Just as I think we’re home free, she turns back, pointing a perfectly manicured finger that sternly bounces between us before settling on Jace. A small breath of relief leaves my lips.
‘I mean it,’ she says, ‘If I get another call from security down at the speedway for your little …heists…’ she scowls at the word, ‘you’re grounded.’
Jace lets out a nervous giggle. ‘They’re not heists—’
‘Hay naku, ang batang ito. I don’t want to hear about you anywhere near that speedway. You know how I feel about that place. You know what it’s taken from me. Do you understand?’
Jace’s grin melts away. Loss weighs down like a heavy blanket. It’s not just what was taken fromher. Pa was taken from all of us.
‘Yeah.’ All trace of humour, sarcasm and light is drained from Jace’s voice. ‘Loud and clear, Ma.’
She lowers her finger before glancing over to me, brows raised. ‘I want you to pick up an extracurricular for your transcript. Arealextracurricular.’
With that, she turns, heels clacking against the tiles until she’s out the front door. We wait until we hear her car leave the driveway before we begin our routine, Jace throwing the cremated remnants of his pancakes in the outside trash while I wash the dishes and leave them to dry on the rack.
He ruffles my hair when he returns. ‘Good work, kid. I didn’t think her pancakes could get any worse.’
‘She said she added protein to them this time.’ I pull a disgusted face, the ashy taste still coating my tongue. ‘I’m glad you came in when you did. She was hounding me about my major.’
‘She just “wants what’s best”.’ Jace makes air quotations with his fingers.
‘Easy for you to say. You’re the favourite.’
‘Ma doesn’t have favourites,’ he argues.
My mouth drops in disbelief. ‘She so does! And it’s you. I have distinctions in all my classes, she’s just mad that they’re not in Economics. You’re out doing risky shit and all you get is a threat to be grounded. She’d never actually go through with it, either.’
‘Yeah, well, just make sure you don’t even mention The Tropics around her. Please. With these new mods, I’m going to win every race.’ He bites his tongue with a grin that screams trouble.
‘Why do you do it, anyway?’ I ask.
‘Do what?’
‘Racing. The speedway was one thing, but The Lost Tropics is another.’
There’s a hint of secrecy swirling in his mischievous gaze, like he’s not sure if he wants me to know. ‘What do you know about The Tropics?’
‘Well, I know it’sillegal.’ I overpronounce the word.
‘Yeah.’ Jace shrugs, and the look he had slips off with it. He turns his head to gaze out the window. ‘Maybe you’ll get it one day, kid.’ His words come out quieter.
‘Would you stop calling me kid?’
He’s only two years older than me, but he treats me like a baby. I’ll be nineteen in a few months.
‘You’re my baby sister.’ Jace grins, hooking a playful arm around my shoulder. ‘You’ll always be a kid.’
He’s always been protective of me, especially after Pa passed two years ago. Sometimes it’s suffocating, but he means well and I know I can always count on him.
I shrug him off. ‘Stop it.’
‘What?’ He chuckles. ‘You will.’
I’ll miss our morning bickering when he moves. I know he’s stuck around for as long as he could. Even though our college isn’t far, it would have made more sense for him to live on campus with the constant basketball practice before, after and in-between classes, but he decided to stay home for me.
‘What am I gonna do when you leave next year?’ I ask,attempting to smooth my hair before giving up. My curls have always had a mind of their own.
‘You’ll be alright. Maybe you can get a dog or something.’ He grabs a bottle of water from the fridge and an apple from the fruit bowl. ‘He can eat the scraps.’
