He twisted his lips like he was impatient. “You won’t even ask her?”
I shook my head.
“Don’t you want to know what they’re meeting up for?”
I laughed without any humor. “If it doesn’t pertain to me, why should I know? Sometimes, Flynn, you should leave people to their business and mind your own.”
And definitely stay the hell out of mine.
Chapter Sixteen
Where does she go?
I lay on my bed and twiddled a pencil in between my fingers.
Paige wasn’t on her bed below me, probably too scared to come back to her own dorm room because I had a big mouth and had clearly shown her that I could be nosey too. After I’d left the cafeteria and argued with Flynn, I’d come to our room and studied. Kind of. Too hard to concentrate.
I’d so easily assumed she was going to meet with Ethel. But with Flynn sharing that Ren and some other guy leaves every other Wednesday night…
It can’t be a coincidence.
Just like the arrow I’d found in that thing’s body. It was no accidental impalement. Someone or something had attacked it. With a weapon.
Why?
Who. What. When. Where. How. Why.
Too many of them overlapped.
Who is meeting whom?
What the heck is that thing I saved this morning?
When am I going to see the stables now?
Where are they meeting?
How can I see those creatures?
Why…just everything, why?
The door clicked open, and I sat up on my bed. Paige entered and behind her was Ethel.
“Hey,” I said for greetings.
Ethel’s smile was dim as she nodded hello and Paige didn’t even look at me as she took a seat at her desk.
“How are you, Layla?” Ethel asked. I’d never heard her so…monotone. Worried?
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. “Look, I’m sorry I asked about—”
“No.” Ethel stepped closer and shook her head as I landed on the ground. “Never be sorry for asking anything. Knowledge is power, and there is no such thing as a stupid question.”
Spoken like a librarian.
“Paige said you’ve been curious about her Wednesday night classes.”
I glanced at Paige, who spun her pen around in a spiral on her desk. She had yet to face me. How much damage had I done to our still-budding friendship? “I was just wondering. It’s no big deal. It’s not my business—”
“Some of those who have been familiar with Olde Earth and its mission have extra curriculum requirements.”
I crossed my arms. I wasn’t going to keep apologizing while she was freely offering facts. “Okay…”
“Have you ever wondered why there are no Geography and History courses on your schedule?”
I stared at Ethel, weighing her questions. Honestly… No, I hadn’t noticed that. Sure, they were standard requirement courses I might need for college admissions. Yet, with all the excitement I had for the science stuff, I dismissed the absence of those topics.
“You go to History classes at night?” I asked Paige.
She finally looked up with a sheepish smile and nodded.
“That’s it?”
“Olde Earth has selective history that needs to be preserved and studied separately from the well-rounded education they offer to all students here.”
“Which means only some can join the club and take History?”
She nodded. “Something like that. There are courses that do not necessarily apply to everyone, and thus, there is a shroud of secrecy about the meetings.”
Fine. That was fair enough. Only tell those who were impacted. Yet…that was just another example of how Lorcan had described the Academy. Withholding knowledge was a system of maintaining power.
What was in Olde Earth’s history that demanded so much stealth and secrecy?
“I came here with Paige to try to explain.” She shared a tense look with her daughter. “And I want to stress that it’s imperative to keep this information to yourself.”
I shrugged. Hiding facts? Olde Earth wasn’t the only one that did that. “Okay.”
Ethel’s lips set in a grim line as she approached me. She took my hands into her soft, worn ones and said, “Layla, I mean it. Only certain students are privy to those classes and their mere existence. If anyone were to suspect that you know, it would cause problems.”
“What kind of problems?” I took my hands away from hers. Danger? Is this a warning-slash-nonthreat?
Paige stood then. “Some kids get…uppity about it. Like its some sacred privilege to be included.”
Sounded like a good old boys’ club. Sounds like Ren.
My roomie came closer to us like she wanted to whisper, even though we were in the safety and privacy of our own room. “And you’re already…”
I narrowed my eyes. Here, we go. Some form of rumor or judgment on its way. And I’d only been here for three months. “I’m already…?”
Paige looked at her mom. “Um…”
“An outsider.” Ethel stated it so simply. “You’re not from the traditional families that have been attending the Academy since its establishment. You’re…”
“An outsider.” I nodded as I repeated it for her, letting the word roll on my tongue and through my mind. Funny, it wasn’t taking root like an insult. I’d been so used to be different. The outcast. The misfit. If they knew what I’d done that morning, I’d been even further from belonging with these elitist prigs.
“Which simply means you need to tread carefully on what some here may consider exclusive privileges.”
I held my hands up. Really, none of my business. Olde Earth had some secret legacy and a history course to protect it? Fine by me. I was only here to get out of Coltin and closer to a veterinary college.
“No problem.” I mimed zipping my lips. “Secret’s safe with me.”
Chapter Seventeen
Once Ethel bade us goodnight and left me alone with Paige, she launched at me. Physically with a hug and verbally with a remorseful ramble.
“Layla, you gotta believe me. I would’ve told you that I was going to those meetings.”
Meetings? But your mom just said they were classes?
“I hated keeping it from you. She constantly harped on me to not tell you. I mean, she asked me every day if I’d told you yet.”
