Storm and Stone

by Joss Stirling

  ‘Shame she hates your guts already,’ Joe smirked. ‘I’m the one she likes.’

  Kieran’s irritation flared. His friend had an advanced degree in flirting. ‘Joe, you will back off Raven Stone.’

  ‘Whoa, coming over all territorial, are we?’ Joe studied him with amusement. ‘Gonna start beating your chest next?’

  ‘Don’t be an idiot.’ Kieran snapped his napkin in Joe’s face, making his friend flinch as the end flickered a millimetre from the end of his nose. He could do the same move to greater effect with a bullwhip as well Joe knew. You would’ve thought he’d get over the wincing after having been Kieran’s partner in circus skills class last summer.

  ‘So what’s going on? You, reclusive Kieran Storm, the mystery among us Yoda boys, have finally deigned to notice a girl and are staking a claim?’ Joe took a heaped spoon of his ice cream and smacked his lips appreciatively.

  ‘I’m not.’ He was. ‘I just don’t want you messing up our mission here with you doing your usual thing.’

  ‘Which is?

  ‘Getting their hopes up with your charm. Leaving a trail of broken hearts. You know you do it, Joe, as we never stay around for long.’

  ‘I can’t help it if I’m a chick magnet.’

  ‘Wait a minute, ladies and gentlemen—wait while I move out of the shadow of this man’s ego.’

  ‘My ego has nothing on yours.’

  Kieran smiled complacently. ‘But mine is justified.’

  ‘Keep telling yourself that. You, my friend, are heading for a fall: one day you are going to meet someone who’s going to take you down a peg—or twenty.’

  ‘Not going to happen. We don’t have relationships while on a mission.’

  ‘We’ll see. You’ll find you can’t ace everything life throws at you.’ Joe gave his friend an evil grin. Kieran could tell Joe was up to something. The recruits at the Young Detective Agency—or Yodas as they called themselves—trained together so had a fairly good idea of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It was necessary so that, when they went out as a team, they went prepared. Kieran knew to be suspicious when Joe looked pleased with himself.

  ‘What are you up to, Joe?’

  ‘Nothing. Just our mission.’ Joe was acting innocent—too innocent. ‘As the A stream representative, you apply that immense brain of yours to what links a series of corrupt decisions of global significance and this very benign-seeming school. Batting for Team C,’ Joe mimed an imaginary baseball stroke, ‘I’m the one who is supposed to get up close and personal with our sources of information.’

  Kieran preferred not to think about Joe being close and personal to Raven Stone. He wasn’t worried about what Joe did with the other students, but something about her had slipped past Kieran’s guard. Probably the hint that she wasn’t as tough as she tried to appear; he found the combination of hard shell, soft centre fascinating. ‘And that’s all you’re doing?’

  ‘Do you doubt me? I was the one tasked to find out why the parents of some of these students have suddenly fallen so spectacularly off the straight and narrow path.’

  C stream, the Cats, as the agents with skills like Joe’s were nicknamed, were selected for their ability to blend; one result was that they were never short of girlfriends or boyfriends, thanks to their charming ways. Kieran’s own A stream, tagged the Owls, were teased for their high IQs and low sweet-talking scores. The charm and the brains: that was how they were seen at the YDA.

  Kieran stabbed his apple pie. Personally he preferred five minutes of straight talk with a girl he fancied than Joe’s hour of clever manoeuvring and flattery—anyone with any sense would.

  But was Raven sensible?

  Put it aside: this was about the mission, not about an irrational instinct that had flared up inside him. He distrusted emotions. The last thing he wanted at Westron was a girlfriend, as serious relationships were forbidden while on a job. What was needed now was for him to focus on his mission.

  ‘OK, how we going to go about this? Do we need to adjust any of our strategies now we are on site?’

  ‘I don’t think so. We’ll proceed as Isaac told us. I’ll check out those who have parents mixed up in this scheme, see if they spill anything about what connects them, other than them all having kids at the same school; you get into the database and find any hint of Westron being knowingly involved.’

  ‘That red-haired girl who has it in for Raven—Hedda Lindberg?’

  ‘Already memorized the roll?’

  ‘Naturally. First thing I did on arrival.’

