Sang's Freedom (Original And Rewritten)

Chapter 9: Always Trouble

-Chapter 9-

"So...am I not supposed to know about Mr. Blackbourne? Because...I met him outside Luke's restaurant the other day."

Kota rolled his shoulders back. "No, no...I just didn't realize you and Mr. Blackbourne had already met."

Luke grinned at me from across the table, beginning to sign. How have you been, cupcake?

Me: Good, monkey boy. How did North take the prank?

Luke: Monkey boy? Aww, you gave me a love name! He winked. As for North, he's hiding in the men's clothing section of Target looking for socks. Yes, he's a Target shopper. I'm not sure how we are related.

Me (raising my brows): When you two stand side by side, I'm not sure how you're related. You are opposites in every way.

Luke: Not every way.

He winked again as Victor sat down.

"So Sang knows how to do sign language, too?" Victor looked impressed. "No wonder you thought she was Academy."

Kota shot him a glare, but Victor just smiled pleasantly. He leaned across the table to hand me a burger. "You are not a vegetarian, are you Princess?"

I shook my head. "No. Thank you, Victor."

Victor looked away, hiding his quickly tinting cheeks as he waved over North.

North was back in black like some undertaker, his expression grim until his eyes found mine. He took the seat beside me. "Hey Sang baby. You trying to get the jump on me again?"

My eyes went wide as saucers. I hadn't considered that North could be mad at me for pranking him. He was a big guy! He could beat me up for that!

I looked to Luke signing. Does he know that I was involved?

Luke: In the prank? No. He can't even prove I was involved.

"What...are you two saying?" North was suspicious. He tried to decipher our hand signs. "DID YOU JUST SPELL PRANK?"

Och, he was loud. North startled me so bad I practically jumped into Kota's lap.

"I didn't sign prank!" Luke looked to me exasperated. "Leave it to North to go around accusing people."

North reached for one of the burgers Victor had piled in the center of the table. "It's not accusing when I know you're the little bastard who did it, Luke."

"Me? But I was with Sang almost all day!"

"Key word: almost." North took an angry bite of his burger.

"So, Sang." Kota smiled when I looked to him. "Lets talk school. Do you know what classes you'll be taking?"

I put a finger to my lip. "No...Marie and I are supposed to go to the office on Monday because we missed registration day."

"Who's Marie?"

"My sister. She's a year older, so I probably won't have any classes with her."

"Oh, that's too bad." Kota took a sip of his soda. "We are all going to be Juniors this year, how about you?"

"Junior!" I smiled, looking to Luke. "I guess we really might have classes together."

"I wouldn't count on it," muttered North. "It's a big school."