“Let me catch a beat before we start.”
Striking the center of the macho with her left palm, she sat taller then tapped the upper edge with her right fingertips. She repeated the beats several times, letting the rhythm sneak into her hands. The deep sound resonated through her. Before she knew it, she had a steady one two, three four tempo. Each tap chased away her concerns until she forgot about her confession to Nevan and his mom. Chai shrieked with glee as Blaze demonstrated the steps. A quick study, she had them down in no time, and all three girls laughed, having a good time.
Until he walked into the room.
Rena’s hold on the bongos slipped. He shouldn’t have been able to sneak up on her. She should’ve felt the vibration from his footsteps, but she’d let the beat of the bongos and Blaze and Chai’s dance steps fill her senses.
Chai continued to dance, but Blaze stopped, her eyes set on Rena whose face grew warm. Every single hair on her arms and neck stood on end as he leaned against the sidewall, appraising her with those hypnotic eyes.
“You’re not too bad on those,” he said, his voice low again.
Her cheeks flushed at the compliment. “Neither are you.”
He nodded his thanks.
“They’re showing me how to dance. They’re going to be in the parade, you know.” Chai continued practicing the steps. “Nevan’s gonna play again this year.”
“I know he is,” Rena said in a dreamy, singsong voice. She couldn’t wait to see him perform again. A warm, tingling sensation settled in her stomach. Spying on him was always the best part of her day.
Chai stopped dancing. “You should go to the Celebration with Nevan.”
He pushed off the wall.
“I already asked someone,” Rena blurted out, before he could reject the idea of them going together.
With a slight tilt of his head, he hitched an eyebrow as he crossed the room to sit on a stack of totes.
Rena continued, “Not that I wouldn’t like to go with you. I’d love to go with you, but I’m sure you have dozens of girls asking you to be their date.”
“A lot of girls ask him, but—”
“Chai,” he interrupted in a tone reserved for siblings. “Ma says you need to get ready for bed.”
“Fine.” Chai walked to Rena and threw her hands around her neck. “This was so fun! Thanks.” When she pulled away, her hand caught on Rena’s hair. She apologized and untangled herself before going to hug Blaze.
As soon as his sister left, Nevan rubbed the back of his neck and peered at Rena. “Who did you say you were going with?”
“I’m going with…Zesiro.” She knew her best friend would recognize the name, but Blaze didn’t give her away.
Rena’s stomach sank at messing up the perfect date for the Celebration. There was no way to fix it without admitting she’d lied to Nevan’s face. Again. Bodink!
Nevan leaned against the concrete wall. “I like your necklace.”
Rena’s breath caught when she looked down and saw the silver leaf outside of her shirt. Her hand closed over it as she tucked it back inside. How had it gotten out? She’d been so careful. Items this mint looked suspicious outside of a special occasion. Not able to meet Nevan’s gaze, she looked at Blaze, who chewed her fingernail.
“Know what kind of leaf it is?” Nevan asked.
She cleared her throat and shook her head. “Sounds like you know, though.”
“It’s from a birch tree.” Nevan stood and strolled toward the door. “It symbolizes new beginnings and cleansing of the past.”
He tapped the doorframe twice in quick succession, before he left.
Cleansing of the past. Wouldn’t that be nice? There were a number of things about her past she’d like to change. The debt on her future wages, Anata invading her home and stealing her dad’s attention, Nevan’s first impression of her.
Too bad that wasn’t her Other gift.
Chapter Six
Friday, June 16
Early Morning
Rena walked down the sidewalk leading to her impending doom, a.k.a her house. With the morning sun warming her back, she held her backpack tight. It would be worth it, all of it. Suffering through the hot embarrassment of begging Nevan for refuge, admitting out loud that she’d fantasized about him, and then facing her dad. It would pay off. Eventually.
She slowed her pace when she noticed someone sitting on her neighbor’s front steps. He sat hunched forward. A curtain of long brown hair blocked whatever he held on his lap. His left arm, which moved like he was writing, stopped when she approached.
He faced her direction, clarity slowly dripping into his unfocused gaze.
“Hello.” His soft tone sounded like both a question and a greeting. His eyes held onto the faraway glaze which would’ve been creepy had he not looked serene.
“Hello?” Rena said, unsure how to respond. She stopped on the sidewalk in front of him.
He blinked once and the serenity burned away. A flash of something familiar flitted through his eyes, but disappeared with the next blink. “Am I in your way.”
“No, I live next door.” She pointed across the lawn.
He glanced down at the GreenPad on his lap where his thumb traced over the clock in the corner. Then, he stood and shifted his hair behind his shoulders. “Glad I’m not the only early riser around here. The name’s Trace by the way.”
“I’m Rena.” She studied his features. His eyes were the color of steel without the hardness and he had a wide jaw, which ended in a square chin. “I don’t remember seeing you around here.”
“I live…” He paused. That familiar thing flashed through his eyes again, leaving the cause no question in her mind. He’d suffered loss of a loved one recently. “I lived in Quad 4. I’ll be staying with my uncle until I graduate and can start earning wages to get my own place.”
