Sweet Harmony (9 page)

Chapter Nine

Annamarie headed into her second period class and took a seat in the front row. It was history, one of the few lessons she actually enjoyed, so she took out her book and flipped through the pages. Bridget sat next to her, which was a first. Normally, the girl put as much space between the two of them as possible. Since she didn't want to deal with whatever the wicked girl had up her sleeve, she ignored her and looked at a picture of soldiers.

"I'm surprised to see you in class today," Bridget said.

Hoo boy. Here she goes.
She stole a glance at Mr. Patrick, the history teacher. He was as old as the subject he taught. If she got into a fight during class, would he be able to hear well enough to notice? Probably. Darn.
Ignore, ignore, ignore,
she thought, nervous beads of sweat forming on her forehead. She was not going to get into a shouting match right now.

"Didn't you hear me?" Bridget asked.

"I did," she said. "I'm just choosing to pretend you don't exist."

"Like your mother's doing to you?" Bridget said with a nasty smirk.

What the heck was that supposed to mean? Nobody made fun of her family on her watch.

"What are you getting at?" She raised an eyebrow. "Don't you dare insult my mom."

"So you're on your mom's side, huh?" Bridget sniggered. "I guess you get your whorish qualities form her."

She leapt to her feet. Everybody stared
, including Mr. Patrick.

"Take it back!" she yelled. "My mom isn't
that way and neither am I."

"Really?" Bridget tossed a crumbled piece of newspaper at her. "The whole world seems to
think otherwise."

She
looked at the newspaper. The headline read, 'Famous Musician Yuki Neko's Affair.' The color drained out of her face and her hands shook. She made eye contact with Bridget whose grin had grown even wider in the course of seconds.

"Don't tell me you didn't know." Bridget looked like her wildest dreams had come true.

The walls were closing in. What was going on? This newspaper article had to have been fake. But what if it wasn't? She bent down to seize her bag. No way could she endure class now. Mr. Patrick hobbled over to her.

"Ms. Chadwick, what seems to be the problem?" he asked.

She opened and shut her mouth several times. All that came out was a high-pitched squeak. She couldn't find the words to say. How could she explain her emotions?

"I feel sick," she said, which wasn't exactly a lie.

"Is that so?" Mr. Patrick looked uncertainly from her to Bridget. "Then I'll write you a note to go to the nurse's office. Hold tight a second."

It took every ounce of self-control she had not to tear out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her. Instead she stood, shaking from the effort it took to withhold her bursting emotions, until Mr. Patrick returned with a note to give the nurse.

Ms. Chadwick has been excused from class due to illness.

She took the note from him and stuffed it into her pocket. Clutching the newspaper clipping tight, she left the classroom and ran as hard as she could. She didn't know where she was going; she just knew she had to get as far away from Bridget and her awful smirk as soon as
possible. She came to a stop beside the math hallway and pulled out the article Bridget had given her.

Famous Musician Yuki Neko's Affair

Cellist Yuki Neko was discovered in LA on Thursday in a hotel room with Hollywood's up-and-coming star, Troy Wilson. This came to quite a shock to those of the music world.
The critically acclaimed cellist has been married to concert pianist Francis Chadwick for the past seventeen years. Troy Wilson is fifteen years younger than Yuki Neko, young enough to be her son.

When questioned about Francis Chadwick and Troy Wilson, Yuki Neko said, "I fell in love with Troy while I was composing a piece for the movie,
Boom! Bang! Bazoo
!, where he'd play the lead role. I couldn't help my emotions. My relationship with Francis Chadwick has been failing over years and I believe it will be healthier for both of us to move on and find more compatible partners."

Yuki Neko and Francis Chadwick have two children together. Both are away at school and are unavailable for comment. During a phone interview with Francis Chadwick regarding the impending divorce, he stated, "I love Yuki with all my heart. We spent a lot of time traveling
apart because of our careers, but I never thought she'd leave me. I hope she comes back to her senses and realizes what she's doing to me and our children."

Regardless of Francis Chadwick's plea to his wife, it is rumored that Yuki Neko has officially filed for divorce. She had been seen around town in Hollywood with Troy Wilson
just this week.

Annamarie wanted to believe the article wasn't true. Paparazzi made up lies frequently. This time, though, there was proof. In the photograph beside the article, her mom was standing next to a blond man with a strong chin and sparkling green eyes. The most disturbing part was the fact he couldn't have been more of a couple years older than her.

Anger made her mouth taste bitter. Normal
ly her rage was connected to her fists, but now her blinding fury was making her tear ducts act up. Her eyes burned and a tear slipped out before she could stop it.
This is why my dad sent Yuri and me away,
she realized
. He never cared about me learning the flute. He just didn't want me to find out about this.
Yet how could she not have found out? Was he such a coward he didn't have the gumption to tell her what had happened? She felt just as betrayed by her dad as she did by her mom. She let out a yell of fury and threw her fist against the wall. Her skin burned upon impact and more tears began to fall. She needed to scream until she couldn't scream anymore, but she couldn't do that in the school. Clutching the newspaper in her fist, she ran for the backdoor.

"Hey, toilet girl!" somebody yelled from the hall
just as she reached the glass door.

When she looked up and made eye contact with the person who'd called her, she saw it was
Daniel. He looked her straight in the eye and his impish grin evaporated. Normally, she could have withstood any insult Daniel hurled at her, but right now, her armor had been so damaged anything he said would injure her heart. She burst out the door before he could talk to her and ran across the parking lot. To her surprise, she heard him running after her.

