The Academy--The Bird and the Beetle

by C. L. Stone

  He nodded. His cheeks were tinted red but his face was back to that serious expression. “I’m okay. What made you think you could climb over it like that?”

  “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 was 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 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 it 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.

  W
hat 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 rectangular 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 me 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, so that it was actually very comfortable. The sharp taste of chlorine 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 touched 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 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 my waist. My heart was furiously beating in my chest as I felt this touch. He lifted me 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 I had on that were 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 away 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 them, they’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 into? 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.

  Nathan disappeared into the house. I moved under the overhang of the back porch and toward the sliding glass door he had gone in. The house was one story, with brown and beige brickwork and I half remembered what it looked like from the street. What it lacked in height, it made up in sprawl. From the doorway, I could see into a living room with a high, white ceiling and exposed beams. The floor was a gray stone tile. The walls were white. The furniture was dark brown and leather. It reminded me of a cabin that I’d seen once on television. There was a musky smell, like a mix of the leather and the lacquer in the wood fixtures.

  Nathan returned from a hallway beyond the living room. He held a pair of green shorts in his hands. He moved to the door, bending his head to look down at me. “Want to come in?”

  I made a face, pointing to my wet clothes. “I’m dripping,” I whispered.

  “So am I.” He pulled the sliding door open further and beckoned to me. “There’s a bathroom right there. You can put the shorts on if you want.”

  I nodded.

  “Do you want a t-shirt?” he asked. “It’ll probably be big on you.”

  I tugged at my blouse. “It’ll give time for this to dry.”

  He smiled. “I’ll toss them in the dryer after you’re done.”

  He pointed me toward the bathroom again and I stepped inside of it. There didn’t appear to be anyone else around. My parents would have killed me if they’d known I was alone with a boy in an empty house. As it was, my own mind was coming up with all the things my parents warned me about. Would he have me follow him to his bedroom? Would he pressure me for sex? Would I be interested? And why did I feel like I was betraying Kota, Silas and Victor by being here? Were they worried about me right now and wondering what was going on? Did they even care? Maybe I needed Nathan after all. If I messed up too badly with Kota and the others, maybe Nathan and I could be friends instead. Were we friends now?

  The bathroom was big. There was a wide tub with a glass sliding door. Black stone tile covered the floor, and the counter was carved dark stone. The walls were white. Photos of helicopters lined the walls.

  I was just putting on the shorts when there was a knock at the door. “I’ve got a shirt.”

  I opened the door and he handed me a dark blue t-shirt with some writing in a language I didn’t recognize.

  “Does your dad fly helicopters?” I asked. My voice was weaker. What little ability I had gained to talk was becoming lost.

  “Yeah,” he said. I closed the door again. It sounded like he leaned against the door. “He makes trips between here and New York. Sometimes to Florida. He’s gone a lot.”

  I picked up my wet clothes from the floor, holding them away from my body as they were dripping. I opened the door.

  Nathan was against the door frame, leaning his head against it. He stood up straight as I took a half step out “It fits?” he asked.

  The shorts were tied tight around my waist but the lower hem was
down at my knees. The t-shirt was a couple of sizes too big and covered my butt. “I look weird.”

  He laughed. “You’re actually kind of cute. You should totally wear that your first day of school.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, but betrayed myself by giggling.

  He took the wet clothes from my hand. “Go jump in. I’ll put these in the dryer.”

  I crossed the living room, went outside and stepped up to the edge of the pool again. The smell of the chlorine was intoxicating. I wondered for a moment if he felt I was intruding on him for his pool. I had already interrupted his run. What other plans could I have been interrupting?

  I did a shallow dive from one corner and took off across the water. Despite my worries, I wasn’t going to waste a moment of swim time if I had his permission. Holding my breath, I wriggled my body to make my way to the opposite corner on the far end. I wanted to check to see how long I could hold my breath before getting up on the other side.

  I almost made it. I blamed jumping in first and being so excited as to why I couldn’t do it. I surfaced a couple of feet away, sucking in a breath of air and starting a slow breaststroke. When I reached the corner, I stopped for a moment and relaxed to slow down my breathing. I knew being calm under the water was important to being able to hold my breath longer. I pushed off with my feet against the edge of the pool.

  I used my hands this time under the water to give me a little extra push, but most of the power came from the movements I made, almost mermaid-like. I cut through the water quickly, reaching the other side. I touched the far wall and popped up at the surface, taking in a breath.

  “You could get faster,” Nathan said. He was standing on the edge of the pool in front of the house. I almost smiled at him, ready with a joke that I knew he wouldn’t be able to hear. I wanted to break the tension because he’d startled me. His face was serious. “Pull your hands to your chest.” He did the motion with his own hands. “Shoot them out above your head as you do that thing where you bring your head up. Then as you’re moving your feet, spread out your hands and pull like you’re crawling through the water.”