Page 58 of The Enforcer

“And the tests, do I have to flake on them?” Nova asked him curiously. “I usually flake on tests like that. I score high, but not too high. So I get into advanced classes, but—”

“Just fucking take ’em. It doesn’t matter. I’m sure they already know about your memory thing.”

It was so strange to hear after a lifetime of trying to protect the secret of Nova’s memory. He didn’t seem to know how to respond to it any more than Tino did.

“This is Neverland. The rest of the world doesn’t exist anymore. The sooner you forget it, the easier it’ll be,” Carlo said softly. “Learn to fight your own battles. We have to be better than them. Stronger. Faster. Smarter. Lost Boys have to fly.”

Nova laughed at the reference and asked, “So what? Are you Peter Pan?”

“No.” Carlo shook his head and gave Nova a smile that made him look too handsome to be human. “Not for a long time. Me. I’m a pirate. Just a fucking pirate like the rest of ’em.” He leaned over and poked at Nova’s bare chest. “You’re Peter Pan now. Maybe you’ll do a better job with it.”

Nova quirked an eyebrow. “What’re the job requirements?”

“Stay young forever. Stay hopeful.” Carlo stretched back out on the floor and stared at the ceiling as if pondering it. “To laugh when you’re happy and cry when you’re sad. You have to keep your soul. Somehow you have to hold on to it. That’s the requirement.”

“I’m probably fucked,” Nova observed drily.

“Yup,” Carlo agreed. “You probably are.”

Chapter Fifteen

“We have a successful chess club here at St. Francis.”

“I’m aware.” Nova’s voice was clipped, as if the administrator was rubbing salt into an already painful wound. “But I don’t play chess anymore.”

“You were a state champion. It seems a shame—”

“I’m not interested. Sorry.”

“Well, the math team—”

“Not interested.”

“If you plan to apply for college, you’ll need extracurricular activities, and from your records, it looks like that was something you were working toward.”

Tino winced, deciding he couldn’t help Nova with his geek problems. He went back to reading a newDragon Ballmanga, a signed collector’s edition. Nova went into Manhattan to buy it while Tino was still in the Moretti basement/hospital recovering, and Tino knew it probably cost more money than they could spare with Romeo’s mounting legal bills.

It was one of those rare indulgences, especially considering any manga in English were rare. Tino was trying to read without creasing the spine, which resulted in him sliding down in the chair and lifting it up, peering between the pages he was carefully holding a few inches apart to see the words. It wasn’t the easiest way to read, but he was so fucking excited to have it he was willing to endure.

This interview with Nova was taking for-fucking-ever!

Thank God he’d told Tino to take the book.

Tino just read, ignoring the other students in the office, and stopped paying attention to Nova’s discussion in the other room. For all the lines and lines of ADHD shit in that file they were probably looking over right now, Tino could block out the world if he was interested in something.

Nova called it hyperfocus.

His mother used to call it optional hearing.

Romeo would usually just hit the back of his head until he looked up.

“Hey,fanook.”

Tino turned the page, careful of the spine, and squinted through one eye to see better.

When his crutches fell over, Tino glanced at the two guys who sat down next to him. They were both blond, preppy, with designer clothes and braces. Thank God Tino’s teeth were coming in straight. It was a sure bet if they weren’t, Frankie wasn’t going to fucking pay for it. He ran his tongue over his teeth when he thought about it, feeling the two gaps on the sides where he’d lost teeth right before Romeo got arrested.Please, dear God, let those fuckers come in straight like Nova’s.

“We’re talking to you,succhiacazzi.”