The back of Vee's throat felt like paper as she coughed herself awake. Her mouth, dry and sticky, clouded her thoughts as she rolled out of bed and fumbled down the hall in the dark. Water. She repeated to herself. Water. Water.
Vee started down the staircase, surprised to see a glow from the kitchen. Did Nadia come home early? She wondered. Her older sister had left to visit Mom and Dad in Germany, but wasn't due back home for several days. Both parents were translators, and sent Nadia a fair some of money every month to keep the house up and running while they were away.
They were usually away.
Vee took several more steps down the staircase before spotting Cole standing in front of the whirring microwave. He wore a black T shirt and red basketball shorts, and his black hair was in a dissaray.
The microwave beeped and Cole retrieved a bag of popcorn from inside. He pulled the corners of the bag open and a puff of steam billowed out.
He shook the bag lightly before padding to the staircase, tossing puffs of unsalted, unbuttered popcorn into his mouth. "Can't sleep?" Vee asked, sitting on a step of the staircase as her brother approached her, "You look tired."
Cole didn't respond and Vee tried again, "Who eats dry popcorn?" She teased as Cole passed her, making his way up the staircase.
"Not now." Cole muttured, turning the corner and altogether disappearing into the shadows of the hall. A moment later, his bedroom door closed.
Vee huffed, then made the rest of her way into the kitchen. Cole had failed to close the microwave, and so Vee did it on his behalf, before pouring herself a glass of water.
×××
Vee sat at her desk brushing eraser shavings off of her green shorts. First period had started almost ten minutes ago, but still Carter hadn't shown her face in class. Was she ditching? Vee hoped not.
The three other tables at Vee's pod were filled. Dylan, a boy with curly brunette hair and a gap between his two front teeth sat in the desk next to Vee's. Carter's empty desk was across from her. Jacob and Tyler took the two remaining seats.
Minutes continued to tick by after Vee finished her worksheet. In her peripheral vision, she could see Dylan was only halfway through his own paper.
"Do you need help?" Vee asked him suddenly.
Dylan looked surprised by the offer, "Er, yeah. I'm confused."
"That's okay." Vee grinned. She used her yellow mechanical pencil to erase question #3's answer, "Maybe we can redo this one."
"I guessed on it." Dylan confessed sheepishly.
"You're late." Ms. Rorick said sternly from her desk as the classroom door swung open.
Vee's wide eyes shot up from Dylans worksheet and to Carter, who was speed walking to her desk. She wore a black jacket, and underneath a grey t-shirt with straight leg jeans and converse. Her pants had the same stain from the day before, when a clump of jelly fell in her lap at lunch.
"You're here!" Vee grinned.
"What happened to your lip?" Jacob asked Carter, scrunching his nose when the cigarette-smell wafted over the table.
"I bit it." Cater replied shortly.
Vee glanced at Carter. On the corner of her mouth there was a split, which Carter poked with her tongue now. Around the little cut, Carter's skin was purple, though, Vee could hardly see it before Carter licked away some of the concealer.
"Oh, I bruised my lip last week too whe-"
"It's not a bruise, fuckwad." Carter interrupted Jacob. With umph she flipped her hood over her head. Her long messy hair spilled from around her neck. With her arms crossed on the table, Carter leaned forward and rested her head on them, facing away from her tablemates.
"Carter!" Came Ms. Rorick from her desk, "Take your hood off!"
Though Carter didn't flinch under Ms. Rorick's direction, resulting in some giggling by the surrounding classmates.
Gently, Vee pressed on Carter's foot with her own under the desk. Was that a bruise under the concealer? Vee wondered briefly. Likely not, it was probably just dried blood from where Carter bit and Vee misjudged the color. It was hard to tell, as the hue had little contrast against Carter's skin.
"One second." Vee said to Dylan before bounding from her desk and collecting a worksheet from the front. She brought it to Carter, and tapped her shoe with her own. "I'm helping Dylan with the paper, we can all do it together." She offered.
Reluctantly, Carter sat upright and folded her arms. Her red, wet eyes scanned the sheet in front of her.
"So!" Vee started, "Number one. This is three by the fifth power, divided by two squared. So, that'll be three times itself five times, over two times itself, which is, uh..."
Carter copied Vee's work, while Dylan did the math on his paper. "That's two-forty-three over four." He said after some moments.
"Right!" Vee said.
"Sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't." Dylan said.
"It helps me if I write the formula down, then I can visualize it." She considered, "Or, just focus on one part at a time."
Vee looked at Carter's paper. She had mostly filled in the page, but was now scribbling spider webs and pumpkins in the corners, using shadows to fill the shape of the gourds.
"So, number two is the same idea. Maybe you can teach it back to me?" Vee said to Dylan.
