by C. L. Stone
With Mr. Blackbourne so busy, and Dr. Green too, we were narrowing down who did what. I thought it was a good idea. I had to focus on getting into the Academy. The others needed to earn favors back and get a house together.
And North was probably the perfect candidate for this. I had faith he could figure it out.
Mr. Buble nodded. “Data collection only. No approaching suspects directly. Volto has proven to be dangerous. We are not provoking. We are collecting information while we lay low.” He spoke to the others. “Any information goes through Mr. Taylor only. And he reports to Mr. Blackbourne and myself.”
“Then I’ll have to talk to you later,” Victor said. “I’ve a possible… something. Hard to say what.” It was unclear what he meant, but it was obvious he didn’t want to say too much. Maybe because we were in the school.
North nodded shortly.
And that was it. Plan made. Now it was time to take action.
♥♥♥
Everyone returned to the principal’s office for a short time, organizing who needed to go where. Victor, Mr. Buble and I had a little time to wait before we could head to this next job.
Mr. Blackbourne insisted we all eat something before venturing off. I was glad for it. I hadn’t eaten since that morning.
“We’ll go get food,” Luke said, tugging my sleeve, indicating “we” meant he and I.
Before anyone could say anything, Gabriel popped up out of a chair in the office and waved his hand shortly. “Sure, we’ll three go. There’s a burger place in the shopping center behind the school.”
There was a very long look between Mr. Buble and Victor, as if Mr. Buble was silently checking in.
Victor only smiled at us. “I’d prefer something chicken, if you don’t mind.”
That was it. Mr. Buble otherwise seemed okay to send us off.
I thought for a moment he meant because we were supposed to take off for this librarian at some point. It wasn’t until we left the office that I realized he was checking with Victor to see if he’d have a problem with me going off with two other people in the group. Victor was showing he was agreeable and approving. That he trusted me.
Should I have said something?
Within minutes, Luke and Gabriel shuffled off with me in tow, back to the parking lot and into Kota’s sedan.
“We could have taken the Jeep,” Gabriel said.
“Naw,” Luke said. He was the one driving, and reversed the car out of the parking spot. “I want to save getting in trouble for taking it for something good, not for getting burgers.”
“I thought we shared stuff,” I said quietly. I’d gotten in the front passenger seat.
Gabriel shifted until he was as horizontal as possible in the back seat. “I keep saying that.”
“North’s Jeep isn’t the exception but it is an exception. It’s Jeepception,” Luke said.
Kota’s sedan had warmed under the sun beaming down, even if it was January and cold out. It just took a few minutes to go through a couple of lights to get around to the shopping center behind the school.
The shopping center was getting busier, and the fast-food burger place had a line for the drive thru.
“This might take a minute,” Luke said.
“Won’t be a minute if you let me go inside instead of waiting in this line,” Gabriel said.
“I’m not stopping you.” Luke pulled into a parking spot and Gabriel hopped out, heading inside alone. We could still see him through the windows.
Luke switched off the engine. Once Gabriel was inside the door, I was watching him, assuming that’s what we were needing to do.
Luke reached out, curled a finger under my chin to turn my head, drawing my attention to him.
“You’re beautiful today,” he said, his dark eyes clashing with some bits of blond hair that got loose.
My heart skipped a beat. I was very aware of Gabriel able to see us, along with everyone else in the parking lot. What he actually said didn’t really have a chance to connect and process in my brain. “Hi,” I said with him so close, and also realized it was incredibly stupid to say.
He grinned and leaned in further, like he was going to whisper something.
Instead he kissed my cheek, close to my ear.
And then nipped my earlobe.
Heat radiated through until I was sure I was red faced. The sensation was ticklish but in a gentle, enjoyable way.
When I didn’t move and didn’t say anything, he kissed and nipped the earlobe again.
He whispered, “We can leave Gabriel here, yeah? He can walk back?”
I giggled, knowing he wouldn’t do that. “Aren’t you hungry?”
At that moment, his stomach growled loud enough that I temporarily thought it was my own.
He groaned playfully and pulled back. “Yes, unfortunately, or I’d say let’s leave Gabriel to drive and go fool around in the back seat.”
Instantly, I imagined what ‘fool around’ meant, because I wasn’t totally sure, and while I was excited, I was nervous. Did it mean more than kissing and what he was doing just now?
Relationships were confusing. Or perhaps I just was so unused to them…
He didn’t draw too far away. He held my hand, opened my palm up, and traced absently into my palm. “I can’t wait until we move.”
“You? But you live with Uncle.”
“Yeah, but he’s never there anymore, and his friends keep popping in. And… it’s so far away from you.”
I didn’t say anything else. I was mildly just enjoying the smoothness of his fingertips on my palm.
Until I realized he was tracing hearts. Hearts, and then his name, and more hearts. And then my name.
It was only a few more minutes before Gabriel returned, loaded with a couple of bags of burgers and fries.
“Crazy lady in front of me was fucking with the kid trying to take her order,” he grumbled, putting the food bags into the back seat before sitting next to them. “Not his fault they don’t have your rose water coffee whatever.”
