Nadia and Bernie got Marilyn's address from Ryker and made it to her house, after school. Nadia made a lunchbox of hot soup and Bernie brought along the oragami flowers and a dozen of bananas for the alleged sick. Nadia rang the doorbell and stood straighter, shoulders squared and chin pointed up. She passed Bernie a look that said, 'Am I presentable enough?'
Bernie nodded, then, with amusement lacing his tone, asked, "Since when did you care about such stuff?"
"Hush, it's my first time going to someone else's house," Nadia leaned in to whisper in his ear. Her eyes caught sight of Bernie's shabby collar and her hands instantly got down to straightening them.
They stood outside of the gigantic Keynes Villa, waiting in deafening silence. Though the Keynes boasted a lush lawn outside the wide grey block of building they called their home, not one leaf fluttered to welcome the kids. It seemed as if the winds too skipped over their terrain and entertained some other trees.
Bernie raised a hand and rang the doorbell again.
"Is no one home?" Nadia asked, mumbling, as she bit on her lowerlip.
"Probably...?" Bernie replied as he narrowed his eyes at the stillness around him. The Keynes didn't have neighbours. Theirs was a villa in the wilderness, isolated and veiled from the rest of the world. "Should we leave the stuff outside?" Bernie asked, eyeing the setting sun, its rays seemingly evaded the mansion as well.
"I don't know...lemme call her..." Nadia dug out her phone from her school bag and dialed Marilyn's number.
TRING. TRING. TRING. Went the bell but no one picked up.
"Should we jump—"
Bernie cut in Nadia's audacious plans by spamming his finger on the doorbell.
"Woah— wait, dude, that's bad manners—!!"
The front door swung open and out walked a frowning woman dressed in a maid's attire, pacing towards them with the elegance of a princess.
"And who may you folks be, other than ones who cannot catch a hint?" The woman snapped as soon as she pulled open the metal gates and stood in front of the kids.
"We're Marilyn's friends," Nadia introduced, smiling brightly. Bernie nodded his head in acknowledgement.
The grinning mouth caught the woman off-guard. "Friends?" She narrowed her eyes on the kids, her mind instantly connecting the dots. Were they the same friends because of whom Lady Mary suffered this morning?
"Yeah, we brought her school work—" Nadia started.
"And Homework—" Bernie continued.
"And hot soup, very vegan, I promise," Nadia raised two thumbs.
"Flowers and a few bananas incase the soup is too much, we don't know what happened to Mariee, she was well yesterday," Bernie said and raised the packet in the woman's face.
The woman's still gaze melted and her shoulders slumped. "Aren't you kind folks," she cooed, "Lady Mary is sick right now and unable to take visitors. It's something contagious and as much as you'd love to see her, she wouldn't want you folks getting sick because of her, right?"
Nadia and Bernie nodded in understanding.
"So, let me take this stuff to her and you can meet her later? Maybe in a week?" The maid suggested as she held out her hands. Nadia and Bernie placed their individual packets on them and muttered a word of thanks.
"Can you ask her to pick up my calls? Or just text me back? We were super worried. I hope it wasn't something I made yesterday," Nadia all but sobbed as she heard of Marilyn's condition. Her shoulders drooped, her smile wilted and an alarming greyness spread out in her face.
"Oh worry not, child, its none of your lot's fault," the maid clarified, patting Nadia's shoulders, "I have been Lady Mary's maid ever since she was a baby. You can call me Delilah," the woman smiled, "You must know that Lady Mary cherishes you, most ardently and I'm glad you found a friend in eachother," she said. The look in her pale eyes held an unspoken emotion that Nadia was too young to decipher.
She simply nodded and uttered yet another word of thanks.
"We're grateful to have Marilyn as well," Bernie supplied, always knowing how to butter-up the maturing and the elderly.
"Aren't you a good lad," Delilah patted his head. "The sun is setting, you should get going now. I'll make sure to convey your gifts to the Lady," Delilah said with a promise in her tone.
"Thank you, I'll back tomorrow," Nadia bowed along with Bernie and they turned to walk away. "Are you sure it's not my fault? Or was she just being kind?" Nadia sniffled as they headed down the road, "Do you think Marie is mad at me? Is that why she isn't picking up my calls?"
Bernie sighed and ran a hand along Nadia's back to rub in some comfort. "If it was the food then all of us would have been sick," he reminded, "And Mariee loves you so much, I'm sure she's just too sick to be on her phone. Let's have some patience, yeah?"
Nadia exhaled audibly and nodded, "Okay, fine, if you say so."
As they walked down the road, the wind greeted them. It was a gentle and cool embrace that soothed the burning thoughts in Nadia's head.
