"Why do you want me to read it so bad?" asked Ryan, watching for Mr. Bailey.
"Guys need to know this stuff," said Chase.
"Fine. Give me it."
Chase pulled a folded piece of notebook paper from his pocket. His messy handwriting slanted downward. Ryan read it:
Him
Porcelain skin like a model - oh - oh
He doesn't like talking - so - so
But he keeps me waiting - no - no
Red, red, red
His hair looks real good red
And his eyes are blue - pretty blue
A girl like me can touch too
I'm feeling free when he sees me
Get him alone, yeah, alone
It's too bad that he's sad
He doesn't know
What I know
Hush, hush, hush
Blush, blush, blush
"It's good," said Ryan, handing Chase the paper. He swallowed his excitement.
Troy walked in and grabbed it. "You read Shantel's poem? You're so nosey, Ryan."
"You took it," snapped Ryan.
Mr. Bailey walked into class.
"It's no big deal, Troy," said Chase.
"You need to know if she likes you before you can ask her out?" said Troy crossly.
Shantel rushed into class and sat down.
"She just walked in," said Ryan.
"Great. Shantel, Ryan wants to ask you something," said Troy, crushing the poem into his pocket. Shantel stared at Ryan curiously.
"Troy," said Mr. Bailey. "Please, sit down."
"Ryan has something to say," said Troy, going to his chair.
"What is it exactly, Troy? And this better be good."
"He knows," said Troy.
"It's nothing, Mr. Bailey," said Ryan.
"Ryan, this is the third time you and someone else has disrupted my class. I guess you think you don't need to pay attention in Algebra because it's so easy for you."
"It's not," said Ryan nervously.
"Hmm-mm, sure," said Mr. Bailey peevishly. "Since Troy's not very good at Algebra or at paying attention, he can solve the first problem on the board."
Troy got out of his seat disappointedly.
At that moment, Ryan saw a vision in color in his mind of detention hall filled with rows of desks and he sat at one behind Troy.
He wrote the problem in his notebook and solved it in a few seconds. Chase whispered something, but he ignored him.
---
At a table in the school cafeteria, Ryan talked about Shantel's poem, chewing raisins out of a tiny box. He gave Sloan his cold, pork sandwich on a soft roll.
"That poem sounds hot," said Jamal.
"Bro, you must be in love," said Pablo. "You can't eat."
"I don't feel like it," said Ryan.
"Troy took a fit," said Sloan.
"In front of the whole class," said Ryan.
"And threw you under the bus," said Sloan.
"He grieving," said Ryan.
"But he's moving in," said Jamal.
"Yeah, you're in the new, love triangle of the year," said Pablo.
Troy sat across from Shantel at her table, talking to her with his head down. She listened like a therapist.
"Aren't you worried?" asked Sloan.
"No," said Ryan.
"What do you mean?" he asked, chomping the sandwich.
"She can have friends," said Ryan.
"So - what?" said Pablo. "A friend like that's going to cost you."
Ryan held his chin up.
---
Mr. Ross griped in the car about the principal leaving Dolores stranded without a job all the way to Londwell. Grace got in the car with a grin.
---
Following dinner, Grace told Ryan Shawn added her to his message app.
---
Ryan fell asleep that night, thinking about the detention vision. He dreamed that a strange man grinned at him with crazy eyes.
---
"I can't believe they fired Dolores," said Mr. Ross gruffly on the way to school. "She was a decent, human being."
Ryan headed to his locker past Chase and Troy.
"Hey, Ryan," said Chase. "Got rid of your dad - good. See anything about me today or do you have to touch me first?"
"No," said Ryan.
Troy stood there curiously. "Oh, Shantel dumped Troy," said Chase. The movie thing's not happening." Ryan opened his locker, ignoring him. "I'll talk to you later," said Chase, limping away.
Ryan sighed, taking his books.
---
After school, Ryan hurried to the school foyer.
In-between several books on the floor, Chase punched Troy in the face hard and Troy slugged him one. Chase threw his crutch down and hit Troy in the jaw with a crack. Troy gave him a left hook and Chase shook his head, touching his bloody lip.
A circle of students formed around them.
"Don't fight," said Ryan, standing in front of Chase.
"Get out of the way, Ryan," said Chase loudly.
"You're not yourself." He turned to Troy. "Go," said Ryan.
"I can't," said Troy. "My grandfather's giving him a ride."
"My dad will take him," said Ryan.
"I knew Chase was helping you get a date with Shantel," said Troy.
Ryan blinked and fist to bone, Troy punched his face. Stunned, Ryan dropped his head and felt his cheek throb. His blood boiled.
Ryan sent his knuckles into Troy's chin with a direct impact, knocking his head sideways.
"Ryan, Troy and Chase get in my office now!" shouted Vice Principal, Holden.
---
Mr. Holden sat at his desk coldly.
"We don't tolerate fighting here at Harvey Middle School."
He opened his top drawer and grabbed a pen, writing on a stack of slips.
"Ryan, here's yours. Troy, here's yours and Chase, here's yours," he said. "If any of you get two more of these pink beauties, you'll get suspended. Go to detention hall now."
Mr. Ross pulled into the school, parking lot and blared the horn with Grace in the front seat.
"I don't see him," said Mr. Ross.
"I'll look for him." Grace left the car.
"Call me if you can't find him," he said.
Grace found Ryan, sitting in front of Chase at a desk in a huge, study hall with a swollen cheek behind Troy who held an ice-pack on his face. Chase's mouth looked blue.
"I'll tell, Dad," she said. "We'll wait."
Troy's grandfather peeked at Troy in detention and walked away.
