“What have you done to the poor invalid?”
“I have no idea.” I shrugged and began walking toward the door. “I also seem to have a knack for ticking him off.”
“Well, at least tell me all about the cheerleaders in the bathroom.”
As we walked to Felix’s car, I told him all about what Sylvie, Whitney, and Brooklynn had talked about in the bathroom. As he drove me home, I got out my notebook, where I had doodled earlier about Mr. Hickham, and added the three girls’ names and spaces for two possible un-named males.
I wrote the word BLACKMAIL with a questions mark.
I wrote LAB PARTNER, MISSED PRACTICES, and CONTROL. Underneath one of the un-named males, I wrote the phrase PAST HISTORY. I had more questions than I did answers, but maybe I’d figure it out.
Another thing I needed to figure out was how to work with Nate Reinhart without us killing each other.
“Hey, do you have any classes with Sylvie?”
Felix gave me a suspicious look but said, “Yeah, why?”
“Which class?”
“Biology. Why?”
“Who’s her lab partner?”
“It was Nate. But he was just telling me in the hall that the teacher switched him to mine because they broke up. She doesn’t know yet. I don’t think. Why?”
“Interesting,” I said vaguely.
“Would you please tell me what is going on?” Felix demanded, “Your vagueness is very infuriating.”
“Well, remember they were telling Sylvie to stay away from him…whoever ‘him’ is, but she said she can’t because he’s her lab partner.”
“You think they’re warning her about Nate?”
“It’s just where the clues are leading, that’s all.” I shrugged. “Maybe she’s missed too many practices because of Nate—they were still dating at the time, after all.”
As Felix turned in my driveway, he stopped the car and looked at me. “Look I don’t know what beef you and Nate have with each other, but I don’t think you should jump to conclusions like he’s blackmailing Sylvie. I mean, you guys have to work together all semester, so I wouldn’t make an enemy of him just yet.”
“What do you care?” I huffed and slammed the notebook shut.
“We’re friends, aren’t we?” His brows lifted, and his eyes conveyed his vulnerability to rejection. I took a deep breath. I certainly didn’t want to lose the good thing that was going to get me through this school year.
“We are. I’m sorry.” I met his eyes, and mine stung at the thought of crying, which I fought back successfully. “I didn’t mean to snap at you, Felix. Please forgive me.”
“We’re good.” He smiled and shifted in his seat to peer at me. “You seem on edge. Want to talk about it?”
“I just seem to be failing epically today. It’s gone all wrong. I’m trying to be nice, but it’s not working. At all.”
“I don’t know about ‘at all,’ but, yeah, you’ve stuck your foot in your mouth more than once. But just like with me, a deep breath and an apology goes a long way. Just wait until Nate calls, and apologize.”
“Fine,” I muttered reluctantly, knowing he was right but dreading talking to Nate on the phone. “You want to stay for dinner?”
“Thanks, but I should go eat with my folks. Wanna swim after dinner?”
“Yeah, just text me,” I said as I got out of his car.
We were still enjoying the heat from the summer—this was the south, after all, and it would be hot well into September. It enabled us to hold on to summer a bit longer even when school started in August. And it had helped me as of late to take my mind off all that was going on. And there was a lot going on.
I laid on my bed after hanging up with Carol and stared at the ceiling. Why did it matter? Why could I not just let it go and mind my own business? Because that’s what everyone did with me last year, minded their own business.
I tried to think about who had been in the office with Mr. Hickham and what Sylvie needed to come forward about and whether Nate could have been the one forcing her to come forward. The thoughts rushed through my mind.
Could Nate be blackmailing Sylvie? What would be his endgame? They said he’d done something to someone before. And he was bullying her. That doesn’t seem like Nate…but, then again, I’ve already misjudged him on several occasions.
Mr. Hickham was the principal’s assistant, though he called himself the assistant principal, but he was also the assistant football coach. Surely, he wouldn’t be involved with a student; that would cost him his job and most likely get him sent to prison. Not probably—definitely.
What if it was two students in his office, and one was roleplaying as Mr. Hickham? Not only was that ludicrous, but it was disturbing. I thought back to that day that I’d walked by the office. Then, I suddenly remembered that Nate had said Sylvie wasn’t at practice, and the girls made it a point to rub it in that she’d missed practice several times because of him.
Who was ‘him’?? Nate? No—that didn’t make sense. Nate had been with me in the gym, and according to him, they’d already broken up, and he was trying to make her jealous by meeting with me. Was it Mr. Hickham that she’d missed practice for? Was the ‘him’ the same ‘him’ that was her lab partner? Were they different?
My mind was swimming in the deep end with questions when my phone dinged. It was a text from Felix saying that he couldn’t come over tonight. As I put the phone down, it practically buzzed out of my hand. It was Nate calling.
“Hello?” I answered with more surprise in my voice than I intended.
“Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“No, sorry. The phone just startled me,” I admitted. It felt weird to be talking on the phone to Nate Reinhart.
“Lost in thought? Or busy?” He sounded oddly considerate and not mad.
“Uh…trying to solve a mystery. Sort of.”
“A mystery?”
