by Lila Rose
I stopped when I heard one of Kane’s friends say, “Why would you talk to something like that? She’s feral.”
“Excuse me?” Javis growled. He turned to face Dale Quiall, the one who had said it.
“Javis, don’t.” I grabbed his arm quickly.
“You got something you want to say to me?” Dale hissed and glared back at Javis.
“Dale, just leave it. Come on or we’ll be late for practice,” Kane said, and then walked off. Dale soon followed.
Javis sighed, turned back to me, and said, “Now that’s why it’s best to steer clear of their kind. Jerks, that’s all they are and ever will be.”
“Yeah, I know.” It wasn’t as though I wanted to hang with them or anything…and Kane was the one who said hi to me. So that made Kane not as bad as the others, right?
Thursday, I had History again, only when I got in there and sat down next to Kane, an announcement over the PA called him away to an important football meeting. He apologized and said he’d see me Saturday, leaving a piece of paper on the desk with his address, home phone number, and mobile. I folded it back up and placed it in my backpack.
So there I was, at 11 Derves Drive, standing in front of a mansion.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered.
And he came to my house. Should I apologize for that? Probably, from the looks of what stood in front of me. I would have walked up the long driveway to the, I think, three-story, brick, elegant monstrosity, but the iron gates stopped that. I looked to my left; they had one of those intercomy-thingies. I really hated those; I hated speaking into them or answering machines, and I hated people hearing my voice on the other end. Still, I didn’t have a choice—another thing I hated.
I walked over to it and pressed the bottom, then stood waiting for an answer.
“Si?” A lady’s voice rang out from the tiny box.
I bent and pressed the button to talk back, “Yeah, hi. I’m here to see Kane, we—ah, have to study,” I said. I heard some kind of movement, and then noticed a camera sitting on top of the fence moving to stare down at me. Great, I sighed, now, they definitely wouldn’t let me in. Maybe I should have gone with a more normal look instead of wearing my usual make-up, tight, black vinyl pants, and a long white shirt with a black vest over the top.
You could say I was surprised when the gate buzzed and started to open. I quickly moved through the small gap before they could change their minds. I was sure my heart beat faster the closer I got. I was worried I’d start to sweat as well. Then I would smell and totally look like a freak if my make-up ran. I had considered not applying it, mainly because of Kane’s little sister. I didn’t want to scare her, but then I thought if she watched Ruby Gloom, she couldn’t be that bad. And really, if I was going to be around here a few times, she had to get used to me the way I was. That went for his mom and dad as well.
The double front doors opened before I could knock, and a little, middle-aged, plump lady stepped around it.
“Hola, soy, Rosita,” she said, touching her chest.
“Hola, soy, Skylar.” I smiled.
“Par favor, ven en Kane no pasara’ mucho tiempo.” She gestured for me to enter, so I did.
“Gracias, Rosita.” I stood just inside the door, taking in everything I saw. In front of me stood a grand staircase that spiralled up to the next level. I glanced up and saw that there was another level above the second one. I looked to my left, but all I saw was the same as the right side. Beyond the staircase were closed wooden doors. So I turned back to Rosita, who was taking the opportunity to check me out. From the look on her face, she didn’t like me one bit.
She stood to the side of me, arms crossed, and over her shoulder, her look was scolding. “Cuidar a un fantasma de beber?” she asked in Spanish.
I couldn’t help but laugh. I was lucky enough to know Spanish; I loved the language. She had asked, ‘Care for a drink, ghost one?’ I smiled at her and said back in her own language, “I am no ghost, Rosita, just silly make-up. You do not need to worry. I will be on my best behaviour, just like my momma taught me.”
Her eyes widened and then she laughed.
“I didn’t know you could speak Spanish,” Kane said as he descended the stairs.
“There are a lot of things you don’t know, Kane,” I said.
“I like this one, Kane,” Rosita said in English, with a very heavy Spanish accent still present.
“I guess I passed the test?” I asked, smiling. She returned it with one of her own.
