* * *
I stood on the front steps and waved goodbye to Viper. He did the same before he turned the corner. Once he was out of sight I stepped into the house.
“Mom,” I called down the hallway. “I’m back.”
I heard something drop on the floor in the sitting room. When I walked into the room, the remote was on the floor in front of where she was sitting.
“Hi, sweetie,” she said. “How was your day with Viper?”
“It was great,” I said, eying the remote on the floor. “I’m pretty sure I showed him most of the town in one go.”
“Wow,” Mom said. “Sounds like you guys had fun.”
She leaned over to pick up the remote.
“Did you throw that?”
She laughed. “Emma, why would I throw the remote?”
As stupid as the question sounded, Mom did do a lot of strange things. Over the years I had learned not to ask. Sometimes, though, I couldn’t help it.
“It just fell off the couch,” she said.
“Hmm,” I said.
I didn’t completely believe her. It was too far from the couch to have fallen off. But like I said—I’d learned not to ask.
“Anyway, the enchilada special has moved to Mondays at
Pedro’s
.”
I went into the kitchen and opened the cabinet doors beside the sink. I grabbed the package of cookies sitting on the shelf. My heart sank; the package lifted off the shelf too easily. There was only one left. I sighed.
“Mom, we’re out of cookies again,” I said, eating the last cookie and throwing the package away. I went back into the sitting room to watch the rest of the movie with her.
She looked at me. “Emma?”
“Yeah, Mom?”
She seemed to be thinking about her words particularly hard. “I’m sorry about last night.”
I looked at her. “What are you talking about?”
“The way I avoided talking to you.”
“Oh, it’s okay,” I said.
Her avoiding my questions wasn’t exactly an unusual occurrence.
“No, it’s not,” she said to me. “I know I’ve left you without any roots for too long. It’s just that, I’m not ready to tell you stuff yet.”
I never understood what about her past could be so horrible. She was a good person. And that had to have come from somewhere.
“Really, Mom, it’s fine. Talk to me when you want to talk.”
“Is that how you really feel?”
“Yes,” I said again, getting up. “I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk. Goodnight.”
I kissed her on the cheek and left the room. I smiled to myself and hoped that the way I left things would make her feel bad enough to start spilling.
* * *
I had a mini refrigerator in my room. There were always just four things in it: a six-pack of soda, a bottle of ranch dressing, some whipped cream, and an emergency package of cookies. I kept a bag of chips in a box under my bed. Mom didn’t know about the stash of food I had in my room. I kept it covered with a quilt that was given to me when I was seven, and there was a lamp on top of that. The perfect cover: it looked just like a normal side table. We went through snacks like no one’s business. Well, at least Mom did. If it weren’t for my hidden supply, I never would have gotten to the cookies before she inhaled them.
I bought the refrigerator when I was in the seventh grade. I had a large amount of Christmas, birthday, and allowance money saved up and it was screaming to be spent on something. What made me buy a mini-fridge, I have no idea, but I saw that little orange thing and bought it on the spot. I never let it run dry of the four things I needed to survive.
I was in my room wondering how I let my cookie supply get so low when I heard it again. I didn’t realize that my necklace was vibrating before I heard the voice.
She must come soon… Where are you?
I sat up in my bed. I accidentally inhaled some of the crumbs from the cookie I had just put in my mouth and coughed. I pulled my necklace out from under my shirt noticing its peculiar behavior. It was vibrating and had turned to the brilliant purple I had seen before. My eyes swept over the room. It was the same, low, panicked voice.
“Who are you?” I said to the air. “What do you mean?”
“Emma?”
I gave a little scream. I knew I’d asked the questions, but a voice actually answering back was the last thing I’d expected. There was a knock on my bedroom door and I realized it was Mom. I exhaled the breath I was holding in my chest.
“Emma? Didn’t you hear me calling you?” she said before she opened the door and walked into the room. She was holding the phone in her hand. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, Mom,” I said with a sigh. “I’m fine.”
She kept looking at me. She knew my answer wasn’t true. I smiled at her, hoping it would keep her from prying.
