The Gay Teen's Guide to Defeating a Siren_Book 2_The Siren

by Cody Wagner

  As Ms. Meeks began the lecture, I kept an eye on Roze. Like always, she bent over her paper and started writing. I leaned over a bit, looking for a written confession or something. All I saw were normal geometry notes. She caught me staring and I pulled back. Furious, she held her paper out. “See! Just math!”

  “Blaize, is there a problem?”

  I turned to Ms. Meeks. “I . . . I . . .”

  “Stop talking and pay attention.”

  “Yes, please,” Roze said.

  I pretended to write but kept peeking at Roze. She never did anything out of the ordinary, but it was the most nerve-wracking time of my life. What was I supposed to do? Only one thing came to mind: Don’t let her leave. Cassie would be over as soon as class ended, and we could decide what to do.

  When the bell rang, I leaped up and grabbed my things. I raced to the door ahead of everyone, making myself a blockade between Roze and the exit. I expected her to try and push past me, but she didn’t. Instead, she sat at her desk and slowly shoved her notes into her bag.

  “You’re not leaving?” I said.

  “No. We wait for Cassie. Remember?” Her voice was hurting. Then, she dropped her head. “I don’t want to hear another word from you until she gets here.”

  I stared at her. “I’m sorry.”

  And I was. I was sorry she was going through this. And sorry if, on some level, I really did hurt her feelings. I just didn’t know where the Siren ended and Roze began.

  “Hi.”

  I spun around and saw Cassie standing there. I wanted to hug her. Together, we went to Roze’s desk.

  “Blaize is out of our group,” Roze said.

  Cassie looked at me, stunned. “What?”

  Acting like I didn’t exist, Roze said, “A call came in before class. A wrong number. And Blaize kept saying I was under control.”

  Cassie shot me a look. Fear drained what little color she had in her face. “Really?”

  Roze threw her pencil down when she saw Cassie looking to me for confirmation. “No, not really.” Her voice was all sarcasm. “I’m under control. Look at how bad I screwed Sanctuary over.” She grabbed her notes and thrust them at Cassie. “I’m bringing you down with geometry!”

  Cassie flipped through the pages. Seeing they were perfectly normal, she looked at Roze. “What’s going on?”

  Roze’s eyes filled with tears again. “Ask him.”

  I shook my head. “I wouldn’t lie about this.”

  Roze stood and looked me in the eyes. “We’re going through with the plan because it’s the right thing. But afterward, I don’t ever want to see you again.”

  The words cut through me like a razor. I actually grabbed my chest. Roze was being utterly, utterly sincere. I almost started crying, too, when a voice in my head said, This isn’t the real Roze.

  My gaze moved from Roze’s hair to her legs. I wasn’t making up that glow. Sure, her behavior was unexpected, but Roze was under control.

  I decided right then and there, that no matter what happened to our friendship, I was going to do something. Before I could change my mind, I grabbed Ms. Meeks, who was standing right outside the classroom.

  “Ms. Meeks, we got a call before class. I heard a woman singing on the other end, and then Roze got all weird. She started talking about how the school needed to be exposed.” I pretended to be scared. “What’s going on?”

  Roze got up in my face. “He’s a filthy liar! I did no such thing. You saw me all through class.”

  Ms. Meeks looked from me to Roze. Finally, she said, “Will you please come with me, Ms. Merrill?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Roze shouted the words right in my face.

  I took a step back and looked at Ms. Meeks, still playing dumb. “What is going on?”

  “Nothing,” Ms. Meeks said. “She’s not in trouble or anything.” Her voice sounded chipper, but I saw the worry in her eyes. “I just need to talk to her about her last test.”

  I looked at Roze. Knowing she was under control didn’t make the hurt in her eyes any easier to take. And I knew exactly what was going through her head, controlled or not. I’d shoved her between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, if she remained passive, Ms. Meeks would still take her to Wolcott. On the other hand, if she put up a fight, Ms. Meeks would get suspicious and take her to Wolcott.

