High Pressure System: First Season Underground (11 page)

I nodded as I leaned against my door. Rejection. Not a cool feeling.

Brandon made an announcement to be prepared for another onslaught of flooding. Fortunately, there was none of that and I was able to go see Jim.

“Hey.” I peeked in his room checking to see if he was up to having a visitor.

“There you are.” He waved me in.

I pulled up a chair beside his bed. “Are you feeling any better?”

“Yes. They’ve medicated me pretty good. My blood pressure is down. They attributed my little attack to stress.”

“How long do you have to stay?”

“Overnight. Maybe longer since I’m alone if I go home.”

“I could probably help you with that. Then maybe you can teach me how to cook so I don’t poison you with charred bits.”

He laughed. We visited for a time. I hoped Micah would come. When I was about to leave, he finally showed up. I decided to wait outside the room so they could visit without me disturbing them.

I stood once Micah stepped out of Jim’s room after the nurse returned to do vitals.

“You didn’t leave?” He stuffed his good hand in his pocket and he had no clue what to do with the other.

“Well, no.” I felt awkward too. “What’s are you up to now?”

“Come on.” He headed for the door. We walked together down the hall. “I’m hungry.”

“Me too.” I followed him down the stairs.

While we sat in the dining room, I had this feeling someone was watching me and it sure wasn’t Micah. Nothing was coming from his mouth. Everything was going in and I was not the focus of his attention.

I scanned the room while I ate my salad at a leisurely pace compared to Micah. I have had that feeling before, the one where someone has to be staring at me and of course the eyes magnetically fall on whoever it was. My eyes locked with Aaron’s and he didn’t look away when I caught him staring.

“Eergh.” I scowled at my plate.

“Hmm?” Micah responded with his mouth full.

“Nothing.” I tried to seem completely engrossed in Micah even though he was showing no interest in me.

When we finished, I almost didn’t see the point in hanging out with Micah anymore so I headed for the library. I always found comfort escaping in a good book. I knew Jim would like to read something and we shared many good conversations about our favorite reads. Surprisingly, Micah followed. To my dismay, Aaron also showed up as well.

“Ahh, the smell of real books. This was a good idea. I’m not so sure what to do with myself without being able to use my hands. I haven’t read in so long, what do you think I should read? “ Micah ran a finger over the spines of the books on the shelves.

I shared my favorites with him and told him about the books Jim and I both enjoyed. “Don’t let this title deceive you. It’s not about sheep. It happens in a place a lot like the one we are in now.” Micah picked that book and a few others I suggested. Finally, something to talk about that wasn’t people or drama.

Aaron was paying more attention to my conversation with Micah than he was showing to the books on the shelves. I ignored him. We had a decent amount of reading material when Micah said goodbye abruptly and went home. Doing my best to hide my disappointment from hovering Aaron, I went home too.

I settled in bed with my books and the dogs to get my mind off the disappointments of my day.

It had been some time since a lock-down woke me up. I always locked myself in at night and the flashing lights indicating that I needed to lock the door lit up the room. I rolled over to check the time when I saw a shadow move in the corner. I sat straight up in bed throwing a pillow at whoever it was and rolled away from them, accidently falling to the floor. I grabbed the blanket off the bed and was back on my feet, turning on the light.

“What the hell, Aaron? What are you doing here? Where are my dogs?” I wanted to throw everything in my room at him

He stayed put in the corner. “The dogs are in the hall. I gave them some, um, leftovers.”

“Why are you here?” I inched my way to the door not taking my eyes off him.

He hesitated and looked everywhere in the room except at me. “I read a book where watching the girl you like while she was asleep was romantic. It won the girl over anyway.”

“That’s a book, not real life. What was it about?”

“Something with vampires. Sparkly ones.”

I squinted at Aaron. He did have something sparkly on his face.

“For crying out loud.” I stormed off for the door and called the dogs in. I desperately wanted to kick him out. I called the control room on the thumb pad.

“Do you have an emergency?” Brandon sounded tired.

“Sort of. How bad is the storm? There is someone here that doesn’t belong here. Totally and completely uninvited and unwelcome.” I glared at Aaron. He hung his head.

