Chapter 2 #2
Principal Bell’s eyes narrowed as he considered them, his fingers tapping on the top of the desk.
“As I said, we’ll be talking to the others as well, but we’ve heard from various sources that you two might be the culprits in this—” He pursed his lips.
“Prank isn’t the right word. As Ms. Macnamara said, this is serious business.
You understand that, don’t you? That this action could be considered a threat? ”
“You can’t convict us on the strength of a rumor.” Martina’s voice was steady, but Rick knew that if he grabbed her hand right now, he’d be able to feel a fine tremor in her fingers. His stomach was twisting so hard, he thought he might have to grab the principal’s garbage can and puke up his guts.
“No,” Principal Bell said, “but it’s enough to make us want to talk to you. Especially in light of the history of your earlier pranks—”
“Alleged,” Rick and Martina said in near unison.
Principal Bell’s eyebrows went up, and his tone went dry. “Alleged pranks.”
Ms. Macnamara cut in. “We thought maybe this was another one. Something you thought might be funny, not realizing how seriously people were going to take it? Is that what happened?”
“You do realize that we’re the victims here, right?” Martina shook her head, crossing her arms to hide her trembling hands. “This wasn’t us, and if you think you can pin it on us, you can deal with my mom.”
The meeting went circular from there, Principal Bell and Ms. Macnamara moving between growling and cajoling—their frustration and worry were evident.
Rick focused on a spot behind the principal’s head and tried to ignore the growing sense of dread in his stomach.
After what felt like an eternity, Martina and Rick were dismissed, both of them unsure as to whether or not they were in trouble.
Rick stood on shaky legs and followed Martina out into the larger part of the office. A few chairs sat against the wall, the waiting area for the principal, most of them empty except for the one Kylie Mason perched on. She gathered her things, nodding at them as she walked past.
Rick and Martina returned the nod, neither of them wanting to say a single word this close to Bell’s office, which ended up being a very good thing.
Officer Dempsey, the resource officer employed by the school, stood right outside the door next to the waiting area, his face an impassive mask.
They passed him as they left, nodding as they did.
Usually at this time of day, he patrolled the parking lot.
Which made Rick wonder if him being there was a coincidence. Had Officer Dempsey been standing outside the office door on purpose so he could overhear everything, and if so, had that been the officer’s idea, the principal’s, or Ms. Macnamara’s?
Rick didn’t like any of those scenarios, so he didn’t relax until they’d turned the corner and the office was no longer in sight.
—
Rick felt like everyone was watching him for the rest of the day, their collective gaze pinned on his back until his shoulder blades itched.
He was used to walking through his day mostly invisible, making this an unwelcome change.
Keeping his head down didn’t block out the snatches of conversation he caught as he weaved through the crowd in the halls.
“I heard they can’t get ahold of Mr. Stephens—”
“I always hated him. Remember when he—”
“—a stupid joke, that’s all. It’s not like anyone’s really dead—”
“…Mr. Turner said he had a family emergency, but anyone can send an email…”
Rick shoved in his earbuds and cranked up his music, not hearing a single note.
By the time the final bell rang, he was ten seconds away from clawing out of his own skin.
He forced himself to walk slowly as he made his way to his van in an attempt to not draw more attention.
It felt like ages before he caught sight of Martina, leaning against the door of the Beast while she texted someone.
Martina glanced up from her screen. “Finally. I was about ready to hot-wire the Beast and leave you behind.”
Rick pulled out his keys. “You don’t know how to hot-wire a car.”
She waggled her phone at him. “You can learn how to do anything on the internet, my friend.”
Rick laughed, though it felt a little painful as both of them climbed into the Beast. Out of sight of everyone, he finally felt his shoulders relax.
“If that went as well as the time I tried to show you how to change your oil, I think the Beast is safe. The internet isn’t magic, and you’re not mechanically inclined. ”
She popped her sunglasses onto the top of her head. “You saying I can’t do it, Hicks? Are you implying I don’t have the skills?”
“You have plenty of skills, my brilliant friend. Cars just ain’t one of them.” He slumped against his seat. “Today was a nightmare.”
