MCSKSG, Two point two
Still not all of chapter two, but getting there. 3,228 words.
Saturday morning had a very distinct feel to it. It was a bit like Christmas morning, but without all the excitement. So I guess maybe more like the day before Christmas. I woke up thinking, "Dad's coming to see me." I wondered whether this anticipation would get worse and worse until it hit April first, or if it would decline over the weeks and then come back and hit me like a truck on March thirty-first, so hard I wouldn't be able to sleep. April first, this year, would definitely feel like Christmas.
When I walked downstairs Mom was curled up on the couch, wrapped in a blanket with a cup of tea in her hands, watching the news. "Morning, honey." Not a word about school, that was a plus. It meant she had calmed down about the situation and I wasn't in trouble anymore.
I walked over to sit next to her and she held up an edge of the blanket. I moved closer, leaning my head against her shoulder, and she laid the blanket over mine. "They're talking about a girl who's been missing since yesterday."
I focused my attention on the screen. There was a man in a suit standing in front of a familiar looking building, talking about the missing girl. Apparently her name was Rhianna and nobody knew what had happened to her and there was a citywide search effort out to find her. When they mentioned the street, I realized why the place looked familiar.
"That's where Chris lives."
"Really?"
"Westfall Apartments, yeah."
"Mm..." It was a thoughtful, hesitant kind of noise. "Be careful, honey."
"She probably just ran away."
"You never know..."
I wondered how Chris's family was reacting. What did they think it was? I'd probably get to find out anyway when I went over to help with the science paper.
They switched to the weather, which was more speculation on the unseasonable warmth. Same thing we'd been hearing all week. Santa Capitolina and Izlude, just north- and southeast of us were seasonably cold, but not Prontera. Nobody knew what was going on, but that wasn't really news to anybody.
It did remind me of the letter, though. "Dad said he's visiting for my birthday this year."
There was a sputtering, choking noise and Mom started coughing. I sat up, kind of worried. She hurriedly set her tea on the coffee table and took a few seconds to recover. "That's nice dear," it came out kind of strained and was followed by more coughing.
"Mom? Are you okay?"
She cleared her throat, one hand on her chest. "I'm fine."
"...It's good, right?"
"Just a little shocking, is all. He really said he'd come up for your birthday?"
"Yeah." This had to be another one of those things parents don't tell their kids. Maybe Mom was just worried about having to see him again.
"I'm glad, honey, you must be excited."
"...Yeah." But a little less so, now that I'd gotten this reaction.
"Well..." It sounded like she was going to follow it up with something, but all she did was take her tea back into her hands and take a careful sip from it.
"...What's Dad like?"
"You know," she set it back down again, rising to her feet, "Para's coming over today, you should go get dressed before she gets here."
I just stared up at her and her topic avoidance and wondered, not for the first or last time, what had happened between her and my father.
"Go, Guido!" She made a shooing motion.
I wanted to retort with something like it wasn't as if Miss K hadn't seen me in my pajamas before, she'd spent the night so many times she may as well have been family, but I didn't feel like pushing my luck today. I just pulled myself up from the couch and headed back up the stairs to my room.
* * *
Para was already over by the time I got out of the shower. I could hear her and Mom talking downstairs. I just headed straight back to my room to check my backpack for all the stuff I needed to study with Chris. After some thought, I took the two photos my dad had sent and slipped them into the cover of my binder.
After donning some socks and, after careful deliberation, the boots, I grabbed my backpack and headed down the stairs.
Para is kind of weird. Mom has people over all the time. Business people, random people, she claims she's in love with the world. But Para's the only one she'll ever just sit down and talk with. I know I said she's sleeping with my mom but it's really more like she's dating my mom, except my mom doesn't date. One of the reasons she's given me for why she and Dad couldn't stay together was that she just can't do monogamy and he couldn't handle that. She'd never been married and never planned on it.
