Until the Tide Returns

“Hello?”

“Landon?” Why was I nervous? Oh yeah. I had never called anyone who I haven’t known nearly my entire life before this.

“Yeah? Who is this?” I heard what sounded like the rustling of paper.

“Beckett.” Something snapped closed in the background, like a book. Was he reading?

“Oh, hey.” He sounded distracted.

“Is it ok that I called?”

“Yeah. Is everything ok?” His tone sounded like he was genuinely concerned.

“I wanted to ask you about the first song on the playlists? Why did you choose that one?”

“Because you’ve been stuck in your house for so long and I figured you’ve thought about leaving quite a bit. Plus I really like the song and thought you might too.”

“Oh.” I don’t know why I sounded disappointed. Maybe some part of me hoped he did know.

“Did you like it?”

“Yeah.” I muttered. I had been too freaked out by the lyrics and what I thought they meant to try to enjoy the song.

“You don’t have to lie. I promise not to be offended.” He laughed lightly.

“No. I just thought you put it on there for another reason.”

“Like what?” Crap. I shouldn’t have said anything.

“Nothing really, forget it.”

“Whatever it is Beckett you can tell me.” No I couldn’t. There was a knock on my door and my dad stuck his head in.

“Tell them you‘ll call them back. I need you downstairs.” His head disappeared.

“Was that your dad?” Landon asked.

“Yeah. He has to talk to me about something.”

“Alright, call me back?”

“Sure.” I hung up the phone and walked downstairs. There was a pile of luggage by the front door. Some of it was my fathers. “What’s going on?”

“Tyler and I are going back to Maryland. I’m going to try to find your mother again.”

“What?” He had to be kidding. “You don’t know her name. How do you expect to do that?”

“Beckett I think by now we can agree there is something unnatural about your mother. I’m going to start looking where I met her. Then I’m going to start looking around the coast. Maybe someone has seen her since.” He walked over and gave me a hug. “We need answers sweetie. This is the best I can come up with for now.”

“When are you leaving?”

“There’s a plane leaving in a few hours.” Tyler said.

“I’ll only be gone a week.” My dad said kissing the top of my head. “I promise. In the meantime Billy is going to stay here with you.”

“You hear that Moses?” Billy smirked. “Once again Uncle Billy steps in to save the day.”

“I’m starting to miss when you weren’t here.” I said in the sweetest voice I could manage.

“You say that now little one. Just you wait and see.”

“Billy I’m trusting you with my daughter. Don’t make me regret it.” He gave me another hug and grabbed his bags. “I’ll see you in a week. Love you Beckett.” And then they were gone.

“He forgets who his number one babysitter was.” Billy shook his head. “What’s Maggie’s number?”

“Why?”

“Because you need a break kid. He makes you work too hard. You may not realize it but you learn way faster than most. So I’m giving you the week off. You and I are going to have some fun.”

“He’s only been gone for like 10 seconds. He’s gonna kill you.”

“I can take him.” He smirked. “Maggie could probably use a break too. At the rate you‘re going she‘s probably running out of stuff to teach you.”

“What?”

“It takes you two weeks to completely master something that generally takes people months. There’s only so much more she can teach you. I don’t think your dad ever realized how quickly you’ve been grasping everything.”

“Oh.”

“You really didn’t know?” I shook my head. “Then I know what we’re doing tomorrow.” I raised a brow. “Go make sure you’re full. I have some phone calls to make.” I left with a sigh and did as he asked. After only two minutes the water began bouncing off. I got dressed and went into my room and cracked open a book. I knew if I went downstairs I would just be sent back up here.

Eventually I fell asleep and woke up to the smell of bacon. When I went downstairs Billy was cooking and there was a large case of water bottles on the table.

“Morning kid.” He smiled. “I want you to get my backpack from the living room and fill it with as many bottles as you can.”

“What are we doing today?”

“That is for me to know and you to find out. Now fill up the backpack and go get dressed. We don’t have a lot of time and you need to eat.” I did as I was told as usual and came back into the kitchen just as he finished up breakfast. We ate in silence until I had finished and placed my plate into the sink.

“Who cuts your hair?” Billy asked. I hope he wasn’t taking me to get a hair cut. I liked my hair how it was. I had thick straight bangs The front was angled to frame my face and the rest fell a hand length past my shoulders, though at the moment it was in a ponytail.

“Maggie.” She was a jack of all trades. “You’re not making me get a hair cut are you?”

“No, just curious.” He brought his plate over to the sink. “Let’s go.”

I was glad I had a pair of sunglasses even though I never really had a use for them before. It was bright out. The ride was short and when we stopped in front of the unimpressive building I just stared at it and blinked a couple of times.

