Time's Daughter (14 page)

I shoved my food around my plate in distraction.

Ashley returned, settling herself onto the bench.
“You know, that new kid has been sitting alone for two days. We
should invite him to sit here. I mean he’s in that documentary with
Aeon so that should be reason enough to be hospitable.”

No one argued.

“
Aeon,” Ashley said. “You should go
invite him.”

“
Me? Why me?”

“
You know him.”

It was unfortunate, but I did. “Just because he’s
got a camera with him, that means we must be friends?”

“
We shouldn’t be rude.”

I glanced over and saw that another girl was
standing in front of his table. He looked up at her from beneath
his eyelashes as if he hadn’t wanted to put forth the effort of
lifting his head. The girl jerked her head, sending pretty blonde
hair floating out and then she stalked away. The new kid had sent
Chelsea
away? She was one of the most popular kids in
Junction Hill!

“
I am
not
going to talk to
him,” I said now that I had more of a reason to argue.

“
He’s looking at us,” Ashley
said.

“
Then he can come over here
himself.”

“
Maybe he’s too polite to impose,”
Melissa said.

I snorted at that.

“
He looks like a nice guy, too nice
to hang out with Chelsea,” Melissa said. “I say we invite
him.”

My heavy sigh didn’t change anyone’s mind.
“Fine.”

“
He’s in my math class,” Ashley said
as I stood from the bench. “He’s always staring at me.”

Tray in hand, I walked to the trashcan with the
cameraman trailing my steps. Then I took the long way back to the
table by way of Alex’s. He’d taken to staring straight ahead. His
eyes widened in surprise when I stopped beside him.

“
My friends are forcing me to invite
you to sit with us,” I said.

“
Are they?”

I turned and headed back to the table where the four
girls watched avidly.

“
He’s coming!” Jenny
said.

“
Move over so he can sit there.” Ash
gestured to the Jens in front of her.

Dutifully they slid closer to the middle of the
table so that when he sat, he’d be face to face with our de facto
leader. Alex arrived a moment later but instead of go where Ash
wanted him, he stopped directly behind Jenny. Her eyes widened at
me as she stared across.

“
May I sit with you?” he
asked.

Jenny stammered as she moved back to where she’d
been. “Um, sure.”

He slid his legs over the bench and dropped down in
front of me. I lowered my gaze to the table.

“
Well, aren’t you going to introduce
us?” Ashley’s grating voice broke the brief silence.

“
I’m Alex,” he said. “And you
are?”

Everyone at the table gave their names.

Ashley spoke next. “Where you from, Alex?”

He was looking at her when he answered.
“Florida.”

“
Cool,” Jenny said.

“
It’s rarely
cool
in
Florida,” Alex said while looking at Jenny. “Like it’s rarely warm
here.”

“
It gets warm,” Melissa said. “In
the summers it can get up to one hundred and it can be humid. Just
not like Florida.”

His gaze switched to the next speaker. “That’s good
to know. I’d been picturing snow year round and six months of
darkness.”

Ashley rolled her eyes while the others laughed.
“That’s Alaska.”

Alex’s attention shifted back to Ash. “Alaska, New
Hampshire—above the Mason Dixon line it’s all the same to me.”

“
Why did you move here
then?”

I tried to hide my interest in the answer.

Alex glanced at me before speaking. “My family
moved. I kind of had to go where they went.”

“
That sucks—moving in junior year,”
Jen said. “I’d never forgive my parents if they did.”

He shrugged. “I’ll get by.”

“
Do you play any sports?” Ash
asked.

“
I was on track and field at my old
school.”

“
Which event?”

“
Hundred meter dash.”

I struggled not to laugh. A guy who could shift into
a black panther and run however supernaturally fast he could run
was certainly cheating by joining in track and field.

“
And long jump,” he
added.

Did that mean he had some extra help jumping
too?

“
But not football?” someone
pressed.

“
Nope.”

Ashley’s eyes rolled a little. “Too bad. All the
popular guys are on the football team.”

“
Good for them,” he said in a
condescending tone.

I hid a smile behind my hand. Her glare meant she’d
seen it anyway.

“
So were you excited when they
picked you for the documentary?”

Alex shrugged. “I don’t think of it as being picked
so much as having it forced on me.”

“
Ugh. You sound just like Aeon,” Ash
said.

He chuckled and leaned forward, resting his forearms
on the tabletop. “There are worse people to sound like.”

He was trying to be nice to me. I didn’t want him to
be nice to me. I wanted to continue avoiding him.

“
Did you leave a special girl behind
in Florida?” Jenny asked wistfully.

“
Nope.”

Ashley jumped on the answer. “No? No girl at all or
just no special girl?”

“
No girl at all,” Alex said with a
firm shake of his head.

She pressed onward. “Are you gay?”

I closed my eyes in embarrassment for her.

“
No, I’m not gay.”

“
Then why no girl? You’re a handsome
guy.”

He didn’t seem fazed by the compliment. “I never
found one that would be able to impress my family.”

With a family like his it was no wonder he hadn’t
found a girl they’d like.

Jen giggled. “Most teenagers look for the one that
will piss their family off the most.”

“
Then I guess I’m not most teenagers
because family is important to me.”

“
That’s cool.” Melissa smiled
warmly. “Family is important to me too.”

“
My
family loves my
boyfriend,” Ashley said as if he’d care.

I checked my watch. There was a drawing table with
my name on it behind a locked door. But instead I was forced to sit
listening to her while I waited for the bell to ring.

Alex faced me. An eyebrow lifted. “Got someplace to
be?”

How had he seen my small movement while he’d been
turned in the other direction?

“
I have to work on a drawing,” I
said. “We’re doing critique today.”