“Si, with flying colours. I must go and find Dominique. Despedida, Skylar.”
“Si, despedida. Encantado de conocerte, Rosita.” I had said, ‘Yes, farewell. Nice meeting you, Rosita.’ She gave me a warm smile and left to climb the stairs.
“You almost need an elevator in here,” I commented.
“Almost,” Kane said. He’d been quiet since arriving, so I looked over my shoulder to him; he seemed confused about something.
“Okay, so where are we doing this?” I asked, gesturing to the backpack I had full of heavy books on my back.
“Right, uh, let’s go in here,” Kane said, pointing to the room to the left. “I left most of the stuff I was going over in here last night.” He opened the door and moved out of the way so I could walk in first. I couldn’t stop the gasp. I was in awe. The room was a library, and it was beautiful and huge. The walls were stacked from top-to-toe with books; one of those sliding ladders stood against the far right wall. On the left, at the front of the house, was a ginormous bay window. I walked over to it and looked out to the large front yard—you could almost say paddock. The sun was shining. It was a nice warm day out there, but having the windows so big, it nearly felt like you weren’t missing out. Honestly, I felt like something out of Beauty and the Beast, only I’d be the beast.
Kane cleared his throat behind me. I turned to find him sitting at one of the tables in the middle of the room.
“Sorry. It’s just…like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” I shook my head, walked over to the table, and sat opposite him. “Let’s start then,” I said, getting my things out of my bag that I had dumped on the floor when I walked in, but Kane must have brought it to the table.
“It’s all right, I can understand if I was seeing it for the first time too.” He smiled. I didn’t bother saying anything, only nodding. “Sky, I—uh, I wanted to say sorry for the other day, you know, with Dale—”
“You don’t need to apologise. You didn’t say it, so just forget about it. Only…”
He raised his eyebrows at me, “Only what?”
“Like Javis said, there’s never going to be anything between us.” I pointed to me, and then pointed to him, “and you guys. We’re too different; we don’t get you and you don’t get us.” I shrugged. “There’s no harm in it, but that’s the way things are, and always will be.”
“I’m not like them,” he uttered.
“We’ll see.” I knew there’d be only an amount of time before pressure from his kind would put an end to how he’d been with me—nice.
We worked on our assignment for half an hour before his phone rang; he looked at the number, then at me. He went to place it back down on the table.
“You can answer it.”
He picked it up. “This won’t take a sec. Hi, babe.”
Yay, just what I wanted to hear, a smoochy conversation between the two of them.
He cleared his throat and said into his phone, “No, not right now; I’m kind of busy.” I rolled my eyes without him seeing as he started to walk to the door saying, “What am I doing? I—uh, I have to help out with Dommy…”
That was all I heard before he disappeared into another room. So she didn’t know I was here. That didn’t surprise me. I could think of the many reasons why he wouldn’t tell her.
I tried to continue with the work, but I couldn’t concentrate. What was he telling her?
Turning to the door, I saw movement and found a young, pretty, girl-vers
ion of Kane standing there, half-hidden by the door.
“Hi. Dommy, isn’t it? I’m, Skylar, but you can call me Sky.” I gave her a smile. Still, she didn’t move or say anything. “Hey, what are you up to? Me, you ask? I have to study with your boring brother; what a pain, huh? Wish I could be doing something else, like watching my all-time favourite show Ruby Gloom.”
I heard her suck in a breath. “You like Ruby Gloom?” she asked, suddenly interested enough to take a step into the library.
“Sure do. Skull Boy is so cute.”
“I know, but I also love Frank and Len…and Scaredy Bat is so funny. Why do you wear that white stuff on your face?”
“I like it; reminds me of Misery.”
She nodded. “Okay. Do you want to see all my figurines from Ruby Gloom?”
“Sure, I’d love to.” I wrote a note on a piece of paper telling Kane I’d been kidnapped by some child, and placed it on his side of the desk. “Let’s go.” I smiled and followed her out the door.
