Jhondie
"I just don't think this is a good idea," Mom said.
"Tough," I replied casually. "You're going. You have worked so hard lately. You deserve this." I had called Justin and told him the good news and now it was time to get Mom packed.
Kayla came out of Mom's closet with some blouses and skirts. "No kidding, Mom," she said. For once she and I were in complete agreement. "You're the one that's done all the work, and they were going to get all the credit. Now you'll be the one to get the credit for it. That totally rocks."
"Not that either of us thinks it's cool that the man's mother died," I added quickly, Kayla nodding in agreement, "but now he's not going to be up there giving a quick mention of the help his staff gave in doing all of this research and work putting it together. You're the one that's going to be giving the presentation and that's what counts."
Mom had spent the last six months doing a lot of work concerning training of teachers and getting an educational system that would help produce people that could help get this country out of the depression it was in. The better educated they were, the better chances it was that they would be able to get good jobs and help rebuild the economy one person at a time. It was really lofty and grand idealistically, but the point was that there were some excellent ideas coming from it. Mom's research had shown how some reforms could make a big difference.
I'm not saying that what she had done was awesome or anything, but a presentation was being made to the governor of the state of California. Apparently a friend of his was on the school board here and had mentioned it to him and he wanted to know more. It also helped that four months ago Eyes Only proved that education dollars had been spent on purposes that taxpayers didn't exactly appreciate. The education commissioner that spent a week in Aspen with his mistress got fired, but with elections coming up next year, the governor was determined to show he was committed to education.
The bad side was that the principal of Mom's school was a total jerk. He decided that despite the fact that Mom did all of the work, he was the one that was going to do the presentation to the governor. Jerk. When Mom first started all this, he pestered her to death and told her it was a waste of time. It wasn't until the hack that he left her alone. She was rather glad for the coincidence that Eyes Only got interested in education all of a sudden. When she told me that I had to leave the room and laughed myself silly.
In any case, an hour ago the vice-principal called. He was supposed to be going with Principal Walsh. And I should say that was pissing me off all the more that the vice-principal was going and not Mom at all. But, Walsh's mother died not an hour before then. Walsh was the executor of the will and from the speed at which he went upstate; I was willing to bet there was a pretty good chunk of change involved. Mother must have been loaded up with insurance or something. Anyways, the vice-principal had been going along as window dressing. He had no clue about any of this. He wanted to know if Mom would be willing to do the presentation. He made it seem like he was doing her a big favor and allowing her to do it since he had a cold and wouldn't make as good of an impression as she would. Whatever. He was idiot and Mom was going, and that was final.
"I think Ed tried to reschedule the meeting," Mom admitted. "But Governor Westmore was too busy to do it next week."
"See," I declared. "This is just proof that you are the person that God wants to give the presentation. I mean killing off someone's mother is pretty drastic, but it got the point across."
"Jhondie!" Mom chastised, but she was smiling too.
"Well, you know," Kayla said, sounding like she was nervous about something, her eyes shifting guiltily, "she's absolutely right. It was an act of God. Not at all like Jhondie whacked the old lady while I drove the getaway car."
I blinked. Holy mother of God. Kayla actually made a joke. And not a nasty little comment about me either. It was an honest to God joke. And a funny one at that. Even Mom looked stunned. I grinned. "She knows that wouldn't have happened," I said placatingly. Pause for a beat and I glanced at Mom. "She's too young to drive so I told her what to do and then I had to drive the getaway car."
All three of us laughed. It felt so good to be able to act like a family. Mom sighed. "I'm more worried about you two. In the last month you haven't been able to be in the same room for more than five minutes without an argument."
"We've been in here for more than five minutes," I pointed out.
"Exactly," Kayla agreed. She grinned mischievously. "My sister's a bitch. I can live with that."
"So is mine!" I practically squealed. I looked at Mom. "See, we have so much in common; how can we spend the whole time fighting?"
Kayla looked at me smugly. "I would take offense at that, but I know you have more than one sister, so you must have been referring to one of them. I'm far to sweet and delicate to be described as such a thing." All three of us laughed again. Kayla had talked to Irene earlier this week and Irene had described Kay as such. Since Kayla now knew that I wasn't her real sister, Irene totally understood why she was acting out. She offered to let Kay come and stay with her for a while and then maybe Mom would realize that the child she gave birth to was far more important than the child whose own mother didn't want her. Kayla contemplated that offer for all of five seconds. Being grounded in LA was far worse than being free under Irene's roof in Atlanta.