“Don’t worry. I’m not enrolling you.” Billy laughed and got out of the car, I did the same. “I called last night and said I wanted to give a motivational speech to the seniors.”

“So you brought me to the high school?” I asked. I still couldn’t believe it.

“Yeah, they’re going to let you sit in on a few classes while I meet with the football coach. You however are going to be drinking water the entire time we’re here. I’m not going to risk anything.” He opened the door to the school and once we were inside he pulled out a water bottle from the backpack. “Once it’s empty come find me.” We walked into an office that had the word ‘Administration’ on the door.

“Can I help you?” An elderly lady asked from behind the long counter that ran nearly the entire length of the room.

“I’m here to give a speech. I’m Billy Jacobson, I also have a meeting with the football coach.” She nodded and began rummaging through papers.

“That must be your niece?” Billy nodded. “Ok. You’ll both need these.” She placed two visitor stickers on the counter. “If you’ll wait here Mr. Jacobson I’ll call Coach Danner in to speak to you. And you young lady feel free to take a look around the school and drop in on any classes you find interesting.” I grabbed a sticker and stuck it on my shirt.

“See you later kid.” Billy said and shooed me out the door. I had always wondered what a high school was really like. Now I could find out. It was a one story building, hopefully I wouldn’t get too lost. Not too far down the hallway there was a large display case. I stopped to look at it surprised I immediately recognized someone in one of the pictures.

It was of Loraine, a sash across her that read homecoming queen. A plastic tiara on her head. I looked at other pictures in the case of team photo’s trophies next to them. I recognized Tank and Dean in the football team photo, Dean was also in the track photo.

“Are you new here?” I looked to my left at the boy who had approached me.

“No, just visiting. Looking around.”

“I can show you around if you’d like.” His smile seemed predatory as he leaned against the case. I was suddenly uncomfortable.

“I think I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? It’s a big place. Wouldn’t want you getting lost.” His smile grew and made me uneasy. I took a step back and bumped into someone.

“Don’t worry Tanner.” Tank said behind me. “I got this.” Relief flooded me. Tanner shrugged and walked off. “So what brings you here?”

“Billy. He’s giving a speech later today and in the meantime I get to see what normal classes are like. Now I just have to find one.”

“Well I would invite you to come sit in on my class, but I have a feeling weight training isn’t what you had in mind.” He scratched the back of his head. “Let me run this into the office real quick.” He held up a paper in his hand and literally ran to the office coming back out before the door even shut.

“So where should I go?” I asked him.

“I know Loraine would love to have you in her class, but she’ll never shut up if you go in there.” He looked around for a second. “Got it. Follow me.” He started walking down the hallway. “It’s only the second day of school so not too many classes are actually doing anything but I know of one.” He turned to the left.

“And what’s that?” He stopped at the first door he came to.

“Go on in and find out.” I looked at him nervously. “You’ll be fine.” He opened the door and I nervously stepped in.

“May I help you?” A man asked. He was balding and in his late 50’s by my guess.

“She’s just visiting Mr. Wilson, they told her she could sit in on a few classes.” Tank said behind me and then he was gone. I felt everyone’s eyes on me but I didn’t look at them.

“And why is that?” He asked.

“I’m home schooled. My uncle thought it would be a good idea if I saw what an actual classroom was like.” I was assuming this was a math class by what was written on the whiteboard.

“Came to see what your missing out on? Fine. Don’t bother me with any questions if you’re lost though. I don’t have time to teach you everything you should have already learned. You can take a seat in the back.” I looked towards the back of the classroom ignoring all the faces and walked back to the one empty seat.

“Hey.” Someone whispered beside me. I looked over surprised to see Landon. I smiled at him and gave him a small wave.

“On the board are three problems completely worked out. One of them is incorrect. You have five minutes to figure it out.” He said. I looked over the problems and raised my hand. This was something I had learned years ago.

“Yes?” He asked clearly annoyed with me. It made no sense, I had never done anything to him.

“Don’t you mean two of them are incorrect? Only the third one is right.” I said.

“What are you talking about?” He sighed and looked over the problems.

“Well it’s clear that you meant to make the second one incorrect. There are quite a few mistakes. The first one however, you missed a step. You didn‘t invert the 2.” He turned back and looked at me.

“Wow.” Landon whispered beside me.

“I must say I’m impressed.” Mr. Wilson said. “You must have an excellent teacher to have caught that so quickly.” I simply nodded. “Well class, seeing as our bell work is now over I’ll start you on today’s assignment. I’m going to give you a worksheet. You may work on it with a partner. It is a mix of review and new material to see where you are at as a class.”

“Be my partner?” Landon asked. I nodded. He moved his desk closer to mine and handed me a pencil. I took a large gulp of my water. Never can be too careful. “You never called me back.” He said.

