Push and Shove: The Ghost Bird Series: #6 (The Academy)

by C. L. Stone

  “Well,” I said, standing, stretching. “She was asking about a skirt.”

  “You’re right,” he said, and he sat up, his eyes wide. “Maybe it’s a guy. That’s why she’s here. And that’s why she’s particular about you leaving. She wouldn’t kick Marie out, but if you’re gone—shit.” He stood up, moving toward the closet. “What fucking perfect timing my dad has showing up this week.”

  I shifted from foot to foot, glancing at the messed up bed. Was Danielle planning on having boys over? Was she planning to use my room? I shivered. “What are we going to do?”

  “We’re staying here this weekend,” he said. He shuffled through the closet, pulling out a white T-shirt, dark gray pants and the dark blue blazer for the faux school uniform. “We’ll get Kota, or someone else to stay too, if we have to. The only thing we can do is occupy your bedroom. We can run anyone else out.”

  “Maybe we should stay at Kota’s or Victor’s for the weekend.” I didn’t want anyone in my room, but if Danielle was going to try, I didn’t want to be here. I also didn’t want Nathan and Kota getting into fights; it would draw too much attention. We were supposed to be keeping a low profile. I was scared. I didn’t know what Danielle was capable of and I didn’t want to find out. I wanted to avoid it.

  “Sang,” he said. He dropped the clothes onto the bed, walked over and held my shoulders as he looked at me. “You can’t back down. You can’t let Danielle take over. She’s using your sister to do what she wants with this house. If you have to stay here, then you need to fight back.”

  I shook my head. “If she wanted to, she could say something to the police, or maybe...”

  “We’re running that risk right now, anyway.” He sighed, rubbing his palms against my arms. “Maybe we’re fooling ourselves, Peanut. Maybe we were wrong to let you stay here.”

  “What else can I do?” I asked. “Where else would I go?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll get our own place somewhere,” he said.

  “Our own?”

  He nodded. “I was thinking about it last night. You and I could move. We’ll find an apartment. Maybe one where Silas lives. We can both work at the diner now. You and I could do it together, I bet.”

  “Could we?” I hadn’t thought about it. I glanced at the jar on top of the bookshelf; I didn’t think I had enough to afford an apartment.

  “Then we wouldn’t have to worry about your parents, or mine, or anyone finding out about anything. We could just... And I’d take care of everything. And with Kota and Victor and the others around and the Academy, we’d be okay.”

  “The Academy would help?”

  “They’ll always be there,” he said. “For us. As long as I’m here.”

  “What if I joined?”

  His eyebrows shifted. “You?”

  I nodded. “If I could join, I wouldn’t have to keep going to Ashley Waters, right? I’d be in the Academy.”

  He slid a palm across the back of his neck. “I don’t know, Peanut.”

  “We’d go to the same school,” I said. “I’d be able to help out.”

  “You don’t even know what it is,” he said. “You don’t know what we do.”

  “You help people,” I said. “Family first. Family is a choice. And you do...” I stopped, unsure. The truth was, there was still very little I did know about the Academy. They had jobs to follow, rules I didn’t know the full measure of. I still didn’t know where the Academy was. It was good that I didn’t. Principal Hendricks still asked about it. “I mean, I could be useful.”

  “It’s dangerous, though,” he said.

  “It’s dangerous now, isn’t it?” I asked. “Mr. Blackbourne thought I could, and so did Victor.”

  His eyes widened. “Victor said?”

  I nodded. Was that important? “I know Kota’s worried, but I thought maybe if everyone else was okay with it, he’d see it wouldn’t be too bad.”

  Nathan twisted his lips, shaking his head. “I’m not going against Kota,” he said. “But let’s worry about it later.” He grabbed his clothes. “I’m going downstairs to your parents’ bathroom to shower. Get dressed. We need to talk to Kota and the others about this.”

  ♥♥♥

  By the time I’d washed and dressed, Nathan was ready. He was sitting by my bookshelf, checking it out while he waited. He had one of the books out, staring at the cover.

  “This is your journal, isn’t it?” he asked, holding it out to me.