But Para, Miss K, she seemed dangerously close to that dating line.
"Hey Guido!" She waved at me from the coush as I walked past the living room. I just waved back wordlessly. "That's a dashing look for you, you should do that more often."
I stopped, looking questioningly at her.
"The hair." She fluffed a hand at the back of her own chin-length hair.
"...Really?" I'd tied it back at the nape of my neck and for once my bangs were mostly out of my face. I don't tie my hair back much, usually only when it's hot out. But if it made me look dashing...
"Very handsome."
"...Thanks." I was smiling, I couldn't help it. It was nice to hear things like dashing and handsome after you spend so much of your life getting called a girl.
"Are you going over to Chris's, honey?"
"Yeah."
"Be careful."
"I'll be fine, Mom."
"He'll be fine, Alicia! Strapping young boy like that can take care of himself."
Trying not to grin now, I waved again and pushed open the door, stepping out into the day. Sometimes, I guess, Para can be pretty cool.
* * *
Chris's apartment is on the eighth floor of 1307 Westfall Lane, also known as Westfall Apartments. I always take the stairs, which can be pretty obnoxious, but I'd rather wear myself out on stairs than risk the elevator. I have a pretty unnatural fear of elevators malfunctioning, maybe even strong enough to count as a phobia. I will always take stairs over an elevator, no matter how out of the way or inconvenient it may seem.
It's probably better for you, but the end result is that every time I get to Chris's door to knock, I'm still trying to catch my breath. And when he answers, he usually says, "You really should just take the elevator, dude." Which is exactly what he said this time, too.
I just shook my head at him, took a deep breath, and walked into the apartment.
"I got a topic picked out, that's starting, right?" He led me down the hall toward his room.
"Barely."
"Guido!" I nearly had a heart attack until I realized it was just Andrea jumping out in front of me. Andrea is Chris's little sister. She's twelve, shares his fire-red hair and fair skin, and has a spattering of freckles over her cheeks and nose. She'd probably be kind of cute if she were a couple years older and not my best friend's little sister.
"Hi." I think I probably looked like I'd just seen a ghost.
"Nice weather we're having, huh? How are you today?"
"Fine."
"Me too! The finest!" she smiled, leaning up, fluttering her eyes. "Bet it's even finer now, huh?"
"Uh..."
"Move it, squirt." Chris shoved her aside and grabbed my arm to pull me down the hallway after him.
"Hey!" She stomped her foot, stuck her tongue out at him, and then disappeared through a doorway.
We got into Chris's room and he finally let go of my arm. I was feeling confused and just slightly disoriented after the quick escape from Andrea.
"Out, out, go, the big kids got work to do." He was shooing Danny out of the room, I realized. Daniel, the youngest McBride kid at eight, shared the same red hair and fair skin of the other two, and he was currently whining in protest like usual.
"It's my room too!"
"Yeah and when you bring your goofy little friends over you can kick me out." This was a lie. I'd heard Chris's mother yell at him before for kicking his brother and friends out of the room for no good reason. "Get."
Danny finally left, whining the whole way, and Chris shut the door behind him. "Be glad you're an only child."
"...Sure." But being the only was really, really lonely sometimes. I'd rather take the annoying whiny siblings.
He flopped down on his bed and I walked over to sit on the floor at the foot of it. I pulled off my backpack and set it on the floor beside me, reaching in to pull out my binder. "Dad sent pictures."
"Yeah?" His head was near my shoulder, arms folded over the edge of the bed. "You bring 'em?"
I held up the binder for him to see the two pictures stuck in the clear plastic of the cover.
"Whoa." He reached out to take it, examining them. "That's Garm? Your dad saw Garm?"
"Yeah."
"And that's him?"
"Uh huh, on the right."
"Crappy picture, huh?"
"At least it's a picture." I took the binder back from him, holding it to my chest. "It's better than nothing."
"Wonder what he looks like under the hat."
