The Other Side of Envy: The Ghost Bird Series: #8 (The Academy)

by C. L. Stone

  Instead, I reached out to him and caught his knee. I held onto it, because I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t do anything else. I needed to touch him. To connect.

  He moved his knee out of my grasp and instead took my hand. He held on to it so tightly, my bones hurt.

  I didn’t care. I was so excited to see him.

  “Check it out,” Luke said, his wig-covered head nodding toward the hotel rooms, back where we’d been.

  I turned in the seat. People were returning to the hotel room. It looked like Kota and next to him...a girl? She had her hair swept up in a clip. She wore a skirt and limped a little.

  “Who is that?” I asked, staring.

  “That’s Sang,” Luke said. “Duh.” He grinned.

  “Can I get up now?” Gabriel asked.

  Luke said, “Looks like Mr. McCoy and Mr. Morris are now parked together on the other side of the lot. They’re watching.”

  My insides bristled. “Who is with Kota?”

  “Sang,” Luke said. He looked at me and winked. “Can’t you see?”

  Kota and the other Sang moved into the room we’d been in. Luke pulled onto the main road and we were out of sight before I could see anything else going on.

  I turned in my seat. “Now what?”

  “Now, we get the hell out of Dodge,” Gabriel said, climbing off the floor. He sat back in the seat, breathing in deeply. “I don’t think I could take another minute of that girl.”

  “Huh?” I asked. “Who?”

  “Sang,” Luke said, smiling. “She’s a little pushy.”

  “She thinks she knows how to do everything,” Gabriel said. “The Academy spoils her because she’s a girl.” He looked at me. “Sa—, I mean...Shit. What’s your name?”

  I blinked, my eyes wide. I almost said my name, but realized we were pretending we were other people while “Sang” was in the hotel room. I didn’t know how to answer him.

  “Stacy,” Luke said. “You’re not very good with names.”

  “She doesn’t look like a Stacy,” Gabriel said.

  “What do girls named Stacy look like?”

  “Shut up,” Gabriel said. He nudged my elbow. “Turn that mirror a bit. I can’t see behind us.”

  “I’m trying to drive,” Luke said.

  “And I’m trying to see if anyone is following. I can’t see behind this car that’s right behind us.”

  I looked for a way to move the side mirror. “I think I have to reach out to move it.”

  “That’ll be too obvious,” Luke said. He adjusted the rearview on the windshield. “Use this. I’ll use the side mirrors.”

  They’d dressed me up as a different girl, gave me a different name, and then...now what? Where were we going? How long did they have to keep calling me Stacy? The more I learned about this plan, the more the questions piled up. There was a level of secrecy still between them, though. They weren’t going to talk about it here. I sat back in the seat, willing my tongue to stay still and not dump all my questions on them. It was the hardest part of the job right now.

  We were in the car for a good hour. I nodded off a couple of times as the car was quiet.

  Luke pulled into a neighborhood somewhere south of Charleston. He drove on until we came to a house I wasn’t familiar with. It was at the end of a cul-de-sac, one story. The neighborhood had small homes, but tidy yards. Luke pulled into the drive. Gabriel got out of the car, and opened my door. Luke hopped out of the car, and went to the door of the house, and then fiddled with the handle, opening the door and stepping inside.

  I hesitated. The neighborhood around us was asleep. I wasn’t sure what time it was. I looked behind us to see if any other cars had followed. The last time I went inside a house with Luke like this, we’d broken in to someone’s home. Were we doing it again?

  I didn’t have much choice. Gabriel captured my arm and dragged me in.

  The moment I was inside, Gabriel didn’t stop to let me look around. All I caught was a heady scent of cinnamon and pumpkin. Like someone was cooking pies.

  I was led into a bathroom, small and with a thick red rug on the floor. The toilet was covered in the same rug material, red. The cabinets were stark white. It was a blurring contrast that hurt my eyes.

  Gabriel followed me in and then immediately opened a cabinet door. He pulled out a bag that had been waiting inside. The confident way he moved, he’d been here before. He knew what was here.