  There was nothing she could do.

  Finally, Roze’s shoulders slumped. “Fine.” She threw me one last hurt look and said, “I hate you.” Then, she turned and followed Ms. Meeks to the stairs.

  “Blaize.”

  It was Cassie. In all the commotion, I’d forgotten she was there. Her eyes studied me.

  “What?” I said.

  “Roze wasn’t acting any different. And her notes were normal.”

  “So?”

  “So how did you know?”

  I knew exactly where she was going with this, and my heart started racing again.

  “Look at me,” she said.

  Slowly, I faced her.

  Again, she said, “How did you know?”

  We stood there a long time. I looked at the clock, ticking down the seconds. One minute passed. Then two. Cassie didn’t budge the entire time. She’d been lied to long enough, and she knew it.

  Finally, I held my hands up in surrender. “I’m the Seeker.”

  I expected my insides to churn with uneasiness. Here I was, revealing myself to yet another person. But the opposite happened. A rubber band around my chest loosened up, and a tiny bit of relief trickled through me. Telling Cassie felt right, and I didn’t experience any weirdness at what she might think of me.

  It was nice, and I looked at her, expecting the same skepticism Roze showed. And at least a million questions. This time, I was ready for it. And kind of excited. Part of me even expected Debate Cassie to come out and challenge me for proof.

  None of that happened.

  Instead, tears filled her eyes, and she ran away.

  Twenty-Four

  Guilty as Charged?

  The next few hours ate at me like a toxic piranha. Roze was off at the Admissions Building, going through god knows what. And Cassie had vanished after my Seeker revelation.

  I just sat, staring at my food, over lunch. My plate got cold, but I couldn’t bring myself to eat. Normally, I would have been self-conscious sitting by myself. But I didn’t care. I just thought about how I should have told Cassie sooner. The relief I’d felt when I did, confirmed it. Holding such crucial information from her for so long was a huge mistake. Honestly, I couldn’t see why I was so afraid to begin with.

  But I was afraid. And I’d gone and pulled a “Blaize” and goofed up.

  I couldn’t blame Cassie one bit for being upset. She’d been fighting the Siren with us every step of the way. And she’d suffered far worse than me or Roze under Mrs. Cooke’s tyranny.

  Grabbing a tater tot, I smashed it between my fingers, pretending it was my head. For the millionth time, I wondered where we’d all be right now if someone braver or less self-conscious than me had become the Seeker.

  That’s when a voice said, “Hi.”

  I looked up to see Roze staring down at me.

  The walls in the cafeteria are probably still ringing from my shriek. I jumped halfway down the table with my tray. Tater tots and chicken fingers went flying and littered the table.

  Everyone turned, and people started laughing, but I ignored them. Every bit of my attention was on Roze.

  She wasn’t glowing anymore.

  My first instinct was to give her the world’s biggest hug. But I wasn’t sure what she thought of me now. Given how she’d reacted—the hate she spewed still echoed through my head—she might still be furious.

  “Tell me what happened.” That’s all she said before straddling the bench to face me.

  I counted ten strands of her hair before saying, “I don’t know how to talk to you right now.”

  “Why?” Roze covered her mouth with her hands. “What did I do?�
�� She looked around, panicked. “Is Cassie OK?”

  The day had been so crazy, I needed something solid to ground me. I needed information. So, I said, “Tell me what you think happened today. Please.”

  She scooted back a few inches. “You’re scaring me. Is everything OK?”

  “I hope so. But please, just tell me.”

  She nodded. “OK.”

  Grabbing my tray, she pulled it to her but didn’t take any food. I think she was just giving her hands something to do. “Well, we were sitting in Geometry, when the phone rang. I answered it. The next thing I know, I’m soaking wet and surrounded by Principal Wolcott and half the teachers.”

  I pulled my leg around the bench and straddled it like she had. “That’s it? You don’t remember anything in between?” Relief started washing through me.

  “No.” She shivered. “You know, I should be grateful. But the idea of completely blanking out is almost freakier than remembering.”