  Joe gave him an exasperated look. ‘’Course it was. What about her?’

  ‘She might be a good place to start. Her father went from legitimate gem merchant to smuggler of blood diamonds overnight.’

  ‘Interesting. OK, I’ll check if she knows anything.’

  ‘Good luck with that. She looks pretty toxic to me.’

  ‘I’ll be careful.’ Joe stood up. ‘Will you be OK on your own?’

  Kieran folded his napkin in a precise square. ‘You have to ask?’

  ‘Oh yeah, Mr I-am-an-island is fine with his own company. I forgot. See you in our room then.’

  ‘I’ll have my preliminary results on the email traffic by then.’

  ‘Great. Don’t forget we’re gonna have to attend lessons tomorrow and check in with Isaac at midday.’

  Kieran was already running some tests on Westron’s wireless network on his tablet computer. ‘Like that will be hard for me.’

  ‘I know you have Science qualifications up to your ears, so that’s why I enrolled you for the Drama, Art, English, and Dance AS level courses.’

  ‘You did what? I’m not prancing about in a leotard!’

  ‘Shouldn’t have handed over the form-filling to me, should you?’ Joe intercepted Kieran’s thump with his forearm. ‘Come on, Key, it’ll be fun.’

  ‘For whom?’ Kieran imagined squashing his dessert bowl on to Joe’s face—so tempting. Then again, how hard could all that arty stuff be? Nothing surely to the extreme difficulty of pure mathematics, and he’d mastered that without breaking a sweat. He rose to his feet. ‘You will die for this, Joe, and no one will find the body. I have several completely undetectable means of disposing of a corpse.’

  Joe looked worried for a second, knowing Kieran probably did. ‘You could see it as a challenge. You complained about not being tested earlier.’

  ‘You imagine that this is going to test me?’ Kieran raised a brow. ‘Think again, my friend, think again.’

  From her vantage point on the visitors’ sofa by the office, Raven watched the students file out of the dining hall while she pretended to read a newspaper. She had meant to return to her room but curiosity about the new guys kept her hanging around in the foyer.

  ‘Oh my gosh: they are fa-bu-lous!’ exclaimed Mairi, a girl in her dance class, blessed with an abundance of freckles and frothy auburn hair. ‘Did you see them?’

  ‘You mean Mr Hottie McTottie and Mr Scorching Tightbuns? You could hardly miss them. What can I say but wow!’ laughed her friend, Liza. I’m with you there, sister. ‘They’ve just joined Westron. Hedda said they were expelled from their old school.’

  Mairi grinned. ‘Even better. I just love bad boys.’

  ‘Me too. I wouldn’t mind helping them settle in, if you know what I mean.’ Liza waggled her eyebrows, still giggling.

  ‘Raven had a go.’

  ‘She’s quicker off the mark than the rest of us.’

  ‘Looks like she crashed and burned with them though.’ They were passing out of earshot, not having noticed their eavesdropper behind the potted cheese plant.

  ‘Leaves the field clear for the rest of us, doesn’t it? So, what do you think about the rumours about her? True?’

  Raven didn’t get to hear the answer but it was horrible to know that even girls she had once thought of as friends were questioning her character. She didn’t have long to brood as the two new boys emerged from the hall. Yep, her first
impressions had been right: they were both gorgeous. Joe was more instantly appealing, perhaps, but there was something about Kieran that made her want to look at him again. And again. She lifted the paper higher.

  ‘So how would you do it?’ Joe was asking. ‘Dispose of the evidence?’

  ‘It’s harder than you think.’

  ‘I get that.’

  ‘And you’ll only find out if I decide you have a need to know.’

  ‘Like when you are using it on me?’

  ‘Correct. So tread carefully, my friend.’

  Joe shook his head. ‘I think it’s too late for that. I’d better make a will.’

  Odd conversation. Raven put down the paper and watched them walk away. The view was mighty fine. It was like spotting two big cats prowling a jungle, moving sinuously through the undergrowth. OK, OK, Raven, enough hanging about eyeing up the new guys. Kieran had already demonstrated in a fairly insulting manner that he only looked at her twice to dissect her character and habits. She would be better off working out how to beat down the rumours about her stealing rather than languishing after him. Her past made her shy around boys; she usually dealt with her attraction to guys by turning her sassy attitude on full. Best to put a distance between herself and Kieran so she didn’t embarrass herself. That shouldn’t be too hard; she couldn’t imagine they’d share any classes. Kieran didn’t seem the type to go for arts.

