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Maybe this is a crazy idea, but there’s not much else I can do.
“How far is your school from here?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The drive to Wilson High is much more pleasant than the drive to my school.
“Real relaxing, isn’t it?” I tell Jase as the electro-pop beat of my favorite UR Mine song booms from his speakers. He’s lending me control of the music because I convinced him we suffered through enough of his screamo songs. A look I couldn’t decode flashed across his face, and to my surprise, he easily agreed to give me authority on the playlist.
His eyes slide to mine, his expression flat. “How dare you play this garbage in my car.”
“It’s not garbage, it’s a blessing to our ears.” I turn the knob on his stereo, raising the volume by eight. “At least you know what they’re singing.”
“Not really, they sound like they’ve sucked in air from a balloon.”
“Which is a million times better than screaming like a monster.”
Jase snorts as he turns left, passing by a block with a burger chain, donut shop, and sandwich place. “Not even close, screaming takes skill.”
“A skill to lose your voice and break everyone’s eardrums.”
He throws me a disagreeing look, then breaks it with a laugh. Despite his objections, he lets me play three UR Mine songs—he groans and sighs the whole time, which only makes the car ride that much more fun—until we reach his school.
But Wilson High’s front gate, which is black with more chipped paint than the one at my school, is closed. Even as we hurry around the outside, every building, their paint faded to grey, is connected with a gate, barricading us from campus. We circle back to the front. I groan and clasp my face into my hands.
“I’m so screwed,” I say.
“Well, there’s only thing we can do,” Jase says.
At first, I have a bit of hope that he knows someone who can open the gate. Instead, he hops onto the gate, locks his fingers around the bars, then climbs all the way to the top. Remembering that he climbed a tree the way Mulan did to the palace pillar, I hold my breath, hoping he doesn’t experience déjà vu. My mouth drops open as he hoists over to the other side, then hangs his legs there as he faces me.
Jase holds his hand out to me. “Wanna come up?”
“Jase,” I say through gritted teeth, “we’re going to get suspended.”
“What are they going to do? Suspend you from a school you don’t even go to.”
He has a point. Still, not even Nora, who has snuck behind her parents’ backs and lied to them, would ever consider doing this. Though I’ve never been punished, not even getting a timeout, there’s no doubt in my mind this is trespassing.
Jase’s face eases with an understanding smile. He lowers his hand and says, “If you’re not comfortable doing this, that’s totally fine. Just let me know what I can do to help, okay?”
I feel a blanket of warmth snuggle inside my chest. He’s so sweet, considering my feelings. I almost take him up on this until I have a flash to these past two weeks, me standing onstage and presenting my photos to an audience of people I barely know. People who are listening to the words my parents always shrug off.
I grab onto the bars and climb all the way up like Mulan did when she was sneaking into the palace, only I don’t have a ribbon to help. The paint is hot and rigid against my grip. My dad was into rock-climbing, so I guess he passed down his skills to both Padilla daughters.
Jase’s eyes widen into blue marbles as I reach the top rail. I hoist myself over the gate, and Jase climbs down with me. About two inches to the bottom, he hops off and lands onto the concrete ground. I carefully step down to the bottom rail, one foot on the ground, then the other.
“You climbed up pretty easily,” Jase says. “I thought you were a goody-two-shoes.”
“I am,” I confirm. “I’m just a goody-two-shoes doing this one bad thing.”
“You’re a badass goody-two-shoes.”
I smile at this. “I like that.”
The cutoff time for our practice SAT exam is 12:30. I set a timer so we can leave and arrive on time.
Wilson High is known for being one of the oldest schools in Sunlight. There’s evidence in how the white buildings are dulled to grey, the windows tinted a foggier shade. I like that about the campus. Each building holds so many memories from so many generations. Like Freedom High, Wilson High is an outdoor campus, except the layout is more like a maze. Apparently, Jase knows where the photography room is because Karthik dated a girl who took the class.