  “What are we doing?” I whispered. “Where are we?”

  “Shhh,” he said.

  I waited quietly as he rooted through the bag. He pulled out another wig, a set of girl clothes, a baseball hat, and some clothes for a guy.

  He passed me the wig and the girl clothes. He started undressing quickly and nodded toward the clothes in my hand. “Get those on.”

  Again? I groaned a bit, but started moving. I wanted to be in the Academy. This was part of the job. I just wished there had been some sort of warning.

  I turned my back for some privacy and got dressed. I was now in jeans that were a little tight in the legs and a dull blue loose sweater that draped down over my hips. It hung off of one shoulder, something I’d seen in fashion magazines. In the bottom of the bag was a pair of boots with fuzz on the cuffs, exactly my size. I put those on and then traded out wigs, a blonde one this time.

  Gabriel had taken time out to pull together these outfits for me. What we were doing now, this felt like his plan. I smiled, touching the strands of hair in the wig. This is what Gabriel could do for the team. He had his role. He belonged.

  Gabriel had put on baggy cargo pants, and an oversized shirt that really hid his shape. He put on the baseball hat backwards, tucking in his blond locks. He reached into the bag again, pulling out a makeup kit. He opened it, pulling out a sponge and then looked at me. “You say one word of this to the others and I’ll kill you.”

  My eyes widened. I was frightened enough. Did he have to be so scary now?

  He turned to the mirror, and started putting on a thick layer of makeup. He was making his skin tone darker than what it was naturally. He started with his eyes and with areas that were harder to get around. Once those were done, he did broad strokes around his cheeks and bigger areas.

  When he was done, he looked like he had a deep tan. It was an odd color on him. I didn’t like it. It didn’t look horrible, but it wasn’t Gabriel. The clothes weren’t him, either.

  “How do I look?” he asked.

  I couldn’t think of anything. I was so elated just to be seeing him and I wanted to say something very nice so he’d know I had missed him. I spit out, “B…beautiful.’

  Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “What?”

  My cheeks heated and I covered my face with my hands. Oh, that was so stupid.

  He turned, checking himself out in the mirror.

  “What’s your name now?” I asked.

  “’Sup?” he said, and then smirked. “Yo, I’m T.”

  I paused. “T?”

  He snorted. “Oh my god. I can’t. I’m going to laugh through this. I swear.” He breathed in and then blew it out slowly. He applied the same makeup to his hands and arms and then put the stuff back into the bag and shoved it under the counter. He reached for my face, touching my chin and looking me over. “I hate this one, too,” he said. “Looks like shit.”

  I think he meant the wig. This one was blond, a lot lighter than my normal hair color. It was also really long, falling along my back. It was heavy. I scraped at my forehead just to get some of the hair to pull back. Gabriel stuck extra pins into the wig to secure it to my scalp.

  “Round two,” he said. He opened the door and shoved me through it, grabbing my hand.

  I was getting the hang of this. I wasn’t sure why we were doing it, but we’d moved to a different location and changed our disguises. I suspected there was someone still following us. We were throwing them off by appearing to be someone else, hoping they’d leave us alone?

  Gabriel pulled me through the
living room and back out the front door.

  Gabriel went right for a Moped parked outside. He got on, and then gestured for me to get on.

  No helmets. Kota would kill us. I dug into my wig for one of the pins, hoping they were tight enough to secure it to my head. No wonder Gabriel added a bunch more.

  I climbed on behind him and grasped Gabriel around his stomach to hang on.

  He reached down, holding onto my hand for a moment, squeezing.

  My head bent forward, stuffed up against his shoulder. I held on tight. He was back. He was here. If I wasn’t scared about who was chasing us, and so excited to see him, I could have cried.

  Luke wasn’t anywhere in sight. The car was missing. Had Luke taken off earlier? I didn’t have time to ask about him. The bike lurched forward as he hit the gas. Gabriel took off on the Moped, made a loop through a neighboring cul-de-sac and out of another street.

  Through the darkness, Gabriel drove the Moped. He took abandoned streets. He weaved into neighborhoods, and then back out into alleyways. He even drove in between buildings a couple of times.

