Page 3 of A Future in the Bay

He went back to walking stealthily as soon as he was in the hallway that her classroom was in. He could see the door to her classroom left ajar, and for a moment his heart flopped in disappointment, wondering if she’d gone home already. Then he heard the sound of her favorite 1990’s girl band playing from inside the classroom, along with the sound of her singing along to the album. Grinning, he poked his head around the doorway and saw her standing in the far corner of the room, organizing art supplies on a long table.

He guessed that she was preparing for the next day’s class, and she seemed to be engrossed in her work. Almost silently, he tiptoed inside the classroom. She didn’t notice, and he suppressed a grin of triumph. He wound up the Jack-in-the-Box that he was carrying, set it on one of the desks, and then darted to hide behind the open door.

He only had to wait a few seconds before the Jack-in-the-Box popped open and Olivia yelled with surprise, whirling and dropping the box of colored pencils that she was holding.

“What on earth?” she cried.

“Surprise!” he yelled, popping out from behind the door.

Olivia let out a squeal and raced into his arms. “What are you doing here?” she gushed, rocking him back and forth. “I thought you weren’t getting here until tomorrow.”

“What part of surprise don’t you understand?” he teased, grinning at her.

“You scamp!” She swatted him in the arm. “You’re more of a child than any of the kids at school!” Despite her scolding, it was clear from the way that her eyes were shining that she was thrilled to see him—and she wasn’t too upset about the prank.

He bowed dramatically, still grinning. “I thought you liked Jack-in-the-Boxes.”

“Sure, when I know they’re about to go off!”

“But you’re happy to see me, right?”

She grinned at him. “I’m so happy to see you. I can’t deny it. I know you’re going to be here for a couple of months, but the extra day still feels like a huge bonus.”

“Complete with jump scare and a brother. What more could you possibly want?”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “How about just the brother?”

“It’s too late for that.”

“Okay, but no more jump scares.”

He grinned mischievously.

“Isaiah! I mean it. Look me in the eyes. No more jump scares.”

He sighed. “Fine. I promise, no more jump scares for the remainder of the visit.”

“Good. Thank you.”

“Thank you,” he said, privately noting that she hadn’t said anything about pranks and feeling gleeful. “Do you need any help setting up that art table over there?”

“Yeah, if you want! We can both get out of here faster that way.”

They went over to the art table, and she instructed him to put a tube of washable glue at every place.

“How’s North Carolina?” she asked as she organized colored sheets of paper into stacks containing green, blue, and yellow.

“Great as ever,” he said, smiling at her. “You should see what they did to the town hall. There’s a massive mural on the side of it now—it’s really nice-looking.”

“You should have sent me pictures!”

“Google can show you.” He laughed.

She paused in her work to look up pictures of their hometown’s town hall and cooed over how nice it looked.

“Oh, I love that. Any more updates from home? Anybody get married or have a baby?”

For the next few minutes, Isaiah caught his sister up on everything that had happened in the place where they’d grown up together. She listened eagerly—he knew she still had a lot of affection for their hometown even though she’d moved away a few years earlier.

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