She said they’d deport him if she did that. I’m not sure how that really works and neither is he. But I wouldn’t let that happen.
We lie in the grass for almost an hour while he rewrites half the Bible into dirty Italian jokes. Natalya learned some of those words last week and got detention for yelling one at her teacher. Those two always end up in trouble, but Adrien takes the blame every time, completely unbothered by the consequences.
The afternoon sun is burning our faces and crickets scream all around us, disturbed by fish jumping in the lake every once in a while. We have a couple more hours of this peaceful day.
“They’re coming back in the evening,” I say and Adrien scoffs.
There are always so many duties I must undertake. It’s so exhausting. When the Varners go away for a couple of days, I finally feel like I can have some time as a normal teenager. We have some friends from the private classes and we all hang out in the pool house when the Varners are gone.
But I usually just want to hang out with Adrien and Natalya, even though she’s, of course, the most annoying person in the world.
Adrien’s head is bent over the Bible, his curly hair covering his face as he’s focused on making some origami from torn out pages.
“Hi, idiots,” Natalya says as she appears behind us, throwing her school bag by the lake and sitting in the grass right between us.
She only had four classes today. Either that or she skipped again—I hope not, but I’m not going to ask. Her uniform is all messed up and even dirty somewhere.
Adrien lifts his gaze to her and gives her that origami thing, while she smiles and studies it.
“Let’s go swimming,” I say as I get up and walk toward the wooden dock, taking my shirt and tie off.
“I don’t have a swimsuit,” Natalya argues.
“Jesus, you’re a child, who cares?” I snap at her.
Her face turns red as a tomato.
“I’m almost thirteen, you idiot, and I’m also a woman, if you didn’t notice.”
Her voice always gets annoyingly squeaky when she’s angry.
“I didn’t, to be honest. Just go in your uniform, it’s dirty anyway.”
Adrien gets up and takes her hand so she does the same. They follow me on the wooden dock.
“I’ll just put my legs in,” she mumbles, but before she gets to sit on the edge of the dock Adrien pushes us both in the water and jumps in right after us.
We all break the surface, inhaling some air, laughing.
The summer air is so hot that we end up playing in the water for more than an hour, competing for the best and most original jump.
We get out of the water and lie on the hot grass, waiting for our clothes to dry, when Natalya finds a small frog in the reeds by the water.
“Guys, there’s a lost baby frog,” she mumbles, then takes it in her hands and brings it to us so we all gently pet it.
“Kiss it, it’s probably some ugly old prince with warts instead of a nose,” I tease her.
“You’re disgusting,” she retorts and puts the frog on Adrien’s hand before they start making her a tiny leaf boat and releasing her on the lake, laughing like two idiots.
?
It’s already getting late, something around six p.m., judging by the sun. We slowly walk toward our mansion, none of us eager to go home and wait for the Varners. As we’re getting closer to the driveway, my heart sinks to my stomach. Their car is already in front of the entrance.
Fuck.
Adrien and I exchange nervous looks.
Why are they here so soon?
