The Academy - Introductions (6 page)

I was speechless. I wasn’t sure what to say or how to
respond. Silas stared down at me, looking confused.

“Do you have the wrong place?” he asked. His voice was
deep, nearly reverberating through me.

“What a pick up line,” Victor piped in.

Silas twisted where he stood to see Victor leaning against
the wall, his arms folded at his chest. Kota stood behind him, looking as if he
wasn’t sure if he should be laughing and instead had the palm of his hand up
against the back of his head, half shrugging.

“Who’s she?” Silas demanded.

“I’m Sang,” I said.

Silas turned to me and raised a thick dark eyebrow. “Huh?”
The way he peered down at me, I knew it wasn’t his fault, but he made me feel
so small. “Say that again.” I picked up that he had an accent. It was very
slight. I wanted to say European. His thick lips curled in a way when he talked
that had me wanting to ask him to say more things, too.

“My name is Sang,” I said.

“She moved into a house down the road from mine,” Kota
explained. “She’s coming along.”

Silas’s forehead wrinkled and he blew an impatient huff,
but shrugged and waved me off. “Let me close the door.” As he stood in front of
his door, I could see how broad his shoulders were. There was a slight gruff
look as if he didn’t shave that morning. It made him look a lot more handsome
but it also made him look older. Since he was so tall, too, it was hard to
imagine we were in the same grade.

“We’ve got to work on your people skills,” Victor said as
we headed back to his car. “You’re supposed to at least say hello when you
answer the door.”

“She looked lost,” Silas said. I kept taking peeks at his
face. His features were striking. Soulful deep eyes and an olive complexion. He
looked over at me and I blushed at getting caught staring. “I didn’t scare you,
did I?” he asked.

I shook my head, although a little too quickly. I wanted to
say something convincing but the truth was he did kind of scare me. I didn’t
want to admit it but being in a dark alley with him and not knowing who he was
would have probably been enough to make me pee my pants.

He only looked partially relieved and I wasn’t quite sure
if he believed me.

Back at the car, Kota opened the passenger door for me
again, looking intently at me.

“Silas should take the front seat,” I said. “He’s got
longer legs.”

“I don’t mind,” Silas said.

“Neither do I.” I didn’t mean to be so persistent but if I
was going to get them to like me, I had to do nice things. I didn’t need to be
coddled because I was the girl. Also, I had no idea how far away this mall was.
What if he was bottled up for an hour?

He tilted his head from side to side, as if weighing out
the situation. Something softened in his face and he relented.

“Someone get in,” Victor called. He was already behind the
wheel.

Kota moved away from the door and Silas got into the front
seat. I was actually relieved. I would have felt terrible to see Silas have to
get behind me and he had to scrunch his knees.

I sat next to Kota, this time remembering to plug in my
seat belt. Kota did the same and we were off.

Silas immediately reached for the radio to fiddle with it
but Victor slapped at his hand. “Hey, when you drive, you get to pick.”

“Sang wouldn’t like this stuff,” he said.

“She already said she did.”

Silas raised an eyebrow and turned to me. “Is he shitting
me?”

I raised my fingers to my mouth, the tips playing with my
lower lip. “I, uh...”

“She likes it,” Kota said for me.

“But I like rock, too,” I said quickly. “And some other
stuff. I like a lot of different types of music.”

Silas shot Victor a cocky smile. “You’re out numbered. Kota
likes rock.”

“Kota likes anything.”

I gave a side glance to Kota. He slipped a conspiratorial
grin and I smiled back, silently amused at the conversation.

The two continued to argue about the radio, switching
between stations at every other song. Victor groaned about squeaky guitars and
Silas complained about being put to sleep by a piano. They were all so
different. How in the world did they become friends?

I was watching out the window at the trees and cars that we
passed, trying to remember the direction Victor was taking. The palm trees were
the most striking to me. Having lived up north for so long, it was strange to
me. Everything was green and the sky appeared to be a slightly different shade
of blue, lighter, crisp and full of promise.

Soon the interstate had signs promising of a mall and the
car was pulling into the lot to a mall that looked bigger in the handful I’d
ever seen.

As soon as the car was parked, Silas jumped out and opened
my door for me. I blushed, thanked him and stepped away so he could shut it.

We walked in through the closest department store together.
Kota held open the first set of doors for all of us, Silas held open the second
set. I smiled to myself about it. I wondered if it was normal or if they were
trying to be nice since I was new.

The mall wasn’t too crowded that morning. The boys took
only a moment to get oriented and then set off in a direction, walking past
stores. They started talking and I fell behind them, unsure what to say, unsure
where to stand. I hadn’t even noticed I had done it. It just seemed like the
natural thing to do. My head was swiveling on my neck to peek in at the stores
as we passed them by. Bits of the conversation drifted to me but they were
moving quickly, I was just trying to make sure I was keeping up.

I was peeking in at stores, checking out what was open when
Victor stopped short in front of me and I crashed into him. My chest hit his
back, my hands met his hips, and my lips brushed at the back of his neck at the
base, a little too hard as my lip tingled after. My breath caught and I backed
off of him quickly, embarrassed.

Victor’s face tinged red as he looked back at me. “Christ,
you scared me. I was just wondering where you’d gone.” His hand went to the
back of his neck and then his head tilted, his mouth opening in surprise. I
supposed he realized what must have happened. I practically accidentally kissed
his neck.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be following you so closely.”

“You shouldn’t be walking behind us,” Kota said.

