The Healing Power of Sugar: The Ghost Bird Series: #9 (The Academy Ghost Bird Series)

by Stone, C. L.

  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 his hands and looked at 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.”

  DESTINATIONS UNKNOWN

  Gabriel eventually complained enough that everyone except Nathan gathered upstairs in Kota’s bedroom to figure out how to get permanent marker off of skin. Nathan ran ahead to the diner to take Luke’s shift.

  Kota took off his jacket, hanging it over his computer chair at his desk. He readjusted the sleeves of his thin green sweater until they were mid-forearm, showing a hint of the lean and firm muscles. He sat down at his desk and started to take off his Converse shoes. I was oddly fascinated by his calmness and at the same time feeling awkward for having behaved so much like a little kid only moments ago.

  Gabriel hovered over him, shifting from foot to foot. He’d thrown his jacket down on the floor by the stairs and was now in dark jeans and a bright orange tank shirt peeking out from the neck of a dark purple sweater. “Come on, Kota,” he said. “I don’t want this ink on her face to become a tattoo. I think if we leave it long enough, it’ll sink in.”

  “She’ll live,” Kota said with a small smile on his face. He looked at me, admiring the marks. “It’s kind of cute.”

  My cheeks heated and I pressed my lips together in a tight smile. I couldn’t imagine what sort of things were on my face that he’d think was cute. I fiddled with a fold in my jeans, trying to pretend I wasn’t listening. I wanted to see what was on my face, but was nervous to do so now when they were looking at me like that.

  “It’s not that cute,” Gabriel said, and my head jerked up in reaction. He looked at me, too, and then quieted as his eyes focused on my cheeks and forehead.

  I sat on Kota’s bed, and waited for them to look away, and when neither did, I broke eye contact. I stared blankly at the wall, trying to appear casual and ended up looking at Luke.

  He was sprawled out on the floor on his back, stretching. Some of his blond hair threaded through the carpet, getting a bit messy. “She might like it,” he said. “Ever consider she might want to keep it?”

  North crossed the room to the bed, and sat at my feet, his knees bent, and he rested an arm over his knee. “She can like it all she wants, but she can’t go to school with marker on her face.”

  “I really don’t need that sort of attention,” I said. I could imagine the kids at school commenting on the marks, especially on my cheeks and nose. I looked at Luke’s skin. While there were some swirls and flowers and a smilie face, there was also that large block of ink from where he colored in the phone number and additional marks around his face that were just lines and patches of black. “If we weren’t going to school, maybe. Were you going to keep yours?”

  “Hmm,” he said, reaching back to take the clip out of his hair. The blond locks spilled over the floor in a slight wave. With his tan skin and model-like face, the marker made his features appear thin. “I might.”

  “You can’t go to school like that,” North said.

  “I might keep some.”

  “Not the ones on your face and arms.”

  Luke pressed his lips together and closed his eyes. I could only see the back of North’s head, but the tension in the room was a little different then, like Luke was the one in trouble. I wasn’t sure what to say, if I should defend Luke, or even how to.

  Kota stood up, walking in his socks to the bathroom and opening the door. “Well, you might be going to school with it all if we don’t find the right solution.” He flicked on the light of the bathroom and opened the cabinet below the sink, leaning in beyond where I could see. There was a shuffling as he moved things around. “Hm, I might need to do some research. I don’t remember what takes off permanent ink. Lotion? Rubbing alcohol?”

  Gabriel followed him, standing at his elbow. “It’s not like they make permanent marker removal creams,” he said.

 
“They might somewhere,” Kota said. “I just don’t have some. It hasn’t really been an issue.”

  “We’re not little kids drawing on ourselves,” Gabriel said. “Most of us know better.”

  I was staring at Luke’s jeans, spacing out while listening to Kota and Gabriel. There was a flash of light. I looked up, and another flash caught me right in the eyes. North had snapped a picture with his phone, positioning it like taking a selfie only he had the camera pointed at me.

  He smirked as he looked at the screen of his phone. From over his shoulder, I could see the surprised look on my face, along with the marks. “Not my favorite look for you.”

  I flashed a goofy smile at him, and nudged him in the shoulder. The nap must have done him some good. He wasn’t as grumpy at least.