Mom was wavering. I knew how much she wanted to go. This was her moment to shine. She had totally sacrificed a career when she was younger because of her kids. She had been a teacher when her and Dad first got married and had been taking classes to become a guidance counselor. She had wanted to stay in school full time and get her master's in psychology, but she got pregnant with Katherine at the beginning of her last semester in college and since Dad was in medical school, she started teaching. Later, she started to go back to school to be a guidance counselor, but she was about three classes from that when Katherine developed leukemia. She quit working and everything to take care of her daughter and then they moved to Las Vegas. Mom finished school there and then the Pulse hit and the whole educational system was thrown into major disarray. Mom home-schooled for the neighborhood kids, and it wasn't until long after we moved to LA that she got back into what she loved to do. Now it was time for her to get some rewards for all of that time and sacrifice, and she was going to get it whether she wanted too or not.
"You know you're going to have to be home all night," she warned me.
Kayla blew out a little breath of air in annoyance. "I'm not an infant, you know," she said. "And I swear I will not have anyone over at all if that will make you go. Not even Katrina!" I think Kayla was being serious about that. We both knew how much Mom had put into this. She deserved it.
"It's not you inviting someone over so much as someone uninvited showing up," I said quickly before Mom could get upset with Kayla for being a brat and decide that she shouldn't go. "It would really suck for you to be alone if some murderer or rapist broke in."
Kayla looked slightly pouty. "But you got left home alone before."
"I can dodge bullets," I replied dryly. "I don't think some punk with eyes on the TV set is going to be much of a challenge."
Mom had been folding some clothes and packing them into her suitcase. She paused and looked at me oddly. "And how exactly do you know that you can dodge bullets?"
One response at a moment like that. D'OH! I knew I had told Mr. Carter that I would tell her about Eyes Only soon, but I figured that in another year or so I would be in medical school and too busy for that so why worry her needlessly. In other words, I was far to frightened of my mother to let her know what I was doing in my spare time. Think fast.
"The usual way," I answered. "Someone started shooting and I learned I could duck." She wasn't buying it. Or she knew there was more to it. "It was a Manticore thing," I said vaguely. It was. If it weren't for Manticore I wouldn't have the ability to do it.
"If they were spending all that money and time to get you all soldier-girl, why were they trying to shoot you?" Kayla asked. I had never noticed it before, but her expression of suspicious disbelief was exactly like Mom's.
"Well, at the time, they would rather have a body count than escapees," I replied honestly. I had done some bullet dodging that night, so it wasn't a total lie. "And trust me, it's one of those skills that once you learn, you don't forget."
That kind of marred the good humor in the room for a minute. It was difficult to go from being with Justin where I could mention Manticore and not have it get all tense, to here where it upset people to say the word. Mom finally broke the silence.
"Okay, I just want you two to swear to me on everything you hold dear that there will be no fighting or trying to kill each other or anything of that nature," she said.
I looked at Kayla. "First one to break the truce gets buried in an unmarked grave?"
"Deal!" she declared with a curt nod.
Mom looked at the both of us, trying not to laugh. "And how many of your problems are going to be solved with an unmarked grave?"
I pretended to think for a minute. "Most of life's little problems can be solved with either an unmarked grave or a direct application of explosives. But I'll wait until you get back before I go for the boom." We all laughed again and I was glad that the tension had dissipated.
Needless to say, Mom decided to go. Decided, was pressured relentlessly into it, the point was the same. The next morning we dropped Kayla off at school and then I took her to the train station where she met up with Clark Norton, the vice-principal of the school. Mom didn't notice him check out her butt. I did. I was not pleased. And if made a move on her while they were gone, I swore he was going to be eating through a tube for a very long time to come.
I had school that day. Unfortunately, traffic was light so I didn't miss Women's Studies. My professor would have preferred that I missed the class that day. We were debating about domestic violence and the women that kill their abusive mates. The general consensus of the class was that Battered Women's Syndrome was an acceptable excuse. Of course I had to perk up and say that if something is worth killing for, then it's worth dying for. If freedom meant that much to a person, then they should be willing to risk themselves for it. Anything else is just revenge. My professor gasped and said I obviously had no idea what I was talking about and began quoting some book at me. I smiled and asked her if she had an original idea on the subject or were all of her ideas based on what someone else thought. I was hoping to get thrown out of class again, but no such luck. She just ignored me for the next twenty minutes and then I got to go to my molecular biology class. Much more interesting class. And far more useful for my future as well.