  ‘As you know by now, most of your marks will go on the assessment of your final dance piece and your written interpretation.’ Miss Hollis, the dance teacher, flexed her arms above her head, rolling her neck muscles to loosen up.

  Raven couldn’t believe it: Kieran was in her class. He had come in late and sat on the floor near her, stretching long legs crossed at the ankles before him. He studiously ignored the excited whispers of the girls around him, looking as if he would prefer to be anywhere else than here.

  ‘The exams are coming up fast and we have a new member of our AS set to fit in. Girls, this is Kieran Storm whose been doing the subject at his old school. We’ll need to reorganize our groups. So, Kieran, what style do you prefer? Ballet, jazz or modern?’

  Did he really just mutter: I’d prefer to be sticking sharp objects in my eyeballs? Raven gave him a querying look. What on earth was he doing here? He was the most reluctant convert to dance she had ever seen.

  ‘Kieran?’ repeated Miss Hollis.

  ‘Modern.’

  ‘OK, we have two groups doing that. Liza, Mairi and Rachel, and Gina and Raven.’ The teacher glanced round the twenty girls gathered at the front of the room. ‘Raven, where’s Gina?’

  ‘She’s not back yet, miss.’ Phew: bullet dodged. She wouldn’t have Kieran dumped on her.

  Miss Hollis turned to the other group. ‘How’s your routine shaping up? Would you be able to fit him in?’

  ‘Oh yes, miss,’ gushed Mairi. ‘I’d be really happy to have him—in our group, I mean.’ The rest of the class giggled as Mairi blushed an amazing shade of red. Liza whispered ‘Hottie McTottie’ so Mairi could hear, making the girl’s embarrassment even deeper.

  But then teacher turned back to Raven. Go away, go away! ‘But if Gina is missing, perhaps we should put him with you, Raven?’

  Kieran’s crystal green eyes latched onto her, producing that same tingle down the spine she had felt last night.

  No, no: she had resolved to keep her distance and this would ruin that plan. ‘Without Gina, it will be hard to know what to do with him, miss.’

  ‘I know exactly what I’d do with him,’ whispered Liza.

  Miss Hollis shot a reproving look at Liza then fixed Raven with her gaze. ‘But you are one of my most experienced dancers, Raven; I’m sure you can adapt to having a boy in your group better than most.’

  The teacher’s expectation was clear. ‘I guess we’ll sort something out.’

  ‘Thank you, Raven. And if Gina doesn’t come back for any reason, then you can simply slip Kieran into her role.’

  ‘That’d be hard as we were working to the theme of birth—we’d gone for mother and child—Gina being the mother.’

  A couple of girls giggled. Kieran frowned at the ceiling.

  Mrs Hollis tapped her fingers on her crossed forearms. ‘Well, some of the best dances come from being forced to radically rethink our preconceptions.’

  ‘If you say so.’ How had her avoidance tactics been defeated so quickly?

  That issue settled to her satisfaction, Miss Hollis clapped her hands. ‘OK, girls—and Kieran, of course: let’s warm up. We’ll do some neck isolations, then some hip swings.’

  Kieran placed himself at the back of the group just behind Raven. She didn’t like him there; she had the distinct feeling he was following her rather than the teacher and that made the normally innocent exercises uncomfortable. She wished she had put on trackies rather than a leotard and leggings.

  Miss Hollis signalled the end to the warm-up. ‘OK, now work in your groups. Start with some trust exercises. I’ll go round and see each group individually.’

  Raven turned. He stood right behind her, hands on hips, confident half-smile on his face, lord of all he surveyed. Apparently he was not shaken by being the only male in the room. This was the first time they’d stood eye-to-eye and she was struck at how tall he was. Elf and hobbit—that’s how he made her feel. She reached for her usual sass to counter the height difference. ‘So, Sudoku, how would you like to do this?’

  He pushed a lock of hair off his face. ‘Trust exercises—what are they?’

  She gave him a querying look. ‘You don’t know?’

