Push and Shove

by C. L. Stone

  It was nearing the end of October, and I was happy it was almost over. My hope for a quiet, ordinary school year had already vanished. After the bomb threats on the school, a principal and vice-principal after me and the Academy guys, bullies, at home and at school, I got nervous when things got quiet. I wondered what was lurking in the shadows, always waiting for the next surprise.

  I leaned against the counter, my head propped up in my hands, counting down the minutes until the end of my shift. Most of the time, I stared at Luke so not be rude and stare at anyone else while I dazed out. In his Bob’s Diner blue polo shirt, his long, lean arms flexed nicely as he carried a tray, or wrote out orders on a ticket. The way he interacted with customers was really enchanting; he’d put on a handsome smile, lighting up those dark eyes, and joke around with the patrons, making me think many of them were repeat customers because of him.

  I’d already cleaned the counter, organized the receipts, refilled napkin dispensers and had even scrubbed down the soda fountain machine. Just a few more minutes, and then I had to go home. To my soon-to-be former home. I’d promised my sister, Marie, I’d have the last of my stuff out today so I would finally not have to return for a while. I already had all my clothes at Nathan’s house, but I wanted to do a sweep and check for anything I may have left behind.

  Moving out at sixteen is complicated. In my case, it had to be done slowly, because we had people watching the house. There were three of them at a time now on our street. One was outside the diner, since Mr. Hendricks had figured out some of us worked there.

  I idly traced the edges of the register, listing things in my head that I should look for in the house. My birth certificate was something I hadn’t been able to find. The boys didn’t mention it, but I’m sure they forgot. I thought it might be in my stepmother’s room. I wanted to check the attic, too. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to leave their photos taped to the wall inside the secret space they’d created for me. Part of me was heartbroken at the thought of taking them down. I considered leaving them, for now. I could come back for them later.

  A figure moved in front of me, and I reacted by holding out my hand, expecting a receipt and readying a smile.

  The girl’s eyes widened a little. “Um,” she said.

  I shook my head, retracting my hand. “Sorry,” I said. “Did you need something? Did you call in an order?”

  “No,” she said. She was a pretty girl, with blue eyes and dyed blond hair, dark brows. She held up a silver can with sequins glued on it. “Are you ... running?”

  I stared at her, waiting for her to explain, but she just looked at me with raised brows. I realized now this wasn’t anything about the restaurant, and my insides started to rattle. When I knew the procedure, I was to be fine handling customers, but something random like this made me want to tell people to ask for Luke. “Huh?”

  “For homecoming queen,” she said. She shook her can, making the sequins sparkle under the light. “I didn’t know you worked here. I didn’t see you on the list, but... I didn’t want to ask about leaving this if you were running and didn't want to compete.”

  “Homecoming?” I asked. She went to my school? I didn’t recognize her, but she seemed to know me. I looked at the can again, and caught the edge of a photograph and some writing. “I didn’t even know.” I’d only experienced homecoming once at my old school, and I didn’t participate except checking out the posters. Wasn’t that in early October? Or, when the football team had an away game and then first came back? That was weeks ago.

  “It’s kind of a last-minute thing,” she said. “We finally got the principal to approve, but we had to convince him we could raise enough money to have one. That’s what the cans are for. The girls running for queen get additional votes for every dollar they earn.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Oh wow.” They weren’t even going to have a homecoming? Mr. Hendricks was horrible. I didn’t know what to say, but tried to look sympathetic.

  “We usually do a charity event,” she said. “But we had to change and do it for ourselves, since he’d said no and cancelled. Something about these bombs that keep showing up.”

  Mr. Hendricks’s concern for the students was a surprise. He cancelled an event because he was afraid of the bomb threats? Sounded more like an excuse to me. He said himself they get bomb threats all the time and it wasn’t a big deal. Did he cancel so he could keep the money? “Aw,” I said, pushing my suspicions aside for now. “Well, did you want to leave your can, here?” I reached around the register, picking up the tip jar Luke had left and put it under the counter. “I’ll let the others know.”

  She smiled pleasantly and handed over her can. I placed it next to the register where my tip jar had been. “Thanks,” she said. “Maybe you’ll vote for me.”

  “Sure,” I said. She said it like I should already know her name, but I didn’t. Maybe she was in class with me and I should have recognized her. I didn’t even know how to vote. I could ask one of the boys; they’d know.

  “I’ll make sure to vote for your boyfriend,” she said. She waved shortly and then thanked me again and walked away.

  I waved back, blinking and totally not registering what she had said. Boyfriend... Silas?

  Silas was running for homecoming king?

  I waited until Luke was finished chatting with a customer before I managed to catch his eye with a wave.

  He came over and leaned against the counter. A blond length of hair fell against his face, covering his dark eyes, and he tucked it back behind his ear. “Ready to go home?” he asked. “Or did you want another tour of the freezer?”

