Arrows

by Melissa Gorzelanczyk

“Who?” Peyton asked. “I thought you said your name was Aaryn.”

  “Hermes. The god of transitions and boundaries? Uh, Greek god? Mount Olympus?” My face felt like it was on fire.

  “You’re funny,” Monique said.

  Karma wasn’t listening anyway. She glanced down one hall, then the next, obviously looking for someone. The backpack in her arms looked heavy.

  “Juliette told us you’re all set up in your apartment,” Monique added. Her hair was down, not in yesterday’s tight bun, and hung in tight, shiny spirals. “Nice shirt.”

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  “I’d love to see your place,” said one of the twins. Svetlana, I thought. It was a weird statement.

  “You should probably check in at the office,” Peyton said. She seemed like the kind of girl who liked reminding people of things.

  Danny rounded the corner.

  He was with two buddies, big guys, all of them wearing Lakefield football jerseys. They walked like they owned the place, taking up the whole hall so anyone in their path had to veer out of the way.

  The smile on Karma’s face was impossible to miss.

  “Prodigy,” Danny called. He made a show of kissing her, though her backpack fell in the process and landed on her foot.

  “Oh my God!” Peyton said. “Did that hurt? Watch what you’re doing. She can’t afford to get injured right now.”

  “I’m fine, Peyton.” Her eyes darted between the two. “It didn’t even hurt.”

  “Hi.” I edged into the group. “I’m Aaryn.”

  Danny slid his hand off Karma’s ass and knuckle-bumped my open palm. “Hey, dude. Danny Bader, running back.” He didn’t bother introducing his friends.

  “Cool. I’m applying for the coaching position.” I hesitated, mainly because it was a good idea and saying too much felt like I could ruin it. “Maybe we’ll work together.”

  Danny scrunched up his nose. “There’s an open position?”

  “As of this weekend,” I bluffed.

  “Excuse me, but you forgot to check in.” A woman dressed head to toe in flowers stood behind me.

  “Oh, don’t worry, Mrs. Bloom, we know him,” Monique said.

  I stuck out my hand. “I’m Aaryn Jones. I’m here about the open athletic position.”

  Her eyes widened behind flower-printed glasses, and the daisy dangles in her ears wobbled. “Open position? There’s no open position here. If we were hiring, I’d be the first to know.”

  Crap. “Are you sure there isn’t a job opening in the athletic department?” I drew out my words. “I saw it online.” Hopefully Diorthosis hadn’t bailed. Everyone around me was staring like I was crazy.

  Mrs. Bloom waved to a man down the hall, her cheeks turning pink. “Excuse me, Coach Walt? Could you spare a moment to chat with this young man?” A man around her age, early forties, stomped toward us like he was attempting to crush the floor. His T-shirt was tight, his arms pumping as if they would show off his biceps better that way.

  “Hey, Coach,” Danny said. The two of them exchanged a knuckle bump, then Walt focused on me, arms crossed, and the buzzer went off for next period. Teens scattered down the hall. Danny left without saying goodbye to Karma. I couldn’t help staring as she stood alone with her gaze on his retreating back.

  She turned as if she’d sensed me watching. “See you around,” she said. Her hair fell over one eye when she smiled.

  “What can I do for you, young man?” Walt said.

  I took his hand firmly. “Aaryn Jones.”

  And he would be my ticket in.

  Fifteen minutes later Mrs. Bloom had printed a copy of my résumé and Walt was going over the benefit plan.

  “Looks like the gods have smiled on us,” Walt said, handing me some papers after reading over the résumé. “You have a very impressive background in athletics. All that’s left now is your background check.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Standard procedure. We can’t allow anyone to teach or coach without a background check. Fill this out and drop it off at the office. Then you’ll be set.”

  “Oh. Of course. I’ll get this in right away.”

  And a week later (not sure what was going on on Olympus, because really, a week?) I was on the field going over the roster with Walt.

  “What’s the story on him?” I said, tilting my chin at Danny. He was stretching his hamstring on grass that was spiky and too long.