I looked down at it. "...Yeah." I smiled. "I'll get to see in April."
The door slammed open and we both looked up. It was just Danny. "I'm just grabbin' somethin', gosh." He walked over to his bed, dug around under it for a minute, and then walked out again, sticking his tongue out at Chris again before shutting the door.
"Shoulda locked it." Chris shook his fist in the direction of the door.
"What's your topic?" I set my binder aside and pulled my science book out of my backpack.
"Porings."
"Porings." I stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to add to it.
"Yup, porings."
"...What about porings?"
"I dunno, just porings."
"What's your thesis?"
"Uh, porings?"
"...Chris, that's not a thesis."
"Well what's yours, wiseguy?"
"It's." Well it had been about the social hierarchy of elder willows in the Payon forest, but I was staring at that picture of Garm now and elder willows just weren't looking nearly as interesting anymore. "It's about Garm. Garm's uh, interaction with its habitat."
"Well then maybe mine's about porings and their interaction with their habitat."
"Okay. Sure." Garm. Way cooler than willows. "We should probably be at the lirary to work on this."
"Maaan, I don't wanna go to the library today! Let's work on something else then."
"There's that English paper."
"The ninja one?"
I'd been thinking of the other one, the report that was due next Wednesday which I had been working on the day I'd gotten these stupid boots from the guy in the tux, but I'd completely forgotten about the assignment I'd been sent to the principal about. "I..." Oh God, was I really saying this? "I don't think I'm doing that one."
"Seriously?" I winced at the shocked tone.
"Yeah."
"Mister Academia isn't gonna do a paper?"
For a girl. "Shut up, Chris." I was making a stand (for a girl).
"For Esperanza?" I could practically see the sparkles and hearts he pronounced around the name.
"Shut up, Chris." I could only hope he could envision the daggers in that.
* * *
The rest of the day was spent on...well, just hanging out, really. I think we talked about our papers once or twice, I helped with his math for maybe half an hour, but nothing more than that as far as academics. I ended up staying for dinner (I had to call Mom and let her know, she's very particular about me needing to call if I'll be out past a certain time) and over dinner we ended up discussing the disappearance of Rhianna.
Andrea's contribution was, "They think it might be Mary Contrary!"
Danny was so entralled by the idea that he nearly choked on his mashed potatoes. "Really?"
"It's not Mary Contrary. Chick's too bada--" The look from his mother made Chris cut himself off. He cleared his throat and corrected, "Chick's too hardcore for smalltime stuff like kidnapping."
"If it was Mary Contrary, she probably took her as an apprentice." Andrea sounded so matter-of-fact, like she knew all the workings of the mysterious masked woman that was Mary Contrary. She looked to me suddenly, with a bright smile. "What do you think, Guido?"
Chris was giving me this look, and his mom was giving me a different, more arched eyebrows look, and I just sank down in my chair and mumbled a reply around my fork. "I don't think it's her."
"You're right, it's probably not. But it'd be really cool if it was, don't you think? I'd wanna be Mary Contrary's apprentice."
"Andrea, the woman's a criminal--"
Their father was cut off by all three children collectively crying, "Nuh uh!"
"She robbed a bank just last week!" He was incredulous.
"But she catches bad guys!" Danny, whining again. It was like whining was the natural state of his voice.
"She is a bad guy!"
"No she's not!" And again Andrea threw her attention to me. "You don't think so, do you, Guido?"
I thought, whole-heartedly, that Andrea needed to stop asking me things and that the glare her father was directing at me was quite terrifying. "I, uh...she's..." I thought she was something of a hero myself, despite her occasional crime sprees. But that look. Mister McBride is a very intimidating man. "She's...done some pretty bad things..."
"See?" As if my word were gospel. Andrea looked pretty disappointed by the fact that I'd agreed with her father over her, but her father won out for scary glares.
"So," their mother with a blessed subject change, "who wants to help with the dishes?"
