"Of course you fucking did," I snapped.
He jerked a little and glared up at me and I swallowed the rest of my I-told-you-sos. "Here," I said, going for his bike. But it was a twisted, sad thing, the handlebars wrenched permanently to the left. If he could ever ride it again, it would only be in circle. "You're going to have to get on mine," I realized.
He looked offended. "You want me to ride bitch?"
"You got another idea how we get out of here?" I demanded.
He stood up, still clutching his arm. "I can walk," he said, hiding a wince.
"We're miles from the entrance and you need a fucking doctor. Sit your ass down on this bike." When he hesitated, I resorted to begging. "Come on, listen to me Gabe. I'll go slow and easy, okay?"
He pressed his lips together. I felt a sinking sensation in my chest. "You really don't trust me anymore, do you?" I asked him.
He looked at me, caught. "I trust you," he grunted through the pain. "You always think you're doing the right thing. Whether or not it turns out right, you mean well at least."
I opened my mouth and then closed it. "We'll talk about that later," I decided, helping him over to my bike. "Wrap your arm here. Tuck the left one up as best you can." I got on and twisted the throttle.
Gabe grunted when I started us moving, but he managed to hold back anything else. Instead of retracing our steps, I took the shortcut down into the ravine, following a deer trail through the scrub until we came out into the main part of the quarry where the two kids were still racing around. They saw us coming and made a beeline for my bike. "G! What happened to your bike, man...?" they started to say before noticing the angle his arm was bending at. "Oh shit man, that looks fucking bad! Gross!"
Gabe always gave me shit about loving the spotlight, but he was the one eating up the attention right now. I made a mental note to rag on him about this later, once his arm was in a cast. "I assure you," Gabe said to the teenagers. "It feels worse." He managed a grin then turned to me, suddenly excited. "Did you see the jump before it though, Jonah? If I didn't fuck my arm up, I was going to try a 360 next."
And that was how I knew the last bit of ice had melted between us. Because he'd been showing off for me. Showing off for his big brother. Wanting me to be proud.
"You ever do one on the show?" I asked.
"Episode 6," he said immediately.
I nodded. "I'll be sure to watch it then." Then I smirked. "So you cut your face and now broke your arm, you've had a productive day."
He winced and then grinned.
"What should I tell mom we were up to?" I wondered. "Should I tell her you broke your arm cleaning the bathtub or something?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, please."
"Can we go to the fucking hospital now, King of Pain?"
"Yeah," he sighed. "Take me to the hospital."
I revved the motor and then carefully set out to take care of my brother.
Chapter Seventeen
Ruby
My classroom was a well-oiled machine by now. The kids knew what I expected, my student teacher was seasoned, my lesson plans were perfect. Sure I was young, the parents always commented on that when we met for conferences, but I was completely confident in my authority over those sixteen kids in my class.
The thirty-three kids in the Spring Play were another thing entirely.
When I entered the auditorium, the stage was a mass of wiggling bodies. Double my classroom size and every one of them pushing, pulling and tugging. I was used to my docile little kindergarteners who were still small enough to scoop up into my arms if I needed to. But these kids ranged all the way up to huge, burly fifth graders, some of whom could already look me in the eye. One kid in the back looked like he was already entering puberty.
I swallowed and put on my best 'teacher voice.' "All right let's settle down!" I called.
Only a few kids looked my way, the rest paid no attention. "Listen up!" I yelled, raising one hand over my head in the universal signal of "you'd better pay attention to me, I'm your teacher."
Maddy Keely from my classroom immediately followed my lead and lifted her hand up, as did Dee's daughter Kayleigh. But the rest of them still shoved and laughed.
This could't stand. I marched down the auditorium aisle and lifted the lid to the grand piano sitting there.
Then I raised my hands over my head and smashed them both down on the keys.
The crashing, discordant chord echoed through the auditorium and made the kids freeze in place, and a few of them of them clapped their hands over their ears.
"Thank you," I said in my normal voice. "It's time to get started."
The kids looked at me, confused. "Who are you?"
"I'm Miss Riley. You know me."
"Why are you here?"
'That's a very good question,' I didn't say. Instead I smiled. "I'm the new director."
"Where's Mr. King?" one of the second graders asked.
"He's dead, dummy," came the swift reply.
I swallowed. "Quiet, please," I said. "Yes, I'm filling in for Mr. King." The very idea of it seemed completely wrong, but here I was all the same. "Now I've read over the script, and I'm assuming you all know your lines for the first scene?"
A few nods, some tentative, some enthusiastic. "Okay then." I took a deep breath and sat down at the piano bench.
I'd been up nearly all of last night going over the script Gid had written. I'd read all his notes on the kids he'd cast, the little asides like, "Tommy farts a lot, put him in back," and "Brayden's got the best voice and knows it, try to keep his ego in check." I scanned the group of kids, trying to match names with faces, and then I saw her. Hanging near the wings, ready to bolt. "Hi there Lydia," I called, waving for her to come over.
She bent her head and hurried to me, her long denim skirt swishing. I could hear a few whispers as she crossed in front of the other kids and my heart tugged. "Hi there, could you come help me a second?"
She was shy, I saw that right away. Just looking me in the eye made her turn beet red. I crouched down to her level. "Hey do you have any little brothers or sisters?" I asked.
Lydia shook her head. I was surprised to hear that. Chosen families were known for their big packs of kids. Claire joked that they were trying to take over the town through breeding. "Okay but you help watch the rest of the kids in your neighborhood, right?"
"Parish," she corrected.
"I'm sorry, right." But she was talking to me now and that was a start. "Do you think you could watch some of those kindergartners over there for me?" I said, pointing to Maddy and Kayleigh who were attempting to turn somersaults on the hard stage floor. "I need an assistant."
Her eyes shone. Clearly this was the right tact to have taken with her. "I can do that," she said, formally.
"Make sure they're listening, which means you need to listen too, right?"
"Correct," she replied.
I smiled and squeezed her arm. "Thank you Lydia. I'm glad you're here."