Chapter 13

I made sure to meet each of them in the eye. I couldn’t, not for my heart beating, find the words in that moment but I knew, knew, I had just said the most powerful thing that had ever come out of my lips.

Connie was unimpressed and Renée was overwhelmed. Pat pouted, but she nodded as I past by her scowl. Kia was unreadable in twelve different ways. Xiomara was too tied up in her feelings to make any sense, but she was happy I was there. Andrea and Hannah didn’t meet my eyes. Marin gave me a supportive smile. Suzi just shrugged. I lolled my head back and took a deep breath.

The morning moved slowly after that. I squeezed Xiomara’s leg and kissed her on the cheek. She was smiling when I left her on the bed. Suzi was already at the table. I sat at the corner with her. We were halfway through a game of Scrabble before the room started moving again.

Connie and Andrea dragged the stools back, Andrea’s squeaking across the floor as she refused to lift it. I watched the others, Pat especially, sneer at her. If Andrea noticed, we would never know. She just put her head down further and continued on. Xiomara got up and Marin walked her over to the sinks. Suzi and I moved down so that I had taken my primary stool with my back to the toilets and sinks. Connie squeezed my shoulder as she walked on to join Xiomara and Marin.

Kia hovered next to me and other than a “That’s not how you spell fluorine.” There was very little conversation yet. Everyone was stewing on this morning, thinking of themselves or their friends in other boxes. I was terrified anyone of them would walk up to me and tell me clearly that she was her own person and I couldn’t keep her here if she wanted to go. I couldn’t. I probably wouldn’t. I definitely shouldn’t. No one did. Suzi won. We made room for Pat and Kia in our next game.

It was much the same until after lunch. Xiomara was on my lap. Kia was at my side. A cold cut sandwich was laid in front of me. It disappeared. Hannah took my crumb emptied plate away. I lifted Xiomara, she was really easy to lift. I expected I’d find her so much heavier back home. I set her down on the table. She cocked her head but I followed Hannah.

“Hey you,” She greeted me as I stepped next to her, “Finally doing some chores?”

“Maybe,” I leaned against her, “What’s this gig pay?”

“Mutual respect, soap bubbles, and good company?” She blew a some suds off the heel of her hand at me. They popped before they reached me. She had a bright smile. Her face was still a little round, but that was just the way she was built underneath it all. She had deep dark eyes and a very toothy smile. Waiting on my answer, she bumped my hip with her own.

“Sold,” I grinned.

“K,” Hannah chuckled, “We don’t know if we have to actually wash the dishes or just load up the cabinet, but that’s what we’ve been doing. So, I’ll wash and you load the box?”

“You get wet, I shove it in, check,” I blushed as I joked but she laughed brightly until she snorted. And then she went wide eyed and blushed. I had to walk around her to the other side for my job. I ran my hand across her shoulders. She whipped her head back and forth following me.

“So what are you expecting from the planet we’re going to?” She asked with a hopeful smile as I took the first plate from her fingers.

“I dunno, maybe giant insect creatures, or tree sized mushrooms, or purple water, or something unearthly.” I shrugged.

“Oh,” She frowned, “I was hoping for pine trees and ski hills.”

“You ski?” There was a ski hill a few miles up the highway from town. I had never been, skipping the winter carnival trip the last few years.

“Snowboard,” She grinned, “It’s like the only time I play outside.”

I laughed and took the next dish.

“So what do you do?” She asked happily. Her eyes were practically glowing. She was getting a thrill of talking to me that was rapidly infectious. I smiled back.

“Um, huh, I--” was not an active kid and the kneejerk was to lie and puff up like a blowfish but I managed to catch myself. I had dropped out of hockey in grade three, out of baseball in grade four, out of soccer in grade five. “I go fishing, with my dad a lot.”

“Yeah?” She wrinkled her nose, “I went with my brothers a few times. They made me gut the trout. I never went back.”

“How old were you?” I remembered doing that for the first time when I was six.

“Fourteen,” She laughed at herself. She raised her fingers and whispered in a spooky voice, “Goth girl likes darkness and demons. But she’s not a big blood and guts person.”

“Well, if there are fish on our new planet, I’ll clean them,” I promised.

“My hero,” She batted her eyelashes and laughed loudly. I smirked and then jumped for the fingers running up my spine.

“Hey working man,” Connie looked over my shoulder, “Can we steal him Hannah? If we don’t do something physical we’re going to go nuts.”

Sometimes you can smile so idiotically and confidently it hurts your cheeks.

“I’m holding the skipping rope in my hand you pervert.” Connie rolled her eyes as she lifted the white rope with the blue handles in front of my face.

“OK,” I wasn’t smiling that hard anymore, but nearly, “Only if Hannah’s done with my company.”

“I’ll keep her company,” Renée came from behind me. I looked to her before I looked to Hannah and while saw her face change to serene, any disappointment of me leaving was entirely imagined on my behalf. I squeezed her arm as Connie led me towards the open section between the showers and the table.

“Um, a little further, Dean,” Connie had swirled on her heel and was walking back from me, leading me on with a bright smile. It was reflex to follow her curved hips and gentle rhythm. I stopped anyway.

There were nine girls in the box with me. All of which I had known for at least the four years of high school. Pat, Xiomara, Kia, and Suzi even longer. I had never talked to Hannah before a moment ago and she wasn’t the only one. On my right, with a book in her hand, forgotten by Kia and Marin waiting to jump rope, neglected by Suzi and Xiomara making the bed, and ignored by Renée and Hannah washing the last few dishes. Pat scowled, locking her knees together and leaning forward with her arms crossed over her belly as I looked away from her red cheeks.

Andrea froze when I rolled my hand over her shoulder. I smiled to Connie, “I think, I might read for a bit.”

Connie got angry, just in the corners of her eyes and the solidness of her heels on the floor. She bounced, shaking it all off.

“Don’t spend all your time reading,” She warned me, “We’re not going to let you get fat.”

“Thank you,” I promised. I squeezed again the reading girl’s shoulder and Andrea looked up to me with an inconsistent smile. I took the stool next to her and she turned, running her knee along my thigh as she shared the cover of her book: The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie.

“I like mysteries,” She said a little tentatively.

“Cool,” I looked over to the books and games locker, “Do you want to help me pick something out?”

“Yes please,” She genuinely smiled before she stood up. She was the middle of the room. Taller than Renée but still not five foot five. Cuvier than Suzi but still more slender than thick. Bigger breasted than Kia but hardly a Connie let alone a Hannah or a Renée. She had a pretty face and a quiet voice. We took the long way around the table while Kia and Marin chanted some skipping rhyme for Connie and Pat. I squeezed Xiomara’s elbow as I past her, she had cleaned up her face before lunch and I couldn’t tell she had ever been scared or crying. Suzi watched me pass stoically. Andrea didn’t try to say a word until I reached for the door of the locker.

“All of my favorite authors are here,” She announced running her finger over the spines of Arthur Conan Doyle and Lewis Carroll. I scanned over her immaculate fingernail. I recalled her in math class, sitting two rows up and one seat left, the ribbon of her bra standing out against the thinness of her t-shirt. Her fingernails had been a few different colors: light blue, light green and pink. I settled my hand on the side of her waist and reached in myself.

“Mine too,” I said showing a row of sci-fi authors, double tapping Frank Herbert, until my finger stopped on Timothy Zahn’s Dark Force Rising.

“That’s a Star Wars book,” She said, probably without judgment, but this time I froze against her. I slipped my hand back as I gathered words.