"I will!" I don't know if I sounded enthused or panicked, but I was just relieved to be given the escape route.
"Thank you, Guido. Chris, why can't you ever be so helpful?"
He rolled his eyes and gave me an exasperated look. I just shrugged and got up to help his mom with the dishes.
* * *
It was really nice to get away from the spotlight for a while. I help my mom with dishes all the time, so helping Chris's is no big deal for me. She really appreciates the help and making sure that I'm on my best friend's mom's good side can come in pretty handy sometimes.
When she dismissed me, I walked back to Chris's room, where he was lying on his bed reading comics and Danny was on the other side of the room building something out of Legos.
"Man, you're such a kiss-up." Chris didn't even look up at me.
"I was just trying to avoid getting maimed." I walked over to sit where I'd been earlier, beside the backpack I'd left there.
"It wasn't that bad."
"Andrea kept staring me down! It was pretty intense."
"Uh yeah, she--"
"Drea an' Guido, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S--"
"Danny!" Chris threw down the comic book and pointed at the door. "Scram."
I was staring at the little brother in horror. "What?"
"Drea loooves you--"
"Danny!"
I couldn't even formulate words. I just stared in shock as Danny took his legos to the living room, leaving me alone with Chris again.
"You okay, bro?"
I looked up at him, eyes wide, and gestured broadly toward the door. "She--what?"
"Uh, it's pretty obvious. You seriously never noticed?"
I shook my head. I thought Danny was joking at first, but it wasn't the kind of joking Danny usually did.
"Dude, why do you think she's always all over you the minute you step in the door?"
"She's not--"
"Oh, Guido!" He smiled, batting his eyes, speaking in an immitation of his sister's voice. "Lovely weather isn't it? What do you think? Oh I totally agree!"
"She doesn't--" She does. My heart sank, there was that feeling like I'd swallowed a rock.
"When you're not here, she gushes. Like how you gush about Esperanza, she gushes about you."
"I don't gush!"
"You seriously do. Just like a teenage girl."
"No I--no I don't!"
"Andrea is crushing on you just as hard as you crush on Esper. She's just actually brave enough to say two words to you."
"I've said--" I trailed off with a frustrated noise, combing my fingers through my bangs. This was too shocking, I had no idea what to say or what to do about it or even how I was ever going to manage to look Andrea in the eye ever again. "What am I supposed to--?"
"Nothing." He clapped a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see a smile that did not seem particularly friendly. "Cuz if you do anything to my sister, I'll kill you."
I could feel the blood freeze in my veins. It was like I'd been injected with liquid nitrogen. "I should--" my voice cracked; I scrambled to grab my backpack, thankful everything was already packed up, "I should go."
"Peace, dude," but I was out the door before the words were out of his mouth.
Thankfully I also managed to avoid Andrea on the way out, gave his mother a faint good-bye, and slipped into the hallway where I paused to regain my wits.
Okay, so Andrea liked me, and Chris would murder me-- it just meant I had to be extra careful around her, that's all. Just. Extra careful. I could do that. Threat of brotherly death hanging over my head--
I took a deep cleansing breath and headed for the stairs. It wasn't a big deal, it really wasn't. (How had I not noticed? It was so obvious now that I actually thought about it-- I don't gush Chris, whatever!)
I was at about the fourth floor when the lights in the stairwell went out. I froze, but it only took a second or two before the red emergency backup lights flickered on. I took a hesitant glance around before slowly resuming my descent. There wasn't a storm or anything. Maybe someone had run into a utility pole? Weird. Kind of creepy. Why did the emergency lights have to be red? It kind of made the stairwell look like a horror movie-- No, bad thoughts, Guido, don't go there.
It was at the third floor landing that I ran into Lacy Greaves, heading up. I stopped, astonished, but she just gave me a hello and a wave and continued up. I guess she lived here, I'd never noticed. I managed at least to return the wave before she vanished, and stood there staring after her for a while before finally continuing down.
