First Kiss: The Ghost Bird Series: #10 (The Academy Ghost Bird Series) (2 page)

Dr. Green stepped away from the bed to talk to Kota. “We’ll have to be careful, though. Volto doesn’t seem to like me being around her. I don’t want to kowtow to his demands, but we’re in a dangerous position as it is.”

“Luke was onto him,” Kota said, putting his hands on his hips. He wore a determined look with a tight smile. “We were close enough that he took some drastic steps to stop us. Which means we need to know what Luke knows.”

“We debriefed him,” Dr. Green said. “And we’ve got a list we’re working from.” He eyeballed me. “Is that what you’re wearing?” he asked as his smile lifted. “I think it’s adorable. You should just come in your pajamas.”

Heat burned through my face. It was tempting to simply hop into a car wearing what I had on, but going to Dr. Green’s condo might mean running into Mr. Blackbourne, and then I’d feel foolish and wish I’d changed. I stood up and found my phone on the side table. “I’ll get dressed,” I said.

The guys went downstairs, leaving me to pick out a few things Kota had in his closet for me. There was a pair of nice slacks that Gabriel had bought on impulse last time he was out shopping. I put on a casual pink blouse, too, and a light windbreaker—it had gotten cold now that it was December.

I avoided the shower in the bathroom, and simply did a quick wash of my face in the sink. I’d take a bath that night before going to school.

I typed out a quick text to Gabriel, and even then I hesitated, knowing Volto was probably reading it. Still, it was a normal thing and not Academy related, so it probably didn’t matter.

Sang: I never finished shopping for gifts for the other guys. Do we need to go again?

By the time I’d brushed my hair, the phone was vibrating on the counter, making a funny echo in the bathroom. Instead of returning my text, Gabriel was calling.

“We got a few extra things for you,” Gabriel said when I answered. “I went back out two days ago and had to figure out all that shit by myself.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

“You were at the damn diner again. And Luke was cleaning up after Sprinkles the skunk snuck into North’s room and made a doodie in his laundry basket.”

I giggled at the news. I hadn’t heard that story yet but hoped Luke wouldn’t let Sprinkles get into too much trouble with North. It had been hard enough to get North to agree to let Luke keep the pet skunk.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “You’ll see them if you’re going over there today anyway. I got for everyone but Mr. Blackbourne. I never know what to get him. Just ask Dr. Green. He can usually come up with an idea.”

“Thanks, Gabriel.”

“Trouble, you owe me a week without your clip in your goddamn hair now. You’ve got money left over though from that night. I took care of the rest of it.”

“You didn’t need to do that.”

“It’s fine. I keep forgetting to bring the cash back, though. It’s sitting on my dresser. I need to move it at least so what’s-his-fuck, Pam’s boyfriend, doesn’t take it. Oh, and I bought another game for our 3DSs, too with the money I had left over. That’s our gift to us.”

“Thanks for taking care of it. Take some money since it was me getting gifts for you all, technically.” I didn’t know we were to buy gifts for ourselves, but I assumed he meant my gift to them was a game and he got me the game, too. The surprise was spoiled now but I didn’t mind. I was getting excited to see what else ‘I’ got for the others.

It also had me excited to think of what else the guys got for me. Not in a greedy way, but all of the things Gabriel, Luke and I had picked out, we could all enjoy together. Nerf swords and toys and games: Fun things.

INSIDE THE HEART OF A DOCTOR

O
nce I got off the phone with Gabriel, Kota, Dr. Green and I got into Dr. Green’s car.

I sat in the front passenger seat beside Dr. Green and Kota was in the back.

I’d had a coffee and a quick Pop Tart on my way out the door; Dr. Green had promised a proper lunch at his house later on.

“I want to make sure we get a good head start on it all,” he said with a chuckle. He glanced at me using the rearview mirror. “This will be a lot of fun since we’ve got you this year.” He turned the car onto the highway and headed into Charleston.

He and Kota talked about if they had enough wrapping paper. I was half listening, but mostly I stared out the window at the blue sky, feeling the slight chill of winter, wondering about how different living in the south was going to be; there wasn’t going to be any snow.

