Airborne (4 page)

“Pigeon?” He hissed.

Pride was a fall point, Avery realized quickly. Even though the anger radiating off him grew suffocating, she kept her chin up resiliently.

“I don’t know how harpie mechanics work but I’m not going in the air on that. You’re not a plane!” Her last words grew so high pitched, she stung her own ears. Still shaking, she gripped the door knob.

“Did you not hear me earlier? People will be coming for you if you stay here.”

Thoughts swirling in a million different directions, she hesitated. Maybe there would be bad people after her but he could just as well be one of them. Any bird that would try and take her out of here would have to do it while she kicked and screamed.

“I’ll take my chances.”

Yanking the door open quickly, she jumped inside while half expecting him to follow. The door swung shut and he never made chase. Avery was relieved until she noticed someone else standing before her in the hall.

“Morrison.” Avery said, immediately recognizing the new problem. She was caught out after curfew. The staff woman saw Avery and immediately shook her head.

“You know I have to put you on notice now.” Morrison sounded about as bummed out as Avery felt. Morrison always wore the pumps so everyone would hear her coming and no one would get caught. Of course, a student wouldn’t hear the pumps if they were outside being chided by mythological creature. She seemed to expect Avery’s excuse just as much as Avery expected her own excuse. But in the moment, Avery couldn't think of a single lie.

“Okay. That’s okay.” Avery settled for instead.

Morrison took the omission of guilt without admonishing her further. With the initial confrontation over, Avery sent a quick look behind her at the door. It remained both shut and silent. Mason wouldn’t be dumb to charge into a crowded room apparently.

“By the way,” Morrison began as she stepped to the side and guided Avery back to her room. “I couldn’t find your assignment anywhere. It must have fallen out and I’m going to have the office print up another one.”

Avery walked to her door and knocked on it twice to wake Leela up.

“It’s alright, I have it. Uh, someone found it on the floor and brought it back to me.” By the floor she meant probably straight off of Morrison’s desk. Mason had probably stolen it.

Morrison’s brow still pinched at her explanation. Looking significantly older than she ought to have, she gave Avery one last speech.

“Okay. Just be careful. This curfew isn’t in place because the faculty is bored. The Alaskan wilderness come nightfall isn’t the place for a student. The danger is very real. Please keep that in mind.”

The door swung open and before Morrison could get in another word, Avery charged forward and nearly toppled Leela out of the way. The heavy wood slammed shut behind her sealing them inside the dorm room. Avery did nothing until she could hear the last clacks of Morrison’s heels echo down the hallway. She then shifted her attention back towards the room.

Leela stood before her, fully dressed in fashion wear. Pumps, leggings, and the denim dress gave away that she hadn’t been home long. Avery prepped herself to explain everything that had just happened, but she never got the chance. Someone else in the room spoke out.

“Look what the cat dragged in.” The familiar ring of Nathan’s voice made Avery flinch.

He’d stretched out on Leela’s bed, ankles crossed, showing everyone the bottom of his expensive leather boots. Black hair slicked back and leather jacket adorned on his shoulders, anyone else in the world would have looked like a cheap imitation of a movie icon. Not Nathan though. Nathan pulled it off in his own individual way. Had Avery not hated him so much, she could have admired it.

“What’s he doing here?” Avery asked.

“Calm down.” Leela stood between them. “We were just hiding out until Morrison dipped.”

Avery noticed first and foremost that Leela only directed that towards her and never once admonished Nathan. Secondly, she noticed the rest of the room. Leela’s sheets on the bed sat perfect, starch, and undisturbed. The television sat in a mess of unhooked wires and the only light on was the painfully bright overhead fluorescent. Leela, for the first time, unstrapped her heels and kicked them to the corner. Avery surmised they hadn’t been in here long and definitely not long enough to get into trouble. Still, the thought nearly made her shudder.

“I heard her catch you. You’re lucky I let you in, bringing her over here like that. Do you have any idea how much trouble I could have gotten in?”

“One week grounding?” Avery tried for a joke but Leela’s scowl grew darker.

“Little Avery just wants company since she’s too deaf to avoid trouble.” Nathan brought every bit of attention back to himself.

Before Avery could even respond, he stood and moved between her and Leela with agile quickness. Standing directly in front of her now, he popped her personal bubble and then some. This close she could smell his minty aftershave and the hot spiciness of his cologne. Just a few inches taller than her, he leaned forward until their foreheads touched.

“Don’t worry girl, I’ll come visit you if you want.” He whispered just to Avery.

“You should be leaving.” She snapped at him. He made a hurt face just for theatrical effect, and then slinked out the door. Once it closed firmly behind him, Leela turned on Avery.

“That was so rude. He was just here to see me! What do you have against Nathan?” Leela, even though not included in the initial exchange, had been clearly embarrassed.

“I- nothing. I mean, I just know he uses girls. I don’t want you to get with him.” Avery rubbed her arms, feeling unsettled enough already.

