The Academy - Introductions (11 page)

“It didn’t look too bad from the other side,” I said,
casting my eyes away. “I guess I just wanted to see if I could.”

A small smile formed at the side of his mouth. “You’re not
really dressed for climbing like that.”

At his mention of it, I checked myself over. I had a few
scratches on my arm but nothing bleeding. My clothes were a little dirty but
everything seemed fine.

“What happened to your wrist?” he said, pointing to the bandage
on my arm. The wound was scabbed over and I didn’t really need the bandage. It
just looked ugly so I opted to cover it up.

“I fell a couple days ago,” I whispered. How many times
would I need to explain my injuries? It made me hyper sensitive to dare to put
another bandage on myself. I’d have to repeat myself so much.

“You’re accident prone. Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out
of here.”

He took my hand and led the way around the tree until we
were on the other side where the path started again. When we were safe, he let
go of me. I was grateful that he let go because I was nervous but I was also
sad. His hand felt comforting.

“How long has the tree been down?” I asked in a whisper.

He looked at me, raising his eyebrows. He leaned over me,
bringing his ear close to my face. “What?”

His reddish hair looked soft like rabbit fur. My fingers
itched to touch but I knew I never would. I swallowed to try to gain some of my
voice back and repeated myself.

“A week, I think,” he said. “I keep meaning to come back
out here to clear it out from the path but I’ve been putting it off. There was
a bad storm before you moved in.”

I blinked at him, my hand on my upper stomach, rubbing at
where a branch had scratched me. “You know who I am?”

“I’ve seen you around.” He ran his fingers through the
longer bits of hair on the top of his head. “I’m Nathan.”

“Sang.”

He blinked at me and then leaned in closer.

“My name is Sang,” I rattled off.

“Sang?”

I nodded.

He smiled, the blue of his eyes softening. “I’m two houses down
from you. Same side.” He waved at the direction our houses were. “Want me to
walk you back?”

The question surprised me. He was being nice. Another
person that could be a friend. My head swirled with the suddenness of it. At
the same time, I was resistant. It felt like I was pressing my luck. The more
people I tried to be friends with, the bigger the chance my parents would find
out. I’d get myself into trouble. “I don’t mean to ruin your jog.” It was the
politest thing I could say to decline.

He shrugged. “It’s nothing.” He motioned to the path.
“Comin’?”

I pushed a finger to my lower lip but I started after him.
I couldn’t say no without sounding mean. Part of me didn’t want to. He was
handsome and sweet and he had helped me. How could I refuse?

The path left enough room that we were walking side by
side. “You’re going to the public school, right?” he asked.

I nodded.

“About time we had someone new around here. There’s only a
handful of kids on this street.”

“I haven’t seen them around.”

“You will,” he said, swaying his arms a little as he
strolled along beside me.

I raised an eyebrow at him, curious as to what he meant.

He grinned, understanding my expression. “You’ve got the
good basketball goal.”

I tried to remember where the basketball goal was. “The one
hanging from the garage,” I whispered. It had been there when we moved in.

“Yeah. Full height and that wide driveway that’s at least
half court, I think,” he smirked. “Don’t laugh but I came over one night to
jump on it just to see if I could hang from it.”

I did smile but stopped myself from giggling. “It’s still
there so you must have made it.”

He nodded. “It’s pretty strong.”

I admired the muscles in his arms and from what I could see
of his chest. He looked pretty sturdy. It must have been true about the
basketball goal if he was able to hang off of it.

“So what happened to your voice?”

I opened my mouth to respond to him but I wasn’t sure how.

“You’re not sick, are you?” he asked, his eyebrow going up.
“I’m not going to catch something, am I?”

I didn’t want to worry him so I shook my head.

He smirked. “You’ve been talking too much, huh?” he asked.
“Girls always talk too much.”

I tried to shoot him a friendly smirk back. It was a better
solution than the truth.

We turned a bend and I started to recognize we were coming
up along where the path split. He had taken me back around to where I had
started.

“You go for walks this early in the morning a lot?” he
asked.

I twisted my mouth a little, unsure how to answer. “I
couldn’t sleep and I hadn’t followed this path yet so I came to check it out.”

He looked at me. “Did you try the woods on the other side
of the street yet?”

“No. How do you get over there?”

He smiled. “I’ll show you. It’s a little easier to get lost
over there though and there’s some things you should see. Like there’s a big
ditch you may not see walking up to. I think that’s how they drained the land
around here so they could develop it.”

I grinned, nodding to him. I understood. I swallowed. “I’ll
check it out.”

He gave me a side glance and smirked again. “On second
thought, I ought to go with you over there. Don’t go without me.”

I angled my head toward him. “I’d be fine.”

“Uh huh,” he said. He stopped walking and turned toward me.
He reached over my head and pulled a maple leaf from my hair. “You’ll be fine
unless there’s a fallen tree.”

My face heated up. I started to shake my head, my mouth
moving trying to figure out the best way to say I would have gotten out
eventually.

“Think you could do it alone? As you wish. Next time I’ll
leave you,” he said, letting the leaf fly from his hand to the ground and
starting off down the path again.

I stepped quickly up next to him, matching his stride.
Something about him made me want to stick around. He seemed so cool. I wanted
him to like me. “How do you get over there?” I whispered.

“Nope. I’m not telling you now.”

I frowned, my lip pouting.

He made a face and then pulled his fingers over his lips,
zipping.

“Ugh,” I grumbled. “I’ll figure it out.”

“Sure.”