Saturday morning had a very distinct feel to it. It was a bit like Christmas morning, but without all the excitement. So I guess maybe more like the day before Christmas. I woke up thinking, "Dad's coming to see me." I wondered whether this anticipation would get worse and worse until it hit April first, or if it would decline over the weeks and then come back and hit me like a truck on March thirty-first, so hard I wouldn't be able to sleep. April first, this year, would definitely feel like Christmas.
When I walked downstairs Mom was curled up on the couch, wrapped in a blanket with a cup of tea in her hands, watching the news. "Morning, honey." Not a word about school, that was a plus. It meant she had calmed down about the situation and I wasn't in trouble anymore.
I walked over to sit next to her and she held up an edge of the blanket. I moved closer, leaning my head against her shoulder, and she laid the blanket over mine. "They're talking about a girl who's been missing since yesterday."
I focused my attention on the screen. There was a man in a suit standing in front of a familiar looking building, talking about the missing girl. Apparently her name was Rhianna and nobody knew what had happened to her and there was a citywide search effort out to find her. When they mentioned the street, I realized why the place looked familiar.
"That's where Chris lives."
"Really?"
"Westfall Apartments, yeah."
"Mm..." It was a thoughtful, hesitant kind of noise. "Be careful, honey."
"She probably just ran away."
"You never know..."
I wondered how Chris's family was reacting. What did they think it was? I'd probably get to find out anyway when I went over to help with the science paper.
They switched to the weather, which was more speculation on the unseasonable warmth. Same thing we'd been hearing all week. Santa Capitolina and Izlude, just north- and southeast of us were seasonably cold, but not Prontera. Nobody knew what was going on, but that wasn't really news to anybody.
It did remind me of the letter, though. "Dad said he's visiting for my birthday this year."
There was a sputtering, choking noise and Mom started coughing. I sat up, kind of worried. She hurriedly set her tea on the coffee table and took a few seconds to recover. "That's nice dear," it came out kind of strained and was followed by more coughing.
"Mom? Are you okay?"
She cleared her throat, one hand on her chest. "I'm fine."
"...It's good, right?"
"Just a little shocking, is all. He really said he'd come up for your birthday?"
"Yeah." This had to be another one of those things parents don't tell their kids. Maybe Mom was just worried about having to see him again.
"I'm glad, honey, you must be excited."
"...Yeah." But a little less so, now that I'd gotten this reaction.
"Well..." It sounded like she was going to follow it up with something, but all she did was take her tea back into her hands and take a careful sip from it.
"...What's Dad like?"
"You know," she set it back down again, rising to her feet, "Para's coming over today, you should go get dressed before she gets here."
I just stared up at her and her topic avoidance and wondered, not for the first or last time, what had happened between her and my father.
"Go, Guido!" She made a shooing motion.
I wanted to retort with something like it wasn't as if Miss K hadn't seen me in my pajamas before, she'd spent the night so many times she may as well have been family, but I didn't feel like pushing my luck today. I just pulled myself up from the couch and headed back up the stairs to my room.
* * *
Para was already over by the time I got out of the shower. I could hear her and Mom talking downstairs. I just headed straight back to my room to check my backpack for all the stuff I needed to study with Chris. After some thought, I took the two photos my dad had sent and slipped them into the cover of my binder.
After donning some socks and, after careful deliberation, the boots, I grabbed my backpack and headed down the stairs.
Para is kind of weird. Mom has people over all the time. Business people, random people, she claims she's in love with the world. But Para's the only one she'll ever just sit down and talk with. I know I said she's sleeping with my mom but it's really more like she's dating my mom, except my mom doesn't date. One of the reasons she's given me for why she and Dad couldn't stay together was that she just can't do monogamy and he couldn't handle that. She'd never been married and never planned on it.
But Para, Miss K, she seemed dangerously close to that dating line.