  I checked while stuffing a text book into my book bag. “Yeah.”

  He opened it up briefly, flipping through the pages and then turned it over, holding it upside down. “You wrote it in Korean, didn’t you?”

  “Just borrowed the lettering,” I said. I went back to sorting out my book bag, trying to recall what I needed for school and what I could leave behind. “It’s in English, but it’s just coded, I guess.”

  “Can ... can I practice?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Mr. Blackbourne mentioned it once. And now that I’m looking at it, I thought it might be useful. I don’t know when, but if some of us knew this.”

  That sounded reasonable. I didn’t think it would be very useful in too many places, but Mr. Blackbourne had already used it once to get a coded message to me. Maybe he was right. “You want me to write it out.”

  “Can I maybe practice by trying to decode the journal? Is it that private?”

  I thought about it and shook my head. “It’s mostly just old dreams. Maybe a few rants about my family.” It really didn’t bother me. I relayed bad dreams to North and the others a lot, so if Nathan read some of my past dreams, or even some of the times I vented about life, I didn’t mind.

  He nodded, smiled a little. “I’m not like Kota or Mr. Blackbourne,” he said. “They get this stuff in an instant. Some of us still have to practice.”

  “If you want,” I said, zipping up my book bag. “We have to go.” I said.

  He followed me downstairs to the kitchen. He split a banana with me and we each had a coffee.

  Nathan dashed upstairs to grab his shoes. When he returned, he held out his hand, a wad of cash was collected in his palm.

  “Here,” he said.

  I stared at the money. “What?”

  “You should take some with you,” he said. “I saw the jar.”

  I took the cash from him, squeezing the dollar bills. “Why?”

  “Should have given you some before,” he said. “Just in case. Keep it in your bag or with your cell phone, if you can.”

  I didn’t count the money, and folded it up and placed it next to my phone in my bra. It was itchy at first but I made sure to place it between the phone and the bra.

  Nathan watched as I did it, and then smiled. “Those are the best pockets,” he said. He turned, taking my book bag along and heading for the door.

  Nathan wanted to get to Kota before Marie, and possibly Danielle, came out wanting a ride to school.

  When we got there, Nathan opened the car door for me, getting me to slide in the middle next to Kota before he sat on the passenger side. “We’ve got a problem,” Nathan said.

  “Danielle?” Kota asked. “Silas told me.”

  Nathan nodded. “I didn’t know she was there last night. She popped in on us this morning.”

  “It can’t be helped now,” Kota said. His hand found my knee and he squeezed it gently. “You okay?”

  “I don’t know what to do,” I said.

  “Don’t hold hands with anyone today. Let’s see if Danielle talks. We’ll let Silas and North figure out the best move when they talk to the football team. There’s a chance she won’t say anything and the situation won’t change. Don’t avoid Silas, but don’t let him hold your hand or hang out too close unless he tells you to. We’ll just avoid the topic for now and feel out what others are saying.”

  “There’s something else,” Nathan said. “I thought Sang and I should...”

  Kota held up a hand. “Hang
on. Let’s get to school first. We should talk with the others.” He glanced at me. “Where’s Marie?”

  Nathan grunted. “I’ll go find her,” he said.

  “Wait.” Kota unbuckled his belt. “I’ll go. If Danielle is still here, we don’t need to add any more fuel to this.” He ducked out of the car, and jogged toward the door inside the garage.

  A couple of minutes later, Kota returned alone, frowning. He wedged himself into the driver’s side seat. “They’re not going to school today.”

  “Wait,” I said. “Marie can’t skip again.”

  “We can’t force her.” Kota put the car into reverse, backing out of the drive.

  “Someone should stay,” Nathan said. “I should. We can’t leave those two together alone in the house.”

  “They said they had to get ready,” Kota said.

  Nathan shifted in his seat. “They sounded like they were expecting a party at the house tonight.”

  “We’ll keep an eye on them with the cameras. If they start doing anything too damaging, we’ll send someone back.”

  “I think they’re inviting boys over,” I said. “She wanted a skirt from me.”

  “Is the attic door closed?” Kota asked. “Is the light off?”