  “Danny Bader, running back,” Walt said. “He’s usually one of our starters.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest as Danny received the handoff, barely returning it to the line of scrimmage. He leapt up and exchanged words with the linebacker. The kid rolled his eyes and ignored him.

  “Hey, Danny!” Walt said.

  “Yeah, Coach?”

  Walt was tapping his pen on the clipboard. “Aaryn’s new in town, and since he’s one of us now, I want you to show him around. Do something to give him a taste of the area, hiking or biking.”

  “How about fishing?” I asked. Phoebe and I had always made fun of the people we’d seen around the world trying to outsmart a fish. Now that I was human…it felt like something I should try. A rite of passage.

  Walt scratched his chin. “Great choice. Get out on the lake, though it’s not always the fish we’re after, am I right? Peace of mind.” He was nodding.

  Danny’s face was blank. “I can’t tonight,” he said. “I’ve got plans, and they’re kind of important.”

  “I’m free tomorrow,” I said. “My schedule’s pretty open.”

  “That might work,” Danny said, shrugging. “We don’t have a game. Let me give you my number.”

  “My phone broke,” I said. “I’m getting a new one, though.” I hadn’t thought of a non-creepy way to get back out to Juliette’s, and I couldn’t jeopardize my mission now. Turning up at a dance school uninvited, twice? No matter how eager Juliette would be to help, the phone would have to wait. I couldn’t risk Karma labeling me a creep.

  Walt tapped the play board. “We’ll handle this the old-fashioned way. Danny, meet Aaryn at the office Friday after school. We clear?” Danny rolled his head in a half nod and ran off toward the team.

  By the time practice ended, I’d realized something. Danny wasn’t…talented.

  After practice Walt offered to give me a tour of Lakefield High. I tried to pay attention, but all I could think about was the fishing trip and Danny’s “important plans,” as he called them. Was he going to see Karma after practice?

  As if to answer my question, Danny and Karma were talking in the hall ahead of us.

  “There she is,” Walt boomed. “Lakefield’s very own dance prodigy in the flesh.”

  His description seemed to embarrass her. Danny, on the other hand, beamed and bounced his arm to an imaginary beat.

  Karma took a step away from him. “I better go so I can spend some time with Nell,” she said. There was something hidden in the words, something Danny was supposed to get but clearly didn’t.

  “Sorry you can’t come tonight, babe,” Danny said. “Are you sure your ma won’t babysit?”

  “No.” Her eyes were watery.

  “You must be a pretty good dancer,” I said. Jeez. Someone had to say something to make her feel good. One side of her mouth frowned.

  “Yeah, I guess.” She watched Danny, who was scrolling through his phone.

  “Well, see you tomorrow,” he said. No eye contact. Not even a kiss before he headed to the shower. I felt like banging my forehead into the wall.

  I survived the rest of Walt’s tour, but the interaction between Karma and Danny was bothering me. I made an excuse to leave and shoved against the exit door, the latch releasing with a hollow thunk.

  Danny was standing at the bottom of the steps. It took me a few seconds to recognize him in the dark, but it was definitely him, leaning on the railing, a cologne fog stinging my nose as I got close.

  “Hey, Danny.”

  “What up? Great p
ractice.”

  A girl in jeans and a hoodie stood next to him. I hadn’t noticed her at first. She looked up.

  “Hi,” she said.

  I took a step down, then another. “Hey.”

  “I’m Jen. I saw you the other night at Country Café,” she said, naming the restaurant I’d been going to every night. “Burger and fries, right?”

  I nodded.

  “Tonight’s my night off,” she said.

  Danny glanced at her and smiled, and the look on his face made my stomach drop. Had he looked at Karma that way when they were together?

  “We were just heading out to a party,” she said. Danny clapped his hands together and stood in front of her.

  “Ha! Not, like, a drinking party, just getting together with some friends.” Busted. I heard him mutter, “Aaryn’s the new coach,” under his breath.

  Jen’s eyes widened. “Oh! I thought he…Well, never mind what I thought. We’re, uh, getting together with a few friends.”

  A party, huh? I decided to play the part.

  “It’s cool. I like to party.”

  Danny seemed eager to trust me. “You do?”

  “Yeah. Florida State, remember?” I made a drinking motion. “You can trust me.”