“Oh.” I had completely forgotten about our conversation last night. “Sorry. My dad decided to take a last minute trip out of town.” I watched as papers were passed down the now uneven rows.

“And he just left you here?”

“Billy is staying with me.” He grabbed the sheet someone held over their shoulder and set it down angling it so we could both see it.

“So that’s why you’re here?” I picked up the pencil and began working on the problems. They were surprisingly easy. I expected something at least slightly more difficult.

“He decided to give Maggie time off while my dad is gone. Then he decided I needed to see how smart I was or something like that. He said I didn‘t realize it.” I looked down at the next problem. “Did he mean for this to take the entire class? Because at the most it’s only going to take a couple of minutes.”

“Beckett?” I looked away from the sheet and at Landon. “I don’t even know what half of those problems are.”

“Oh. Should I stop?” I already had two problems done and was halfway through the third.

“No. It gives us a chance to talk.” He smiled. “Does Loraine know you’re here?” I shook my head. I don’t see how she could. “Where are you going after this class?”

“Not sure, they told me I could go wherever.”

“You can come to study hall. Loraine will be there. Besides, if you don’t and she finds out you’re here and hung out with me and not her I’m never going to hear the end of it.” I nodded and continued working on the worksheet for a few minutes until I had finished, not saying anything to him. “I was thinking about what you said yesterday.” He said when I slid over the finished sheet to him.

“What?” Did he still remember what I said about the song.

“About how there’s a lot of stuff you’ve never gotten to do.” Whew. “There’s a back to school dance next weekend.”

“Ok?”

“Would you want to go?” Was he asking me to go to a dance with him? I felt butterflies in my stomach. “All of us are going. We kind of have to since Loraine pushed so hard for it. There’s a good chance she’ll ask you about it too.” Oh. Right.

“I can ask Billy.” I said feeling slightly depressed. I knew my dad would be gone longer than he said. He always was. A voice came on over the intercom announcing that all seniors were to go to the auditorium for a special guest speaker.

“I wonder what’s going on.” Landon mused aloud.

“Billy is giving a speech.” I muttered. I looked at my mainly full water bottle and knew Billy would start worrying so I drank down a bunch of it rolling my eyes as Landon stared at me. “It’s fine. I swear. Tyler’s experimental treatment remember?.”

“If you say so.” He stood up and grabbed his back pack and the worksheet. “Let’s go.” I got out of my desk and followed Landon who handed his teacher the worksheet. “If you want I could ask him about the dance for you.” He offered once we were in the hall. “But only if you want to go.” I was tempted to ask him if he wanted me to go.

“It’s ok, I’ll ask him.” I said instead. He nodded. There were a lot of people in the hallway. Many of them giving me strange looks.

“Ignore them, they’re just wondering who you are.” We approached two doors that were already opened
Teenagers filing through and finding a seat. “I usually just take a seat in the back if that’s ok with you?” I nodded and followed him. Where else was I going to sit? I don’t think it would have been easy to find any of the few people I knew. After a few minutes Billy walked onto the stage a microphone in hand.

“If you don’t get you’re butt up here and in the front row in the next thirty seconds I’m going to lock you out of your room and make you watch nothing but tapes from my games for the next week straight.” He said. A few people laughed and started looking around. “You know who you are.”

“I should probably go down there.” I sighed casting Landon an apologetic look.

“I’ll go with you.” He chuckled and stood up with me. I felt all eyes on me as we walked down. There was a loud shriek from somewhere in the middle.

“Move!” A girl yelled. I looked over and watched as Loraine pushed her way through the narrow aisle stepping over peopled legs. “Can’t you people make it a little easier for a girl to get through?” She yelled at them.

“What is she doing?” I asked Landon.

“I think she’s decided she’s going to come sit with us.” I glanced down at the front row which was mostly empty. There was definitely room.

We reached our seats and sat down, Billy smirking at me. I sighed and slouched in my chair. “Was that so hard?” He placed his hand over the microphone and called out to me.

“It’s just nice to know Dad is going to kill you when he gets home.” Billy laughed as Loraine sat in the chair beside me.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were here?” She asked. Billy began speaking into the microphone and introduced himself.

“Because I didn’t know I was coming until we pulled up. He wanted me to sit in on some classes.”

“Then how did Landon find you?” She glared at him.

“Because Tank brought her into my class.” He smirked. “Besides, we all know you would end up in detention and she would get thrown out because you would never shut up.” A wadded up piece of paper hit me in the head.

“Am I boring you?” Billy asked into the microphone his eyes on me.

“Only a little.” I smiled at him.

“I apologize.” He placed his hand over his heart. “But I’m doing this for you kid. So can it.” He gave Landon and Loraine and stern look and went back to his speech. Landon opened his back pack and pulled out a notebook along with a pencil. He scribbled something down and handed it to me.