"Hey Guido!" She waved at me from the coush as I walked past the living room. I just waved back wordlessly. "That's a dashing look for you, you should do that more often."
I stopped, looking questioningly at her.
"The hair." She fluffed a hand at the back of her own chin-length hair.
"...Really?" I'd tied it back at the nape of my neck and for once my bangs were mostly out of my face. I don't tie my hair back much, usually only when it's hot out. But if it made me look dashing...
"Very handsome."
"...Thanks." I was smiling, I couldn't help it. It was nice to hear things like dashing and handsome after you spend so much of your life getting called a girl.
"Are you going over to Chris's, honey?"
"Yeah."
"Be careful."
"I'll be fine, Mom."
"He'll be fine, Alicia! Strapping young boy like that can take care of himself."
Trying not to grin now, I waved again and pushed open the door, stepping out into the day. Sometimes, I guess, Para can be pretty cool.
* * *
Chris's apartment is on the eighth floor of 1307 Westfall Lane, also known as Westfall Apartments. I always take the stairs, which can be pretty obnoxious, but I'd rather wear myself out on stairs than risk the elevator. I have a pretty unnatural fear of elevators malfunctioning, maybe even strong enough to count as a phobia. I will always take stairs over an elevator, no matter how out of the way or inconvenient it may seem.
It's probably better for you, but the end result is that every time I get to Chris's door to knock, I'm still trying to catch my breath. And when he answers, he usually says, "You really should just take the elevator, dude." Which is exactly what he said this time, too.
I just shook my head at him, took a deep breath, and walked into the apartment.
"I got a topic picked out, that's starting, right?" He led me down the hall toward his room.
"Barely."
"Guido!" I nearly had a heart attack until I realized it was just Andrea jumping out in front of me. Andrea is Chris's little sister. She's twelve, shares his fire-red hair and fair skin, and has a spattering of freckles over her cheeks and nose. She'd probably be kind of cute if she were a couple years older and not my best friend's little sister.
"Hi." I think I probably looked like I'd just seen a ghost.
"Nice weather we're having, huh? How are you today?"
"Fine."
"Me too! The finest!" she smiled, leaning up, fluttering her eyes. "Bet it's even finer now, huh?"
"Uh..."
"Move it, squirt." Chris shoved her aside and grabbed my arm to pull me down the hallway after him.
"Hey!" She stomped her foot, stuck her tongue out at him, and then disappeared through a doorway.
We got into Chris's room and he finally let go of my arm. I was feeling confused and just slightly disoriented after the quick escape from Andrea.
"Out, out, go, the big kids got work to do." He was shooing Danny out of the room, I realized. Daniel, the youngest McBride kid at eight, shared the same red hair and fair skin of the other two, and he was currently whining in protest like usual.
"It's my room too!"
"Yeah and when you bring your goofy little friends over you can kick me out." This was a lie. I'd heard Chris's mother yell at him before for kicking his brother and friends out of the room for no good reason. "Get."
Danny finally left, whining the whole way, and Chris shut the door behind him. "Be glad you're an only child."
"...Sure." But being the only was really, really lonely sometimes. I'd rather take the annoying whiny siblings.
He flopped down on his bed and I walked over to sit on the floor at the foot of it. I pulled off my backpack and set it on the floor beside me, reaching in to pull out my binder. "Dad sent pictures."
"Yeah?" His head was near my shoulder, arms folded over the edge of the bed. "You bring 'em?"
I held up the binder for him to see the two pictures stuck in the clear plastic of the cover.
"Whoa." He reached out to take it, examining them. "That's Garm? Your dad saw Garm?"
"Yeah."
"And that's him?"
"Uh huh, on the right."
"Crappy picture, huh?"
"At least it's a picture." I took the binder back from him, holding it to my chest. "It's better than nothing."
"Wonder what he looks like under the hat."
I looked down at it. "...Yeah." I smiled. "I'll get to see in April."
