by Keary Taylor
I thought about it. It felt weird to go do something with just Borden. But when I thought about going home, having to face Nathaniel, or my father, or even Mary-Beth, I just couldn’t do it. Not yet. I still needed to let all my frustration out, and in this moment, I felt like Borden was the only one who understood.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “I’ll come with you. But I’m not quite finished.”
Borden raised an eyebrow at me, even as a sly smile curled on his mouth.
We headed back outside and set across the school grounds. And while I’d felt fairly safe executing part one of the plan, I knew this part was more of a risk.
The grounds were utterly silent and empty. There wasn’t a soul around this early in the morning on a weekend. But still, we were careful to not be seen. We cut to the front door, and using telekinesis, we unlocked the door and slipped inside.
It was eerily dark and silent inside. Each of our footsteps sounded deafening as we walked down the hall. We turned, cutting down another, watching to be sure not a soul was around.
Our destination loomed ahead, and we unlocked one final door.
Dean Lowell’s office.
“How deep do the buy outs go?” I asked as we stepped inside and quietly closed the door behind us. “Surely none of those boys always earn good enough grades to stay in good standing at Alderidge.”
Another smile pulled on Borden’s face and I knew I had been right.
“Donald Kline’s father paid for his entire freshman year of grades,” Borden said as he looked around. He aimed for a filing cabinet against the far wall. “Howard bombed half of his finals this last semester. James spent the entirety of the first half of his junior year drinking, so that took a few dollars to fix.”
I rifled through files, looking for evidence. “What about David?”
Borden shook his head. “Unfortunately, David pulled his own weight.”
I huffed a sigh of annoyance. He was the one I really wanted to serve justice to. He was the one who really deserved to have his name soiled after what he’d tried to do to Borden.
But we could only do what we could do.
“Got it,” I said, smiling in triumph as I pulled out a paper. It was a copy of a check written by Howard’s family, buying perfect grades.
“Here’s Donald and James’ proof,” Borden said with a smile as he held up another few pages.
I shook my head as my stomach turned sick. “I always thought this was a good place. That Dean Lowell was a good man. I never imagined that all this corruption was happening right under our noses.”
“Money goes a long way in every setting,” Borden said, and from his tone, I knew he was speaking from experience. What other corruption had he witnessed? Or more, what had he bought his way with because he had money?
It didn’t matter now. Now, everything was different.
“Come on,” I said. “We have copies to make.”
It took us nearly an hour, and my heart started beating faster and faster, knowing our undercover time was running out. But we made fifty copies of each document of proof, and we took a page out of the Society Boy’s own playbook. We each grabbed a roll of tape, and we hung them up on the walls, down every hall.
The school deserved to know what kind of corruption was happening within these walls. The rich shouldn’t get things easier, simply because they had money and power.
Borden and I turned as we headed back to the main doors, observing our handywork.
“Is it enough?” Borden asked.
“Not even close,” I said, shaking my head. “But it’s good enough to keep my conscious clear for now.”
Borden nodded, and I could just feel it. He wanted more justice served, too.
“I’m starving,” I said. “You want to go get some breakfast and then we can go find you a new place to live?”
Borden smiled just a little and nodded.
We locked everything behind us, and still, there were no signs of life as we walked across the school grounds. I smiled coyly at the large number of clothes and shoes strewn across the school grounds. A pair of slacks there. A pair of underwear hanging from that tree. It was glorious.
We found a twenty-four-hour diner and ordered an insane amount of food. Really, it felt like everything on their menu, but it all sounded amazing and we were both ravenous after doing more magic than we’d yet done in our lives.
“You’re white as a sheet,” Borden pointed out as we dug into the dishes as they were brought out.
“It happens whenever I alter memories,” I said around a mouthful of pancakes. “It kind of takes a lot out of me. I nearly passed out that night in the hospital when I tried to alter your memory, and all the others.”
“Don’t go passing out on me,” Borden said, fixing me with a serious stare. “I haven’t learned any of that healing magic yet.”
“I think you need to speed up your learning,” I said. “You’re making good progress, but I think there’s going to come a day when you’re going to need to know how to do something you don’t yet. And without the Society Boys causing drama and distracting us, hopefully you will have more time.”
Borden nodded, hardly taking time to breathe as he dug into a whole pile of bacon.
“This trip to the UK,” I said as I swallowed a massive mouthful of scrambled eggs. “How long do you think we’re going to need?”
Borden shrugged. “Honestly, we could probably spend years searching the place. Who knows where we’re going to find what we need? But, with Mary-Beth and Nathaniel needing to be back this fall, I think if we can manage, we should stay there the entire summer. Your father is going to be there that long anyway.”
I slowed as I swallowed more pancakes. I hadn’t even considered it, staying in the UK for that long. It was a strange idea, the thought of being away from home for an extended period. But he was right, we were going to need all the time we could take.