  “I bet.” I scooted in until our knees almost touched. I started to say something, when she started crying. It came on so hard and so fast, her body shook with the effort.

  Like a parent, I stood up, wrapped my arms around her, and let her sob into my chest. A billion questions still sat on the tip of my tongue, but I imagined myself in Roze’s situation. Having your freedom torn away—and not even remembering it—must have been agony. Especially for someone like Roze, who really valued herself.

  “You’re braver than I ever could have been,” I said.

  She shrugged and continued crying.

  “I’m serious. You know what I was just thinking before you got here?”

  She shook her head.

  I put my chin on her head. “That if you were the Seeker, we wouldn’t be in this position. The school would be safe, because you would have done something way earlier. Jimmy should have chosen you.”

  “Not true. At all.” Roze’s voice was muffled by my shirt.

  “Cassie would be here if you were the Seeker.” I said it more to myself, but Roze looked up.

  “What do you mean? Is she OK?”

  “I don’t know. I finally told her. About me.”

  That stopped the tears.

  Roze wiped her face and glared at a guy who’d been staring at us. “Do you mind? I’m having a moment here.”

  The guy’s face turned into a tomato, and he scurried away. I couldn’t help but smile; Roze was definitely back.

  “You really told her?” she said.

  I nodded.

  “And then what happened?”

  “She got upset and ran off. I haven’t seen her since.”

  Roze leaned over and grabbed one of my chicken strips. She crumbled it between her fingers, and we both watched the breading fall onto my tray. “You should have told her sooner.”

  “I know.” I grabbed some of the breading flakes and crushed them until they were dust. Like with the tater tots, I imagined they were my head.

  Roze touched my arm. “Who am I kidding? I could have told her sooner, too. This is just as much my fault.” She sighed. “We were trying to protect her.”

  I thought about that for a second. For some reason, it didn’t feel right. I mean, I did want to protect her. But it obviously wasn’t the only reason I’d kept quiet.

  “What made you tell her?” Roze said.

  “Well, what happened after the phone call was . . . crazy.”

  Part of me didn’t want to go into it for fear of upsetting Roze again. She seemed to read my mind and said, “I need to know. Worst case scenarios are going through my head. Did I do anything awful?”

  “No, not at all. In fact, it was the total opposite.”

  With that, I told Roze about what had happened in Geometry.

  “That’s not what I expected.” Roze replied. “At all.”

  “I know.”

  “Maybe Mrs. Cooke was trying to get me to convince you to leave me alone.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” Part of me believed that, but another part was still confused by the whole ordeal. Either way, it was time to hear the outcome of our plan. I hoped it was happy.

  “So . . . what happened with Wolcott?”

  Roze took a deep breath to calm herself. After looking around to make sure no one was listening, she said, “Well, as soon as I was myself again, I did what we planned. I told Principal Wolcott that Mrs. Cooke had called me.”

  I shook my head, stunned. We’d been chasing the Siren for a year. And for the most part, we’d run into nothing but dead ends. The fact we’d gotten to this spot felt unbelievable. “Wow. So, it’s really happened?”

  She nodded. “We got her.”

  “Wow.”

  A tiny smile appeared on Roze’s face. I bet she was thinking that, no matter what Mrs. Cooke had done to us, we’d gotten the last laugh. Mrs. Cooke thought she’d won the battle, but we’d won the war.

  I smiled back at her. “So what is Wolcott going to do?”

  “Don’t know. They asked me a million questions, then he said he’d take care of things.”

  “How much did you tell them?”

  Roze grabbed another chicken strip, and this time, she took a bite. “I played dumb. As far as they know, I was controlled simply because of a fight with Mrs. Cooke. Just like Tracey.”

  “You think they believed it?”

  “I don’t think they had a choice.”

  I drummed a couple beats on the table. “What happens next?”

  “Well, I think they want to talk to Cassie.”

  That made sense. They’d want to know all about Mrs. Cooke and her activities. Who better to get information from, than someone who’d lived with her for years?