  “Pretty sure,” I said, although now that I thought about it, I took the phone out of my bra, hitting the app that allowed me to view the cameras in the house. My room was unoccupied for the moment, the attic door was closed. “Yeah. It’s fine.”

  “Let’s hope they don’t get curious,” he said. “She’s going to be wondering now where you stash the other clothes.”

  “Kota...” Nathan’s hand found mine and he squeezed it gently. “Sang and I were talking. We were thinking maybe it’s time her and I moved out, maybe found an apartment and stop all this worrying about Danielle, and her parents, and...”

  “I thought Sang wanted to stay with her sister,” Kota said. He slid his eyes briefly to me but quickly refocused on the road.

  “This is getting too out of hand,” Nathan said. “Danielle knows too much. My dad’s freaking out because Sang was around.”

  “There’s still a heavy risk for Sang, even if she’s not at her house,” Kota said. “She’s still only sixteen. Your dad might not care, but her dad didn’t want her leaving. If she does, he might cause some more problems.”

  “He hasn’t been back. Does it matter?” Nathan asked. “He couldn’t really stop her without drawing attention.”

  Kota shook his head. “We can’t do that, Nathan.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s not possible,” Kota said, and this time he turned, locking eyes with Nathan. Their silent communication zoomed between them.

  “Why?” I asked in a quiet voice.

  They focused on me. Nathan was frowning. Kota looked apologetic. I didn’t understand at first, but I realized that if they couldn’t tell me, it probably was something to do with the Academy. Mr. Blackbourne had said something about not getting into trouble with the police and indicated that it had something to do with Academy things.

  “We’re not at critical yet,” Kota said. “Let’s get through today. We’ll discuss our options later when we can talk to everyone.” He adjusted his rearview mirror and then squinted at it and frowned.

  “What’s wrong?” Nathan asked, darting his head over so he could look at the side view mirror. “Really? This early?”

  I leaned far over on top of him so I could see, too. A blue car was following us. This one was new to me.

  “More people watching us,” Kota said.

  “Why?” I asked. “I mean, wouldn’t it be obvious we are going to school?”

  “Might be getting desperate,” Nathan said.

  “Perhaps,” Kota said. He reached out, tugging my arm so I’d sit up. “Play along for now. Forget we spotted them.”

  When we got to school, Nathan checked on his phone to see where Marie and Danielle were. Marie was still asleep in her bed. Danielle was in the kitchen, sipping coffee, and poking through a magazine.

  “I didn’t know getting ready for a date took all day and involved reading about celebrities,” Nathan said, shutting his phone off.

  “Maybe it does,” I said. I didn’t know how other girls handled going out, but I was curious. “Maybe I should be reading that.”

  Nathan nudged at me with his elbow. “Don’t you pick up her bad habits.”

  Was it one? I followed Nathan and Kota to the courtyard. The group split up a little, with Kota sitting next to me, and Luke talking to us as he sat on the grass. The others clustered around the opposite bench. I sensed this was part of the plan to wait out any rumors.

  But maybe they were just being cautious. Ashley Waters students were more dangerous than I’d experienced before at my old school. Were they concerned about the kind of attention I may get if Danielle said I was sleeping around with boys?

  How would I react? Technically, it was sort of true.

  I was idly staring off, not paying attention to any of the conversations when Victor came through the courtyard doors. He wore a white Armani shirt under his blazer in lieu of the usual plainer white faux uniform shirt. He spotted me from across the yard and started forward. His warm smile brightened and he held my gaze the entire way. I couldn’t look away, and my heart started pounding like the fire that was lit up in his eyes.

  He dropped down next to me on the bench, close enough that our thighs were nearly pinching together. “I heard someone’s on sick leave.”

  “I’m not sick,” I said.

  He dipped his hand into his bag and pulled out a small rectangle device. I thought for a moment it was some sort of new cell phone. He opened it up, revealing a brand new Nintendo 3DS in pink. “I thought you might like this.”

  My lips parted. I let him drop the game unit into my hands. I held it, adjusting it to look it over. It folded out, opening to reveal duo screens and game buttons.

