by L. A. Banks
Dumbstruck, Sarah slid into her seat. “Thanks,” she whispered, staring at him. She’d thought he was on Melissa’s side from the way he’d gone to her rescue earlier, but it was clear now that he’d simply been upset like everyone else and had just reacted without thinking, trying to save her.
“That’s awesome,” Val said, leaning over to her to bump Sarah’s fist with her own.
Allie passed a note to her quickly, and Sarah read it, then hugged herself with a big smile. The paper had little smiley faces and hearts all over it, and said: We are so sorry. Sit with us at lunch. Still BFFs, right? Hyacinth mentally shouted OMG! I’m so proud of you! so loudly that Sarah squinted. Donnie shook his head and looked completely amazed. But Tami’s eyes held something Sarah didn’t want to quite name. It seemed to be a strange combination of hurt and deep sadness—along with resentment. That stabbed Sarah in the heart, numbing her good news, muffling the voices around her.
“You go, sis,” Miguel said with a wide grin, drawing her attention away from Tami.
“Sweet,” Wil said with an affirming nod. “I’ll see you in lecture. Razor is…what can I say?”
“Okay now, class, let’s settle down,” Miss Tittle said, tapping the edge of her desk with a ruler. “This is all very exciting and positive, given some of the more unfortunate incidents we’ve been experiencing, but Sarah will still do detention. Disrespect is not allowed under any circumstances. Of course, there is also the matter of Melissa’s injuries, however, I was made privy to some of the details surrounding that situation, and she is in trouble herself for pranking several of you earlier. Even while this nasty business of the missing students is being addressed by the administration, we must adhere to rules—must keep a sense of normalcy. Understood?”
Both Amy Feingold and Angelica Roberts gasped.
“You little rat,” Angelica muttered under her breath, glaring at Sarah.
“No, more like a big rat,” Al said, defending his sister in a low, warning tone. “I told when I took Melissa to the infirmary, so if you’ve got a problem, tell Mel to see me. And for the record, my grandmother doesn’t play favorites. Like I said before, if Sarah’s in Shadows now, you can be sure she earned her place there.”
“Yes, well,” Miss Tittle said, walking over to the board. “As I said, all of this nonsense must stop from here on. Melissa is in trouble, believe me—even though we must verify the voracity of Al’s claim,” she added, her tone skeptical, “given that he might be motivated as a sibling to, umm…shall we say, embellish circumstances on his sister’s behalf.”
Amy cut Al a mean-spirited smile as Angelica rolled her eyes at him in triumph.
“But Melissa must heal first, and what becomes of her for conspiring to harm a fellow student is a matter for the administration, not the speculation of this classroom. As to you, Miss Rivera,while your reaction to Melissa may be viewed as self-defense with cause—if we find out these allegations are true, and if you thought you were under attack again—regardless of your latent shadow talent, you must learn how to control said gift, and you most assuredly cannot disrespect an instructor, least of all, me. There will be order in this Academy!”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sarah said, just happy to not be expelled. She glanced at her brother and gave him a rare smile of gratitude. Miss Tittle was such a sore winner. But that didn’t matter. She now had something and someone to work with. For the first time in her life she didn’t feel like a complete weirdo. There was a name for what she had and for what she was.
Sarah briefly closed her eyes and tried to send some light to Ayana with her mind.
Chapter 25
Sarah wasn’t sure how she’d made it to lunchtime. She went through the motions for the balance of the morning feeling emotionally wrung out and numb. Ayana was missing, plain and simple. Wil alone seemed to know that, above all things, Ayana’s disappearance had injured her soul, and his sad eyes told Sarah he understood that in every class.
“Hey, Sarah,” he said quietly, waiting for her at the door as class broke up. “I just want you to know how sorry I am about everything you’re going through. I’m here if you need me.”
“Thanks,” she said in a barely audible tone. “Means a lot.”
Then she watched as Val, Al and the others from her compound walked toward her. Sarah noticed how Tami hung back and seemed to separate herself from everyone. Resentment flared, but she dragged her attention back to Wil.
“I understand,” he said, nodding toward the family coalition heading her way.