Her room was on the second floor; she told me on the way there that the third floor was for her parents. She wasn’t allowed up there because they had too many breakables. God, she was five, so she’d know by now what to touch or not, right?
She opened her door, and again I was in awe. If a child could have everything in the whole wide world, you’d only have to look in Dommy’s room to see that was exactly what she had. There was a lot of floor space, but her walls were covered in shelves, and on most of those shelves was everything from dolls to remote control cars. It was good to see she didn’t just stick to girly toys. But seriously, the cute, long, curly-haired girl had way too much stuff.
A feeling of sadness touched me because I could tell—from what I’d heard and from what I could see—that her parents were never around; in return, they bought her love and affection with objects.
Above her bed sat four shelves, and on those were all the figurines ever created of all the Ruby Gloom characters. Of course, I wouldn’t deflate the girl, so I proclaimed how great they were while she explained each of them with excitement showing in her eyes.
“Would you play Barbies with me?”
I had to do a double take. Did she really ask me, me to do that? I had never been a Barbie person. But how could I say no to those cute, pleading Bambi eyes.
“Sure, but just for a little bit though.”
She squealed and ran to her closet, pulling a huge container out from within.
I was sure it had been a long, slow hour, until I looked at my watch and it told me only fifteen minutes had passed. I could not go on like this much longer.
I had pretended to be Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend. I had taken her pets for a walk, and then I was Barbie’s best friend, who was helping Barbie choose something to wear for her outing.
I was looking through Barbie’s clothing when I asked, “Doesn’t she have anything black?” I was a bit frustrated. Everything Barbie owned was so bright, it could almost make someone sick.
“No, silly.” Dommy laughed, shaking her head at me. Then she stopped and looked at me seriously. “You know what?”
“What?” I smiled.
“You’re so much better than Donna. I think Kane should be your boyfriend, not hers. She’s mean and never plays with me.”
I really didn’t know what to say to that.
“Hey, squirt.”
I spun my head to see Kane grinning and leaning against the doorframe.
“Kane,” Dommy screamed and ran to him, climbing up his body and into his arms.
Thankfully, he wasn’t here a few seconds ago to hear what Dommy just admitted to me.
I looked up at Kane, who was looking back; I shrugged my shoulders and held up one of Barbie’s pieces of clothing, frowning. “No black; it’s a tragedy.”
He laughed and put Dommy back on her feet, who ran back over and hugged me. I was too shocked to do anything at first, but then wound my arms around her.
“I know you have to go study with my boring brother, but…”
“Hey.” Kane feigned being hurt.
“What? That’s what she called you.” Dommy pointed at me. I snorted at her honesty; Kane raised his eyebrows. I shrugged and turned my attention back to Dommy, who said, “Can you come back and play another day?”
“I would love to. And maybe next time I’ll bring a few books with me and I’ll read them to you.”
She squealed, gave me another hug, and then went back to playing. I got up and walked over to the door.
“You are full of surprises,” Kane said.
“Yeah? Well, I guess you could say that.” I smiled and walked back down to the library, with Kane silently following me.
“Sorry about the call and you having to play with Dommy.”
“She’s cute.” I laughed. “Hey, any chance we can restart again Monday? It’s just that I have to meet the others soon at the fair.” I was actually late. I was supposed to be at the air by two, and it was already four.
“Sure, I was the one who wasted our time. So you’re going to the fair?”
“That’s what I said.”
“I might see you there later. I’m meeting…”
I laughed at him. “Yeah, just don’t say hi so Javis won’t have to defend me.” Something crossed his face; I wasn’t sure what emotion it was, but it was gone too quickly to decipher.
“Sorry, again.”
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t have to be. Look, I may see you later; if not, catch ya Monday, okay?”
“Yes. Have a nice time, Sky.”
“You too, Kane.” I waved and left him standing in the library.
