Firecracker: A Young Adult Fantasy (Arcturus Academy Book 1)

by A. L. Knorr

  At the sound of breaking glass, Basil emerged from his office with his specs on the end of his nose. Peering down at what was coming up, he moved to the side as the procession—led by Jade and followed by Kendall and Gage suspending Ryan’s half-dead corpse, then me—trudged up the steps. As I passed the headmaster, he sent a look of inquiry in my direction. I just shook my head, hoping that Ryan’s godfather would know instinctively there was foul play at work here.

  “Set him on the sofa, please.” Basil directed Gage and Kendall as he snugged the door shut. “Kendall, would you fetch Dr. Price, please?”

  But Ryan shook his head as he pulled his arms from around the boys’ necks, collapsing onto the couch.

  “No,” he husked as he rubbed a hand back and forth across his neck. He followed that up with a series of coughs and an audible inhale. “I’ll be fine. Just need a minute.”

  Jade stood behind Ryan rubbing his shoulders, brows pinched together with concern. All signs of the glee she’d had on display at the prospect of my getting suspended had been tucked away. She rubbed at an eye as though wiping away a tear.

  “I was worried she’d killed you.” She bent over and dropped a kiss onto Ryan’s head. He patted her hand.

  I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, sending my best glare in Jade’s direction. “There is more B-S in here than in all the barns in the country combined.” I waved a hand under my nose.

  “I’ll get you some water,” Gage said to Ryan and then headed for the door, looking everywhere but at me. I could feel the anger seeping out of him. He really believed his twin’s charade. How could he have grown up with Ryan and still fall for this crap?

  “There’s some here, Gage.” Basil gestured to a side table where a glass carafe of water and cups sat.

  “She’s dangerous, Headmaster Chaplin.” Jade pointed at me like an accuser in The Scarlet Letter, she was only missing a bonnet and apron. “It’s obvious what must be done, for the safety of the rest of the students and the staff.”

  “I’ll be the one to say what’s to be done, Ms. Alcott.” The headmaster sounded cool and calm but not unkind.

  I barely kept from smiling because he hadn’t used her first name. Maybe Basil already knew this was a charade.

  “This is the result of an incident involving Ryan and Saxony only. Am I correct?” Basil asked, motioning to me. “Take a seat, if you wish.”

  “I’ll stand and yes, it was between Ryan and me.” I made an effort to keep my voice calm but it was shaking anyway. “No one saw what really happened. They walked in at a moment when it could easily have been misunderstood. Then Liza Minelli over there put on quite a show. Don’t believe his crocodile tears. He’s fine.”

  “You horrid woman.” Jade rubbed Ryan’s head so hard it wobbled back and forth. He caught her hand and held it at his shoulder. “We walked into the gym and saw Ryan on the floor gasping for air, while she stood over him making threats.”

  “That’s twenty pounds of crap in a ten pound bag—” I said but bit off the rest of my protest at a look from Basil.

  “Did you see what happened?” Headmaster Chaplin asked Gage as he handed Ryan the glass of water.

  Kendall replied though Basil hadn’t addressed him. “We didn’t see her sucker punch him but we saw enough to know that’s what happened.”

  “Gage.” I urged him to look at me. “You know I would never.”

  He still didn’t meet my eyes. “I never would have guessed you had it in you, but I saw the way you were standing over him. You were so angry.”

  “Jade, Gage, and Kendall,” Basil said as he went behind his desk and sat down. “You’re dismissed. I’ll speak to Ryan and Saxony alone.”

  “But,” Jade’s eyes widened, “we saw the end result. We’re witnesses.”

  “Witnesses are called witnesses because they were there, numbskull,” I snapped. My whole head felt like it was roasting and about to split.

  “Ms. Cagney.” Basil cowed me with a look. “You’re not helping your case.” He looked at Jade. “You’re dismissed, Ms. Alcott.”

  Without any more protests, but acidic glares in my direction, Jade and Kendall went to the door. Gage followed them after taking Ryan’s empty water glass and setting it on the side table. He shut the door quietly behind them.

