by C. L. Stone
Ms. Johnson opened her mouth as if she was going to deny his request. I had just gotten into class after all. One look at me, however, and her face softened. She nodded to him. “Go on.”
I hated and loved Kota in that moment. I was embarrassed enough already and had intended to wait until after class to talk to them. A classroom of curious eyes focused on me again. Ms. Johnson did her best to redirect the attention by speaking a little louder and asking the class questions about the material. Kota collected my things along with his and waited for me to lead the way out of the room. His hand waved behind his back and I knew it was directed to Luke and Gabriel: stay here. I’ll take care of her.
When we were outside the trailer, Kota took my hand and moved quickly toward the main building. I had to jog to keep up. Was he really taking me to the nurse?
He led the way without speaking, his green eyes darkening behind his glasses. He stopped at a boys’ restroom in an area of the school that was a good distance from classrooms. He popped his head inside, scanned it and pulled me inside.
I leaned against the wall, my fingertips covering the base of my throat and ready to run out if someone caught us.
He dropped our things on the floor and checked the stalls. When he confirmed we were alone, he rushed back to the door, flipping the lock.
My heart was pounding, not just from what happened that morning, but with how urgently Kota was working and the pained look on his face. He guided me by my arm to the sinks. He pointed to the counter. “Sit.”
I shivered but obeyed, easing myself up until my feet dangled. Kota the boss.
He placed a palm on the counter on either side of my legs and leaned a little until his face was inches from mine. The red tie he wore swung out from his faux uniform, tickling my bare knees. “What happened?”
His eyes bore into me, and it was the final thing to get my eyes welling and my lips blathering. “Hendricks ...” I choked out. My body rattled so hard that my voice shook, too. I didn’t mean to be so sensitive, but after dealing with my parents, school trouble was something I wasn’t ready for.
He let out a breath and said something I almost thought was a swear. His arms encircled me. I buried my face into his shoulder, my tears wetting his shirt. He pressed a hand against the back of my head, brushing against my hair. “Don’t cry. Please. Just tell me what happened. I’ll fix it. I promise. I swear.”
I breathed in deeply, inhaling the scent of his spicy cologne. With that and the words he whispered over and over in my ears, I was feeling better. “Hendricks knows I’m not from the Academy, but he thinks you’re trying to recruit me. He wants me to ... to tell him things about you. About all of you. He wants to know where the Academy is and find a way to get rid of you.”
Kota backed up so he could face me, keeping his hands on my shoulders. “Did he threaten you?”
“He said he could make my classes very difficult for me.”
Kota’s green eyes narrowed on my face. He nudged his glasses up with a forefinger. “What did you say?”
“I only confirmed I didn’t know anything. He thought I was gone last week because the Academy was doing interviews or special testing. But he knows I’m not from the Academy. He read my transcripts.”
He frowned and brushed his fingers across my cheek at a tear that slid down. His eyes flashed, sweeping back and forth across my face in a rapid movement, calculating his next move. “Come on,” he said, finally, his face setting into something stronger. The plan had come together.
He held me by my hips to pull me off the counter. An ache radiated in my hip and I winced, pushing Kota away.
His eyes widened at my reaction, confusion setting in. “What’s wrong?” he demanded, the power in his voice surging. “Why’d you jump like that?”
I swallowed. It was the reason why there were tears in my eyes in the first place. I could handle Mr. Hendricks. I could say no. I would tell him whatever they wanted me to say. He had just surprised me.
Mr. McCoy, however, had done something that terrified me beyond anything I’d known before. He’d touched me and I wasn’t used to touching. Instead of like the boys, who meant well, his grip had been full of intimidation. It scared me to think of what he could do next.
I fought back all the whispers my stepmother rattled off to me over the years about rape and molestation. My eyes closed and I turned my head away, my body shivering again. “Mr. McCoy stopped me in the hallway and grabbed me.”
“Where?”
