Raven's Song

Family Secrets

It didn't sit well with me for the rest of the day that I had let Dove and Amber so easily talk me into asking Tylor to homecoming. As they droned on with their other friends at lunch about what kind of nails they wanted or how they should do their hair, I picked at the broccoli on my plate without ever eating any of it. I'd gone to every dance at my old school with the same guy. He'd been safe and comfortable. When he went to the parking lot to drink with his friends, I had my friends to keep entertained with. I had the feeling, though, that Tylor didn't have friends he was going to run off to the parking lot with, and if he left, then I would have to call my dad to pick me up. I definitely didn't want to have my dad pick me up from school in his cop car.

Dove and Amber probably would have given me a ride, but I wasn't going to ask them if we weren't at that level of friendship. Maybe that was dumb. Maybe I was just having a hard time adjusting to not being with friends who'd known me since I was little. It was just hard.

I found, however, that Tylor was also in my government class. He quietly slid into the seat next to me as Ms. Webb was introducing the lesson. I arched an eyebrow as he got out a notebook and put it on the table in front of him.

He gave me a nonchalant shrug before he turned his attention to Ms. Webb. While she talked about the importance of youth in politics, I watched Tylor. I was slowly convincing myself that there was an obvious flaw to him. If I could figure out what it was, then I had an excuse to back out of homecoming and tutoring.

There was his criminal record, but no one seemed to know for sure what that consisted of. I wasn't about to ask my dad. He didn't need to know that my anatomy partner was a former criminal. At least I hoped he was a former criminal and not still a criminal.

The class passed, though, and I couldn't find anything concrete. He took notes the entire period. He answered a question when Ms. Webb asked him.

Tylor didn't fit the stereotypes of a juvenile delinquent that my dad had told me about or that the movies showed. He didn't sit slouched in his seat ignoring everyone around him. He didn't act out or pretend that he was better than everyone else. He was more attentive than the majority of the class. And that surprised me for a kid who barely went to school. If he enjoyed it so much, then why was he never there?

The bell rang and he was out the door before I could question him. I watched the back of his head exit the classroom before I gathered my things and followed the stream to the hallway.

For the rest of the day, I couldn't focus. I wasn't someone who just jumped into something without thinking it through. The more time that passed between anatomy and when I was supposed to tutor Tylor, the more I was regretting it. I was taking a strange boy home who had a criminal record without telling my dad. I'd never taken a new friend home without giving my parents advanced notice, and Tylor was far from a friend.

Of course, that had been before the divorce. I hadn't taken anyone home while that was happening.

I gripped my backpack straps tightly as I stood outside the gym doors at the end of the day. I hadn't picked out Tylor in the hoard of people in the parking lot. I was going to wait until the crowd thinned before I started tracking down which car was his. Unless he stood me up and left me to take the public bus home. That would have been a dirty trick to pull.

"Boo," a voice said in my ear.

I jumped, spinning around and shoving the person away from me. Tylor laughed as I barely budged him back a step. I didn't think I had even actually made him move rather than he took a step because he was laughing.