I got home in time to pick Kayla up and take her to ballet. She had class there from three to five and then she was going over to a friend's house to study for a test. This was one of the few of her "old" friends that she still had anything to do with. I figured it was mostly because Becky was the reason Kayla was passing her classes more than Kayla really wanted to be friends with her. Becky's mother swore that she was going to be home all night and there was no need to worry. The girls were really going to be there to study and they were not going to be going anywhere else. Anna, Becky's mother, and Mom had been friends for a long time and I knew the woman well enough to know that she wasn't one of those kinds of parents that let their kid run wild and would lie to another parent about what she was going to let the kids do. I gave Anna Justin's cell number and told her to call me when Kayla was ready to be picked up.
Letting Kayla study with a friend worked out really well for me because Justin and I had some recon work to do. Justin had talked to Eyes Only and it turned out that the planes we were supposed to keep an eye out for were going to be shipping blood. Air Dracula or something. But it meant that the airports being used were going to have to have some kind of refrigeration on site because it was always possible that the plane might not be able to leave the same night it arrived. We were going to check out the airports in the area that were technically abandoned. Dink hadn't come up with anything yet, but if we knew where the planes were landing, we could stake it out and let the boss know when the flights were arriving.
I admit it was a little annoying knowing that I wasn't going to be able to go home with Justin that night, but I could deal with it. Kayla and I had made a deal that nobody was allowed over and that included Justin. I could have argued that Justin was different but then she would have said her boyfriend was different too and that would have led into one huge nasty circle. It was just for a couple of days anyways.
It was almost eight when Justin's phone rang. We had checked two airports and come up with nothing. There were two more possibilities, one being a very small airstrip on the outskirts of the city, but those were going to have to wait for another day. I was thinking that if Kayla hadn't eaten with her friend, then the three of us could have a late dinner together and then I could get to some homework that I needed to take care of. I was thinking that Mom was going to be pleased on how ordered everything went while she was gone. That warm fuzzy ended the minute I said hello and heard Anna's voice.
"Jhondie," she said, her voice shaking.
"What happened?" I asked quickly, Justin glancing over at me in question at the worry in my tone.
"Kayla," she said. "She...she...I just don't know how to say this."
"Say what!" I almost shouted into the phone, my heart slamming in my chest. I barely registered the fact Justin had changed direction and was accelerating towards Anna's. "What happened to my sister?"
"I don't know what happened," Anna said sadly. "She snuck out."
"I just don't think this is a good idea," Mom said.
"Tough," I replied casually. "You're going. You have worked so hard lately. You deserve this." I had called Justin and told him the good news and now it was time to get Mom packed.
Kayla came out of Mom's closet with some blouses and skirts. "No kidding, Mom," she said. For once she and I were in complete agreement. "You're the one that's done all the work, and they were going to get all the credit. Now you'll be the one to get the credit for it. That totally rocks."
"Not that either of us thinks it's cool that the man's mother died," I added quickly, Kayla nodding in agreement, "but now he's not going to be up there giving a quick mention of the help his staff gave in doing all of this research and work putting it together. You're the one that's going to be giving the presentation and that's what counts."
Mom had spent the last six months doing a lot of work concerning training of teachers and getting an educational system that would help produce people that could help get this country out of the depression it was in. The better educated they were, the better chances it was that they would be able to get good jobs and help rebuild the economy one person at a time. It was really lofty and grand idealistically, but the point was that there were some excellent ideas coming from it. Mom's research had shown how some reforms could make a big difference.
I'm not saying that what she had done was awesome or anything, but a presentation was being made to the governor of the state of California. Apparently a friend of his was on the school board here and had mentioned it to him and he wanted to know more. It also helped that four months ago Eyes Only proved that education dollars had been spent on purposes that taxpayers didn't exactly appreciate. The education commissioner that spent a week in Aspen with his mistress got fired, but with elections coming up next year, the governor was determined to show he was committed to education.
The bad side was that the principal of Mom's school was a total jerk. He decided that despite the fact that Mom did all of the work, he was the one that was going to do the presentation to the governor. Jerk. When Mom first started all this, he pestered her to death and told her it was a waste of time. It wasn't until the hack that he left her alone. She was rather glad for the coincidence that Eyes Only got interested in education all of a sudden. When she told me that I had to leave the room and laughed myself silly.
In any case, an hour ago the vice-principal called. He was supposed to be going with Principal Walsh. And I should say that was pissing me off all the more that the vice-principal was going and not Mom at all. But, Walsh's mother died not an hour before then. Walsh was the executor of the will and from the speed at which he went upstate; I was willing to bet there was a pretty good chunk of change involved. Mother must have been loaded up with insurance or something. Anyways, the vice-principal had been going along as window dressing. He had no clue about any of this. He wanted to know if Mom would be willing to do the presentation. He made it seem like he was doing her a big favor and allowing her to do it since he had a cold and wouldn't make as good of an impression as she would. Whatever. He was idiot and Mom was going, and that was final.
