by Box Set
“Do I need to be in everyone’s same class?” I asked. The fresh water gave me a little voice back, just enough to do a notch above a stage whisper. I picked a piece of the bread off of my sandwich and ate it.
“There’s just a strong likelihood a lot of us will be paired up,” Kota said. “There’s a limited variety of classes and we’re mostly all taking the same courses.”
I shrugged. So their goal with school was getting into as many of the same classes as possible. If that was the case, why was Kota taking separate classes? I supposed studying together would be nice. However, there was more to this. Gabriel and Nathan acted as if this was normal. This was how they functioned together. Kota took the lead and everyone worked on it. Did other students try to take all the same classes so they would most likely get paired up together?
I was going to take another bite of my sandwich, when Gabriel reached over and took my wrist. He looked right at me, never wavering his gaze, and then brought the sandwich to his face, with me holding it still, and took a small bite.
“Get your own sandwich,” Nathan said, tossing a crumpled up paper towel at him.
Gabriel dodged the paper. “I just wanted a taste.”
I giggled, but I caught the look in Gabriel’s eye. I wondered if this was flirting. Was I supposed to say something?
Kota had a piece of paper in his hand, writing down notes. He slowly slid the glasses on his nose up with his forefinger. “That’s four classes,” Kota said. “Two more.”
“Science,” Gabriel said. “Chemistry.”
“I haven’t taken biology yet,” I said. “Last year at my old school, the class was filled. I’d need the biology since it’s a prerequisite.”
“She can take the typing class,” Nathan said.
“You make it sound like she’s going to be a secretary,” Gabriel said. “Maybe she should take a class in shorthand, too.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Nathan said. “Don’t put words in my mouth. I was just saying it’s an easy class. Besides, there’s no homework and it’ll be an easy grade to boost her GPA early. Especially if you’re going to stick her into a couple of AP classes right off.”
“Three,” I said. “There’s an AP biology.” All of them looked at me. My cheeks heated up again. Did I say something silly? “Science is science. It’s not like the frog’s gut chart changes depending on the class you take.”
They all laughed.
The sound of a car pulling up distracted us.
“It must be Victor with the phone,” Kota said.
Victor was up the stairs in a few minutes. He held a bag in his hands. His cheeks looked a little flushed, like he had been in a hurry. He plopped down onto the floor next to me with the package. “I didn’t see a pink one,” he said. “But there was a pink case. It’ll protect the phone.”
I smiled shyly, unsure what to say. Thinking of a phone was one thing, but looking at the new bag in his hands, I felt my fingers trembling. “Thank you,” I said softly, unsure how to argue about having it now if he’d already gone through the trouble to get it.
He took it out of the bag and then pulled the box apart. It was the latest iPhone, identical to the one he had.
“I thought I said just simple calling and texting,” Kota said. “What happened to inconspicuous?”
“It does text,” Victor said, his face tightening. “It also takes pictures and downloads apps. Sue me.” He handed me the phone.
The touch screen was super clean and the app dashboard was bare, except for Angry Birds.
“I filled in a few essentials on there,” Victor said. “I also put in everyone’s phone number.”
It took me a moment to figure out which button held the phone numbers. I thumbed through the contacts page. “Including North and Luke?”
“You would have gotten those eventually, anyway,” Kota said.
“Who’s Blackbourne?”
Victor’s eyes went wide. I caught out of the corner of my eye the other boys looking directly at him and looking panicked. “Oh, sorry. Here, let me see that.”
He took the phone from me and pushed buttons until it was deleted.
“Sorry,” he said. “Just an old teacher. I don’t know how I transferred that one.”
He seemed to play it off, but I caught the look Nathan and the others exchanged. It was very slight, but it was obvious this was more information I wasn’t really supposed to see.
What was going on with these guys?
When I left Kota’s house that afternoon, I walked around the street and then took a path through the woods to find myself in my back yard. It was a long route but I really didn’t want anyone to see me leaving from Kota’s house.
Before I left, Kota had me send a text to everyone so they could add me to their phones, including North and Luke. North was the only one who sent a message back right away.
North: “Ok.”
I had the phone tucked into the cup of my bra. It was the best way to hide it for now. If I just tried to keep it in my pocket, I was afraid it would slip, or my mom would notice the bulge.
I had to pull my hair back, too. Gabriel was disappointed, but I told him if I came home with it down, it’d draw unneeded attention. My mother would already be angry over Marie with the boy from up the road. As it was, I’d have to convince her I was only walking in the woods if she asked.
When I got into the house, I made a dash up the stairwell. The rear stairwell was a lifesaver, enabling me to leave the house unnoticed. It came out by the laundry room which had the side door to the garage.
Upstairs, I knocked on Marie’s door to check on her.
Marie answered, her long brown hair hanging behind her shoulders. Her nose and chin were sharp, her brown eyes smaller than mine. She was taller, too, by at least a foot. Her hips were wider. For sisters, we didn’t look a lot alike. “What?” she whined.
“What happened earlier?” I croaked. Marie didn’t look upset and she could talk so it must not have been too bad this time.