  “Have a seat, Saxony,” Basil commanded, his voice quiet.

  I set my sweater and water bottle on the floor and took the loveseat across from the sofa where Ryan sat, his expression closed. At least he wasn’t faking that horrible breathing sound any more.

  “There’s no need to suspend her, Headmaster,” Ryan said, his voice almost normal again. “It was my fault.”

  A starburst of shock went through me but I kept my expression neutral. I didn’t trust for a moment that Ryan was going to tell the headmaster what had really transpired. My heart bumped against my ribs as I fought to keep fire from shooting out of my mouth to consume the smug look on Ryan’s face.

  “Go ahead,” Basil said.

  “I happened to come into the fire-gym as she was wrapping up her own practice and we got to chatting.” Ryan rubbed his hand across his throat for effect again. “She made a comment that disparaged my girlfriend. Suggesting April wasn’t worthy of me, but that she—Saxony—would be a good replacement.”

  My jaw dropped. Juicy swearwords piled up behind my teeth.

  Ryan ignored me. “I called her on it, asking her to apologize. Saxony lost her temper and—” he shrugged and one corner of his mouth turned up. “She’s stronger than she looks, I’ll give her that. She let her temper get the better of her. A mistake any one of us could make.”

  “Unbelievable,” I wheezed, bending over at the waist and dropping my face into my hands. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry.

  Basil’s voice drifted by. “Is that all?”

  Ryan nodded. “That’s all. Don’t be too hard on her.”

  “That’s very generous of you, Ryan. If you’ve nothing else to share, I’ll ask you to give us some privacy.”

  I sat up, revived by the hope that Basil was incorruptible.

  For the first time since coming into the office, Ryan’s façade cracked. His gaze darted to Basil. “I should stay and hear her version of it, shouldn’t I? What if she lies?”

  “I’ve heard your version.” Basil leaned back and peered at Ryan through his spectacles. “Now I’ll hear hers. I won’t make any judgment until tomorrow. I rarely punish bad behavior of this level without sleeping on it first. I find it allows time for those involved to consider their actions and whether they’d like to amend their story in any way. Come back after breakfast tomorrow morning and before your first class.” The headmaster gestured at the door. “You may go.”

  Ryan wilted, looking like he wanted to protest further but at a stern look from Basil, he got up and left the room. At the click of the bolt, Basil swung his chair to face me, his expression closed.

  “I’m waiting.”

  I didn’t even know how or where to start. My heart was pounding so hard it was filling my ears and distorting my vision. I was a well-behaved student, I always had been. How had I ended up here?

  “I’ve never been in this kind of—” I began, then stopped. I’d never gotten into any fights with other students at school, but I’d had many confrontations in Venice, my record wasn’t a good way to start. I took a breath and started over. “He baited me.”

  The headmaster’s brows twitched. “So, you did hit him?”

  The statement confused me. Basil doubted that I’d even touched Ryan? Reluctant relief slowed my heart a notch.

  “I didn’t strike him, exactly. He had a grip on my arm and was hurting me. When I tried to yank away, he clamped down harder. So, I pushed him away.”

  “Using fire-power?”

  I nodded. “But it wasn’t a punch, like he says. It was a shove at his chest. I didn’t touch his neck. I had no intention of hurting him, I only wanted him to let go of me.”

  “Why did
he grab your arm in the first place?”

  “I was trying to leave the gym and he stopped me.”

  “How was it you came to be in the gym alone with him this morning?”

  “I forgot to check the auto-lock,” I replied, my voice meek. A blush rose in my cheeks at the real reason I’d forgotten. A reason I’d not utter aloud in front of Basil or anyone other than my best friends. “He whispered in my ear that he intends to sabotage April. Do something nasty so that she leaves the academy.”

  Basil’s face paled a little.

  “I got so angry at what he’d said, and because he wasn’t letting me go, that I shoved him away.” I folded my fingers together and squeezed to keep them from trembling.

  He let out a long, close-mouthed sigh. “I am disappointed, Saxony. Especially after the conversation we had at the beginning of the year about nurturing compassion.”