“N-no.” Avery found herself stuttering worse in front of a tiny girl than she had with a crazy harpie. “No. I just know Nate through school.” Avery finally amended, firmer this time. With the sheets on the bed fixed, she climbed beneath them, dirty jeans and all. Curling the unsightly black mark on her hand back into her chest, she stared at the wall.

As expected, Leela didn’t let it go.

“You’re lying to me. He says that you guys have met before. You said you only knew him through school.” She marched right up to Avery’s bedside. “You know I like him.”

“I told you. I hate Nate because he’s a jerk to me period. There isn’t anything more.” The familiar tightness of guilt weighed on Avery’s chest but she stuck to her story.

Though she couldn’t see Leela’s reaction, she could certainly picture it. Cheeks red, Leela marched away and threw herself onto her bed hard enough that the springs cried in protest.

Four

The winter crept closer stealing away the few hours of daylight Seward had left. Even with the school’s fluorescent light display, the fade to darkness was never welcome. The inevitable cold, black ice, and frostbite would come with the winter. Even though Avery had lived in Alaska most of her life, the winter this year seemed less appealing than ever.

The teacher’s chemistry set abruptly popped and fizzled, bringing the entire class’s attention to the smoking test tubes.

“Are we clear?” The teacher asked. “We’ll all be performing this experiment next Monday and I don’t want any problems.”

The class gave a chorus of uncertain mumbles. At the front, people like Leela nodded confidently. Avery watched the back of her pony tail bounce with her symbolic agreements to the teacher’s lecture. As expected, Leela had said nothing to her but the mandatory hello and goodbye. Even then, she’d spent most of her time out of the dorm where Avery couldn’t follow while still on probation. Leela may not have wanted an apology but she wanted an explanation and that was more than Avery was willing to give.

“Refer to your notes for guidelines on how to do the pre-experiment. I want no excuses.” The teacher continued, raising his voice just so the slackers in the back could hear her every word.

Before Avery could be incorporated into one of those slackers, she flipped back through her notes to seem busy. The pages were littered with crooked handwriting, arrows, and lines but Avery’s attention still fell to the drawings in the margins. She had doodled feathers and traditional harpie birds from her Greek mythology text books. Her eyes lingered on the depiction. Worse than the issue with Nathan, Avery still had no idea what to make of her encounter with Mason.

It’d been almost a week and with every day, the vividness she’d felt that night became surreal and she could have convinced herself it didn’t happen. Only the throbbing black mark on her palm kept her from thinking she was crazy.

Avery looked back up to the front of the class, determined to distract herself with chemistry, when she caught some people staring. The girls in the front of the class quickly turned and acted nonchalant. Their attempt at normalcy was horrible. They exploded into a chorus of whispers and stared at their notebook too hard. Avery knew they’d been talking about her. Mayweather Academy wasn’t a big school and news got around the student populous fast. Combined with boredom and little else to do, fellow students had already heard about Avery’s grounding and started spinning the rumors.

Avery knew the type. They’d say, “I know she wasn’t at the party. I think I saw her smoking out back.” One girl even dropped the “I heard that she waits until everyone leaves and digs through their rooms.” The rumors got stupider and stupider every year. If she had to stay in the school any longer, they’d be calling her an axe murderer next month.

Avery made a point to glare when one of the gossiping girls risked a quick backwards glance her way. The girl paled and swiveled in her seat, burying her nose into a book. Letting out a deep breath, Avery leaned back in her plastic chair. The teacher gave the class a knowing look before dismissing them. She shut the cover of her book and stood to stretch when someone came up behind her.

Leela nodded and for a moment, an awkward silence developed. Leela twirled her hair and bounced from foot to foot while Avery drew a blank on what to say. The teacher happened to pass by the two and cleared his throat to remind them to leave soon.

“Well, we can walk and talk.” Leela suggested. The whole post fight conversation was developing painfully.

Taking the option, Avery took the first step towards the door and Leela followed. Outside, light snow fell. She slowed, letting the last few lingering students pass them and disappear down the sidewalk. Leela didn’t seem to mind the stalling.

“Life’s boring without you.” Leela then mentioned. “I want to believe you, you know. That you and Nathan are nothing. I’m just worried you know. This thing with me and Nate is too good to be true.”

Avery clenched her teeth and had to force herself to be civil. She hated Nate but Leela was her friend and she wasn’t about to cause another fight if she could avoid it.

Avery couldn’t share the excitement, but she swallowed her discomfort quickly. She needed to break them up before Leela got hurt but she needed to wait until her friend would at least listen. Launching into the anti-Nate speech this early would have Leela lock her out completely.

“That’s cool. How intense in the relationship?” Avery hated herself for asking but the details would be important if she had to form a plan.

Leela held a hand to her heart and swooned.

“Geez, Avery. I’m not
that
close with him yet. We just started dating. I’ve barely kissed him.”

“Good.” Avery was relieved but quickly added, “Jumping into that too fast is always trouble.”

“Tell me about it. I’m ready to kill you for keeping secrets. How come everyone in the school knows about it but you haven’t told me?”