“What did he say to you?” Kota asked.
“He... he wanted to know where you touched me,” I said. “He asked if you touched my hips and my breasts.”
Kota stopped dead in the hallway, turning to me. His eyes widened. “He asked that? What did you say?”
“I denied that you did,” I said. “And then he gave me the detention slip and asked me to tell you to go to class.”
Kota frowned. He tugged at my hand again and we walked across the school to my homeroom class.
“Sang,” he said. “Did you get a good look at the inside of his office?”
It was the last thing I was thinking about. “Yes,” I said. “Well part of it.”
“Can you remember what it looked like?” he asked. “Could you draw me a map?”
It was my turn to look confused at him. “What?”
His green eyes took on a strange glaze. “Do me a favor and write down everything you saw in his office, okay? Write out every detail.” He squeezed my hand and let go. “Get in there. I’ll catch up with you at English.”
I turned to ask him why but he was already in a sprint toward his own homeroom. I sighed, not understanding and wondering if this was something for the Academy or if this was his own desire. What would he want with a map of the vice principal’s office?
I thought about how Mr. Blackbourne commanded him to wire the boys who had caused the fighting yesterday. This was way more than figuring out rumors and preventing future fights. The Academy was infiltrating the entire school.
O ne o f U s
North and Luke held my seat for me in homeroom. When the teacher asked where I was, I revealed my detention slip to him. He looked it over, nodded to me and asked me to take a seat.
I fell into my chair, dropping my things at my feet. Luke turned in his desk and I felt North leaning over the top of his behind me.
“Sang baby,” North started, “What--”
“I got detention,” I said.
Luke did a half smirk. “Kota, too?”
I shook my head. It took me a moment to explain it to them. As I was talking, I pulled out a notebook and started scribbling notes to myself to remember what Kota had asked, giving him a detailed description of Mr. McCoy’s office. When I was done with my story, I drew my best variation of a map on the side.
“What’s the vice principal got against you?” North asked. “I know I’ve seen kids nearly fucking in the hallways. No one stops them.”
“I bumped into him a couple of times,” I said, ignoring his last comment. Did he really see that? “He wasn’t happy that Dr. Green helped me at the start of school and I’m pretty sure he and Mr. Hendricks thinks I’m part of your group.”
I didn’t have to look up to know they were exchanging glances above my head.
I was drawing out the keypad in the corner of my paper when the bell rang for the next class. Luke grabbed my violin for me and I grabbed my book bag. I was going to get my violin from him but he grabbed for my hand, too and started tugging me toward the door.
When we were outside and in the hallway, North put an arm around me, his fingers grasping my shoulder. We walked together like that, with Luke’s hand in mine and North on the other side of me. A silence fell over us. I was almost grateful for it. This first week was the worst and needed to end. Feeling them around me, knowing they were there felt so much better. I don’t know how I survived all my other schools alone. What would I have done without them at this one? It made me fearful of the future, of next year when I may not have them around as they would go back to their Academy.
North didn’t let go of me until we were standing outside of the trailer for our first class. He walked off without looking back. Luke let go of my hand to hold open the door. I fell into my seat and Luke sat behind me. Kota filed in shortly after. Kota and Luke shared a silent look over my shoulder, checking in to make sure the other knew what was going on.
I had my notebook out and I was finishing up the keypad. Kota studied what I was doing. He read what I’d written upside down, checking my work on the keypad.
“Why didn’t you put numbers here?” he asked, pointing to the keys that were blank.
“There weren’t any,” I said. “It was smudged off. It looked like an old system.” I sighed, looking over my paper one more time and ripped it from my notebook and handed it to him. “What’s this for?”
He reviewed my work again, analyzing. “Do you remember the name of the security system?”
I thought about it. I held my hand out for the sheet of paper and wrote down the name: E&O Inc.
He nodded and took the paper from me again. “Thanks,” he said.
I was about to ask him again what this was for when Gabriel burst in. He fell into his seat, breathing heavily as if he had been running to get here. “Okay,” he said. “What happened?”
“I got detention,” I said.
“What?” Gabriel asked. “You? Why?”
“Inappropriate touching,” Kota said.
Gabriel blinked at him as the bell rang for the start of class. “Did you get detention?”
“Nope,” Kota said.
“That’s bullshit.”
Kota shot him a look.
“Well, it is,” Gabriel said. His crystal blue eyes danced around the room as if he was trying to come up with something.
Ms. Johnson stood in front of the room. She barely finished roll call when Gabriel shot his hand in the air.
“Yes Mr. Coleman?” Ms. Johnson asked.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” he said. “What would it take to get a detention?” he asked.
Ms. Johnson pushed a finger to her eyebrow. “Pardon?”
“Gabriel,” Kota commanded in a whisper.
Gabriel ignored him. “What would someone have to do to get a detention in this class?”
Ms. Johnson still looked confused. “I suppose if someone started cussing in class, but...”
“Goddamn-shit-motherfucker,” Gabriel spat out. He pressed his index finger to his chin and looked apologetic. “Oh wait, is it one detention for each one or can it just count as a group?”
The class roared with laughter. I pressed my hands to my face, smothering a giggle of my own. What was he doing?