  Shame and rebellion filled me. My voice was an age-rusted hinge. “What was I supposed to do? Let him man-handle me?”

  Basil answered with simple clarity that made me feel like an idiot, a preschooler. “You make your displeasure known verbally first. Did you ask him to unhand you?”

  I wilted. “No. I only tried to pull away. But, surely—”

  “Then your temper got the best of you.” He steepled his fingers and looked at me over the top of his glasses. “It’s easy to have compassion for our friends, Saxony. The true difficulty lies in cultivating empathy for those we don’t like.”

  “You weren’t there.” But my voice had lost all power as his words struck their mark.

  “No. I wasn’t there, but I can see what happened. England isn’t the number one country in the world for CCTV for nothing. The fire-gym and the CTH are both wired.”

  I almost smacked myself in the forehead. “You have cameras? Of course!”

  But would the cameras have picked up the words Ryan had whispered? Did he know about the cameras, and that why he’d had spoken so quietly? I sensed the beginnings of a grudging respect for the pure craftiness of Gage’s twin.

  “I’ll view the footage this evening,” Basil said. “As I said to Ryan, come see me before class tomorrow morning. I suggest you try to put this out of your mind until then. Jade will have had plenty of time by now to circulate her version of things and I daresay you may have a rough patch ahead. Ryan is liked in this school, while you—”

  “Don’t have any classes with anyone, have been getting special treatment, and have two so-called witnesses who are willing to perpetuate a lie.” Or was it three witnesses? The thought of Gage spreading a nasty rumor about me was so horrible that nausea rose in the back of my throat.

  Basil watched me with that neutral expression he was so good at.

  “I really thought Gage would have seen through him, he should know his twin better than anyone,” I speculated. “Surely he can sense when Ryan is putting on an act?”

  “It’s possible Gage does know, but for better or worse he and Ryan will back one another, even if one of them is in the wrong. They’re not just brothers, they’re twins and they’ve been inseparable since birth. You know what they say about blood and water.”

  I nodded in miserable agreement. It really seemed at times like Gage and Ryan were two sides of one person. Gage got all the integrity and naivety and Ryan got all the aggression and cunning.

  Basil dismissed me and I made a beeline for my room to shower and change. As I stood under the hot spray and let it beat at my shoulders, I stewed about my new predicament. Not just that which would arise in the school in the form of gossip, but the barrier that had come slamming down between me and Gage. I hoped the misunderstanding about what had happened would get cleared up after Basil viewed the footage, but even if I was absolved, the damage would only partially be mended.

  I really liked him, but if he would always take his brother’s side over me, then did we even have a chance?

  Twenty-Four

  Partners in Crime

  Entering the cafeteria for dinner that evening, it dawned on me that it wasn’t going to be as easy to put the whole incident behind me as I wanted.

  A crowd of first-year students with Ryan as the central focus had taken up an entire table at the back of the room. Ryan was talking and gesturing to his neck and chest as the riveted expressions of those listening watched with a species of gleeful horror.

  I was relieved to see that neither Gage nor Tomio were among the group. They were eating at a table near the front. Surprisingly, neither Jade nor April were part of the group either. They were involved in their own conversation at the table next to Gage and Tomio. Jade was nodding as she listened to whatever April was saying, who had her back to me. Jade’s dark eyes flashed to me for a second and she tilted her chin up and her face away, tucking a hair behind her ear. I supposed being ignored was better than being outright shamed or ridiculed.

  Picking out a selection of pizza and salad, I carried my tray over to Tomio and Gage.

  “Mind if I sit with you?” I slid out a chair.

  Gage stopped mid-sentence, his expression clouded. “You can have the table. We’re finished anyway.” He picked up his tray and his plate of half-eaten pizza and carried it to the garbage where he dumped it, then headed for the exit.

  “I don’t know if he’ll forgive you that easily, Saxony.” Tomio shot me a sympathetic look. He glanced around the room at some of the faces looking in our direction.

  “I’m to be a pariah, then?” I picked up my slice of pizza. Normally I loved the smell of hot tomato sauce, melted cheese, and fresh baked bread but even the little joys had drained out of the day. “All because Ryan baited and insulted me and threatened a friend of mine?”