  Jen nudged him. “We should go,” she whispered.

  Danny stood with his arms behind his back, baseball cap barely above his eyes. “You wanna check it out?”

  Jen smacked him.

  “Definitely,” I said, and Danny grinned.

  “Awesome. You can get to know some of the guys. Ride with us. We’re meeting up at Dmitri’s shack. Double Ds!”

  “His shack?”

  “His hunting shack. It’s not far.”

  I gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Jen used him to block the wind as she leaned forward to light her cigarette. Maybe they were just really good friends, like Phoebe and Chaz had been. She met my eyes for a second when the cherry burned.

  Danny’s phone was buzzing in his pocket.

  He made no attempt to answer it.

  Day 9

  Jen hoisted herself into the middle of the truck cab, and I followed.

  “Too bad Karma can’t come,” I said. Neither of them said anything.

  The dirt road on the way to the shack was in rough shape. We bumped into each other a lot, the truck shocks bouncing, us crashing together. Us being Jen, Danny, and I. Not Karma and Danny.

  Jen and Danny.

  I held my arms to my sides to keep from touching her, but it was pointless. Danny spread out like he was totally in his element.

  “Maybe we should invite Karma to come fishing tomorrow,” I said. Jen whipped out a new cigarette and snapped the lighter.

  “She’s busy, man,” Danny said. “Dance practice, studying.”

  “Maybe we could meet her at the café,” I said. “Grab a bite to eat.”

  “I work tomorrow,” Jen said, her mouth full of smoke.

  “Hey, man, what are you getting at?” Danny turned to me with furrowed brows. “Do you like her or something?”

  “No! I just thought—”

  “Me and Karma go way back, man. She’s my girl.”

  Jen crossed her arms and blew a giant cloud of smoke in the cab.

  “I just thought you might want to spend time with her,” I said, realizing with every word how lame I sounded.

  “Dude. Just…don’t.”

  We made a hard stop at the shack. The place was really a dump, five cars parked in no order, Christmas lights wound sporadically through the trees. The roof bowed in the middle. Danny and Jen climbed out through his side, but they weren’t holding hands or anything. If Danny thought I was trying to make a move on Karma, gods help me.

  I had to relax.

  I opened the truck door just in time to hear a dark-haired girl on the porch greet Danny.

  “Hey, loser,” she said. Jen kept a good distance from him now. She didn’t look back when she entered the shack.

  The girl flipped the lid of a cooler and tossed an ice cube at Danny’s shirt. “God, come on, get a little tipsy. Maybe then you won’t have to blab reports about me to my sister.” Her hand slithered over Danny’s shoulder, but when her glossy eyes met mine, she shoved Danny aside. She was strong for such a small girl. “Damn, Danny, who’s your friend?”

  “Get lost, Leah. You’re jailbait. How’d you get wasted so fast?” He handed me a beer. “Karma’s little sister,” he explained.

  “Heeey,” she said. Beer sloshed from the can she was holding. “I’m Leah.”

  “Hi,” I said politely. God, she looked really young. Danny waved to a girl inside the shack, and I immediately began to analyze the gesture. Friendly? More than friends? I cracked the beer open.

  “So, Danny’s friend, how do you know Danny?”

  I gave Leah a one-second look. “I’m the assistant coach for the football team. We just got done with practice.” I set the beer on the porch railing.

  “You’re a teacher?” Leah swayed. “I have not been drinking at all, then, not a single drop.”

  The bad British accent she spoke in almost brought a smile to my face. Her eyes glittered and then she laughed, mouth hanging open. She fell against me a little. Girls weren’t much different than goddesses when it came to getting wasted.

  “I’m not really a teacher,” I said. Anything to get her off me. “Just a coach.”

  “Coming, Aaryn?” Danny said.

  Leah had lit a cigarette and positioned herself against the porch in what I assumed was supposed to be a seductive pose.

  “Later, Danny’s friend,” she said, waving with her pinky.

  I got the hell out of there.

  The music volume was maxed. I’d expected to hear country, not the hip-hop that blasted; country kids using music to escape their reality. Everyone stared at me.