  ‘Obviously not as I just asked you.’

  ‘You know: falling back and trusting your partner will catch you. That kind of thing.’

  ‘What is the point of doing that? I already know I’ll catch you and if you try and catch me we will both end up on the floor.’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘Ya think?’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘OK, Sudoku, give it a go.’

  ‘I am not falling on you.’

  ‘See, you don’t trust me.’

  ‘No, I don’t.’

  She leant closer and prodded his chest. ‘That was the point of the exercise. You’ve just failed.’

  Challenge issued, he responded. ‘All right, Miss Stone, catch me.’ Spinning round, he let himself fall back. She made a good attempt at grabbing him as he fell, but gravity won and they ended up on the floor, her under him.

  ‘Geez Louise, give me some warning next time!’ huffed Raven, shoving him. She tried not to give away her intense awareness of her body plastered against his spine.

  He cleared his throat and sat up. ‘See, I’m too big for you to support my weight.’

  Raven rolled out from under him and sprang to her feet. ‘Let’s try that one more time, Ace, with fair warning.’ Kieran didn’t answer, his gaze snagged on her hair. Her hands flew to it: as usual it was misbehaving, waving around her head in disarray. ‘Are you listening to me, Kieran?’

  ‘Possibly not. Have you got anything sensible to say?’

  Her hand itched for something to throw at him. Nothing available, she settled for a put-upon sigh. ‘Gina never gave me any of this trouble. I can’t wait for her to get back.’

  ‘Maybe the two of you would be enough to catch me.’ He got to his feet. ‘When do you think she’ll get here?’ Kieran rolled his shoulders.

  ‘I don’t know. She should’ve been here already. It’s just like Johnny and Siobhan—they’ve been gone months—Hedda last term and, I don’t know, a bunch of others.’

  Kieran’s attention focused abruptly, smile vanishing. ‘What do you mean, just like Johnny and Siobhan?’

  Raven shrugged, wondering why he cared. ‘You know, people saying they were going to come back then not showing up for ages—or not at all. Gina was totally, like, fired up for this term when I last saw her before Easter. I expect she just missed her flight or something.’

  ‘You don’t know?’
r />   ‘She might’ve texted me.’

  ‘But your phone’s out of action.’

  She crossed her arms, not liking the reminder of the fight. ‘As you noticed last night.’

  Kieran dug in his sports bag. ‘Want to contact her on mine?’

  His offer surprised Raven. They were strangers, after all. ‘You sure?’

  He held it out to her.

  Casting a quick glance over at Miss Hollis—she was busy with one of the Jazz groups—Raven checked her planner for a number and tapped it in. When she’d finished, she handed the phone back to Kieran, much happier.

  ‘Thanks. I hate not knowing.’

  ‘OK, guys, what’ve you come up with?’ Miss Hollis appeared at their side; she excelled at teacher stealth attacks to pick on slackers.

  Kieran tucked the phone away quickly. ‘We’re just batting some preliminary ideas between us.’

  ‘You’d better not spend too long doing that. We’ve only got a few weeks to put this together.’

  ‘It’s OK, miss: we’ll get there,’ said Raven.

  ‘How are you approaching it?’

  ‘We’re working the kinks out of a few trust issues,’ said Kieran smoothly. ‘I think Raven isn’t sure about me yet.’

  Raven looked daggers in his direction.

  ‘Really? Can I help with that?’ Mrs Hollis looked between them expectantly.

  ‘Oh no, miss,’ Raven said sweetly—then cast her arms wide and collapsed into Kieran’s arms, lifting one leg to point a toe. She had to admit his reactions were good: he caught her. She used the momentum of the catch to bounce up and do a free spin, ending with her arms in a curving shape pointing back to him. That made the score about even, she would say.

  ‘Excellent.’ Miss Hollis applauded. ‘I can see that putting you with a male partner, Raven, is allowing you to use his power as a springboard for your natural gymnastic ability.’

  ‘What?’ Kieran scowled. She got the message he did not consider himself anyone’s springboard.

  ‘The man in a dance is expected to lead, help, and support his partner.’ Mrs Hollis patted Kieran on the back. ‘I’m hoping you’ll put those muscles of yours to good purpose, Kieran. Carry on.’