Trusting True North by Gina Linko

Author:Gina Linko
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Published: 2021-11-24T20:50:00+00:00

I was sweaty and worn out by the time I got to the apartment complex near the library. I didn’t really know what to do once I got there. It was a set of four three-story buildings with an entry door and a stoop leading to each individual building. They were plain and squat-looking, like they’d been made from Legos and painted the ugliest gray anyone could find.

Part of me was tugging to go home. Reminding me I shouldn’t be here. But at the same time, it felt a little thrilling to know that I chose to be here, even if I was teetering on the brink of getting in serious trouble.

Some trash tumbled along the parking lot asphalt as the wind blew: a few fast-food wrappers, an old, white baby sock, a yellow spork. I kicked those around a while, and I tried to figure out a plan. How could I find out which apartment Kyler was in?

I chose the closest building and went inside. I looked at the last names listed next to the buzzers for the intercoms, but I didn’t find Grier.

Okay. On to the next building.

Same thing. No Grier on the buzzers.

Three little kids played on the stoop at the farthest apartment building. It was starting to get a tiny bit dark, so I had to do something fast. I walked over toward them. I slipped a paper mask from my pocket.

As I was putting it on, I saw a large figure come out of the apartment building. He said hi to the kids playing on the stoop, laughed about something with them that I couldn’t quite hear. He started toward the road, away from me, but then, figuring it had to be him, I called out his name.

“Kyler!” My voice sounded rusty and unsure.

He stopped and turned. I waved and trotted toward him. He waved back and came toward me.

We both stopped a good ten or twelve feet away from the other one. I raised my hand and waved at him again. This lockdown was making me weird.

He was already wearing his mask. It made me think of Georgie’s teacher who, the other day during one of his e-learning classes, said that wearing masks during this time was how we show we care for others.

“Hey, True.” Kyler said it like it wasn’t bonkers that I had chased him down in the parking lot. He said it like we were maybe friends—ones that saw each other in the halls at Spooner Middle and waved.

Why weren’t we? Why couldn’t we be?

Just because his gym shoes were super old and he wore the same two hoodies every other day?

No, there was more to it than that. I knew that. Right?

“First, I wanted to say thanks for not turning in George and me to Old Man Parker.”

He nodded. “And second?”

“Why did you knock Dakota Sullivan’s tooth out?”

He let out a breath like he had been waiting for me to ask that exact question. “Well,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, “the short answer is because I lost my temper.

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