Yet? I smiled since she couldn’t see my face. Yet. Either she knew herself that well and figured she’d break and tell me or she’d really been dying to tell me. It mended some of the faith I had in her. As though she was forced to hide it from me.
“But like Mom said, it’s just…too soon.”
I stepped back from her embrace, too hot with her arms squeezing me so tight. “Soon? What, you mean I’ll go to them too?”
She opened her mouth to rush out more words but paused. “Well, I assume. It looks like you’ll be staying here for a second year.”
I sat at my desk and rubbed at my temples. How could she predict that? Simply because I currently had the highest grades in most of my classes? Okay, I was tied with either Ren or Flynn in several, but still.
“Trust me. I’ll share whatever I can when I can.”
I nodded. “I just hate being in the dark.”
“I don’t blame you. But, I mean, well…just trust me.”
Trust? I smiled. Not to make fun of her, but really? I’d just caught her—kind of—lying, and she wanted me to have faith in her? Her pinched face and woeful vibe didn’t seem false. Yet trusting others would never be instantaneous for me.
“I’ll try to.” And that was the best I could promise.
****
In the days leading up to the first quarterly exam, I found the dragonish horse thing waiting for me in the woods on my runs. The first day after I’d rescued it, I still startled a little, unsure—there was that trust deal again—about its intentions. I quickly realized it was lonely, or maybe curious, but
every morning, it followed me as I ran. Almost like a running partner. Each time I was near it, my comfort with it grew. If it hadn’t shown me any aggression so far, I wanted to believe it wouldn’t.
With it greeting me every morning, I wished I could at least know what it was. I laughed at myself as I led myself through the Main Library the day before my exams. This was a solo research trip because I couldn’t come up to Ethel and tell her what I desired to learn.
Day before the big tests and here I am looking for a mythical animal. That is real. I shook my head and followed the numbers on the aisles of bookcases.
What was odd was the fact it wasn’t too hard to search for the creature in the Olde Earth library database. Generally. I was routed to texts of the dragon hierarchy, and I worried I was going to wind up in a fiction wing. Yet I was taken into the Zoology area and eventually found what I felt might be helpful.
No, what would be helpful is to go through my Latin flashcards again. Not chasing after an idea to satisfy my curiosity.
I found the book, grabbed it, and took it to the nearest table. Once I laid it on the old, gnarled desktop, I hesitated, my finger tracing the edge of the cover. The last time I’d opened a book way back in this part of the library, I’d gotten some 3D hologram. I flipped the book over—still closed—and inspected the outer jackets and spine. Looked like any old tome.
Huh. I took a deep breath. Well, here goes.
I opened the book to the table of contents, located the page, and flipped through. On page thirty-seven, I was greeted with a green light shooting up from the pages.
What. In. The. Hell?
Blinking, I ignored this awesome special effect and looked at my newest buddy. Like my running pet. In a miniature neon show, in the round, was the dragon-horse thing I’d rescued.
“Longma.” I whispered the name that I’d found and let a smile slowly cross my face.
Hey there, buddy.
Instantly, the light went out.
My jaw dropped and I huffed out a breath of frustration. Where did it go? I leaned over the book and gasped. Blank. Nothing at all. No ink, no images. A simply pure-white sheet of paper.
“Are you kidding me?” I scoffed as I picked up the book. Thumbing through the pages, I found nada. Nothing at all. It was all empty when it hadn’t been a minute ago.
Bizarre. It made no sense.
“Longma, huh?” I muttered to myself. I shut the book, giving up on that route, and returned to the Olde Earth catalog and database. After I typed in the word, I waited a moment for links to file on the screen. My tablet remained useless, though, because under the announcement that I had zero available search results, a new line appeared.
Restricted Species.
“Say what?”
I retyped the word and got the same results. Chewing on my cheek, I set the tablet aside and tried to analyze why that had happened. I’d been shut out—again. Another Olde Earth secret that I’d stumbled on.
My tablet dinged a notification at the lowest volume, and I glanced at it, allowing this slight distraction.
A new text from Paige. Are we still meeting up in the cafeteria to go over Bio notes?
I sighed and cast a glare at the disappearing-ink textbook. The longma would have to wait. I had exams to focus on.
I dragged my tablet over and replied, Be right there.
Chapter Eighteen
“They tricked us,” Sabine whined at lunch the day after the first quarterly exams.
“They weren’t that bad,” Aura said.
Flynn tucked into his sandwich like it’d disappear if he didn’t, and Lorcan started to talk around the food in his mouth. “Ey mulda meen urse.”
We all raised our brows at him as he smiled sheepishly and swallowed. “They could have been worse,” he clarified.
Ren was awfully quiet next to Lorcan, but when I glanced at him, he shot an intense glower at me.
Wow. Talk about competitive.
Of course, I wouldn’t chip in with my opinions about the tests. Since I’d aced them, beating out Ren in a couple of classes, it’d be sort of braggadocious. As soon as the grades were posted online, we’d rushed to check our scores.
Honestly, it could have been worse. For as much as everyone insisted not all would last at the Academy, I’d expected it to be more than the run-of-the-mill identification stuff. Mechanical memorization, people.