Ms. Johnson’s lips twisted into an almost smirk. “If you wanted a detention that badly, you could have just asked me after class.”
“Oh,” Gabriel said. “Then sorry. I’ll ask you after class.”
My shoulders shook as I giggled, and I folded my arms, pressing my forehead to the desk. I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t look at any of them.
“Anyone else want detention?” Ms. Johnson asked.
I think she meant the question to be theoretical as the classroom was laughing. I popped my head up. Kota raised his hand expectantly. I looked back to see Luke nearly standing out of his chair and raising his hand.
“Just see me after class,” she said. “No need to cuss.” She looked bewildered, shaking her head as if her students had just gone insane.
“What are you doing?” I whispered to Kota. He ignored me though. I glanced over at Gabriel, who wore the biggest satisfied smirk. He winked at me.
I settled back into my seat, sighing.
I waited for the boys to get their detention slips at the end of class. Kota had to take off immediately after. I wanted to ask him more questions but he quietly shook his head at me. He couldn’t answer me now.
Luke ran off to his next class and Gabriel waited with me for North after class.
Gabriel waved his detention slip in the air like a victory flag at North as he approached. “Oy,” he said.
North grunted. “Not you, too.”
“Not just me,” Gabriel said. “Kota and Luke.”
“Goddammit,” North said. He sighed and gazed at me. “How could you let them do that?”
My eyes popped open and I held my hands up in the air in defeat. “I didn’t let them. They wouldn’t stop. I don’t know what they’re
doing.”
“We’re not letting you go to detention alone, Trouble,” Gabriel said. I shot him a look for the name he called me. I felt like trouble for them enough. He chopped me on the head and winked at me before running off to class.
North grumbled and hooked his arm around my shoulders, his fingers threaded through my hair to rub at my scalp.
“I don’t get it, North,” I said as we walked together to the main building. “Why are they getting detentions for me?”
“You’re part of us now,” he said. “Haven’t you noticed?”
I pushed a palm to my forehead. “I don’t know what that means. Please don’t tell me that you’re going to try to get detention, too. I don’t know if I can take this. You should tell Kota and the others to stop. I think the teacher would understand if they gave the detention slips back. They don’t need to get into trouble with me.”
He laughed softly, his deep voice seemed to reverberate in my bones. He pulled me closer and pushed his nose to my hair as he said, “Sang baby, you’re beautiful.”
His compliment had me floating all the way to our next class.
Nathan was slumped over in his chair in geometry class when we walked in. I fell into the chair in front of him and North sat in front of me.
Nathan popped his head up. “Okay, what’s going on?” He tugged a lock of my hair.
“Sang’s got detention,” North said.
“Fuck,” Nathan said.
“So does Gabriel and Luke and Kota,” I said. It felt good to tattle on them, even if it was only to Nathan.
“They’re not the only ones,” North said. He searched his pocket, pulling out a detention slip with his name scrawled on it.
My mouth popped open. “North!”
“Hey,” he said. “I didn’t think Kota and the others were going to do it. Besides, someone has to drive you home.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I slept during class,” North said. “I made sure to snore.”
“Hell, I’ll do that,” Nathan said. He put his head to the desk.
I turned around in my chair to poke at his arm. “Nathan, don’t you dare.”
“You’re not my boss,” he said without lifting his head. “Kota is.”
“Kota would tell you no,” I said as the bell rang.
“No, he wouldn’t,” North said. He slapped me with a palm on my thigh. “Shush and get your homework out before the teacher gives you another one.”
Despite his best effort to sleep the entire time, Nathan didn’t get a detention in geometry class. The geometry teacher seemed to have some sympathy since he did look tired and he’d been out ‘sick’ the day before.
Nathan walked beside me to my violin class.
“Don’t get detention,” I warned him as we got to the music room. “I’m telling you not to.”
He waved me off dismissively as he held open the door. I groaned and stalked into class.
I swallowed hard as I spotted Mr. Blackbourne across the room. I wasn’t sure what to say. Should I warn him what the others were doing? Would I have the nerve to tell him why this all started? So far every time I’ve bumped into him, there’s something new going on. He was going to think I was the troublemaker Gabriel claimed I was.
Mr. Blackbourne wore a dark gray suit, his red tie snug against his neck. Perfect. His steel eyes caught mine. “Miss Sorenson?” It wasn’t the usual greeting, but a question inviting me to spill it.
“I got detention,” I said. I thought it was best to get it out of the way. “And the boys are all now trying to get detention, too, so I won’t have to do it alone.” There. Maybe he’ll give an order for them all to stop. I could spare Silas and Victor and maybe even catch Nathan before he got written up. If anyone could override the crazy hierarchy of these Academy students that I didn’t understand, I was pretty sure Mr. Blackbourne could.
Mr. Blackbourne raised a dark eyebrow coolly, staring at me as if I were about to tell him I was just kidding. When I didn’t, he sighed out loud. He held a hand out toward the bench of the piano, inviting me to sit. When I had crossed the room, he took my violin case and my book bag from my hands to put them in a chair nearby.