  “Hey,” Luke said. He sat up and whipped out his cell phone. “Good idea.” He snapped a picture of me, and then another one. He studied the screen on his phone and frowned, and then curled his fingers in a come hither motion. “You’re too far. North’s ugly mug keeps getting in the way. Come on over. I want a picture of both of us.”

  “Oh yeah,” Gabriel leaned out of the bathroom door, waving a hand in his direction. “Just make it another trophy.”

  “Huh?” I asked, although I got up and moved around North to sit next to Luke on the floor. North had gotten a photo. Shouldn’t Luke?

  “I mean he’s got a lot of pictures of all the times he’s ever pranked anyone,” Gabriel said. He became distracted when Kota pulled out his cell phone and started looking at it. Gabriel pointed to the screen as Kota started typing. “Don’t read the articles. Check out the videos. A lot of those articles are trash.”

  “You don’t know that,” Kota said.

  “Just trust me. You can watch someone on YouTube take off permanent marker, if it can be done. That way you know it works, and it isn’t just some geezer writing an article for a quick buck and he didn’t actually know shit. Video is evidence.”

  Luke put his arm around me, and put his phone in front of our faces and flashed a few pictures. “Smile, Sang.”

  I was still half listening to Gabriel and had lost what I was doing. I smiled, cheesy and guiltily. I reached up to my hair, unsure how sloppy it might be since we were wrestling a bit on the floor downstairs. Locks fell around my face. I reached back to fix them.

  Luke snapped a few photos anyway, not giving me much of a chance to fix myself. I saw colored spots after the bright flashes. “You keep photos when you do pranks like this?” I asked.

  “I can’t get photos every time,” Luke said. He leaned away from me, and started swiping through photos on his phone, searching through them. “Sometimes I’m too busy running.”

  “Because you know you’ll get into trouble,” North said. “Which reminds me, you still owe me some new tires.”

  My lips parted and I looked over at Luke, who grinned at his phone with a guilty expression. “What did you do to North’s tires?”

  “How was I supposed to know the paint would eat away at his tire tread?” Luke asked. “I thought you could just wash it off.”

  “If I wash my tires with water and soap, and they turn orange, the color doesn’t just wash out,” North said.

  Luke flipped around his phone to me, showing me North’s black Jeep, only with bright orange tires. The tires were wet, with North standing by, looking angry and confused. Some chemical reaction must have happened causing the tires to change colors.

  Luke beamed at the shock on my face. “Looks awesome, doesn’t it?”

  “You’re costing me a fortune,” North said. “You’ve been going too far. One of these days, you’re going to piss off the wrong person.”

  “I only mess with my favorite people,” Luke said. “If I don’t like you, I won’t care enough to do anything.”

  North shifted his feet, stretching out his legs while sitting on the floor, and then bent them again, putting his arms over the knees. He peered over them, his dark eyes showing just a hint of amusement. “Please, Luke, don’t like me anymore.”

  I smiled, tempted to tell Luke the same thing. Was it better to be pranked? It was kind of fun, but I could see North’s point that if he didn’t think ahead, it might cause problems, like costing North some new tires.

  Kota returned with a bottle of sunscreen spray and a roll of paper towels. “According to the internet, this works.”

  “I don’t know if we should trust it,” Gabriel said, trailing behind him. “That’s just the first one we came across. And someone in the comments said it didn’t work. I don’t know if this will just streak the marker.”

  “We need a guinea pig,” Kota said and then turned to Luke, shaking the sunscreen spray.

  Luke chuckled. “Yeah, I guess I’m it.” He pumped his fist once. “For science!”

  “Or if makes it worse, let’s just call it karma for starting this whole mess,” Gabriel said.

  Kota sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of Luke. “Let’s just focus on getting this stuff off. If this doesn’t work, we’ll need to try something else.” He adjusted his glasses quickly. He shook the sunscreen can again and then picked up Luke’s arm. He started spraying the stuff thickly over the black marks.

  The ink started to streak, and at first, I was worried Gabriel was right. He’d end up with a coated partially blackened arm.

  Kota took a paper towel and started to wipe. The marker came off cleanly. I blew out a quick breath, relieved and hoping that this still worked when it was my turn to get cleaned up.

