Page 8 of In This Iron Ground
He’d always been aware of Koko, being in the same year as her since he arrived at the school when the McKenzies took him in. All Damien knew of her was that she had a bit of a reputation for being a hard-ass. She didn’t go out of her way to put people down, but she could be waspish and defensive when she felt attacked.
Knowing now what Damien did about her, he wasn’t surprised. Keeping secrets, especially those made to protect you, change the way you see the world. They can make monsters out of shadows if you’re not careful.
Since the night of the forest, he’d caught her staring at him in class. Her wide eyes would be still and blank as they stared from her oval face. Her skin was lighter than her brother’s, matching her Native American mom, but her hair was a curly afro around her head. She had a strange, deer-like beauty to her, which was ironic given the circumstances.
He’d see Hakan and Nadie looking at him in the cafeteria sometimes, too. Hakan was two years older and was neither popular nor a loser like Damien. He had his father’s broadness and nose, but his hair was straight, cow-licked on his head as if he didn’t brush it. He was much less expressive than the rest of his family, his face the still surface of a frozen river.
Nadie was the only Salgado who could really be called popular. She was a cheerleader and top of her class. She was a year older than Hakan, and Damien barely ever saw her alone.
He tried not to think about what it would be like to be part of a family like that.
Damien was glaring at the piece of paper in front of him during history class, doodling moodily as everybody around him chose partners for the project the teacher had just explained. He wished teachers would simply choose partners for them instead of subjecting them to this routine of social humiliation. He tuned out the chatter as he waited for the teacher to notice he was too much of a loser to be willingly chosen and either force him to be the third wheel of a ready-made pair or lump him with whoever was sick today.
For the first time in years, however, neither of those things happened. All the warning he got was one of the girls hissing, “Koko, what are youdoing?” before he looked up to see Koko Salgado standing beside his desk, arms crossed.
“Um…hi?” Damien said awkwardly. Koko rolled her eyes a little, although the look seemed more teasing than malicious.
“You wanna be partners, or what?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in a way that looked far too adult for her face. Damien gaped at her. For a wonderful moment, excitement shot through him. Had Mia told her about his interest in comic books? Was she taking this opportunity to get to know him? Did she want Damien to be herfriend?
“Uh—yeah! That’d be, like, awesome,” Damien said, stopping himself from saying more.
It was the look she gave him then—unexcited, almost annoyed—that made Damien realize the only reason Koko could possibly have to be doing this was for insurance. She was making sure Damien kept quiet. Damien would bet his measly but precious comic book collection that Mia had put Koko up to this.
“Okay. You can come to mine tomorrow after school,” she said in a tone that was more order than suggestion.
Damien opened his mouth, hesitating. He’d never been invited to somebody else’s house whilst at the McKenzies’. He had no idea how they would react to the suggestion. On top of that, Damien wasn’t sure how he felt about going to the Salgado household. Mia had been so nice, had reminded him so much of his own mom, that having her see what he was really like and throwing him out—or worse, tying him up—would be crushing. The very thought of it had his heart racing and he realized he’d been gaping dumbly at Koko for way too long.
“Okay,” he choked out. Koko’s frown deepened, but she nodded as the teacher instructed them to settle down so she could explain more in depth about the project.
For a moment, Damien hoped Koko would sit next to him to discuss their options together, but she returned to her friends. A ball of dread settled low in his stomach, but for once a shard of light shone through it. Damien could do this. He could go to the Salgados’ and make a good impression, prove to them and the McKenzies that he could be good. For once.
**********
Damien was freaking out.
The McKenzies had given Damien permission to go to Koko’s with a sigh and a long monologue about behaving. Damien had done little else but catastrophize since. He had to defrost his limbs one by one to walk towards the school exit as the final bell rang. He let the current of the student body take him outside mindlessly.
This was his chance to be someone else.
He walked slowly towards the mom car Nadie drove to school. The three siblings, Koko, Hakan, and Nadie, were already waiting for Damien beside the car. Koko and Hakan were dressed in their usual monochromatic clothes, but Nadie was the complete opposite. Her style was soft sweaters, flowery dresses, and colourful tights. They looked almost idyllic. Damien was so intimidated he had swung right around and was almost numb to their presence, although his rabbiting heart would suggest otherwise.
“Thereyou are! We don’t have all day! Jeez,” Koko complained when she spotted Damien, who was dragging his feet.
“Koko, we’ve been here for like three minutes. Chill,” Nadie said, offering Damien a smile as she opened the driver’s seat door.
“Shotgun!” Koko shouted, lunging for the passenger door only to be yanked to a stop by her backpack.
“I don’t think so,” Hakan said, a slight smirk on his face.
“You guys suck,” Koko said, although her tone suggested this was routine. “Come on, then,” she directed at Damien as she got into the back seat.
Damien took a fortifying breath and followed, but it turned out that being stuck in an enclosed space with them wasn’t any less painful than seeing their easy banter out in the open. He tried not to be obvious as he watched them squabble. It was the first time in a while he’d seen family members interact with each other. Nadie seemed to be a tempering force to Koko’s quick temper, each as animated and verbose as the other. Hakan, on the other hand, stayed mostly silent.
Damien was so distracted by their interactions that it took him by surprise when the road they were on turned rocky as they were swallowed by the forest. Damien looked into the trees until they thinned out and the Salgado house appeared. The panic that had been suspicious in its absence hit Damien all at once as they parked. He clenched his teeth tight and turned away from the window to see three similar frowns directed his way.
“What,” he snapped irritably, tumbling out of the car before they could make him regret the slip more than he already did.
The house looked different in the sunlight. It was big, with three stories and an attic, painted a soft white and dotted with wide windows. A wraparound porch circled the house, large and slightly cluttered with toys and furniture. The whole structure was cradled by the encroaching trees on the land he was pretty sure belonged to them.
