That night when Ann told her parents the man on the black motorcycle had threatened her again, her mother got angry at her father. And when her mother got angry it didn't really matter who the anger was supposedly directed at—it was just plain miserable for everybody.
"You were at it again, Steve! Encouraging those people to rebel, to not pay their rents. Your own daughter's being threatened and you still won't drop that stupid lost cause!"
He threw up his hands and shook his head. "I didn't do a thing."
Her mother made a characteristic sound that was in between a sigh and a groan. "Oh, what's the use? It's too late now anyway. As long as you're around that building she won't be safe. You've got to drop every patient in that place." She sank down onto the old couch, from a junk store or a dump or someplace like that, where all their stuff was from—Ann's father hated buying anything new. "And if the agency won't accept it, you're just going to have to dig up some kind of income somewhere else. God knows how."
"But I thought they needed men to take care of poor people. I thought there weren't enough men doing that work," Ann said. "There must be plenty of people in other buildings who need help."
"Sure, there are plenty of people who need my help, in plenty of other buildings," her father said. "They're just farther away from home."
Farther away meant more time in traffic—more time in the car or on a cheap, crowded bus to save the cost of expensive fuel. The bus would put more strain on his back. And he'd have less time to relax at home.
Ann felt her anger rise. "That's so unfair," she said. She was the only one in the family who ever dared to argue with her mother. "Why should we have to change our lives just because Dad was trying to help those poor people? Why should that meathead be threatening me?"
"Because rich people don't see it that way," Mom said. "They see it that he's trying to take money away from them. People who have the most money are the ones who want to keep it the most. You ought to be old enough to know that by now."
"I do know it!" Ann snapped back, risking her mother's anger, not able to control her own. Then she paused. "I wonder what Lep has to do with any of this—if anything," she said, thinking aloud.
"Lep? Who's Lep?" her father said. "What kind of a name is that, anyway?"
"He's a kid at school. I don't even know where he's from. He must be from a Third World country because he's dark and obviously poor."
"Do you have to pigeonhole people that way?" her father asked her.
"Why shouldn't she?" her mother said, still in a lousy mood. "Everybody else does."
Her parents argued until her mother fell into an angry silence. She picked up a book and began ignoring Ann's father, who dropped down onto the couch, forgetting about Lep, and picked up his own book. Ann was lucky. She had made a mistake. She didn't want her parents to know about Lep. They'd probably want her to stay away from him, because of the Replico T-shirt. But she wanted to find out why he wore that T-shirt.
He wasn't at school the next day. Had she scared him away? Or was it just another of his routine absences? There was no test again today. She almost wished they'd had one so that Lep would lose points and run less risk of getting ahead of her. But Wells would probably deduct points from his overall grade point average anyway, for being absent. Where would he be seated in class on Monday? Where would she be?
Friday night a friend of hers, a guy named Jake, had a party. Jake's parties were great because his parents were rich and they lived in a small but real house with a yard. And Jake gave parties only when his parents were out of town. Of course, no one told that to their parents.
It took a while to get there, because the house was in the rich zone, and commuters would be straggling out there all through the afternoon and evening. She got a lift from a friend named Ariel, who had the use of her parents' car. They went directly from school because of how long it would take to get to Jake's. It might be fun in the car with her friends, even though it would take so long in the traffic. But the best part was that she didn't have to worry about the guy on the motorcycle threatening her today.
Randa and Jeff and Becky were also in the car. And of course Randa had to ask her, as soon as they had all gotten in and started crawling through the traffic, "What happened when you talked to that Lep kid yesterday?"
"Nothing," Ann said quickly. "He didn't want to talk to me. Anyway, it's none of your business."
"Well, excuse me!" Randa said.
"Whatever," Ann said, and shrugged.
"Who's Lep?" Jeff wanted to know.
Ann liked Jeff. He was somebody she'd definitely go out with, if he ever asked her—and there weren't many boys she wanted to go out with. She was picky about who was smart enough and cute enough. She wanted to strangle Randa for mentioning Lep in front of Jeff.
"He's this weird Third World kid in our English class," Randa said. "Ann had some crazy idea she was going to tutor him in English or something."
"I told you it was my mother's idea!" Ann corrected her.
Randa was in the front seat, next to Ariel. Ann was in the back—Jeff was in between her and Becky. Jeff was pressing his leg against hers. Was he doing that to Becky too? Ann wondered.
"But English is your worst subject, Ann," Becky pointed out. "Why would you want to tutor somebody in English?"
"It was my mother's idea!" Ann said again.
Randa laughed. "Believe me, this Lep kid is worse. He hardly ever says anything in class, and when he does, you can hardly understand him."
Ann had already been mad at Randa for bringing up Lep at all, and now she was angrier because of the way she was putting him down—even though she probably would have said the exact same thing about him.
"I didn't know you had problems in English," Jeff said to her, pressing his leg a little more firmly against hers. "Maybe I could help you."
Ann didn't know whether she liked that or not. She would like to spend time with him, but not talking about those stupid English paragraphs! And she didn't like him thinking she was stupid at something. "I did better on the last test," she said. "Let's see where Wells puts me on Monday."