“Sort of,” I repeated before swiftly changing the subject. “What’s up?”
“What’s the deal with Friday?” he asked aloofly.
I raised an eyebrow. “The deal is we have to write an article on the dance,” I answered flatly.
“Yes.”
“Ok.” I felt confused as to why he wasn’t mad anymore.
“Do you want to meet there or go together?” he prodded.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It does.”
This was infuriating! “It does matter, but I don’t want to answer that question, because, if I say yes, let’s go together, then it makes it seem like I want to go to the dance with you.”
“You don’t want to go to the dance with me?” Nate clarified.
“Nate—you know you’d never ask me to the dance if you weren’t indirectly being forced to go with me.”
“You don’t know that.”
I paused. Was he just being difficult or was he being real? “Have you taken more pain medicine?”
“No, Avery.” He sounded irritated again, though to me, the question was valid. In my experience, he’d have to be out of his mind on pain meds to say something like that.
I winced at what was about to come out of my mouth but asked anyway, “Do you think we should go together?”
“Just think, if we’re covering it together, we might as well. Plus, I can’t drive. So, I need a ride anyway.”
“The logic is there, for sure,” I said, realizing neither of us wanted to say that we wanted to go with the other.
And then, the thought occurred to me that I could possibly get more information out of him by spending the whole dance with him. Maybe I could figure out what was going on with Sylvie. “Except one thing: I can’t drive either.”
“You’re not sixteen yet?”
“Next week.”
“Oh,” he answered with barely a hint of disappointment.
“Yep. Well, I guess I’ll just see you there, then?”
“Yeah, sure.”
There was a pause, and I knew
what I needed to say, but, after all the dance nonsense, I hesitated. Plus, maybe he didn’t deserve an apology if he was a blackmailer. I felt as though I was about to make a fool of myself yet again if I didn’t just hang up the phone now. But I didn’t.
“Nate?”
“Yep?”
“Before you go, I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted in the hall today.”
“Thanks. I’m not mad anymore.”
“Okay. So, see you Friday?”
“Yeah. What are you going to wear?”
“Umm…” Weird question. “A dress?”
“You don’t know yet? You didn’t want to match or anything?”
I laughed to myself and made a face that I was glad he couldn’t see. “I’m not that girl, Nate. But thanks for asking.”
“Hmm,” was his only response.
“Bye, Nate.”
“Bye, Avery.”
“Are you sure that you don’t want me to come with you? This is the first dance you’ve been willing to go to!”
“Mom, I wouldn’t really call this willing,” I said with a smirk.
“I know, but you’re going to a school function!” she announced in the kitchen to no one.
“It’s not a big deal, Mom. I’m just going so I can write the article with Nate later.” I shuffled my feet uncomfortably. “Carol and Felix wanted to help pick out a dress. Everyone is a little too excited about this.”
“Carol is coming into town just for this?” My mother’s astonishment made her voice rise an octave.
I held up my iPad and pointed to it. “Facetime, Mom. Carol will be on Facetime.”
“Oh! Technology….” She shook her head, realizing how silly she had just sounded. “Well, just don’t change in front of the iPad…or in front of Felix. That would just be inappropriate.”
I rolled my eyes into the refrigerator while I grabbed a water bottle out. “I won’t, Mom. You’re right; that would be weird.”
“I’m surprised Felix doesn’t mind helping.”
“I asked him to come.”
“Why is that?” Mother questioned.
“He picked me to be his friend, so he has good taste?” I smiled mischievously at her and kissed her on the cheek. “We’ll be back for dinner.”
“Okay, have fun. And don’t pick anything orange. You look terrible in orange.”
“The zipper is stuck, Felix! And I already feel claustrophobic in this dress. Help me!” I called out from the dressing room, contorting my whole body to try and get the zipper down further so I could be free of the satin and tulle.
“What do you want me to do?” he said from the couch in the waiting room that had all the mirrors where I could go loathe myself in all the sparkly dresses he made me try on.
“Get help—I can’t get out of this dress!” I felt like I was starting to sweat.
“What do I do?” he asked in a panicked voice.
“Go find a lady in the front.” The dress was trying to eat me.
After a moment, Felix returned, panting, and knocked on the door. “I can’t find anyone.”
“What do you mean? Where is everyone?”
“I don’t know, AB, I looked all over. Maybe they went to lunch?”
“Felix, get real. They can’t go to lunch with customers in the store!” I panted, trying to breath with my ribs constricted, then wondering how women wore corsets every day.
Stick to the point, Avery Brave.
I had to have help. And, as much as what I was about to say would shock the both of us, I was desperate to breathe again.
“Just get in here and help,” I dared to demand.
“What?! I can’t come in there, AB. It was inappropriate enough that you wanted me to sit in the rooms with all the mirrors and help you decide. At least the ladies in the front thought so.”
“I know, but where are they now?! I need help. I’m completely decent; I just can’t get the zipper. And I’m suffocating slowly by way of prom dress. And that is the worst way to die. Now, help me!”
“I can’t just leave Carol out here by herself!”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
“I’m not! Why are we shouting?”
