Just Another Hero (11 page)

“Neither am I,” Dana said. She took Kofi's hand and pulled him to her. He tried to kiss her, but she turned her head. Instead she walked him over to the kitchen sink.

“We gonna wash dishes?” he asked with a small smile.

“Nope.”

“We gonna fix the leaky faucet?”

“Guess again.”

“We're gonna put my pills down the garbage disposal?”

“Nope.
You
are.” She handed him the bottle, put her hands on her hips, and waited.

Kofi hesitated for only a moment. Then he opened the container, dumped the pills into the drain, turned on the cold water, and flipped the switch for the disposal.

Kreak-a-kreak-a whirr.
The drain gargled and chewed, then spun clear and silent. Kofi flipped the switch to the off position.

“You got any more hidden in your jeans or your book bag?” asked Dana.

Kofi started to say no. He
wanted
to say no. But he couldn't lie to Dana again. He went up to his room and found four more pills that he had hidden in a bedroom drawer. “I swear this is all of them. I swear,” he told her as they churned those up as well.

“I believe you,” she said. This time she let him kiss her with all the pain and passion he felt.

TUESDAY, MARCH 1

ARIELLE, DRESSED IN A DARK BLUE BLAZER,
gazed out the window at the end of the hallway at the rapidly melting snow as she waited with the other students for Miss Pringle to show up. The store where Arielle worked after school was having a March Madness clothing sale, and she knew she'd end up mopping all the March footprints off the floor before she got to go home tonight. She sighed.

Where was that woman? Probably at the cafeteria getting another cup of coffee to fill her ever-present mug.

Kids sat on the floor or leaned on a wall, checking their watches and deciding, Arielle knew, whether to skip class or not. Room 317 was unlocked, but only a few kids had bothered to go in.

Eddie Mahoney, who had ended up in this class as well, sat waiting alone at the other end of the hall. Drumming
two pencils on the floor, he challenged everyone with his eyes.

Arielle thought he always looked as if he was up to something. Nothing specific, but he threw off all kinds of bad vibes. If he'd been a painting, she would have drawn him in shades of deep purple and indigo.

She shivered. Even though March had arrived, it still got really cold at night, but Chad had turned off the heat in the house. “No need for heat. It's almost spring,” he'd announced last night. Arielle slept in a sweatshirt over her pajamas, and she still hadn't warmed up.

Lost in thought, she was surprised to notice Osrick standing next to her. He looked scared.

“Uh, can I ask you something, Arielle?” he began, his voice high and thin.

“Sure, Osrick. What's up?” She still wasn't sure whether she felt more sorry for him, or suspicious of him.

“Did you ever find your iPhone?”

Arielle tilted her head sideways. “No, I didn't. Do you have any idea what happened to it?”

“I know you think I took it, but I didn't,” he told her.

“I never said that,” she said.

“I know, but everyone else does. And I've seen how you watch me.”

Arielle didn't know what to say. She couldn't deny it. “I, uh—”

Osrick interrupted her. “I've never stolen anything in my life. But even if I had, I'd never touch that model iPhone. It's flawed. I've examined the specs.” He spoke with an authority that erased their mutual embarrassment.

She believed him, and she was glad about it. “Now you're sounding more like the Wizard of Osrick we all know,” she said with real relief.

“Well, that's one of the nicer things they call me,” he told her. His braces gleamed in the sunlight. “You buy like the usual consumer—because it's pretty. Apple will improve the defects in future versions of the device.”

“I thought it was pretty cool for the short time I had it.”

“When they fix the glitches, maybe then I'll buy one. I have money, you know.”

“I'm sure you do,” said Arielle, still not sure where Osrick was headed. “So what does this have to do with my phone getting stolen?”

He looked around carefully to make sure no one else could hear him. “I think I know who took it, and the other stuff that's been disappearing as well,” he whispered.

Arielle looked surprised. “Who?” she asked.

“People treat me like I'm invisible, so I notice things,” Osrick said with a shrug.

Miss Pringle hurried up the steps then, balancing coffee, grade book, and papers. Osrick abruptly stopped talking.

“Who unlocked this?” Miss Pringle demanded, seeing her classroom door standing ajar.

“The custodian,” Kofi told her.

She frowned and indicated that the students should enter the classroom. They filed in slowly.

As Arielle picked up her book bag, pondering what Osrick had said, November, Dana, and Olivia walked over to her.