“Really, it would make sense to move there permanently,” Borden continued as he downed almost an entire glass of milk. “Because I don’t know how much more we’re going to find here. Books, but largely people. If you think about it, there was a concentration of mages in the UK, and Germany. Not so much for America. Even with all the emigration that happened, there were only so many.”
I shook my head. “That might not sound like a big deal to you, but Harrington is my home. I think it always will be.”
“Don’t be so sure yet,” Borden said as he held my gaze. “You might just go there and fall in love with it.”
I shook my head and my eyes fell back to my plate. “I can’t really even imagine it. I’ve only ever been a few hundred miles away from here. You’ve seen so much more of the world than I have. It all sounds a little bit scary to me.”
My eyes rose to meet Borden’s again. His chewing slowed as he considered what I’d said. “I think you’d like it, if you gave it a try. Traveling. Seeing new places. I might do it nonstop if I could. I never tire of seeing new places and things.”
I tried to imagine it, going to exotic new places. Meeting new people. Seeing sights I’d never seen before.
But I was too tied. My imagination wasn’t that grand.
Borden paid for our enormous breakfast, and when we were done, he used the diner’s phone to make a call.
Twenty minutes later, we met a realtor at his office.
We spent the day going through apartments. We saw tiny homes and spacious lofts. We moved through row after row of apartments. And I gaped at the price of every one of them. But Borden didn’t balk.
But in the end, it came down to the timeframe. Most places wanted a year-long contract, and Borden insisted on something month-to-month. Because we were going overseas soon and I could tell, in his mind, he didn’t know when, or maybe if, we were coming back.
So, in the end, Borden put down a deposit and the first month’s rent on a brick rowhouse in the middle of town. It was actually kind of cute. There was a tiny kitchen and a living room w
ith hardwood floors on the main floor. And upstairs there was a massive bedroom and a bathroom.
I knew everyone back home would be getting worried. I hadn’t left a note. I hadn’t said where we were going.
But it felt kind of freeing. There was a lack of expectation in being around Borden. I oddly felt like I could just be myself, and that self didn’t always have to be sweet or perfect.
We had dinner in town. And then we took our time in walking back to Alderidge. I was happy to see there was still a large number of the Boys’ belongings strewn about campus.
We pushed ourselves to our very limits. Borden went up to his room when it was fully dark outside. He opened the window and sent every one of his belongings out the window and high into the sky. I waited outside, and carefully kept everything afloat, high up enough no one would ever look for them.
And then together, we walked back to his apartment, keeping everything high in the dark air above us.
We looked every direction when we got to the apartment. And when the coast was clear, we opened the door, and floated everything in a big rush.
In a matter of minutes, we had everything placed and organized.
“I guess I’ll be going shopping after school for everything else I need,” Borden said. “Dishes, pots and pans. Groceries.”
“How grown up,” I said, feeling a tiny bit jealous. I’d been dreaming of living in Asteria House someday, but that goal was so far down the line, it still seemed impossible. Here Borden was, now, living his own life.
He just chuckled and nodded to the door. “I’ll walk you home.”
“How do you think the Boys reacted when they woke up?” I asked as we slowly walked down the road.
Borden shook his head. “I wish I could have seen it. When they had to go looking for their things without anything to wear but the clothes on their backs.”
I laughed and pictured it. Their angry, red faces as they found their furniture on top of the roofs of the buildings. Their clothes and belongings spread across an entire square mile of space. “They so deserved it.”
Borden chuckled and nodded in agreement. “This was kind of fun today. I kind of like having you as my partner in crime, Margot. It was a little unexpected.”
I looked over at him, and as he met my gaze, I felt something change. I felt my last walls come down when it came to him. And I knew I’d finally forgiven him. “Yeah, this was kind of exactly what I needed.”
I slowed as my house came into view. All the lights were on. And my stomach sank, because I knew what was waiting for me inside.
“You ready for the interrogation?” Borden asked.
I sighed. “Not really.”
We stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.
“Then how about we go get all of Nathaniel’s stuff back instead?” he asked. “Put off the inevitable a little longer?”
“Yes,” I said immediately.
And for another hour, we ignored real life. We found the storage unit where the Society Boys had put all of Nathaniel’s things. As far as I could tell, it was all there, and surprisingly, it was all undamaged. Using the same method as we had with Borden’s things, we moved all of Nathaniel’s back to the solarium.
It didn’t quite look exactly the same when we were finished placing it all back inside, but close enough. His bed was back against the one wall. His desk was replaced. His couch was ready and waiting.
I knew I would never get the books back in the right order, so we left them in a stack beside the bookshelves.
And finally, when the hour was pushing eleven, the two of us headed back to my house.
All the lights were still on inside. I could see Dad’s silhouette in the window, in his chair, his head bent.
“I hate feeling like I’m going to have to go in there and explain,” I said as we stalled outside. I hugged my arms around myself, clouds forming in the air as I breathed. “Can’t I just be allowed to feel the way I feel, and deal with everything in the way I see fit?”