He didn’t have to say more; she knew what he meant. This was a time for her to be surrounded by the people who would be grieving with her. There would be time later for those who supported her individually, but right now everything was still too raw.
Val reached her first, followed by Allie and Hyacinth, then Donnie and Miguel. Sarah watched her brother stand back with Tami.
“Everything is gonna be cool,” Val said gently, touching Sarah’s arm. “Al’s gonna talk to Tami—hip her to a few things. But you need to eat.”
“I’m really not hungry,” she said, looking up at him. Allie and Hyacinth squeezed her hand.
“One team,” Miguel said in a somber voice.
“Net-pound sticks together,” Donnie added. “It’s time for everybody around here to know that.”
Val slung a protective arm over Sarah’s shoulder and gently urged her forward. She didn’t fight him. It felt good to have someone else take the lead, just for a little while.
They all entered the cafeteria and headed straight to the table where her brother and Val normally staked a claim. It was then that she realized just how fractured their team had been. The first few days of school, the boys and the girls had split. Now it seemed that the girls themselves were falling apart. Sarah set down her books, and Wil gave her a nod from across the room. He had found a seat with a bunch of his track buddies. Melissa’s crew was with Patty now. Al wasn’t there yet, and neither were Tami and Stefan. Brent was nowhere to be found. In fact, just like in her classes, almost half the students were missing, no doubt called home by nervous parents.
Just then Jessica and her girls rushed over with Ayana’s friends, Tina and Darlene.
“Guys, we are so sorry about what happened to Ayana,” Jessica said in a shaky voice.
Tina and Darlene just nodded, shredding the tissues they held in their hands. Val, Donnie and Miguel nodded back, then stepped away to head for the food stations.
“Tonight, in the library, right after dinner, we want to hold a secret meeting with a few of us students,” Jessica said as Bebitta and Andrea joined them. “The inner circle, if you get my drift.”
Tina nodded. “We can’t just sit around. We have to do something. Maybe we can all work as a group to…you know, like, try to mentally track her.”
“I know the Shady Path is off limits,” Darlene said with a hard sniff, “but it’s the only portal we know of that they can’t close. Last night they shut down the one in Everett’s room.”
“Plus that rat-bastard Brent went home today. Just left, as polite as you please, with his parents.” Tina shook her head. “That’s what made me and Dar rally the troops.”
“Are you serious?” Sarah said, both angry and incredulous. “He left her?” She looked at Allie and Hyacinth in amazement, and they stared back at her with tearful, angry eyes.
“Yeah, and I doubt his buddy Stefan is giving up any real info to Headmistress Stone. They’ve had him in there for over an hour,” Darlene added, clearly furious.
“We need you there in the library tonight when all of us Upper Spheres who lost a friend come together, Sarah,” Jessica said, earning nods from Bebitta and Andrea. “We heard you’re in Shadows now, so you must be super strong. And Ayana was supposed to be your mother seer, so if anyone can jumpstart a serious telepathic search, it’s you. And if we can find Ayana, we’re hoping we can find the others.”
“Yeah,” Bebitta said. “We’ve just gotta distract Mr
s. Hogan and any of the library staff.”
“We want you guys to know we’re with you,” Andrea said, her voice thick with tears. “We’re not going to stand around and just watch our friends disappear without a fight.” She wiped her nose and then hid her face against Jessica’s shoulder.
Andrea’s crying jag set off the rest of the girls. Sarah watched as Val walked up with his tray, hesitated, then found a faraway table. She knew the guys from the compound would never come back to their table now, afraid they’d start crying in public, too. She couldn’t blame them. It was all so heartbreaking, and she found herself swept away by the emotional flood, with the only thing to hold onto the other girls around her.
Allie and Hyacinth put their arms around Sarah in a group hug as everyone collectively wept. Sarah cried even harder because of all the times when her best friend should have been right there by her side, Tami was off in her own little world nursing her jealousy. It was just another deep gash in Sarah’s heart.
“Some of us can’t even go back home,” Jessica said, her words punctuated by sobs. “We don’t have a home. This is it.”
