“Um, okay…”
They headed down the stairs and Chelsea yelled to her mom that she was leaving for an hour. Her mom yelled back that it was spaghetti night and to please be back in time for dinner. Laurel had rarely seen a conversation take place in Chelsea’s house that didn’t involve yelling. Not angry yelling, but the kind of yelling that happens when everyone is rushing around and can’t take the ten seconds that would be required to stop what they are doing and get close enough to hear the other person talk in a normal tone of voice. Then again, in a household with three boys under the age of twelve, yelling probably was a normal tone of voice.
“So where are we going?” Chelsea asked as she pulled her seat belt across her chest.
“Yuki’s,” Laurel said.
“Yuki’s?” And after a pause, “Are we going to spy on her?”
“No!” Laurel said, although she knew the question was entirely rational. “I thought we could go pick her up and take her to Vera’s.”
“For… smoothies?” Chelsea asked. Vera’s blessedly nondairy blended fruit drinks had made it Laurel’s favorite whole foods store.
“Yeah, sure,” Laurel said, flipping on her turn signal as she approached Yuki’s street. “Klea wants me to keep an eye on her, Tamani wants me to keep an eye on her. I was thinking we could all go to that autumn dance together.”
“So we show up on her porch out of the blue, kidnap her, feed her frozen fruit, and ask her on a date. Genius,” Chelsea said sarcastically.
“I’ll buy you one of those carob chocolate truffles you like so much,” Laurel said with a grin as they pulled up in front of Yuki’s house.
Chelsea clapped her hand over her heart, melodramatically. “Using my love of chocolate against me. I have no choice but to crumble like a… chocolate cookie. Or whatever,” she said when Laurel eyed her. “My metaphors suck. Let’s go.”
Yuki’s house was about the size of Laurel’s garage. It was set back from the road and mostly hidden by two shaggy elm trees growing at the front of the walk. According to Aaron, Yuki was almost always there alone, but so far nobody in the neighborhood had made a fuss. It was possible they simply hadn’t noticed.
If so, they were a lot less nosy than Laurel’s neighbors.
They rang Yuki’s doorbell, which could be heard clearly through the flimsy front door and single-pane windows. Despite Klea’s claims that Yuki was here for her own protection, security didn’t seem to be a major priority.
“I don’t think she’s home,” Chelsea said in a whisper.
Laurel nodded toward the bike Yuki sometimes rode to school. “Her bike’s here. And I don’t think she has a car.”
“That doesn’t mean she didn’t go for a walk,” Chelsea countered. “She is… like you.”
Laurel sucked in a breath and held it for a moment. “Okay,” she said. “Obviously this isn’t going to work.”
“Do I still have to go to Vera’s?” Chelsea asked as they turned.
The click of a deadbolt made Laurel look back. She suppressed the urge to smooth her khaki skirt and straighten her hair. Yuki’s face appeared in a narrow crack in the doorway and she stared in obvious surprise for a moment before opening it all the way.
“Hi,” Laurel said, trying to not sound too chipper. “Are you busy?”
“Not really,” Yuki said warily.
“We were going to Vera’s and thought you might like to come along,” Laurel said with what she hoped was a welcoming smile.
“The grocery place?” She didn’t look any less nervous. If anything, she looked more suspicious.
“They make really great fruit smoothies. Nothing but frozen fruit and fruit juice.” Laurel wondered if describing the smoothies in detail was too weird. “They’re so good! You should come.”
“Um.” Yuki hesitated and Laurel could tell she was looking for a way to say no.
“I’ll drive,” Laurel said helpfully.
“Yeah, okay, I guess,” Yuki said, mustering a smile that didn’t look entirely fake. Laurel could only imagine how lonely it must be for Yuki, staying here all by herself. Laurel had seen her talking to a lot of different people in the hallways at school, but Aaron assured Laurel that no one ever came to Yuki’s house.
“My treat,” Laurel said, stretching her arm out toward her car.
Yuki stayed quiet on the drive over as Laurel and Chelsea tried to keep the conversation going, talking about the psychology class they had together — which proved duller than actually sitting through the class. At least once they got to Vera’s they would have food to put in their mouths to excuse the silence.
After everyone selected a dessert, they sat outside at a table with an umbrella that did nothing to block the setting sun — just the way Laurel liked it.
“This is really good,” Yuki finally said, with a hint of a smile.
“I thought you’d like it,” Laurel said, scooping up a small spoonful of her mango-strawberry slush.
“So,” Chelsea said, obviously trying to be conversational, “what’s school like in Japan?”
Yuki looked suddenly bored. “Pretty much like here, but with uniforms.”
“I hear you guys have cram schools and super-long hours and stuff. Your friend, um, June? He’s really smart.”
“Jun,” Yuki corrected, softening the “J” and making Chelsea blush. “I don’t really know him. And I never went to juku. A lot of us never do.”
“Tell us about you, then,” Laurel interjected.
Yuki shrugged, glancing away. “Not much to tell. I like to read, I drink way too much green tea, I do ikebana, and I listen to music from the seventies that no one has ever heard of.”
Laurel laughed. She and Chelsea both knew there was so much more to Yuki than that, and Yuki knew it too. But Yuki didn’t know how much Laurel knew, and she didn’t know that Chelsea knew anything at all. It was like a supernatural “Who’s on First?”
“What’s ikebana?” Chelsea asked, pronouncing each syllable carefully.
“Flower arrangement. Artistic. You’d probably find it dull.”
Flower arranging? Laurel thought, sitting up straight. She wondered if that could possibly be a euphemism for some kind of faerie magic — but it could just as easily have been a sign that Yuki was as drawn to nature as any other faerie.
“No, it sounds interesting,” Chelsea said, but it was clear that she had no idea what to say next.
All three busied themselves with their food.
“Oh, hey,” Laurel started. It was now or never. “Tama… uh… said you asked him to the Sadie Hawkins? Or Autumn Hop? Whatever they decided to call it.” The posters going up around campus were confusing, to say the least. Laurel got the impression that someone in student government had looked up Sadie Hawkins on Wikipedia after half the posters were printed.
Yuki nodded. “I did. How do you know Tam?” she asked, gazing intently at Laurel.
“He, um, sits near me in Government,” Laurel said. “I was telling him how Chelsea and I usually double to stuff like this, and he seemed pretty interested. Maybe we could all go together?”
“Absolutely,” Chelsea said, a touch of sarcasm in her voice that Laurel hoped Yuki didn’t catch. “I think that would be fascinating.”
Fascinating? “Great. It’s a date, then!” Laurel said. “If that’s okay with you, I mean,” Laurel added, turning her attention back to Yuki.
“Sure,” Yuki said, smiling at Chelsea now. She sounded totally sincere. Enough that it pricked at Laurel’s conscience. “I think it would be fun to do a group thing. Less pressure, you know. I mean, I don’t even really know Tam very well yet so… yeah.” Her voice trailed away.