I placed a palm on my hip.
He scoffed for a moment but his face turned back to stone. “Sang,” he said softly. “I’m going to look at your hip, okay? Don’t jump. I won’t hurt you.”
Kota hurting me was the last thing I was worried about. I shoved my hand over my heart to calm it.
He gently lifted my blouse out of the way, and hooked two fingers at the hem of my skirt, dragging it slowly down to reveal the side of my hip. Cool air against my exposed skin caused another set of shivers to settle in.
His eyes scanned my skin. There were prominent red splotches where Mr. McCoy had grabbed me.
“My god,” he said. “No, that’s it. We’re going to Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green.” He fixed my skirt, wrapped his arms around my waist to gently pull me to standing next to him. He nudged me toward the door.
“We can’t!” I gasped. I struggled against him and pulled away. “We can’t go now.”
“We have to, Sang.” His hands found mine and he wrapped his long fingers around them. “You can’t let Mr. McCoy do that to you. He can’t touch you like that. He’ll keep coming after you until we stop him.”
“It’s my word against his,” I said. “Not that they wouldn’t believe me, but Mr. Hendricks is already looking for reasons to get rid of all of you. We can’t keep facing off with them if you really want to stay.” There would be no recourse if Kota ended up fighting with McCoy over this.
This thought seemed to catch him off guard. His lips twisted and he had that same painful expression in his eyes. He wasn’t sure what to do.
“If we push this, they might try contacting my parents. That can’t happen.”
Kota made fists with his hands, holding them to his thighs. I could hear him struggle to control his breathing. I may have been safe from my mother’s punishments, and my father might be gone, but there was still a risk if they weren’t physically around. This made dealing with the situation much more complicated.
The bell rang through the intercom.
“We should go,” I said. I felt better now that I’d told someone, but I needed to keep a level head for both of us. “Don’t tell the others. They don’t need this right now. I’ll talk to Mr. Blackbourne during my music class. I may get away with missing the rest of English, but if I skip any more classes or if we go to see Mr. Blackbourne or Dr. Green now, Hendricks will know I’m talking about it and it might just make things worse. Or Mr. McCoy will think I’m tattling and who knows what would happen then. He wouldn’t have done it unless he thought he could get away with it. He’s probably expecting it.”
“I should be there when you talk to Mr. Blackbourne.”
“There’s nothing happening right now. I’m fine. It just shocked me. We don’t want to draw any more attention from Hendricks.” I moved to the door, motioning to our things. “Let’s get going before someone catches us.”
He grunted but he stepped forward, picking up his bag. “I’ll walk you to class.”
“It’s okay ...”
He clutched my wrist. “I’m taking you to class,” he said.
Kota was back and ready to take over.
DOUBLE AGENT
Kota whispered something to North when we got to my next class. North’s eyes fixed on me and he gave the slightest of nods. For the rest of class, he said nothing to me. Nathan sat behind me and, on occasion, he brushed his fingertips at my back as if to reassure me he was there. North kept his eyes on the chalkboard in front of us, his jaw set.
&nbs
p; When geometry was over, they both insisted on walking me to class. I had a feeling North was following Kota’s orders. They walked next to me like my own bodyguards, Nathan on my right, North to my left. Eyes of other students fell on us, and I knew it was because of the serious expressions from both of them. They might not understand what was going on, but they knew enough to clear a path.
My heart was in my throat as we walked and I tried to figure out exactly how I was going to approach the topic with Mr. Blackbourne.
When we got to music room B, North held the door open for me. After I stepped inside, he followed, closing the door behind him as Nathan moved on to his next class.
I wanted to protest, but one look at North’s face told me not to. I was both reluctant and grateful to have him beside me. I didn’t want to see his face when I revealed what Mr. McCoy had done.