“What was little Osrick sayin'? Tryin' to get a date for the prom?” Dana teased her.

“No, leave him alone. He's okay. None of us have ever tried to talk to him or get to know him.”

“Yeah, it must really suck to be Osrick,” November mused.

Arielle started to tell them what Osrick had hinted about the thefts, but just then Brandon Merriweather sauntered over to her. November and Dana stepped back and watched with raised eyebrows.

“Hey, Lollipop,” he called out, using the nickname he'd made up for her when they were together.

“Hey, yourself,” she replied.

“You look kissable today, but then you look like that every day!”

Arielle gave him a look. “Wow, you don't waste any time!” she said. “You haven't talked to me in months, and all of a sudden I'm kissable?”

November and Dana giggled. Brandon ignored them.

“I've missed you, Lollipop,” he replied.

“Coulda fooled me. It's been a while.”

“I tried to call you, but your cell phone doesn't answer.”

“It's a wonder your sweet Nikki didn't delete my number out of your phone,” Arielle said.

“Nikki is bad news and very old news. Trust me.”

I wonder what's up with this. Is he for real?
Still, she told him, “My phone got stolen, and my stepfather canceled the service.”

“Bummer about the phone. Who pinched it?”

“How am I supposed to know?” she replied, frustration creeping into her voice. “The school thief, I guess. Me and a bunch of other kids have been ripped off—everyone knows that.”

“I tried to call your landline, too. All I get at your house is a recording that says, ‘This phone line is temporarily unavailable.'”

“Long story. Wicked stepfather,” she replied tersely. “I'm on punishment—for the next hundred years, I think.”

“It couldn't be that bad,” said Brandon as they walked into the classroom.

“Yeah, it could,” Arielle replied, not willing to say more. “I've got a job at Smoochie's Boutique at the mall. I'm on tonight. Stop by if you want to talk.”

“I might just do that,” Brandon said, giving her the up and down. He wandered on into the classroom. Eddie followed behind him.

Arielle wasn't sure whether Eddie had overheard her conversation, but she didn't trust the look on his face, as if he was gathering information to put in a large, dirty sack to be used later to hurt people.

Dana and November cornered Arielle before she could take another step, however. “So, Brandon's back?” November asked with a sly grin.

Arielle shrugged. “Maybe. He's kinda shaky. One minute he's all up in my face, and the next minute he's drivin' somebody else in that BMW.”

“Tell us if he stops by the mall tonight!” Dana said.

“Yeah, sure. I hope he does, just so I can get a ride home. I don't have bus fare.”

“Won't your mom pick you up?” Olivia asked.

“My stepfather locked her car in the garage,” Arielle told them.

“What! How come?”

“Somebody backed into the Mercedes in a parking lot and dented it. It cost a lot to get it fixed.”

“Wasn't it insured?” Dana asked.

“Yes, but that's not the point.”

“So what did he do?” asked Olivia.

“He put my
mother
on punishment!”

“Shut up!” November put her hand over her mouth.

“That's not possible, is it? Can a grown-up get put on punishment?” Olivia said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“He took away her keys!”

“But if someone backed into her, it wasn't her fault!” November insisted.

“Tell that to Chadwick Kensington O'Neil. He can do anything he wants. He's got all the power and all the money in the family. Me and my mom just live there.”

“Is he as super rich as folks say he is?” Olivia asked. “I've read articles about him in the business section of the newspaper.”

“Well,” Arielle began, “I watched him pay cash for a Hummer he never drives, and two years ago he bought a boat that he's taken out only once—so we could see the fireworks on the river for Labor Day.”

“Man!” November said. “And I thought I wanted to be rich so Sunshine could have nice things.”

“You know that saying, be careful what you wish for?” said Arielle. “Well, it's true. My mother thought she'd be
hot and happy forever when she married Chad. But money is cold, cold, cold.”

“But why is he so hard?” Olivia wondered.

“I don't know. I try to keep out of his way.”

“So what kind of punishment has he put
you
on?” Dana wanted to know. “You don't have a car for him to take away.”

“He's removed all my privileges. Everything,” Arielle admitted.

“Everything?” November asked.

“Everything.”

“Allowance?”

“Hah!”

“Video games?”

“Packed in a box.”

“CDs and DVDs?”

“Same box.”

“Radio?”

“Locked away.”

“Television?”