“In theory and a perfect world, yes,” Borden said. “But that’s the problem with caring about other people. We have to strike a balance.”
I nodded, because he was right. I could indeed go inside and go straight to my bedroom and ignore everyone.
But I couldn’t do that, because I cared about everyone inside.
So, I let out a sigh, and Borden and I walked up the steps and opened the door.
Nathaniel, who had been pacing back and forth across the living room with a book in his hand, his nose in the book, instantly froze. His eyes went from Borden to me and to Borden again.
Dad looked up from the book he was reading, waiting, silent.
Mary-Beth stepped out of the kitchen, glaring at Borden and I as if we were two kids who’d wandered away from the play yard for too long.
“Borden and I hurried karma along,” I said, keeping it simple and clean and calm. “I don’t know how well it will work, but I tried to erase Borden and all of us further from the Society Boys’ minds. They’re guilty, I knew they were. And then I needed some space to think and breathe.”
“I’ve found an apartment, I’m all moved in,” Borden said, and his calm and clean manor gave me boldness. “We got all of your things back, Nathaniel. I’m sorry my presence in your solarium made your things a target. Thank you for taking me in for the last week. But I’ll be sleeping at my new place from now on.”
They all just looked at us, not knowing what to say. And I had to wonder, how much had I scared them? What did they think I’d done, or where I had gone? But I didn’t care nearly as much as I should have.
“Thank you for all your help today,” I said, turning to Borden.
“Likewise,” he said back, and I gave him a little smile, feeling grateful for all he had done for me today, in not questioning me and letting me do and feel what I needed to. “I hope you all have a good night.”
He turned and walked out the door. And I cut right across the living room between everyone.
I didn’t say a word as I went up to my room. I shut the door behind me, ignoring the sounds of voices downstairs.
I changed into my pajamas. And I crawled into bed.
I slept like a baby, feeling that just a little bit of justice had been served.
Chapter Nineteen
I was awoken the next morning by the sound of knocking on my door. I barely opened my eyes when Dad stepped in.
I instantly knew something was wrong by the expression on his face. He looked gray.
“Dean Lowell called this morning,” he said. I sat up in bed, feeling my heart drop into my stomach. “He wants you to come into his office immediately.”
I felt sick. My palms were instantly slick with sweat and I’m pretty sure all of the blood in my entire body disappeared.
I nodded and climbed out of bed. Dad stepped out so I could get dressed.
I pulled on a plaid skirt and a white button-up shirt. I didn’t have time to do anything about my hair, so I pulled it up in a high bun at the top of my head.
When I stepped into the living room, Nathaniel and Mary-Beth were nowhere to be seen.
Apparently, they’d gone home last night.
Instead, Dad stood there next to the door, looking as if he was about to go to the doctor’s office and get some life-ending news.
I pulled my coat on, and I stepped out into the early morning air.
“What happened yesterday, Margot?” Dad asked as soon as we started walking down the sidewalk. “You just disappeared, were gone all day, and didn’t say a word about where you were going. We were all worried absolutely sick.”
I swallowed once. I knew this time would come. I knew I was going to have to explain. And I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.
So, I told my father what Borden and I had done. I told him that I didn’t feel bad about it, because the Society Boys deserved much, much worse.
And then Dad didn’t say anything. He walked by my side, and I could feel anger rolling off him
in a way I’d never experienced in my life. I didn’t know if I wanted him to yell at me. I’d never experienced that before. I’d never given him a reason to be angry at me.
The school was still very quiet when we walked through the doors. It was early, and classes wouldn’t start for nearly another hour, so we didn’t have to fight our way through as we weaved through the halls.
Our pages were still hanging from the walls, proof that the Society Boys had bought their grades. Several were missing, as if someone had ripped them down. But most still stayed in place, damning them all.
There, at the end of the hall, was the Dean’s door. Waiting in a chair just to the side of it, was Borden.
He looked at me with wide eyes, though he was fighting very hard to keep his calm and composure. But as we approached, he stood, standing by my side.
And I knew.
Dad knocked on the Dean’s door and he called for us to come in.
All of my guts had settled in my pelvis by this point, dead and unrevivable. I walked in, and I had no doubt from the very first moment what would happen in the next few minutes.
The Dean’s expression was dark and serious. I could see disappointment dripping from every bit of him.
We walked in and sat in the chairs across from him, Dad standing next to the door as he closed it behind us.
“I don’t want either of you to say one word,” Dean Lowell said, keeping his tone very even and calm, but deadly with their seriousness. “Because I don’t care what you think your reasoning was, what your justification was. There were multiple witnesses who saw you two coming and going from the Society Boys’ house on Sunday, and then the school. There was no one else. And it is a well-known fact, the rivalry and contention that has been going on between your group and those Boys. So, I don’t want the story. I don’t need the explanation of how you did what you did.”
Dean Lowell grabbed two pieces of paper from his desk and extended one to each of us.
“Effective immediately, you are both expelled from Alderidge University,” the Dean said.