In the morning, I had a call from Mike. I answered and spoke to him while looking at Pixie’s window.
“Hey, bud. How’s it going?” He sounded wrecked.
Ronna’s voice was next. “Hey, sweetheart. Are you okay? Is everything okay?”
It was my turn to be there for them. “Yup. It’s fine. He understands to leave me alone. And in just six months, I can be around you guys again.”
“Your room in our house is yours for the rest of our lives.” Her voice sounded thick.
Next, I heard Mike. “Listen, the coach there at Midiville is interested in you. We have to maintain your training schedule and those guys play after school. They have a rec team with the county. The colleges that were scouting you have been haunting me about you and—”
This time Ronna interrupted, “He’s got to get ready for school. Do you have a lunch? Do you have lunch money? Is there orange juice? I should’ve sent orange juice.”
When I first went to their house, I had a glass. I mentioned how much I liked it, and there was always a carton in the fridge every day. Knowing now that it was there for me was a hug and a slap at the same time. “I’ve got some. Don’t worry. I’m getting ready now. I won’t be late. Love you guys and thank you so much for all you do.” I ended the call but not soon enough to miss Ronna’s crying.
_______________
Bruce was gone when I got to the living room dressed for school. I had my backpack and phone, my notebooks half-full of the lessons I was leaving abruptly an hour and half away from here. This was the first school I’d started on my own in a while. I hoped to see Pixie walking in, but even though I lingered, there was no Pixie.
I made it to my first class a little late, but the teacher was understanding. After prepping the class to the English lesson, she spoke to me quietly at her desk. My old school had covered the material we were going over now, so she checked that I felt comfortable with the quiz review and the homework we were doing. I told her it was no problem.
I scanned the classroom again, but didn’t recognize anyone. This high school had three middle schools that fed into it, and I’d not seen these kids for the last year of middle school, when the hormones beat us all unrecognizable. And maybe I’d blocked a few faces out.
By the time I was headed to my second class, I had two of the groupies from the park on either side of me, giggling and touching my arms.
“I’m Megan and this is…” the blonde pointed to the other blonde, “Ashlin.”
Megan held on to my bicep and insisted on continuing to get on her tiptoes to whisper things to me about certain people who walked by.
Ashlin laughed at her. “You know that is all going to roll over him, right?”
I shrugged my shoulders. Ashlin was right. I was lucky I was remembering their names.
They made sure I got to my second class and promised to be back to take me to my third. Having height helped navigate the crowded hallways. By lunch, I was getting led to a table full of basketball players, some I recognized from the park. I settled in at their table and snapped. It was that easy. I was in school and not bullied. Not struggling for a social spot. It seemed too easy. But senior year and basketball were huge factors. That, and the girls kept being wherever I was.
I finally asked around about Pixie, but the girls that followed me changed the subject after snickering and giggling. I didn’t like it. I had such mixed feelings.
After school, Coach Matthew asked to meet me in the gymnasium. Some of the other guys from the team were messing with each other and walking around me like they had found me on a treasure hunt or something. Off-season after-school scrimmages were a thing here.
“Hey, so Gaze, I’d love to toss you into this scrimmage, but I have to follow the rules. I need to make sure you have all your permissions in. Your father around to sign your stuff?” He tossed the basketball to me and I lazily dribbled it while I waited for a good lie to form.
“Sure. Does he have to show up, or can he just sign?” I turned my body and took a shot. It swished right in and I was standing at almost half court.
Coach Matthew’s face slid right into a huge grin. “He can just sign it and you can take a picture. Show it to me on your phone tomorrow. First thing in the morning and I’ll see if we can’t get permission to have you to hang out after school.”
He even drove me home after I watched the guys play. On the ride, he tipped me off. “Your foster father can’t stop talking about how much of a future he feels you have in this sport.”
I nodded while taking in the old sights. The advertisements had changed, and some of the names of businesses had changed. And there also seemed to be purple bikes on the corners everywhere. After watching someone use their credit card, I figured out that it was a rental system. No one had helmets, and it didn’t seem the safest either.
“There is a tournament that we can train for—sort of an exhibition game. He said that the scouts that watched you would like to see a bit more. I bet I could get the guys from the team to enter. I only have a few that play multiple sports. Your foster dad must know some people.”
I tapped my fingers on my knee. “Yeah, he put in a lot of research and volunteered a bunch. He really cares about me.” Clearly, Mike was busy shaking things up, making sure that my change in schools didn’t diminish interest in me during the off-season.
Coach Matthew pushed for me to go up and get the forms filled out, but I slid out of that commitment. I was planning on forging Bruce’s name, so I didn’t really want to advertise it.
“No worries, Coach. I’ll see you first thing in the morning with everything in order.” His face looked like he was afraid he was losing a winning lotto ticket.
Bruce was not home when I got there, and I wondered out loud if he had a job again.
That evening I had dinner delivered to me—pizza, a dessert, and a gallon of milk. It had no note, but Ronna buzzed through my phone.
“Everything’s okay? I wasn’t sure how they did it at the apartments?”
I sent back a snap of me taking a bite out of the cheese slice. Soon enough, I was on a FaceTime call with five faces reflected back at me on my screen after I had made sure I had a background that didn’t highlight the shit condition the apartment was in.
“Are you alone?” Ronna could sense stuff.
“Yeah. What did you guys have for dinner?” I watched as Ronna turned her body a little. Mike leaned over and put his hand on her shoulder. She hated that I was alone.
Teddi picked up the dialogue. “We have pizza, too! Want to eat with us?”
“Sure. That would be great.”
Milt propped the phone up near my seat at the dinner table. I’d been gone two days and it felt like forever. I soaked up the banter and conversation until I heard the jangle of keys in the lock. I said goodbye quickly and shut down the application. I didn’t want them to see Bruce. I wished I were back at their house. My stomach was in knots as I waited to see what condition Bruce was in. He had on a blue uniform and a name badge that proclaimed him as Kenneth. He was not drunk, but he was tired.
He put a bag on the counter. “I got us some frozen dinners if you…” He stopped talking when he saw the pizza box on the table next to me.
“You don’t have to pretend to care if I eat or not. You never did before.” I closed the pizza and slid the box of the leftover slices into the fridge.