She was hoping something would happen with Jeff at the party. But when they finally got there it turned out Jake's parents weren't out of town after all—they had decided not to go because his mother had a headache. He hadn't had a chance to text everybody and cancel, meaning his parents were not only there, putting a damper on everything by their presence, but they were also mad at him for inviting everybody over when he thought they were going to be away. The party was a boring disaster, everybody left early, and Ariel dropped her off before Jeff, so they never had a chance to be alone together. She had sort of hoped he might call her over the weekend, but he didn't.
On Monday Lep was back in school, wearing the Replico T-shirt. What did that mean? Was it a message to Ann? Or was it just that it was the only clean shirt he had that day?
She noticed now how loose it was on him. He was skinnier than she had realized. His thin face made his eyes look bigger.
The seating in English was reshuffled. Ann was moved from the third row to the second, probably because of doing better on the golf paragraphs. So she wasn't next to nosy Randa anymore, who was still in the fourth row. But most amazing—and chilling—was that Lep had moved up from the first seat in the fifth row to the first seat in the third. Two rows at once was a huge jump; it hardly ever happened. It was especially surprising because he had missed class on Friday. He was ahead of Randa now! This was unheard-of. What had he done to have improved so much so fast?
And what if he got ahead of Ann?
Wells called Lep "Fingernail" when he moved him, frowning suspiciously. He was making it clear to everyone that he suspected him of cheating, for which he could get thrown out of school. Lep kept his eyes lowered.
After their seating was changed, they had a test. Ten questions on the paragraphs they had been assigned over the weekend, which had been about warring middle-eastern space stations. Ann knew she did really badly, but at least she wouldn't be next to Randa for the rest of the week. And after class she just avoided her and waited to approach Lep until he had turned a corner and they were probably lost from Randa's view.
She wasn't as blunt as she'd been on Thursday. She didn't want to scare him away again. "Congratulations about doing better in English," she said to him, once she got his attention.
"Oh. Thank you," he said, not meeting her eye. But at least he wasn't running away from her like before.
"Are you studying more, or what?" she asked him.
"I study more when I have time. When not working."
"You have a job?" She wasn't surprised. She could see that he was poor, and it looked like he didn't get enough to eat. She was more curious about him now. A job could be the reason he was absent so often. "What kind of job? Where do you work?"
He was frowning at her again, as though he didn't understand why she was suddenly interested in him. She didn't blame him; it must seem strange. At the same time, he couldn't have forgotten what she had said about the man threatening her, with the same logo as the shirt he was wearing; he must know that that was at the root of it all.
"I work at place where I live. Where I get this shirt." It was the first time he had mentioned the shirt himself. She was beginning to hope he might be more open today.
"That's the shirt I remembered! Do you mean… you live and work at Grand Diamond?"
He seemed surprised, now looking openly at her. His cheekbones stood out because of how thin he was. "How you know about Grand Diamond? Nobody like you live there."
"My father works there. Or he used to, anyway. I think he might have to quit—I don't know what's going to happen."
"Your father work at Grand Diamond?" he said, more puzzled than ever now.
"He takes care of sick people, in their apartments in that building."
Lep stopped walking abruptly; two kids behind almost bumped into them, looking angry. But they were only sophomores, so all they did was mutter and pass by.
"That man your father?" Lep said.
She shrugged. "Yeah. My father. What's the big surprise?"
"But that man… But my boss say he… That man is your father?" He was still not moving; she watched the strange play of emotions across his narrow face. And she saw something that surprised her a little. This kid Lep respected her father. He respected him a lot. And that made her feel a whole lot different about him. Almost as though he might not be so dumb after all.
"He helps sick people who don't have insurance and who can't afford to pay somebody to come. But he might have to stop working there, because of what I told you the other day. About the man threatening me. On the motorcycle with that design on it." She gestured at his T-shirt.
He looked down at it. Now she knew he wasn't stupid. He was just evasive. He was scared of something.
"If you live and work at Grand Diamond, then maybe you know if there's a man there, maybe the building manager or somebody like that, who drives a motorcycle with that same design on it. That man has something against me. And…" Now she was the one to look away. "That man is mad at me. He acts like he wants to hurt me. And it's going to make things really tough for my father, if he has to stop working there and—"
The warning bell bleated. They were right next to a loudspeaker and the sound was almost deafening.
"We have to go," she said. "But I need to find out more—for a lot of reasons. Maybe we could meet after school. Right outside of Wells's room." She couldn't think of any place else. "Just for a few minutes. Will you be there?"
"I… But…"
"Only a few minutes. Please?" She did her best to smile; she knew boys liked her smile. "I'll see you there after school." And she hurried off.
For the rest of the day she wondered if he'd be there. He seemed to be opening up a little. And he actually lived and worked at Grand Diamond, and knew who her father was. And respected him. That meant he probably knew—for sure—who had threatened her on the motorcycle. And why. And if she had an answer, she might be safer. And her father might not have to drop all his patients at Grand Diamond and get in trouble with the agency, and have to work someplace even farther away in the traffic.
So she was very disappointed when she got to the doorway of Wells's room after school and Lep wasn't there. And he didn't show up, even though she waited, feeling very conspicuous, until the hall was almost empty.