Somehow Sarah had managed to stay awake in Mr. Everett’s history class, even though he’d spent the whole period on the boring American history dateline. And not wanting to further traumatize his students, he hadn’t even used his more flamboyant methods of maintaining student attention. The quiet, calm pace of his lecture was both a blessing and a curse. While it relaxed her frayed nervous system, it also made her fall out of her chair in a coma.
By the time the bell rang, her eyes were crossing. Her last Blends lecture was going to be torture, though. Tomorrow, according to Razor, she’d start anew in his class and wouldn’t be reporting to her old division. It was as though Professor Razor really did have a heart beneath his crusty exterior. He had to have known that, as anxious as she was to get started with his elite skills training, her mind was fried and her emotions were beyond wrung out. One day to pull herself together was what she needed, but not necessarily what she wanted. If she could have snapped her fingers and made everything work out, she’d sic her shadows on whoever had Ayana and the others. She’d send them to track her compound sister and find her alive. Unfortunately, she didn’t have that kind of juice yet.
Just seeing Tami sitting off by herself, head turned, ignoring her, would knife at Sarah’s soul. She wouldn’t be officially moved into Razor’s class until tomorrow, and all the waiting for closure on things felt like her fingernails were scraping against Styrofoam, with her nervous system playing the role of Styrofoam.
Dinner was a repeat of lunch, an emotional free fall. But at least she had a chance to tell Val the plan. Her stomach was in knots, and food was the last thing she wanted to think of right now. Tami was still not speaking to her, and she was not going to kiss Tamara’s butt to get her to stop acting like a complete jerk.
Sarah shoved a couple of apples into her backpack for later then headed to the library with the rest of the girls. Val and the guys hung back, claiming they’d be right behind them.
But as she passed Wil standing by the door and glimpsed his sad eyes, Sarah stopped. “Hey, I’m sorry it’s been…”
Wil reached out and touched her arm, stopping her words. “I know it’s been rough. No apologies, okay?”
Sarah nodded and hugged herself. “We’re all going to the library to see if, you know, maybe…”
Wil nodded. “Word travels fast around here. You guys do what you’ve gotta do. Me and some of the guys,” he added, his eyes getting hard, “we’re gonna do what we need to do.”
Nervous, Sarah looked up, searching Wil’s normally easygoing face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“We wanna ask Stefan some questions about his boy—where he goes when he’s in town—and ask him in a way that maybe Headmistress Stone didn’t.”
“Please don’t do anything that’s gonna get somebody hurt or kicked out of school, all right? Promise me. I would die if that happened.”
Wil kissed her softly on the forehead. “It’ll be okay, Sarah. You just do what you can, okay?”
She left Wil standing by the cafeteria exit, now more worried than before. Val, Miguel, Donnie and her brother were nowhere to be seen. Tami was who knew where. All of this was so not good.
“Time to get started, I guess,” Sarah said to the group, once Mrs. Hogan was done with her teary pep talk. “Somebody has got to get her and her staff away from the front desk so we can start the vision quest.”
Hyacinth and Allie nodded in agreement. Jessica let out a frustrated breath and nodded. She glanced at Bebitta and Andrea.
“Okay, Bebe, you and Andrea have to be on distraction patrol because we’ve gotta get me, Tina and Darlene in there with Sarah and maybe even Hyacinth since she’s from the same compound. Allie can use whatever tactical strength she has to help jumpstart the session with white light. Okay?”
All heads nodded as the girls glanced in four directions to be sure no teachers or adult staff were watching. Sarah looked at the front desk, surprised to see Tami suddenly standing there with Al. She wasn’t sure what was going on between them, but at least they were talking and Tami wasn’t trying to make Al look bad in front of anyone.
But it was really strange to see Stefan enter the library with Brent’s crew, without Brent. What the heck?
Sarah could feel it. She was sure Stefan had to know the guys were coming for him. Wil was off in a corner talking to Patty, of all people. Why that bothered her so much at a time like this, Sarah couldn’t say. But it did. Just like the guys’ plan to somehow get information out of Stefan felt much riskier then what Jess and Tina had cooked up.