The next afternoon, the members of the Sandbox Club (barring Marilyn) stood in front of the members of the Sports Club. The sun glared upon their young, ambitious heads, challenging their boiling blood and urging frowns and irritating looks in response.
"Do we really have to bear with these nobodies?"
"They're gonna waste so much time, ugh."
"Do you think they'll treat us good food? Ah— why'd you hit me? I know we're not allowed!"
"I'm gonna treat them as lackeys. That leader girl would make the perfect assistant hehehehe."
"The prettiest Francesca Joves is here to see me practice! Oh heavens! I might just pass out!"
"Is that a dude or a girl...? His hair and body may seem like a dude by why is his face so girlish? What is this? Hahahahaha!"
Nadia smiled through gritted teeth. Surely, she hadn't anticipated the willingness of other club members when she was planning the birth of Sandbox. In her idealistic head, everyone should have been happy — joining hands, shaking them, hugging, introducing themselves with smiles. But in reality, they stood there in awkward silence while the sports people snickered and mumbled in their faces.
Nadia sighed, yet again. Having Marilyn would have helped plenty. She pressed her lips in a line and leaned forward to look at her clubmates. Francesca had her headphones on as she smiled and nodded at no one in particular. Her head bobbed to a foreign beat and Nadia wondered why her equipment was never confiscated? Maybe because she was a national award winner. Yes.
Bernie stood there with a forced smile on his face and death in his eyes. His posture was stiff enough to scream, 'Oh ground, open up and devour me!'
Caleb was busy frowning at the masses. He stood in a perfect posture with his head held high, looking down at the six feet and above atheletes even when he was barely five-nine inches tall. Yes, that was the confidence Nadia wanted to pursue her life with.
"Are we just going to stand here?" The club leader aksed, evidently bored out of his mind.
"Are all of you here? I'm sure—" Nadia began but was cut off by the club leader's scoff.
"Yes, yes, the track team is on their way. Your boyfriend isn't here yet," he snorted.
"My boyfriend? Who is my boyfriend?" Nadia asked, frowning at the bulky man before her.
"Ryker Cordelio??" The man scoffed, again.
"What?! Ryker isn't my boyfriend!" Nadia laughed out loud, "I don't have a boyfriend at all!"
"Yeah and I don't have a dick," the man deadpanned.
"Oh, don't you?" Nadia shot, rhetoric, a look of pity gracing her face.
Her jab urged a snort and a few chuckles from the masses. Though, before the man could come down harder, the shuffle of feet jogging towards them indicated the presence of the track team, on the front of which was Ryker, waving both his hands and smiling brightly as he ran forward.
"Hello! Sorry, I was a bit late, the showers were being awful," Ryker greeted as he ran up to Nadia's side and slung his arm across her shoulders, as per muscle memory.
It earned her a snicker from the Sports Club leader.
Nadia grimaced and shrugged Ryker off herself. Startled, he stared at her like a kicked puppy. "This gentleman right here," Nadia pointed at the sports club leader, "thinks that we're dating," she pointed at Ryker's chest followed by a finger on her own chest.
Ryker snorted at that. Immediately, his face morphed from crushed-hopes-and-dreams to oh-am-I-watching-Charlie-Chaplin? His brows flew into his hairline and his lips pursed to control the bubbling laugh within him. Though, Nadia's dead glare was enough to tip him over the edge.
"HAAHAHAHAHA, ME? DATING HER? HER— OF ALL PEOPLE? PLEASE, DO NOT MAKE ME LAUGH!!" Ryker gasped, shuffling on his feet to maintain a straight stance. He failed and tried to lean on Nadia but the ravenette stepped forward and Ryker barelled into Francesca's side. Surprised, Francesca backed into Bernie's chest— who tripped and almost shoved Caleb to the ground.
"See that, we're just friends," Nadia pointed her thumb at the flailing twigs behind her.
"Oh, who knew that you were open for the taking," the sports club leader stated and took a step towards Nadia, "That's intresting."
"I th—"
"Shouldn't we start with the activities?"
Bernie's words were cut off by Caleb, tapping his foot on the field. He was evidently scowling at the world's audacity to waste his precious time.
"Yes, we should start," Ryker grinned as he coiled an arm around Nadia's waist and pulled her by his side.
The sports club leader raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
Nadia elbowed her way out of Ryker's grasp and smiled, "Yes please, let's start. Each member of club can choose to work with any of your teams. For example, if I were to choose the Weightlifting Team then I will be following their diet, their practice routine, their work ethic, everything one needs as basic requirements to be a part of the team. It shall last for a week after which our club members will earn a certificate of participation and your club earns a community service credit — each member earns a point! What a brilliant deal, right? I talked to Ivan about it. He was very impressed by the idea and immediately presented it to the Principal. Of course it got accepted by yesterday morning! So, I hope we can all work well together in this win-win situation!" At the end, Nadia bowed to show her appreciation.