  I stood up. “We need to find Cassie before they do.”

  “Where should we look?” Roze asked.

  I was about to say I had no idea, when something hit me.

  “Come on.” With that, I headed out the doors.

  The sun was warm, and I pulled my long sleeves up as we walked. We’d moved past what my mom called sweater weather, but I’d thrown on a hoodie this morning without thinking.

  “Where are we going?” Roze said.

  I didn’t answer and continued making my way to the gym. Then, we walked around to the back. Sure enough, Cassie sat against the wall. Roze looked at me, impressed, and I just shrugged. Last year, after Jimmy died, I found myself wandering the school a lot. This was one of the places I liked to go and think. It seemed appropriate Cassie would be here.

  When we walked up, Cassie looked at us then back down to her feet. I could tell she’d been crying. She’d cried so much this year, and I hated that I was a cause.

  I looked at Roze for ideas on what to say, but she didn’t speak. Instead, she sat down next to Cassie and assumed the same pose—legs pulled up to her chest. I walked to the other side and sat the same way. We remained there for a long time.

  Finally, Cassie said, “You’re OK.”

  Roze nodded. “Couldn’t be better. Everything went as planned.” Her voice was bright. She was faking it to cheer Cassie up.

  Cassie still didn’t look at either one of us. “I assume the school wants to talk to me.”

  “They do,” Roze said. “But we wanted to get to you first.”

  Cassie didn’t respond.

  Roze’s eyes filled with tears. “Cass, we’re so sorry.”

  Cassie shook her head. “You don’t have to apologize. I understand.”

  “You’re allowed to be upset even if you do understand,” I said. “I’m mad at myself, so I think it’s understandable if you are, too.”

  Cassie buried her face in her knees. “It’s just been such a hard year.”

  “I know,” Roze said. “And we should have told you. But you were already going through so much.”

  “And it’s my adoptive mother, so I get it.” Cassie wiped her face on her knees. “It just feels like everything’s changing.”

  “It’s going to change for the better!” Roze said. “She c
an’t hurt us, anymore.”

  I thought that was the perfect response. It pumped me up. I expected us to stand and start shouting and cheering. We’d even finish off our celebration with a leap into the air, where we’d freeze frame together.

  But that’s not what happened.

  Without warning, Cassie jumped up. “She can hurt us. And she will.” With that, she took off toward the Admissions Building.

  * * * * *

  Despite Cassie’s blowup, the next week was one of the best I’d had in forever. At least for my self-confidence. For months, I’d berated myself over all my mistakes. But we’d nailed the Siren. And Sanctuary was still in one piece.

  I was feeling so good, I even came up with a running gag. Every time Roze and I passed each other on campus, we gave each other a high five and said, “Way to save the world!” Sure, it was an exaggeration, but we kind of felt like we’d earned it.

  Things outside campus improved, too. Immediately after Roze turned in Mrs. Cooke, people in Zimmerman’s Zealots stopped glowing. That didn’t stop the group’s activities; by now, they had plenty of uncontrolled homophobes to keep the hate going strong. But their biggest weapon was gone. And we’d caught her before she caused real destruction.

  The entire student body seemed to be in a better mood the last few weeks of the semester. Probably because the weather turned beautiful. Or maybe it was because Sanctuary was done with Senator Joseph. It wasn’t because the school year was ending. When that happened, we’d be going home. Ugh.

  It also wasn’t because semester tests were approaching. Double ugh. Given the whole Mrs. Cooke ordeal, my schoolwork had really suffered. I mean, saving Sanctuary from the Siren seemed like a higher priority than analyzing the meaning of the stupid “A” in The Scarlet Letter. That is, until I imagined having to wear an “F” on my shirt after failing every single test.

  Not surprisingly, the teachers were also more chipper. Ms. Dewey, being married, walked into Chemistry every day with a huge smile on her face. I guess I would have, too, if my job and life both suddenly became more secure. Luckily, we benefited from the teachers’ good fortunes: Ms. Dewey didn’t give us homework all week.