The Dragon Tree by AC Kavich Read Free Book Online Page B

Hiroki looked up and down the hall to make sure no one was watching, then gulped and followed her in the bathroom.
     
                  Eva was already inside a stall, so Hiroki leaned against the row of sinks.
                  “Don’t listen to me pee!” Eva pleaded. “And don’t look through the crack in the door!”
                  “I’m not… I wouldn’t—” Hiroki protested weakly, but his protests sounded to him more like confessions. “You have to see the photos, Eva. That tree. It isn’t a normal tree.”
                  “Yeah, I get that you’re impressed by this tree. I get it. But calm down and take a few deep breaths.” She flushed the toilet inside her stall and stood to pull up her pants. “It’s still just a tree.”
                  “You haven’t seen the pictures yet!” Hiroki insisted. “You have to see the pictures.”
                  Eva opened the stall and stepped out. “Fine, show me.”
                  Eva froze in place and tilted her head toward the bathroom door. There were two female voices in the hall, and it sounded like their owners were headed toward the girls’ bathroom. Hiroki was frozen where he stood. Eva grabbed his shoulders and dragged him across the floor. He struggled to hang onto his folder as she pushed him inside one of the stalls, dove in after him and slammed the door.
                  Hiroki landed hard on the closed toilet seat. Eva sat down on his lap and cleverly lifted her feet.
                  Hiroki was holding his breath. He was experiencing a strange blend of abject horror that he might get caught in the girls’ bathroom and utter elation that Eva was sitting across his legs with her arms around him. The elation was getting the better of the horror, until he peeked through the stall crack and saw an 8”x10” photo lying on the bathroom floor.
                  Hiroki looked down at his folder. Half of the photos were hanging out from between its covers. He had dropped one! He gasped aloud, but Eva slapped her palm across his mouth to keep him quiet.
                  Penny Hobkins and Grace Delaney sauntered into the bathroom, their cheerleader’s skirts swishing on their skinny thighs. They went straight for the sinks and mirrors where they started unloading their purses: lipstick, lip balm, lip glitter.
                  Grace had planted one white shoe directly on top of Hiroki’s stranded photo. “After practice I just like, hung out at the field for like an hour. I was on the bleachers, but like, I was standing instead of sitting to make sure, like, the boys could see me.”
                  “Oh my god, did they see you?” asked Penny in her shrill whine.
                  Grace nodded as she applied the first layer of product to her lips. “And guess who saw me the most?”
                  “Aidan?”
                  “Totes,” said Grace with a satisfied smack of her redone lips. “And I mean totes . He was glancing over at me so much he like, totally messed up throwing the ball. I was like, kind of honored.”
                  “Did he come over and talk to you after practice? Oh my god he totally did, didn’t he? He totally did!”
                  Grace turned to face Penny, pivoting on the shoe that was planted on Hiroki’s photo. It crinkled audibly under her heel, but neither girl noticed. “Of course he came over after practice. I mean, of course . The poor guy has been dealing with Eva’s cold fish routine for so long he’s ready for a little heat.”
                  Penny hooted and shook her head, leaning forward to apply her own lipstick in the mirror. But she stood up straight suddenly when she saw the reflection of a pair of shoes under a stall door. She latched onto Grace’s arms and turned her