You know what was a really bad, moronic idea? Standing on two wooden, clearly unstable crates and attempting to refill the empty row of cashew products at the local hospital’s gift shop. This might not have been such a terrible idea if I were tall. Or at least somewhat gifted in the height area.

Unfortunately…well, let’s just say that outgrowing clothes had never been much of a problem for me.

“Nancy, get down from there,” came an angry shout from somewhere below. “The objective is to refill the nuts—not to refill the hospital beds, you hear? I’m not responsible if you break a limb!”

That lovely yelling lady would be Teresa Lawrence, the sixty-something year old woman who worked with me at the gift shop every other week when I volunteered. Well, ‘worked’ in the loosest sense of the word. ‘Bossed me around’ would have been a more accurate description.

“Sorry,” I sighed. I climbed down the boxes as quickly as I could without giving myself a severe injury.

“Good grief,” Teresa sniffed, clutching dramatically at her chest. “You teenagers are always acting so rashly.”

Yes, ‘acting rashly’ for Teresa was climbing two measly boxes. The woman wouldn’t even leave her house without stationing at least two guard dogs outside, probably.

Anyway, the Hopkins’ Hospital Center gift shop was not exactly doing booming business today. Not that it ever was. On most of the Saturday shifts I worked, we rarely saw more than two, three customers per hour.

This was not exactly what I would have called a dream volunteer position.

At least I didn't have to do much, though.

Also, because I was just a high school volunteer, Teresa would often throw her weight around and order me around to do a lot of dusting and cleaning.

I didn’t even dust at home.

The things I would do to get into college, honestly.

“By the way, we’ve got a new high school volunteer starting with us today,” Teresa announced after another while of inactivity had passed. “He’s a senior, just like you. And he’s pretty tall, so we’ll finally have someone to reach all the high boxes and storage places around here.”

“Oh,” I said, catching myself just before I added ‘poor kid’. “What’s his name?”

Teresa paused her inspection of her nails to swivel her eyes up toward the ceiling. Her brows furrowed in intense concentration. “Something…something Flynn?”

“Flynn?”

“Maybe Blin?”

“Blin?”

Teresa frowned, and then grinned again while she snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it! It’s Rin!” she shouted. “I’m positive his name is Felix Zander Rin.”

“Did someone just say my name?”

My blood ran cold when I heard a familiar voice from behind me. And no, trust me, it was not the voice of ‘Felix Zander Rin’.

Alexander Lin stood in the doorway, wearing—for the first and, hopefully, last time—the same exact outfit as me: a light blue hospital uniform. His eyebrows flew up in surprise when he saw me standing next to Teresa.

There was a short, awkward silence while we stared at each other, both of us still remembering the shirt-vomiting incident, and Teresa looked between the two of us curiously.

“That’s not Felix Zander Rin,” I said at last.

Teresa just looked confused now. “What? It’s not?”

Alexander coughed. “No. I’m…uh…I’m Alexander Lin.”

“Oh.” Teresa smacked herself on the head. “Well, you know how it is. It’s this old age and everything. I’m surprised I can even remember my own name anymore. Actually, funny story. The other day, I was looking for a pair of slippers, and wouldn’t you know it…”

She went on and on and on about this pair of slippers that she’d misplaced and found being used as a chew toy for her dog.

Teresa tended to ramble a lot. She was one of those types who just loved hearing the sound of her own voice. It never even seemed to matter if anyone was listening or not. Actually, the same could be said for most of the hospital staff (mostly senior citizens) who worked or volunteered at the gift shop. They all seemed to think it was socializing hour, and I was their pet youngster.

Anyway, once Teresa had finally returned from the recount neither Alexander nor I had been listening to, she had me show him around the ropes of the gift shop. Things like when we were supposed to water the plants by the window, how to operate the register, where the Tylenol and tums were…

I tried to focus on my work and act like I was talking to someone else. Someone who was not quite as annoying and overachieving as Alexander Lin.

Unfortunately, Alexander seemed hell-bent on making his annoying and overachieving presence known to me.

“So,” he said loudly after I’d explained the thrilling process of taking phone orders. “I didn’t know you were into volunteering.”

“Maybe that’s because you don’t know me, period,” I said a little snappily.

Alexander frowned. He tapped his fingers against the marble counter for a moment, and then he cocked his head to the side. “Do you hate me?”

I nearly choked. “W-what?” Was I that obvious?

“Have I done something to you?” he rephrased.

“What do you mean?”

“You always seem so…distant. Did I do something to annoy you or what?”

Had he done something to annoy me?

Had he done something to annoy me?

It looked like Alexander had forgotten about The Poster Incident already. His memory was about as good as Teresa’s.

