7.11 – The courage train

James’ POV

‘Now what?’ I signed.

“Yeah, now what?” Jamie repeated aloud since Joshua couldn’t see me.

“Bugs bunny is coming on in about-”

“No!” Jamie snapped just as I was shaking my head with a whole lot of enthusiasm.

“Ok, ok! You guys decide then.”

“Oh no wait! I have an idea.” Joshua said before anyone else could have an idea. “Let’s play truth or dare!”

I shrugged. Why not?

“Truth or dare? …fine.” Jamie agreed.

“Okay, you start Jamie.” Joshua said.

“Wait, why me? I don’t want to play anymore.” Jamie whined.

I kicked her on the leg.

“Owch! Okay! Fine.” She grumbled.

“You’ll be my first victim for this James. Truth or dare?”

I placed my finger on my lips as if I was shushing her and then pointed at her. ‘Truth’

As if I’d choose dare with Jamie.

“Oh come on!” She protested. “I had a great dare in mind…”

“Ha! He choose truth didn’t he…” Joshua snickered.

“Truth sucks. As if there was anything to know about James.”

Well now I’m a bit offended.

“Just pick something super easy that we already know the answer to and then the game can move on.” Joshua said, elbowing her gently in the side.

“Fine then. Who do you have a crush on James?” She asked, smirking slightly.

Joshua burst out laughing instantly. “Haha! Nice one! Everyone knows the answer to that one!”

I felt my cheeks redden, it wasn’t that obvious that I had a crush on Mariposa!

I threw my pencil case at Joshua and it hit the back of his head.

“Hey!” He complained still laughing.

Just then Nix walked in.

“James, come on. It’s Aliska.” She said motioning me over. “She got into trouble.” She explained after I shot her a questioning look.

Aliska getting in trouble? Sounds weird to my ears. But I got up and followed my sister anyway.

The moment she’d heard the news, Nix had dragged both Alec and I away from our breaks to wait for Aliska outside the principal’s office.

Sure, if Nix or Alec got in trouble it wouldn’t be enough of a big deal to all gather and wait.

But this was Aliska. Sure, she’d been acting a little more…rebel these days but she’d always been the goody two shoes out of all of us. It was weird that she’d be the first of us six to go the principal’s office.

“Do you know what she got caught for?” Alec asked.

“No.” Nix replied.

“Did she get in a fight?”

“I doubt it.”

“Did she cheat on a test? Did she vandalize school property?” Alec kept asking. Eventually Nix had enough.

“Alec! I don’t know! God. All I saw was her getting sent to the principal’s office.” Nix said.

“…Well do you know when she’s going to come out cause I had-” Alec started again.

At that point, even I’d had enough of Alec’s questions. I slapped the back of his head to shut him up.

“Hey! Watch it!” He complained, rubbing the back of his head. He got the message though and he shut up.

We waited five minutes before Aliska finally came out.

The moment she came out Nix and Alec jumped to their feet to pester her with questions. I decided to stay back for now.

“What happened Aliska?” Nix immediately ask.

“What did you get in trouble for? Did you beat up a nerd?” Alec asked. Nix shoved him lightly.

“What are you guys doing here?” Was Aliska’s first response.

“We were waiting for you Alis, we heard you got in trouble and-” Nix started to explain.

“And thought you come and make sure I righted my wrongs?” Aliska asked. She really wasn’t pleased to see us. Nix groaned.

“Sh*t no, Alis, no need to be so damn mean. We just came to know what you did so we could gossip to the whole school.” Alec said cheerfully. I rolled my eyes, my brother was hopeless.

“F*ck you.” She sweared (which was enough to make me widen my eyes because I’d never heard Aliska swear before) before pushing Alec aside and walking away.

Yeah, now I’m curious to know what happened to my big sis. Dyeing her hair, getting into trouble, complete change of attitude…aren’t these symptoms for drug use or something?

***

I was originally going to the library to pick up a book for Jamie because she was apparently too lazy to, when I spotted Nix. She said that IF she had the time she MIGHT hack into the principal’s computer to see if she could figure out what Alis did, but she’d PROBABLY not do it because Aliska had been such an A**. Her words not mine.

She seemed a little too absorbed in what she was doing, what with the big grin plastered on her face, to notice me so I tapped the computer once or twice.

