A Winter of Ghosts (The Waking Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

girls weren't allowed in the boys' halls, but for now the
corridors were busy with friends getting reacquainted, laughing and gossiping
and trading small New Year's gifts. She and Hachiro had agreed on no gifts at
the holidays. People tended to put too much weight on such things, interpreting
any gift as if it defined the relationship, and she didn't want that kind of
pressure for either of them. Now she regretted it a little. A sign of his
affection would be nice.
    Oh, great. Doubting him already.
He just got back . She rolled her eyes at her own insecurity, even as she
realized that she had never cared so much about what anyone else felt about
her, except for her parents.
    Amused at her own nervousness,
she rapped on his door. She waited eight or ten seconds before knocking again,
bouncing impatiently. Kara glanced up and down the hallway, wondering if he
might be visiting Ren or one of his other friends. That wouldn't bode well,
either, priority-wise, though he had texted her, so that counted for something.
    As she debated whether to knock
again, the door opened.
    In his Boston Red Sox cap and a
rumpled sweatshirt, he looked very cute. She had often told Hachiro he was her
own giant Teddy bear, which always got a shy smile from him. But for a moment,
as he pulled the door open, she caught sight of a look on his face that was
anything but a smile. He seemed sad and tired.
    And then he saw her, and his
face lit up in a grin, and she knew that all of her angsting had been
pointless.
    Without a word he pulled her
into his arms, crushing him in his massive embrace, and she squeezed back for
all she was worth. Hachiro kissed the top of her head — receiving
whistles and hoots from other boys in the corridor for the effort — and
then took a step back, holding her hands in his as he looked down at her.
    "Hello," he said.
    Kara exhaled contentedly. "Hey."
    Hachiro lifted her chin and gave
her a gentle kiss. She pulled off his Red Sox cap, revealing his unruly mess of
hair, and donned the hat herself, setting it backward on her head.
    "You gonna let me in?"
she asked.
    "Of course," he said,
standing a bit straighter.
    Hachiro had been raised to be a
proper Japanese boy, with all the courtesies and formalities that implied. Kara
had broken him of some of those manners, but he still treated her as a guest
whenever she visited his room. Now he stepped back to let her in, and she went
to his desk and slid herself up to sit on top of it.
    He left the door open. The
school had rules governing all areas of conduct, and were very strict about the
interaction between male and female students, but Kara thought he would have
left the door open anyway so that no one would get the wrong idea about what
was or wasn't going on behind closed doors.
    Not that she would have minded a
little time behind closed doors. But that was what late night walks were for.
    "Happy New Year," she
said.
    Hachiro gave her a very formal
bow, but she knew that now he was overdoing it for effect. "Happy New
Year," he said in English.
    "I'm sorry I didn't wait
for you to call, but I have news and I really wanted to share."
    Hachiro sat on his bed, looking
more than ever like a giant bear. The bed was too small for him. "What
news?"
    "Well, there's a little
bad, but also some good. Which do you want first?"
    His smile faded and she saw a
trace of that uneasiness and exhaustion again. "Bad first, please."
    "Don't worry, it's not that
bad," she said, swinging her legs where they hung over the edge of the
desk. "At the end of this term, my father and I are going home —"
    Hachiro glanced downward,
disappointment etched into his face.
    " — for two weeks. And
then we'll be back for senior year."
    He laughed out loud. "You're
staying?"
    Kara nodded. "Staying."
    Hachiro got up and went to her,
picked her up off the desk and swung her around. When he set her down, she felt
like she was still flying. He brushed a lock of her blond hair away from her
face and traced his