  For miles, he didn’t stop. My heart raced along with the Moped. Whoever he was trying to lose, I thought for sure we lost them long ago. He was being very careful, covering his tracks, backtracking to see if anyone came around. If any car followed us even a little, he’d make a turn.

  I held on tight and went along for the ride, content to sit behind him and go wherever he took me. Gabriel was back. To me, that’s all that mattered.

  TOGETHER, WE WILL

  It was an hour of this weaving through streets and small communities before Gabriel ventured out of the area and got onto the highway. I held with one arm to him, and the other to the wig on my head. He headed north and then hunkered down and kept going. He didn’t stop until he pulled into a small motel. The only thing next door was a gas station. The parking lot was dotted with only a few cars. Miles of farm fields surrounded the tiny hamlet of a town.

  Gabriel pulled the bike in front of the motel’s lobby and then turned off the engine. “Whew,” he said. “Long drive.”

  My legs were cramped. I climbed off the bike, wobbling. I took a few shaky steps, willing my calves to flex. I wiped the water from my eyes from squinting into the wind on the bike. My entire body vibrated after having been on the bike for so long.

  Slowly, my heart settled and I studied our surroundings. “Why are we here?”

  “To sleep,” he said. “Duh. I’m exhausted.” He stretched up, twisting his arms high in the air. He yanked off the baseball cap, letting his hair down and ruffling it a little so it wasn’t as flat.

  I reached up to my wig, feeling the windblown strands and a few tangles. I was surprised it stayed on, but the hair pins kept it secure.

  Gabriel took my hand as we entered the lobby. I squeezed his fingers; I didn’t want to be away from him for a moment.

  The lobby we entered was small, with a desk and a small sitting area. At first, it looked like no one was there. The door slammed shut on its own behind us.

  An older woman stood up from behind the counter. She was plump with curly hair and tired eyes. She took a long look at both of us and then spoke to Gabriel. “I need to see ID.”

  Gabriel smiled, flashy and big. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He found an ID and showed it to her. “What? I look that young? Geez. I’ve got to yank this thing out every time I go to a bar, too. It’s embarrassing.” He nodded to me. “She’s worse. She can’t even buy cigarettes.”

  It had to be a fake ID. We were old enough to even rent hotel rooms? Didn’t you have to be eighteen? Gabriel was talking like he was over twenty-one… I studied him. I wasn’t sure if I’d pin him as that old, but possibly.

  How did Kota and North rent them?

  They all carried around false IDs? I tried to remember to ask some day.

  She glanced at the ID, looked at me, back at the ID and then at Gabriel. She took it and moved over to a Xerox machine to make a copy of it. She came back while the machine was warming up and handed Gabriel a card to fill out. “It’s forty-five for two queens, fifty-one and a quarter including tax. We don’t have any smoking rooms left.”

  “We’ll behave,” Gabriel said. He filled out the form, and then passed it back. He pulled a wad of cash from his wallet and plucked out three twenty dollar bills.

  The lady took the money and made change in a cash drawer. She returned Gabriel’s ID and then passed along his change and a room key. “First floor, second to last door in the second building.”

  “Thanks,” Gabriel said. He waved shortly to the woman and then scooped his arm around my neck. “Let’s go.”

  Gabriel pulled the Moped around to the second building, parking close to our room. After we were off the bike again, he opened the back hatch, and pulled out a very small duffle bag.

  Most rooms nearby had the shades drawn. The area was quiet. Still, it was creepy. Maybe because it was so late and quiet; the surrounding farmlands and lack of people around making it feel even more isolated. We hurried inside.

  The room was similar to the one I’d just been in, smaller though. It smelled like someone had smoked in the room before, but it was stale and faint. The utility carpet had thinned out in spots by the door and just outside the bathroom.

  I closed the door behind us. Gabriel motioned to the locks so I used the latch. He dropped the bag onto the bed and fell back on the bedspread. “Fuck. Me. Ugh. I’m second-guessing my choice in vehicles. My face feels like raw plastic.”