Anything to take my mind off of returning to school soon.

I must have been dazed out because the ride seemed to happen in a split second. We were suddenly pulling into the drive that led to his condo. His was the last in a line of five and there were cars parked in the other drives. I wondered about his neighbors though I didn’t see any at the moment.

Dr. Green’s was the most lavishly landscaped; roses growing from most of the available garden space, compared to the simple green bushes everyone else kept.

Dr. Green parked in his drive and turned to me. “Ready?”

I blinked rapidly to focus and then nodded. I hoped there were simple boxes I could stick with. The few gifts I’d wrapped had been for Marie, at the request of our father for birthdays and Christmas. It was something I didn’t exactly excel at. Marie was actually better.

I joined Dr. Green and Kota on the porch, waiting to go in, when Kota asked, “Did you put her gifts away?”

“Yeah, they’re in my bedroom,” Dr. Green said and pushed the door open.

“All of them?” Kota asked. “I dropped a few off yesterday morning.”

I’d started inside, but Dr. Green reached out and gripped my elbow, holding me just inside the short foyer before I could go deeper into the condo. “Uh...” Dr. Green said. “Hang on there, pookie. Let Kota double check... and also, Kota, check the kitchen and the spare bedroom. Make sure I didn’t leave anything out that’s meant for her. We’ll spread out in the living room to wrap. Toss anything of hers into my bedroom.”

Exactly how many gifts were there, that Dr. Green had them spread out all over? I grinned as Kota walked around me to get into the living room just beyond the foyer. “Keep her there,” he said. “Give me a minute.”

It was tempting to misbehave a little and peek around the corner, but I forced myself to stay still with Dr. Green near the door. I didn’t want to know. I would forever second-guess the gifts I’d gotten for them, and had to trust that Gabriel got things that would be appropriate. I couldn’t even imagine what they could be. Most likely toy swords and gumball machines.

I also considered something else: Did I want to try to get small individual gifts just from me? It was nice that Gabriel had gotten gifts for them, but I wanted to get them each something special. Something none of them knew about.

Only I didn’t have the money. Gabriel had used the last of what I’d had from the diner. The few hours I’d worked this week at the diner were mostly to cover the counter, and the counter had been really slow the times I’d been there.

The rustling sounds of Kota fumbling through boxes drifted to us as we waited in the foyer. I was still thinking of gifts and what I could do to surprise them when Dr. Green put his palms on the wall on either side of my shoulders, trapping me. I looked up at him and saw his playful smile.

“Hi Pookie,” he whispered.

Thoughts of gifts slipped away, replaced by excitement, and then panic. I braced against the wall, hoping Kota didn’t come back around the corner to spot us like this.

Dr. Green dipped his head to land a gentle kiss on my forehead. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

“I... missed you, too,” I said quietly.

The smile on his face lit up his green eyes in a way that made him much handsomer than before. In the casual clothes, he looked younger, leaning toward my age of sixteen instead of nineteen. A curl of sandy blond hair fell over his eye as he looked at me eagerly. “May I sneak a kiss?”

I nodded. I wanted to, but also was mindful of Kota.

His lips pressed to mine. I puckered my lips, not going too far, just a peck.

He held his lips against mine for longer than I expected, but then backed up and his smile seemed even brighter than before. “I can’t wait until it’s not a secret anymore,” he whispered.

“I hadn’t thought of what it might be like,” I said. I’d been so focused, waiting for the others to tell Kota about the plan, not thinking about what would happen after. I worried about how he might feel, and how best to talk openly with the others about the idea without fighting. It was all so complicated.

“Won’t it be wonderful?” he whispered and then moved to brace his shoulder against the wall, tucking me in front of him. He had his back to the hallway opening, so if Kota came around the corner, it would look like he was preventing me from viewing what was around the bend. “I could kiss you openly. I could hold your hand. We could go out on dates together and let them all know. Without worrying about what anyone thinks. It won’t matter how many pictures Volto takes. Won’t that be great?”

Would I ever get to the point where I wasn’t worried about what someone else would think about anything? Lily and her team hid away from the world to avoid what other people thought of them. Besides that, there was our own group to worry about, too. North and Luke got jealous at times, even though they were both for the plan. Would there always be the threat of jealousy? Or could we actually get beyond that?

