by C. L. Stone
“So, it’s normal?”
He nodded. “And you did the right thing by trying not to think. That self-awareness, while important, can wait. Focus on the moment. We can work on techniques to help you refocus on what’s important, what is right in front of you, instead of thinking inward about being nervous.”
I nodded slowly, considering things like how Kota sometimes counted to himself when he was stressed. It was how he focused. Maybe I needed something like counting, too.
He paused and I thought he was about to suggest we go inside. I even put my hand on the door, ready to go.
“One more thing,” he said.
I released the door. Waiting, wondering if there was another thing to earn a favor for.
“I don’t know if Victor had a chance to talk to you about his party the other night. The girl, Brie, he was with.”
Brie? It felt like ages since the party, but I remembered her, the girl who seemed much more familiar with what was happening and was upset with us for not being there on time for Victor. “She’d been helping him that night,” I said, not that Victor told me, but that was what I assumed. I was grateful someone was.
“The next morning, there was an article in the newspaper,” he said. “Reporting that they were dating…”
I blinked rapidly. Victor had warned me about things like that. In the past, the newspapers would make assumptions on who you know and what was going on in your family. I never read the newspaper, at least not about local society details.
“He told me to never web search his name, once,” I said. “The newspapers… they don’t really know.”
Despite saying that, my heart was pounding and I knew my cheeks were red and blushing. Why was he bringing this up?
“I don’t want to start any problems and I believe him,” he said. “I do need to make sure things like this… it can hurt a team. If you’d caught the newspaper article or… saw her and him together that night pretending to be a couple, even if it’s a lie…”
My chest tightened. “Pretending to be a couple?”
“He was under the impression that his mother and father would let up on him if he showed he was interested in someone they wanted him to date.”
I forced myself to bite my lip to not frown, trying to appear like I was okay with that.
For several months now, when I’d gone to the Morgan house, she made it noticeably clear she saw me as Victor’s friend… if that much. Despite him saying otherwise, even to her.
Was this why he didn’t want to see them again? He was so reluctant to even live nearby them.
How long did he want to hide that we were dating? To the point that he tried to pretend to date Brie?
“I don’t think he did the right thing,” Mr. Buble said. “A relationship shouldn’t be a secret, not from people he will likely have to revisit over and over again. He couldn’t pretend forever.” He looked again at me in the rearview. “I can tell you think the same way.”
I said nothing, pressing my back against the seat. I didn’t want to admit it. I understood… I could see where when pressured he might try it. His mother was a force, and he was always trying to be compliant without crossing too many lines. However, it was a line too far.
It was like he’d given up trying to show we were together and simply tried something else. Suddenly, that night, the whole coming face to face with his parents then and not being aware… it changed my idea of that night. My name wasn’t on the list…
My heart burned. Uncomfortable. I’d felt that way before, with them, like when a girl wrote her number on Luke’s arm.
Mr. Buble spoke, breaking up my thoughts. “However, with you under my care, I didn’t want to ignore it. When you’re in a relationship, you have every right to say what is okay and what is not. Asking you first would have been ideal.”
I nodded. It was like he knew what I was thinking.
“And it’s okay to say no to ideas that aren’t… smart.”
“Right,” I said in a small voice. But what did I expect to do? And it was more complicated since we were all dating. He was saying things like being open about relationships… when for us it was completely impossible. He did see Victor and I together that one night. I assumed he made the connection we were dating and this is why he was alerting me and making sure I would be fully aware of the situation around Victor.
And giving me dating advice? That was unexpected.
Not everyone would be like Erica. Kota’s mother had listened when Nathan and Kota told her we were all dating, except even she had doubts. Victor could tell his parents we were dating, but then what happened when someone snapped a picture with me and someone else? Victor was a public figure, popular. It was bound to happen.
Maybe he was thinking ahead… I wanted to believe he had good intentions. But then he left his home, so what happened now?
“I had wanted you and Victor to team up on this job so we could all have this conversation. If we go inside, we’ll likely have to make decisions on what to do next. Whatever Victor is doing, I need you to agree to do whatever it is. I’ll insist it happens. Have the conversation, but also get the job done, whatever is next.”
He was right. Somehow, I relaxed with him. Mr. Buble wasn’t who I thought he was: uptight, perfection, critical. He appeared this way. Mr. Blackbourne resembled him in many ways.
He breathed in through his nose and out of his mouth once, slowly. “I know I’m butting in…”
“It’s okay.”
His eyes met mine and there was a hardness there I hadn’t witness before, an assured and determined gaze that filled me with something I’d never felt before… that someone older like him could be very concerned for my happiness and welfare. “For everyone under my charge, I try to picture if they were my children… my daughter would deserve much better than to be a secret.”
I didn’t know what to say, but inside, I was trying not to cry. I blinked several times to stop myself from doing so.
It was hard to learn when someone else cared about me. He didn’t know me, but he looked out for me. I was trying not to think of this as a conversation I should have had with a parent, talking about relationships, learning what there was to learn from their experiences. Was this normal between parents and teenagers?
