his head. “Well, I meant about the school.” He tucks his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. “But yeah. I am.”
“Oh.”
“So, what do you do in your free time? You’re in Art 4, so I’m guessing you like to draw?”
“Sometimes.”
“Oh, nice, you’ll like your teacher. Everyone loves Mrs. Liu. I’ll show you your Calc class next.” We cut across this walkway outside. From here I can see the parking lot already filling up. “Don’t you want to ask me another question?”
“Is that what we’re doing?” I ask.
“If you want to. It’s only fair, Benjamin …” He unfolds my schedule again. “De Backer?” He reads off my last name. And he gets it right on the first try. “How about that? A question for a question, answer for an answer?”
“Okay,” I say.
“Is that last name German?”
“Belgian. I think.” Mom and I actually spent a good amount of time tracing our last name. She was really into that genealogy sort of stuff, so when Hannah and Dad were having one of their huge arguments, she’d take me to the library, and we’d sit and read all the books they had about our family. After a few visits, we ran dry though and just started finding names and making up backstories about them and what they were doing now.
Then one day we sort of just stopped going. Guess it wasn’t fun for her anymore.
I stop walking, my heart twisting in my chest.
Nathan gestures to me. “And now it’s your turn.”
“Huh? Oh, are you from here?”
His mouth folds into a smile. “Nothing more interesting?”
I shrug.
“My family moved here the summer before I started middle school.”
“Where from?”
“Nuh-uh.” Nathan wiggles a finger back and forth. “I get a question.”
I wonder if there are any limits to the kinds of questions he’ll ask. “All right.”
“What do you like to draw?”
“Oh, um.” And suddenly everything I’ve ever drawn just vanishes from my brain.
Poof! Gone.
“Um, anything really, I guess.” I have a few characters I like to draw; landscapes are always fun to paint too, but I hardly get a chance to do that.
“Anything?” Nathan raises an eyebrow like that’s supposed to mean something. “Maybe I could take a look at your sketchbook one day?”
“Yeah …” I rub my arm. “Maybe.”
Definitely not going to happen. Not in a million years.
“Excellent! Now come on.” I feel Nathan’s hand on my elbow. “Let’s go to the art room, I have a feeling you’re going to freak!” He leads me outside and we walk along the breezeway to the front of the building. “Technically it’s its own building, they added it on a few years ago, and before that, it was where the drama room is now. Mrs. Liu is really cool too.”
“Yeah?”
“Definitely, there’s no way I should’ve passed last year. Even my stick figures are hideous. But she passed me anyway. Guess Mrs. Liu could tell I was trying at least.” Nathan stops at this outside door, propped open with a huge can of paint. “Oh, Mrs. Liu,” Nathan sings, tapping on the door.
There’s a loud crash somewhere near the back of the room. I try to rush to help, but Nathan hangs back, so I figure I should too.
“Oh, crap in a basket!” someone hisses, followed by a long groan and the sound of approaching footsteps. Mrs. Liu is a short Chinese American woman, with her hair tied into a messy knot and a pen tucked behind her ear. The apron she’s wearing is stained with paint splatters, and so is the white blouse underneath. At least it looks dried.
“Nathan!” She rushes toward us when she realizes who’s here, wrapping Nathan in a hug. “What are you doing here so early?”
“Showing the new guy around.” He hugs her back. “Ben, this is Mrs. Liu.”
“Nice to meet you.” I hold out my hand.
She shakes it so quickly that I’m pretty sure my arm’s going to pop right out of the socket. “It is so good to meet you too! How are you liking North Wake so far?”
“It’s fine,” I say.
“Well, I look forward to having you. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough kids for an Art 4 class this year, so you’ll pretty much be by yourself.”
“By myself?” I ask.
“At your level, you’ll pretty much have free rein, after I get to know you a little better, of course.” She beams. “But I’ll be teaching a freshman class in here. And—” She motions for Nathan and me to follow her through this small hallway. On the other side there’s another classroom.