  “That’s not his version.”

  “But surely not everyone will take his side?”

  “Tomio,” Gage called from near the door. “Come on, you promised you’d show me those moves.”

  Tomio got up, taking his tray. He stopped beside me and spoke quietly. “All of the first-years have classes with Ryan. He’s well-liked, in spite of his bully act. Maybe some even like him because of it. He’s not afraid to say what he thinks. But you, you’re aloof… a clear favorite of the headmaster’s, and you’re not the one with a bruise on your chest.”

  “So, it was on his chest, not his throat?” I cocked an eyebrow, thinking the point was obvious. Ryan had lied.

  Tomio shook his head. “You don’t get it. It doesn’t matter where the bruise is, he’s got one and you haven’t. You were violent without cause.”

  “But that’s just not true. He gave plenty of cause,” I hissed. When a few faces turned my way, I softened my features. It wouldn’t help me to look so angry. “You believe me, don’t you?”

  He shrugged. “I want to. If Gage hadn’t described what he saw to me himself, I’d believe you in a heartbeat. But he told me what you said to Ryan while he was lying there on the floor, so now I don’t know what to think.” Tomio looked apologetic but moved away without waiting for my response.

  I felt poleaxed. The reality of what was happening as a result of the confrontation with Ryan settled over me like a lead blanket. My true friends, the ones who’d known me since I was a little girl, Targa and Georjayna and Akiko, they would know without my even having to defend myself that I wasn’t at fault. I was a peace-maker, I’d always gotten along with everyone in high school. I never made enemies … with the exception of Dante, of course.

  I ground my molars together as I watched Ryan and the adoring group around him. Tomio had a point, circumstances had kept me at a distance from my peers. What I thought made me special had become a burden, it had only taken a little conflict to reveal itself. Even supernaturals felt compelled to take sides.

  Sending April a sideways glance to see if she’d noticed me yet, I wondered if I could get her attention. I’d spent more time with her than with any of the other students. She’d listen to my side and wouldn’t judge. Maybe she was friendly with Ryan now, but at the beginning of the year,
she’d received the full force of his tyrannical side.

  April sat facing away from me though, still engaged in lively chat. Making an effort to block out the noise of the cafeteria, I strained to catch a little of their conversation as I chewed on my pizza without tasting it.

  “…was thinking about maybe a tattoo, or a weekend away,” April was saying. “Something expensive, you know?”

  “Leave it to me,” Jade responded, putting a hand on April’s forearm. “I can be very covert when I want to be. I’ll find out his tastes.”

  “Don’t be too obvious, though.” April grabbed Jade’s hand. “I want it to be a surprise. Something he’ll love but won’t see coming. If you tip him off—”

  “Oh, no. Don’t worry about that.” Jade laughed. “I’m as sly as a fox and as crafty as a snake.”

  The conversation gave me a chill. I swallowed and had to take a sip of water to get it down. There was only one ‘he’ April would be trying to impress, and the thought of her spending a bunch of money to do so ruined my appetite.

  I’d take the opportunity to chat with April at our next tutoring session.

  Picking up my near untouched dinner, I carried it over to the trashcan. I’d lost my appetite. The feeling of hostile eyes could do that to a person.

  Returning to my room, I sat on my bed and brooded. My gaze landed on the Palumbo report which I still had not managed to read. It seemed pointless next to the new crop of problems I faced. I wondered how long I’d be made to suffer for my so-called crime.

  I didn’t brave the cafeteria for breakfast the next morning, but bought a couple of fruit bars and an orange juice from a vending machine in the lounge instead. Ryan was waiting on the landing by the time I arrived outside Basil’s office. He slouched against in his chair, arms crossed and chewing gum. When he saw me, he gave a saccharine smile.

  “Sleep well, Queen Cagney?”

  “Get bent.”

  I didn’t take a seat. There were only four chairs lined up against the paneled wall by Basil’s office, the remaining three were too close to Ryan for my liking. I leaned against the wainscoting instead, looking everywhere but at Gage’s twin.