Kami Cursed (Dragon and Phoenix) (18 page)

I hurried along
through the crowds of people meandering along the track and standing in lines
for concessions.  I looped around behind the bleachers and the crowds got
smaller.  It was dark back here and you couldn’t see the game at all- but then,
no one back here really cared about the game.  I passed a couple of groups of
kids, coughing when I jogged through a cloud of cigarette smoke. 

I finally made
it to the farthest spot from the makeshift rink.  This set of bleachers wasn’t
as full as the others, but it was still pretty noisy.  Luckily, no one had
holed up in the dark spot underneath.  I crouched down behind the little
building they used for concessions during track meets.  It wasn’t in use right
now.  The bigger concession stands that were usually reserved for football had
been taken over for the event, since they were closer to the main parking lot. 

I got there a
little early, and my feet were going numb from being crouched for so long
before I finally heard the crunching sound of footsteps on gravel.  I was
relieved, until I remembered that meant I’d have to witness Ryuu putting the
moves on goldilocks. 
Ralf
.

They stopped a
few feet away.  I could just see them from where I was.  Ryuu had made sure to
stand in a thin strip of dim light that slanted in between the bleacher seats.  I
watched wide-eyed as he reached out a hand and brushed his fingers through that
shiny blond hair.  I clenched my teeth. 

She leaned in
toward him and he slipped both hands through her hair to cradle her head.  He
tilted his face down to meet hers.  Geez, it looked like he’d had a lot of
practice at this stuff.  I wondered how many times he’d made out with her.  I
clenched my eyes shut reflexively, not wanting to see any more.  There was a
pause, then a little gasp, and then Ryuu shouted urgently.  “Kit!”

My eyes flew
open.  Ryuu had his long arms wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her
sides.  Vanessa’s was pissed.  “What the hell are you doing?”

“On the
ground!”  Ryuu tilted his head and I saw something shiny near his foot.  I
jumped up and scrambled for the necklace. 

Vanessa’s green
eyes widened as she realized what I was after.  She struggled against Ryuu,
almost breaking free.  When that didn’t work, she kicked him in the shins.  He
flinched, but didn’t budge.

I crouched and
grabbed the necklace, along with a hand full of gravel, then spun and ran as
fast as I could.  There was a feminine grunt from behind me, and I glanced back
over my shoulder to see Vanessa sitting on the ground, her mouth hanging open. 
Ryuu dashed after me and I ran as fast as I could. 

We sprinted
toward the far corner of the parking lot, where there were fewer cars.  Breathless,
Ryuu pointed at a cement parking slab. 

“Uh,” he
panted.  “I take it you’ve figured out how to do this.”

I skidded to a
halt at his side and dropped the necklace onto it.  I pulled the leather case
off my shoulders and popped the snaps.  Ryuu hastily held onto the ends while I
jerked the bat free, as if we had carefully choreographed the move.  There was
a shriek from behind us and I almost dropped the bat.

“
My necklace
!” 
Boy, she was mad. 

“Watch me,” I
said with breathless satisfaction.  The band started playing, and the crowd was
clapping along.

I turned and
raised the bat over my head, bringing it down on the locket as hard as I
could.  Vanessa howled.  There was a hallow sort of thud, and the thing
exploded.  It seemed impossible for such a little thing to go out with such a
bang.  I put my arm over my eyes to block out the light and the little
pings
of metal that went bounding off the cars a few yards away.  Luckily, the noise
from the field drowned out the ruckus we were making.  I heard it though, and
it sounded like it had screamed.

When I lowered
my arm, Vanessa was kneeling on the ground bawling.  A younger girl that looked
vaguely like her had come from somewhere, and I vaguely recognized her as Vanessa’s
little sister.  She didn’t seem very surprised at what she’d just seen, she just
looked down at her older sister and patted her back while she sobbed.  However,
I wasn’t paying attention to them just then.  My eyes were following a streak
of something that soon disappeared into the dark copse of trees off in the
distance.

I didn’t realize
that I was still gripping the bat until Ryuu gently pried my fingers off and
stuffed it back into the sheath.  He slung the leather case across his
shoulders and looked me up and down.  “You okay?”

I nodded, a wide
grin splitting my face.  “We did it!”

He looked at
Vanessa, who was still having complete hysterics, and sighed.  “Yep.  We sure
did.”

T
he seats in the
principal’s office weren’t designed for comfort.  I wondered if that was part
of the punishment.  No one would do anything wrong if it meant having to sit in
these chairs for more than five minutes.  I wiggled my butt, trying to get
comfortable.  Ryuu looked at me and shook his head and I stopped squirming. 
His butt must be made of granite.