Martina sighed. “It’ll be worse tomorrow.”
Rick leaned forward, turning the key, bringing the Beast coughing to life. “For fuck’s sake, Teeny. That’s grim.”
She shrugged. “It’s reality. By tomorrow, the few people who didn’t know will be clued into the rumor mill, and the gossip will have fermented like a shitty beer.”
He wanted to argue with her, but it felt like a waste, because he was pretty sure that she was right. They spent the short ride to his house in silence, broken only by the familiar rumble of the Beast.
Rick’s house sat at the end of a dirt driveway rutted so badly it felt like you were going over speed bumps.
The front porch of the small house sagged, making it look like a face with its tongue hanging out.
Rick was pretty sure the paint color, which was somewhere in the range of “sick-baby shit,” had been on sale, because there was no conceivable possibility that anyone would pick it because they liked it.
He couldn’t help but compare his house to Martina’s.
The Lopez house was somewhere you lingered.
It was a stopping point, a refuge from the day.
They fought like any other family, sure, but in general when you walked through their front door, you felt lighter.
What his English teacher once referred to as the “unburdening of the soul.” That was the kind of thing that happened in the Lopez house.
The Hicks household was a reversed image in a shattered mirror.
When Rick walked in, he felt the burdening of his soul.
The empty spaces they hadn’t quite managed to fill after his dad left, taking whatever quick thing he could grab on his way out—the TV, the microwave, their savings.
None of the family photos had been touched, their frames gathering dust. Fading wallpaper in the kitchen, a coffee table with more dents and water-ring stains than Rick could count, all the small details building up into a picture of exhaustion.
There was just never enough. Not enough time to clean everything.
Not enough money to pay for everything. Not enough of Rick or his mom to go around.
No, the Hicks home was a waypoint, a place you stopped before moving on to other things.
Even now, they were just there until Dani got home from school and then they would leave again.
Rick dropped his bag and hung up his hoodie in the closet carefully before attacking the dishes left in the sink.
Martina got out her books, spreading them across the table so she could work while they waited.
Rick’s stomach grumbled, but he knew he wouldn’t find much in the fridge—it was two days until his mother’s payday, and if he looked in there now, he was pretty sure a cartoon tumbleweed would fall out.
He dug around in the cabinets before he found a half-empty box of spaghetti noodles and filled a pot with water.
They didn’t have any sauce, but they did have a little butter.
He settled in to work with Martina. The last thing he wanted to do right now was schoolwork, but after the day they’d had, he knew the school would have called or emailed his mom. She was going to be stressed out, so doing his homework seemed like a smart move for now.
Dani came home around three thirty, dragging her backpack and groaning like she’d crossed the Sahara and climbed two mountains on her way home.
Dani was small for her age, practically swallowed up in the red hoodie she was wearing that was a size too big for her.
Her worn-out jeans had been rolled at the cuffs because they were too long.
Her sneakers were scuffed, and the sole was already peeling away from the rest of the shoe.
But she was clean and she was healthy, and Rick was grateful for those two things.
She left her backpack by the door, slowly collapsing onto the faded carpet under the watchful eyes of Martina and Rick.
“Bad day?” Martina asked.
Dani didn’t move her head, but she did stick out her hand to give them a thumbs-down.
Martina glanced at Rick. “So better than yesterday. That’s good.”
Yesterday Dani had mimed her own death before collapsing. A thumbs-down was definitely a move upward.
“How about a snack?” Rick asked, keeping his voice deceptively mild. “Then we can go see Gabrielle and—”
That was all he got out before Dani bounced to her feet, screeching like a happy pterodactyl. “Tía Gabrielle!” She ran to the table, not even bothering to sit before she started shoveling the butter noodles into her face.
Martina watched her, amused, as she began packing up her stuff. “Slow down and chew.”
Dani grumbled something, but it was through a mouthful of noodles, so neither of them could make sense of it.
Rick shoved his homework unceremoniously into his bag. “If you choke, you might have to go to the hospital, which means we wouldn’t be able to go to see Gabrielle at all.”