Chapter 55

Two Sides of a Coin

Life skills had just ended. Teacher Ge was still at the front, putting things away.

She was the only teacher this class had. Forty-something, short hair pinned behind her ears, chalk dust always on the cuffs of her gray cloth coat. Words in the morning, crafts at noon—every period in the room went through her.

"Pass the workbooks up from the back."

Nova's deskmate Xiaoman handed him hers. Thin girl, hair in two little buns, quick with her hands. Before she passed it she steadied the thin ruler at the corner of the desk.

Nova stacked both booklets and sent them forward.

Teacher Ge collected them while she talked to the room.

"What we did yesterday in life skills." Her voice was a little hoarse, not loud, but the back row heard her fine. "If you run into trouble on the way home, what do you do?"

Someone had just bent to find the page when Nova spoke up.

"Get out of there. Report it at the town hall, or contact the town guards."

Teacher Ge's hand paused on the page.

"Good."

She stood still at the front and swept her eyes from the back to the front.

"These aren't questions you memorize for class. You'll hit them for real." She glanced at Nova. "Nova had the whole answer. Young as he is, he picks it up fast. Check the booklet. Get the points straight. Don't just sit there laughing."

Someone in the back muttered, "Only him."

Another voice picked it up: "East Street kid. Of course he knows the rules."

Laughter went around under the desks. Nova also heard someone say "no dad, no mom"—quiet, but he caught every word.

Teacher Ge finished, squared the stack, and carried the workbooks out.

Chair legs scraped all at once. Xiaoman had just slipped the ruler into its cloth sleeve when the boy they called Tiedou came over from the back with two others.

Tiedou stood half a head taller than Nova, broader in the shoulder. At the desk he blocked half the aisle and put on a rougher voice on purpose.

"Teacher asks anything, you jump first. Can't stand nobody knowing how smart you are." He curled his lip. "Got that town-hall crap memorized cold."

The two beside him laughed.

Nova closed his workbook and tried the other way out. Tiedou sidestepped and blocked him again.

"All you East Street kids this eager to show off?"

Nova looked up at him. "What's where I live got to do with it?"

"Plenty. East Street's where decent people live." Tiedou flicked Nova's collar. "You got no dad and no mom, right? Who gave you that?"

Nova twisted back. The thin cord around his neck still came loose—a key knocked against his button, a small worn copper tag hanging under it.

Tiedou grabbed the cord and lifted the tag on the key to look.

"Really is East Street."

The cord bit into the back of Nova's neck. He caught Tiedou's wrist but couldn't pry it open at once.

"Let go."

Xiaoman squeezed out from behind the desk, one hand on Nova's sleeve, the other between them.

"What's so interesting about a key? Give it back."

Her voice was louder than before. The second she finished she glanced at the classroom door. Teacher Ge hadn't come back.

Tiedou dangled the key in front of her.

"You want East Street too?"

Nova yanked the cord out of Tiedou's hand. The key scraped Tiedou's nails and dropped into Nova's palm.

"I have a mom and dad," he said.

Tiedou blinked, then laughed out loud.

"You do?"

"My dad's with the mine guards." Nova shoved the key into his collar, talking faster than before. "My mom's tough too. She's good with a bow. If she showed up, see if you'd still talk."

As he said it his eyes slid off Tiedou's face to the peeling paint by the doorframe.

Tiedou didn't laugh right away. He stared at Nova a moment, weighing how much of it was true.

"Fine." He wiped his hand on his trousers. "Don't run after school. You've got people picking you up, right? Call them over. I want to see how tough."

The copper bell rang at the far end of the corridor.

Tiedou backed off two steps and headed for the back with the other two. Near his seat he looked over his shoulder.

"Don't just bring some scrap picker."

Nova sat back down and held the key through his clothes. The teeth bit into his palm.

After school, Tiedou was still there.

He and the two boys squatted by the low wall outside the gate. When Nova came out they stood up, one in front, one behind.

Xiaoman walked beside him with her bag. At the gate her steps slowed.

"Want to wait at our shop?" she asked quietly. "My mom's there."

Nova glanced toward the low wall.

"No need. He'll come."

Xiaoman followed his look and squeezed her bag strap.

"Then I'll wait a bit."

Tiedou heard and yelled from farther off: "Wait. Wait till dark."

The crowd at the gate thinned. Some kids ran into the alleys in packs; some got claimed by family. A man with a handcart stopped at the roadside, collected his child, and left. A while later Teacher Ge locked the classroom, came out, and looked toward the gate.

"Still not going home?"

"Waiting on someone," Tiedou said first.

Teacher Ge scanned their faces. Nova thought she'd ask more. She only waved. "Getting dark. Get home." Then she left.

Tiedou kicked a pebble out from the base of the wall.

"Where's your dad?"

"Still on shift."

"Mine guards get off this late?"

Nova didn't answer. He could hear distant cart wheels, shop shutters dropping into place, the dull hammering from the Mint. Voices washed up from the corner in waves—but not Eren's footsteps.

Xiaoman went quiet too. She stood beside Nova, grinding a pebble under her shoe tip.

Tiedou came a few steps closer.

"Scared to show, huh?"

Nova kept his eyes on the corner. "He'll come."

This time it didn't sound as sure as it had in class. Tiedou heard it. His mouth edged up.

He was about to speak when Nova heard the familiar steps first.

Unhurried. Heavy. The right a touch heavier than the left—and closer in, metal tapping lightly behind a hip.

Nova turned.

Eren came from the corner still in the mine guards' gray-blue vest. Shoulders and pant cuffs full of pit dust, that hammer hung at his waist. Looked like he'd walked straight off shift without changing.

He stopped at the gate, looked at Nova first, then at the others beside him.

"Been waiting long?"

"No."

Eren nodded.

"Mine let us out early today. Let's go."

Tiedou had already come in close. He stopped where he was. He stared at the hammer behind Eren's hip, then at the gray-blue vest, and stayed planted—didn't take another step.

Nova glanced at him, one brow up a fraction, then looked away before Eren could see.

Xiaoman let go of her bag strap and said quietly to Nova, "I'll head back then."

Nova gave a short yes and quickened two steps to catch up with Eren.

A short way out, Eren spoke again. "Tomorrow Lila's off too. We'll go out."

"Okay."

As he said it Nova hooked the cord, drew the key out of his collar to his chest, and gave it two light swings against his jacket.

He looked back once. Tiedou was still at the school gate, watching their backs. The two beside him were asking him something low. He shoved one of them and didn't yell after Nova again.