Mr. Blackbourne stood sentinel by the piano, his arms folded over his chest and glaring at the entryway as if ready to launch after us. Kota was there, standing beside him with his arms in almost the exact same position. It made me pause. Had Kota come in and told him everything? Even about Mr. McCoy? Why would he do that? Why didn’t he wait? Wasn’t he listening to me about drawing attention to this?
North’s fingers brushed against my back, urging me forward. I looked up into his dark eyes as if trying to quietly ask if it was safe. North gave me a curt nod, his jaw set and his gaze alert. He’d stand by me. He pleaded with me silently to do what had to be done.
I stepped forward, dropping my bag on the floor and cradling the violin case next to it. Mr. Blackbourne and Kota closed the distance, meeting us in the middle of the room.
“Miss Sorenson,” Mr. Blackbourne said.
“Mr. Blackbourne,” I said in a near-whisper to return his greeting. My eyes darted around but no matter where I looked, I was surrounded by their eyes looking down at me. It made me feel so small.
“Start talking,” he commanded. No time wasted.
I glanced at Kota, trying to figure out from his expression how much he told him. His face was unreadable.
I sighed and revealed everything about that morning, about what Mr. Hendricks said to me from the moment I stepped into his office. I paused before I got to the part about Mr. McCoy. One thing at a time.
Mr. Blackbourne smoothed a fingertip over his eyebrow. “I was afraid this was going to happen.”
“Why would knowing where the Academy is help his case?” North asked. “He’s already tried to get rid of us once and it backfired on him. Why is he trying again?”
“There’s something here he doesn’t want us to see,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “I understand him not wanting us to step on his toes, but he’s making a lot of effort to get rid of us. The only answer is there’s more to this than hurt pride or he’d let us ride out the year.”
North shifted on his feet. “So he wants to use Sang to find out more about the Academy? What would be the point? His school is the one under heat from the state.”
“This might be an attempt to redirect unwanted attention. First step in dealing with an enemy is to figure out the enemy. He’s trying to dig up some dirt on us, perhaps. If he can prove we’re incompetent or unsafe, he’d have a case to make against the school board. He might use it to threaten us, blackmail, perhaps.”
“What should I do?” I asked. My finger hovered over my lip. “I mean, if he’s going to ask me about the Academy, I could tell him whatever you wanted.”
North’s eyes zeroed in on my face as if trying to decide if I was serious or not. Kota glared at the floor.
Mr. Blackbourne brushed a hand over his hair. “We need to find out how far his voice is heard. We also need someone next to Hendricks. None of us were able to get on his good side, so we dropped that plan.” He inched closer to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and walked with me toward the piano. “But maybe you can get close. We need to know why he’s desperate to get rid of us. We’ve tapped his office, but he’s clean here. If there’s something going on, he’s very good at hiding it. Maybe we need to play along.”
“So you want me to pretend to be interested in helping him?” I asked. This was good. I was helping. They were letting me inside this. Would it work though? Was I digging myself deeper? After all, Mr. Blackbourne had said it before; he could take his students and disappear any time he wanted. I didn’t have that luxury.
“Let’s start with something small,” he said. “Tomorrow Nathan has some outside work to do for me that will take him out of school for the day. Hendricks will probably talk to him, but he’ll come after you when Nathan refuses to answer.”
“Sir,” Kota said behind us.
Mr. Blackbourne and I turned around, his arm slipping away from my shoulder. “Mr. Lee?”
“We should keep Sang out of this,” he said, nearly through his teeth. “This isn’t her responsibility.”
“No,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He pointed a finger at him and his voice rose. “This was your responsibility. You brought her into this. Now that she’s in the middle, you need to be willing to accept the consequences.”
“I don’t want her in the middle of Academy business.” The power in Kota’s voice strengthened. “This is far too close as it is. She’s been through enough.”
“They pulled her out of class because they assumed she would talk. Now that they know she’s not one of us, they are going to assume they’ll have an easier time of getting information from her. She doesn’t hold any loyalty to us.”