“You should have told her that,” Luke said. He turned, reaching for one of the food bags, grabbing box of fries.
“I did,” Gabriel said. “It’s how I got some free chicken nuggets with my order.”
Luke stuffed his mouth with fries and passed the box to me. “Why can’t you drive us back?” he asked me. “I’m too hungry to do it.”
“She doesn’t drive yet,” Gabriel said.
“Dr. Green said he’d show me how to drive eventually,” I said.
Luke paused, considering. “We can do it now.” He unbuckled his seatbelt.
I grimaced without knowing what to say. I didn’t quite mean that.
“She can’t drive right now,” Gabriel said, looking through the bag of food, half distracted.
“Sure she can,” Luke said. “We’re like two minutes from the school and it’s all right turns and twenty-five miles an hour from here. It’s a great starting point.”
My heartbeat increased so much, I was hearing thudding in my ears. “I… don’t…”
“Well,” Gabriel said after I couldn’t finish a sentence, “we can go really slow I guess.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to, but I also realized I was older than Gabriel and I didn’t even have a permit, much less a license.
“I don’t think I can get an actual license,” I said. “I don’t have IDs and I can’t get one if I’m a ghost bird… for you know…” I wasn’t even totally sure the use of that but it seemed important.
Luke shrugged. “You should still know how a car operates and drive a bit, just for emergencies.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel pipped in. “We’ve been driving since like fucking twelve. Unofficially. Don’t tell anyone.”
It was still lunchtime with several cars around us and I’d never been behind the wheel. “I don’t know what to do,” I said.
“I’ll show you,” Luke said. “Kota’s car
is pretty easy to drive anyway.”
I got out, my body shaking…
Try not to think.
I couldn’t help it. This seemed like a terrible time to do this. They said it was easy. They’d done this since they were twelve?
Maybe it wasn’t too hard? I just wasn’t mentally prepared for the idea of driving.
I got behind the wheel, and Luke sat in the passenger seat with fries in hand.
Gabriel lost interest in looking through food and focused on directing me from the back seat.
“Take it real slow,” Gabriel said, and he pointed to the brake and the gas. “Just use your right foot, don’t use both feet.”
“Who uses both feet?” Luke said with a mouth full of fries, two still hanging out of the front of his mouth.
“Pam.” Gabriel motioned to me. “Push down on the break, put the car into reverse. Release the break slowly.”
I did what he said, and he directed me to looking at mirrors, looking behind us. The car reversed out of the spot and I got in line to turn right onto the street.
I wasn’t doing as bad as I thought I might, not until someone behind us started honking since I was taking so long to turn right.
Gabriel flashed hand signals out the back window. “Motherfucker can wait five seconds.”
Luke took over directing me. “Right pedal can go down more. Try an inch at a time instead of a centimeter, ok? This car takes a minute to get up to speed as it is.”
I tried pushing down a bit more. Kota’s old car rolled forward faster. The speedometer crept up to fifteen.
Eventually I got it to twenty. I kept my arms straight as a board trying to make sure I stayed between the lines.
Luke sat back, smiling. “Easy does it. Make the next right. If you want, we can even keep going past the school. That neighborhood on the other side is pretty empty.”
I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be gone longer. I made the turn onto the street where the school entryway was.
There was a weird noise in the front of the car, and I stopped the car in the middle of the road.
“Don’t worry about it,” Luke said.
“Yeah, this car makes all kinds of noises,” Gabriel said.
Another car honked behind us. I pushed the gas, slowly creeping back up to twenty.
The engine suddenly exploded with sound. For a moment, I was stuck, looking at the dash, trying to figure out what happened as the sound seemed to come from inside. I didn’t see it until I looked outside the car.
A large hole, about the size of a fist, sticking out of the front hood of Kota’s sedan. Steam was seeping out the edges of the hood.
Luke dropped his fries instantly. “Pull over,” he said, taking the wheel from his side.
I’d already let go of the gas and hadn’t put any pressure on the break at all. I just froze.
Instead of asking me to do more, Luke steered the still-rolling car in its momentum forward until he could get it to the side of the road on the grass, right at the start of the school’s front entryway and off the road. He yanked the hand break in the center and the car stopped, then twisted the key until the engine stopped. The engine still made hissing sounds and little popping noises.
Gabriel made a face, showing a lot of teeth. “We don’t tell Kota what happened.”
“I think he’s going to notice the giant hole in the front of his car,” Luke said.
“North is going to fucking blame us,” Gabriel said. “He’ll never let us take the Jeep now.”
They kept going back and forth. My heart, my breath, everything in me had stopped so quickly.
I never wanted to drive again. I clearly did something terrible. Kota’s car…
Suddenly I was smelling strong ash and smoke. “It’s burning,” I said.
Outside, what had started as steam, had changed color and density and was clearly smoke. It also bloomed out of the hole in the hood.
Luke’s eyes widened. He dropped his food, punched open his door, grabbed me, and in a quick motion, unbuckled and yanked at the same time to get me out of the car on his side, pulling me far away from the car off into the ditch by the road.
