Chapter 6
The school was empty by the time we left Ms. Peters’ office. I hadn’t realized how late it was getting, and now I felt sick that I hadn’t been able to see Anna before I left. I wondered if she had been looking for me, or if she had even noticed I wasn’t there. I was sure of one thing today: I needed to have Anna for myself.
Noah came over after school and had dinner, and then we went to my room and talked for a while about our newfound abilities. Both of us were in a state of shock about the whole thing. Noah couldn’t stop talking about how this was going to be his “in” with Rachel.
“My problem is being sworn to secrecy,” I said after listening to Noah go on about Rachel for far too long.
“I know.” Noah caught the football that he had been tossing up in the air and stared at me. “It’s like we have these cool super powers and it would be great to show them off a bit.” Noah laughed.
“I’d hardly call yours a super power,” I teased. “But that’s not what I meant, anyway. I’m okay with not having everyone running to me for every bruise and broken bone.”
“Then what’s your problem?” He looked at me as if he really didn’t get it, but then it clicked. His eyebrows raised and the corners of his mouth turned up. “Anna.”
“Anna,” I repeated.
“So are you ready to admit you like her yet?”
“It’s so weird to admit, but yeah. Yeah, I like her.” I hopped off my bed and grabbed the football from Noah’s lap. “I can’t stop thinking about her.” I sat back down on my bed and tossed the ball to Noah.
He caught it and tossed it back. “Someone’s got it bad.”
“This is your fault,” I said, throwing the ball harder at him. “You’re the one who got this into my head in the first place.”
“Dude, it’s always been there. I just helped you find it.”
I sat up again and looked out my window. The moon was high in the sky, and casting a perfect luminescent glow over the backyard. “It’s late,” I noticed.
Noah checked his watch. “Crap! I gotta go pack.”
“Yeah, I should too,” I replied. “Ms. Peters called Dad and fed him some garbage about me having a lot of potential and that she had me on a tight study schedule in school.” I shook my head—as if I had potential.
“Pretty cool gig, huh?”
“Can’t complain yet.”
“So I’ll pick you up at eight?” Noah said as he grabbed his book bag and headed for the door.
“That’s a little early, isn’t it?”
“Lexie said that’s what time they’re leaving. It’s only one night. We gotta make the most of it,” Noah encouraged. It worked.
“Fine.”
“Rachel said she’ll come with us,” Noah said casually.
“What about Anna?”
“I’ll call her to see if she’d rather ride with us or Eric.” Even though he was joking, it made me sick to think that she might actually choose Eric.
It was just after ten thirty when I finished packing for the weekend. Grabbing my duffle bag, I ran down the stairs and dropped it by the front door. Mom and Dad were in the living room having a glass of wine and playing an intense game of chess.
“Jake, come join us,” Dad called as he waved me over. “Your mother could use a little help.”
I assessed the chessboard and saw that Dad had Mom in about three moves or less. “Just quit now, Mom. He has you.”
“Oh, sweetheart, you know a quitter never wins,” Mom teased as she pretended to have a well-thought-out strategy in mind.
“Yeah, yeah, and a winner never quits—but you’re not a winner, Mom.” I patted the top of her head and whispered, “I think you should knock his king over. That might be your best bet.”
She laughed as she contemplated it. Mom hated to lose. She was quite competitive. So was Dad though, so I never really understood why they played chess together every weekend when he was home. Mom told me it strengthened their marriage since Dad travelled so much for work. It forced them to think like each other and get back on the same wavelength. Weird stuff.
Mom stroked her chin thoughtfully, then she quickly swiped the board with her hand and muttered, “Cheater.”
“Maybe next time, love,” Dad mused as he passed Mom her glass.
Mom took the wine, scowled at him, and then curled up beside me on the couch. “So, Jake, big trip this weekend. Looking forward to it?” she asked.
“Yeah, should be a lot of fun. Thanks again for letting me go.”
“Well, you can thank that new principal of yours,” Dad pointed out. “She was very encouraging.”