“Okay, well Viper’s on the phone,” she said, taking the hint. She handed the phone to me.
“Thanks,” I said, taking it. I couldn’t help but look around my room again.
Mom watched me as I did. She seemed to strain at the effort it took not to ask what my deal was. Instead she looked at the cookies on my bed.
“Looks like we weren’t
completely
out of cookies, were we?” she said, grabbing a couple of cookies and walking out the door. It closed behind her. I stared at the wood, not able to figure out if she’d touched the door when she’d walked by it.
“Hello?” I said into the receiver.
“Hey, Emma, it’s Viper.”
“Hey, Viper, what’s up?”
“Not much,” Viper said. “I wanted to know when your suspension would be over.”
“I’m going to be out for the week.”
“Okay, so you’ll be back before winter break?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Crazy, right? Off school for one week, go back for one week, then I’m off again for another two weeks.”
He laughed. “It is. All right then, I’ll see you when you get back.”
“Bye. See you then,” I pulled the phone away from my ear and moved my thumb toward the end button.
“Wait, Emma?” Viper said, before I turned off the phone.
I put the phone back to my ear. “Yes? I’m still here,” I said, a little louder than intended.
“I was wondering if you were planning on attending the Winter Dance?” The words tumbled out of his mouth in a jumble.
“Oh,” I said. I could feel the temperature rise in my cheeks. “I don’t know. I haven’t given it much thought, I guess.”
“Okay,” he said. I wasn’t sure if I was imagining things or if he really sounded a little disappointed about my answer. “Well, see you later then.”
“Yeah,” I said, disappointed in myself. “Bye.”
I hung up the phone.
That was a total lie. The truth was that I had been thinking about the Winter Dance quite a bit. He might have wanted to ask me to it and like the dummy I was, I had lied to him. Sometimes I hated myself. Now that he thought I didn’t want to go to it he was going to ask someone else. I knew I was going to drive myself crazy over the next week wondering who he would end up asking instead.
III
A routine
He is within reach. I push out my arms as far as they can possibly go. I am sure that any more strain on them will cause my shoulder joints to be pulled right out of their sockets.
But he is there. My fingertips brush against his shoulders. I cup my hands under his arms and bring him toward me.
At last, I sigh. Though the relief didn’t last long. I hold onto him tightly. I have no idea where to go from here. If the weight of his body is any indication, I know the only option I have is back down.
* * *
Viper smiled when he saw me walking toward him. I had known him for only a short time, but his smile had become a staple in my life. The moment I saw it I realized how much I had missed it.
“Hey, you’re back,” he said.
“I am,” I said. “A day late, but I’m here nonetheless.”
“I was wondering why I didn’t see you yesterday.”
“My mom figured she’d schedule a couple of appointments for me while I was off, but they only had openings at the dentist and eye doctor yesterday.”
“I see,” he said. “How was your vacation?”
“It was very refreshing, thank you for asking,” I said.
I thought the week I was out of school would go by slowly. I didn’t have anything to do aside from the make-up work my teachers sent me, but it flew by. Before I knew it, it was the week before winter break and I was back in school getting ready for finals. The teachers sent me notes on the lectures I’d missed so I was feeling all right about the exams.
“What’s been happening? Did I miss anything good?”
Viper heaved a sigh. “Things are crazy. Everyone is going insane over the Winter Dance.”
I laughed. “Happens every dance. Guys start panicking if they don’t have a date by now and the girls start doing things they wouldn’t normally do to catch a guy’s attention if they don’t have one either. You get to see it four times a year.”
“This school has
four
dances?”
I nodded. “There’s Homecoming, the Winter Dance, the Spring Formal, and Prom. Although, the Prom is only for the seniors so I suppose we underlings only care about three of them.”
A particular topic of conversation was still poking at the back of my mind.
“So…” I said. I thought about each word’s specific but nonchalant, I hoped, placement. “Do you have a date yet?” I tried to sound as casual as possible, but I still couldn’t help my voice cracking slightly.
