Kai pushed Ray out of the way and flung himself down on the armchair, grabbing the TV remote and turning it off. Ray looked at him in bewilderment.
"What are you doing, Kai?" he asked curiously. "You okay?"
"Fine." Kai snapped. Ray bit his lip, disbelieving. They had made up for nearly two months now, but there was a slight awkwardness between the two of them that refused to go away. Still, awkwardness or not, he could tell when Kai wasn't happy.
"No, you're not."
"I'm fine."
"Then turn the TV back on." Kai folded his arms and acted as if he was suddenly deaf. Ray tried to figure out a different approach. There was clearly something bothering Kai, something that he was too embarrassed to talk about. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing."
"Kai..." Ray tried to catch the older boy's eye and failed. "Kai, please, come on! What's wrong?"
"Nothing!"
"Is it Lee?" Silence.
"Is it...is it your grandfather?" A different kind of silence. Thicker. Kai's gaze finally met his, his eyes dark with anger.
"No." he said at last, ending that particular avenue of conversation instantly. "Why're you asking me? You're the one that got a phone call from Naomi yesterday." Ray shrugged nonchalantly.
"She's in rehab for the drinking, got divorced from Shane as soon as she legally could, and barely let me get a word in over the sound of her apologising. I felt sorry for her more than anything."
"Good for you." Kai muttered sarcastically. Ray sighed and gave up, switching the conversation to a lighter subject, namely school. Fifteen minutes later, Kai was starting to look a little happier. "You started doing your thing for that art competition yet?" he asked. Ray shook his head, biting his lip again.
"I can't think of anything!" he complained. "And every art lesson, she comes over and asks me how I'm doing and I have to admit that I'm not doing anything!" He groaned melodramatically. "I might lie next lesson, say I've got something started, just to get her off my back." Kai smirked.
"Don't worry about it. You've still got, what, a month and a half left?"
"One month, three weeks and six days." Ray muttered, fiddling with his long black hair. He winced as he found a tangle. Make that lots of tangles. Kai raised a lazy eyebrow.
"When did you last brush that hay bale?" he inquired. Ray shrugged.
"Yesterday?" he offered hopefully. Kai groaned.
"Ray, when your hair is down past your shoulders you need to brush it more than once every other day! I brush mine every day!"
"Yeah, and if you take the gel out of your hair and brush it 'til it's flat, it's only about ten centimetres shorter than mine!" Ray pointed out heatedly.
"Exactly!" Ray scowled and crossed his arms stubbornly.
"I don't like brushing it." he muttered sullenly. Kai got up with a grunt of annoyance and left the room. Ray settled more comfortably on the big, squashy sofa and turned the TV back on. Suddenly, something landed in his hair, heavy against his head. He jumped violently, pulling away in fear. Kai put a hand reassuringly on his shoulder.
"Calm down. If you hate brushing it, I'll just have to do it for you, won't I?" the older boy told him, the tone of his voice preventing any arguments. Ray reluctantly sat forwards, allowing Kai to sit on the arm of the chair. Reaching up, he pulled out the binding that he usually kept his hair in and let it flow over his shoulders and back. He sat still very still as Kai began brushing, his body tense.
His hair, his head specifically, was still a weak point. Directly after he had come round (or would you call it woken up?) from his coma, any attempt to touch his head at all had resulted in full-blown hysterics and sedation. Even once he was out of the hospital and living with Rachael and Jonathon, it had taken a long, long time before he could bear to let either of them near his hair. Kai had always been the only one he had trusted. Now, with the memory of Kai's clenched fist smacking into the side of his face still clear in his mind, it was taking all his restraint to stay motionless.
Without a word, Kai moved away, gripping Ray's shoulders briefly to soothe him, and leaving the room again. Moments later, Ray heard Kai's bedroom door shut upstairs. Ray blinked, and put a hand up to feel his hair. Kai couldn't possibly have done it in such a short space of time... Okay, he was wrong. It was silky smooth, falling in long, loose waves over his face and shoulders.
"Thanks, Kai," he whispered to the silent room. Wriggling back into the cushions, he concentrated on the TV again.
The bright, fire-engine red of Tyson's favourite hat caught Ray's eye as he looked around the Learning Support classroom for his two friends. He walked over and found both boys huddled in the storage cupboard. He leaned in.
"Tyson? Max? What on earth are you doing in-"
"Ssh!" Tyson hissed. "Max isn't feeling too well, so we're skipping class!" Ray snorted with laughter.