“
Is that why you weren’t in
photography class yesterday?”

“
No.”

His lips thinned, I assumed at my lack of
explanation.

The bell rang, saving me from further discussion. I
wasted no time before jumping from the bench, grabbing my bag,
waving to the others and then heading out the far door.
Unfortunately despite the fact that I wasn’t going to the
photography studio, I was still going in the same direction as
Alex. He left me alone. I reached the drawing room without him so
much as speaking a syllable to me.

The extra hour of work on my picture was enough that
it was closer to my usual efforts. Though not one of my better
works, it didn’t get pulverized by my classmates during the
constructive criticism portion of critique. I left feeling a little
better about it and thankful that I’d put in the extra time.

Soccer was the activity of the day once again in
gym. I arrived on the field prior to the choosing of teams. The
captains were picked first. Tyler and Alex were forced to choose
team members.

Names were called one at a time. Alex said mine
fourth after he’d picked three other athletic people. But when the
game began he kept his distance from me.

Discreetly I watched him for what seemed like the
first time. Alex had powerful looking legs that were overly muscled
in the thigh. His arms appeared similar. I compared that to what I
knew of cats and decided it made sense.

I tried not to recall what was under the t-shirt as
he ran by me with the ball. With a dark flush of my cheeks I
lowered my gaze, keeping it on anything but him for the remainder
of class.

Guy and I walked quietly downtown after the last
bell. My thoughts kept straying to Alex. I slowed until the
cameraman was almost on top of me so I could talk to him. A
conversation might take my mind off of Alex.

“
Did you do anything fun Sunday or
Monday night?”

“
Two of us went over to Burlington
to visit the Ben and Jerry’s factory,” Guy said in a voice that was
slightly breathless from the walk.

I didn’t really care but I didn’t want to walk in
silence. “Oh yeah? Was it good?”

“
Yeah.”

“
I’ve never been.”

“
You should go…uh, I mean, if you
like ice cream.”

“
Who doesn’t like ice
cream?”

“
People who are lactose
intolerant?”

I chuckled. “Touché. Do you guys have plans for this
Sunday?”

“
No. I wasn’t sure if you would be
staying in again or not.”

I gave a big nod he was sure to see. “I pretty much
always study on Sundays. I have no life to speak of.”

“
You have plenty of life,” Guy said.
“Just some of it isn’t fun.”

“
You can say that again.”

“
One of the guys suggested a trip
into Canada so we might do that.”

“
Cool,” I said even though I wasn’t
particularly interested in Canada. “I’ve never been there
either.”

“
This close to Canada and you’ve
never been?”

“
Into Quebec? Why would I go there?
They speak French.”

He chuckled. “Because its basically a foreign
country. Experiencing new culture is neat.”

“
There are many things that might be
neat. Going into Quebec isn’t one of them.”

“
You can’t say that if you’ve never
been,” Guy said in one of those annoyingly sensible grown-up
tones.

I shook my head. He wasn’t local. He didn’t
understand. “They come down here and most of them are rude. A whole
country of the rude people where I’m the outsider doesn’t appeal to
me.”

Guy shrugged as we walked into Burning Idea. “Suit
yourself.”

Felix stood up from a slouch. “Afternoon.”

“
Hi,” I said in distraction on my
way behind the registers.

The camera guy took his spot on the side of us.

Felix leaned over and nearly whispered. “My
accountant says I need more than one employee and my brother on the
payroll.” He stood upright and reverted to a normal volume. “I’m
thinking about putting a Help Wanted sign out. You know, for
Sunday, Monday and Thursday.”

I didn’t try to argue with Felix. “Speaking of your
brother, how is he?”

Felix snorted derisively. “He’s been in bed for days
pretending to nurse that wound despite the fact that we got it
stitched up shortly after. It’s healing well so I don’t know what
his problem is. But he is running a fever so it might not be all in
his head.”

I frowned but didn’t say anything.

For once my boss stuck around and helped me set out
the new shipment. But when he left for dinner at six, I doubted I’d
see him again until close.

I turned my music on and worked on math homework
until he got back at five minutes to nine. He closed up the
registers and had me lock the door early. Guy and I were on our way
to the apartment minutes later. We told each other goodnight, waved
and then parted at the entrance to the stairs.

It was like a ritual now. Much like the daily
pre-bed discussion with my mom and a similar parting at our bedroom
doors.

I settled into bed contemplating all of the little
rituals in my life.

CHAPTER
TWELVE

Alex was at our table with Ashley and Melissa. Had
they invited him again or had he imposed himself? I didn’t wait to
find out. Out to my tree I fled. There was math homework to be
done.

“
Can you help me with this print?”
one of the twins asked with a wide-eyed plea when I passed through
the photography studio door twenty minutes early.

I’d come to see if I could get out of class again
but Mrs. Lozano hadn’t gotten back from lunch yet.

“
I guess,” I said.

“
Thanks, Aeon. You’re the
best.”

We took her strip of negatives into the darkroom,
made a proof sheet to calibrate the exposure time needed and then
started on her print. By the time it was in the rinse both bells
had rung. Class was about to begin.

“
I’ll be right back,” she said
before disappearing out the door.

I stood helplessly waiting for her. I’d done what
she’d asked. Her print was finished. Even if she came back, and I
doubted it would be as soon as she said, I wasn’t obligated to help
any longer.

The round door turned. A figure emerged. I already
knew by the shape who it was. Alex made the sound that I now knew
meant he’d locked the door behind him. Too soon he stood feet in
front of me.

“
You’re avoiding me now,” he said
and somehow managed to sound upset about it. His voice dropped in
volume. “I did freak you out.” He sighed then turned away. In the
red light I could tell his expression was as troubled as his
voice.