“Oh, man,” he said, rubbing his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Don’t even get me started on the way Emily, Hannah, and Madison are acting around me. They’re dropping so many hints that they want me to ask one of them to the dance, it’s ridiculous. Thank God, you’re back; I’ve had to sit with them every lunch period for the past week.”
I smiled. “You have third lunch today?”
“I do, right after art.”
“I have art before lunch, too,” I said in that louder than intended voice again.
“Great,” he said. “Now I really have a reason to get away from those three.”
We walked through the front doors of the school. I was a little surprised to see that there was a small Christmas tree in the middle of the main hall. They put it up every year, but the rest of the school remained without decorations so it was strange whenever the small burst of color was present. Every inch of it was covered in decorations. There were pictures of all the different school teams hanging from the branches along with ornaments and garland with the school crest and “Saint George High School” printed on them. The very top of the tree sported the dragon mascot. Very little green could be seen beneath the red and white lights in the school’s colors and the tinsel.
“The tree is nice, huh?” he said when he saw me looking at it.
“It’s always unusual to see it, but yes, it is,” I said.
“This place could use some color.”
The morning’s warning bell sounded.
“Well, I’ll catch you later in art.”
“Okay, bye,” I said.
He turned down a hallway to his first class. I turned down the opposite hall and hurried to English.
* * *
“Well, well. Look who they finally let out of her cage,” Emily said.
The sneer on her face found me the moment I walked into Mr. Helbis’ classroom.
“What did they decide, Larnex? I vote on giving you a tranquilizer in the morning to suppress your rage.”
I sat down at my desk without so much as looking at Emily. I didn’t need another mark on my permanent record, though my grades kept me afloat whenever I did get into trouble.
She sat in the desk next to me.
“Listen, Larnex,” Emily said, leaning toward me. A huge wave of perfume hit me in the face and I coughed. “I don’t know how you’re doing it, but stop. You’re probably brainwashing Viper to like you, so lay off.”
I turned toward her to say something, but it took all of my energy to keep myself from collapsing in a fit of hysterical laughter. I held back quickly enough for it to escape as a single snort. There was a big bruise across the top of her nose and both her eyes were brown and purple.
“What’s so funny?”
“I’m sorry, Emily,” I said when I was able to gather myself again, “but isn’t there a separate area in the zoo for raccoons?”
A few people around us laughed, too. Emily turned red, either with embarrassment or anger, I didn’t particularly care which. But she exploded nonetheless.
“You think this is funny, do you? You think the way you’ve made me look is hilarious?” she said.
My eyes were tearing from holding back my laughter. “No, not at all.”
“You’ve ruined my face,” she got out of her desk. “I’m going to look like this until New Year’s if not longer.”
“Miss Lynch,” Mr. Helbis said across the classroom. “Please sit down and stop yelling. Class is about to begin.”
Emily sat back down, but she was visibly shaking. The bell rang and everyone else sat down, too.
“Okay, class, please take out your copies of
Huck Finn
,” Mr. Helbis started.
“I am going to make sure Viper sees you for who you really are, Larnex,” Emily said out of the corner of her mouth. “Just a big, outcast freak.”
To keep from hitting her again I busied my hands by crumpling a few pieces of paper. Mr. Helbis started writing on the board.
“So I’d let up on hanging around him, before things he doesn’t know about you start slipping…”
My hand flew in the air of its own accord, but I was able to keep it from flying at her. It seemed content with throwing the paper I had clenched in my fist at her face with as much force as possible. The paper sailed the short distance through the air between us and collided with the bridge of her nose.
“Ow!”
“Very well, Miss Lynch,” Mr. Helbis said with forced calm. “You may answer the first question.”
I smiled when Emily shot me a nasty look. She turned to Mr. Helbis and tried to explain why she didn’t have her book.
* * *
I couldn’t wait to get out of English. The time dragged by slower than usual. Finally, the bell rang and Mr. Helbis assigned the last chapters to read before we started reviewing for the final. I collected my things and dragged myself out of the room. Mr. Kerrigan’s theology class was in the next hallway so even taking my time I got there early.