“I’m sorry but they need to stay. I could send security if you aren’t safe, though.”

I stared hard at the boy evaluating the situation. “I’ll let you know.”

I pressed my thumb on the pad. It locked us in the room together. I held my hand out so he could do the same. He did it in the most pathetic manner.

“You are ridiculous. First off, I’m not the kind of girl that gets a kick out of role-play from books. Secondly, watching someone sleep when they don’t know you’re there is freaking creepy. Don’t do that. It’s not romantic at all. It’s stalking behavior. Not an attractive trait for anyone to have. Thirdly, vampires are gross. Gross, gross, gross. You aren’t one, thank goodness. You might like them, other people might like them, but I sure don’t. Now I’ve told you as nicely as I can that I’m not interested.”

There was a crash high above and we both ducked. I sat on the floor with my blanket and let the dogs crawl in my lap. “Go sit over there.” I pointed to the far reaches of my main living space.

“I was desperate. I really wanted to get your attention.” He sat down on the other side of the room.

“Well, you have plenty of the kind where I don’t want to be around you at all. Is that what you wanted?”

“Not exactly.” He bent over and traced his finger over the lines on the linoleum floor.

“Didn’t your sister tell you to leave me alone?”

“She did, but she can’t tell me what to do.”

“So you’re five now?”

“What? No.”

“You sound like a spoiled little kid and your making decisions to do weird things like one too. Why don’t you try being, you know, normal. You’re a smart kid. The smartest one in class and you’re kind of mean how you try to argue with me all the time and crack jokes at my expense. I know I’m not an expert.”

“Sorry. I do like how you’re letting us teach now.”

“You still come off like a know-it-all and act like you’re superior and never want anyone to learn from what you know.”

“I can’t help it.”

Every time there was another boom, we ducked. I focused on Aaron instead of my growing fear.

“Stop stalking me. Try being helpful instead. I don’t mind helpful. Work on being friendly, not flirty. Don’t try so hard though or I’ll feel like I’m being smothered by you all the time.”

“Fine.” He wouldn’t look at me.

I knew he was sixteen-years-old. However, he was sulking as if he was much younger. Maybe because I was so mortified over what he did.

I held the blanket tight around my shoulders as we waited. I wasn’t comfortable crawling back in bed with him there. The dogs were cowering under my blanket from all the noise and shaking above.

“This one is brutal.” I hoped Brandon was safe. Jim’s recovery would delay the lower control room getting finished any time soon.

I jumped and was pulled from my thoughts when the dogs started barking. It wasn’t at Aaron. They already lost guard dog status letting him in my room. They were focused on the wall close to the ceiling opposite the door.

“What is it? You guys were afraid for your lives a minute ago.” I tried to get them to shut up before they woke the whole floor.

“There’s something clicking or tapping over there near the ceiling. Maybe something escaped from The Farm or maybe we have mice.”

“I hope not.” I listened for what Aaron and the dogs were hearing. The dogs kept barking and once they stopped, I couldn’t hear a thing.

Finally, the rattling above settled down and there was knock on my door before lock-down was officially over.

I opened the door. “Oh, hi.” I ran a hand through my bed hair.

Two security guards stood at the door trying to look all official with their bright Security vests, wide leg stance, and their hands resting on their belts. “We’re here for the Cooper boy. We were alerted that he was not an invited visitor.

I stepped aside so Aaron could leave with them.

“Do you want us to keep him in the security wing for unauthorized entry?” The serious one asked. He almost made me laugh with how official he was acting. The other one stood behind his shoulder and looked rather bored.

“No. I think taking him home to his parents and letting them know what he did would be sufficient.” Parental disappointment was always worse than the protection of being locked in a room alone. Judging by Aaron’s expression, it was the perfect punishment.

When it was time to get up in the morning, I struggled pulling myself out of bed. Blasted Aaron. I stopped to see Jim briefly on my way to the school. I dropped off his books and committed to hang out with him at the end of the day. Once we told the doctor my plan, he decided to release Jim later in the afternoon because he wouldn’t be alone the whole time.