Still, Dr. Green seemed so eager. How strange that it was such a normal thing—to kiss a boy, or go out on a date—things he wanted to do, but was prevented because of what it looked like from the outside.

How our lives had shifted. I’d once been the lonely girl in my bedroom, dreaming of normal life. Now here I was, out in the world, and still there were limitations, for them as well. The plan they’d presented, that I secretly desired, and yet was still hesitant to admit to, all centered on me. If we followed through, even if they were all in on it, we would still not be normal.

Maybe if I hadn’t met them, and had continued on how I was, had grown to eighteen in my house, maybe I would have been normal. Eventually. Or would I have ever been? Would I always feel like I was on the outside, like I had for most of my life?

Kota whistled and then called out, “Okay, I think I grabbed everything.”

Dr. Green took my hand and led me around the corner. At least no one ever seemed to mind my holding hands with them. Kota didn’t say anything about it as we turned the bend.

I’d seen Dr. Green’s home once before. Back then it was impeccably clean, with his DVDs organized, everything in its place, and his glass-topped coffee table spotless.

This time, while the space was clean, it was cluttered with boxes and shopping bags along the couch, the floor, and the coffee table.

“There’s a few more in the kitchen,” Kota said. “And in the spare room. But the only things that are in the master bedroom are Sang’s and ours.”

“Why’d you hide mine?” Dr. Green asked. “We’re going to wrap them.”

“Just to get them out of the way,” Kota said. “Sang can wrap mine, you can wrap Sang’s, and I’ll wrap yours when we get to them. That way we can tell the others we didn’t wrap our own gifts.”

“I might not have everything for everyone,” I said. “Gabriel mentioned he couldn’t think of anything to get Mr. Blackbourne. I don’t have anything for him.”

Kota and Dr. Green shared a look. “Did you get him anything?” Kota asked him.

“Not yet,” Dr. Green said, scratching absently at his temple. “The man has everything, doesn’t he?”

“And doesn’t want much of anything,” Kota said. “He’s as minimalist as they get sometimes.”

Dr. Green pressed his lips together and surveyed the mountain of boxes and bags scattered around his living room. “Well, let’s get through this and then we’ll figure out that part.” He winked at Kota and then put a hand on top of my head, messing up my hair.

I smiled, but then my hair loosened and the clip fell out. Dr. Green swooped to pick it up for me, but when I went to put it back, my hair was tangled.

“We can start sorting,” Kota said, going to the couch and opening up a white department store bag. He checked the contents and then pulled out folded sets of clothing. “I’m going to need boxes.”

“Sang,” Dr. Green said, going to the coffee table and sliding boxes around, adding some to a pile on the floor. “In the spare bedroom, there’s a large green tote box. All the gift boxes are inside. Go grab it? And no sneaking a peek in my bedroom.”

I nodded and went to the hallway. The furthest door to the right was the main bedroom, which I’d been in before. That door was closed. All the doors were closed except one.

The smells of the condo were filling my nose, Jasmine, citrus, ginger and cedar. There were other scents, too, like cleaners and carpet and other indescribable house smells. This was Dr. Green’s home. No parents. No one to hide from. I liked being here. It was one of the few places where I simply felt safe. Some of the boys had nice homes, but it often felt like someone could walk in, like a parent, and not all of them were nice.

I went to the open door, assuming that had to be the spare room but found a bathroom instead. I stood inside it for a moment combing out my tangled hair with my fingers. I looked for a brush on the counter to borrow, couldn’t find one, and settled for twisting my hair and clipping it as neatly as I could.

When I came back out of the bathroom into the hallway, the house was quiet.

I listened, hoping to hear Dr. Green and Kota. The place was so still. I couldn’t even imagine they were still inside. Had they left? Or had they gone into the kitchen and I couldn’t hear them?

There were two more doors down the hall, one near the bathroom, and one at the very end, opposite the main bedroom. I still wasn’t sure which one was the spare bedroom, and what the other room would be. Then I remembered him, or someone, had said there was an office.