“Well,” Ren said, speaking for the first time since we’d sat to eat, “it’s just school work.” He shrugged. “A boring chore.”
Sabine growled at him with a snarl. “Chore?”
Actually, that is insensitive. Not everyone performs the same on tests.
“And it’s not over yet,” he said.
“What’s left to do?” Flynn asked. He wiped his mouth and turned from a smugly smiling Ren to a soberly frowning Paige.
She worried her lower lip. “Uh…”
I tilted my head at her, wondering what the shy bout could mean. Was she going to keep stuff from us again?
“It’s in the handbook, guys. They mention it after the schedule for the year.” Aura rolled her eyes. “The guidance counsel interview?”
Ren further explained, “You’ll meet with the headmaster or headmistress to discuss how your studies are coming along.”
He couldn’t just say we’d meet with his mom? I couldn’t imagine him calling her Headmistress instead of Mom. Or Mother. Glorian likely was formal with her own son. Both of the head honchos were so…stuffy, but Mrs. Andeas more so than Mr. Suthering. He’d smiled at my Harry Potter joke. He had some merit in my book.
Aura was right. I’d almost forgotten about that email I’d received from Mr. Suthering. I’d tried to stay off my tablet for the last forty-eight hours. My focus needed to be on the tests and not on looking at emails and investigating this longma mystery. I was due to see him at—
“Oh, shit!” I stood up and flung my bag over my shoulder. “I’ve gotta go to mine now!”
I didn’t even say goodbye to them as I ran out of the cafeteria. I had four minutes to get to his office, and I barely remembered where it was.
No one cast a second glance at me as I sprinted through the halls. It was a big campus. These buildings were massive, long-corridored stone castles. I was hardly the first person to have to rush from one end to the other.
When I arrived at Mr. Suthering’s secretary’s office—one minute to spare, woo hoo—I smiled and tried to catch my breath.
“Ah, Miss Holden, you’re early.”
Just barely. I smiled around a pant of air.
“He’s ready for you, so just go on in.”
I did. I walked into a scholarly space of dark-brown woods. The desk, the walls, the chairs, even the ceiling. It was like stepping into a squirrel’s nest in a tree. Instead of it screaming over-masculinity, it struck me as overly earthy. All it was missing was a stinky incense stick burning in the corner and the white noise of a thunderstorm playing from a speaker.
“Layla, come in. Have a seat.”
I nodded and took the plush velvet-cushioned chair facing him across the expanse of mahogany. See, that’s what Dendrology flashcards get ya.
“Running late?” He smirked as he collected papers.
I was still gathering my breath and sought composure from the sprint. “A minute early.”
He smiled then. “You sure do love the sport, huh?”
I nodded. “I’ve always enjoyed running.”
“That early in the morning?”
I licked my lips, a little thrown by his question. Like a dare? Was he aware of what every student did at dawn? “Yes. My dorm supervisor, Marcy, and Mrs. Possolo are both aware—”
He held up a hand. “As am I aware that you were given permission for morning runs.”
Okie dokie. Nothing got past him. Got it.
“I’m merely interested as a fellow runner. Will you be trying out for the cross-country team?”
Pursing my lips, I hesitated. A team? I’d have t
o run with a bunch of girls when this was an activity I loved for the solitude of it. Teammates sounded like a headache. “I’ll consider it. I’d hate to have sports take me away from studying time.”
He cocked his head to the side, brows raised.
Crap. Wrong answer. Should I have said the affirmative and shown my support for the school? Rah rah and all that?
“By the looks of your grades,” he said and picked up a sheet of paper, “I doubt you need all of your free time for studying.”
“Thank you?”
He quirked a brow. “And you already do take the time to run.”
Was he pressuring me to admit I was a loner? That I generally disliked people and would be aggravated on a stupid team? If I signed up for the team, I’d have to give up my morning runs with the longma.
“The choice is yours, Layla. It’s just a suggestion.” He smiled then and leaned back in his chair. In a slight side-to-side swivel, he pivoted in his seat. It was enough so that I could catch a glimpse of a bookcase his huge leather chair had been hiding.
At the top was—
Huh?
Lying at the top was the cat-headed lizard that had been on his shoulder when he’d come to talk to me at home in Coltin.
It’s back? Just like before, when he’d spoken to me in the trailer, I kept my gaze and eyes focused on his face. He asked me more questions, about how I liked the dorms, if I had any concerns with my schedule, and so on. Random nothingness as the cat-reptile jumped off the bookcase and onto Mr. Suthering’s desk. It strolled carefully over papers, not disturbing anything until it sat right at the edge.
All the while, I concentrated on not breaking my face. I kept looking straight at the headmaster, listened to him discuss my current success in my classes, and pretended that thing wasn’t sitting on the edge of the desk. Right. In. Front. Of. My. Face.
It was like trying to watch the news around Sabine’s head when she’d eat breakfast in the morning, needing to dodge left and right to catch sight of the TV. If I did that here, I’d give Mr. Suthering the idea that some small monster was on his desk.
Secrecy: Olde Earth Academy: Year One Page 13
