Chapter 7 - Difficult To Crack

The school bell rang, causing Isaac to frown.  He and the gang were hanging outside near the front doors, and the mysterious biker chick didn’t show.

He wasn’t terribly surprised, but he had hoped that she would be different than the other labeled “bad” boys and girls of the school.  He just had a feeling, that something was unusual about her.  He hoped that she wouldn’t skip school today.

He followed Brandon inside as his friends continued to gab about the football game last night.  He was about as big a fan of football as the next guy, but his focus had been off since yesterday afternoon.

It didn’t help that his younger brother had an episode last night either.

He waved to his friends as he headed to class.

“Hey!  Give it back!”

“This is a pretty sweet phone you got here.  Looks brand new.  How about a tradezie?”

“No way!”

Isaac turned around the corner and stopped.  He spotted Zoey reaching for her phone that a tall football player was holding over her head.  She was only five foot two and he was over a foot taller than her.  It was hardly a fair match.  He even had his hand in her face to hold her down.

“Hey!” Isaac barked as he strolled up to the pair.

He shot Martin, the one causing trouble, a hard glare before he quickly looked around the developing scene.  Students had begun to gather, but quickly dispersed when his eyes glanced in their direction.

Martin lowered his raised hand and released Zoey’s face of the other.  He shoved both into his pockets and puffed his chest out.  “Oh hey Isaac.  How’s it going?”

“Just fine until now.” Isaac looked at Zoey’s flustered face as she crossed her arms and looked down.  “You better give that back to her.”

Martin shrugged but pulled the phone from his pocket and held it out to Zoey.

She quickly snatched it and stomped off.

Isaac sighed.  “Why do you have to be such an ass to her?”

A grin crossed Martin’s face.  “Because she makes it so much fun.”

Isaac scowled as he stepped forward and walked passed Martin to his locker further down the hall.

He was thankful he had a reputation that garnered respect from everyone, even bullies.  Still, couldn’t bullies just develop a conscious already so he wouldn’t have to be the one to always break things up?  Now he’d have to talk to Zoey in Biology class to try and cheer her up.

He grabbed the books he needed from his locker and slammed it shut.  He looked down the hallway, but there was still no sign of Mikayla.  He turned and went to class.

Zoey was already there, looking agitated and flustered.  She was scribbling furiously in a small notebook.  As he got closer, she quickly tucked it away, but he already glimpsed a familiar outline.  He knew better than to ask what she was writing in her diary, or to even acknowledge the diary for that matter.

He slipped into his desk and calmly asked her if she was okay.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she mumbled as she pressed her cheek into her hand and leaned on her elbow.

Isaac sighed as he tried to find the right words that would cheer her up.  Instead, he reached for his phone in his back pocket and pulled it out.  “What’s your number?”

She thought for a moment before telling him, as if she had to recall the numbers.

He quickly keyed in a message and sent it to her.

[If you need anything, I’m always here.]

She looked up at him after reading it and gave him a small smile.  “Thanks Isaac.”

The bell rang and Mr. Cole cleared his throat loudly as he tried to get the class’ attention. 

Issac snuck a peak behind him, but the desk was still empty.

Where was she?

Just when Mr. Cole was done making introductions for the day’s lesson and was about to dive right in, the door opened.  He scowled at Mikayla and demanded that she go to the office for a late slip.

She flicked a small piece of paper between her fingers at eye level.  “You mean this one?”

His face turned red.  “Take your seat, Miss Reed.”

Isaac thought he saw Mikayla’s eyes smirk when her mouth was in a tight line.  Her eye makeup was heavier today than it had been in the previous two days, so it made reading her expression just a bit more difficult.

Isaac couldn’t help but grin when he saw her.  He tried to hide it, but he knew his eyes gave him away.  She met his gaze for only the briefest second as she tromped to her station behind him.

He couldn’t deny it; he was glad to see her.

Mr. Cole cleared his throat and continued on with his lesson, forcing Isaac to turn his mind forward and focus.

After half an hour or so passed, he happened to glance over his shoulder and caught Mikayla staring off into space.  Her eyes were barely open as they stared out the window at the other side of the room.  She looked tired as she slumped forward in her seat, propping her head up with her arm as if she struggled to keep herself upright.

