CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT: CONNOR
REEFSIDE
FEBRUARY 9 2004
11:50 AM
The 11:50 bell rang, signaling the end of fourth period. The history teacher, Ms. Jenson, turned off the projector and flipped the lights on, awakening several students and causing a few more to groan. "That's it for today. Remember, your paper for me on the Third Servile War is due next week. And part two on comradery for Dr. Bob's sociology class is due the Thursday after."
"Man, that was intense," Nate said to Connor and Sully as they left the room. "And here I named my dog after that guy. Sure hope he doesn't have the same fate…Nice friends though," he added as an afterthought.
"Little Sparky's full name is Spartacus?" Sully asked surprised.
"Yep," Nate said fondly.
"But…he's a Chihuahua," Connor said.
"So?" Nate said, getting defensive.
"You named your Chihuahua Spartacus?"
"Yeah. What's the big deal?"
"Nothing!" Connor said quickly. "It's just…a Chihuahua named Spartacus…It seems like you'd call a pit bull Spartacus or something."
"Well, we did have a pit bull named Spartacus. Man I loved that guy…" Nate said reminiscing.
"Oh. What happened to him?"
"You know that chunk of my leg that's a different color?"
Oh no...
"Yeah..."
"Spartacus's doing."
"Uh…"
"Yep. Mom got rid of him and got a Chihuahua. I made her let me name him. She was pissed when I told her I wanted to name him Spartacus too, so she started calling him Sparky," Nate said matter-of-factly.
"Nice story," said Sully. "But unless Chihuahua is on the menu, can we please go get lunch? I'm parched."
"Sully," Nate said. "Do you know what parched means?"
Sully stood up straight and lifted his finger in the air, as though he was about to teach a very important lesson. "Parched. To make extremely, excessively, or completely dry, as heat, sun, and wind do."
"Ok, so you can rattle off a definition," Connor said rolling his eyes. "But you used it in the wrong context."
"What's a context?"
Nate burst out laughing. "What, that's not on your list of vocab words?"
"No. Duh," Sully replied as the approached the library.
"Right, well, this is where I'm headed," Connor told them.
"The library?" Nate asked, amazed. "Why the hell are you going there?"
"Finishing up a project I started this weekend."
"Oh. Have you even been in there before?"
"Of course I have. Why, haven't you?"
Nate and Sully looked at each other. "No," they said together.
"And you wonder why you're getting straight D's…"
"Better than last semester," Nate said.
"Oh yeah, when you couldn't play every other game because of your grades?" Connor said sarcastically. Then he remembered something. "How'd that English test go by the way?"
"Fear not, oh worried leader! I got a C minus, thank you very much."
"Good. Trevor broke his foot. He's out the rest of the season. If you screw up, we're all screwed," Connor explained, pushing open the library door.
"What?!" Nate exclaimed. "You couldn't have told me that before the test?! I would've tried for a C plus!"
Oh brother.
"Later boneheads."
"See ya McConnor."
"Adios!"
"Sully," Connor heard Nate say as they walked away. "Do you know what 'adios' means?"
Connor shook his head as he walked towards the audio-visual section. He went to the A's and started browsing the shelves.
A…A…A-n…A-n…A-n-i...now we're getting somewhere…A-n-i-m…Ah! Here it is!
"Connor?" said a surprised voice behind him.
He spun around. "Kira! What are you doing here?!"
What do you think she's doing here? It's the school library! Dumbass.
Kira lifted the CD she was holding.
"Oh," Connor said sheepishly. "Right. This is a library."
Kira smiled. "Very good. And what's the room called that we eat in?"
"Ha ha very funny."
"Sorry," Kira said, walking over to a nearby table and leaning against it. "So what are you here for?"
Um…
"Just looking for a movie."
"Cool. What movie?"
"Just something about music for my Gen Ed Arts class."
Not a complete lie. We did learn about it once in that class and Mrs. Bobis said that the video was here if we wanted to check it out. And I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who has checked this out lately.
"Gen Ed Arts," Kira said thoughtfully, as Connor walked over to stand next to her so the librarian wouldn't overhear and kick them out for talking too loud. "Fun class?"
"Nope," he replied without hesitation.
"Didn't think so."
"Hey Kira?"
"Yeah?"
"What's up with your shoulder?"
He thought he saw something in her eyes flashed before she sighed. "Cormac can't cook."
"Well, I could've figured. He's nine."
"No, I mean he can't cook. It's against the rules. Should probably be against the law, now that I think about it."
"So, he hurt your shoulder by cooking?" Connor asked, confused.
"No, he hurt my shoulder wielding a rolling pin while he was cooking."
He gaped at her. "Oh. Ow?"
"Very much. Of course, it didn't help that Zeltrax dislocated it the next day," Kira rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, he does that," Connor said thoughtfully.
"Well, there's my family for you."
"Hmm. So, what's 'talkwriting'?"
"Oh! I never told you, did I?"
"Hence why I asked."
"Cora made it up. Well, she made up the word. Everybody does it."
"Not helping," Connor smiled.
"Sorry," Kira said. "Um…ok, you know how Cormac's deaf, right?"
"No! I had no idea!"
"Smartass."
She's so cute when she smiles...
"Ok, so people will sometimes write things down when they want to tell a deaf person something. Thing is, that's kind of rude. Some aren't totally deaf, so they can still hear, just not as well. A lot can read lips too."
Lips? Please don't talk about lips! Now I'm going to be staring at yours this whole time...
"Anyway, it's not impolite if the deaf person writes something down first, or asks you to write something down, so Cormac started carrying a pad of paper and a marker around with him."
Connor leaned back against the table. As he was putting his hands down, one landed on top of Kira's. She glanced sideways at him, but neither of them moved away.
"My, um, grandma...once asked why he was doing that, and Cora said that it was talkwriting. So, it's not even a real word, or any official thing or anything. It's just something a four year-old made up."
Ah screw it. I'm not really risking anything, right? Well, maybe a friendship…gah! Just do it McKnight!
He looked her in the eye and leaned in towards her.
"But it is rude to presume, you know, so Cormac only talkwrites with people he likes. That's why I was surprised he did it with you...."
They were so close he could feel her breath on his lips as she talked.
"...I didn't think he liked you. Guess I was wrong..."
"Kira?" Connor whispered. They were so close now, she heard him perfectly.
"Hmm?"
"Do you like me?"
She took a deep breath. "Yeah."
That was all it took for him to softly press his lips to hers…