Those words confirmed her suspicion. If Trace planned to stay with his uncle for that long and had to get his own place, it meant his parents were either serving a sentence on Iron Mountain or worse, gone like Rena’s mom.
“Can relate.” Rena tugged her hat off and stuffed it in a side-pocket of her backpack. While his attention focused on her movements, she snuck a peek at his GreenPad. Her breath hitched at the familiar image.
Trace followed her gaze and started to hide his work. Something about her reaction must’ve stopped him because he lifted the GreenPad and looked down at it. He traced the drawing as if he were seeing the image for the first time.
She stepped closer to him, not realizing she was toying with her necklace until her finger smoothed over the leaf’s pointed tip. She immediately tucked it beneath her shirt. Other than Blaze, Nevan was the only person who’d seen it. She’d kept it hidden after that incident. So, how was it possible that she was staring at an exact duplicate of the pendant?
There was only one explanation.
Their gazes met. Now, she knew his secret, a valuable one. There were people who made money outing Others. If Trace only knew. Without breaking eye contact, he stuck the GreenPad behind him and lifted his chin.
“Glad I’m not the only one who likes to doodle around here,” she said, hoping he would understand the deeper meaning behind the words. She had no plans to make a profit at his expense. For some reason, she felt compelled to add, “I promise.”
He studied her for a moment, then his shoulders relaxed.
“How?” she asked.
“Don’t know. Draw what I see.” He scanned the street before he added, “I’ve seen the reasons he seeks Others, too.”
Rena’s heart pounded at the label. It was one thing to say it in the middle of the badlands. Hearing it inside the city boundary put her one edge. There was no way Trace knew about her ability. He might be suspicious she’d broken curfew, but that was it. Nothing she did or said could possibly lead him to the truth about her.
Unless he’d ‘seen’ it. She needed to know what he knew.
She sensed approaching footsteps. Her gaze
flicked toward the peeling white paint of her front door. She concentrated on the gait. A quick tap, followed by a heavier one, like someone skipping. Her brother, and by the growing intensity of his step, he was heading to the front door. She knew she should go, but curiosity rooted her in place.
“What exactly did you see?” she asked.
Trace opened his mouth to answer. Before the words escaped, her front door flung open.
“Dad! Rena’s finally home,” Zesiro said with an unmistakable smirk in his eyes.
Rena glared at her brother before looking back at Trace. He’d tucked away his notebook and moved closer to his front steps. She gave him an apologetic shrug. “Some other time, I guess.”
He nodded.
Thanks to Zesiro, who always ruined everything, she’d have to wait for those answers. She shoved him out of the way, dawdled toward the communal kitchen, and slumped down in a chair with her backpack on her lap. She thought about hiding it, but couldn’t risk letting it out of her sight. The families in her house got along well. She didn’t want to tempt any of them by leaving her stash in a communal area. She knew plenty of people who lived in hostile homes because of the “fair game” rule.
Setting her elbows on the table, she made a tent with her hands and rested her chin on her fingertips. Rena’s soles picked up the vibrations from her dad’s heavy footsteps, followed by lighter ones. ‘Aunt’ Anata.
She wasn’t really her aunt, rather her mom’s best friend. After one of Anata’s prior housemates burned their house down, Rena’s dad offered her room and board in exchange for helping him with Rena and the twins. Six months later, a work-related accident cost Anata the bottom half of her left leg and her job at the factory. Rena hadn’t minded helping out until it became obvious that Anata had recovered yet still called on Rena to do everything.
Now, she wondered if the woman would ever move out.
Anata crossed the kitchen to the cabinets. Her dad pulled out a chair and sat with his arms folded on the table. He peered right at Rena, making her slouch more. Nobody spoke until Anata set a steaming cup of synthetic coffee in front of him.
While she turned her attention to making breakfast, her dad took a sip, then leaned back. “Well?” he said.
“I…”
“You what?”
“I’m sorry.” She traced elliptical-shaped water stains on the table. “I lost track of time.”
“I find that hard to believe.” He pulled a handheld apparatus from his pocket and smoothed his thumb over the case.
Rena swallowed hard, her gaze glued to the device used to broadcast the location, offense, and amount of citizens’ fines or time of arrest.
“I was up all night checking this thing to see if your name popped up,” her dad said.
He knew about her 8,500 unit fine then. She pressed her lips together.
The device clanked against the table when he set it down. “Looks like you managed to slip past the radars this time.”
Her eyes flicked to his face. How was that possible? The Syn had scanned her. Updates posted every hour, and, knowing her dad, he’d searched for her name specifically. It sounded like the violations had never transferred, and, more importantly, no one suspected her of tampering with the machine. Otherwise, her name would’ve been flagged. Relief and dread filled her in equal proportion. What would happen the next time a Syn scanned her?
“Explain yourself,” her dad said.
She reached under the table and tinkered with the straps of her backpack. “I was with Blaze and we went for a walk. We got a little carried away talking and stuff, like we always do, and ended up out a little farther than we shoulda been. We didn’t mean to, but we were having fun and didn’t realize how much time went by until the quake hit. Then we—”
“An earthquake? You were in the badlands.” It wasn’t a question, more like an accusation. His voice remained even-toned as he continued, “Rena, you know better than to go out there. There are restrictions on Westrock for a reason.”