Did she not sleep well last night?  He turned his attention back to the front of the room as he contemplated her body language, makeup and tardiness.  It wasn’t difficult to connect the dots.

Mr. Cole finished his lesson a minute before the bell rang for homeroom, so he allowed the students to pack their belongings up early and chat for the remainder of time.

Glad to have something to do than to just sit like a bump on a log, Isaac whirled around on his stool and caught Mikayla glancing around the room.  She looked almost startled, as if she had been shaken awake.

He managed to catch her bluish-gray eyes with his russet ones.  Was there a hint of anxiety there?  Curious, he leaned forward on her desk.  “Did you fall asleep?”

Whatever hint of anxiety he saw, it was immediately replaced with a glower.  “No.”

“You sure?  I swear I heard you snore,” he said, grinning with amusement.

He was joking, but she wasn’t playing along.

She narrowed her eyes at him.  “I don’t snore.”

“How would you know if you were sleeping?”

She turned away from him then.  Was there a hint of pink on her cheeks?  Interesting, he thought.  Maybe she did fall asleep?

Isaac caught Zoey’s scrutinizing gaze from the corner of his eye as the bell rang.

Loud, boisterous voices filled the room as a male and female student delivered the morning announcements.

He tore his eyes away from Mikayla then and put on a cool and calm expression.

Zoey looked away, but there was no denying the fact that she was wondering what he was up to.

In that moment, he noticed that everyone in the classroom was also casting inquisitive looks at him and Mikayla.  They were all intrigued, but too reluctant to say or do anything to answer their unasked questions.

The announcements came to an end and he gathered up his books.

Thirty seconds later, the bell rang and Mikayla shot out of her desk before Isaac could even fathom the movement.  She was gone in a flash.

He shook his head and headed to his next class.  He ran into Brandon just before entering his politics classroom (which Mikayla was also in).

“Ready for another left-right debate?” Brandon asked as he draped an arm over Isaac’s shoulder.

They stepped through the doorway together and Isaac immediately took note of Mikayla sitting in the back corner, staring out the window.

“Yeah sure, as long as it’s more interesting than the one we had last week,” Isaac said, shooting his buddy a confident smile.  Deep down, his mind was swirling with questions.

Brandon groaned.  “I know, right?  What was that all about anyway?  I think I fell asleep somewhere in there because nothing made sense to me afterwards.”

They sat down in a pair of empty seats next to Andres.  The dark haired Hispanic flashed the duo a big grin.  “Hey guys.  Joined at the hip again, I see.”

“Yeah, I swear, we must have been Siamese, but the doctors split us up and gave us to different families,” Brandon said, jokingly.

Andres caught Isaac glancing at Mikayla again in the corner.  He glanced at her before leaning forward in his seat towards the friends.  “How are things going with her?  Find out anything?”

Isaac heaved a heavy sigh.  How were things going with her?  “She’s difficult, that’s for sure.  She won’t let me in.”

Andres nodded.  “She’s crazy awesome at drawing, but she freaked out when I tried to compliment her on it.”

“Oh yeah?  An artist, huh?  I never would have guessed her to be artistic,” Brandon said as he snuck a glance at her.

Andres nodded.  “Yeah, I only got a glimpse at her drawing, but ni modo…”

“What?” Brandon asked curiously.

Andres lowered his voice.  “The eyes…  She draws people, and the eyes are always the hardest things to draw, right?  But she’s got them down.  I merely glanced at her work, and the eyes drew me in.  It’s so weird.”

Andres looked away and fell back in his seat.

Isaac’s eyes flicked over to Mikayla again, but it was only for a second before she turned and locked her steel-hard gaze on his.

There was something conflicting about the look in her eyes.  A strange force pulled him toward her, but at the same time the message she was pushing on him said, back off.

His heart jumped in his throat as the bell rang.

Their teacher called them to attention and he tore his gaze away from her.

His stomach fluttered nervously as thoughts of her tugged at his mind.

What was with her?  She never smiled, or laughed.  She always glared at people.  She didn’t try to initiate conversations with anyone, or try to be friendly.  Did she not want to make friends with others or something?

That sounded crazy to him.  Crazy and lonely.  Everyone needed a friend.

Maybe she just won’t accept someone like me?  He thought, despite the lesson taking place in front of him.  Maybe she’ll only talk to people like her?

