.” Kota pointed to the paper, lifted
a brow and then looked up at me. “How did you get into the Japanese class? When
did you meet Mr. Blackbourne?”

Nathan’s eyes widened in surprise and looked at me, waiting for me
to respond.

I blushed. After everything that happened, I’d forgotten to tell
them. “I... well when Dr. Green stopped me in the hall at registration, he
brought me to his office. Mr. Blackbourne was in there. They adjusted my
schedule.”

Nathan and Kota shared a look between them. The only thing I
caught was Nathan’s eyes narrowing. Did they not like this? It was hard to
understand their expressions.

“What?” I asked. “I know it’s a lot but you said they were there
to help out the school. Is it bad they changed it?”

“No, it isn’t bad,” Kota said, maybe a little too quickly. “Did
you happen to mention us at the time?”

I pushed my forefinger to my lower lip, pushing it toward my
teeth. “I might have said something like I knew you, Kota. I didn’t say
anything about the others. Dr. Green recognized your handwriting on my paper.”

“I didn’t know Mr. Blackbourne was teaching a class,” Nathan said.

“I don’t think it was pre-planned,” Kota said. He hooked a couple
of fingers into the collar of his shirt and tugged.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. The way they were reacting to this made
my heart shiver. “Mr. Blackbourne asked if I was interested and he offered to
teach me. Should I drop the class?”

“It’s just odd that he’d take an interest,” Nathan said.

“Not fully,” Kota said, relaxing into a smile. He handed my
schedule back to me. “It’s fine. He knows what he’s doing. If he wants to teach
you, you’re in good hands.”

Last time Mr. Blackbourne was mentioned, they diverted. Now they
seemed nervous. They may not have voiced their opinion, but I got the feeling
they didn’t want Mr. Blackbourne to know about me, or me about Mr. Blackbourne.
Academy secrets. I scanned my schedule. “I’ll still share classes with you all,
right?

“You’re in my English class,” Kota said.

Nathan moved closer to me and held his paper next to mine. He was
close enough that I was breathing in the scent of cypress and leather. I tried
to focus and compare.

“Just geometry and gym,” I said. “But in gym the boys and girls
separated aren’t they?”

“We’ll mix up sometimes, I bet. Besides, we’re all in the same
gym. I’ll wave to you. Maybe.”

Kota’s phone rang on his desk and he answered it. After a few
minutes he hung up. “All schedules are accounted for. They’re heading in now.”

Nathan’s blue eyes locked with mine. His reddish brown hair was a
little mused but I found it to be charming. He grumbled. “And so it starts...”

I used Kota’s restroom as the guys went downstairs to wait on the
others. I adjusted my cut off blue jean shorts a little lower on my hips and
pressed my hands to smooth out my blouse, pulling out the lower hem so the
length fell over the pockets of my shorts. I kept readjusting the buttons on my
blouse, buttoning and unbuttoning the collar to figure out what looked better.
There were thin spots in the material and I was sure my father bought it at a
used clothing shop. The guys always looked so good. I simply couldn’t compare.
I was combing my fingers quickly through my hair when I heard a car rolling
into the drive. I threw my hair into a twist and clipped it. No time to fiddle
with it. The boys were here.

I ran downstairs and out into the living room. Kota held open the
front door, pushing his glasses up his nose. In a line came Victor, Luke,
Gabriel, North and Silas. While they were all dressed casually, casual for the
guys was a different level. Polo shirts, clean slacks, button up shirts with
collars. Everything looked new and I spied Hilfiger and Abercrombie logos. It
made me feel like a complete slob in my old things. I shifted on my feet on the
blue carpet of the living room, my hands going behind my hips to hide any
nervous shaking.

The others greeted Kota and Nathan in the hallway. Silas was the
first to spot me. Locks of his black hair hung around his eyes and he brushed
it aside, smiling at me. He came close, towering over me and pulled from his
back pocket his envelope. “Hey look, they let me in.”

I giggled. His smile widened, his clean white teeth a contrast to
his olive skin.

We collected in Kota’s living room. I sat in the middle of the
couch. North, dressed in black with a single gold hoop earring, sat to my left,
Gabriel wearing a bright orange shirt and blue crystal studs in his ears, sat
to my right. Their contrasting styles had me glancing from one to the other,
pondering how they managed to stay friends when they seemed so different. The
others sat on the floor in a circle facing us. It felt strange to be higher up
than everyone else but they didn’t seem to notice.

I blushed as North casually put an arm behind my shoulders against
the couch cushions. I peeked up at his tan face. His dark eyes caught mine
quickly and I glanced away. While I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, his eyes were so
intense it had my insides vibrating.

“I vote we get bean bag chairs,” Luke said. He might have been
North’s step brother, but Luke’s long blond hair loosely hung around his
shoulders, and his smile was warm and always ready to laugh. He leaned back on
his hands as he sat with his legs crossed on the floor. “If we’re going to have
meetings here, we need something besides the floor.”

“We’re working on that,” Kota said.

North’s fingers traced small circles at my shoulder. I glanced at
the others to see if they noticed but they were watching Kota. I tried not to
blush. This was normal, right? I told myself he was just being friendly and
willed my heart to still.