"I think Ed tried to reschedule the meeting," Mom admitted. "But Governor Westmore was too busy to do it next week."
"See," I declared. "This is just proof that you are the person that God wants to give the presentation. I mean killing off someone's mother is pretty drastic, but it got the point across."
"Jhondie!" Mom chastised, but she was smiling too.
"Well, you know," Kayla said, sounding like she was nervous about something, her eyes shifting guiltily, "she's absolutely right. It was an act of God. Not at all like Jhondie whacked the old lady while I drove the getaway car."
I blinked. Holy mother of God. Kayla actually made a joke. And not a nasty little comment about me either. It was an honest to God joke. And a funny one at that. Even Mom looked stunned. I grinned. "She knows that wouldn't have happened," I said placatingly. Pause for a beat and I glanced at Mom. "She's too young to drive so I told her what to do and then I had to drive the getaway car."
All three of us laughed. It felt so good to be able to act like a family. Mom sighed. "I'm more worried about you two. In the last month you haven't been able to be in the same room for more than five minutes without an argument."
"We've been in here for more than five minutes," I pointed out.
"Exactly," Kayla agreed. She grinned mischievously. "My sister's a bitch. I can live with that."
"So is mine!" I practically squealed. I looked at Mom. "See, we have so much in common; how can we spend the whole time fighting?"
Kayla looked at me smugly. "I would take offense at that, but I know you have more than one sister, so you must have been referring to one of them. I'm far to sweet and delicate to be described as such a thing." All three of us laughed again. Kayla had talked to Irene earlier this week and Irene had described Kay as such. Since Kayla now knew that I wasn't her real sister, Irene totally understood why she was acting out. She offered to let Kay come and stay with her for a while and then maybe Mom would realize that the child she gave birth to was far more important than the child whose own mother didn't want her. Kayla contemplated that offer for all of five seconds. Being grounded in LA was far worse than being free under Irene's roof in Atlanta.
Mom was wavering. I knew how much she wanted to go. This was her moment to shine. She had totally sacrificed a career when she was younger because of her kids. She had been a teacher when her and Dad first got married and had been taking classes to become a guidance counselor. She had wanted to stay in school full time and get her master's in psychology, but she got pregnant with Katherine at the beginning of her last semester in college and since Dad was in medical school, she started teaching. Later, she started to go back to school to be a guidance counselor, but she was about three classes from that when Katherine developed leukemia. She quit working and everything to take care of her daughter and then they moved to Las Vegas. Mom finished school there and then the Pulse hit and the whole educational system was thrown into major disarray. Mom home-schooled for the neighborhood kids, and it wasn't until long after we moved to LA that she got back into what she loved to do. Now it was time for her to get some rewards for all of that time and sacrifice, and she was going to get it whether she wanted too or not.
"You know you're going to have to be home all night," she warned me.
Kayla blew out a little breath of air in annoyance. "I'm not an infant, you know," she said. "And I swear I will not have anyone over at all if that will make you go. Not even Katrina!" I think Kayla was being serious about that. We both knew how much Mom had put into this. She deserved it.
"It's not you inviting someone over so much as someone uninvited showing up," I said quickly before Mom could get upset with Kayla for being a brat and decide that she shouldn't go. "It would really suck for you to be alone if some murderer or rapist broke in."
Kayla looked slightly pouty. "But you got left home alone before."
"I can dodge bullets," I replied dryly. "I don't think some punk with eyes on the TV set is going to be much of a challenge."
Mom had been folding some clothes and packing them into her suitcase. She paused and looked at me oddly. "And how exactly do you know that you can dodge bullets?"
One response at a moment like that. D'OH! I knew I had told Mr. Carter that I would tell her about Eyes Only soon, but I figured that in another year or so I would be in medical school and too busy for that so why worry her needlessly. In other words, I was far to frightened of my mother to let her know what I was doing in my spare time. Think fast.
"The usual way," I answered. "Someone started shooting and I learned I could duck." She wasn't buying it. Or she knew there was more to it. "It was a Manticore thing," I said vaguely. It was. If it weren't for Manticore I wouldn't have the ability to do it.
"If they were spending all that money and time to get you all soldier-girl, why were they trying to shoot you?" Kayla asked. I had never noticed it before, but her expression of suspicious disbelief was exactly like Mom's.