He knew the kids, but only by sight.  He hadn’t really said much to them.  They tended to keep to themselves, much like Mikayla did.  He wondered if she met them yet.

She ran out the door again when class ended, but that was fine.  He had already made up his mind to approach the goth kids at lunch.

He found them at the edge of the schoolyard by the street.  There were three guys and one girl, all dressed in black.  They hunkered down on the curb, two of the guys smoking cigarettes.

He felt a tinge of nervousness as he approached them.  What if they ignored him too?  “Hey,” he called out casually with his hands in his pockets.

They turned and looked at him, their faces expressionless.  They all dressed in similar clothing, had dark hair, and black makeup on.

“Hey,” one of the smokers greeted back.  His most distinguishing feature from the other guys was the bull nose ring hanging between his nostrils.

Isaac paused a few feet from them.  He shifted his weight to the foot furthest away from them unconsciously.  He didn’t know any of them personally.  “I’m Isaac Wilson.”

“Yeah, we know,” Bull-nose answered.

When no one said another word for a minute, Isaac cleared his throat.  “Have you met the new girl yet?”

He shrugged.

Isaac hesitated, not knowing what the shrug meant.  “She goes by the name Mikay: tall, thin, rides a motorcycle, dresses completely in black, leather jacket—”

“Yeah, yeah, what about her?” he asked impatiently, rolling his eyes at him.

Man, it’s like pulling teeth with these people!  Isaac brushed his hair from his eyes absentmindedly.  “I was just wondering if you guys met her yet.”

Bull-nose took a long drag on his cigarette and exhaled before answering.  “Yeah, what’s it to you?”

The curling of the smoke wafted toward Isaac as he stared perplexedly at Bull-nose.

As if sensing his discomfort, the girl spoke up.  “We saw her, and tried talking to her, but she said she wasn’t interested.”

“Oh,” Isaac said, blinking blankly at her.  “Okay.”

She held out her hand.  “I’m Luna.”

He shook it.  “Luna?”  It sounded like a name she had given to herself.

“Yeah, Luminita.”

He managed to pick up a hint of a Spanish accent then.“Nice to meet you.”

She merely nodded, but let the conversation die once more.  It was as if she had said her piece and that was it.

Isaac noticed the guy who first spoke to him fiddle with his cigarette, twisting it between his fingers.  An awkward silence engulfed them.

Finally, Bull-nose broke the silence after he took another drag on his cigarette.  “So, what do you want?”

“Well, that is, um,” Isaac coughed as he tried to gather his thoughts, “I just wanted to make sure you guys met.  I figured she would fit in with your group, and thought she could use a friend.”

“No offence Isaac,” said the other smoker, who looked to be older than everyone else in his group (maybe flunked a year or two), “but I know all about you, and what you do, but there’s one thing you should know about kids like us.”

He put his cigarette out, pressing it into the concrete curb as he continued, “We like our privacy.  We don’t want anyone meddling into our business for the sake of being ‘nice’ or ‘helpful’.  You helped my little sister adjust to being a freshman last month, and I appreciate you taking the time to do that for her, but that won’t work for people like us.”

They all nodded in silent agreement.  He cleared his throat as he continued his speech.  “You have to respect Mikay’s need for space.  If she wants to talk to you, she’ll talk to you.  The worst thing you can do is push her into something she doesn’t want to do.  We approached her, and she declined.  That’s fine, we get it.  If she comes back to us and decides she wants to hang out, that’s fine too.”

“But,” Isaac wanted to interject, but the older student shook his head at him.

“We like to figure things out on our own.  If we want help, we’ll ask for it.”

“But only as a last resort,” Bull-nose added.

They all nodded again quietly.

Isaac sighed.  There was nothing more he could do.  “Alright, well,” he hesitated, trying to think of something else to say, but nothing popped into his head. “Thanks anyway.”

He turned and headed back to the school.

He was no closer to reaching her than he had been that morning.  It was just one wall after another.

He sighed as he pulled open the school doors and stepped inside.

He knew they were right.  He couldn’t force her to do anything against her will, and she didn’t seem to be the type of person to do anything willingly.

But something nagged at him from deep within his heart and he didn’t know what to make of it.