No One's Watching (11 page)

“Is there room for us?” Candace asked sweetly.

My stare locked on Shelly's dark eyes and thin nose. She raised her head. Silence.

Jupiter adjusted his double caps on his head and scooted over. “There's always room for more. Especially girls.”

Laughter erupted from the guys, and they punched each other as Candace and I tiptoed into the hot, bubbling water of the narrow tub.

Jupiter sat up straight. “Let the Phillies fan in, Dan.”

“Danilo,” he corrected.

I made a face at Jupiter and maneuvered between Shelly and Danilo, a Filipino-American boy picked to dance a modern solo.

“What are you doing here?” Amy squeaked at us from the other side of Shelly. Mascara smudged her eyes.

Candace slid farther into the water between Amy and Jupiter until her chin was submerged. “You're right, Shelly. This is such a great idea. You're not only a beautiful dancer, you're so smart, too.”

Shelly opened her mouth to give us a piece of her mind, as if she could afford to spare it. She was such a victim to praise she shrugged and let the comment pass.

“I'd be glad to give you a massage, Candy. After all, this is the physical therapy room.” Jupiter offered his hands.

“Thanks, but this is all I need.” Candace sighed. She must be feeling good because she hated being called Candy. Like being called Kitty made me cringe.

My whole body fought the relaxing effect of the water. It reminded me of when I had anesthesia for my tonsillectomy. A disembodied voice gave me instructions to count backward from one hundred. I got to ninety-nine before letting go and drifting off to la-la land.

In the hot tub, I struggled to concentrate. It was hard not to let my mind wander in the watery cocoon. I forced myself to watch the white foam in the choppy waves.

Why was Blake so quiet? I wanted to drag my eyes to him sitting between Danilo and Jupiter. Maybe he didn't want to be there and regretted standing me up — and, of course, Megan and Lindy, our own two Irish munchkins.

Shelly read my thoughts. “Don't you and Blake have your little rehearsal?”

I thought so. “I guess it wasn't mandator—” I gestured to Blake soaking in the steamy water.

Only it wasn't Blake.

“Oh.”
Oh, no.

Riley turned his doe eyes to me. I pulled the baseball cap farther down my forehead. How could I have mistaken him for Blake? Riley was twice as tall and weighed half as much as Blake. It was the brown hair. Water condensed from the steam and dripped off his ringlets.

That would mean — I glanced at the clock on the wall. Seven fifty-five. Was it too late to bolt out of the hot tub and get to the studio where Blake was undoubtedly having a jiggy time with Lindy and Megan? Rehearsal started at half past seven. Megan confirmed the time at my repertory class with her finger manipulations.

Candace glanced at Riley and tilted her head. I shrugged.

“Danilo?” Shelly waved her hand in the general direction of her bag on the metal chair by the wall. “Bring me my purse over there on the chair. I don't want to get up.”

He rose from the water, clutching the waist of his Hawaiian blue and brown swim trunks and stepped out of the sunken tub.

“Just push the chair over so I can reach it. I don't want to get my bag wet.” Shelly pointed to me. “I'm sorry, what were you saying about your rehearsal? Which ballet is it for? Oh, right, you're not dancing in a ballet. It's some Irish thing? Did you write your mom, yet?”

I blinked, as the hot tub boiled me alive.

Amy shifted her sleepy, downturned eyes from me to Riley and back. A smile started on the right side of her mouth and spread like a wave across her wide face and lips. Had she figured out my intentions of soaking in this chlorinated stew?

“I know why she's here.” Amy paddled the water.

Danilo dragged the chaise to Shelly. Metal scraped against concrete and scratched out Amy's voice.

“What?” Shelly shouted to Amy.

Amy jabbed her finger at me. “Her.”

Shelly reached for her bag. “Closer, Danilo. I can't reach the chair. I want it next to the hot tub.”

“Kit. I know why—” More poking from Amy. I'd like to squash her finger in a book. “It's about Blake.”

“Hold on. I can't hear you.” Shelly patted the place where she wanted the chair. “Here, Danilo. Not too close to the edge.”

He grunted and dragged the chair to the tub.

Jupiter clasped his freckled hands over his ears and sang to drown out the uproar. “La, la, la, la.”

