by Carla Thorne
It seemed Deac and I were the ones perpetually locked and loaded for physical battle—and we had the injuries to prove our call.
I sat and was amazed at our team, but also stunned again at the magnitude of it all.
What else were we supposed to do?
The clearer it became, the muddier it was.
Scout finally spoke after one of the signature long pauses Mr. Parrington used to see if we’d volunteer information. “How is everything, Mr. Parrington?”
“It’s not good, Scout. Not good at all.”
“How is Mr. Silva? He’s been very upset about everything… It’s not his fault, you know.”
“I know.” He turned his laptop toward us. We stared at the school logo floating on the screen until he spoke again. “I have something to show you, but I thought we’d talk first.”
I moved in my seat to reposition my arm.
He caught that and nodded my way. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. I can lose the sling tomorrow and see how it feels.”
“How exactly did that happen?”
“I think when I tackled Jacob all his weight came down and kinda smashed my elbow into the floor. I remember feeling that. It wasn’t bad. I think it was the angle.”
“Right. What about you, Deacon? How are you?”
“Healing, sir. What about the others who were injured?”
“Everyone appears to be fine.” He twisted a paper clip between two fingers until it pulled apart. “And everyone gives you four the credit for that.”
We did what we always did. We looked away and at the ceiling and mumbled things like we were in the right place at the right time, there were other people helping out, we did what anyone would do, we didn’t do anything special… And my personal favorite: …it was nothing, we were glad to help.
“I’m going to ask you to stop repeating all that and be straight with me. For a change.”
Scout seemed to take offense to that. “Excuse me, sir? We always answer your questions as best we can.”
“That’s not going to work this time. I need to know everything that was going through your minds that day. Why you were positioned where you were. How you came to be reacting before there was anything to react to.”
“Are we in trouble?” Deacon asked.
“Not that I know of,” he replied. “I’ve talked to all your parents and I told them we’d be having this conversation and that I was going to show you a video.”
I considered the possibilities. There had to be a hundred different clips of the chaos circling social media. Whatever he had couldn’t have shown anything detrimental to us.
He waited another long moment before he started the clip.
We scooted closer to see the grainy split screen.
“I thought the cameras were down,” I said.
“Mr. Silva must have gotten things going after we looked at the issues,” Scout replied.
Deacon scrolled through his texts. “Look at the time. These views are exactly when we were texting, but I can’t tell what I’m looking at.”
“There,” Ivy said. “That’s me outside the doors watching for… There’s the creepy electrician guy. He’s asking me the way to a bathroom. I don’t see any Arrows.”
“Now here,” I said. “Same guy on my side. That was fast.”
“He knows his way around the building,” Scout said. “And look at the time. The tape skipped a bit.”
The picture changed to an overall view of the gym.
“I can’t make anything out,” Deacon said. “There’s people everywhere and not everyone is sitting down.”
Scout tried to maneuver the touch screen and nothing worked. The picture only got worse. “Time, Deacon?”
“Same time as the text where I mentioned I saw the scoreboard flicker and wondered why.”
“Where are Gavin and Corey?” I asked.
Scout shook his head. “No way to tell. OK, look. This blurry figure is the electrician coming in. This one is Jacob coming through that door and Mary through that one. Deacon, that’s you going to help.” The screen filled with a bright, white light. “Kaboom.”
Air stuck in my throat as I watched myself tackle Jacob. What looked like a fiery piece of something did fall and knock his head as we escaped. The blob on the floor represented the exact time my elbow crashed and bruised. “Look. There’s Deacon and then we turn to escape.”
“Where’s the electrician?” Ivy asked.
Scout paused the video. “Can’t see him. Looks like he headed for the opposite end as soon as…”
Mr. Parrington leaned in. “As soon as what?”
“Um… Just a sec. OK, look. This is where Mary and Deacon head for the door, but Jacob appears woozy.”
“Look at him,” I said. “He’s grabbing for me and Deacon and he’s trying to get to the door, but he’s wobbly. I don’t remember that part. I know he stayed with me, but I don’t remember him trying to drag us both. It’s not like we weren’t trying to get to the door.”
“This happened so much faster than I remember,” Deacon said. “And now everyone is realizing the doors won’t open so they go to the opposite end away from the scoreboard fire.”
“And look at that,” I said. “Looks like you pointed and told us both to head the other way. I don’t remember that.”
“I don’t either, but I see it. We were in shock, I guess. Jacob is trying to get to the door with me until he couldn’t stand up anymore and you helped him against the wall.”
“And,” Mr. Parrington said. “You can’t see them, but Scout and Ivy are coming to the dangerous end. Why?”
Scout shrugged. “Because Seb—”
“Because we had to help Mary and Deacon,” Ivy said.
“Why didn’t you all go to the other end if you knew you could get the doors open?”
“No time to waste,” Deacon said. “The crowd was too intense at the other end. I knew if we could get one door open, it was a start. We went to the other end as soon as we could.”
“But first,” I said. “Look at that. Jacob was right. You picked him up and took him out like a firefighter.”