  The last time he showed me the freezer, he’d nearly kissed me. I hadn’t been back there since. Tempting, but I shook off the thought and then pointed to the can. “Two things, this girl walked in and left her homecoming donation can here. I hope it’s okay.”

  “Homecoming?” He picked up the jar, checking out the photo. “Who is this?”

  “I don’t know. She just came in and asked if she could leave it here. I told her she could.” I realized now I probably should have asked for permission first, instead of assuming. I didn’t want to tell her no. Now that I thought about it, I wondered when she might be back for it, or if I had to return it to her.

  “Oh,” he said. He read the can. “Jenny. Don’t think I know her.” He shook the can. “Her can is empty.” He put it down. “What’s the other thing?”

  I reached under the counter for my own tip jar. I pulled out some cash without counting and stuffed it into the girl’s can while I was talking. “She said Silas is running for king.”

  “He is?” Luke asked. His smile broadened and he nodded his head, looking impressed. “Wow. Hey, I want to run. Do they really get a crown and then let you ride around in the back of a convertible? Isn’t there a parade or something?”

  “Is he really running?”

  “I don’t know. Ask him.” He reached into his own pocket and then stuffed a couple of dollars into the girl’s donation can. The rest of the cash he shoved into my tip jar. “I’ll keep an eye on the can. You should go get those things you needed and head to Nathan’s. It’s slow here.”

  “You don’t want me to hang out?”

  He grinned. “If I work now, I get to have time off later, and then I get to take you out.” He leaned over the counter and planted a kiss on my nose. “But you should head out before it starts getting too busy.”

  I could have argued about it, but he patted my head and shooed me along. I emptied my tip jar, tucking the money into the pocket of my hoodie. I waved goodbye to Luke and headed out.

  I took the shortcut through the woods home, clutching my phone in my pocket while I walked. Silas for homecoming king. That was a strange thought to me. I smiled that the girl had thought I was running. Maybe it was just assumed because I was with Silas. Pretending. We were pretending to be together so the football team wouldn’t hassle him about going out with anyone, and other boys would leave me alone.

&nb
sp; But what did it mean if Silas ran for homecoming?

  The two story gray house on Sunnyvale Court was quiet as I walked up. It was difficult to think of it as home now, and at the same time, I felt like I was leaving something behind every time I went to stay with Nathan at his house. I wasn’t sure if Marie was home, or if she was hanging out with Danielle. She seemed happier these days in the few times I did run into her. I wasn’t around as much and the boys stayed away from her. That was what she wanted.

  As I entered the house, I stalled in the living room. Would this be the last time I ever saw this place? Would it be the last time I cringed, listening for my stepmother, even though she wasn’t here right now? Would I never have to tiptoe around again?

  I went to my stepmother’s room first. I stood there for a long time, staring at the stripped bed, checking the space. It’d been weeks since my stepmother had been home, taken by the Academy to the hospital. They finally told me she was down south in the Mayo Clinic, and that they were watching her. I’d told Marie and the boys left her a phone number, an address and a room number and said she could visit whenever she wanted. They’d even drive. I don’t know if she’d done anything with the information. She didn’t talk to me.

  Sisters as far apart as they could be.

  I shuffled through drawers, trying to figure out the most likely spot for a birth certificate and other identity documents. After going through the dressers, I tried the closet, the side tables. Nothing. Suddenly I remembered that there was a box under the bed.

  I knelt and pulled the old shoebox out. Inside was an old photograph of my stepmother, possibly the only photograph of anyone in our family in the entire house. I glanced at it once, and something thick and heavy settled over my heart. Fear. Even when she wasn’t here, I felt her whispering, telling me to stay locked away, because other people were bad. I could feel my knees pressing against the wood floor, or my throat and how it burned when she forced me to drink vinegar and lemon juice. I turned the photo over, feeling better without those critical eyes looking at me.

  I put it aside and checked the other contents. Old needles from injections she must have gotten and she never threw away, old pill bottles, notes she’d scribbled on and then left. They weren’t really legible. There wasn’t anything else inside. She kept her photo with some old trash?

  I returned the box, but kept the photo. I checked over the bedroom again. No birth certificate? No information on us? Where was Marie’s information?

  Maybe Marie knew. I crept up the stairs quietly. Marie’s bedroom door was open, so I stepped inside.

  She wasn’t there. Her bedroom was cluttered with old clothes stacked in the corner, and her school books, barely touched, were in the corner. I found a pen and a piece of paper and wrote a short note:

  Couldn’t find my birth certificate. I’ll need that. If you know where it is, let me know?

  I left it, and then left the photo of her mother with it. I thought she might like it.

  I headed down the hall to my bedroom, half expecting one of the boys to be inside. I don’t know why, maybe because they were always around these days.

  I didn’t hear the voices until I opened the door halfway. When I stepped in, the voices silenced. Dr. Green, Kota, and Mr. Blackbourne were standing in my bedroom. Victor and Gabriel sat on my bed.

