PART II
Kento waved Rowen over to the tree where he was eating lunch. He eyed Rowen's lunch tray as he sat down. "Your mom's check came in?" he asked, refering to the child support check his dad recieved every month.
"Yeah and he didn't even notice that I'd pilfered some from it."
"That oughta hold ya for a while, anyway." Kento turned back to his lunch, but continued to glance up at Rowen every few seconds. No one else would have noticed, but Kento's experienced eye saw deliberate movements that refused to put pressure on certain places. "Are you sure he didn't notice?"
Rowen's eyes flashed up. "I would know, wouldn't I?"
"Well, yeah... You still comin' over after school?"
Rowen grinned. "Can't. Detention."
"Detention? For what? Better not have been something fun you didn't let me in on."
"Nah. Just a fight."
So that's what it was. "With who?"
"That Mouri kid."
"Geez Ro, he's only been here two weeks. What's to fight about?"
Rowen shrugged. "He's a poofy Brit. He doesn't like me and I don't like him."
"He's not a poof. He's just shy. And besides, he was born in Japan. He just moved back with his mom and sister."
"How do you know that?"
"He told me."
"When?" Rowen asked slightly accusingly.
"The first day he was here. He's in my Bio class third period." Damn, he thought, you'd think he was jealous or something.
Rowen got up. "Gotta go. See ya later."
Kento watched his retreating friend. "Maybe he is jealous," he muttered.
* * * * * * * * * *
Someone whispered, "Hey Kento!"
Kento looked up from his seat in the library. "Hey Cye, what's up? You weren't in class today, where'd ya go?"
"I'm getting my schedule changed around. Getting some harder classes, taking out the English class, that sort of thing."
"Yeah I guess you would be pretty good at that. English, I mean. Hey, ya think ya could help me out?"
Cye shrugged. "Sure. But I can't now. I'm not technically supposed to be in here. When are you free later?"
"Wanna come over after school?"
"Over where?"
"My house, stupid."
"Your - but what about my - or your - um, I don't know."
"Relax. You can call your mom from my house and my mom loves everybody."
"Well, okay. You want help with anything else?"
"Um, bio, maybe?" Kento said uncertainly. He felt kind of bad. Usually Rowen helped him with biology. Actually, Rowen usually helped him with all his homework.
"Great! That's my specialty. That's really why I'm getting my schedule changed - for a more advanced biology class." Cye looked around. "I better go before I get caught. See you after school!"
"Yeah, see ya later."
On the far side of the library, Rowen slunk further into his chair. He didn't know what they'd been talking about, and he'd convinced himself that he didn't care. But the thing of it was, he did care. He did care and it pissed him off. With quiet anger he stalked out of the library.
And to make his day just that much better, he turned right in the direction of the Bitch Squad. But before he could turn around, a couple of them spotted him and started up their silent snide comments. Shit. Can't turn back now. Rowen plowed ahead, careful not to make eye contact. Fortunately, only a few of them were interested in harassing him. The rest were busy with whatever was between them and the lockers. Probably that blonde flirt, whatever the hell his name is. Man, as if my life didn't suck enough. He rushed past the snickering girls and as soon as he was out of sight, he ran down the stairs.