The Thief (12 page)

I swallow. Umino’s wrath was bad enough. My
mom thinks I’m in my room doing homework right now. If she even
heard I had snuck out of the house at night...

“
Fine,” I
grumble.

“
If
your...
shadow
turns up, your names will be cleared, of course,” she smiles
condescendingly. “Until then, someone must pay the debt to society.
You understand. Now go home, all of you,” she orders, with a glance
at Hyde as well. She turns on her heel and strides back into her
office.

“
You’re a groveling kiss-up,
is what you are,” I hiss at Hyde, the instant her door
shuts.

“
And you’ll be mopping the
science lab for the next two months,” he leers. “You kids have fun
with that.” He strides out the front doors, laughing.

“
We’re doomed,” Destin
sighs.

I’m inclined to agree with him. “Oh, come
on, let’s at least take your comics home,” I grumble. This has not
turned out well. This is the opposite of well.

I stuff a couple of the candy bars into my
pocket. No sense in letting them go to waste. Destin picks up his
comics. He frowns over one bent page but remains silent as we exit
the school.

I’m lost in thought as we cross the parking
lot. Which means I’m saying everything I’m thinking.

“
This is hands down the
weirdest thing that has ever happened to us,” I groan. “What kind
of ninja monkey would break into a school to steal chocolate and
books? Who would train it to do that? And what the hell is
it?”

“
Did you get a good look at
it?” Destin asks.

“
It was too dark. I mean I
saw a tail, and I think there was fur...”

A light tug at my back pocket distracts me.
I spin, but a dark creature about the size of a cat is already
sprinting for the trees with a candy bar in its mouth. It leaps for
a high branch and disappears, gliding into the forest.

I stand with my mouth open. “Those were
wings.”

“
Underarm webbing,
actually,” Destin says, with the kind of calm that only comes from
being totally stunned.

“
Like a bat. But it ran like
a cat...”

“
I thought you said it was a
monkey!” He’s starting to freak out now.

“
Well now I’m saying ninja
catbat!” I return.

“
Oh, that’ll go over well,”
he says with sarcasm. “Hey, Principal Umino, sorry about earlier.
It’s actually a ninja catbat that’s been stealing my comics. Why
does it want my comics? Who could say! Maybe
ninja catbats
love a good illustrated
plotline. How should I know?
I’ve never
heard of them before in my life!
”

“
Ok, ok, I’m sorry, look,
calm down,” I say, gesturing at the ground. Downy grey feathers are
sifting around his sneakers.

“
Crap,” he says, taking a
steadying breath.

“
Look, let’s just go home,”
I say. “Maybe just stop taking comics to school for
awhile.”

“
Yeah like that’s going to
happen,” he grumbles.

“
Then just don’t put them in
your locker, alright?” I sigh. “We’re going to get to the bottom of
this and clear our names. I am not cleaning Tailor’s chalkboard
until Christmas.”

“
Get to the bottom of it
how?” Destin asks.

“
It was headed right towards
the old lumbermill,” I say. “So that’s where we’re going on
Saturday.”

“
It’s condemned for a
reason,” he says nervously, pulling a feather out of his sleeve and
tossing it aside.

“
All the more reason it
could hide there,” I state, starting the walk home.

Oh, right, Destin molts when he’s freaked
out. I probably should have mentioned that sooner.

Chapter 7

Jul

“
The pancakes are really
good,” I said, smiling weakly.

“
Thank you,” Bea said,
returning to her own food with no further
acknowledgment.

Bea and I were eating our breakfast in
relative silence again. I was learning to appreciate her cooking
but she didn’t seem to be warming up to me any. Though still
nervous about going to school - I was only just finishing my first
week - I was gaining a small amount of appetite in the mornings,
which was for the best. Her disapproval seemed to lessen when I ate
her food. It helped that it was actually really good. I’d never had
homemade pancakes before - I’d had some decent ones at restaurants,
but nothing like this. I sipped on orange juice while she drank
black coffee. A plate of bacon sat between us, but I hadn’t touched
it. I still couldn’t tell her I was vegetarian.