“No,” I said in the end, plastering a fake smile onto my face. Fake and polite was the way to go. My parents would have been proud. “No, you haven’t done anything wrong. Please do carry on with your fascinating questions, Alexander.”

He gave me a funny look but didn’t press it. “I was curious about another thing. But I think I already know the answer. You’re just doing this to look good on your college apps, aren’t you?”

Bulls-eye. I would sooner bomb a calculus test than admit he’d nailed it on the head, though.

Instead, I gave Alexander the nastiest look I could muster and shot back, “As opposed to you, who are obviously doing this out of the pure goodness in your heart?”

“As a matter of fact, I am. I like volunteering. I like people.” He shrugged. “Now isn’t that crazy?”

The funny thing was, I actually believed him. It was just like Alexander to say something like that.

“Alexander Lin, The Great Samaritan,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Wow. It even rhymes.”

He furrowed his brows. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Am I? I guess I am.”

“I knew it,” Alexander sighed. “You’re still mad about the election.”

“I’m not. I’m just an evil, heartless person in general. Ask anyone. My brother would be glad to give you some specific examples. Or you could always ask my little cousin, who I was apparently beating up at the county fair, according to you—”

Alexander interrupted my rant, “You still don’t understand that it technically was not my fault.” He ran his fingers through his short black hair and stared at me through dark, steely eyes. He looked more serious than I’d ever seen him. “Can you just listen to me? I never meant for the campaign to get like that, okay? Dirty politics is not my style. I want you to know that. I like to keep my politics clean and wholesome.”

Geez, this guy was more of a boy scout than all the kids in the local boy scout troops combined. Listening to him made me want to break out the American flag and start singing the Star-Spangled Banner.

Thankfully, before I had to listen to more of Alexander’s Amazing Things About Me speech, Teresa rescued me.

“Nancy, those boxes on the shelves still haven’t been taken down yet!” she squawked.

Fifteen minutes later, I decided that ‘rescue’ hadn’t been the right word. Not when my legs were aching and my arms felt close to falling off. What was that saying again? Oh, yes. I’d gone out of the frying pan and into the fire.

The worst part was, for the rest of the afternoon, Alexander Lin got to stand there and press a few buttons on the cash register occasionally. What a Samaritan. According to Teresa, he needed ‘cash register training’.

I didn’t buy that. Let me tell you, Alexander Lin didn’t need cash register training. He was the Chinese Wonderboy. He probably took apart cash registers and small airplanes in his spare time.

He could have trained Teresa.

And unfortunately, I was stuck with managing all the hard, back breaking labor. Further proof to my theory even if I’d been volunteering first, the world just loved Alexander Lin and always saw me as second best. 

*****

The good thing about having my own car was that I could drive it wherever I wanted to (usually, the library). The bad news was…well, Dad could order me on errands whenever he wanted to. And I always had to obey, because Dad was the dictator and we were his nation of poor, voiceless subjects. (I got that line from Kevin).

That evening after volunteering, rather than letting me finish studying for my calculus test the next day, Dad treated me to a lecture about the uselessness of every college degree out there except for one in engineering, business, or medicine.

“Don’t be like your brother,” were his specific words to me. “You have top grades. You have great potential. Nancy, you have a bright future yet.” He paused. “Just don’t forget you need to do to get into Harvard, okay?”

As if I needed additional pressure or reminder of that. “Yes, Dad,” I sighed.

He gave me a long, hard look. Then he patted me on the back, which was about as affectionate as my dad ever got. We were not exactly a family of huggers.

 “Good,” Dad said. “Make your family proud.”

Making the family proud was really important to Dad. It was all the way up there next to bargain-shopping.

After that lecture, Dad sent me off to get Liang Liang from his daytime care center, Doggie Daycare. It was this small place tucked between a CVS and a restaurant called Los Amigos at the local strip mall.

We’d been sending Liang Liang to this place for as long as I could remember. I knew practically every employee there by heart. That was why, when I stepped into the store that afternoon, the girl behind the desk looked up and smiled at me immediately.

“Hey,” Vanessa Fox said. “How's it going?”

“Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?”

Vanessa tucked her brown hair behind the new, chic red glasses she was sporting and gave me a hard look. “Nancy. How long have we known each other again?” she said.

I thought for a moment. “Since that phase when you went through black lipstick faster than CVS could sell them?”

“Yuck.” Vanessa shuddered. “Freshman year. Don’t remind me of it.”

“Yeah, and you were always telling me and Kevin about how the world would end soon, too.” I paused. “You know, you’ve changed a lot since then.”

“I’d really rather not take a trip down memory lane right now, if that’s alright with you.” Vanessa stood up and made her way into the back, her high heels clacking behind her. “Here, Liang Liang, it’s time to go home!” I heard her coo.

Vanessa’s love of animals really had changed her over the years. When she and Kevin were in the same class years and years ago, her clothes consisted mainly of black and her expressions mainly of glares.