The door slammed open and we both looked up. It was just Danny. "I'm just grabbin' somethin', gosh." He walked over to his bed, dug around under it for a minute, and then walked out again, sticking his tongue out at Chris again before shutting the door.
"Shoulda locked it." Chris shook his fist in the direction of the door.
"What's your topic?" I set my binder aside and pulled my science book out of my backpack.
"Porings."
"Porings." I stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to add to it.
"Yup, porings."
"...What about porings?"
"I dunno, just porings."
"What's your thesis?"
"Uh, porings?"
"...Chris, that's not a thesis."
"Well what's yours, wiseguy?"
"It's." Well it had been about the social hierarchy of elder willows in the Payon forest, but I was staring at that picture of Garm now and elder willows just weren't looking nearly as interesting anymore. "It's about Garm. Garm's uh, interaction with its habitat."
"Well then maybe mine's about porings and their interaction with their habitat."
"Okay. Sure." Garm. Way cooler than willows. "We should probably be at the lirary to work on this."
"Maaan, I don't wanna go to the library today! Let's work on something else then."
"There's that English paper."
"The ninja one?"
I'd been thinking of the other one, the report that was due next Wednesday which I had been working on the day I'd gotten these stupid boots from the guy in the tux, but I'd completely forgotten about the assignment I'd been sent to the principal about. "I..." Oh God, was I really saying this? "I don't think I'm doing that one."
"Seriously?" I winced at the shocked tone.
"Yeah."
"Mister Academia isn't gonna do a paper?"
For a girl. "Shut up, Chris." I was making a stand (for a girl).
"For Esperanza?" I could practically see the sparkles and hearts he pronounced around the name.
"Shut up, Chris." I could only hope he could envision the daggers in that.
* * *
The rest of the day was spent on...well, just hanging out, really. I think we talked about our papers once or twice, I helped with his math for maybe half an hour, but nothing more than that as far as academics. I ended up staying for dinner (I had to call Mom and let her know, she's very particular about me needing to call if I'll be out past a certain time) and over dinner we ended up discussing the disappearance of Rhianna.
Andrea's contribution was, "They think it might be Mary Contrary!"
Danny was so entralled by the idea that he nearly choked on his mashed potatoes. "Really?"
"It's not Mary Contrary. Chick's too bada--" The look from his mother made Chris cut himself off. He cleared his throat and corrected, "Chick's too hardcore for smalltime stuff like kidnapping."
"If it was Mary Contrary, she probably took her as an apprentice." Andrea sounded so matter-of-fact, like she knew all the workings of the mysterious masked woman that was Mary Contrary. She looked to me suddenly, with a bright smile. "What do you think, Guido?"
Chris was giving me this look, and his mom was giving me a different, more arched eyebrows look, and I just sank down in my chair and mumbled a reply around my fork. "I don't think it's her."
"You're right, it's probably not. But it'd be really cool if it was, don't you think? I'd wanna be Mary Contrary's apprentice."
"Andrea, the woman's a criminal--"
Their father was cut off by all three children collectively crying, "Nuh uh!"
"She robbed a bank just last week!" He was incredulous.
"But she catches bad guys!" Danny, whining again. It was like whining was the natural state of his voice.
"She is a bad guy!"
"No she's not!" And again Andrea threw her attention to me. "You don't think so, do you, Guido?"
I thought, whole-heartedly, that Andrea needed to stop asking me things and that the glare her father was directing at me was quite terrifying. "I, uh...she's..." I thought she was something of a hero myself, despite her occasional crime sprees. But that look. Mister McBride is a very intimidating man. "She's...done some pretty bad things..."
"See?" As if my word were gospel. Andrea looked pretty disappointed by the fact that I'd agreed with her father over her, but her father won out for scary glares.
"So," their mother with a blessed subject change, "who wants to help with the dishes?"