Deacon’s expression was one of shock. “I don’t know. I don’t remember it all.”
We sat in silence as that first door flew open. My heart jumped with joy at the success, even though I knew how it ended. I wanted to be proud, but all I could consider was what could have happened if we hadn’t done what we were called to do.
Would the Creator have sent someone else?
The camera flickered and the picture pixeled and blurred as things got worse and then better.
We didn’t say a word, but I knew all we thought about was timing. What happened only took seconds, but in our time, it seemed like long, prickly minutes.
And everyone had to be wondering when Deacon had his out-of-body experience.
It’d happened in another realm, and we realized then that time was different in parallel places.
We knew more from seeing the tape. We knew less. We knew nothing.
Mr. Parrington closed his laptop.
“Can I get a copy of that?” Scout asked.
“Not for a while,” Mr. Parrington said. “There’s an open investigation, and I wasn’t supposed to show it to anyone. That scoreboard didn’t catch fire because of an electrical issue. I think everyone knows that. The problem is, we’re a mid-sized private school in a sleepy suburb of Houston. Why would we be a target? More importantly…” He slid the laptop to the side. “Why would you know about it in advance?”
“Wait a minute,” Deacon said. “You said we weren’t in trouble, but now you’re saying we knew about a crime before it happened—as in maybe we were a part of it. I’m pretty sure that means we’d be in trouble.”
“He’s not saying that,” Scout said.
“Then what is he saying?”
Scout let out a heavy sigh. “He’s saying he knows we had advance notice and he wants to know how and why.”
> Chapter 27
Deacon
“Scout!” I snapped, fearful of what he was about to reveal.
“What? We did have advance notice, so what difference does it make? Ivy needs to say what she overheard.”
“So, you do know something about this.” Mr. P leaned back in his chair.
I glanced at Mary. She was as cool as she ever was while our world was crumbling around us. I knew it made her feel better to have Jacob’s possible head injury explained and to see he was the only other student who didn’t run away when it got ugly. I saw it too. I still wasn’t convinced, but I saw it. The guy barreled toward the door to save Mary—and probably me—even though he could barely stand up.
Mr. P left his desk and pulled his chair around to circle up with us. A sharp sting of pain hit my side as I moved to make room. “What are we doing now? Playing support group?”
Ivy got antsy in her seat and chewed on her thumbnail. I hadn’t seen her do that for months. She, more than anyone, was going to feel it deep down if anything was off.
So far, everything had been off since we came back into Stonehaven Academy.
The principal leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees. “I’m sorry I showed you that video. I realize now it was too soon. It was a traumatic day and I shouldn’t have made you look at that. You probably know I told your parents I’d make sure you saw a counselor today.”
“A counselor?” Ivy asked. “How about the school lawyer? My mom had to outrun a reporter this morning to get me here on time. She doesn’t need that kind of pressure. She got a call at work yesterday from someone wanting to interview all four of us on national TV. Who’s protecting us from all that?”
“You’re safe here at school.”
“Really? Because we had to pass extra security to get here, and this feels like an interrogation.” She slapped her hand across her mouth. “Sorry, Mr. Parrington, I’m not trying to be rude, but this isn’t getting us anywhere.”
Scout reached out to squeeze her hand. “Everyone needs to stop.”
Mary used her good arm to pull her chair forward. “What is it, Scout?”
“It’s this meeting. No offense, Mr. Parrington, but you’ve been trying to handle us since we came in that door. You know us well enough by now to know that doesn’t work. Waiting in silence for us to crack, showing us that video and watching for clues, coming around the desk for this little pow-wow like you’re one of us… We deserve better. We’ve always told you exactly what we know. Why do I feel like we’re not on the same side anymore?”
“That was not my intent, Scout. We are definitely on the same side. I only want to know what happened.”
“Then maybe you should do some talking too. Honesty goes both ways.”
I couldn’t help but hold my breath, though it hurt like crazy. Scout was turning tables like a pro. I was gonna buy him lunch—if we ever had another normal day in the Saints Café.
Chapter 28
Mary
Mr. Parrington took his chair and went back behind his desk.
“All right. Full disclosure. It’s probably not my best move to share these things with you, but I don’t see much reason not to since I may not be here much longer. Besides that, I’m really curious.”
Scout scrubbed his fingers across a new patch of peach fuzz on the side of his face. “What do you mean you may not be here much longer?”
“Well, the organization that handles our accreditation and governs our school, along with this school’s board of directors, aren’t super happy with me right now. We’ve had problem after problem around here. Student achievement is down and discipline issues are up. We’ve had one fire, numerous electrical problems with the security system, a possible issue with a district-contracted employee, and a near mass casualty explosion event—also known as a pep rally. You can see why they’re concerned for student safety.”
“None of that is your fault,” Ivy said.
“Oh, but it is. I’m responsible for what goes on here and who comes in and out. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Someone’s bound to use this as an opportunity to sue me for something and I don’t know how much backing I’ll get from the board—except for when they ask for my resignation to appease the angry mob of parents—and I oblige.”