  He pressed the power button, and pointed to the startup screen. “I loaded it with few games.”

  Kota leaned over my other shoulder, nudging his glasses higher along his nose as he examined the 3DS. “You’re spoiling her.”

  “You can’t make her rest and not give her something to do,” Victor said. “She’ll work all night at the diner.”

  I blushed; I couldn’t believe how they all seemed to know some things before I told them. “You shouldn’t...” I was trying to find the words to tell him he didn’t need to buy me new things.

  Victor’s fingers fell against my lips. “Sorry, what were you saying? I’m sure you meant thank you and how awesome and love the color, right?”

  I huffed, knowing there was probably nothing I could say for him to take it back. I leaned against him, putting my cheek to his shoulder. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, Princess.”

  “Oy,” Gabriel called to us. He’d plopped down next to Luke in the grass. He focused on the 3DS in my hands. “What’s that?”

  I flipped it around, showing him the start screen to the Animal Crossing game that I had tapped to get started. “Victor got it.”

  His eyes widened. “Hey! Where’s ours?”

  Victor’s eyebrows rose. “You want a pink DS?”

  “You’re going to get her a new toy and not get us anything? It’s not her birthday.”

  Victor rolled his eyes. “Didn’t know. Sorry.”

  I hid my face behind the 3DS, feeling partially responsible for this argument.

  “How am I supposed to play with her if you don’t get me one?” Gabriel asked. He stood up, and then nudged at Kota. “Can I sit here? I want to watch.”

  Luke jumped up from the grass. “Me, too. I want to see it.”

  Kota huffed, sliding a look to Victor. “See what you’ve started? What did I tell you about buying a toy for one of them?”

  “You said if I got Gabriel, or Luke, or Nathan a new toy, I had to get them all one.”

  “Well, that includes Sang now, apparently.
”

  Victor smirked, shaking his head and shrugging at him in a wordless apology.

  I checked the time before class. We had gotten in extra early, and still had twenty minutes. I glanced up, looking around to see if anyone else noticed the 3DS. I’d seen other game systems in kids’ hands at school. I wasn’t sure we were supposed to have them, but since everyone had cell phones and most of the kids were staring into those, I guessed a DS wasn’t so out of the ordinary.

  Gabriel sat down next to me, as did Luke. The whole group shifted. North and Silas opted to sit on the grass, and Kota, Victor and Nathan sat on the bench talking. I glanced at North and Silas, but they were staring off and not talking together. They wore orange jerseys today since there was a football game tonight. They looked sleepy to me. How late did they work at the diner?

  Gabriel snapped his fingers at me, distracting me from staring at North who was looking so different in an actual color besides black, or school uniform blue and gray.

  “Oy,” Gabriel said. “Start your game.”

  I got through the introduction of Animal Crossing, and stopped when it asked me what name I wanted for my character.

  “Put in Trouble,” Gabriel said.

  “Put in Sweetie,” Luke said. “Or Cutie.”

  “Put in Smart Ass,” Gabriel said. His eyes lit up. “Oh man, put in something dirty. That’d be hilarious. Put in Fuc–”

  “She’s not putting that into her game,” North said. He picked up his head, meeting my eyes. “Put your name,” he said.

  I put in Sang. When it asked me to name my town, I hesitated, unsure again. Maybe because I was tired, but I wasn’t feeling very creative with names.

  Gabriel and Luke started rattling off names, wanting me to put in something cute or offensive.

  I met North’s eyes again. He silently told me to put in what I wanted.

  I put in North.

  “Ha,” I said, grinning as the game continued. “I’m the mayor of North.” I turned the game around, to show the other guys.

  North smirked, shaking his head. “Your hair is red.”

  “I like it like that,” I said, turning the game around.

  I didn’t get much further before it was time to go. When the bell rang for homeroom, I collected my book bag and shoved the game into it. North and Luke fell in beside me and we headed to the classroom. I walked with my head partially down. I was a little tired, and I was daydreaming a little as I was thinking about the game. We turned a corner, and North suddenly crashed into me, and I partially tripped into Luke. Luke caught me around the waist to straighten me.