"Mhm, good enough," the man held out his hand, "Call me Stark. Let's get along," he introduced himself.
Nadia shook Stark's hand whilst her free hand remained over her phone in her skirt pocket, in memory of Marilyn. It was a pity that Marilyn was missing such a crucial point of Sandbox's growth. Nadia's mind reeled over how happy Marilyn would be to know that her idea was a success. She made a mental note to text Marilyn about the progress, as soon as possible, and dearly hoped that she would get a text back.
All the while, being pushed twice, Ryker stood flabbergasted, still as a mannequin, mouth ajar, as Nadia passed friendly smiles to strange men and shook their hands. What a comedy! Did he wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Why was his— suddenly, Bernie walked into his line of sight. He whispered something in Francesca's ear which was amusing enough to earn him a chuckle.
Ryker's jaw further unhinged itself. If it were possible, he would drag it over the ground as he walked. Was Sandbox going to be the death of his friendships? His teeth clenched at the thought of Marilyn deliberately planting the idea in Nadia's head to isolate her.
He stepped forward and raised a hand to grab Nadia's shoulder but yet another student came in between them.
"Is this alright? Should each member get a personal mentor or will it be a team effort?" The stranger asked.
"Team effort," Nadia smiled brightly as she replied.
Ryker clenched his chest, impersonating an old man whose beloved granddaughter went ahead and married an ugly, broke, extortionist of a man.
"Are you okay?" One of Ryker's teammates asked, passing worried glances at him.
"I will be," Ryker replied, gaze set on the back of Nadia's head. She was surrounded by students — tall, short, smelly, bulky, gruff — who knew not the concept of personal boundaries and senselessly pushed into her for the sake of asking questions.
A poke on her back earned the lad a smile, a nudge to her side earned the lad a grin, a tap on her shoulder — Ryker sucked in a breath. His eyes did not leave her face as he grabbed the back of a student's collar and pulled him out of his way.
He yelped and fell to the floor, alerting others to a gasp and silence.
"Have you all no sense of order?!" Ryker snapped as he looked at the fallen kid and the rest of the crowd surrounding him, "Look at what you all did to him! Is this how you conduct the sports club?" Ryker shouted at Stark, seething, as his gaze lingered over his hand on Nadia's shoulder.
Stark passed them a bored look. "He's not fragile, man up dude," he threw Ryker a dirty look and rolled his eyes. "We're almost done. You're the only one left to choose a club," her gestured his chin in Nadia's direction, "Choose Archery, I'll treat you well." He passed her a smirk.
"Oh?" Nadia uttered, "Archery sounds fun...?" She looked around to consider. Bernie caught her gaze and shrugged. He raised a his hands in a kung-fu stance, reminding Nadia that he had chosen the Martial Arts team, then he held up his hands to mimic the archery stance while wiggling his eyebrows.
His face said, 'We can be a badass duo who knows how to beat people up!'
Nadia scrunched her face in a grimace, as if to say, 'Who even uses bow and arrow in this age?!'
"Choose quick, we don't have all day here," Stark said as he grabbed Nadia's wrist to jerk back her attention.
Suddenly, Ryker was hyper-aware of the people around him. There were so many of them, standing so close, breathing too loud, creating heat, sweat, someone's breath stank of snail noodles. His eyes searched for familiar faces but he couldn't comprehend anyone's features. His breathing escalated. He wanted to step forward, hold Nadia's hand, jab Stark in the ribs and walk away— but his limbs had other plans.
They stood planted to the ground, staring exasperated at the blobs around him. Where was Bernie? Where was Nadia? Why was there so much buzzing? Would they be saying something about him? Did he do something? Is it going to he reported back to Darcy and his mother? Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck.
His chest tightened. His hands broke into cold sweat. His stomach churned. What was happening? He couldn't make sense of his surroundings. Something was coming closer. A blob. Was it a person? Was it Darcy?
His breath hitched.
"Surprised?" A familiar voice asked. Her face graced his sight. His vision cleared. She was standing right in front of him, learning slightly forward with her hands behind her back. He knew her. Her dry curly hair, her twin ponytails, her wide doe eyes, her toothy grin, her tanned face, her spice scented breath.
"What? You don't want me in the track team?" Nadia grinned, wiggling her brows.
"I—" Ryker cleared his throat, heart still racing, "It's not like you had anywhere else to go," he covered his husky voice with a snort and a cough. He forced his heart to calm down as Nadia jumped and circled her arm around his shoulders.
His stomach stopped churning and the muscles around his shoulders relaxed under her familiar touch.
"True though, track is the easiest!" Nadia grinned, earning offended gasps from the rest of the Track Team.