"Ty, hate to disappoint you, but this is the first place Miss is going to look!" Tyson pulled a sulky face and wriggled backwards out of the cupboard.
"Spoilsport!" he grumbled.
"Ray, Tyson, what are you doing in the cupboard?" Mumbling excuses and apologies, the two boys went to their seats. "Where's Max?"
"At home. He's ill." Tyson said quickly, deadpan. Ray leant over his desk as far as he could, so as to not show the teacher the grin that had spread across his face.
Ray knocked on the door and entered the classroom. A friendly-looking teacher smiled at him enquiringly.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Um…I'm here for the choir…" he mumbled nervously.
"Excellent!" The teacher's smile grew. Over the next ten minutes, around fifteen people turned up. "Well, now that we've got a few more people, let's get started!" She moved over to the piano in the corner of the room. "Okay, I'll play a scale, then everyone sing it. How many boys have we got?" Ray raised his hand, along with five others, none of whom he knew. Looking around, he was surprised to see Salima, Julia and a Year Seven who he knew quite well; Emily. They all looked at him and smiled. Salima blew him an air kiss, and the three of them dissolved into laughter as he blushed and turned away hurriedly. "Boys, if you can't sing what I'm playing, try and sing it lower, okay? I'll come and give you a hand in a minute."
Ray bit his lip as everyone prepared to sing. His voice had been getting deeper lately, and he wasn't able to reach the high notes that had made him a star in primary school.
"Good luck!" Salima whispered, giving him a flirtatious smile.
"You too," Ray whispered back, before sucking in a deep breath and singing the scale. The teacher started off too low for most of them except three of the boys, and gradually got higher. Before Ray knew it, there was just him, Salima and an older girl left singing. Ray heard his voice crack slightly as he reached for the highest note in the scales so far - a top B and instantly stopped, leaving just the two girls to go for the C, the D - the older girl dropped out - and finally, Salima's voice cracked on the top E. Everyone was silent, staring at the three of them in shock, the teacher included. Ray couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of Salima. Once, he had been able to go even higher than that.
"All right everybody, I'll read out your names and your parts. Tenors, stand over there, altos over there, counter-tenors stand with the altos, and sopranos and trebles stand over there. Got that?" Most people nodded. "Right. Ozuma, you're a tenor, Emily, alto, Julia, alto, Robbie, counter-tenor, Jim, tenor…" Ray looked around, counting silently. There were sixteen people, and five different parts. It was going to be a pretty small choir. "Hannah, Salima, sopranos, Ray, treble." Obediently, Ray went over and stood with the girls, ignoring the jeers coming his way from Jim and Ozuma. "I'll see you all next week, when we can get started." As Ray made his way towards the door, one of the altos came over to him.
"Ray Kon, right?" she asked. Ray nodded warily. The girl smiled, her large green eyes friendly. "Hi, I'm Tyson's cousin, Mariam. Just wanted to see who he's been babbling about for the past few weeks, that's all!" Ray returned her grin.
"Cool. Well, see you next week!"
"See ya!" Ray continued down to the hall.
"Hi, Kai-and-Salima-and-Julia, finished the orgy yet?" he asked playfully as he passed the three of them, receiving three glares and the finger for his troubles. Chuckling to himself, he flung himself down in his usual seat. "Hi, guys!" A chorus of "Hi!" and "Hey!" followed from the six boys. "You feeling better, Max? Tyson said you weren't feeling too good." Max nodded, blushing furiously as everyone scrutinised him carefully.
"I'm fine, thanks." he murmured, taking a small bite out of his sandwich. Ray turned to Tyson.
"Oh yeah, I just met your cousin. What's she like, then?" Tyson shrugged.
"A girl. Annoying." he mumbled around a mouthful of crisps. Ray was about to reply, but found himself being drawn into a conversation with Raul and Mystel about homework.
Ray, Mystel, Tyson and Miguel, high as kites from running away from an angry teacher, ambled arm-in-arm to the gates, singing a parody of the Spice Girl's hit "Wannabe" at the tops of their voices.
"If you wanna be my lover, sex is 50p,
Condoms are just 20,
Blowjobs are for free!" They burst out laughing, completely ignoring the strange looks that they were getting from the kids that they passed, and began singing again. Raul, Oliver and Max cringed in embarrassment and walked as far behind as they feasibly could.