“
Are you making any friends
at school?” she asked suddenly, and I nearly choked on a piece of
pancake.

“
Um...ah...not yet,” I
admitted.

“
Why not?” she asked
bluntly.

“
They’re not um...they
don’t...”

“
Speak up,
Juliet.”

“
Everyone seems to have
groups of friends already,” I said quickly. “It’s, um, not that big
a deal.” I mean, I wasn’t in elementary school. But if I was honest
with myself, it was a big deal. I had been almost invisible at my
old school, and I was so tired of feeling so alone. But what was my
other option? Being rejected?

“
You need to be more
assertive,” Bea stated. “Just introduce yourself to people and
start talking. Eventually you’ll find someone with similar
interests.”

Easy for you to say,
I thought. “I’m...not sure assertive is in my
blood,” I laughed weakly.

Bea gave me a strange look. “It is.
Just...try to make some nice, normal friends. I know there are some
weird kids at that school...what about Hayley Dupree? She’s a
normal girl,” she stated, taking a swig of coffee.

Maybe a little too normal for me.

Ms. Miller was late to class. That hadn’t
happened before. I had my mother’s blank journal in my bag, and I
occupied myself by searching the pages, fiber by fiber, for the
hundredth time. It had to mean something. My fingers traced my
mother’s imprinted name as the tardy chemistry teacher burst into
the door, all smiles and energy. I closed the journal
self-consciously.

“
End of term science
projects,” Ms. Miller declared, grinning from ear to ear. “These
are going to be a lot of fun, I promise. I’ve picked out some
really interesting ones. They’re a little too complex for just two
people, so what we’re going to do is, I’m going to be putting two
tables together for these.”

Mac’s hand shot up. “Do we get to pick our
own partners?” he asked.

“
I’m assigning them,” Ms.
Miller stated, “to avoid unfair grouping.” Her eyes flicked briefly
to the left side of the room. Was she looking at Hayley’s table, or
Kei’s? Or both? “You’ll be working out the kinks of the experiment
you’re assigned, and writing a paper on the experiment’s premise
and the lessons you learn creating it. And you’ll prepare a booth
to showcase your work at the holiday school festival in two weeks
to your families and the school board.”

There were a couple of groans from around
the room.

“
None of that,” Ms. Miller
said, folding her arms. “The festival is a big deal. It sounds like
a lot of work, I know, but it will be a lot of fun. There’s a party
afterwards, after all.” She smiled. “New students may not be aware,
but we can put on quite a shindig.”

“
Shindig?” I murmured
softly, trying out the old-fashioned word.

Next to me, Camille cracked a smile.

“
So!” Ms. Miller said.
“Assignments. Here we go. Jacques and Holly, you’re with Errol and
Raeleene.” She gave them all handouts. “You’ll be looking at
supercooling fluids. Brandon and McKenna, you’re with Yu-Tien and
Kristoff. You guys get the effects of polarity on a stream of
water. Very cool. Juliet and Camille, you’re with Rhys and
Kei.”

My heart seized up. What, really? Work on a
project with him for the next two weeks? There was no way I was
suave enough to get through this...

I blankly accepted the papers from Ms.
Miller describing our experiment. Something to do with color
changing chemicals. I vaguely noticed that Mac and Destin were
paired with Hayley and Amity, and neither Mac nor Hayley looked
happy about it. I guess some siblings just didn’t get along.

Kei made a sly little wave in our direction.
I flushed. Camille rolled her eyes and focused on the experiment
handout, frowning at the list of chemical equations. I tried to do
the same. We were making invisible ink? I regarded it with new
interest. This could actually be really cool. And it didn’t look
too complex, all you had to do was get the ratios right...

“
Alright,” Ms. Miller said.
“You can group up and start divvying up tasks. You should start
working on getting your experiment right - a gorgeous display won’t
help you in the least if you fail the basic science.”