Gabriel went into action all at the same time, finding a fire extinguisher quick, from where I wasn’t sure, and opened the front hood of Kota’s car.
It instantly blazed with fire, burning off whatever grease was inside.
People driving by on the side of the road slowed down. Some with cell phones out.
“They’re probably calling the fire department,” Luke said. He ushered me toward the school. “Get inside and find someone. Tell them what happened. I’ll stay with Gabriel.” He made a face. “…Maybe don’t tell anyone you were driving, ok?”
I wasn’t going to lie, not to the others, but I’d let Luke and Gabriel talk to the fire department.
We weren’t supposed to separate but we were so close, and I was within view the whole time, at least until I got to the front door of the school. From there, I looked back, as Gabriel was letting loose the white spray from the fire extinguisher into the engine and Luke was on his stomach, checking the underside of the car.
I held my breath, going into the school. There wasn’t anyone in the hallway close to the front office, just some students way down the hall toward the music rooms on the ground floor.
And I spotted Mike. And Jer. And Rocky. All together. Talking. I knew them all from school.
I paused, raising the hood that had dropped down. It was a little late. They saw me.
I ran for the front office, too embarrassed.
The front office was mostly abandoned, and I couldn’t really see anyone, I could just hear talking somewhere in offices.
I was shaking by the time I got back to the principal’s office. I didn’t wait to check, I just walked in. My eyes were wide and watering, from the smoke and the fear at the same time. My nose was filled with both smoke and leftover burger and grass and as overwhelmed as I was, it was imbedded into my brain how the scent was so stuck in my nose that I couldn’t smell much else.
It was Mr. Blackbourne, North and Dr. Green this time, huddled together at his desk. I wasn’t sure where the others had gone off to.
The three of them took one look at me and instantly seemed to stand up at the same time.
I didn’t wait for them to ask. “I exploded Kota’s car!” I burst out.
There was one absolute second of silence, like they needed that moment to really understand what I was trying to say, but I was too rattled to offer much else. It was the truth. I didn’t know what else to say.
“Where is it?” North asked quickly.
“Out in front,” I said, and pointed in the direction.
North and Mr. Blackbourne hurried, skirting around me.
“Stay with her,” Mr. Blackbourne said to Dr. Green on their way out.
I remained by the door as both Mr. Blackbourne and North brushed past me. Dr. Green closed the door, put his hand on it and the wall behind me to lean over me and arms on either side.
“So, how did we explode a car?” he said in a cheery tone.
I shook a bit, trying to form words, but it was all coming out as a jumbled mess.
“Okay, okay,” he said in a tender tone. He pulled me into his arms, held me in such a firm hug that I couldn’t shake, even if I wanted to. He just did that, held on to me, for such a long time.
I kind of needed it. “I don’t want to drive again,” I said.
Dr. Green made a choking noise, like trying to smother a giggle. “Pookie, listen. Cars are tools. They are useful but that’s all they are. Kota’s car, in fact, was the oldest tool ready to go at any moment. It was just it’s time… I’m guessing. Because I still don’t understand… You didn’t do it on purpose? You didn’t make an actual bomb and tried to make it blow up, right?”
“I was driving,” I said with chattering teeth as I tried to breath in and talk at the same time while so stress
ed. “And the car exploded.”
“Cars don’t just blow up,” he said. “Come on, let’s go see. It’s probably not as bad as you think it is.”
He kissed my forehead and held me a moment longer. Then he guided me to get out of the way so he could open the door. He pressed his hand to my back, and I went with him. He released his touch on me when we got to where people could actually see us.
Back toward the front of the school, it was all wide windows and the doors were all glass. We could easily see a good portion of the front lawn area, the drab brown grass.
The car was still there, still smoking a bit but the flames were gone.
Luke, Gabriel, Mr. Blackbourne and North were all outside.
Along with a police officer and firefighters, while one firefighter checked out the vehicle, easing himself over to examine the damage.
Two police cars parked nearby but out of range of Kota’s car, and two firetrucks were haphazardly parked half in the road to stop people from trying to get too close. A couple of other police officers were directing traffic around to avoid the mess. It was obvious they were worried the car might explode further and were trying to keep people away until it was clear.
“Sang, sweetie,” Dr. Green said next to me as he looked on at the absolute chaos there was outside. “It’s… not… that bad…” He stumbled over his words. “First time… always… um…”
He didn’t have to finished. He was trying to be nice and I felt absolutely awful. I wasn’t hungry anymore. I just wanted to disappear.
Rapid, soft-soled footsteps echoed in the hall behind us and approached quickly. I just caught Nathan and Kota before they crashed past us at the glass doors to push them open.
“Hi Sang. Bye Sang,” Nathan said following behind Kota. Both intently jogged the short distance from the entrance to where the others stood. Someone must have messaged Kota.
Kota stopped at the police officer, looking over at his car. He seemed shocked.
I could have died right then. Again. After such a nice day today with him, and now this.
“This might be karma,” I said to Dr. Green.
He chuckled. He remained behind me. Close enough I could feel the warmth of him near me but not touching. Not here. “From what?”