Finally, Mr.
Marshall came back in, Vanessa and her little sister in tow.  “Now,” he said,
settling himself behind his big, paper-strewn desk.  “Kit, did you take Vanessa’s
necklace and smash it?”

Vanessa glared
at me.  “He stole it,” she said, pointing a finger at Ryuu.  “Then she smashed
it with a
baseball bat!”

She turned to
her sister.  “Tell him, Katie.”

The girl looked
guilty, like she really didn’t want to rat on us.  “I’m not sure,” she mumbled.

I cleared my
throat, feeling bad for her.  I mean after all, she had to put up with a big
sister like Vanessa.  “That’s what happened,” I said flatly.

Mr. Marshall
closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead.  “Okay.  Vanessa and Katie, you girls
can go.  I’ll make sure they’re punished.”

Vanessa glared
at us and stormed out.  I heard her mutter, “
crazy!”

I clenched my
fists.  Maybe I
was
crazy, I thought.  Wouldn’t it just be easier to be
crazy?  It was trying to seem normal that was such a pain in the butt.

Mr. Marshall
stared at me.  “Kit.  Why in the world would you do something like this?”

I closed my eyes
and clasped my hands together.  “I don’t know,” I said, putting a little quaver
into my voice.  I picked at the hem of my shirt and my eyes started watering
with hardly any effort at all.  “I just wanted that necklace so bad.  And I
knew she’d just tell on me and get it back, so I thought… well if I can’t have
it, neither can she.”

He stared at
me.  A tear trailed down my cheek.  “I’m sorry Mr. Marshall,” I whispered.  “I
don’t know what possessed me.  It’s just been so hard since…”  I pressed a hand
against the back of my mouth.  Ryuu’s foot nudged mine, warning me not to
overdo it.

Mr. Marshall
unearthed a box of tissues and shoved them toward me.  “Okay,” he said,
flustered.  “Don’t cry.  I know you’ve been through a lot.”

He turned his
disapproving gaze on Ryuu.  “But you’re the one who took the necklace?”

Ryuu patted my
back as I hiccupped and snuffled.  “I just wanted to make Kit happy,” he said
in a moronically innocent voice.  “I didn’t know she’d wreck it, honest.”  I
snorted into the tissue.  And he had been worried about
my
over-acting?

Mr. Marshall
sighed.  “Of course, I’ll have to call your parents.  Kit, I had no idea that
you were still having so much trouble adjusting.”

I sat up
straighter and stared at him through my watery eyes.  “No!  Don’t tell my dad. 
He has enough to deal with.”  I didn’t have to fake the panic.  If Dad thought
I was struggling, that would be bad.  Like, more therapy bad.

The principal
gave me a stern look.  “You should have thought of that before you destroyed
someone else’s property.”

I blinked at him,
trying for doe eyes.  Ryuu piped up in a pathetic whisper.  “You’ll have to
call my aunt, sir.  Both my parents are dead.”

Mr. Marshall
rubbed his head as if he were developing a migraine.  Then he sighed.  “Fine, I
won’t call them this time.  But you’re both spending a week in detention.  And
if you get into trouble again, I’m calling them.”  He drummed his fingers on
his desk.  “And don’t bring that baseball bat to school again, understand young
lady?”

I nodded
forlornly.  I didn’t have to fake it much.  I felt naked without my bat.

As we left the
office, Mr. Marshall watched us with a tired expression, as if he just knew
we’d be back.  “
Try
to stay out of trouble.”

Ryuu gave him a
grave look from under his dark brows.  “Of course, sir.”

When we reached
town, I leaned against the rough brick face of the drugstore and wheezed.  “I
thought I was gonna bust,” I panted. 

Ryuu chuckled
and handed me my bat.  “Oh God, I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel. 
Did you see that vein in his forehead?”

I shook my head,
sobering a little bit.  “I’m just glad he didn’t call my dad.”

Ryuu nodded. 
“No good deed goes unpunished.  Don’t forget- we still have detention.”

I nodded, but I
thought of Vanessa’s little sister and I couldn’t be that upset.  She had come
to us this morning to say thank you.  Vanessa had no clue what had happened,
but her sister had known something was wrong.  We’d given her older sister back. 
It was a good feeling.  It was worth detention.

I stood and fell
into step beside Ryuu.  “I’m sorry your make-out session went so badly,” I
prodded.  “I never knew you had the hots for Vanessa.  And you were sooo smooth
too.”