“Gone. And he told the cable company to disconnect the service.”

“Laptop?”

“He took it. I have to use the computers at school to do homework assignments and research. My mother's desktop at home has been shut off as well. No Internet except on his personal computer.”

Dana frowned. “This sucks, Arielle.”

“Big, pretty plasma-screen TV in the living room—unplugged.”

Olivia scratched her head. “He sounds like a control freak.”

“Actually, he sounds a little bit like a psychopath,” said November.

“Why is he doing this? What did you
do
?” Dana asked.

“I refuse to obey him, to bow down and suck up, so he punishes me. It started when I dropped a Coke on the carpet and made a little stain. Then I got a store credit card without getting permission first. But lately it's been getting crazy—almost like we're at war,” Arielle explained.

“He hits you?” November asked carefully.

“I wouldn't let him get close enough to touch me,” Arielle replied angrily. “But now he makes me pay for everything, even what I eat,” she admitted with embarrassment.

“Huh? I don't get it,” Olivia said.

“This morning I had a small container of blueberry yogurt, a banana, and a glass of orange juice for breakfast.”

“Yeah, so?”

“He tallied up the cost of each item and gave me a bill for three dollars and seventeen cents.”

“Shut up!”

“He subtracts the cost of my food from my Smoochie's paycheck, which I have to give him.”

“That's crazy!”

“I try to eat just a little, but dinner last night cost almost twelve dollars. He decides the prices.”

“Girlfriend, you have to report this to somebody!” November cried out. “This is, like, child abuse or something.”

“It's not like he beats me or tries to sleep with me or something nasty like that. He's just mean,” Arielle tried to explain.

“Shouldn't you tell somebody?”

“Tell what? That he put me on punishment? Every kid in school would have to get in line if that was a crime.” Arielle was afraid she'd said too much already. He'd ease up eventually. He just had to.

Dana said, “You're just a prisoner in paradise, girlfriend. This is really messed up.”

“Please don't tell Kofi or Jericho,” Arielle pleaded.

“Okay, but you holler if you need help, you hear?”

Arielle nodded.

Just as the girls finished their conversation, Miss Pringle, who'd been going from desk to desk checking each student's homework, paused at November's desk. She looked carefully at November's papers and smiled. “Good job, November,” she said. “I think you're going to do just fine.”

November beamed. “I just
gotta
graduate! I still want to try to go to college.”

The teacher nodded encouragingly, then stopped at Roscoe's desk and seemed to be trying to stifle a laugh. “Roscoe,” she began, “your homework is certainly the prettiest I've seen all day—printed up in color ink and everything.”

“Hey, I worked all night on that thing, Miss P,” Roscoe asserted. “Hours and hours of hard work.” He seemed to be pleased with himself.

Miss Pringle continued, “Well, perhaps you should have
deleted the author's name and website before you downloaded it from the Internet!”

“Oops! My bad. I didn't think you'd notice,” Roscoe replied with an embarrassed grin.

“That's copyright infringement. Theft of another's work. You know better than that, Roscoe,” she told him.

“Can I have a do-over?” he asked.

“Just this once. But it better be all Roscoe this time!”

“Gotcha!”

As Miss Pringle finally began class, Olivia reached over and put five dollars on Arielle's desk. “Bus fare and dinner,” she whispered. Arielle nodded, her eyes welling with tears.

Not even sure what words to say, she opened her mouth to thank Olivia, but just then Paula Ingram screamed out, “My Game Boy is gone! It was in my backpack this morning before school. And now it's gone!”

Miss Pringle looked up in concern. “Oh, no! Not again! Did you have it when you got to class?”

“Yes, I think so. I'm not sure,” Paula said, her voice sounding frantic. “I didn't notice if it was there or not.”

“When did you last see it?” asked Miss Pringle, hurrying over to where Paula sat digging fruitlessly through her book bag.

Arielle saw Paula peer over at Eddie, who looked as if he dared someone to accuse him, and at Osrick, who hid under his hood. Of course, nobody was blamed. The game player could have disappeared at any time that morning.

“For sure? Uh, this morning, down in the cafeteria.”
Paula looked like she was about to cry. Or hit somebody. Arielle understood the feeling.

Miss Pringle frowned. “Go right down to Mrs. Sherman's office and report this, Paula. I'm so sorry, sweetie. The administration has got to get to the bottom of this—soon!” Paula left in tears.