“I know.”
He shook his head. “Do you have any idea how worried I was?” His dark brown eyes focused on her.
It was the look she’d been dreading.
She crossed her ankles, tucking them under the chair. Her chest muscles tightened. A twinge of regret splintered her heart. Her throat constricted, making it hard to swallow, while moisture welled-up in the corner of her eyes. She couldn’t stand disappointing him.
Her dad took another sip. “What should we do about this, young lady? What do you think your consequences should be?”
Anything but grounding, she thought. She needed to go to the market over the weekend. She racked her brain for a different, yet suitable punishment. What would her dad and Anata find hard to resist? Aha!
“Well, how about I do all the house chores for two weeks. That way you and Anata will have some extra time at the end of the day.”
The adults exchanged looks as Anata set one plate in front of him and the other in front of Rena.
“I think being grounded five days will be sufficient enough. You won’t do it again, right?” Anata dried her hands on the towel slung over her shoulder.
Her dad spoke, but Rena didn’t hear his words because all of her attention was focused on the hand he’d wrapped around Anata’s waist. When did that start? Houseguests weren’t supposed to lean into the house owner or rub his back.
A sudden coldness settled over her. Her dad loved her mom, not Anata. He had no business touching any other woman that way, no matter how pretty she was.
“Did you hear me?” her dad asked, drawing her attention back to his face.
She chewed her lip and shook her head.
“I said that sounds good to me. You don’t have to stay in your room, but you do have to stay in the house. No TV and no phone.”
“What!” Clutching her backpack, Rena jumped to her feet. Her chair toppled backward and hit the ground with a loud whack. “I thought you said I got to decide.”
As Anata pulled out a chair, she eyed the dusty backpack, which Rena lowered out of view.
“Doing all the chores isn’t realistic. It would take you all day. Besides, I think it’s too harsh.”
“Well, I really wanted to go to Market this weekend.”
Her dad lifted his fork. “What’s there this weekend that won’t be there next weekend?”
They had her trapped now. There was no way to get out of this without revealing the whole truth about the time capsules. She’d never convince her dad doing chores was a better ‘consequence’ for breaking the rules.
Sighing, she slung the backpack over her shoulder.
“What’s in there?” Anata asked.
Rena leaned over to set her chair upright. “Some old junk.”
“From where?”
“Around,” she mumbled as she headed toward her room.
“Oh, Rena…” Anata called after her.
Her shoulders slumped. She knew what was coming.
“Can you help the twins turn the compost?”
“When I was their age…” A sharp look from her dad made her swallow what she was going to say. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“Can you also help them get ready to go outside?”
“Of course,” Rena mumbled under her breath with her back to the adults. She sped out of the kitchen before another ‘canyu’ had a chance to fall out of Anata’s mouth.
Later that night, while the families watched Kana, Galaxy Bounty Huntress, Rena snuck into the kitchen and eased the cell phone off the charger. She hid inside the sparsely stocked shared pantry and dialed Blaze’s house. With her hand cupped over the receiver, she whispered into it.
“Blaze, it’s me. Can’t talk long. Got grounded.”
“What about the market?”
“That’s why I’m calling.”
“Don’t worry. We can go next weekend.”
“The Buyers are here this weekend. You’ll have to go bargain with them for me.” Not wanting to sole
ly rely on her ability, she peeked out from the pantry to see if anyone was coming. Still clear.
“You’re joking, right? There’s no way—”
“Blaze. You said yourself that you could get a better deal for the…” she lowered her voice more. “The things you selected. You don’t need me there. And we could really use the money for newer dresses.”
“But Rena—”
“Look, I’m not supposed to be on the phone. Can I count on you or not?” She detected footsteps heading her way and inched forward enough to see one of the twins bounding toward the kitchen. She could tell by the way Tomaso held his stomach that he was after food.
“What’s it gonna be?” Rena tried to steady her breath. If Tomaso caught her, he’d be more than happy to bust her. She’d be grounded for life. Like the Overlord, her dad didn’t take lightly to his rules being broken.
“Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll go,” Blaze finally said.
“Yes!” She did a silent cheer while quietly bouncing on her toes. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. Meet me at my house after.”
“Should be there by five.”
“You’re the best!” she whispered before she clicked off. Then she stepped on a lower shelf and stashed the phone up between two bags of rice seconds before Tomaso walked in. With any luck, the adults would blame each other for misplacing the phone.
Chapter Seven
Saturday, June 17
Early Evening
At a quarter ‘til five, a knock sounded at the door. Rena raced downstairs, but nosy Anata beat her. It took everything Rena had not to roll her eyes as the woman opened the door to reveal Blaze’s smiling face.
Rena’s jaw dropped. Blue jeans showed off the curve of her best friend’s hips and narrow waist. The sleeveless turquoise top accentuated her hair, which strategically dangled from under her sunhat.
Blaze hooked her fingers on the belt loops and looked away. “It’s my mom’s outfit. She let me borrow it.”
Edge of Truth (9781310978142) Page 5