"Well, at the time, they would rather have a body count than escapees," I replied honestly. I had done some bullet dodging that night, so it wasn't a total lie. "And trust me, it's one of those skills that once you learn, you don't forget."
That kind of marred the good humor in the room for a minute. It was difficult to go from being with Justin where I could mention Manticore and not have it get all tense, to here where it upset people to say the word. Mom finally broke the silence.
"Okay, I just want you two to swear to me on everything you hold dear that there will be no fighting or trying to kill each other or anything of that nature," she said.
I looked at Kayla. "First one to break the truce gets buried in an unmarked grave?"
"Deal!" she declared with a curt nod.
Mom looked at the both of us, trying not to laugh. "And how many of your problems are going to be solved with an unmarked grave?"
I pretended to think for a minute. "Most of life's little problems can be solved with either an unmarked grave or a direct application of explosives. But I'll wait until you get back before I go for the boom." We all laughed again and I was glad that the tension had dissipated.
Needless to say, Mom decided to go. Decided, was pressured relentlessly into it, the point was the same. The next morning we dropped Kayla off at school and then I took her to the train station where she met up with Clark Norton, the vice-principal of the school. Mom didn't notice him check out her butt. I did. I was not pleased. And if made a move on her while they were gone, I swore he was going to be eating through a tube for a very long time to come.
I had school that day. Unfortunately, traffic was light so I didn't miss Women's Studies. My professor would have preferred that I missed the class that day. We were debating about domestic violence and the women that kill their abusive mates. The general consensus of the class was that Battered Women's Syndrome was an acceptable excuse. Of course I had to perk up and say that if something is worth killing for, then it's worth dying for. If freedom meant that much to a person, then they should be willing to risk themselves for it. Anything else is just revenge. My professor gasped and said I obviously had no idea what I was talking about and began quoting some book at me. I smiled and asked her if she had an original idea on the subject or were all of her ideas based on what someone else thought. I was hoping to get thrown out of class again, but no such luck. She just ignored me for the next twenty minutes and then I got to go to my molecular biology class. Much more interesting class. And far more useful for my future as well.
I got home in time to pick Kayla up and take her to ballet. She had class there from three to five and then she was going over to a friend's house to study for a test. This was one of the few of her "old" friends that she still had anything to do with. I figured it was mostly because Becky was the reason Kayla was passing her classes more than Kayla really wanted to be friends with her. Becky's mother swore that she was going to be home all night and there was no need to worry. The girls were really going to be there to study and they were not going to be going anywhere else. Anna, Becky's mother, and Mom had been friends for a long time and I knew the woman well enough to know that she wasn't one of those kinds of parents that let their kid run wild and would lie to another parent about what she was going to let the kids do. I gave Anna Justin's cell number and told her to call me when Kayla was ready to be picked up.
Letting Kayla study with a friend worked out really well for me because Justin and I had some recon work to do. Justin had talked to Eyes Only and it turned out that the planes we were supposed to keep an eye out for were going to be shipping blood. Air Dracula or something. But it meant that the airports being used were going to have to have some kind of refrigeration on site because it was always possible that the plane might not be able to leave the same night it arrived. We were going to check out the airports in the area that were technically abandoned. Dink hadn't come up with anything yet, but if we knew where the planes were landing, we could stake it out and let the boss know when the flights were arriving.
I admit it was a little annoying knowing that I wasn't going to be able to go home with Justin that night, but I could deal with it. Kayla and I had made a deal that nobody was allowed over and that included Justin. I could have argued that Justin was different but then she would have said her boyfriend was different too and that would have led into one huge nasty circle. It was just for a couple of days anyways.
It was almost eight when Justin's phone rang. We had checked two airports and come up with nothing. There were two more possibilities, one being a very small airstrip on the outskirts of the city, but those were going to have to wait for another day. I was thinking that if Kayla hadn't eaten with her friend, then the three of us could have a late dinner together and then I could get to some homework that I needed to take care of. I was thinking that Mom was going to be pleased on how ordered everything went while she was gone. That warm fuzzy ended the minute I said hello and heard Anna's voice.
"Jhondie," she said, her voice shaking.
"What happened?" I asked quickly, Justin glancing over at me in question at the worry in my tone.
"Kayla," she said. "She...she...I just don't know how to say this."
"Say what!" I almost shouted into the phone, my heart slamming in my chest. I barely registered the fact Justin had changed direction and was accelerating towards Anna's. "What happened to my sister?"
"I don't know what happened," Anna said sadly. "She snuck out."