Seeing me she quickly closed whatever she’d opened on the computer.

“Oh hi James! Didn’t see you there.” She said a bit nervously as she got up from her chair.

“I have to go.” She said attempting to walk past me. As if that wouldn’t make me curious. I grabbed her arm to stop her.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked her.

“Nothing! I swear, what are you getting so worked up about?” What was she trying to hide?

“Well, you’d probably not want to know anyway. You didn’t show much interest in it before.” She said, half mumbling.

‘What are you talking about?’ I signed.

“It’s about that boy I told you about…” She trailed off.

I motioned for her to keep talking.

“That’s who I was talking to.” She said.

‘On the computer?’ I asked a bit incredulous. I sure hoped not.

“Yeah! That’s how I met him! I was hacking for fun under my epic username Phoenix when I met some other hacker named Reaper! We hit it off instantly!” She exclaimed happily.

‘On the internet? Are you stupid?’ I signed at her. Of all things…Why are both my sisters being so dumb over some guy these days?

“Oh don’t give me that speech, I was careful. I’ve already met him.” Nix said. As if that was supposed to comfort me.

Nix saw my are-you-serious? face.

“No he’s not some weird old creep. He’s a kid my age, who’s at the hospital. He’s a cancer patient James. I doubt he’s some crazy guy. Actually he’s super sweet.” Nix said.

‘You told mom right?’ I asked her.

She nodded. “Not the part of me hacking, more like where I met this epic guy in the hospital.”

Well if mom is okay with it, I should probably back off.

“Speaking of people we like, I’ve heard some stuff about you and Mariposa…” Nix began in a teasing tone.

I quickly folded my left hand into a fist except for my pinkie and my thumb and hit it in the palm of my other hand once before folding my left hand to make the letter L and lifted it up at Nix. All to say ‘That’s all’, or more ‘END OF DISCUSSION’

“You’re no fun.”

***

I walked towards Aliska, who I knew had seen me, when she simply turned around and walked down the corridor. There she went again, ignoring me!

It was getting unbearingly annoying. I know she REALLY doesn’t want to talk to us, but there has to be a limit! It’s been weeks!

Mom said Aliska told her everything was fine.

Dad said Aliska was probably going through a ‘womanly’ phase.

Mom said dad was a big fat idiot liar.

She can’t just walk away everytime she sees one of us till she graduates! Can she?

Damn, I need to fix this now. Yes, right now. I’m going to go over and shake Aliska until she gets over her little thing.

“Hi James.” Mariposa said as she flew over, her feet lightly touching the ground. Her sweet faint perfume wafted to my nose. “I was wondering if we could hang out.”

Or you know, I could postpone talking to my sister for some other time.

I nodded. I would love to hang out with her!

She lifted both her hands up, palms facing me, and lifted them up once over her head. Sign language for ‘awesome’.

Then she let her hands fall behind her head and she flashed me a gorgeous smile. I couldn’t keep the goofy grin off my face.

Right now. It was the weirdest feeling, but right now I had the courage. I don’t know how I got it, or why, but I suddenly have enough courage to ask her out. And she seemed to have enough knowledge of the sign language to understand what I was going to ask.

My hands twitched in anticipation. Should I?

Oh wow look who’s feeling all courageous today! 😀 Yes you’ve guess it right this means…VOTING TIME! Yeah it’s been a while so here, you get to make a decision in the story;

You know, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this before, but every time I describe one of the signs James is doing; it’s the exact sign for that word! I search them up on this site: http://www.handspeak.com/ and this one as well http://www.signingsavvy.com/

Oh yeah, before I forget. Remember this pic?

 

Yeah well, two seconds later Alec did this;

 

Look at him! Totally making fun of his big sis XD And she doesn’t look any happier about it than she was two seconds ago.

Also! Warning! I’ve been having some really disturbing ideas for James’ far future. Just a warning…I mean I’m disgusted by them, but sometimes you just gotta follow what the characters do…I guess?

Anywho, I also ended up drawing this at some point today.

Yeah…there’s a word for this…hmm…OH YEAH. Obsession. I do believe I have a problem. But I promise you I don’t have anymore chapters in reserve! So I’ll stop pestering your inboxes for the next few days…