Mr. Blackbourne sat next to me on the bench, slightly turned so he could look down at me. I felt weak next to his powerful stature and the steely gaze as he seemed to know everything before I even said it.
“Start at the beginning,” he said softly.
My composure melted. My mouth opened and I told him everything, doing my best to explain sitting in Kota’s lap, getting caught by Mr. McCoy.
When I finished, I was shaking. “And I can’t let my mother find out,” I slipped. It was what I was thinking but hadn’t meant to relay this to him.
“Why not?” he asked. He hadn’t questioned the boys’ participation or my own recklessness with Kota. Was he not angry that we were being so ridiculous? I was embarrassed for my own actions and for not putting more pressure on Kota and the others to stop.
I pushed a finger to my lower lip. “My mom is strict,” I said. “If she hears I got detention because I was sitting in Kota’s lap...” I didn’t really know what would happen. What could she do? Maybe it would be enough reason for her to convince my father to pull me out of school. I shivered at the thought. It was the one place where I could get away from her without the overhanging guilt I got when I ran away to be at Kota’s or somewhere else. “But besides that, I thought maybe you could stop them. Silas and Victor might not know yet. Nathan’s been trying to get detention by sleeping in class.”
Mr. Blackbourne frowned. He took his glasses off and brought his fingers to his forehead, rubbing his eyebrows. “I’ve been working with the guys for six years and in less than a month you’ve got them wrapped around your finger.”
My mouth fell open. “Mr. Blackbourne...”
He sighed, putting his glasses back on. “This is what you’re going to do,” he said. “Let the guys continue to get detentions if they want. More than likely they’ll all have one by lunch time. Behave and avoid McCoy, if you can.”
I blushed, feeling the strength in his gaze on me. “I’m trying.”
“I know. Unfortunately it’s our fault that you’re getting into this,” he said. “Meanwhile, don’t tell the others you’ve talked to me yet.”
I sucked in a deep breath. “I’m sorry for this. Did I mess everything up?”
His eyes softened. “No, Miss Sorenson. In reality, I think you’ve done us a huge favor.”
After class, I waited outside the door until Victor turned the corner. He slipped beside me quietly, reaching for my hand. He held it tightly as we walked to class. It was the way that his thumb slipped over my skin between my thumb and forefinger that told me he knew what was going on. The fire blazing in his eyes told me he was doing the same thing as the others. I wouldn’t dare tell him no.
In history, Victor answered a phone call in the middle of class to get detention. He even said thank you to Mr. Morris afterward.
North and Victor and I arrived at our spot in the courtyard for lunch. Silas was there, and he held up his own detention slip to me.
I smirked at him. “Silas,” I said in a warning tone, though I couldn’t help my smile. Since Mr. Blackbourne didn’t flip out about the boys, I felt a little better about the situation. I was overwhelmed by how the guys were reacting to this. I think it was the first time that I felt we really were all in this together.
“What was I going to do? Walk home?” He grinned, reaching around my shoulders to give me a strong hug. I gasped, laughing a little and hugging him back.
“Watch out,” Kota said, coming up behind us. “You’ll both get another detention. I really don’t want to have to ask Ms. Johnson for another.”
Nathan walked past us, sinking to the ground on his knees and falling back on the grass. “I haven’t been able to get detention yet,” he complained. “I’ve been sleeping through all my classes. No one cares.”
“A
ll the kids sleep in class. You should curse,” Gabriel said. “Just start cussing. They have to give you detention for that.”
“You have to be careful with that,” Kota said. “You might end up with in-school suspension instead.”
We were sharing packages of chips and sandwiches we had made at home. I was picking pieces away from my sandwich to eat it a little at a time. They were talking about what detention might be like. I had to bite my tongue at thinking of Mr. Blackbourne and I was wondering if he was going to be able to get them all off the hook.
I also worried about what my mother would think when she found out. Could I get away with it not being mentioned to her at all? Would the school say why? Would they even call her? I wondered if Marie would notice. She hadn’t said much to me since school started. I could only hope she wouldn’t care today.
I sensed eyes on me and I caught Marie across the courtyard. She was walking alongside Danielle. Their eyes flicked my way. Marie said something to Danielle and Danielle laughed, looking at me again.
“Your sister is kind of stuck up,” Gabriel said next to me on the bench.
“That’s funny. She said the same thing about you guys.”
Gabriel laughed. “I can see why she thinks so but doesn’t she know pointing and laughing at people is really rude?”
I shrugged. “All the other students do it.”
“You don’t do it.”
I blushed, being caught at being told I was different. “Should I start?”
“I’ll shoot you if you do.” He grinned at me. He took my hand that was holding my sandwich and brought it to his mouth so he could take a bite.
I laughed, rolled my eyes and handed him the rest of it. He took the sandwich from me and ate it. I stood up to brush crumbs from my skirt.
“Hey, sexy lady,” called a voice behind me. I spun around as Mike, the red haired kid from the day before, crossed the courtyard. He was trailed by a couple of friends, shaking their heads. Mike stopped a few feet from me, and got on his knees. He knee walked until he could grasp my hand between his. His eyes settled on my face. “Hey there sexy. Will you marry me?”