I hung back until they had almost reached the next intersection before hurrying after them.With classes now in session, the hallways were surprisingly quiet, and the sound of my steps seemed much too loud.Most of the classrooms I passed had their doors shut, and through the windows, I caught glimpses of familiar scenes: teachers lecturing at white boards, kids trying to sneak glimpses of their phones under the desks, and what I now knew—from raising my feral wolf-child—was typical (albeit) bizarre teenage behavior.In one classroom, two boys were fighting with yardsticks while the teacher did her nails.In another, a girl had her phone propped up by textbooks as she taught her teacher a dance and recorded the most cringeable video.I even got to see one of the classics: a boy in a hoodie who had fallen asleep with his head back, his mouth hanging open.His buddies were clearly trying to work up the courage to throw something in there.
As I reached the end of the hallway, I was craning my head for a last glimpse—it looked like one of the boys had found a penny, and honestly, I wanted to see if they got it in—when I crashed into someone.
I caught myself on a locker, fighting a mixture of annoyance at myself and annoyance at whoever I’d collided with.Before I even saw him, though, I sensed something familiar: a cloud of perpetual annoyance that at any moment could flare up into silent, murderous anger.
Keme’s dark eyes got huge.“What areyoudoing here?”
Sometimes, the best defense is a good offense.“Why aren’t you in class?”
He must have still been in shock, because he wasn’t quite fast enough on his feet.“I’m going to the bathroom.”
“Where’s your pass?”
He really was off his game because he just stared at me.
“Get to class,” I said.“Right now.I do not want to have another conversation with the principal about truancy and graduation and how it’s my responsibility to make sure you enter adulthood fully equipped for a rich and rewarding life.”(Honestly, those conversations were such bummers, especially since it always felt likeIwas the one in trouble instead of Keme.) Sensing my advantage, I decided to press a little farther.“You know what?I think I should walk you to class.Make sure you actually get there.”
If his eyes had been big before.
“Are you insane?”he whispered.He even looked around, even though the hallway was still empty.“You have to go home.Now.”It must have killed him to say it, but he even managed, “Please.”
“I don’t think so.In fact, I think it’s high time I took a more, uh, active role in—”
“Is that your dad?”
The question came from a short, round ninth-grader with a bowl cut of blond hair and what was, admittedly, a super cute potato chip T-shirt.(The chips were lounging in a bowl of dip like it was a hot tub.)
In that exact moment, I saw Keme’s spirit leave his body: his eyes drifted half-shut; his shoulders sagged; he shrank in on himself.
For about half a second, I enjoyed it.
And then the full meaning of that question landed.
“How dare you?”I said.
But it didn’t matter, because by then, Keme had recovered.His face shuttered into its usually stony reserve, and he spun to face Bowl Cut.
The ninth-grader must have had some kind of atavistic instinct for self-preservation—not enough to make him keep his mouth shut in the first place, obviously, but enough that now, face to face with Keme, that little part of his brain remembered what cavemen were supposed to do when they came face to face with a saber-toothed tiger.For a single, terrible moment, he was frozen.Then he farted—and I mean, he ripped one.Long and hard.And then he ran.
“Make him come back here,” I said to Keme.“Then beat him up.”
Keme tried the look on me.
“Oh no,” I said.“That’s not going to work—”
At that moment, Indira’s voice came clearly from the hall.It sounded like she and Fox had backtracked and were now coming toward us again.“—this way, then.”
I flattened myself against the lockers and thought invisible thoughts.
Keme disappeared.
I swear to God, it was like the boy turned to smoke.
“—used to have an office on that side of the building,” Fox was saying as they came closer.
“Well, it won’t hurt to check,” Indira said.
At that moment, they passed the opening to the hallway.I stayed where I was, squished against the wall of lockers.For one horrible heartbeat, they drew even with me, and all it would have taken would have been the most casual glance for them to notice me.But they didn’t look over, and then, after another moment, they were past me and moving down the hall.
