“Is Gidiot there yet?”
MaMaLu refused to dignify that with a response.
I grabbed my school bag and went downstairs. Everyone was already gathered around the dining table. The only space left was next to Gidiot, because no one wanted to sit next to him.
“Good. We’re all here. Ready to begin?” asked Miss Edmonds.
Gidiot stomped on my foot under the table. I winced as I opened my textbook.
“Everything all right, Skye?” asked Miss Edmonds.
I nodded and gave her a small smile. I wasn’t a tattletale, but I knew I was in for another long afternoon.
Three times a week, Miss Edmonds came in from the city to Casa Paloma. My mother had inherited Casa Paloma as a wedding gift from her father. It was a lavish, Spanish-inspired estate on the outskirts of a fishing village called Paza del Mar. There was a small school in Paza del Mar where the locals sent their kids, but the expatriates preferred private tutoring for their children, and so we met in our house, which was the largest by far.
We were learning about soil erosion and landslides and earthquakes when Gidiot pulled my braid so hard, the little red flower MaMaLu had adorned it with fell to the floor. I blinked a few times, refusing to cry, and focused on the diagrams in my book. I wished Gidiot would fall down one of the fault lines, and into the molten core of the earth.
“Ow!” Gidiot howled, rubbing his leg.
“What’s the matter?” Miss Edmonds asked.
“I think something bit me.”
Miss Edmonds nodded and we continued. Bugs were common. No big deal.
“Ow!” Gideon jumped. “Swear there’s something under the table.”
Miss Edmonds took a quick look. “Anyone else feel something?”
We shook our heads.
My eyes darted to the big, antique hutch behind Miss Edmonds. On the bottom were two paneled doors with lattice inserts. The crisscross pattern was purely decorative, but as Esteban and I had discovered one afternoon, they made perfect peep holes if you were hiding in there.
I smiled, knowing Esteban had backtracked in from the garden. He hated school so he hid in the hutch on the days Miss Edmonds was there. That way, he had something to tell MaMaLu when she asked him what he was learning in class.
Esteban poked his fingers through the wood and mini-waved at me. He held out a straw, or maybe it was one of his paper creations. The next minute, Gidiot was hopping around the table on one foot, massaging his calf.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow!”
“Gideon!” Miss Edmonds was not amused. “You’re distracting everyone. Wait outside until the rest of us are done with today’s session.”
I picked up an orange seed from the floor as Gidiot left. There were a few more under the table. Esteban had been shooting orange seeds at him through the straw. I could see little red marks on Gidiot’s legs as he left the room. Esteban gave me the thumbs up from his hiding place.
I laughed at the thought of his crooked thumb sticking out of that old wooden cabinet. I was still laughing when I heard the lock turn on the door.
Damian was back. And this time there was no tray.
“It’s time you earned your keep,” he said.
I nodded and followed him out.
I’d spent all my time in the room, but now we were standing in the U-shaped space that functioned as the kitchen. It was done in mahogany and teak, and part of the countertop was cantilevered to accommodate a pair of barstools. There was a sink, a refrigerator, a two-burner cook-top stove and a microwave oven. All the drawers were locked down, but there was a chopping board, some potatoes and a big-ass butcher knife on the counter.
“I need those peeled and cubed,” said Damian.
And he was going to let me use the knife? He had balls.
“Sure.” I was already thinking of which way to slice them.