Adam-
The phone in my hand vibrates and I hear a request for me to leave a message. I stare at the crumpled sheet of paper in my hands with numbers and dashes and nonsense. But while I live in East Creek, Texas, this nonsense has to make sense.
This time when I dial the numbers, the phone beeps and a girl’s beautiful voice says, “Hello? Who is this?”
“Um, hi,” I say nervously. “It’s me.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.” there is a beat of silence. “Oh! Uh, Adam. Adam Malach. From, you know, school.” Me? Seriously? I said ‘me’? What kind of a dork am I?
But Autumn doesn’t say anything about that. I get thankful too quickly though, because when her voice returns, it’s sharper and hoarser than before, and I tense up.
“How...how did you get this number?”
Uh. Um. Erm...I can’t tell her the truth about where I got it, which feels like a punch to the gut. I don’t want to lie. But if I tell her Mia gave it to me, then I could be caught up in a giant mess. So I decide to casually turn the question away.
“I just...I wanted to check on you. You know, make sure you were doing okay.”
“Why?” Autumn asks.
“Why do I want to make sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Um...was I in the wrong lunch room yesterday? You got beat up! Why wouldn’t I check on you?”
Autumn’s reply is garbled by static and from what I can hear it sounds like she mumbles, “No one ever does.”
There’s a pulse of silence. I worry that Autumn’s hung up.
“Autumn?”
“Yeah?”
“I just…” How can I explain it? How can I describe the twisted emotions I have inside of me? I don’t think that there are words to perfectly explain the rage I felt when Jasper called her a monster. The hollow look in those brown eyes of hers... you could tell she believed every word of it. It was so painful to watch.
“I just want to tell you that I’m here, okay?” I say at last. “Jasper and Kelsey are just jerks. Don’t listen to them.”
“I don’t know why you’re saying this,” Autumn sighs. “You don’t even know me.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know you.” I realize too late that that sounds like I have a crush on her. And I don’t…
“What I meant was, new kids gotta stick together, right?”
She gives another sigh. “I guess.”
Wow I am so very bad at this. I am so pathetically terrible. Another stretch of silence goes by and I smash the awkwardness and tell her I’ll see her later. Right as I’m about to hang up, Autumn says, “Hey, Adam?”
There’s that feeling again. The one when she says my name. “Yes?”
“Thank you,” she whispers. “Thanks for caring. I...I honestly appreciate it so much.”
Without my consent, my lips curl up into a smile. “No problem. I’m always here, okay?”
I wait for Autumn’s timid, “okay”, before I tell her goodnight and hang up. I then take a good look at my new home. I’d barely looked at it yesterday because I was so exhausted after getting here. And this morning I was rushed. No one ever told me not to hit the snooze button on alarms! I thought it meant I had more time to snooze or something. So I fell back to sleep and was therefore late to school.
My new living room is beige with a black sofa and a dingy little TV. There’s a coffee table too, but it looks like it’s seen some better days.
The lighting in this house comes from ugly little fans that when I turn them on, they shower me with dust and something that looks suspiciously like dead bugs. Ech.
My attention is pulled to the front door when an ominous array of chimes play through the air. There’s a clank, distinct enough to demand my attention, but not frighteningly so. I grip the bronze handle in my hand. It feels slightly cold and I twist it.
No one stands outside my door, but there is a small, white package the size of a sheet of paper, and only a little bit thicker. Hesitantly, I pick it up and peel it open as I plop down onto the black sofa. As soon as I do, a giant cloud of dust erupts from the cushion.
The contents of the package are a wad of some greenish rectangular papers and a handful of metal coins. Some are copper and some silver.
Money, I realize, my eyes widening. My weekly income. One more thing tumbles out into my lap. It’s a sliver stick. Upon closer examination, I find that it is not actually a stick, but a strange, flat rectangle covered with silver wrapping. The stick has an odd smell. Sort of...crisp. Unlike anything I’ve ever smelled before. I unwrap the wrapper and find bold words written in black ink.
This is mint gum. Chew, but DON’T swallow. And call me! ~Bee
UGH! I should’ve known that I’d be hearing from Bailee soon! Mom probably put her up to this. With a sigh I slink over to my phone and grumpily punch in the numbers Mom had given me before I left. After a few beeps–and a few seconds where I grow too hopeful that she won’t pick up–Bailee’s voice rings in my ear.
“Hello?”
Which is followed by a shriek. That, of course, makes me drop the phone and I don’t only hear, Bailee. But I see her.
“Why did you shriek?” I demand.
“It’s called FaceTime Adam, and I wasn’t expecting to get a close up of your ear, attractive though it is,” she says sarcastically.
My face burns. “I wasn’t expecting to see you at all.”
“Like I said, FaceTime. And I wanted to see you.” I take in my big sister quietly. Her tall, thin frame. Her red beach waves. Her green eyes framed by black glasses.
“How is she?” Bailee whispers, tugging on her evergreen tank top.
“Who? Autumn?”
“Yes. How badly is she hurting?”
I sigh and fall back against the pillows. “It’s bad,” I admit.
“Do you need me to come over?”
What? No way! I sit back up and narrow my eyes. “No! I can handle it!” The last thing I want is for the G.A. Council to decide I don’t get my wings. So I sugar-coat it. “There’s just some jerks at school. That’s all.”
“So...there’s nothing wrong with her family?”
“I haven’t known her for long, Bee. I have no clue.”
Bailee puts her hands on her hips. And because I know my sister so well, I know that she is thinking of all the ways she’d do things differently if it were her on this mission instead of me. But I am surprised by what happens next. Bailee nervously glances around her bedroom, and then picks up the phone before locking herself in her closet.
“What are you doing?”
The image of her shakes and I assume that she is trying to prop the phone up against her shoe rack.
“Okay,” she whispers. Then she does something that REALLY worries me. Carefully, she reaches up and pinches the bridge of her glasses.
“Bee?” I ask quietly. “Bee, what’s going on?”
Bailee slowly uncurls her wings from where they had been hiding, tucked under her tank top. The bright silver feathers are more amazing than anything I could ever dream up. And even the little speckles of glitter–which I’d normally think is stupid–works on her. They look a bit like frozen dewdrops. When I was younger, I used to ask Bailee if I could touch her wings. But that stopped the day I ripped off one of the feathers. The second it came loose from her wing, it shriveled up and turned black.
I had gotten screamed at that day.
The memory is almost enough to distract me. But not quite.
“Bailee. What’s going on?”
“They’re watching you, Adam.” Bailee lifts her head. “They’re keeping a very close eye on you.”
“Who is?”
Stupid question. I already know what she’s going to say before she says it.
“The G.A. Council.”
“Why would they do that? I haven’t done anything wrong!”
“I know that, Adam. But Mom told them...hang on–”
I hear a distant voice say something. Bailee yells back, “COMING!”
“Wait,” I tell her. “What did Mom say?”
“Not now, Adam. I have to go. Take care of yourself, okay? I love you! Bye!” Before she hangs up, she plants a lipstick kiss on the camera. And then the screen goes black.
I realize a few minutes after that that Bailee never mentioned my bruise.
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