  “Can I talk now?” I asked. “Am I still Stacy?”

  “God, no,” he said. He wiped at his face, and sat up. “I mean no, don’t be Stacy and yeah, talk. Fuck. Shit. I hate makeup. This is gross.”

  I smiled. I fidgeted from one foot to the other. He was here. He came for me. He...

  My eyes widened. Had he just kidnapped me? Running off into the night, leaving the others behind? Had Luke helped him?

  I hadn’t thought much while on the back of the bike, frightened and excited to be running and back with Gabriel. We may have been running from McCoy, but did we need to go this far?

  Who was that girl?

  I tugged the bobby pins out of the wig so I could take it off. The good thing about it was that while the wig had stayed on, my hair underneath was fine. The wig was a messy bird’s nest, though. It’d take a while to comb it all out if I needed to wear it again.

  I dropped the wig onto the table and then sat in the chair to kick off the boots. I undid the top button of the jeans. “These jeans are too tight.”

  “They’re supposed to be,” Gabriel said, going to the bag and looking in it, sorting through the contents. “They’re skinny jeans. You’re not used to them because I don’t buy them for you.” He yanked the huge shirt off his body and tossed it down onto the floor. His face and arms were still tan from the makeup, but I caught an eyeful of his lean chest and his fine collarbones. “Ugh, I’m going to go shower this shit off.”

  He turned, and I got up to follow him. I thought I could sit outside the bathroom door somewhere and be nearby and talk to him.

  I checked the clock on the side table as we passed. It was three in the morning. “Why did we rent a room? We’re just going to have to leave in a few hours and go back to school.”

  “You’re not going to school,” he said. He shoved the bathroom door open, revealing a sink and toilet crammed into the space beside a stall shower. He left the door open wide and then pointed to the counter. “Sit there.”

  I was surprised at the invitation, but sat where he wanted me. My legs hung over the counter and the jeans cinched up in the knees, feeling tight in places I didn’t like. I ignored it for now; I just wanted to be near him.

  I didn’t know where to start. He’d been gone, and upset. North went to go fix the situation. The next thing I know, Gabriel’s here and we’re away from the others. Was this fixing things? I couldn’t wait any longer and questions poured from my lips. �
��What happened? What was all that? Why am I not going to school tomorrow? Who was that girl? Are you okay?”

  Gabriel took in another deep breath and then opened the shower. He started the hot water and then tested the stream with his fingers. “Long story.”

  I waited, expecting him to start talking. Instead he moved over to the other side of the counter, picking up the tiny bottles of shampoo and looking at them, frowning.

  They weren’t his own formulas so he wasn’t happy. “Gabriel?” I asked quietly, trying to get him to focus on the questions.

  “McCoy was always on our tail,” he said. “I couldn’t shake him. And he was getting close. He wasn’t going to ease up until he got a visual.”

  “So he was following my phone signal all along?”

  “Someone was,” he sighed and then went to the shower again with the bottles. He put them down, tested the water again, made some adjustments to the taps. He turned toward me and twirled his finger. “Turn your head, close your eyes.”

  I did. I heard the rustle of him taking his clothes off and then the sound of the water was interrupted as he got in. Once I heard the squeak of the curtain being drawn across, I peeked out. The curtain was closed completely. “Who? Hendricks? Morris?”

  “I’m taking a wild guess here,” Gabriel said. “But I’m thinking it’s Volto. So whoever that is.”

  I pressed my lips hard together. That didn’t sound right. Volto had said he wanted the Academy guys to go away for his own reasons. It hadn’t seemed like he wanted to help Mr. Hendricks or even Mr. McCoy. “Are you sure? He’s the one that led us to Mr. McCoy at the homecoming dance. I didn’t think he’d help them.”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “But McCoy doesn’t have the resources to be able to follow your phone. Neither does Mr. Hendricks or even Morris. They’re getting their information from someone else. Someone with the technology to be able to follow your phone signal, even when Victor is bouncing it around. We think. Or Victor thinks. Whatever. McCoy was able to follow us around and we couldn’t shake him.”