Shucked (14 page)

“This way,” Becky said, motioning
down the corridor at the top of the landing. We hurried past a little display
on China, stopping in front of a huge topographical map of the world on the
floor. “This is the entrance to the Pacific artifacts. It’s got to have something
on Japan, right?”

I nodded, hoping she was right. We
wound our way through displays of volcanoes, atolls, and markets, all realistic
in a 1950’s kind of way. Kitschy science. I loved it.

But no matter how many displays we
looked in, we didn’t find anything significant on Japan. “There’s nothing.” My
shoulders drooped forward in defeat. “It’s not like we’ve even seen one docent,
either, or we could ask.” Frustration burned in my stomach. I ran my hands
through my hair, then stopped.

“What?” Becky asked. “This is all
about the Philippines.”

I pointed to a glass window, where
they’d set up a lab. It was meant to give a hint of authenticity to the process
of working in a museum. A tiny peek behind the curtain. Lucky for me, a
scientist sat at a computer in the back, working. I hadn’t seen him the first
time through the exhibit. “He’s going to help us.”

Becky pointed to a sign that said, “PLEASE,
DO NOT TAP ON THE GLASS.”

I made a fist and knocked on the
window.

The scientist looked up, an irritated
looked on his face. He mirrored Becky’s gesture, pointing at the sign.

I knocked again, then folded my hands
in front of my chest and made my best pathetic face.

He stood up and left the lab.

“Great. Now we’re going to get in
trouble.” Becky tugged on my sleeve. “Let’s go.” She shifted the bag of dresses
draped over her am.

“No, wait. I want to talk to him.”

The same man came strolling through
the exhibit. “Can’t you read?”

I ignored his question and whipped
out my cell phone. “Do you know anything about this?” I held it up, showing him
a picture I’d snapped of my dogu.

“Where did you get that?” His eyes
narrowed.

“My friend texted it to me.”

“Not me,” Becky squeaked. “I’ve got nothing
to do with any of this.”

She’d lost her nerve, but mine was
only growing. “Look, I need to know if this looks authentic to you.”

He let out a long breath, the scent
of coffee quickly overwhelmed me. “It’s missing. Someone stole it from a
Japanese businessman a couple weeks ago.” He pointed at the screen. “See those
swirls there. They’re unique. Every dogu was one-of-a-kind. Not like today’s
mass-manufactured items.” He looked at me. “What’s your interest in it?”

I shrugged. “School project. I tried
Googling it, but couldn’t find too much info. I thought this might be the place
to ask. Everyone who works here must be really smart. I wanted to go right to
the source instead of stealing from Wikipedia.”

He stuck his lower lip out and
nodded. “I’m glad to hear that. There’s too much plagiarizing going on today.
Good for you. What school did you say you go to?”

“St. Andrew of the Sacred Host.” I
didn’t know the name of any public schools in Chicago, but I did know the city
was filled with parochial schools. It was as good of a made up name as any other.
“On the north side.”

He nodded. “Good school.”

I tried to keep my composure. “Yeah,
it is. Okay, thanks. We’ve got to run now.”

Becky and I took off running down the
long hallway to the stairs.

“Oh my God, Tabs. We almost got
busted!” Her shoulders pumped up and down as she breathed through her mouth. “This
is way more adventurous than anything I’ve done on my own. You are so good for
me!”

“We make a great team, don’t we?” I
smiled, thrilled I’d gotten the answer I wanted. The dogu was the real thing. Now
I just had to figure out how all the pieces fit together.

“There’s still time to grab a quick
slice of pizza. You up for it?” Becky asked.

“I’m up for anything after that!”

***

With only minutes to spare, Becky and
I jumped onto the train, collapsing in an exhausted heap, surrounded by the garment
bag filled with designer dresses.

“Did you have fun?” she asked.

“Best day ever.” I followed an
impulse and hugged her. “I’m not kidding. I’ve done some pretty exciting things
in my life, seen things most people will never even know exist, but today is
way up there at the top.”

