The Other Side of Envy: The Ghost Bird Series: #8 (The Academy) (40 page)

I was afraid to lose them.

But Luke’s eyes begged me to understand and forgive him for something I shouldn’t have to forgive him for. I forced my jealous and conflicted thoughts to the back of my head and put on a brave smile. “You’re making a big black mark on your arm,” I said.

His face lifted. He pointed the Sharpie at my arm, and drew a happy face. “There,” he said. “Now we’ll match.”

I grinned at him, taking the marker from his hand. I drew a happy face on his arm, followed by a few random spirals and something that looked like a daisy. Since we were already marked up, it seemed okay to at least doodle a bit.

Luke chuckled, but cut it short when North interrupted with a loud snore. Then he twisted onto his side facing us, but his eyes were closed and his snoring stopped. He was still dead asleep, though.

Luke’s eyebrows rose, and his gaze swept between his brother’s face and the marker in my hand.

“Luke,” I whispered in a lower tone, sensing his thoughts even before he made a move. “Don’t…”

Luke pushed a fingertip to his lips, indicating to be quiet. He took the marker from me, and got up. He knee walked close to the couch. He zeroed in on North’s sleeping face.

I held my breath, sure that North would wake up the moment Luke touched the marker to his skin. North would probably punch Luke before asking questions. Luke was insane.

Luke’s marker touched down on North’s forehead. In an agonizing couple of seconds, Luke managed to trace in a squiggly line to give North a unibrow. Somehow, that single bit of ink made North much more scary than he’d been before, even while he slept.

Luke turned to me, wiggling his eyebrows.

I covered part of my eyes from this. I shook my head at him, waving my arm quietly, trying to tell him to stop. My whole body stiffened, tense. All I could think about was he was going to die when North woke up.

Luke returned to North’s face, drawing devil horns above his eyebrows and a smilie face on his cheek. After he was done, he glanced again at me, holding out the marker.

I shook my head.

Luke hand-signed to me. “Do it or I’ll tell him you did this.”

My eyes popped out of my head. He was blackmailing me? “I don’t want to die,” I signed back.

Luke’s eyes lit up. “You’re already dead. You just let me mark his face.”

I did stand by and let him. I could have yelled or something and woken North up.

And some evil part in my brain reveled in the idea of doing something to North that would almost be like revenge for all the times he nagged at me about eating healthier and to do my homework. It seemed harmless. He’d yell at me, but he did that already. So what was different now?

Luke was his brother and knew him better than I did. If he was willing to…

I gingerly took the Sharpie from Luke’s hand, knee-walking to hover over North’s sleeping face.

Luke remained behind me, staring, waiting.

My hand shook. I tried to be as delicate as I could. I started with a simple swirl. The moment the marker met his skin, my heart nearly exploded as I was sure he would wake up.

He didn’t. He remained as still as ever.

I did another flower on his face, followed by a star and then I drew a seashell.

Luke chuckled softly behind me, his fingertips remained on my shoulder, as if encouraging me to continue.

As if to ask for forgiveness for my small part in painting his face, I drew a tiny heart on the crest of North’s cheek. I took my time with it, trying to make it pretty.

A big, terrifying hand snapped around my wrist, pulling my hand away from his face.

North’s intense brown eyes popped open, his brows furrowed in sudden anger despite how deeply asleep he’d been. The markings on his face made his frown look ten times scarier than usual. When his eyes focused and settled on my face, confusion set in, as if he had expected someone else.

I froze, terrified.

His eyes moved from my face to the marker in my captured hand, and then back to my face. “Sang,” North emitted a warning tone.

Holy crap, I’m a dead girl.
In fear, I yanked my wrist away, dropping the marker. I scrambled, trying to back away to get up off the floor and make a run for it.

Luke was gone. The traitor! Whether he had dashed down the hallway or ducked into the kitchen, I wasn’t sure. And I didn’t know best which direction to run and where I could hide.

I didn’t have a chance. North pounced on me, knocking me to the carpet in a heap. He twisted me onto my back and settled down hard onto my hips, pinning me to the floor as he sat on me.

I struggled, shifting my body underneath his weight, nearly pulling myself apart as I clawed at the carpet as if that would help me get some traction and I could escape.

I squealed and giggled like the craziest person on the planet. I was about to die. At least I’d made a pretty heart on his cheek. That thought made me giggle more.

North smirked and then brushed a palm over his face. “What the hell did you do to me?” he growled.

“Nothing,” I squeaked out, too high pitched, the word cutting off at the end.

He sniffed loudly. “You did
not
just put permanent marker on my face.”

“Nope.” My voice cracked. Worst liar ever.

“She drew a heart,” Luke the coward shouted. My best guess was he was hiding in the kitchen. “And a swirly thing. And a smilie face.
She
did it. It’s all her fault. I tried to stop her.”

What?! “Traitor!” I called out.

Luke’s arm appeared from the doorway of the kitchen, displaying the stuff I’d drawn on his arm. “See? She did it to me, too.”

North grunted. He twisted on top of me, reaching for the marker I’d dropped. His dark eyebrows furrowed, making his now unibrow even more dangerously...hilarious.

Giggles erupted from my mouth like a bomb. I knew it was the worst reaction to have and I couldn’t help it. I’d basically admitted my guilt, even if Luke was pinning me for everything, including the stuff I hadn’t done.

North smirked. He bent over, hovering above me. He held the marker tip inches from my face. “Let’s see what Sang Sorenson looks like with a mustache.”

My mouth popped open. When he got close with the marker, I turned my head, batting at his arm with my hands.

He grunted, snagged my wrists up in a quick motion, holding them over my head with one hand as he pinned me to the floor with his body. “Stop moving or it’s going to turn into a penis or something worse.”