As she
fled, her heart pounding in her ears, she thought,
God must hate me. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let Daniel find me now.
She tried to run faster, but Daniel was so long-legged he caught up with her in three strides and seized her arm. She whirled around, trying to pretend tears weren't streaming down her face, and glared at the boy before her.

"I'm not in the mood now, okay?" she snapped.

When Daniel looked at her, he wasn't smirking like Bridget had been. Despite that, she tried to pull her arm out of his grip, but he refused to let her go.

"Time
out," he said.

"What?" She sniffled and tried hard to swallow her tears.

"I'm calling a timeout from our fighting," Daniel said. "Right now, we aren't arguing anymore."

"Listen here. If you think you can just
call a timeout in the middle of a war, you got another thing—"

Daniel pulled her into his arms and
embraced her.

"—coming," she squeaked.

Silence fell. She didn't know what was going on. One second she was all alone, the next Daniel, the person she thought would be the least comforting in the entire world, was hugging her. As he held her close, she realized she had two choices. She could pull away and run to solitude, or she could stay and allow herself to be comforted. She was surprised by what she wanted. She wanted to stay right where she was because the idea of being alone when feeling such all-consuming anger and sadness was frightening. After a moment's hesitation, she laid her head against Daniel's chest and sniffled.

"Nobody hears about this, do you understand?" she whispered.

"We're in timeout," Daniel said. "After we go our separate ways, I'll pretend this never happened."

Somehow, even after all of the hurled insults and horrible pranks, she believed him.
Neither of them moved for quite some time. She just stood in his arms, shaking. Her thoughts raced. How could her mom have done this to her? The woman had never been the most loving woman in the world, but she'd never expected this. And how could her dad betray her by not telling her what was going on? She wanted to hate him for what he'd done, but she couldn't even now. She tightened her grip on Daniel's shirt.

"What happened?" Daniel asked.

She looked up into his shimmering blue eyes and saw that there wasn't a hint of anger in them now. She hesitated, wondering if she could trust him. Probably not. But she hadn't made a habit of making smart choices and there wasn't a point in starting now.

"I just found out my mom was cheating on my dad with a guy my own age," she said. "
My parents are going to get divorce. The worst part is my dad didn't even tell me. I had to find out what my mom was doing from a news article."

Daniel's
expression didn't change. Maybe he'd read the article and had just wanted to hear her say the words or maybe he'd experienced too much in life for anything to take him by surprise anymore.

"That's
tough. I know how you feel," he said. "My mom left me and my dad when I was a kid. It leaves you feeling empty inside."

"
Did being betrayed make you feel empty?" She tightened her grip on his shirt. "It makes me feel full.
Too
full. Like I'm experiencing too many emotions and I'm going to burst."

Daniel studied her, his expression serious. To her surprise, he let her go and pointed to his
chin.

"This is a
onetime offer only." His jaw clenched. "You can punch me in the face. Pretend that I'm the person you're mad at most."

Wow. A free punch. She didn't see that coming. Strangely,
after all of the times she'd wanted to punch Daniel, her clenched fist was as heavy as a boulder.

"I think that will only make me feel guilty," she said.

"You had no trouble punching me before."

He actually smiled a
little.

"We weren't in time
out when I punched you before," she said. "Besides, I only hit people when I feel like they deserve it."

Silence fell. She could tell he was trying to control his temper. Sighing, she looked out into the distance.

Daniel gritted his teeth, but he gave her shoulder a squeeze. "You look like you're feeling a little better now."

To her surprise, she was. How could a guy who usually made her ready to spit acid uplift her mood like this? Daniel must have some weird, supernatural powers. She took a step back and glanced at the dorm.
Being here with Daniel was too strange.

"I probably should head back," she said. "I have to
talk to my parents. If they'll even pick up the phone, that is…"

"Good luck." Daniel saluted. "Just remembe
r next time I see you, the timeout is over. We'll be back to fighting."

"
I know."

Daniel headed back to the
school. She couldn't let him go like this, not without showing some sort of appreciation.

"Hey, Daniel," she called.

He turned around. The sun caught his beautiful honey hair and made it shimmer.

"Yeah?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Thanks," she said.

Daniel nodded and then
went inside.

She stared after him for a moment, her heart still aching.
What just happened?
she thought. After she released a shaky breath, she realized now was not the time to be confused by Daniel. Her parents were the ones who should be on her mind.

****

Annamarie paced in her dorm room. She held her cell phone in her hand after she'd finished dialing her mom's number. The woman's phone was still disconnected. She had to try her dad. After she called his cell, she waited. Nobody picked up. Another tear leaked out of the corner of her eye.
Don't think you can get away with ignoring me,
she thought, sniffing defiantly. She knew well he was practicing at this time and left his phone on. It didn't matter how long he chose to avoid her call. She'd spend all day and night dialing his number if she had to. Gritting her teeth, she clicked on her dad's number and dialed again. A moment went by. Finally, somebody picked up.

"Annamarie, this really isn't a good time," her dad said.

Another tear of rage leaked out of her eye. She'd never punched her dad before, but if he was here, she would have done just that.

"It's a perfect time," she said. "
Don't you dare hang up or else I'm using the emergency credit card you gave me to book the first flight straight to you."