Becky clapped her hands together,
shedding what was left of the glamour girl and going back to my slightly nerdy,
but sweet, best friend. “I’m so glad, Tabitha! I knew we’d have the best time
together. You found out what you needed to know about the dogu. Plus, it was
nice having someone with me. My mom stopped coming a year or so ago. I didn’t
need her, but it’s nice not being alone sometimes.”

“Yeah, my mom was hands-off like that
too. Once I was gone for an entire week. I hopped on a train with only a few Egyptian
pounds in my pocket. Took a dahabeeya down the Nile, checking out the sites. By
the time I got back to the dig, she didn’t say anything. I still don’t even know
if she realized I was gone.”

Becky leaned back into the seat.
“Moms are so weird, sometimes. Or maybe it’s just our moms. Maybe that’s why
they were such good friends when they were kids. Both irresponsible.”

“Not mature, like us.” I winked at
Becky. Over her shoulder, I made eye contact with a Japanese man in a suit. He
looked like all the other businessmen making the commute home. Except he was
staring at us. Perv. “Don’t turn around, but some dude is checking us out. It’s
gross. He’s got to be ten years older than us.”

Becky’s lower lip jutted out. “Wish I
would have kept my makeup on. Guys never check me out.”

“He’s old,” I hissed between my
teeth, trying not to look at him again. I didn’t want him to think we were
interested at all. “Plus, your mom would kill us if we talked to some random stranger.
It’s not cool, Becky.”

A movement forced my eyes back to
him. He was walking toward us, hanging on to the handrail above. His eyes
didn’t leave mine, sending waves of fear through my body.

Panic banged around in my chest
cavity, like an insane prisoner trying to break out of a rubber room. With
every step closer to us, I felt the fear spinning out of control. A hand
grabbed my arm, squeezing hard. I glanced at Becky, my eyes wild.

“What’s wrong with you?” she
whispered. “Don’t freak out, Tabitha. He’s harmless. We’re on a train
surrounded by people. No one’s going to hurt us.”

The man walked right past us, and as
soon as the train slowed to a stop, he exited without a backward glance.

My heart jumped around a few more
times before settling back into a familiar rhythm. “Sorry. I guess I’m just
worked up after everything we did.” But that wasn’t the whole truth. There was
something sinister in his eyes. Something wasn’t right about that encounter at
all. Alarms were clanging through my entire being.

“One more stop until we get off. Calm
down and don’t mention it to my mom or she’ll never let us go together again,
okay? This was so much fun today. I really hope we can do it again.”

I tore my eyes away from the man. He
walked away from the train toward a commuter parking lot, not turning back
once. Maybe she was right. This whole thing with my mom was making me paranoid.
I couldn’t look at every Japanese guy like he was the enemy.

“Me too,” I answered. And I meant it.
Despite my little freak out, everything had been great. I could use a day away
like that every once in a while.

Chapter
Twenty-Two

Every sound, every creak brought me
back to that moment on the train when everything felt wrong. The man’s face
haunted my dreams. Even Mimi’s chocolate chip cookies couldn’t snap me out of
it. I read a few chapters for history, practiced my editing by proofreading a
few paragraphs, and Googled my math homework answers.

I still felt kind of bad for doing
that, but I figured eventually it would click. It’s not like I was dumb or
anything.

Cheerleading practice was fun. I
taught the girls a few simple taekwondo moves, just to spice up their floor
routine. We also changed our music to Gangnam Style, hoping this little country
town could show the other schools a little swagger.

But on Tuesday afternoon, Illinois
Jon announced we’d be having our first math test on that coming Friday. Alex
gave me a little nod, not even a smile, I guess letting me know he thought I
was ready. Illinois Jon probably felt the same way, since I’d managed to ace
all of my homework assignments. Maybe I should have missed a few just to make
it more realistic.