Kei pulled over his chair and wedged it
between Camille and I. He curled an arm around each of our
shoulders. “I love getting to know new people,” he said.

Camille smacked his arm away. Unfazed, he
turned his nearly-invisible smile on me. “We haven’t been formally
introduced. I’m Kei. Your turn,” he said.

“
Jul,” I said, certain I was
bright red. My skin just wasn’t quite dark enough to hide a blush,
to my misfortune.

“
There, that wasn’t so bad.
We’re a team now, Jul. You, me, Grumpy, and Grumpy.” He looked up
at his friend, approaching the table. “This is the illustrious Rhys
Ryan; he would murder me in my sleep if he could, but he can’t, so
he’s stuck with me.”

“
Ignore him, he has no
personal boundaries,” Rhys said flatly, eyes on the supply
list.

“
What?” Kei protested.
“Someone has to be friendly, and it’s not going to be
you.”

Kei wasn’t kidding; Rhys did not look happy
to be here. He really was startlingly handsome, but he was
completely devoid of Kei’s easy charm. Rhys scribbled four quick
notes on the list. “Here’s how this is going to go,” he stated with
authority, brushing dark hair out of the palest blue eyes I’d ever
seen. “I’ll write the paper. You two will make the display and run
the booth. Kei will get in our way.”

“
Not fair,” Camille
objected.

“
It’s not fair but it’s
realistic,” Rhys said flatly, handing me the list. The look on his
face would brook no discussion.

“
Don’t listen to him, I’ll
be very helpful,” Kei said, drawing an ‘x’ over his
heart.

I became aware in my periphery that we were
getting scrutiny from two directions. Mac, glancing over his
shoulder, seemed just as unhappy with Kei as Rhys was, and - I
swallowed nervously - Hayley was glaring daggers at me. Well, Kei’s
arm was still around my shoulders. Were they a couple or weren’t
they?

I stood up abruptly. “I’ll, um, get the
materials,” I said by way of excuse. I went up to the front of the
room. The supply cabinet was next to Ms. Miller’s desk. She glanced
at me apologetically as I picked through the bottles of
chemicals.

“
Sorry,” she murmured, low
enough that only I could hear. “This wasn’t my idea.”

“
Wha...” Did she mean the
project, or the grouping? I turned to ask her what she meant, but
Mac had come up on my other side.

“
Is he bothering you?” he
asked. “If he is, you should ask to switch groups. Ms. Miller, can
she switch groups?”

“
No one is switching
groups,” she told him, but a small smile marred her mostly-serious
decree. “Get your stuff, go back to your table, and worry about
your own project.”

I carried a tray of vials and chemicals back
to our table, careful this time not to spill anything. I was going
to be calmer now, I told myself. I was going to be cool and
collected. It didn’t work at all.

Kei was thumbing through my mother’s blank
journal. “Hmm? This is a boring book,” he said.

“
Ah!” I reached for it, but
he evaded me, fanning the pages like a flipbook.

“
I was hoping for some juicy
secrets.” He noticed the name embossed inside the cover. “Who’s
Kyra?”

“
Um, me,” I said, not sure
why I was lying.

“
Hm, a nom de plume? You’re
not very prolific,” he said, handing the journal back. “You might
want to work on that.”

“
Yes,” I agreed. Anything to
return it safe to my bag. I reached for it again, and again he
snatched it back.

“
Unless...” he mused,
picking up one of the vials Camille had mixed.

“
Hey!” Camille
snapped.

“
Kei, please,” I said, “It’s
just a blank journal I got.”

“
People only defend what’s
valuable to them,” he stated, pouring the liquid over the exposed
pages. I looked in despair at my mother’s soggy journal. Had he
ruined it?

The page color began to change, as if dark
ink were bleeding across the paper. For just a second, I thought I
saw something. Then the black vanished as the paper dried, back to
blank once more.

Kei shrugged. “I guess you were right,” he
said, setting the journal in front of me. “Oh well. Hey, I’m
hungry. Rhys, have you got any snacks?”