Heart

Six

It had been seriously tempting to drive downtown, for I knew that’s where Al’s mysterious circle of friends hung out. But this was the first time my pal had entrusted his precious truck with me, and I didn’t want to ruin it. Needless to say, he was extremely relieved to see his baby idling in the parking lot for him when school let out.

Well, he didn’t outwardly show his reprieve, but I had known him long enough to see straight past his emotionless face and into his eyes. He had never learned how to shut up those talkative, light-brown orbs of his.

As his custom, Al drove me home. I was anxious the whole way, since I had freaking skipped school when I was already grounded for getting a detention, but someone Upstairs must have been watching over me: both of my parents were gone. The school had left a message on our answering machine, so I did the obvious smart thing and erased it before my folks could find out about it. I hadn’t had money to buy any lunch from a restaurant, so I dove for the fridge.

I thought I was going to be alone, but then I heard the front door open and click shut. Quiet tennis shoes padded across the floor and then squeaked a little when they hit the linoleum in the kitchen. I glanced up from shoveling cold leftovers in my mouth.

I swallowed. “What are you doing here, Al?” I asked, smoothly returning to my meal and plopping into a kitchen chair.

He held up a few books. “I took the liberty of gathering all your homework up for you.”

I groaned. “Oh c’mon, really? I wasn’t even there to learn what to do!”

“Whose fault is that?”

“Yours. You’re the one who’s supposed to make sure I’m a good girl, remember? My parents made that loud and clear for you.”

He calmly walked over to the table and sat down next to me, cracking open a textbook. “Don’t worry, Kara, I caught on pretty fast today. Shouldn’t be too hard to teach you.”

“Can’t I eat first?” I whined.

“No.” He yanked the bowl from my hands and placed it on his left--the side opposite of me. “You skipped school, so now you have to suffer the consequences.” He flipped a few pages in the book. “Now, we’re in chapter fifteen. . . .”

I raised an annoyed and skeptical eyebrow. “You know I can just lean over there and grab that, right?”

He penned me with a cool stare. “Are you honestly sure you want to try?”

I smirked. “Please, like you would unleash your kong-fu wrath on me.”

“Black belt,” he murmured warningly under his breath.

I threw him a glare that would make milk curdle. And even though he completely saw this look, he was unfazed. He simply turned back to the book and forced me to concentrate while he attempted to fill me in on lessons and my half finished meal sat just a foot out of my grasp, taunting me. He finally shed a little mercy after the first hour and slid the bowl back over to my side of the table. I gratefully dug in, and then everything seemed to go much faster after that; before I knew it, it had gotten dark outside and Alan announced that I had finished the last of my homework. As he was packing up his own books, the front door opened and I heard the plastic rustling of grocery bags.

“Hey, Mom,” I greeted when she breezed into the kitchen, arms full.

“Hello, sweetheart.” She dumped the groceries on the counter. “Sorry I got home so late. While I was out and about I decided to pick up a few things from the mall, and it took forever to get back home. There was a car that was just sitting there in the middle of the road causing a horrific traffic jam. It didn’t look like anyone was in it.”