He raised his
chin and slanted a dark look at me.  “It bothered you.”  He seemed happy about
that.  “You were jealous.  Now you know how I felt when you went out with that
idiot jock.”

I laughed a bit
too loud.  “Jealous over a little kid like you?  No way.”

He stopped
suddenly and stood staring at me with those dark eyes.  Then he reached out and
ruffled my hair, just the way I used to do when he was a little boy.  “I’m not
a little kid,” he said seriously.  Then he turned and started walking again. 
No, he really wasn’t, I thought.

I stood rooted
to the spot, watching him.  A breeze ruffled his shiny hair, sending the longer
tips dancing.  A faint, ghostly silver haze of smoke twined around him like a
spirit and for a moment, I imagined I had glimpsed the man he would grow into. 
I blinked hard and the haze was gone.  Ryuu was just Ryuu again. 

He turned to
look back at me, just now realizing that I wasn’t with him.  His dark brown
eyes caught the sun, glowing like topaz, lit from the inside.  Then they went
dark again.  The first, fat, puffy flakes of snow were beginning to fall, and
they clung to his shiny hair and long lashes, so he was as silvery as the ghost
of his dragon energy.  I pushed myself into motion, managing not to stumble
over my own awkward feet.

“Keep up,” he
teased as I hurried along. 

“I’m trying,” I
said in a breathless voice, and something and fiery shifted inside me.

R
ich peals of
laughter filled the quiet afternoon.  A short, slight boy of Japanese heritage
stood from where he had been lounging beside a pretty, dark haired girl,
listening to her read.  She stopped mid-sentence and gave him a petulant look. 

The boy ignored
her completely.  He had little use for her.  And even less use for the stupid
romance story she was reading.  He followed the sound of laughter to the back
of the house, his sock-clad feet silent on the polished wooden floors. 

He passed a
couple of servants and he could tell that they were curious as to the cause of
the uproar. Though being well trained, they didn’t meet his eyes or give any
sign of what they were thinking.  The boy reached a pair of ornate, sliding
doors.

“Obasaan?”  His
voice was quiet and respectful. 

He was ushered
in by a laughing voice.  In the middle of the room, an old woman sat cross-legged
in front of a low table.  Her snow-white hair was swept up in a stylish bun,
and her clothes were arranged to stilted perfection.  He’d never seen her laugh
so freely.

In front of the
old woman were her writing things, and he gathered she had been composing
letters.  As he knelt opposite her, she tossed an opened envelope and crumpled
letter into the trashcan at her side to make room on the table.  He caught a
brief glimpse of a formal seal on the envelope, and wasn’t surprised that a
letter from The Order would end up in the trash.  She set a folded piece of paper
on the table and wiped her eyes, which had teared up with laughter.

She gazed at the
boy with a hint of mischief in her eyes.  He was handsome, her grandson, though
his hair was bleached blond.  She knew he thought it made him stand out, but
she privately thought young men dying their hair was rather absurd.  She
wondered what her daughter’s son looked like now.  He was bound to be tall,
with that huge Yankee father of his.

“Do you know
what I have here?” she asked, tapping the folded sheets of notebook paper.

The boy frowned
down at the inelegant paper.  It looked like it had been torn from a notebook-
not the crisp, beautiful parchment that usually adorned her desk.

“No Obaasan.”  He
was dying to ask, but politeness forbade it.

A soft, sly
smile spread over the old woman’s un-lined face.  “This,” she said in a
conspirator’s whisper, “is a letter from the US.”

The boy looked
like he’d swallowed a bug, but when he spoke, he was all politeness.  “Is it
from Aunt Dawn then?”

The old fox
shook her head.  “No.”

She enjoyed
watching the boy squirm, knowing that he was trying not to show it.  His tone,
when he spoke, was casual, as if he had very little interest in the answer to
his question.

“Is it from the
half-breed then?  Why would he write to you?”

She placed the
letter on the desk, and he saw- for just a moment- the slanting lines of
English scrawled across the page.  “No.  Not our Ryuu.”

She cackled like
a mad woman, and it grated on the boy’s nerves.  But he would never let her be
displeased with him.  “You seem very happy, Obaasan.”

She tucked the
smile away out of sight and appeared to gather herself.  “Go call one of the
servants and have them bring that little trunk down from the attic,” she
ordered imperiously.  “I think I have some things to take care of in the
States.”

The boy left,
closing the sliding doors behind him.  The old woman ran a graceful finger over
the signature line of the letter.  “Katherine,” she said to herself.  “It’s
about time he found you.”  Then she tucked the letter away and went about her
task with a sly, fox-like smile.