Starlight (Book 1)

5: Cleaning Up in Style

Everything blurred as the Belt careened down the road, melting together as though someone had spilled a bucket full of paint from the clouds. The sky was grey, January grey, not Spark rainstorm grey, and the wipers breezed across the window as we drove through small puddles, sending pools of water cascading out around the tires and onto the sidewalk.

I wondered when it would snow again. So far, the weather had been largely unlucky. Every time snow came, it happened to be the weekend, and there weren't many snow days.

"What do you have first?" Dad asked, tapping his fingers absentmindedly on the steering wheel. I could tell he had other things on his mind, things more important than what class I had.

"Math." I shifted in my seat, kicking my backpack with the toe of my shoe—they were black with little white daisies today, and with amusement, I noted that they sort of matched Orion's boots. "Then Chem."

"Ugh, I wouldn't want to be you today. Sounds rough."

But I wouldn't mind being Orion. Just for a day. "I have study hall after lunch, so maybe Vivian and I will hang out." I felt bad for leaving her yesterday, although Jax could have invited her along if he wanted. Perhaps ditching him was decent enough punishment.

"What about Jasper?" asked Dad, who probably wasn't reading my mind. I knew he couldn't, but I still sometimes felt as though that was an ability he possessed, and that hypothesis, as Papa would call it, had yet to be disproved.

"Still Jasper," I confirmed. "Perpetually annoying."

"How's his mother doing?"

I shrugged. "I guess she's fine. He doesn't really talk about it a lot." I tried to remember what Jax had said about where they were going this weekend. "Oh, yeah. They're going camping."

"And did he invite you?"

He hadn't really invited me. Needless to say, I had not gotten a letter in the mail. He'd said something like 'I guess you can come if you want.' And that was the end of the conversation. "Yeah, sort of."

"Do you think you'll go?"

The answer to that question was also 'sort of,' and I didn't want to seem like I was trying to dodge the question, although that was sort of what I was doing regardless. "If Lydia is there, maybe," I said instead.

Kieran pulled into the side street leading to the school. "Have a good day, Kace. Don't forget to watch my dance!"

"Yeah," I muttered, almost laughing. "Your dance." I hopped out of the car.

It was a brisk day for January, so I tugged my sweater closer to my neck and headed directly for the school parking lot.

Finding Jax's Rover was easy. I knew where his undesignated spot technically was. It was like having unassigned seats in class. The spot was his, and when there was another car there instead, he considered it treason of the worst kind. Fortunately, today was not one of those days.

I tapped on the window. "Hey!"

He opened the driver's side door and hopped out. "I just got here. Can you—" He reached over to the passenger side and held out a paper bag. "Hold this."

I took it from him.

"Open the bag, CD case," he told me, grinning.

I did as he told me to. It was a cookie from the bakery he worked at, and it looked warm.

"Well? Are you going to eat it, or just stare at it?"

"Huh? It's for me?" I had to hurry to catch up with him again.