I had to wait for another bus at the corner of Kane’s street, which made me another half-hour late to meet my friends at the fair. I hadn’t expected them to wait for me out front; we’d already set the rules that if someone was late, then that person would have to suffer and search the whole fair for the others. Which was reasonable, except I hadn’t thought it would be me. So there I was, walking around the fair for the last twenty minutes on my own, looking like a fool. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t found them yet, you would think that my friends would stick out like a sore thumb, but apparently not.
I turned the corner into the food area and ran right into Kane. He was standing with a drink in his hand at the time, which I knocked and ended up spilling it all over the person standing next to him—Donna.
“Watch where you’re going, loser! Now look at me!” she cried.
There were only a few spots on her designer jeans and high heels—Kane must have just about finished it—and really, who would want to wear high heels to a fair for God’s sake. The answer was right in front of me.
“Donna,” Kane said with a tone of warning.
Yeah, like she’d listen.
“What? Look what she’s done. We might as well go home,” she whined and stormed off.
Pleasant as always.
“Sorry, Skylar, she’s not always like that.”
I rolled my eyes and snorted. “It’s all right, Kane. At least I’m not the one going out with plastic-head.” Damn it, I promised Momma I wouldn’t do that. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. You’d better catch up to her before she gets hysterical and breaks a nail. Stuff it, sorry.” He didn’t seem that concerned; at least he was smirking.
“Hey, Princess Puff Cake,” I heard Mitch yell. I looked across the food area and found my friends coming our way, only Massie was missing.
“Princess Puff Cake?” Kane asked, amused.
“Really, don’t ask.” I smiled. “Hi, guys, where the heck have you been? And where’s Massie?”
The guys eyed Kane warily. Jessie openly ogled him. It was Javis who answered, “She couldn’t make it, I guess. She didn’t turn up out front, like you. What kept ya?”
“A cute five-year-old,” I replied. “You guys know Kane, right?”
“Sure, how you doing, man?” Mitch asked.
“Good,” he replied. And then silence fell a
mong us; it felt awkward. Kane cleared his throat and we all turned to him. “Ah, have you guys been on all the rides?”
“Oh, yeah. Well, all the scary ones. Jessie here, of course, opted out, but now that Princess is here, we’ll get to do it all over again.” Mitch gleamed.
“I went on the pirate ship once. Never again. Bad memories. The guy in front of me had drunk too much and ended up puking, which landed right in my face.” Kane shuddered from the memory.
“Gross, man. Reminds me of the time…”
They—as in the guys—ended up telling each other sick stories about things that had happened to them. Jessie and I stood back and watched the three of them bonding; it was good to see.
“He is so hot,” Jessie whispered to me, as the three of them doubled over laughing about when Javis had shaved his brother’s eyebrows off one night, and super-glued rhinestones in their place.
I screwed my nose up at her. “He’s okay.”
“Kane!” A banshee screeched.
Kane winced. We all looked behind us and saw Donna standing a few feet away, fuming.
“Ah, man, you’re in trouble,” Javis sang.
“Catch you guys later.” Kane drew his brows together.
Before he could take off, Mitch said, “Hey, you’re not a bad guy. Any time you want to hang, feel free.”
“Thanks.” He smiled, gave them a chin lift, and ran off.
“That was nice of you, Mitch.” Jessie smiled.
“It can happen every now and then. So, what ride do you want to go on first, Sky?”
“All of them, of course.”
“You’re as bad as the guys. Why am I friends with you again?” Jessie teased, placing her arm through mine as we walked off to the nearest ride.
“Probably because I put up with you.”
An hour later, I was lined up for the last ride—the Ghost House. I knew it’d be as lame as always, but I couldn’t leave here unless I’d been on it, and this was the only ride Jessie was willing to go on that night. Jessie and I went to sit next to one another until Mitch gave me the stink eye. Javis came over saying he’d sit next to me in case I got too scared and needed a big strong man for support. We both laughed it off, and Jessie went willingly to sit in a carriage beside a beaming Mitch.