Riley submerged himself, and Candace tilted her head back and laughed. My skin crawled.

Danilo stopped scooting the chair and plopped back in the water. Candace sighed as Riley reemerged from the deep, shaking his head like a dog and flinging water everywhere. Everyone screeched again.

The water must have had some weirdness in it. When the shrieking died down, the timer for the hot tub's motors turned off, and the water sizzled to a stop. Silence. Like Amy had stabbed her bony fingers in my ears.

Shelly rose from the water and stood on the submerged bench. “This hot tub party isn't working out. We were supposed to be having fun, and it's way too noisy in here.”

Panic. It was ten past eight. Too late to get to Irish dance rehearsal. I had to salvage the evening and get Shelly to let me use her cell phone.

Jupiter's feet bobbed in the center of the tub. “Sit down, Shelly, unless you're going to turn the bubbles back on.”

“No way.” She crossed her arms in front of herself.

Jupiter was on his feet and out of the tub, clutching at the waist of his swim trunks. “Where's the timer?'

Shelly hesitated and then jerked her thumb toward a red switch. “Over there.”

He headed for the wall. “I'll get it. You make yourself comfortable.”

She slithered back to the underwater seat as the roar of a submerged motorcycle engine started up. Bubbles resumed percolating through the hot tub as Jupiter eased between Candace and Amy. Would Amy forget her flash of brilliant deduction earlier about one of my reasons to crash the hot tub party was to break up any attraction Shelly had for Blake?

“My fingers are all pruney.” Amy turned her hands over. Case closed.

I had to ask Shelly if I could borrow her cell phone but didn't want to draw too much attention to the question. Too bad I hadn't planned anything with Candace, who was busy relaxing.

I needed an excuse to get to Shelly's phone and tried the indirect approach.

Slouching on the bench, I played the drama queen and sighed. “I wish I could text my friends back home.”

Shelly waved me away. “You have no friends at home. You complain about that all the time.”

Amy stared hard at Jupiter. “When I'm with my friends, I'm texting all the time and people ask me who I'm texting, and I say no one.”

Jupiter studied Candace as her eyes drifted closed.

I adjusted Dira's cap on my head. Time to put my plan into action. “Actually, it's my cousin's birthday. He's nineteen. It would be great to send him a text.” Ha, Shelly wouldn't know I have no cousins on Mom's side. Who knew about my father's side? I didn't. Mom made sure. I could have a hundred cousins and one of them was bound to have a birthday soon. Besides, the prospect of my having an older cousin would appeal to her. Especially if he were male.

Bait taken.

Shelly examined my face, perhaps weighing the chances of me sharing the same gene pool with a cute cousin. I pretended to be entranced by my toes as I let them float to the surface.

Danilo splashed Jupiter. “Jupe, why do you have such a weird name?”

Jupiter tore his gaze from Candace. “Both my parents are astronomers. My sister's name is Venus.”

Danilo nodded. “Cool.”

Candace must have fallen asleep. Her head rested on the lip of the tub with her eyes closed. Amy stared at me like she was trying to remember something important. Like my name. Or her name.

“I need to get back to my room before I dissolve.” Riley hoisted himself onto the ledge. The water sheeted off his lanky frame like a cape. He cast one longing glance at Candace, who seemed to have slipped into another dimension where no one existed. “Later.” He grabbed his towel and left.

Shelly frowned.

Now for the direct approach. “Ahh, Shelly, I heard you had a cell phone.”

Silence, again. Except for the burbling of the water.

Shelly's eyes narrowed. “Where did you hear that?”

I glanced at Candace's serene face. “Nowhere. Mr. Jarenko handed it back to you after it dropped out of your dance bag.”

Shelly laughed.

Amy laughed, although I doubted she knew why. Her mouth split her face in two. “My pinky toe hurts.” She lifted her foot out of the water and offered it to Shelly to examine.

“That's okay.” Shelly brushed the foot away and reached for her bag. “What's his name?”

I frowned. “Mr. Jarenko? Do you mean his first name?”

She sighed. “Your cousin.”

“Oh, him.” My mind was as spotless as if it had been rinsed in the water. What was a cool name? “Dane.”
Wow, good choice.
“He's — he's at Duke University.”
All right.
My mind gave itself a high five. “Playing basketball.” Take it easy.