It was what I’d missed out on having parents that didn’t want me. It was everything I’d read about or watched on shows, parents being there for their children, and he was trying to do so.
He was right, but this relationship was complicated. But he was also right that Victor could have checked with me first. We’d have to make the choice together. I understood, of course. I knew he cared about me… but did he care enough about me to worry what I felt over how his parents thought of him?
Did it matter?
I didn’t want to put myself in the middle, but at some point, with their disapproval, it was always destined to come up. It was always going to be what he really wanted or what his parents wanted, and he’d have to make that choice.
Mr. Buble nodded shortly and adjusted the jacket he wore, assuring it was on correctly. “Help me get this team in order, Miss Sang. Nothing is right just yet. For it, I think they’d owe you a multitude of favors.”
Those words gave me comfort. This team. The team I was on. None of us were perfect. Maybe we weren’t going to be. Handling our parents. Getting into a safe place. Starting work on things that mattered.
Get it in order. He was working toward it. He was going to help.
He was trying to help.
We needed to let him. He could show us so much if we did.
Legato
(Joined)
Victor
For a while, there was peace as Mr. Blackbourne got phone calls and Victor, Luke and Gabriel scoured houses for sale on their phones.
At least, Victor did sometimes look at the homes for sale.
Most of the time, it frustrated him. There were so many and it felt
like not one of them suited their needs. Who knew shopping for a house would be so problematic?
At times, instead of looking, he went through old messages and photos from Sang, or taken of Sang by the others that they shared.
He particularly liked one of the ones where she was half asleep. Her hair was a little fluffy and her eyes half closed. She looked really cute.
The peace didn’t last long. Mr. Blackbourne’s principal’s office became crowded with the addition of Nathan and Kota, followed closely by Mr. Buble and Sang.
North, Silas and Nathan had joined them not long ago. They’d all taken a lunch break and talked about what was needed for a house to live in. They even put together a list of options to go look at.
A few were downtown. Victor hated to admit it, but the more rooms needed, the more likely they needed a big house, and bigger houses were either too far outside the city than was convenient, or they were downtown.
When Mr. Buble entered with Sang, the conversation stopped. Aside from Dr. Green still in class, it was everyone together.
Funny how a surprise family meeting happened.
The door was closed. Sang at first lingered behind Mr. Buble, hands in her hoodie pocket, head down, like she’d walked all the way from the parking lot like that and realized she was now among friends. After a minute, she relaxed, put the hood down.
She looked around the room, but when she landed on Victor, she avoided his gaze.
Odd. Something was wrong?
After that, she kept her eyes on the floor, the wall, other stuff around the room, not really looking at whoever was talking.
At first, Mr. Buble just relayed shortly what happened, that Sang got her point for Victor.
Victor wanted to say with this sort of timing, he could have earned his own favor back by now, but Sang still needed to learn how the Academy worked. He understood that was mostly Mr. Buble’s attempting to get her involved quickly.
“We got the car,” North said to Mr. Buble. “We just had to buy it… again. It wasn’t hard. We can change the VIN and plate back. What to do with Victor’s…”
“Scrap it,” Victor said.
“It’s not terribly damaged,” North said. “If you don’t mind, I haven’t had experience with fixing a flood damaged car. If I can get the time, I’d like to try.”
Victor didn’t expect it was reparable at all. He’d said goodbye to it already and now it was getting resurrected. He didn’t know how to feel about it. He nodded slowly. “It’ll take a while though?”
North nodded. “I might not even be able to do it. Either it works and we’ve got a spare car to use, or it doesn’t but I have scrap parts to work with on the other BMW.”
That made sense. “In the meantime, we’re down a car still.”
“Now that we’ve cleared the docket a bit,” Mr. Buble said, “maybe we can work on these more domestic issues at hand. We are at a loss of locations to stay. I understand there’s a security trailer outside the diner…”
“Sang can stay with me,” Silas said quickly.
“She can stay with us,” Kota said.
“She can stay with us, too,” Luke cut in.
It was all at sort of the same time. Immediately afterward, Mr. Blackbourne coughed, shortly, in a very direct way that indicated he wanted them to stop.
They were looking too eager to have Sang spend the night with them, perhaps.
“Temporary solutions aside,” Mr. Buble said, “I currently have an opening at my own residence. It’s a single room with two sets of bunkbeds and there are other children present in the rest of the house, none of which are us at present.” With us he meant Academy. “There’s a maid and cook that come in during the day, also not us. It’ll work, however, until a suitable location is purchased and will cost nothing in the meantime.”