  “This is Dmitri!” Danny shouted. The shirtless guy wearing patched overalls slung his arm around Danny. They chanted a chorus of “Double Ds!” complete with a dance that involved them hopping from one foot to the next.

  “I’m Aaryn!” I yelled in return. Dmitri spat tobacco behind him and offered me a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. I took a long pull, but the sting of booze felt wrong. I had to get out of Lakefield. Phoebe needed me, and this time I couldn’t let her down. If Danny got drunk, maybe I’d be able to talk to him about Karma without making him mad.

  Hey, buddy, you should marry that girl!

  “Where’s Prodigy, man?” Dmitri said.

  “Couldn’t get a sitter!” All of this shared in shouts.

  “What a drag, man. She never comes out anymore.”

  “Karma’s great,” Danny said. “But it’s rough sometimes, you know? Being a teen dad?” He tipped the bottle up for a long time.

  The door of the shack flew open.

  I’m not really sure how Leah managed to fall so fast, but I heard a loud thump above the music. Her hair sprayed forward, her hands slapped against the floorboards, and then she didn’t move.

  “Whoa!”

  The teens crowded around her, but Danny didn’t get too close. I leaned down.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. She lifted her head, her hand flying up to her mouth.

  “Nnmokay,” she mumbled. A trickle of blood ran over her knuckles. Someone killed the music and she began to cry.

  “Here, sit up,” I said. Dmitri tossed me a rag, and with my help Leah took it clumsily, her hand splotchy with blood.

  “I’m fine,” Leah said. Her dark eyes flicked toward Danny, who was swigging more booze. “Why’d you bring Jen to the party?”

  “Don’t start drama,” Danny said.

  Dmitri stepped up. “Yeah, Leah, not at my shack.”

  “You know what you are?” Her bloody hand was bent in Danny’s direction. “You’re an asshole. You and your friend.” She pointed at Dmitri.

  “Let’s go outside,” I said.

  “No, I want to hear what this asshole has to say about why he ditched my sister so he could
drink and party with another girl.”

  I definitely had to stop that conversation from happening. Leah clambered to her feet.

  “You’re wasted,” Jen said. She stood by Danny, smoking. “Maybe you should just go home.”

  “Come on.” I led Leah by the elbow. Her mascara ran in two black lines down her cheeks. “Sit on the porch. I’ll be back with some water, okay?”

  She shrugged my hand off and staggered down the steps into the driveway.

  “Leah, wait!”

  She didn’t look back. Inside, Dmitri had grabbed a blond girl to dance with while Danny smacked his hands to the beat.

  The sound of insects grew louder as I ran from the shack. At the car, Leah was snuffling, the crumpled rag in her hand as she fumbled with the keys. Blood splattered on the car door.

  “I’m so embarrassed,” she said, and actually choked a little on the blood in her mouth. “I tripped or something, I don’t know. Danny’s such a jerk.” I helped her position the rag. Thanks to Phoebe’s joyride idea during one of our assignments, I knew a little bit about how to drive a car. I placed one hand on the car door and reached for the keys with the other.

  “Give me those,” I said. “Let me drive you home.”

  I peeked out the front door with Nell balanced on my hip. Who was that with Leah? I stole onto the cold concrete and blinked into the darkness.

  Aaryn’s deep voice directed Leah. “Watch out for that rock.” Patient. “You’re sure this is the right house?” Sultry and smooth. The kind of voice that would be perfect for audiobooks. A voice to be alone with. Svetlana would die when I told her he’d been at my house.

  “Leah?” I clutched Nell tight. “What happened to you? Are you bleeding?”

  “Is Mom home?”

  “Oh my God, there’s blood all over your chin.”

  Aaryn stood behind her with his arms crossed. He was wearing a fitted black T-shirt and jeans. I pulled my sister under the porch light. “Tell me what happened. Did someone hurt you?” I exhaled against the top of Nell’s head. “You reek of cigarettes and beer.”

  “Where’s Mom?”

  “She’s shopping in Medford.”

  Leah hugged me. “Everyone saw me. The music stopped and everything.”

  “Saw what? What happened?” I rubbed her back as Nell grabbed a handful of her hair.