  “We might need more sunscreen spray after this,” Kota said.

  “I’ll put it on the shopping list,” North said.

  At least the marker was coming off easily. Kota continued to work on Luke by spraying carefully over his face and wiping away from his eyes.

  I got up, heading to the bathroom and checking the mirror, looking over the damage. Luke had lied about the curse word on my face. There weren’t any words at all. There were stick men, and stars and a moon and something that looked like an alien.

  And then I remembered my ear and I checked. There was a tiny heart, small and cute, right on my lobe.

  I smiled at it, and then combed out my hair a bit, letting the locks that frame my face hide my ear. I didn’t want Kota to get rid of it just yet. If I could get away with it, I’d keep it. At least for a little while.

  When I got out of the bathroom, Luke was wiping at his skin with a dry paper towel. Kota was collecting the stained dirty ones into a plastic bag. Gabriel was lying on the bed now, looking like he wanted a nap.

  “I smell like I’ve been to the beach,” Luke said.

  “Get over to the diner,” North said. “Take your shift back from Nathan.”

  “I know what I need to do,” Luke said. “You don’t have to tell me.” He got up and started walking toward the stairs.

  “You’ve been running off lately whenever you get a break from the diner,” North said. “Nathan needs a break. He doesn’t need you running off now.”

  “I never miss a shift. I’m always back on time,” Luke said, pausing to turn and look at him. He held his hands out. “I do my job. Just because I’m not a slave to it like you are—”

  “I’m not talking about working more at the diner,” North said. “I’m talking about you disappearing every day.”

  “I don’t go anywhere,” he said. North opened his mouth to reply but Luke waved him off in a very abrupt way and rushed to the stairs. His footsteps shuffled quickly over the carpeted steps. I listened to the noises he made going through the house, and finally when he closed the door as he left.

  I eased over to sit next to Kota on the floor, feeling odd about being there while North was fussing at Luke. Wasn’t North being a little harsh on his brother? I wasn’t sure what Luke might be up to, but unless Luke was really needed somewhere, like for the Academy jobs or for the diner, if he wanted to spend time alone, shouldn’t he be allowed? Just because North didn’t know where he went, d
id that mean Luke was going to get into trouble?

  And where was Luke going? I hadn’t noticed him disappearing anywhere. The boys were coming and going all the time, so it was difficult to keep track, and I always assumed they were either at home or on some Academy job.

  North scooted over across the carpet, heading my way. He took the sunscreen spray from Kota and motioned to me. “Let me get that shit off of you.”

  I checked in with Kota, who wasn’t looking at me, but at the window, as if he following Luke with his eyes. Absently, he passed over the supplies to North. “Just be careful around her eyes.”

  “I know, I know,” North said. He tried to look at my face while on the floor, but frowned. He got up and sat on the bed, nudging Gabriel over. “Don’t go to sleep. You’ll be up all night.”

  Gabriel rolled over and faced the wall, giving North more room. “I’m a teenager,” he said. “I need lots of sleep. Science people said so on YouTube.”

  North curled his fingers in my direction. “Get up off the floor.”

  I sat on the bed next to North, and let him clean off my face. I wrinkled my nose at the heavy scent of sunscreen filling my nose. It was a little much and my eyes blurred as I wanted to sneeze. He ignored my ear, and cleaned my face and the marks on my arm. I didn’t need to say anything about leaving the heart. Either he forgot, or he liked it, too, and left it alone.

  “Gabriel,” Kota said and got up to sit at his computer chair. He turned on his computer and started clicking on different files. I could see little over his shoulder, only the edge of Internet windows. “Where has Luke been going lately?”

  “Shit if I know,” Gabriel said. “We haven’t really been hanging out lately.”

  “What have you been doing?” Kota asked. “Are you two okay?”

  “I’ve been busy.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Just trying to stay out of Pam’s way,” Gabriel said. “She’s still into that new guy, the one that basically kicked me and Sang out. He stinks and is always looking for money. They fight about it. I might start storing stuff at Victor’s house before the guy thinks to sell things off while I’m not around. And whenever I see Pam, she’s handing me condoms. Like she thinks I’m fucking around with Sang every time I leave the house.”