Victor was oddly curious about where Mr. Buble lived. And it sounded like a good plan. Sang did tend to go from place to place, which was fine, but Victor and now Nathan would be making rounds. Parents were likely to figure out what was going on. Maybe Erica wouldn’t mind, but she’d wonder about why they were all suddenly homeless. Uncle would be fine with it, but their house right now was still half falling apart, and the trailer on property was small. Not to mention if Gabriel joined them as well soon, it’d be a disaster. Dr. Green’s would have been better, but his mother was still in town on business. Mr. Blackbourne’s location wouldn’t work. Silas’s father would have a problem with so many people staying for so long. They’d be welcomed but again, questions would be asked.
That left nowhere else really.
It was an odd sensation.
His parents would have been smug about the idea of him homeless.
“If it’s acceptable,” Mr. Buble continued, “I’d need someone to get supplies needed, clothes and any medications and so forth, all delivered to the address.” He looked pointedly toward Kota and Nathan, likely because Kota was family lead and knew where to find everything.
“I have to stick around for tonight anyway,” Nathan said. “I know he’s got a flight, but we should be watching the house if no one is there.”
“We’ve got the night shift,” North said, motioning to Silas. “Everyone else should get sleep.”
There was more conversation between everyone about who should sleep where. Victor was lost for a moment, thinking about Nathan at first, about his father, who should be with him for that confrontation.
Then there was Sang, who kept her head down the whole time. It wasn’t like her. She usually, while silent, was wide-eyed and watching everyone around her. When she was like that, listening attentively, she was really beautiful, happy, and adorable. She did it a lot around the group.
Right now, she wasn’t even looking. Victor wasn’t sure she was paying attention.
His name being mentioned dragged him out of what he had been thinking. “What?”
Mr. Blackbourne spoke. “I could use your help here.”
“Actually, I have one last thing to do with him today,” Mr. Buble said. “And it has to be him specifically as we already started together. It’s short and shouldn’t take long.” He checked in with direct eye contact with Victor. “Our librarian friend.”
Of course. Mitch. He’d nearly forgotten. There were a few steps to help make sure things would go smoothly.
“If anyone else would like to join us…” Mr. Buble paused, allowing anyone to speak.
It was Sang that jumped in quickly. “I will,” she said.
Before anyone else could react, Mr. Buble nodded and with his head titled back just a little, he motioned with an open palm in the general direction of outside. “I’ll be accompanying you two the whole time. Everyone else will have to make arrangements for you in your stead.” He changed his attention to Kota. “I trust in you for that.”
“Of course,” he said.
No one else seemed to notice, but it was Mr. Blackbourne whose attention had shifted.
Falling right on Sang. Watching her. Studying.
Victor’s attention went between the two. Mr. Blackbourne seemed curious. Sang was still not really looking at anyone, but she’d picked her head up at least.
Slowly, Mr. Blackbourne’s gaze shifted, until it landed on Victor.
Victor wordlessly lifted an eyebrow. While the others talked around them, he was silently asking Mr. Blackbourne, Is something wrong with her? What happened?
Mr. Blackbourne’s also silent reply was very clear: I don’t know, but you better find out.
Magnifico
(Magnificent)
Sang
It was completely awkward to see both Mr. Buble and Mr. Blackbourne in the same room together.
There were times when I realized Mr. Blackbourne was more my own age than not when presented with other adults around him, but so far none more so than Mr. Buble. Maybe because they were alike in so many ways, and yet there was a clear age difference.
How it cam
e about, that he could come in and in such a short time basically take the lead felt strange to me. Was it that he was older, or that he had confidence and held command of a room?
I had no idea what they meant by some librarian job as something to do, but I imagined it was one of hundreds of Academy jobs to be done. As Mr. Buble said, we had to clear the docket. One more thing off the list.
Luckily while in Mr. Blackbourne’s office, the final bell for the day rang. Mr. Blackbourne, escorted by Luke and Gabriel, excused himself to oversee everyone’s departure.
The rest of us lingered in his office until the majority of people were out of school, either on the busses or at whatever after school activities.
I zipped the jacket I wore, assuring the hood was adjusted right on my head thinking we were going to leave the office. But Mr. Buble stopped and then motioned to Victor and then the computer in the office.
“Could you pull up two people we saw today out of class? Their profiles?” He looked to me, as if he wasn’t sure their names.
“Jay and Karen,” I said. “I don’t remember their full names.”
North perked an eyebrow. “Something up with them?”
“We’re not sure,” Mr. Buble said. He relayed to them how Kota and I had come across them after finding a mask. “As Volto is likely associated with the school, it’s a less than zero chance they don’t have some connection here. Follow up, create a timeline. It’s probable that they have nothing to do with it but better to eliminate.”
“I’d like to work on it,” North said in a dreadful tone, his eyes narrowing.
I knew why. Erica. He wanted to make sure it wasn’t her, perhaps by proving it was anyone else. It gave me the same hope, that it couldn’t be Erica. We didn’t want it to be.
He continued, “I feel like splitting the information between all of us makes it harder. Luke was working alone on it for a while.” He motioned to Victor. “I know you’ve been working on something. I want to be the one to work on this. Be the cornerstone. I don’t have a job anymore here at the school. I need something else. Let me do this.”