At the school I couldn’t stop yawning when Brandon entered the room before I had my first class.

“Are you all right after last night?” His attention was barely on me as he scanned the empty room. For some reason we were getting more uncomfortable around each other.

“Just tired.” I leaned my butt against a table to hold me up.

“How did he get in your apartment? Did you forget to lock yourself in with the thumb pad?”

“No, I didn’t. Those Cooper kids have a talent for over-riding your system.” I gripped the table edge and instantly regretted it. Someone stuck gum under the table and my finger discovered it.

“Ahh, I wondered. They’ve been a handful lately.”

“I’d say.” I was preoccupied of relieving my finger of it’s stickiness without it being obvious it had landed in something gross.

“He’s a smart kid, isn’t he?” Brandon was preoccupied with his tablet like always.

“Very much so.”

“I’m not so worried about his sister anymore. I doubt she’ll be much trouble after I told her what she wanted to know. However, I think that kid needs a special project. You came up with a makeshift solution for the acid water. Put him in charge of coming up with an acid proof boot we can make with the 3D printer. We need something until we can prevent the water from getting in.”

“How about I make it a whole class project that he’s in charge of? It’s useful to have them contributing to the community instead of learning bits of information just to keep them busy.”

“Good plan.” Brandon gave me an awkward pat on the back and shuffled his feet some when left the room. He was just as tired as I was.

“Wait.” I stood in the doorway and pulled on the frame. Expending nervous energy helped ease my discomfort with having a normal conversation with him. Probably because I was anticipating some chastising, jealousy, or flirting coming from him.

“What?” He turned with his eyes wide and receptive to whatever I was about to say.

Shoot. I got his hopes up and I was about to disappoint him. “You should spend some time with Aaron and see if he would be helpful in the control room. I think he has the skills you’re looking for.”

I was right. The bright open look on his face turned into a squint. He was thinking though and not very upset.

“I’ll think about it.” He speed walked out of the school before I could disappoint him again.

There was a tap on my shoulder and I jumped. I turned and wanted to slap Marjie for sneaking up on me after the night I had. “Boy, you two not only have a knack for unlocking doors, you like to sneak up on me.” I did give her a gentle shove.

“Rough night? Yeah, you should have been at our house when he was brought home. You thought those storms above us were bad? I’m sure my parents woke up all the people on our floor and the floors above and below us.” She waved a book at me. “Sparkle boy has been reading a few vampire love stories lately. When I went to see what all the racket was about, I had to hide in my room so I could laugh my head off in a pillow. I don’t think he’ll be a problem from now on. How about your other guy? Any luck there? Aaron admitted he saw you with him and he was jealous. That’s why he felt he needed to make his move. Because you liked old books, he thought he could win you over that way. Delusional boy.”

“Micah? Nope, no luck there. He confuses me. I think he’s hurt about something I didn’t have any control over. Even though I told him I like him, he is still distant.”

“So no luck with finding out his secrets or where he lives?”

“Wanting to know the secrets is a sore spot and I can’t seem to find a way to follow him anywhere.”

“Oh yay! I still get to snoop on your behalf.” She rubbed her hands together as if were coming up with some evil plan.

“Just don’t get in trouble the way your brother has.”

“No problem. I like having a good excuse to go roam some halls today.”

“Okay, good.”

When the teens arrived for their class, the tension was thick. The rumors spread faster than wildfire in such a small community. It was as if everyone was watching a tennis match as their eyes went from me to Aaron and back at me again. Maybe they thought I was going to shoot darts at him from my eyeballs or something. I’d want to see that too. Aaron wouldn’t look at me and he was not himself with how subdued he was. The class clown was no more.

I wasn’t going to address any of it.

“All right. I have a request from the man above. Okay, not that high above. We have a new problem with the storms. I know you all saw the damage on the stairs and that the carpet near the doorways on all the floors is gone. Until they can stop the acid water from creating a river in the bunker, we have been asked to develop an acid proof boot with the 3D printer.” I walked past the students sitting at the tables until I was standing in front of Aaron.