Shelly moved her hand around in her bag. I could read her mind. As soon as I called him, she'd have the number in her phone log.

Shelly suspended the small, pink phone above her purse, hesitated and then dropped it on the fabric bag. She pulled herself on the ledge, motioning me to do the same. We both perched there, dripping onto the pavement. She handed me the phone.

My plan was to “forget” my non-existent cousin's number and go back to my room where I'd written it down. With her phone. I'd bring the phone back later with the other good tights I had to replace because they were too small (I'd even throw in a new Chester Park University T-shirt from the college store). When she couldn't find it, I'd convince her she lost it or someone took it. She couldn't report it as stolen if we weren't supposed to have them anyway. Her phone would be safely hidden in my room, and Mom would be spared having to hear about my lack of a ballet solo until I could figure out how to get one. Perfect. Devising my plan was worth getting yelled at by Mme. Petrova.

I grasped Shelly's cell phone by the bottom and squeezed. I finally had it in my hot hand. If only for a second. Slippery phone combined with wet fingers equaled projectile.

Shelly's face exploded in horror as the cell phone jettisoned over the water. Time stretched out like a rubber band. The phone twisted in a perfect triple
pirouette
and then hung in the air.

“No!” Shelly scrabbled like a crab and fell into the water.

Danilo reached out to catch the missile phone. Since he spent more time in the dance studio than a baseball field, he missed it and fell on top of her.

Jupiter was busy dribbling water onto Candace's forehead with his fingers. He gasped as the phone plopped into the water.

Shelly rose in the center of the tub, holding the cell phone like the Statue of Liberty with her torch. After she screamed and emitted a stream of curse words, some I'd never heard, she heaved herself out of the water and stood on the pool deck. Her red eyes focused on me. I shrank. Dropping it in the water wasn't exactly in the plan.

Candace woke up, wiping the water from her face. “What happened?”

Shelly wasn't a crier, even when she sprained her ankle for the fourth time, but she was close to tears. My insides tugged. She could write her mom for a cheap, new phone. Actually, she could write her mom about my predicament. Too much effort? I'd worry later.

“Sorry, Shelly.” My stomach twisted. Maybe the heated water was getting to me. “I didn't mean to drop it.” Just hide it. In a safe place. A safe, dry place.

Jupiter jumped up next to her and snatched the phone from her grasp. “I can fix that.”

Shelly's fury exploded again.

“I've done it before. I dropped mine in a glass of soda and salvaged it.” Jupiter trotted to his towel. He slid the battery off, picked out the SIM card and patted everything with the towel. “Leave it to me.”

He seemed so sure of himself. Could he make it work? Mom had unknowingly tossed her phone in the washer when she forgot to take it out of her jeans pocket and ruined it. A neighbor kid jumped into the pool with it in his pocket, and it never worked.

Jupiter draped his arm around Shelly's shoulders. “It'll take a few days, but I'll get it to work again.”

Shelly thrust her finger at me. “You'd better, or she'll wish she was never born.”

Jupiter winked at me as Danilo slammed the door and left. Candace had wrapped herself in a towel and stood by a chair, holding my towel. I managed a weak smile. We backed out of the hot tub room and sprinted to the lockers.

“That went well.” I jammed on my shorts and sandals.

Candace piled her hair in the towel, and we headed for our side of the building. Chlorine bloomed in my mouth and throat.

We arrived at our set of elevators, and I pressed the button. “You think Jupiter can salvage her cell phone?”

Candace pressed her lips together. “Maybe.”

I tensed.

She let us into the room with her key. “You never know. We'll have to wait to find out.”

And waiting was what I was especially good at. Not.

I took another shower right before bed, letting conditioner soak into my stiff hair. Dira's hair behaves fantastically after using her mango coconut shampoo, but it gave me troll doll hair.

Light from streetlamps striped the ceiling. Candace softly snored from the other bed. Why was Jupiter convinced he could fix Shelly's phone? Probably to keep Shelly on the hook. Hold her attention. Her interest. Could work out for me, too. The longer Jupiter waited to tell Shelly he couldn't fix her cell phone, the better for me. What if Jupiter “lost” Shelly's phone?