Does Billy have anything planned for you this weekend?

I took the pencil and wrote a reply. I’m not sure. He hasn’t really told me anything except he’s giving me a week off. I handed the notebook and pencil back to him. Loraine nudged me with her elbow. I looked at her and she gave me a confused look pointing to the notebook. I shrugged and looked over at Landon who was still writing in his.

Loraine pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and a pen scribbling something down and handing it to me.
Did he tell you about the dance? I nodded and handed her back the paper. She began writing again as Landon placed his notebook in my lap.

We’re going out to dinner Saturday to celebrate my birthday. I want you to come. Mind if I ask Billy if you can? Before I could write a reply Loraine snatched the notebook from my hands and handed me her piece of paper.

Ok good. You have to come. It will be so boring if you don’t. Plus you need to experience at least one high school dance. And Landon needs a date. I told him to ask you but I don’t think he will. I wrote down what he had said about it on the paper and handed it to her. She still held onto Landon’s notebook writing something down. After reading what I wrote she added more to Landon’s notebook and then handed it back to him.

Why did she think he wouldn’t ask me? Why would she think he would? He said yesterday that I was ‘cool to hang out with’ but nothing more. He did ask though. I looked over at Landon who frowned slightly and ripped out the paper crumpling it into a ball and stuffing it into his backpack. What was that about?

I waited to see of Loraine planned on writing anything back to me but her paper was gone and her face held a look of… I wasn’t sure. Smugness perhaps? I sat and listened to the rest of Billy’s speech and finished my bottle of water. When it was over I sat waiting for everyone to file out. Loraine and Landon waited with me.

“So here’s the plan Moses.” Billy said sitting on the edge of the stage. “I’m going to take you back home and drop you off and then come back here. I promised the football coach I would come by and help him with his plays.” He opened the backpack and tossed me another water bottle.

“I’m really finding it hard to believe you’re allergic to water.” Loraine said.

“Yeah, well. It’s not your average water allergy.” Billy laughed. Loraine raised a brow. “You ready to go?”

“I guess.” I rose out of my chair and went to take a step towards the stage when I felt a hand around my wrist. It was gentle and warm. I looked to my left as Landon stood.

“Wait outside the auditorium.” He whispered then he looked at Billy. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Billy looked back and forth between us a couple of times before patting the space next to him. Landon let go of my wrist and Loraine walked passed me.

“You are such a liar.” She said to Landon. “Come on Beckett. You can be my excuse for being late to study hall.” I followed her out sparing a glance behind me. “I hope you realize he’s completely full of shit.” She said to me once we were outside of the auditorium.

“Who?”

“Landon. Duh.” She rolled her eyes. “He’ll sit there and deny it all he wants but I know him. He likes you.”

“Well yeah, he said yesterday we were friends or at least I think he did. And then he left me the note and the flash drive with all the playlists.” Her eyes widened.

“He what?” She smiled and looked through the small window in the door. “He’s trying to hide it from me. That’s a first.”

“He’s trying to hide what?” I asked. I once again found myself wondering what she meant.

“Beckett.” She said slowly placing her hands on my shoulders. “He likes you.”

“Yeah I know, he said we’re friends.”

“No.” We aren’t? “I mean he wants to be more than friends with you. He asked you to go to dinner with him this weekend for his birthday right?” I nodded. He did in the note. “He never told me about it.” What? From the way he had written it, it seemed as if all of his friends were. Maybe he just hadn’t told her yet. She dropped her hands from my shoulders.

“I think you’re reading too much into this.” I sighed.

“I’m not. Trust me. I know him better than he thinks. And if he didn’t tell me then it’s because he doesn’t want me to know. If he doesn’t want me to know about it it’s because he doesn’t want me to show up. Because he wants to spend time with you. Alone.”

“You’re wrong.” I said. She had to be. A small part of me hoped she wasn’t. “He barely knows me.” She gave me a signature eye roll.

“It’s so he can get to know you.” She held up her hands as if to say ‘aha!’ “I really need to teach you about boys.” The auditorium door opened behind us.

“Let’s go kid.” Billy smiled at me. “Loraine you can call her later if you want.” Loraine shrugged.

“Talk to you later.” She gave me a small wave and walked off down the hallway.

“I guess I’ll talk to you later.” Landon gave me a small smile as Billy pulled me in the opposite direction. Loraine was wrong. He didn’t like me. And even if he did would it matter? I was definitely attracted to him and he was nice to me. But did that mean I like him? I wasn’t sure. And if I did would my dad even let me date? He may have been giving me some freedom this past week but I was pretty sure he wouldn’t give me that much freedom. The risk of something happening and someone else finding out about me was just too high.