  I don’t know what shocked me more, the fact that they were in my bedroom together or that they’d been whispering. I had a flash of thought that someone was in trouble. The most surprising was the doctor and Mr. Blackbourne being there, too. They almost never showed up to this house.

  The sudden silence told me more than I was probably allowed to ask, but I did anyway. “Secret Academy meeting?”

  The corner of Kota’s mouth inched up a little. “Sort of.”

  “... In my bedroom?”

  “Nathan’s house is a mess right now. North and Nathan are doing a little renovation.”

  Renovation? They must have started while I was working with Luke. “Ah.” I lingered in the doorway, gazing at their faces. I guessed Kota’s mother was home or else they would have gone there. Victor’s fire eyes centered on me, a simmer for the moment Dr. Green smiled pleasantly as he sat at the foot of the bed.. Gabriel was on his back on the bed, his fingers strumming an invisible guitar. Mr. Blackbourne was standing resolute, his steel eyes subdued into curiosity.

  I refocused on Kota, whose green eyes behind his glasses lingered on me, silently asking me if I needed something or else could I give them a moment. I shifted from one foot to the other, trying to figure out what was wrong that required a secret meeting, but couldn’t come up with anything. “Anything I can do to help?”

  “Well...” Dr. Green said, even while Mr. Blackbourne and Kota were starting to say no. “Actually, there might be one thing.”

  “We can’t have her involved,” Mr. Blackbourne stated.

  “It’s not involving her,” Dr. Green said. “It’s asking her opinion. That’s not getting involved.”

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, ready for them to tell me there was a bomb or a fight or a boogeyman that needed to be taken care of.

  Kota glanced at the others quickly before settling his gaze back on me again. “Silas is out on an Academy job.”

  “I haven’t heard from him since the football game yesterday.”

  “Right, and there’s another job he could take, too. One that’s... well the Academy really wants him on this one.”

  “So why not call him?” I asked.

  “It may compromise his current job,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He crossed his arms over his chest. “We try not to submit Academy details about jobs via text or phone calls. It’s too easy to intercept.”

  “Isn’t there a secret code or signal you could use?”

  “Not now,” he said. “Especially since Volto went silent. We secured ourselves as much as possible, but it’s limiting now when we aren’t sure where he might be. If we use code, it’ll be obvious.”

  “So no Bat Signal?”

  Gabriel cracked with laughter. The others grinned, except for Mr. Blackbourne, who simply said, “No. We need to talk to him in person.”

  “Do you want him to come back?”

  “We want to tell him to hurry with his job, without compromising it, and without alerting anyone else as to why we need him back. We just need to know if he’ll be back in time to take this new job or if we need to tell them to go to someone else. Everyone else either can’t do it or they’re busy.”

  It took me a moment to think of what to do, but after I had it, I dipped my fingers into my bra, pulling out my new iPhone in the pink case. The old one had cracked. I forgot how many phones I’d been through the last few months. I punched a message at the screen.

  “What are you doing?” Kota asked. “We said not to ask him directly to come back.”

  I finished my text and sent it. “I didn’t.”

  Mr. Blackbourne gave me a scrutinizing look. “You just sent him a text?”

  “Yes.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I wish you would have shown it to me first.”

  My phone vibrated to life in my hands. I checked the screen. “He’ll be back tonight.”

  The room silenced. Did they not expect me to help? Isn’t that what they asked me to do?

  “What did you say?” Dr. Green asked.

  I shrugged, holding out my phone, allowing them to read the screen.

  Sang: “Miss you.”

  Silas: “7.”

  “That means he’ll be back at seven, right?” I asked.

  Surprised filled each of their faces. Victor was gawking. There were smiles on the other faces, and Mr. Blackbourne’s stood out the most, a millimeter at most, but dazzling me with the warmth.

  It was Kota who finally nodded. “Yeah,” he said.

  “Is that all you needed?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “I’ll uh... guess I’ll go see what North and Nathan are up to.”

  The Academy<
br />
  The Ghost Bird Series

  House of Korba

  ♥

  Book Seven

  ♥

  Written by C. L. Stone

  Published by

  Arcato Publishing

  Coming Fall 2014

  ABOUT C. L. STONE

  Certification

  Marvelour of Wonder

  Active Participant of Scary Situations

  Official Member of F.A.M.E.

  Experience

  Spent an extraordinary number of years with absolutely no control over the capping of imagination, fun, and curiosity. Willingly takes part in impossible problems only to come up with the most ludicrous solution. Due to unfortunate circumstances, will no longer experience feeling on a small spot on my left calf.

  Skills

  Secret Keeper | Occasion Riser | Barefoot Walker | Magic Maker | Restless Reckless | Gravity Defiant | Fairy Tale Reader | Story Maker-Upper | Amusingly Baffled | Comprehensive Curiousness | Usually Unbelievable