“I hope everyone’s prepared. This
test won’t be easy and it will count for a big chunk of your grade.” Illinois
Jon wrote page numbers on the whiteboard, telling us exactly what we needed to
study. “Just because it’s early in the semester, don’t assume you can blow this
off and make it up later. Math is like a pyramid. You need a strong, solid base
before you can build on it.”

What he didn’t realize is that
pyramids have holes in them all over the place. Structures for burial, some
just to trap and kill anyone who dared encroach on it. Real pyramids were far
more interesting than some solid basis in mathematical theory. I held back a
yawn.

Instead of paying attention, I
watched the back of Alex’s head. Kailey wasn’t in our math class. It was the
only place I could see him without her shrill voice coming in between us. Not
that I’d tried to talk to him. I was anxiously awaiting our tutoring session after
school to see if there was still any kind of spark between us. Maybe I’d just
been so excited about connecting with a boy that I misread everything.

Or it’s possible he was the empty
flirt Becky accused him of being. Maybe she’d been right all along.

When class ended, the other students left,
excited to get home. Alex sat at the front of the classroom. He didn’t turn
around and look me, just kept messing with his books.

“If you two don’t mind, I have to go
speak with Principal Schneider. I’ll be back in about half an hour in case you
have any questions. I’m proud of both of you. Alex, you must be a great tutor
to get Tabitha caught up so fast. And Tabitha, great job. You’ve obviously put
in a lot of hard work. Keep it up.” He grabbed his leather satchel and left.

I sat still at my table, not sure how
I felt about approaching Alex. I kind of wanted him to come to me first.

“How long do you want me to stay here
and pretend with you?” Alex turned around in his chair, hooking an arm over the
back of it. His ebony hair flopped over his eyes, reminding me how much I
missed drowning in their depths.

“Pretend? What are you talking
about?” I sat glued to my chair, unsure of where this conversation was going.

Alex stalked over, picking up my math
homework and pointing to the one hundred percent at the top. “I know you didn’t
earn this on your own. You didn’t even understand the most basic concepts last
week. You barely even got through the problems we practiced with.” He dropped
the paper, but I didn’t reach out for it. It fell to the floor.

I wasn’t sure what to say. I had
cheated and I knew it wasn’t right. “It’s just that…” I didn’t know how to tell
him that the numbers didn’t make any sense. That it felt like my brain was
breaking in two when I attempted to solve a problem. He wouldn’t believe me.
He’d just say I wasn’t trying hard enough.

“Just what, Tabitha?” Alex sighed and
sank back down in his chair. “Come on, you’re not stupid. Just tell me why
you’re cheating. Is school too overwhelming for you? I know you’ve never attended
a formal school before.”

I reached down, grabbing the paper
off the floor. The grade glared at me, daring me to tell Alex the truth.

“Cheating isn’t allowed in the real
world. You’re going to graduate, go to college, get a job, right? You can’t
cheat your way through and I won’t be a part of its start. It ends here. Either
with you telling Mr. Fenton the truth or me walking away from being your
tutor.”

Tears welled up in my eyes. I pulled
my hoodie up over my head, refusing to let him see. “It just doesn’t make any
sense. I tried, but…”

“Tabitha.” I felt a hand on my
shoulder. “It takes more than two tutoring sessions to catch up on math. No one
expected you to make some kind of miracle leap in understanding.” He was so
close I could smell him, a strange combination of Axe and dirt. It was
irresistible.

But I knew all the practice in the
world wouldn’t help. There was something wrong with my brain and I’d never
understand math. “I don’t know.”

He pulled his hand back, leaving a chill
in its wake. “I thought you were different, Tabitha.”

I wanted to scream that I was
different and that’s exactly why all of this was such a struggle. It was ridiculous
for any of them to think I’d magically pick up skills these other kids had been
learning since kindergarten. Instead, I said nothing.

“I was better off just keeping up the
status quo instead of believing you might shake things up around here. You’re
just like everyone else.”