“Now that we have schedules, let’s start at the beginning,” Kota
said, getting the attention of everyone in the room quickly. “Or rather, let’s
start with getting there.”

“I’ve got Gabriel,” said Victor, fiddling with the silver
medallion at his neck.

“We’re good,” North said. “Luke and I can grab Silas.”

“Good. Logically, I’ll take Nathan and Sang,” Kota said.

“You mean on the bus?” I asked. They all looked at me. I felt my
cheeks radiating heat. “I mean I don’t think I could get away with riding to
school with anyone. If I’m not getting on the bus, my sister will know and
she’d tell my parents.”

“Aw, shit,” Nathan said. “I didn’t think about that. Don’t tell me
we’re riding this year.”

I held up my hand toward him. “You don’t have to. I mean I can
ride the bus. You guys can ride together. It’s no big deal. I’ll just see you
when I get there.”

The group exchanged glances. I caught Luke’s gaze as he stared at
me, his blond hair falling in front of his dark eyes. I wasn’t sure if he
realized he was doing it or maybe he was just staring out into space but
happened to be looking in my direction. When he came back, he started blinking
his brown eyes and held a dazzling smiling. His striking face had distracted me
from watching the others. Did he do that on purpose?

“It’s not a big deal,” Nathan said, falling back on the carpet,
putting his hands behind his head to prop it up. “We’ll do it.”

“But,” I started to say. It just seemed too unfair. It wasn’t a
big deal to me. It was just a bus ride.

Kota cut me off. “No, it’s fine. My car isn’t totally reliable
anyway. We’ll ride.”

I pursed my lips. His easy excuse to make me feel better left me
feeling uneasy. The others simply nodded, taking Kota’s lead. When Kota
finalized a plan, everyone went through with it. It was hard for me to believe
the guy who appeared to be one of the least aggressive; the least likely leader
had come to the role he had developed.

“But that brings us to another issue,” Kota said. His fingers
brushed away the neatly-trimmed brown hair against his forehead. “We need to
work on getting your parents used to us. It’ll be difficult but the sooner we
find a way, it’ll make it easier on all of us.”

I bit my tongue to keep from saying something. I’d told him before
I liked the way things were working now. My father didn’t come home until very
late in the evening, often well after eight when I was already up in my room
and I didn’t see him at all. My mother, who was ill, kept mostly to her room. I
checked in once a day and for the most part, I could escape outside. If she did
ask where I had gone, I would rattle off different things; in the woods, the
garage, taking a walk to the empty church down the road. In our old
neighborhood back in Illinois, I often took walks outside. Since the closest
kid lived a couple of miles away, my mother eventually relaxed to let me walk
in the woods near the house. Marie told me they bought our new house here on
Sunnyvale Court because it was the least crowded street within an hour’s drive
of where my dad worked. It was a last minute purchase and my mother wasn’t
happy about it, but it did have a lot of wooded areas. So far, she hadn’t
questioned my going for walks. She only reminded me that I shouldn’t talk to
anyone. My mom would eventually realize how many kids were on this street. I
didn’t want to think about the restrictions she would impose once she found
out. I needed to be more careful, though. I had to show up more around the
house on occasion.

Gabriel reached out to my head, rubbing at my hair. I held back
from cringing out of fear. I enjoyed their touches but they were always so
unexpected and when they did it quickly, my first reaction was usually to back
up as I was always sure they didn’t mean to or it was an accident. “Don’t
worry,” he said, his thin fingers massaging my scalp. “We’ve got a plan.” He
let go of me and turned his head to Kota. “We’ve got a plan, right?”

Kota brushed his own fingers through his hair “I still think we
ought to call on Danielle. If we can get them to be friends, she could invite
Danielle over. Her mother might get used to another girl being over there
easier and we could slowly start showing up.”

There was a collective groan.

“Is she that bad?” I asked.

“Yup,” North said, his voice deep. His fingers stopped the gentle
motion at my shoulder and simply rested against me. It wasn’t exactly that he
had his arm around me. It just felt like two fingers touching me. I kept
telling myself to cool off. Would my heart always pound so much around them?

“She’s a typical girl,” Nathan tried to explain. “She thinks we’re
all a bunch of nerds.”

Gabriel nudged my arm with his and leaned into me to stage whisper
near my ear, “Nathan used to have a crush on her.”

“Fuck, no, I didn’t.”

“She used to go over to his house,” Gabriel continued. “One day
she tried to get him to skinny dip in the pool. When he refused, she got pissed
and told everyone he was gay for a while.”

“Like I give a shit what she thinks,” he said, but he frowned and
rolled onto his side on the carpet, covering his eyes with an arm. “Can we not
talk about this right now?”

Kota cleared his throat. “Well, maybe something else will come
up.” He pulled out his schedule and unfolded the paper. “Are we ready?”

It took a good hour between us to get organized. Most of that time
was taken up by general talking among the guys and Kota had to remind them what
they were trying to do. Kota kept notes on a sheet of paper. In the end, my own
schedule was marked up with his writing.

Homeroom Room 135

Luke, North

AP English - Trailer 10 - Ms. Johnson

Kota, Gabriel, Luke