Julia Karr - XVI

“I’d better go,” I said.

He ended up walking me home. Neither of us said a word, but he held my hand. I was afraid if I spoke, some kind of spell would be broken.

When we got to my building, he brushed his lips across mine. “See you tomorrow.”

The next morning was pretty normal, though I couldn’t stop thinking about Sal’s kiss, and how it would be to see him. I alternated between being über-happy and scared to death as to what I would say, what he would do. Most of his classes were in a different part of the building, so we didn’t see each other until after school, and then it was only for a minute, and surrounded by everyone else.

“Hey, I’ve gotta run. John and I are working on a multitrans for some bigwig at Infinity Corp.” Sal gave my hand a quick squeeze when no one was looking. I don’t think either one of us knew how to act around our friends. “I’ll call you later.” He peeled off, and Derek and Mike waved good-bye to me as I headed down to pick up Dee.

I was glad he hadn’t made a big fuss, at first. But what if that kiss didn’t mean anything to him? He was upper tier—he could never like a low-tier, no flash girl like me. My insecurity took over, and caught me in a whirlwind of my defects, when Wei interrupted.

“Hi, Nina.” She was wearing her usual smile and fell into step with me. “Whatcha doing?”

“Hey. I’m headed to Dickens to pick up my little sister.”

“Oh, ultra! That’s on my way, I’ll walk with you. Let’s go slow, though; I have to practice when I get home.”

“What kind of practice?” I’d heard Sal tell Derek that Wei was some kind of martial arts expert.

“Piano.” She wrinkled her nose. “I love it and I hate it. Some days it’s just hard work. Do you play an instrument?”

“Uh, I’m not musically inclined.” I was too embarrassed to admit we’d never had enough credits for music or dance lessons. No one under tier four did. I was lucky Ginnie was able to scrape together enough to pay for my art classes. I knew it had been a burden on her.

“But you’re in art, though, right? I saw you going into Mr. Tobin’s class. When do you get your designation? I qualified for mine last summer. That’s’ when I got this.” She pointed to her XVI. “And then… I got this.” She grinned, turning her hand back and forth so I could see the thistle tattoo that circled the XVI and then spread across the back of her hand.

“It’s so beautiful.” Even if I did get my Creative, I knew I’d never be able to afford a tattoo like that.

“When the XVI fades, I’ll get more ink. No one will ever even know it was there. You know, you could design your own tattoo to hide the XVI. I bet you’re a good artist. What kind of stuff do you do?”

“Mostly drawing with colored rapidos. I’m not that good.” In Cementville I’d been at the top of my class. I hadn’t been at Daley long enough to see much of what the other kids in my class were doing.

“You’re probably lots better than you think,” she said.

“Maybe. I’ll show you sometime.” I was more than a little surprised that someone who was obviously as upper tier as Wei would take any interest in me at all, even if she was friends with Sal. It made me uncomfortable to talk about my art, so I changed the subject. “Do you have brothers or sisters?”

“Both. I have a sister, Angie, and a brother, Chris. He graduated college last year and got on as a techie at Orion Research. He’s really smart.”

We stopped at the corner, waiting for the light to change. Wei tilted her head and studied my face. “Your dad’s Alan Oberon, right?”

I nearly fell off the curb. “How did you know that?” It’s not like I’d told her anything about me. Did Sal? Why would she care, anyway? It’s not like my father was anyone.

“After Sal told me about your mother, I told my mom and she asked what your name was. She said she knew him. Her and Dad and Sal’s dad, too, were friends with your mom and dad.”

My heart nearly stopped. They knew my father? “You’re kidding.”‘

“Nope. Let’s go this way.” She turned onto Lincoln at Belden, and I followed.

I could hardly believe my luck—I hadn’t even had a chance to think about finding my dad. Not since Sal’s kiss. “Wait—what’s your parents’ names? Maybe Gran knows them.”

“My dad’s Jonathan Jenkins.”

Jenkins. This was almost too good to be true. “There’s this picture my Gran has. It’s your dad standing with mine. They were standing in front of a place called Robin’s Roost. I—I went by there the other day.”

“Oh yeah, Dad’s mentioned that hotel before.” Wei stopped to look at clothes in the window of a top-tier boutique. “Hey, my parents want to meet you. “

My heart was pounding so hard I thought the whole city could hear it. They knew my father. I was going to meet someone, besides Gran and Pops, who actually knew my father. I wondered if they knew he was alive, if they would help me find him.

I glanced up the street and saw Dee with some of her friends.

“Hey, Dee… wait up,” I hollered. Then I turned to Wei. “When can I meet your dad?”

“I’ll ask and let you know tomorrow. I’d better get home and hit the piano. See ya.” She headed up the street and I hurried to catch up with Dee, practically vibrating with excitement.

Wei’s parents knew him. My brain was spinning with thoughts of Ginnie and my father. How different things might have been for all of us if only—

I caught myself. Ginnie’d said he was alive. If we’d been together as a family, I might have known Wei for years, since we were little. Would I—would we have been a top-tier, a tier ten, like her? I could hardly imagine it. My life would have been nothing like it was. But… then I wouldn’t have had Dee, and I didn’t like that thought, not at all.

Too wrapped up in my own thoughts, I stepped off the curb without a glance at traffic. A green transport whizzed around the corner, just missing me. “Stupid jerk!” The near miss brought me back to earth. The trannie had come out of nowhere—for a second, I thought it had actually swerved toward me. I hurried across and caught up with Dee.

Gran and I moved Dee down the hall to her own room that evening. I snuggled under the covers, supposedly reading my Language & Literature homework, alone. In reality, my thoughts were hip-hopping around: Sal… my dad… the kiss… Ginnie… my dad… Sal…

My PAV beeped. Who would be calling me this late? I checked the receiver. Sandy.

We hadn’t talked in days—not since before Sal’s kiss. I had no intention of telling her about that, but it seemed like my life was now divided up into BK and AK (before kiss and after kiss). It was no wonder I couldn’t concentrate. I clicked on the PAV. “What’s up?”

“I meant to call you earlier, but this is the first chance I’ve had—school is murder. I have so much homework!”

Poor Sandy. I’d always helped her out with classes and homework. Without my tutoring, I imagined it was a lot harder for her than usual. I missed getting together with her after school at the modular. Dee would watch the FAV or do her homework while I helped Sandy figure out Government or Health and Sociology. Sandy wasn’t dumb, she just had a hard time staying focused. And the closer she got to sixteen, the harder it was for her.

“So how’s things with you? Hanging with all the upper-tiers yet?” she asked.

“Different.” I wasn’t going to complain. Gran and Pops were trying—but they were old, not like Ginnie at all. “Pops falls asleep early, sometimes even before dinner. Gran spends a lot of time with Harriet. Dee’s all wrapped up in her friends. The guys are guys. I miss you.”