Now, the girl who sat at the front desk at Doggie Daycare looked like a more modest version of someone you would expect to come strutting down a walkway, and her smiles could put the sun to shame.

“Here. He’s all fed and watered, so you guys should be all set with him for the rest of the night,” Vanessa explained as she carefully placed Liang Liang into my arms. She gave him a soft smile when he barked. “He’s such a sweetie, isn’t he?”

“Oh, yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “You should have seen what he did to my calc homework the other night. The worst part was, I couldn’t even tell the teacher that my dog did eat my homework.”

Liang Liang gave a sharp bark and tried to wriggle out of my grasp, but I anticipated this. I held onto his fur tightly.

“Man, that stinks,” Vanessa snorted. Then her expression grew a little more serious. For a moment, she even appeared to look uncomfortable. “So, how's Kevin been holding up lately?”

“Him?” I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “No idea. He's been lazing around the house and eating all the food out of the fridge, mostly.”

“Really?” Vanessa cleared her throat and avoided looking me in the eye. “So he hasn’t said anything about…?” She trailed off and raised her eyebrows, like I was supposed to understand.

I didn’t understand. At all. “About…what?” I prompted.

Vanessa stared hard at me with her mouth parted slightly. For a moment, it seemed like she was going to say something important, but then she just shook her head with this odd little look on her face.

“Oh, it's nothing, really,” she said too casually. “It’s just…It’s just something really important to him. To us, actually.”

“Really? Have you two been hanging out a lot lately?” I said in surprise.

I hadn’t even known that Vanessa and Kevin were still in contact. They’d been friends/enemies all the way up until high school graduation, when they parted ways. Kevin went off to Arizona State University, and Vanessa enrolled into community college with a part-time job at Doggie Daycare.

“Yeah, we’ve been doing some…stuff…since he came back in town.” Vanessa paused. “No, not what you're thinking, Nancy. Anyway, I thought Kevin would have mentioned what we’ve been doing to you, at least.” She shrugged. “Guess not.”

“Mention what?” I demanded. Then a light bulb went off in my head. “Hold on. Does this have anything to do with all the moping he’d been doing lately?”

Vanessa’s eyebrows flew up in genuine surprise. “Moping? Really?”

“Yeah, he’s been moping. Even more than usual.”

“I have no idea,” she said. “Maybe it’s Allison.” She added this with a thoughtful look, more to herself than to me.

“Allison…the girl my brother liked all though high school?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, Kevin still carried a torch for Allison even now, despite the fact that they’d parted ways almost six years ago.

“The very same,” Vanessa said solemnly. “Unfortunately, the freshman Spring Formal was the biggest shot Kevin ever got with her.” She shrugged. “Allison got married this past winter.”

“Really?”

Come to think of it, Kevin had gone through an ice cream-eating phase when he came home for Christmas break. Maybe that explained it.

I suddenly felt a lot more sympathy for my brother.

“Yeah, she got hitched to some chump she met in college. I thought Kevin had gotten over that news already, though. Maybe…maybe he...oh.”

Realization dawned on Vanessa’s face. I leaned in eagerly, causing Liang Lian to nearly slip through my hands, but at the last moment Vanessa recovered herself and gave me a hard look.

“You were saying?” I prompted.

“It’s not my business,” she said shortly. “Sorry to be so blunt, but you gotta realize that Kevin’s a grown man now. I think he can take care of his own problems without you or me butting in.”

“But—”

Vanessa practically herded me out the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay? Oh, and when you see Kevin,” she added, her eyes trained seriously on mine, “tell him if he touches The Book again, I’ll kill him.”

“The Book? What book? Wait—Vanessa!”

Before I could interrogate her further, Vanessa closed the door behind her and left me and Liang Liang staring at the closed door.

For a moment, I considered going back in there and demanding that she tell me everything she knew about what was going on with Kevin, but then I reconsidered. I seriously doubted Vanessa would listen to me now that she’d made up her mind to stay silent. She was one of the most stubborn people I knew.

“Okay, Liang Liang, let’s get you home,” I sighed, scooping him up into my arms. “And if you happen to find out anything about Kevin’s situation, let me know, okay?”

I knew I was really running out of ideas when I had to resort to consulting the family dog on my brother’s status. Sherlock Holmes would have been appalled.

It seemed like the more people I talked to, the less I knew about what was really going on with Kevin.

*****

A/N - You know, I like this mystery vibe. I think I'll continue it. I'll just keep you guys guessing about what's going on. Also, sorry for the slight delay in uploading...my grandparents are staying over so I've been given the delightful task of entertaining them. ...That did not come out the right way.

Anyway, I'll try my best to get another chapter out early tomorrow :) Comment/vote to show your support for this story! Thanks!