“Why’s Wil over there talking to Patty?” Allie asked, whispering to Sarah as the older girls got up to go distract Mrs. Hogan.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” Sarah muttered. Try as she might, she couldn’t shake the irrational jealousy that came over her when Patty was near Wil. Yet that made no sense, because she also had a strange combination of feelings for Val.
“I know she’s Melissa’s sister,” Hyacinth said, hedging, “but maybe she’s just upset like the rest of us. You know, if she were on our side, a Clav as strong as Patty could help. Maybe that’s why Wil is over there to ask her to put the other stuff aside and help find Yaya.”
Sarah nodded, suddenly feeling small. “Yeah, you’re probably right, ‘Cinth.”
Jessica placed her hands over Sarah’s. “Okay, we’ve gotta start slipping in there one by one, so we’ve gotta focus. We need your head in the game, ‘kay.”
“Okay, but…” Sarah looked around as a dark worry swept through her. “Where’d Tami and Al go?”
Allie’s gaze raked the library. “A scarier question is, where’s Stefan?”
“Oh…nooo…what do we do?” Hyacinth grabbed Sarah’s arms.
“Okay, let’s not blow this whole thing because we panicked,” Tina said as calmly as possible. “Stick to the plan.”
“Can’t you feel it?” Sarah said. “Something is really wrong.”
Darlene nodded, beginning to rub her temples. “I think Sarah’s right. I know everybody around here is blocking, but there’s something else I can’t put my finger on.”
Sarah stood. “I’ve gotta go find Tam—”
“You two aren’t even speaking!” Hyacinth whispered harshly. “So…no. Not by yourself.”
“You’ve really lost your mind, Sarah. You know that, right?” Allie said calmly. “Like, you know there’s no way we’re gonna let you go trawling the halls alone to find Tami and Al, with Stefan who knows where…you’re clear about that part, I’m sure.”
“But if we all peel out together searching the halls and we bump into any teachers, it’s gonna look so fishy. They’ll get suspicious, and our whole plan falls apart.” Sarah leaned forward and rubbed her temples.
A shadow over the table made them all look up.
“What if I walk you?” Val said quietly.
“How much of what we were talking about did you hear?” Hyacinth sat back and placed her hands on her hips.
“You’re a Clav, li’l sis.” Val shrugged and chewed on a toothpick he’d gotten in the lunchroom. “But it doesn’t take a rocket science to put together the fact that my boy Al is AWOL. Sarah is clearly stressing over here, because her BFF is gone, which wouldn’t be a problem, except that there’s a sick bastard on the loose.”
Sarah glanced over her shoulder and saw Wil, alone now, trying to look nonchalant. Then he simply closed the book he’d been pretending to read and came over.
“Everything cool?”
“No,” Sarah said quietly. “My brother left with Tami, and Stefan is gone, too. That’s not good.”
“I’ll go with you. We’ll search the halls together—”
“This is family business,” Val said roughly, glancing at Sarah and then Wil. “My boy, her girl, her brother.”
“And you do not want to run up on Stefan solo, man,” Wil said quietly, but his tone was firm. “Anything else we need to sort out can be handled later.”
“That makes sense,” Allie said slowly, looking at both guys.
“It’s the most reasonable thing I’ve heard so far,” Jessica said, then glanced over to see how the Upper Spheres were doing. “We’re gonna need a few minutes to make sure the coast is clear, anyway.”
Sarah looked from Val to Wil. “The main thing is, we find them, okay?”
“Right,” Val said, eyeing Wil. “Maybe you wanna roll with Miguel and take one half of the school while me and Sarah take the other half.”
“Guys, it doesn’t matter—”
“How’s your head?” Val cut off Hyacinth’s protest and looked at her friend hard. “Why don’t you try to get a mind-lock on Tami and leave the details to me and Sarah?”
“That was uncalled for,” Hyacinth snapped.
Sarah closed her eyes.
“I didn’t say that to be mean.” Val folded his arms over his chest. “I said that because Miguel’s got a mental safety line on me, and I thought, if you were cool, you might want to put one on Tami, then me and Sarah could go make it do what it do. All of us want the same things: to be sure Al’s not getting jumped by Stefan and to find Yaya.”