---
At three-thirty, Mr. Holden dismissed Chase, Ryan and Troy, pointing to each boy and then at the door. Troy walked down the corridor fast and Chase grabbed Ryan's arm.
"Can I get a ride with you?" he asked. "Troy wants my head."
"Alright," said Ryan.
"Thanks, by the way," he said. "No one's ever helped me like that."
The puffiness shrunk a little, but a violet blotch covered Ryan's cheek beneath his eye, closing it. He walked up to Mr. Ross', car window and Chase limped behind him with a purple lip.
He rolled the window down. "That's a nice shiner - fist fight?"
"I didn't throw the first punch," said Ryan sorely. "Can you give Chase a ride home?"
"He's that kid from the hospital, right?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, but you know what this means - no computer thing-y," he said.
"Come on, Dad."
"If you got detention for being late, I'd let it slide, but I didn't get breakfast today so it's your fault."
Ryan got in the car angrily and Chase got in the back seat with him awkwardly.
---
"Give me your computer thing-a-ma-jig," said Mr. Ross, walking into the kitchen.
Ryan slid it across the table sadly.
When Grace came out of the bathroom, he cornered her. "I need my tablet for the appointment."
"I'll help you this time, but don't get detention again," said Grace and she motioned for Ryan to go in her room with her.
---
She took a package of ground beef out of the fridge. "So - Dad, what did Russell say when you talked to him about the Polka music?"
He griped about Russell, complaining that he pretended not to understand English and he ranted on, not noticing Ryan slide his tablet off the top of the refrigerator and replace it with another one. Then he slipped into his room with it.
---
After dinner, Mr. Ross drank a cup of coffee, eyeing the tablet on the fridge every so often.
Grace sat next to Ryan in front of his tablet at his desk and he accepted the message from Counselor Jones.
Two windows opened.
Counselor Jones sat at her table at home in California and Roy Vincent stood in a living room with black furniture there. In his mid-thirties, he smiled at Ryan with his long, brown hair in a ponytail.
"Hi, Ryan," said Counselor Jones. "Are you okay? Your face looks swollen."
"I fell," he said nervously.
"Okay," she said, looking down. "This is Roy Vincent. He's an angelkin from the Ergbear Phylum. Is your mother present?"
Grace shifted her eyes.
"Yes, she holds her age well," said Ryan anxiously.
"Mrs. Ross?"
"Miss Aldridge," said Grace smoothly. "I'm divorced."
"Alright, then let's begin. Roy will banish the mimlock, but it might come back. Do you understand?"
"Yes, but what about the wall clock?"
"The wall clock protects you in the room where you sleep, but not anywhere else. If the mimlock comes back, we can help you again in a month. Trying to banish it sooner won't work and it's like that for all proprietaries. We understand that not everyone is an angelkin and we don't expect angelkins to join to do the banishing rituals either. But that would work."
Ryan nodded.
"Hi, Ryan," said Roy. I can't see the mimlock on you, but I can banish it. I'm singing 'Kismet' by Dar Tenian."
Ryan smiled.
Roy pressed a button on a machine behind him and a Karaoke version of the music played. He grabbed a small microphone off a table next to a crimson-red, crystal quartz and belted out the Hard Rock song.
Counselor Jones bobbed her head to it, enjoying herself and Grace smiled from ear to ear.
Ryan loved it and didn't fathom how anyone mastered singing like that. At the end of the song, Ryan breathed out like two balloons deflated in his lungs.
Grace clapped lightly.
"Thank you, Roy. That was fantastic," said Counselor Jones and Roy bowed.
"Ryan, do you feel lighter?" she asked, slipping on her jimels.
"Yeah," said Ryan. "Thanks, Roy."
"Great, the mimlock is no longer attached to you, but you still have the phantic and the banelor. Wait one month for the phantic, then message me for an appointment using my name. Any questions?"
"What should I do if the mimlock comes back?"
"You have to wait a month from now before we can help you with it again," she said. "Have you taken the angelkin questionnaire?"
"No," said Ryan, lying.
"If it places you in a phylum and you audition successfully, you have enough talent to do an angelkin ritual and keep it from coming back whether you're placed in the Ergbear Phylum or not. But you have to know how to sing or dance."
"Okay," said Ryan.
"Keep it in mind," she said.
"I will," said Ryan.
"Do you have any other questions?" she asked.
"Who would send me a mimlock?"
"Someone who knows you," she said.
"Sometimes, it's someone from your childhood," said Roy.
"Anything else?" she asked.
"No, thank you."
"It was nice meeting you, Miss Aldridge," said Counselor Jones.
"Same," said Grace.
"Have a good night," said Counselor Jones.
"Take care," said Roy and he and Counselor Jones ended the appointment.
"Why didn't you say you wanted me to play Mom?" asked Grace.
"I didn't want you to back out on me," said Ryan.
Mr. Ross knocked. "What are you two doing in there?" He jiggled the locked, door knob. Ryan closed his tablet and stuck it under the mattress. "Ryan, open up."
Grace opened the door. "I'm sorry, Dad. Ryan wanted advice about . . . girls." She skipped out.
"You got yourself a girlfriend, buddy?" he asked.
"No," said Ryan.
Mr. Ross took a sip from the coffee mug.
"I got girls easy in my day," he said. "They just came to me."
"Why's that, Dad?"
"Your old man's got charm. If you ever need advice, let me know."
"Ah - okay."
He downed the coffee and Ryan shut the door.
Grace knocked soon after.
She asked Ryan to talk to Mr. Ross in the kitchen after school tomorrow as payment for taking her tablet.
Ryan sighed and hid his tablet in the closet.