Unsung

Chapter Seventy-Eight

I squinted in the low light, trying to place the figure walking up to us. Though I couldn't see his face clearly, I could definitely see that he wasn't wearing a mask. I let out a shaky breath, feeling confident that we weren't about to be attacked again.

"Relax," the voice commanded snarkily. "It's just me."

As Ris walked into the halo of the streetlamp above, I noticed he was hunched over and clutching his right side protectively. For the moment I forgot about my annoyance over his sudden appearance and ran over to him, worried.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I reached him. I stretched out my hand to help him, but he just raised an eyebrow before hobbling on without me.

"Thanks, but I already made it six blocks on my own. I think I can handle the last twenty feet," he said sarcastically.

I let my arm drop back down to my side awkwardly, and then fell into step a few feet behind him. By then Garrick had caught up and gave me a sympathetic smile.

We walked up to McKayla's front door in silence. Seeing as I was the only one not sporting any injuries, I stepped forward and rang the doorbell. A twinkling like windchimes rang out, and after a few seconds I heard footsteps and then felt a whoosh of air as the door opened up in front of us.

"Yes?" a tiny Asian woman asked tentatively. She was wearing a blue-grey outfit similar to scrubs, with what looked like orthopedic shoes. For a brief second, I wondered if we were at the wrong house.

"Uh, is McKayla here?" I asked her politely.

The woman gave me a strange look like she was wondering what a bunch of teenagers were doing on her porch and didn't respond. She looked around me and Garrick, and then seemed to brighten.

"Nǐ hǎo, Akemi. Nǐ zuìjìnguò dé zěnme yang," Ris said, the foreign language slipping off his tongue as easily as if it were English.The woman gave Ris a warm smile and then reached between us to take his hand in both of hers. Garrick and I moved out of the way to let the two connect and then looked at each other confused. "Wǒ yīzhí hěn hǎo. Wǒ shàng gè yuè gānggāng huānyíng wǒ de dì bā sūnnǚ. Tā de tóufǎ xiàng nǐ yīyàng hēi, jīhū hé nǐ yīyàng zhǎng," the woman said, and then reached out to stroke Ris' hair.His usual scowl was replaced with a genuine smile and I noticed how he didn't pull away hostily as the woman touched him. In fact, he just shook his finger at her jovially before answering, "Xiànzài bùyào gěi wǒ yīgè nánguò de shíjiān, ayi."The two seemed to finally remember we were standing there too, and Ris cleared his throat, motioning to the woman. "This is Akemi. She takes care of the house."I blinked at this news, though given the size of the house I'm not sure why I was surprised to hear they had a housekeeper. Shaking my thoughts away, I leaned forward and held out my hand politely. "Hi," I said, not sure she'd be able to understand me. Garrick followed my lead and then bowed to her grandly afterward.Ris rolled his eyes at us, before taking a step into the bright foyeur. "Is McKayla home? She told us to meet her here," he said.Akemi nodded. "She's downstairs in the theater," she said in perfect English. Any hint of her accent was gone. "Refreshments have already been served."My mouth dropped open in surprise as I realized she could speak English after all."Thanks, Akemi," Ris said, leading the way to the right of the cascading staircase in front of us and disappearing behind it, like he'd made the journey a million times before. Thinking back to my conversation with McKayla I realized this may in fact be the case.Another staircase led us downstairs and into a narrow hallway lined with grey, distressed hardwood floors. Lights adorned the walls near our feet like an airport runway leading us forward. At the end of the hallway was a bright red door that bore an oversized gold star resembling the ones on the walk of fame.Still limping slightly, Ris approached the door and pulled it open, gesturing for us to go in ahead of him. As I passed him, I paused and gave him a curious look."You speak Chinese?" I asked, my voice giving away the fact that I was impressed."And French and Spanish," he offered like it was no big deal. "Wow, I never would've thought..." I started, then let the sentence trail off. I was going to say I was surprised, given what McKayla had divulged about his scholastic difficulties early on. But then I couldn't exactly let him know that she'd told me his big secret. So, I just left it at that.But Ris wasn't going to let me off that easily."What? You thought I was just another pretty face?" he asked, mockingly.I snorted at the joke. "No," I said, giving him a look. "You're just a...surprise sometimes.""Here's a tip," Ris said, leaning down and whispering in my ear conspiratorally. "Don't give away all your secrets at once."Then he brushed past me and into the room. After a few steps, he looked over his shoulder and added, "On second thought, don't give them away at all. Gives people too much power over you."I watched as he shuffled over to the closest armchair and collapsed into it with a groan."You guys took forever to get here," McKayla said from across the room. Her back was to us as she fiddled around at what looked like a bar in the corner. "Did you walk here or something?""Some of us did," Ris said between clenched teeth."I told you I'd pick you up," McKayla answered crossly."And I told you I was fine," he responded in the same tone. "Whatever," McKayla said, turning around to look at us, a glass of clear liquid in each hand.When I saw her face, I sucked in a breath so loudly that all eyes turned my way, including McKayla's. Only one of her eyes was capable of seeing anything though. The other was swollen shut and already turning a nasty shade of blue and green. And there was a cut across her bottom lip, like it had been split in two.As I studied her injuries, she lifted one of the glasses up to her mouth and took a big gulp before placing it gently against her damaged face."Omigod!" I cried out and ran over to her. "McKayla, you look awful!"It was true. She did look bad. Even worse than Garrick had with his gash over his eye. Still, she somehow managed to raise the brow of her one good eye and give me a fierce look."Thanks for the pep talk, Tony Robbins," she said bitingly and then walked the other glass she was holding over to Ris and placed it in his outstretched hand."I just mean...it looks like it hurts," I sputtered, trying desperately to backtrack. "Are you okay?""I'm fine," she answered, her tone daring me to push further. "It's the others you should be worried about."

She nodded in the direction behind me and I turned tolook at the rest of our group, who were all in various states of disarrayaround the movie room.