I grinned as I remembered my alibi.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Anna called for you while I was on the other line earlier.” Mom liked Anna. You could always tell when she liked or disliked one of my friends. If I got their phone messages, then she liked them. She would often open my bedroom door late at night to yell at me to get off the phone, but when she heard I was talking to Anna, she’d smile and say, “Five more minutes, okay, sweetheart? Say hi to Anna for me.”
I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face as I hopped off the couch and into the kitchen, glancing around the room for the cordless.
“She’s such a sweet girl, Jake. Are you guys . . . an item yet?” Mom said hopefully.
“Mom! We’re just friends . . . for now.”
“Will she be going with you guys this weekend?” Dad asked.
“I think so. How about I call her back and find out?” I laughed as I found the phone and waved goodbye with it.
I took the stairs up to my room two at a time and nearly ran over Abby when I reached the top.
“Geez! Sorry, Abby!” I remembered the time and took a closer look at my sister who was standing with her arms straight by her sides and her eyes barely open. She was sleepwalking again.
“Abby, wake up.” I lightly shook her, but she just swatted my hands away. “Mom, Abby’s sleepwalking!”
Mom and Dad hurried to the bottom of the stairs. “Just leave her, Jake,” Mom said. “I want to see where she goes when she sleepwalks.”
It was because of Abby’s nightly episodes that we had a state-of-the-art alarm system installed in the house. Mom was a deep sleeper, and with Dad away all the time, they were worried Abby would get out of the house in the middle of the night and no one would ever know what happened to her.
Abby continued down the stairs and into the living room. She knelt down beside the coffee table and started picking up the chess pieces and putting them back in the box. Then she picked up the art supplies on the floor and put them away, tidied up the blankets on the back of the couch, brought the wine glasses into the kitchen and started running the water to do the dishes.
Dad started to wake her up, but Mom quickly stopped him. Obviously she wanted to see how much housework she could get out of Abby while she was asleep.
“Just leave her, David. I want to see how she’ll wake herself up.” They both watched Abby with amused expressions and I could see that they wouldn’t notice if I slipped back upstairs.
“Good night,” I mumbled as I headed back up to my room.
I quickly dialed Anna’s number. It was getting late, but I had to talk to her.
“Hello?” her perfect voice answered in a slight whisper.
“Hi Anna. Sorry it’s late. Mom just told me that you called. Is everything okay?” I kicked off my slippers and stretched out on my bed.
“Yeah, everything’s fine. What happened to you today?” she asked, sounding concerned.
“In-house detention,” I lied. It felt awful to lie to her, but I remembered my vow to keep the secret.
“That stinks. How’d it go?”
“Fine,” I said quickly, hoping to get her off the subject. “Are you all ready for tomorrow?”
“Yes, and I heard you’re able to come after all,” she said, sounding pleased.
“Wouldn’t miss it. Are you travelling with us? Noah’s drivin
g.”
“Yeah, he called and asked if I wanted to drive with you guys . . . and I think Rachel is coming too?” I could swear I heard a hint of jealousy in her voice. It was cute.
“Oh, is she? I didn’t know. Maybe she’ll sit up front with Noah.”
“That would be nice.”
There were a few seconds of awkward silence.
I cleared my throat and said, “So, I was wondering. You were trying to tell me something earlier, but Mr. Meade interrupted us?”
“Oh, yeah. Ummm . . . maybe we could talk about it tomorrow? At Wentworth?”
I didn’t want to wait, but whatever Anna wanted, I would give her. “Sounds good,” I lied.
“Well, I’ll see you in the morning. Good night, Jake.”
“Good night,” I said softly as I hung up the phone and sat staring at it while a swarm of butterflies played tag in my stomach.
I began recalling memories of Anna and me playing together—in her backyard building forts, in my basement playing pool, in her garage rebuilding our bikes. I started to doze off as I remembered one particular memory of the two of us paddling her canoe out to a private island and exchanging our first “real kiss” under the big oak tree. It ended up being our only kiss for years . . . but maybe that was about to change.