The Academy - Introductions (15 page)

I swallowed and tried to stage whisper. “I mean, how did
you meet Kota? And Victor? When did you all become friends?”

He pushed the blue bins back underneath the sink and
plugged in the dryer. He snapped his fingers and pointed at the closed toilet
seat. When I was sitting, my head came up to his stomach. He flipped on the
dryer and started combing his fingers through my hair. “I met them all in
kindergarten,” he said. “We went to the same elementary school. Everyone but
Silas and North.”

“Who’s North?”

“Another one of the guys,” he said. “There’s me, Kota,
Victor, Nathan, Silas, North and Luke.”

“Who’s Luke?”

“North’s brother.”

I blinked. Seven of them.

Gabriel reached for the hair brush on the counter and
started smoothing out my hair. “You see, everyone except North and Silas grew
up together. Silas didn’t move here until maybe when we were ten. North came
about a year later.”

“Where was North?”

“He was living with his dad in Europe,” he said, brushing
my hair up against the wind from the blower. “They live with their uncle now.”

“Do they stop by here often?”

“You’ll see them sometime,” he said.

A silence grew between us as he focused on fixing my hair.
With the way I was sitting, I couldn’t see what he was doing to me. Mostly it
felt like he was just drying it out, but he was doing a twist thing to add a
little volume. It was more than I ever bothered to do.

There really was no reason for me to do more to it. I
usually never saw anyone but my own family. Marie would trim my hair for me.
She wasn’t very good but with my hair pulled back, no one noticed.

When he was done, he put down the dryer and the brush onto
the counter top. He smoothed his fingers through my hair. “Your hair is soft. I
was right about the color, too. It’s chameleon.”

“Huh?”

“Changes color depending on the light.” He put the brush
back in a drawer and then tossed the blow dryer under the sink. I wondered if
Kota would be upset he didn’t carefully put it back where he’d found it.
Gabriel curled his finger to me. “Come here, step in front of me.”

I stood in front of the sink and he stepped behind me. His
eyes appeared over my head in the mirror and his fingers crept up to my scalp.
He was playing with my hair, threading his fingers through the strands and
combing out the locks to the tips of my hair. He tried curling a few strands
around his fingers and then smoothed the hair back out again. “You’re
stunning,” he said softly.

My cheeks heated and I could see myself blushing in the
mirror all the way to the tips of my ears.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said. “You can’t be embarrassed by
the truth. Look at that cute nose you have. You know what? It doesn’t even
matter when you blush. That’s just nature’s makeup. Heavy makeup looks like
shit on a girl. You don’t need it.” He pursed his lips together and then
brought his cheek to the side of my head so I could see his whole face next to
mine in the mirror. He focused on my eyes by looking through the mirror. “I
want to ask you something personal and I want you to be honest with me. You’ve
never had a boyfriend, have you?”

The question caught me off guard. I shook my head and my
mouth shaped into an ‘o’.

“I didn’t think so.”

I made a face at him. “You think I’m naive?”

“Innocent,” he corrected, his voice was softer now. He
curled a lock of my hair through his fingers. “I’ve been flirting with you this
whole time and you haven’t once told me to shut the fuck up or do that stupid
thing girls do when they want another compliment.”

I was beet red. Flirting? “Should I tell you to... to back
off?”

His lips parted and he started to sing. “
Sang, heart on
your sleeve. You watch out, I’m going to steal your heart.
”
The way
he was singing was sweet and his voice flowed from his lips as smooth as water.
It was clear he had some lessons. He stopped singing and waited as if expecting
me to say something. When I didn’t, he beamed. He turned and shooed me with his
hands. “Let’s get you out into the sunlight and see what your hair looks like.”

I was blushing badly as I followed him back out into Kota’s
bedroom. My mind was whirling so fast that I felt like I needed to stay behind
and calm myself. It just shocked me that I hadn’t recognized the things he was
doing as flirting. Or was he teasing?

My hair did feel really good.

He padded back out into the bedroom and then side stepped,
holding his hand out toward me in a presentation. “See guys, this is how hair
should look.”

Victor was still on the bed, fiddling with the medallion at
his neck. Kota was at his computer, typing something in. Nathan was sitting in
the window seat, punching something into his phone.

They all turned at the same time to look at me. Kota
stopped typing and readjusted his glasses. Victor sat up, his mouth open.
Nathan dropped his phone but caught it before it fell to the carpet.

“Did you change the color?” Kota asked.

“I didn’t do shit,” Gabriel said. “I washed it and then
blow dried it out. That’s all her.”

“You just keep it tied back in that clip,” Victor said.
“That’s why it looks different now.”

I pulled a strand behind my ear. “It gets in the way when
I’m busy.” I wasn’t sure if he heard me.

“Just wait until I get my scissors,” Gabriel said. He
reached back to me, running a finger through a lock of my hair close to my
face. “I can give it some depth.”

“I don’t think I should,” I said. “My parents will notice.”

He made a face. “Your parents are a complication.”

“We’re working on that,” Kota said.

I blinked at him. “I...” I swallowed.

Gabriel leaned in to me. “Just whisper it to me. I’ll tell
them.”

I sighed and then whispered in his ear. He leaned in so
closely that my lips touched his lobe. Even as I leaned away to avoid it, he
kept himself close. He smelled like warmth, floral.

He repeated what I said, “She thinks we should keep like
we’re doing now. She’s okay with escaping every morning and just not telling
them where she’s going.”

“That’s part of it, for now,” Kota said. He stood up,
moving to sit on the carpet again. I moved over to sit next to him. This time
Victor got up and sat on the floor next to me. The others joined us. “I made a
promise to you, didn’t I? I just think we need to figure out a way to reach
you. We probably also should slowly start just showing up. I mean, maybe your
mom would get used to us.”