“Mom was looking for you,” she said, stepping out of the way. Her room had various piles of clothes on the floor and notebooks across her bed.
“I know,” I said, even though I didn’t. “I’m going to take my shoes off and then I’ll go get yelled at.”
I didn’t have to explain it. She knew exactly what I meant. Seeing our mother usually involved yelling and often a punishment. It was painful to kneel on the floor for hours with shoes on.
I crossed the hallway and used a push pin tucked into the wall to unlock my door and get in to my room. Marie knew how to unlock my door and knew where I hid the pushpin. For me, it was just a small deterrent. It allowed me time to hear someone coming if I was inside. No one would bother knocking and I couldn’t force them to stay out.
When I was inside, I relocked the door before pulling the cell phone out of my bra. I was tempted to play with it, but instead went for the attic space door. I reached in and found an opening between the wood of the wall and the insulation. I tucked the phone between them. I had the cord in my front pocket and I put that in the attic with it. On a final thought, I turned up the stereo music a little to detract from any noise the phone could make. I had been careful to turn that off when I got it, but I still worried it would vibrate or beep or something.
“Sang!” I heard my mother calling. She must have heard when I turned up the volume on the radio. “Come down here!”
I sighed, wishing I was still back at Kota’s.
Downstairs, I entered my mother’s bedroom. Her inner sanctum. Her wiry hair looked disheveled, like it hadn’t been brushed in days. She sat with her back against the headboard, frowning at me. “Where have you been?”
“In the shed.”
“All day?”
I nodded. “I was looking to see if I had any more clothes for school in the boxes we haven't unpacked yet,” I strained to be heard from across the room so I wouldn’t have to come closer. I knew what was coming and was ready.
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“You shouldn’t do that,” she said. “I will go through it when I'm ready to. I don't want you going through it.”
“Oh,” I said, pretending to not understand. A little trouble would stop her from prodding further, I hoped. “Sorry,” I added.
“Some... man,” she spat out the word, “came here today to play basketball with Marie.”
Derrick, I thought. For some reason I thought he was my age and didn’t appear to be someone to be worried about. I tried to look confused. “Who was it?”
“I don’t remember his name. He said he went to your school.”
I nodded, pretending to think. “Well, there’s bound to be a kid or two around the block.”
“How would you know?” she asked, digging at my story. “How did he know there were kids here? I don’t think you should be walking around in the yard anymore. They might come over again.”
“But I haven’t run into anyone.”
She mumbled something to herself, licking at her cracked lips. “I don’t want you hanging around with men.”
“I haven’t met anyone,” I repeated.
She pressed her lips together tightly. She had no proof otherwise, I knew. Depending on her mood, it could be bad or good. “Is your room clean?” she asked. A sharp odor hit my nose from the room, like rubbing alcohol.
“Almost,” I said. It was like playing a game. If I gave the right answer, I got the answer I wanted. Right now, if she stuck me in my room it didn’t matter. It was where I wanted to be anyway.
“Well, go to your room. Don’t come out until it’s spotless.”
“Okay,” I said and I tried to go to the door.
“I mean it,” she said, her voice commanding that I stay and hear her out on her instructions. “I want the trash put into a trash bag.”
“Okay.”
“And the clothes off the floor and hung up.”
“Right.”
“And I want to hear the vacuum running.”
“I’ll get on it now,” I said, edging toward the door. I coughed. She didn’t say anything about my throat or ask about it. I wondered if she even remembered what she’d done.
It was still another ten minutes before I got out of her room as she lectured me on how to clean. I was elated. I had all night to myself with a good excuse. I’d been grounded to my room until it was clean. I could be fairly undisturbed for a while. It was the punishment I could deal with happily.
I rushed up the stairs and then locked my door behind me. My room didn’t have trash or clothes on the ground. The floor was bare. I smiled to myself and shook my head. If she came up to check, there was nothing for her to say about it. There was hardly a thing in my room to mess it up with.
I went to the attic door and pulled out the cell phone.
If someone wanted to unlock the door and look in, I’d have about a split second to listen to the rattle of the handle before it opened. I cuddled up over near the window. I sat on the trunk, looking out to check Kota’s house. Victor’s car was still there, but he’d said he was going to stick around for dinner. Victor and Kota and Gabriel had a movie they wanted to watch. Nathan had gone home. He claimed he had a few chores to do around the house.
I grabbed a book from the shelf and sprawled out on the floor next to my trunk. If someone rattled the door, I could drop the phone behind the trunk and quickly pick up the book to look like I had been reading.
I checked the messages, but no one had sent me anything. I hovered my fingers over the displayed keyboard, wondering what I could do. And who would I text? I didn’t know what to say to anyone.
To pass the time and to keep myself busy, I focused on the Angry Birds app.
I got tired of Angry Birds quickly. I spent a lot of time on the floor, just looking up at the ceiling and listening to the music from my stereo. The sun started to go down. I checked outside; Victor’s car was gone from Kota’s driveway, so he was already home or on his way.