"I will!" I don't know if I sounded enthused or panicked, but I was just relieved to be given the escape route.
"Thank you, Guido. Chris, why can't you ever be so helpful?"
He rolled his eyes and gave me an exasperated look. I just shrugged and got up to help his mom with the dishes.
* * *
It was really nice to get away from the spotlight for a while. I help my mom with dishes all the time, so helping Chris's is no big deal for me. She really appreciates the help and making sure that I'm on my best friend's mom's good side can come in pretty handy sometimes.
When she dismissed me, I walked back to Chris's room, where he was lying on his bed reading comics and Danny was on the other side of the room building something out of Legos.
"Man, you're such a kiss-up." Chris didn't even look up at me.
"I was just trying to avoid getting maimed." I walked over to sit where I'd been earlier, beside the backpack I'd left there.
"It wasn't that bad."
"Andrea kept staring me down! It was pretty intense."
"Uh yeah, she--"
"Drea an' Guido, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S--"
"Danny!" Chris threw down the comic book and pointed at the door. "Scram."
I was staring at the little brother in horror. "What?"
"Drea loooves you--"
"Danny!"
I couldn't even formulate words. I just stared in shock as Danny took his legos to the living room, leaving me alone with Chris again.
"You okay, bro?"
I looked up at him, eyes wide, and gestured broadly toward the door. "She--what?"
"Uh, it's pretty obvious. You seriously never noticed?"
I shook my head. I thought Danny was joking at first, but it wasn't the kind of joking Danny usually did.
"Dude, why do you think she's always all over you the minute you step in the door?"
"She's not--"
"Oh, Guido!" He smiled, batting his eyes, speaking in an immitation of his sister's voice. "Lovely weather isn't it? What do you think? Oh I totally agree!"
"She doesn't--" She does. My heart sank, there was that feeling like I'd swallowed a rock.
"When you're not here, she gushes. Like how you gush about Esperanza, she gushes about you."
"I don't gush!"
"You seriously do. Just like a teenage girl."
"No I--no I don't!"
"Andrea is crushing on you just as hard as you crush on Esper. She's just actually brave enough to say two words to you."
"I've said--" I trailed off with a frustrated noise, combing my fingers through my bangs. This was too shocking, I had no idea what to say or what to do about it or even how I was ever going to manage to look Andrea in the eye ever again. "What am I supposed to--?"
"Nothing." He clapped a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see a smile that did not seem particularly friendly. "Cuz if you do anything to my sister, I'll kill you."
I could feel the blood freeze in my veins. It was like I'd been injected with liquid nitrogen. "I should--" my voice cracked; I scrambled to grab my backpack, thankful everything was already packed up, "I should go."
"Peace, dude," but I was out the door before the words were out of his mouth.
Thankfully I also managed to avoid Andrea on the way out, gave his mother a faint good-bye, and slipped into the hallway where I paused to regain my wits.
Okay, so Andrea liked me, and Chris would murder me-- it just meant I had to be extra careful around her, that's all. Just. Extra careful. I could do that. Threat of brotherly death hanging over my head--
I took a deep cleansing breath and headed for the stairs. It wasn't a big deal, it really wasn't. (How had I not noticed? It was so obvious now that I actually thought about it-- I don't gush Chris, whatever!)
I was at about the fourth floor when the lights in the stairwell went out. I froze, but it only took a second or two before the red emergency backup lights flickered on. I took a hesitant glance around before slowly resuming my descent. There wasn't a storm or anything. Maybe someone had run into a utility pole? Weird. Kind of creepy. Why did the emergency lights have to be red? It kind of made the stairwell look like a horror movie-- No, bad thoughts, Guido, don't go there.
It was at the third floor landing that I ran into Lacy Greaves, heading up. I stopped, astonished, but she just gave me a hello and a wave and continued up. I guess she lived here, I'd never noticed. I managed at least to return the wave before she vanished, and stood there staring after her for a while before finally continuing down.