“Because I’m starting to hyperventilate and panic in this dress. I can’t get out. I told you it was going to be too small.”
“I’m coming. Carol’s with me.”
“Carol, don’t tell Mom. She told me not to bring you in the dressing room,” I said, looking at Felix.
Felix gave me an odd look, and I realized how erratic I sounded. We both started laughing.
“It’s okay for me but not for Carol. That seems backward,” Felix said.
“It’s not okay for you. But this is a desperate time,” I said, tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing.
“Desperate measures and all that.”
I nodded, now panting from laughing and from the dress. “Mother said not to let either of you in. We will never speak of this again,” I said, giggling with tears still spilling out and my face aching from laughing so hard.
“Well, it might be too small, but it’s really cute,” Carol said from the tablet.
Felix set Carol down on top of my purse, which was in the chair, and set to helping me with the zipper. He had it almost all the way down when we heard voices coming toward the dressing rooms.
“Shhh.” I said, grabbing Felix’s arm. He clamped his hand over his mouth and pulled Carol over to us. We stood still like statues against the wall and listened.
Several changing stalls down from us, several voices were talking. One was crying. I quickly recognized them as the same girls from the bathroom the other day: Sylvie, Whitney, and Brooklynn. I mouthed Sylvie’s name to Felix, and he nodded.
“He’s going to tell everyone,” she said through the sobs. “He’s going to put it in the paper, he said.”
“What paper would publish that?”
“What is he going to gain by outing you?”
“He just wants to expose Hickham. He wants us to expose him. And if I don’t, he says he’ll expose me.”
“How’s he going to put it in the papers? That’s stupid, Sylvie. No one will run that story.”
“He says he has an in. And if we don’t expose him, then he’ll run the other story.”
“He wouldn’t!”
“You keep saying that!” she said, snorting as she cried.
Felix covered my mouth too and made a “shh” motion to Carol.
“But you guys know what he did to Avery! You know he’s capable of a lot worse!”
My knees buckled, and Felix had to catch me against his knees so I didn’t fall against the stall and crash to the ground. They were talking about Ace? I had gotten it all wrong. I had assumed it was Nate. But Ace was blackmailing Sylvie.
And that, I believed.
“Speaking of Avery,” one of the girls interjected, “did you guys hear that she and Nate are going to the dance together?”
“That can’t be true. Nate can’t stand her. He told me as much.” Sylvie slowed her crying and sneered. “But that doesn’t even matter. Can we please focus on what I am gonna do?”
“We’ve got to find a way to beat him at his own game.”
“This isn’t a game! If he tells everyone what I did or what Mr. Hickham did…it ruins me either way. And my parents. They’ll disown me, I’m sure. I won’t get into college, I can’t get my scholarship….” She was sobbing hysterically again. “I’ll lose everything.”
The girls quieted and seemed to console Sylvie for a while, and then one of them asked if she even wanted to look for a dress anymore. She said no, she would come back tomorrow, and they left.
Felix finally let go of me and uncovered my mouth. I let it fall open in shock. I felt him unzip the rest of the dress quietly but hold it together. “There,” he said softly.
“Thanks,” I mumbled. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Okay. We’ll wait for you.”
After Felix had g
one with Carol on the tablet, I sat down in the blackest tulle I’d ever seen and cried—not hysterically like Sylvie, but I buried my head in my hands and cried.
It had been six months since I had cried about Ace Wentworth, and I hated that I was wasting tears on him again. And secretly, I didn’t know which stung more, what they had said about Ace and me…or hearing that Nate couldn’t stand me.
When I finally composed myself and came out of the dressing room, Felix and Carol were waiting.
“First,” Felix said straight out of the gate, “I don’t think you should listen to what Sylvie said. She was hysterical and can’t be trusted. In general.”
“Second,” Carol piped in, “If Nate has any issue with you, you should wear the red one. If will make him regret any ill feelings.”
I smiled. These two knew what to say to make me feel better. I grabbed the red dress and brought it with me to the counter. Carol had a point; if I repulsed Nate Reinhart, I might as well look good doing it.
“No offense to Felix—he’s been a good friend to you, Avery,” my dad announced from the kitchen. “But I want to drive my daughter to the first Homecoming dance she’s going to at All Saints Academy.”
I waited by the door, already feeling insecure about this one-shouldered red dress I had chosen. I probably shouldn’t have chosen it.
“First and last,” I reminded him, checking my hair in the hall mirror. I’d decided against an up-do, opting instead to wear it curly and pulled back on one side in an inside-out braid. I had allowed Mother to do my makeup, though I had micromanaged the entire process, not wanting it to look too heavy. She wanted me to wear bold red lips to match the dress, but I wanted understated, so we went with just gloss. Though she was disappointed.
“We’ll see,” Dad said slyly as he slid a corsage on my wrist. “We’ll see.”
“Thanks, Dad. You didn’t have to get me a corsage. I’m really just reporting. There won’t even be any dancing.”
“I didn’t know if kids still did this, but I wanted you to arrive in style.”
“I don’t know what kids are doing. Remember? I don’t go to these things.”
The Nightingale Files : The Rook and Queen Page 5