"What did we do to deserve this?"
"Je ne sais pas. What've they been eating?"
"Insanity pills?" Max suggested, giggling quietly.
"Since when have any of them needed pills to make them insane?"
"Oy! Stop talking about us, you gay!" Mystel yelled over his shoulder.
"Takes one to know one!"
"Oh? Are you admitting something here?"
"Dunno. Are you?"
They split up at the gate. Tyson and Max walked home together, Miguel and Mystel walked part of the way together and Oliver and Raul got a lift with their respective parents. Ray leaned on the gate, laughing still as he waved goodbye to his friends and settled down to wait for Kai. Over the weeks, Kai had been later and later out, what with after-school detentions, after-school fights and after-school make-out sessions. Urgh. And what was worse, they were all just as likely as each other to be the reason why his foster brother was - he checked his watch - fifteen minutes late.
Another fifteen minutes passed. Ray was starting to get worried. Cold too, but that didn't matter. He plucked up his courage and called to Lee, who was just coming out of the gates with Mariah.
"Hey, Lee, you seen Kai?" Lee frowned.
"You mean he's not done yet? I know he had a fight scheduled, but it can't have lasted this long… You sure he hasn't just left?" Ray shook his head vehemently.
"No, Kai knows I always wait." he explained.
"That doesn't mean he wouldn't just up and leave if he felt like it." Lee muttered darkly. The mere thought shot an arrow of doubt into Ray's chest. His thoughts must have shown on his face, because Mariah whacked her brother sharply on the arm.
"Lee! Don't be horrid!" she scolded. Lee glared at her. "I'll tell mum you had another detention!" she threatened. "You okay waiting for him?" she asked. Ray shrugged, smiling at her.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." Mariah's doubtful gaze said a lot about her own opinions, but she let it slide. "See you tomorrow, then?"
"Yeah, see you." Ray looked after the retreating pair and smiled dryly. It hadn't escaped him how Mariah tried to hide how much she fancied him when she was around Lee. Rumour had it that Lee was protective enough already without a possible boyfriend to complicate the situation.
Nevertheless, Lee's passing jibe had struck a chord, and five minutes later, he walked back into the school grounds and headed for the field, specifically the area where he normally found Kai.
"Ow!"
"Watch it, kid!" Ray rubbed his shoulder and glared after the gang of Year Elevens that had walked straight into him. Grumbling under his breath, he rounded the corner, his eyes sweeping the area for any sight of his foster brother. He saw him, and stopped dead. Nausea and tears welled up inside him and he fought to keep either of them from escaping.
"Kai..." he whispered, frozen to the spot in horror. One bruised eye cracked open and Kai's crumpled body shifted slightly, accidentally giving Ray a clear view of the pool of blood on the concrete. "Oh God...Kai, what happened?"
"Unfair fight." Kai muttered thickly, his face - the parts that weren't coated in dried blood - contorted in pain. Ray took a hesitant step forwards. "Won't kill you to come nearer." Ray coloured and hurried over. "Help me up." Obediently, Ray bent down and started trying to pull Kai up. Kai moaned in pain, his head lolling to one side, barely conscious. "Oh wow..." he murmured feebly. "This hurts like hell..."
"I'm not surprised!" Ray said fiercely. "Who did you fight with?"
"Gang of Year Eleven's. Ah, slow down...ouch, I think I've broken something..."
"You fought a Year Eleven?" Ray yelled.
"Six of them." Kai corrected him indistinctly. "Lo-long story..." Ray lurched to one side suddenly as Kai gave up any attempts at supporting himself.
"Kai, come on! How are we going to get home?" Ray demanded, tears stinging his eyes.
"Dunno...can't walk anymore...hurts too much...let go..." Kai slid down until he was lying on the concrete, his face grey with pain, gasping for air. Ray crouched down, trembling with fright.
"Kai, what hurts? Kai?" A faint, incoherent mumble was all he got out of the injured boy. Tears streaming down his cheeks, Ray stood up and looked helplessly around the empty field. What could he do? Kai couldn't walk, neither of them had their phones on them, and there was no-one around. "There's got to be somebody left in the school..." he muttered. "Kai? I'm going to go and get help, okay?" No answer. Biting his lip, Ray headed off at a sprint, running through the school doors and searching as fast as he could.
Please, please let Kai be okay out there...
Well? Review, please! If anyone wants more info on the choir bit, ask me in yuor review.