“But if he thinks she’s the weak link,” Kota said, “others will, too.” There was the slightest lift at his eyebrow as if they were saying this was more than about the school.
“You should have thought about that before you brought her in,” Mr. Blackbourne said, flatly. “We’re taking enough risks now exposing ourselves like this in a public school. I warned all of you to keep your distance here and you brought her in anyway. Now look what’s happened. You hid her from us deliberately in the beginning and when you asked us to help her, did I refuse? No. I trusted you to know what you were doing with her. But you can’t stay this close to her here and not expect some fallback. Either she’s with us or you have to drop her from the group. I don’t want to be cruel but you can’t have both.”
“She shouldn’t have to do this. It wasn’t her choice,” Kota said, his voice faltering.
“She’s here, isn’t she? I didn’t ask. She offered.”
“She’s too vulnerable.”
“Don’t you think I’ve noticed? Look at her face,” Mr. Blackbourne’s voice reverberated in the room. He shoved a closed fist in the air in my direction. “Look at her and then look me in the eye and tell me you can’t read everything she’s thinking right now.”
My heart was thundering in my chest. I pressed a palm to it just to keep my body from vibrating. I didn’t understand, but I didn’t want them to fight any more. “Tell me what to say,” I said, my voice sounding strange from my lips, like it was an octave too high. When they all turned to me, I knew I was blushing, but continued. “I’ll talk to Hendricks. Just tell me what you want him to know.”
North frowned. “You don’t have to. This isn’t your job.”
“I’m already involved,” I said. The many occasions they had stepped in for me flashed through my mind. Whenever Greg was a problem, they were there. When I was having problems at home, they were there. How could I back out now and leave them to handle this? “He thinks he can threaten me into revealing some secret about you. Maybe I can pick up on whatever he is trying to hide. He might even back off of you for a while if he feels I will tell him everything. Isn’t that better than him popping up every once in a while to check up on you himself?”
North and Kota were frowning. They glanced at each other, exchanging their wordless communication.
Only Mr. Blackbourne seemed pleased with this. “You do realize that by helping us, you are putting yourself at risk. This makes you a witness to what he’s doing if you come across something.
”
“If I don’t play along, he’s already threatened my grades. What else could he do?”
North grunted like he wanted to answer but he wasn’t willing to say it out loud.
Mr. Blackbourne smoothed out his eyebrow again. “Miss Sorenson,” he said. “Can you promise me you’ll keep our conversations in full confidence? I promise to teach you everything I can to help you, but I need to know I can trust you. You may have won over my students, but as I’ve said, you hold no loyalty to the Academy. You’re part of our family now, but we’re asking a lot from you”
“I may not know enough about the Academy,” I said, “But I have loyalty to Kota.” I nodded in his direction. Kota looked up, his eyebrows lifting with interest and the anxiety fading from his face. “And to North. And Luke. And Silas and the others. You, too. You’ve helped me. I’ll help you.” I tried to sound confident with as much fierceness and conviction as I felt toward them. Kota had said to take care of family first. Would he not allow me to help? Mr. Blackbourne had asked the right question. Was I with them or wasn’t I?
The corner of Mr. Blackbourne’s mouth curled up. It was only a millimeter, the smallest of movements, but it changed his entire countenance from an unreadable mask to something that was almost gentle. “You are full of surprises, Miss Sorenson.”
“Can you do it though?” North asked. His eyes fixed on me. “I mean when he calls for you, you’ll have to go without us. We won’t be able to come in and save you if you get into trouble. If he makes good on his promise to fix your grades, we can’t go in and change it without him noticing. We’re also taking more risks at exposing what happened to your parents. If he finds out, there will be a lot more problems.”
“If I do what he wants, he’ll have no reason to fix my grades or get any closer,” I said.
Mr. Blackbourne frowned. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It looks like our music lessons might be put on hold. We’ll need to spend the time preparing you.”
“The violin can wait,” I said. “There’s more important things to worry about.”