My eyes widened and I shook my head. “No. We can’t.” They
still didn’t quite understand but I didn’t want to worry them anymore. The
swallowing vinegar was bad enough but who knew what else she would do to me if
she knew for sure boys were talking to me? Would she fulfill her promise about
the bleach?

He nodded, rubbing fingers at his chin. “Maybe we should
start with a girl. There’s Danielle who lives up the street. We could ask her
to go over.”

Nathan rolled his eyes, looking away. “Is she going to want
to?”

“She’s not that bad.”

“Unless you try to talk to her,” Gabriel said.

“Or sit next to her on the bus,” Nathan said.

“Or walk by her in school,” Victor added.

“She’s who we have to work with,” Kota pointed out. “Or we
could try Jessica. But she's young so I don't know how that would work.” He
turned back to me. “In the meantime, I was wondering if you’d allow us to give you
a cell phone to use.”

My head tilted backward a little and I stammered. “M...
me?”

“I think it’ll be the best way to check in with you and
make plans if we’re going to make any. It’ll be the best way to communicate.”

I rubbed a palm over my head. “I don’t know. You guys are
going through a lot of trouble for me already. You still hardly know me.”

“It’s a cell phone, not a marriage proposal,” Victor said.
His strong, lean hands smoothed a wrinkle on his jeans.

“It costs money,” I said. “I don’t really have a way to pay
for it.”

“That’s not something you need to worry about,” Victor
said. He locked his fire eyes on me.

“We’ll find an inexpensive one at the convenience store,”
Kota said. “Nothing fancy. It’ll allow for phone calls and text messages.”

I glanced at the carpet, still feeling uncomfortable. How
strange it felt that they were including me into this circle. Now they were
pulling together to get a cell phone for me. Guilt weighed on me that they even
thought to spend any amount of money on someone like me. As I looked at all of
them, it seemed as if this decision had already been made. They were just
waiting to tell me. “I’ll have to be careful,” I said. “If my parents ever
found it, I don’t know what they would do.”

“Do you have a place to hide it?” Nathan asked, raising an
eyebrow.

“Maybe. There’s an attic door in my room,” I said, pushing
a finger to my lower lip.

“Why not just under your pillow?” Gabriel asked.

“Someone will find it,” I said. Unless I stayed right there
in my room, it’s easy enough to unlock the door and poke around. I knew my
mother could easily search my room if she wanted and Marie often did anyway. A
phone was the last thing I wanted any of them to find.

“You do it the best you can,” Kota said. He turned to
Victor. “Can you go find one?”

Victor nodded and stood up.

“Get her a pretty one,” Gabriel said. He smiled wide and
turned to me. “If you’re going to get a new phone, you’ll need a good one.
What’s your favorite color?”

I blushed as the attention was diverted to me again. Should
I be honest or say something I thought was cool? “Pink,” I said, trying to be
honest.

Gabriel’s blue eyes brightened. “Yeah. Good choice. Get her
a pink one.”

Victor smirked. “One pink cell phone.”

“Try to get her one that’s inconspicuous,” Kota added.

“One inconspicuous pink phone.”

“And get her a sturdy one,” Nathan said. “She might drop
it. You know how accident prone she is” He grinned at me.

Victor shifted on his feet, looking annoyed. “One
inconspicuous, sturdy, pink cell phone. Do I need to glue sequins to it and
include an antenna array?”

“Do they have those?” Gabriel asked, blinking at him.

Victor shot him a look. “I’ll be right back.” He fished out
his keys and headed to the stairs, storming down them and closing the door with
a bang.

After he left, Kota adjusted his glasses again. “Well,
that’s taken care of.”

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

Kota pointed a forefinger at me. “Sang, look at me.”

I focused on him. His smile and his eyes were so warm that
it was hard to keep looking at him. Why did it feel he could read my own
thoughts in my head? I wanted to hide my face.

“We’re friends, right?”

I blushed. Were we? It was the very thing I wanted to know
from him. Are we still friends even after all of this? “Yes,” I said, hopeful
it was the right answer.

“Friends help each other. Stop worrying, okay? We’ll take
care of it.”

I twisted my lips, trying to come up with a reason to stop
it but nothing seemed to be the right thing to say. I felt helpless, moving
along with a plan they had already plotted.

Nathan got up on his knees on the floor. “I’m hungry. I’m
going to go steal a sandwich, Kota.”

“There’s a couple of frozen ones in the freezer,” Kota
suggested. “Heat it up in the microwave for a minute.”

Nathan pointed a finger at me. “Do you want one? I’ll bring
you up one. I know you haven’t eaten yet.”

I’d forgotten about that. I glanced at Kota, unsure if I
should.

“It’s perfectly fine,” Kota said.

Nathan disappeared down the stairs.

“Now,” Kota began after he left. “We should probably talk
about school and your classes.”

 “Classes?” Why were we talking about this? I looked
at Gabriel but he was unreadable. Should we worry about this now? It did relax
me though that they had seemed to move on from talking about what happened. I
felt so terrible already, like I was causing them problems being around. It
amazed me they were bothering. If they were willing to put up with me, I would
do my best not to drag them down.

Kota nodded. “Registration is the day after tomorrow. Your
parents will be taking you?”

I nodded. “My dad.”

Gabriel scooted over next to me. “Art class, right?”

I smiled at him. “If they don’t mind stick figures,” I
whispered.

Kota got up to move to his desk and opened a drawer. He
pulled out an envelope and brought it over. “This is the list of classes that
will be available.”

He opened it to reveal several printed out pages. Some of
the classes were highlighted in various colors.