I rolled my eyes.

He stopped short along the path at a place where the trees
started to thin out, giving us a view of the back of some homes. He pointed to
an opening in the trees. Another slab of wood was nestled into the ground over
a ditch, and on the other side was a wide wood fence. I had missed it the first
time but there was a latch and handle sticking out of one of the wood planks.
It took me a moment to see the frame of the door. “This is my stop,” he said.

I caught the scent of chlorine and a hint of sparkling aqua
blue between the gaps in the fence. “You have a pool?”

He hesitated and then nodded.

I grinned and felt my heart lifting. “Is big?”

My enthusiasm seemed to catch him off guard. “Come and look
at it. You tell me.” He headed toward the plank.

I followed him. When he got to the wood piece, he crossed
it halfway and then reached out for my hand. “Or do you want to do it
yourself?”

I made a face but reached for his hand. He took mine in his
grasp, holding on to me as he moved forward. I followed on his heels. My heart
fluttered as his hand was big, wrapping easily around mine. He let go when we
were both on the ledge on the other side and he moved to open the gate.

What yard there might have been in the back of his house
was taken up by a large shed close to the fence. Beyond that was a rectangle
pool, at least twenty five feet long. The edges were curved and the water
rippled, sparkling in the sunlight. A large beige concrete patio surrounded it,
looking almost like sand.

I stepped up to the edge of the pool, looking down into the
water. If I was a cat, I would have been purring. Before my mother got sick,
she took Marie and I to the pool to learn how to swim. When I was in seventh
grade, the school had a pool and during gym for a whole month I got to swim in
it. I had missed the scent of chlorine and the feel of the water flowing around
me as I swam.

“How deep is it?” I asked, forgetting that I was probably
whispering and wasn’t sure if he could hear me. My eyes locked on the sparkle
of the water from the sun, dazzling me.

I heard him step up behind me and I felt the hand on my
back but even then I wouldn’t have imagined he would have pushed. I found
myself flying and I hit the water.

At first the water had a crispness to it but my skin
quickly adjusted to the temperature that it was actually very comfortable. The
pang taste of chlorine water swept into my mouth. I touched bottom after about
six feet and then slowly rose to the top. A splash hit the water nearby. Nathan
smoothly touch the bottom with a palm. His shirt and shoes were off. When his
head and chest rose out of the water, I was in awe of the muscles that were
defined in his body. Unlike Silas whose bulk of muscle was smooth, Nathan was a
precision machine. The ripples of muscles along his abdomen fit together like a
living puzzle.

A smile broke on his lips as those penetrating blue eyes
fixed on my face. “Did you find out?”

I knew I was grinning like a crazy girl. I didn’t care that
he pushed me in at all. I pushed a hand against the surface of the water to
splash him.

He ducked his head away, lifting an arm in a half effort to
protect himself. “Hey there, little mermaid. You don’t want to start that game
with me. I win every time.”

I pulled a face and did another splash, smaller but still
defiant.

“As you wish.” He was gone under the water again.

With the bulk of my jeans and being weighed down by my
sneakers, I couldn’t move fast enough on the surface to break away from him.
His arms enveloped around my waist. My heart was furiously beating in my chest
as I felt this touch. I was lifted out of the water onto his shoulder. He
waited just a moment and then tossed me back into the water like I was nothing
but a doll.

I landed with another splash not far from where he was.
When I broke the surface again, I was giggling, flicking water away from my
eyes. He laughed too, swimming closer to me.

I shook my head, holding up my hands in defeat. “Not fair.”
I pointed to the jeans and shoes on that was weighing me down.

“Take them off.”

My mouth dropped open. “What? No!” I screeched.

“Then lose.” He inched toward me, deliberately teasing with
his grin and wiggling his fingers at me.

I took one shoe off, flinging it toward the side of the
pool. It landed with a thick thud against the concrete. The other one joined it
a moment later.

“I’m not taking my pants off,” I whispered.

He stood there laughing, his hands on his hips. “You’ll
wear a bikini that has less material than you’re wearing now with that shirt
and you won’t take your pants off. You are wearing underwear, right?”

I hated to tell him that I’d never worn a bikini. I inched
back a little where I could stand on my toes. With my jeans on, it took a lot
more energy just to stay afloat. “Yeah...”

“You could run back to your house and grab your bathing
suit, I guess.”

There was a problem with that. Sneaking back in soaking wet
would definitely draw attention and there was no way I could get back out
again. Besides that, I couldn't remember if I had a bathing suit, I hadn't been
swimming for years. If I ran way and never came back, he wouldn’t understand.
It really wasn’t an option if I wanted him to like me, and I did.

I felt for my pants button and started to undo them.

“No!” he called out, holding up a hand to me and laughing.
“Stop it.” He swam to the edge of the pool and got out. He came around to where
I was close to the edge and motioned to me. “Come on. I’ve got an old pair of
shorts that might fit you. If you tie it, it’ll probably be okay.”

I moved to the edge of the pool, intending to get out on my
own but he grabbed me under my shoulders, pulling me up out of the water. He
plopped me down next to him, holding me steady again to make sure I was on my
feet before letting go.

I was breathless. He stepped away from me toward the house.
I wanted to fall over. My heart was about to explode. He was strong, nice, and
funny. I couldn’t think straight. Another friend. What was I getting myself in
to? The more people I met, the more disappointed I was going to be when they
found out who I really was and rejected me. Weird. No sense of how to behave
around people. All I had to rely on was what I’d read in books and so far it
wasn’t helping much.