I had the phone on my stomach when it started to vibrate. It spooked me and I shivered. The phone slid down to the floor and flopped over. I sat up quickly, so fast, it made me dizzy, and turned on the screen.
Silas: “Good.”
He was responding to the message I had sent earlier about getting this new phone. I pondered what I would send him next, then quickly typed in:
Sang: “How was practice?”
Silas: “Long. I’m tired.”
Should I stop texting? I wondered. He probably wanted to rest and didn’t want me bugging him.
The phone rattled in my hands.
Silas: “What are you doing?”
I looked nervously around the room. What am I doing? I’m obsessively hanging on to this phone and attempting to sound cool to you so you’ll like me.
Before I could answer, the phone vibrated again. Silas was calling.
My heart dropped in my chest. I wasn’t sure if I could get away with answering it. I wouldn’t hear Marie or anyone coming. And I couldn’t talk! What could I do?
In my panic, I hit the button. I couldn’t just not answer.
“Hello?” I said softly into the receiver.
“I’m not good at texting,” Silas’s deep voice floated to my ear. Just hearing his low, masculine tones made my insides flip. “I’ve got rhino fingers.”
I chuckled. “You were doing okay,” I whispered, my eyes darting around my room. Could I slip into the attic space? My closet?
“This is easier,” he said. “So what are you doing?”
I carefully held the phone to my ear with my shoulder and then unlocked the window. “Not a lot. I was reading.”
“Did you read all day?”
I held the phone to my chest and heaved a foot out onto the rooftop. The wind was blowing softly outside, but it was the safest place to be nearby and not get caught. I brought the phone back to my ear, using my shoulder again to hold it as I eased myself out. “I went swimming with Nathan, too. And I met Gabriel.”
“Did he mess with your hair?”
I laughed. “How’d you know?” I put my butt down on the rooftop, scooting myself until I was sitting next to the window rather than in front of it. If someone tried to get into my room, I might not hear them from outside but if I tucked myself out of the way, the person wouldn’t see me out there. It would just look like my window was open. Hopefully no one would be interested in looking outside.
“I think he’s done everyone’s since I’ve known him,” he said. “I haven’t paid for a haircut since I came here.”
“You moved here when you were little, right?”
The phone vibrated in my hand and there was a beep. I moved it away from my head. It said there was a message coming in. I felt my heart beating wildly with the desire to check it out but I didn’t know the buttons to push to look at it without hanging up on Silas.
As it was, since I was distracted, I missed half of his answer. I put the phone to my ear again just as he was saying, “-- it’s different here, but I guess I’ll manage.”
“I’ll have to find a way to manage, too, I guess.”
He laughed. “Not so bad right now, is it?”
Another vibration, another beep. This time I caught the name. It was from Kota. I still didn’t know what to do, so I ignored it again.
“I think it’s pretty nice here. I mean I met you and the others. You guys are cool,” I croaked. Lame! I put my hand to my cheek, feeling it warming. I didn’t know how to talk to people.
He was quiet for a moment. “Do you think we can hang out tomorrow?”
Another vibrate, another beep. Kota.
“I suppose so. I don’t know how to... um,” I wasn’t sure the words to say and Kota’s messages were distracting me so badly, I couldn’t think.
“I’ve got a car. I probably need to meet you at Kota’s, right?”
“Yeah, probably,” I squeaked as I whispered.
Pause. Did he hear what I said? “Is your voice okay?”
I swallowed, trying
my best. “I’m fine.”
“I’ll have to do stuff in the morning but I can swing by later in the afternoon.”
“Perfect.” Was this him asking for just us or was he coming over to hang out with me and Kota? He was asking me personally, right? I didn’t know how to take the question.
The phone vibrated and started beeping, Kota was calling.
“What’s that noise?”
“Kota’s calling,” I said. “I don’t really know how to switch over the line...”
“It’s okay,” Silas said. “Go ahead and answer him. I’ll talk to you later.”
I wasn’t sure, but he sounded disappointed in having to go so soon. “Okay, bye.”
“Bye.”
I pushed the big green button on the phone to answer Kota’s call.
“Hel--?”
“Get off the roof, Sang!”
His tone was stressed. Was he mad at me? “Kota, I...”
“Hide the phone in your pocket and go outside behind your shed. Go now.” He hung up.
I felt my legs shaking underneath me when I tried to stand up. Kota was scaring the bejeezus out of me.
I scrambled through the window. I tried to shut it but it got stuck halfway down and I left it. I tucked the phone back into the cup of my bra. I stopped to double check that everything looked normal, and then went for the door.
The house was quiet. I slipped down the hallway, trying not to make a sound as I tiptoed down the back stairwell and out into the garage.
I jogged out into the open driveway, down to the end of it to the shed. I circled around, the grass warm under my bare feet. The back of the shed had a concrete patio and an overhang. It was kind of like a third porch. I think it was meant for a place to stick a barbecue pit or maybe even a car because there looked like an oil slick on one side. It wouldn’t allow much protection if Marie left the house to come look for me, but it did block me from the windows and I was out of voice distance, in case someone could actually hear me from my bedroom.