I sucked in a breath, eyes wide with fear. I couldn’t imagine what would have been worse, and I didn’t want to find out.

The marker touched my skin. North took his time. I felt the swirl of a curly moustache, but after that point, he started drawing on my cheeks and forehead. I couldn’t picture what he was drawing.

I half whimpered, half giggled.

Luke appeared and peeked over North’s shoulder, checking out his work. “Not bad, but that curse word under her left eye...make the leg of the k a little longer, it looks weird.”

“No,” I squealed out, my voice cracking. I was giggling too hard.

North smirked over me. He nudged my head a little with his arm, turning it to the side. He drew something on my ear. “You are going to have to learn to say no to Luke’s stupid ideas.”

Luke’s eyes widened above him. “Hey, she did it.”

“You think I believe for one minute that little Sang here came up with the idea to draw on my face while I was sleeping? She wouldn’t dare.”

“But she...”

In one swift movement, North released my wrists and swung an arm around, punching Luke low in the gut.

Luke choked, clutched at the spot where he’d been struck, and fell sideways to the ground, gasping.

“That’s for lying to me,” North said.

Luke chuckled through his pained expression. “Still worth it. Did you see the look on her face when you woke up?”

“She probably would have gotten away with it if you hadn’t pulled on my foot and nudged me awake.”

My mouth dropped open, my eyes wild on Luke. “You! You woke him?”

“See?” North said. “You can’t trust him at things like this. There’s always a secret motive.”

I struggled underneath North. “Give me the marker. I want to get Luke.”

North grinned and released me, dropping the pen on my stomach. He lurched over, landing on top of Luke in the same position he’d held me.

Luke bucked underneath his brother, but North was bigger and easily pinned him to the ground. He held his wrists with both of his hands and waited. I scrambled up, picking up the marker and bent over Luke’s face.

Luke smirked at me, seeming undisturbed by my being there. “Sang! Sweetie!” he pleaded. “You don’t want to draw on my face, do you? Not your favorite Academy guy, right?”

“Yeah, I do,” I said, as blankly as if he’d asked me if I wanted a piece of candy.

“Draw some glasses on him,” North said. “And a penis.”

I choked on a giggle at that. I couldn’t do it, but I nodded, like that was a good idea. My cheeks heated.

Luke shook his head, his eyes wide. “No, no, you can’t do that. I’ve got to go back to the diner in a minute. I can’t serve tables with one on my face.”

“You’re right,” North said. “Make two, Sang.”

I bent over Luke’s head, drawing a heart on his cheek, and then a bunch of flowers.

“Sang,” Luke said, pleading but laughing. “Sugar cakes. Uncle’s gonna flip.”

“What the holy shit fuck is going on in here?” Gabriel’s voice boomed at us, catching me way off guard as it sounded exactly like when North yelled at us. I glanced up and saw he was standing behind the couch, his hands on his hips and his orange and blue jacket hanging off his shoulders, in mid-removal. He stared at us, frozen.

Kota and Nathan stood behind him, their eyes wide, like they were looking in at animals in a zoo. Kota nudged his glasses, as if he didn’t believe what he was seeing. Nathan smirked, his blue eyes lighting up.

North grunted, releasing Luke’s arms and edging himself off his brother. “He started it.”

Gabriel snagged at his hair as if he was going to pull out all of it, blond and brown alike. “Oh my fucking god, her face. What the hell did you do to her face?”

“Yeah,” Luke said. He sat up quickly, catching the marker from my hands. “Bad Sang. Marking up your face like that.”

North smacked Luke on the back of his head. “Stop lying or I’m going to punch you again.”

“I’m just kidding!”

I stood, unsure what to say. It was all kind of crazy. “I was studying…” I couldn’t think of any reason why. Temporary insanity still worked, didn’t it?

Gabriel held his arms out wide as he circled the couch. He caught me around my shoulders, hugging me and half picking me up from the floor until my toes grazed the carpet. “Trouble, your face looks like the locker room wall. How the hell am I supposed to get all that off of you?”

“She’ll be fine,” Kota said. “She can wash it off.”

Gabriel turned with me still in his arms. “Do you see this? This is
Sharpie
. This doesn’t come off of skin. Unless I douse her in turpentine.”

Nathan chuckled, shaking his head and running a palm over his red brown hair. “Sorry. I think we’re fresh out of turpentine.”

“Go ahead and laugh but what happens when she shows up to school like this?”

“She’s not going to school with Sharpie on her face,” Kota said.

“She’s got tests tomorrow,” Nathan said.

“Do something, Kota,” Gabriel pleaded. “Ground them. Ground North and Luke.”

Kota smirked, shrugging and raising his hands up in defeat. “Oh no. If you want someone grounded, you have to do it. Personally, it looks like they’ve punished themselves pretty evenly.”

Gabriel released me until I was standing. He collected my face in my hands and looked over me. “Oh my god, your face. Your poor face.”

“Can you get it off her in like five minutes?” Luke asked. “I was going to take her back with me to work.”

“What?” Gabriel gasped? “You? What? No. Are you crazy?”

“Hurry up. We’re going to be late.”

ABOUT C. L. STONE

Certification

• Marvelour of Wonder
  
• Active Participant of Scary Situations
  
• Official Member of F.A.M.E.
  

Experience

Spent an extraordinary number of years with absolutely no control over the capping of imagination, fun, and curiosity. Willingly takes part in impossible problems only to come up with the most ludicrous solution. Due to unfortunate circumstances, will no longer experience feeling on a small spot on my left calf.

Skills

Secret Keeper | Occasion Riser | Barefoot Walker | Magic Maker | Restless Reckless | Gravity Defiant | Fairy Tale Reader | Story Maker-Upper | Amusingly Baffled | Comprehensive Curiousness | Usually Unbelievable