“Yeah. Come on. Walk up here with us,” Silas offered. He
reached out, taking my hurt wrist, only I winced. He noticed and he pulled me
close, turning my hand over and checking out the bandages. “Who did this to
you?” His eyes widened at me, intent and almost harsh. He fully expected an
answer.

“It was Max,” Kota said. “He jumped on her and she didn’t
expect it.”

How many times would we have to tell this story?

Silas seemed satisfied. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

I shook my head. “I’m fine.” My voice was softer than I
meant for it to be but his show of concern had my heart pounding too fast for
me. I wanted to press a palm to my chest at the whirl of emotions I was feeling
around them. Meeting one nice person like Kota was fine. Three in twenty four
hours? It amazed me again at how wrong my parents were about the outside world.

Silas took my arm again, gentler this time, and guided me
until I was walking next to him. Victor and Kota stood at his other side. Again
we started to walk, and this time they moved slower so I could keep up.

“Where are we going?” I asked. They seemed to pass by a lot
of interesting shops without looking at any of them.

“We’re going to get fitted for some new suits,” Victor
said.

I glanced at Silas and Kota. “All of you?”

They nodded, looking as if this was as expected.

“Are these school clothes?” I scratched absentmindedly at
my wrist. It hadn’t occurred to me that the new school, even if it was a public
one, might require uniforms or something. Would I need to wear something
specific?

The three exchanged glances. Silas slipped his hands into
his pockets. Victor cleared his throat but said nothing. Kota spoke up. “Sort
of. Just for the nicer events. We thought it’d be easier to get it done now
instead of when all those formal dances start happening.”

Was that normal? How strange. I would have never thought of
that.

We came up to a men’s clothing store and at the entryway,
the three guys were greeted by a male attendant. Kota approached him quickly,
leaning his head into him to talk.

Silas stepped up to me, cutting off my view of Kota. His
hands were in his pockets and he looked down at me. “Did you want to go look
around somewhere else?”

Was he trying to get rid of me? I wasn’t sure but before I
could answer, Victor piped in.

“Have her stay,” he said. Silas turned to him but Victor
looked at me. “There’s usually a couch or something around here.”

“I don’t want her to get bored,” Silas said.

“She won’t be bored.” Victor came closer to me, a gleam
amid the fire in his eyes. “Do you have a phone on you?”

I shook my head, blushing at revealing how out of touch I
was. Who our age didn’t have a cell phone?

He reached into his back pocket. “See, Silas? If she walked
off, we would have had to hunt her down. I don’t want to lose her.” Victor
passed me what looked like the latest iPhone. “Play some Angry Birds. Download
whatever app you want. We won’t be long.”

Kota and the attendant waited for Silas and Victor to join
them. Silas passed me a look, not seeming too displeased that I was actually
sticking around.

I held Victor’s phone to my chest, still feeling the warmth
of his body that had heated up the metal cover. I found a small sofa not far
from the entrance and sat down. The leather of the seat was cool against my
bare leg but also sticky. I folded my skirt down, smoothing out the material
and then rechecked to make sure the shirt was fully covering the bruise on my
back. The boys disappeared into the back of the store.

I was too nervous to even look at Victor’s phone at first.
What sort of things could I learn about him? How trusting was he that he simply
handed his phone to me without a flinch of concern? I swore to myself I
wouldn’t betray his trust.

A couple of attendants materialized next to me and asked
politely if there was something they could do for me. I declined each time,
expressing that I was only waiting. As other customers started poking through
racks of clothes nearby, I appeared to be really interested in the phone. I
found the Angry Birds app and became engrossed with knocking over pigs.

“Sang. What do you think?”

I looked up and my breath simply disappeared from my lungs.
I felt my jaw drop and the phone almost slipped from my hands. Kota appeared in
front of me in a black suit with light charcoal pinstripes. I caught sight of a
tag against the sleeve that said Armani. Wasn't that really expensive? He wore
a black collared dress shirt underneath. The whole ensemble was fitted to frame
his body, and it showed. The cut was very nice. “What do you think of the black
shirt?” His finger caught the bridge of his glasses and he slid them a little
higher on his nose. He turned to show me the side, smoothing out the material
of the jacket.

My heart was doing flip flops. He could have modeled for
the catalog. He was asking my opinion? I leaned forward, feeling the words
rushing from my mouth. “It’s gorgeous.” It was the most awkward thing to say
and I regretted it the moment it slipped from my lips.

He blushed but I caught the corner of his mouth drifting
up. “I mean do you think it’d be better in white? You know, something more
traditional?”

I shook my head. “It’d detract from the stripes. Though
you’d probably want a tie. Maybe in red?” I had never been asked my opinion on
fashion. I had a fledgling idea of what looked good to me. When it came to my
own clothes, I just tried to match what I saw on television and what the other
students were wearing.

He seemed to consider what I was saying. “Elegant,” he said
softly. He smiled at me, seeming satisfied with my answer. “You’re not too
bored, are you?”

I lifted the phone in my hand to half show it to him.
“Level fifteen of Angry Birds.”

He beamed. “We’re just wrapping up.” He waved to me and
disappeared back among the racks of jackets and pants.

I was on level twenty when the guys came back. They were
empty handed. For some reason I had thought they would bring back those clothes
in bags but then I remembered this was a fitting. The attendants probably
needed to make some altercations.

“Hey, you,” Victor said when he spotted me. His hands were
in his pockets and his cheeks were flushed. His expression confused me and I
stood up quickly to greet them. I handed his phone back. He took it from me,
checking the screen. “You’re quick. And all three stars.”

My smile faltered a little. “I didn’t ruin your game, did
I?”

He looked up quickly. “No,” he said and he tucked his phone
back into his pocket.