He paused to reach for his cup of coffee. “We had some bright new families move in this year, but many parents have pulled their students from our program. That loss of income doesn’t help our reputation or the budget.”
Something he said rattled me. I glanced at Scout who looked me straight in the eye. We were thinking the same thing. New families. What was different, who was new, where had they come from, and how many were there? If the Destroyer was coming for Stonehaven Academy at full force, wouldn’t it make sense he’d send his troops to attack from all sides?
We were so focused in our own world and what assignment was put in front of us, that we were missing what else was going on. Our own flimsy, underdeveloped plates were already full.
We were outnumbered.
Scout cracked his knuckles one at a time. “Was the number of new students this year particularly high?”
“Not necessarily in light of the growth of the community and our expansion projects. Plus, we had a lot of kids come over from the other side. Siblings of current students aged up.”
I’d forgotten Paige had a sister. That right there could have caused a ruckus in the universe if she were anything like her older sibling.
“We’ve had some nice surprises with new students,” Ivy said. “If not for Jacob, I don’t think we’d be in the playoffs.”
Her well-intentioned comment landed like a thud.
Deacon didn’t miss the opportunity for one more jab. “Yeah. Imagine. If Jacob weren’t here, we probably wouldn’t have had that pep rally at all.”
The last thing we needed was for Mr. Parrington to sense the fracture in our team. “Uh… What else can we do for you, Mr. Parrington? We’ve all seen the same video. You know what we did, and I have a feeling student enrollment is not why we’re here.”
“That is true, Mary.” He picked up the paper clip he’d mangled earlier. “Truth is, you’re here because I love my job and I don’t want to lose it. I love this school, and I love this community. I do a good job here, but I am clearly missing something. I think you all know what that something is.”
We just sat there.
“You know,” he continued. “Everything you say here is confidential. I would only share information if it means we get to the bottom of the fire. And we have to get to the bottom of that fire. You understand that, right? If it wasn’t electrical or just some student prank gone really wrong, it means someone intentionally tried to burn down the gym.”
All we could add without going full Warrior on him was what Ivy had overheard.
So much for snitches get stitches and all that.
I raised an eyebrow toward her. “Do you want to tell him what you heard, Ivy?”
“Tell him about the Arrows while you’re at it,” Scout said.
So, she did.
She told him about Corey and the rebirth of the Arrows and the disgusting scene outside the locker room.
Scout tried to help. “And I only knew about the electrical problems because Mr. Silva helps me with my Portuguese and I knew he was concerned that nothing added up. It didn’t take an engineer to see this place is an electrical nightmare.”
“And speaking of electricians…” Deacon held up his phone. “This guy is suspicious, but I suspect you know that. We’re pretty sure he had something to do with this.”
“He’s right,” Ivy added. “I swear I’ve seen that guy somewhere, but I don’t know where. I don’t know who he is, but I agree. I think he had something to do with it.”
“I see.” Mr. Parrington slid his empty coffee cup to the very edge of his desk. “I knew about the Arrows, but to my knowledge, they are doing absolutely nothing on campus.”
“They’re not,”
Deacon said. “My brother said they meet in the woods far out behind the country club. He works there.”
“Thank you. I can get the county sheriff on that.” He looked disappointed, as if we would have shared more. “As for the electrician, yes, we’re aware.”
He stood and took a walk around his office.
And once again, we waited.
Scout finally cracked. “Can we… go now?”
Mr. Parrington spun on his heels and clapped his hands together. “You know what? No, you cannot. Because, you see, while this has all been very entertaining, I still don’t know any more than I did. This little chess game, as usual, has been fun. Scout, you were at the top of your clever game with the whole handling move, but you said it yourself. The whole country wants to talk to the heroes of the Stonehaven Gym Fire, and you really thought after that monumental feat you were going to be able to come in here and tell me you know nothing?”
“Well—”
“Not a word, Mary. You four once again saved your classmates and a bunch of other people from certain catastrophe. I keep looking at that video and wondering how you did it and why you did it when you could have run to the other end like everyone else. You didn’t panic. You didn’t flinch. You took fire—literal fire—and ran into the fight. Not only that, you ran in there with a plan. Which means you had enough foresight to make a plan! You were in position. You had jobs. You worked like an elite team in the armed forces. Do the Navy SEALs know about you? Because they could learn a few things.”
“Thank you, sir?”
“Don’t be smart, Deacon. I know those doors were locked tight and not meant to open. I was on the other end with a group of grown men grabbing every tool we could find to free everyone. So, just tell me… Where does that come from? Please! I’m begging you… Tell me how it is that you four ordinary teenagers keep doing this?”
I glanced at my fellow Warriors.
I got two shrugs and a nod.
Deacon stood. “Let me.”
“Sure.”
“We’re not ordinary teenagers, sir. We’re Warriors, commissioned by the Creator to carry out assignments. Everything we told you is what we know to be true. For whatever reason, the Destroyer has sent Agents to wreak havoc on this school.”
