First Kiss: The Ghost Bird Series: #10 (The Academy Ghost Bird Series)

by C. L. Stone

  April snapped her fingers. “And that’s another thing, did they tell you about women within the Academy? Our jobs?”

  Everyone shook their heads, including Carla and me.

  “Are we given different jobs than the guys?” one of the younger girls asked.

  “No,” April, Taylor, and Emma all said together and then laughed. April stood from her chair, her big sweater hanging big over her body. She folded her arms against her chest as she walked behind the circle of chairs, speaking as she did. “And technically yes. Us girls,” she began, “we’ve got some of the most dangerous tasks within the Academy. And because there’s so few of us, we’re called on more within the Academy than the boys.”

  “We’re recruiting more girls,” Taylor said. She crossed her legs and leaned back shaking her head and smirking at April. “Every year, we find a few more.”

  “But it hasn’t been enough,” April said. She paced some more around the circle. The fire lit up her features, causing an orange glow the more the sun set beyond the trees. The trees blocked most of the sun and only looking straight up toward the sky could I tell it was still just sunset. I still needed to find a way to track time until my meeting with Kota…

  “Why does this feel like a ghost story and you’re trying to scare us?” Carla asked.

  “It’s the campfire,” Lake said.

  “Because you should be scared,” April said, stopping short to put her hands on her hips and give the girls a look. “This is no joke.” She pressed her hand to her chest, covering her heart. “I might be a little dramatic, but this is one of the most important lessons you’ll ever be told about the Academy.”

  The girls silenced then, listening intently, watching April as she continued walking around the circle. Taylor and Emma sat back, occasionally whispering to each other but allowing April to take the stage.

  “You see, while we can say boys and girls can do the same job, that’s not always the case with real life. Especially when it comes to undercover work. In certain places, only a girl can blend in.”

  The group was dead silent. Taylor caught my eye, her expression serious as she gave me a slight nod.

  I bowed my head, looking at my dirty jeans. Kota had warned me about jobs within the Academy, and that we might be asked to do them. Still, I had to know. “What...what kind of...?”

  “Come on,” Lake said over me. “Give us some examples here.” She turned to me. “That’s what you were trying to ask, right?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “All jobs are different,” April said. “However, women are often called on to be bait.” She stepped around the circle, stopping behind another girl, eyes wide. “Or decoys. Or blending in and overhearing secret conversations if anyone underestimated us.”

  “Give us a real example,” Carla said.

  I watched April closely, wanting to know, too.

  “For example,” April said. She came through the circle and stood closer to the fire in front of Taylor, so her face was lit up with a flickering orange glow. “A few years ago, I was asked to join a state-sanctioned foster home. Most of them are okay, and the Academy will occasionally send kids in to make sure the homes are safe and clean. However, this one had a high report of girls running away.”

  “That’s usually a sign of abuse,” Taylor said. “The occasional foster kid running off is common, but if it’s an unusually high number, it can be a sign that there’s abuse of some sort.”

  April held up her palm toward Taylor. “I’m telling this story, hang on.” She refocused on us. “Because it was the girls who were running, there was no point sending in a guy. The Academy had to ask one of us.”

  “They asked April,” Emma said.

  April nodded and moved on. “I suspected the father in the household, but I wasn’t sure. My second week there, their biological son invited me out for ice cream, and seemed really cool, until he tried to force himself on me.” She bent her head back and laughed. “He would never have gotten the chance if I hadn’t been so caught off guard by blackberry swirl.”

  “So he got into trouble?” Carla asked.

  “Of course!” April said. “He got a good kick in the crotch and blackberry swirl in the face. He told me he’d tell his parents I came on to him, and some other stupid nonsense. But I had collected evidence. Had my cell phone on record at the time. I was lucky I’d had it on. He didn’t seem bad to me and I was thinking of saving the battery power.”

  Taylor finally stood up, smoothing down her brown skirt and standing next to April. She put an arm around April’s shoulders. “The point is, you will all be asked to go into awkward situations, sometimes to fish out an abuser. It’s one of the more common jobs.”

  I was holding my breath, in awe and a little bit of shock at learning about this part of the job. I didn’t know what to think yet. Could I do this?

  “It isn’t the only type of job we get,” April said. “But sadly, it’s one of the worst.”

  “Why don’t we report them to the police?” someone asked.

  “We do,” April said. “But getting evidence is the key. We would never ask an abused person to go back into such horrors to get evidence. We take it on ourselves. Sometimes, that isn’t so easy.” She pulled away from Taylor to focus on us again, the orange glow brighter as she appeared to get dangerously close to the flames. “I do what I do to protect other girls. I’m strong because of the Academy and the support group it provides and the training I’ve had. I know I will bounce back. When what I do helps others, it makes me stronger, and I’ll endure anything...” she paused, looking each one of us in the eye. “Anything...Hell and back...to ensure the safety of girls who are unable to speak up for themselves.”

  “But you will never have to do it alone,” Taylor said. “And that’s not the only type of work we do. You may not be asked to do this at all. There’s so much work we need to do that only girls can do and jobs will be assigned according to your strengths.”

  I stared at the fire while Carla and the other girls continued to ask questions. Kota hadn’t wanted me to join the Academy because he was afraid of me getting picked to go into such dangerous situations.

  For the first time, I wondered if he was right. Would I be able to handle going into a foster home to find out what was making girls run away? It would be an assignment the boys couldn’t follow me into. However, if the Academy approached me and asked me, could I say no? If it meant preventing someone going through what I’d gone through, it was tempting to say I could. I stole secret looks at the other girls and thought of the younger ones from that morning, eager and ready to participate, and how I might be willing to help any of them.

  However, images came to mind of Mr. McCoy, Jade...my own stepmother, who I’d thought to be my mother for so long.

  It was horrible, and I’d had the boys help me so much. Could I willingly go back into such situations again? There were other jobs we could do. I helped once with Luke getting a camera. What if I focused on those jobs?

  Was it different when you were aware and went into a situation knowing you were looking for evidence when it came to abuse? I wasn’t sure.

  April stood by and listened as the other girls spoke, but I suddenly had a different view of her altogether. If she had been through all of that and still went in to take on such challenging Academy jobs, then she was the bravest girl I’d ever really known.

  Could I ever be half as brave?

  ♥♥♥

  As the girls continued talking about the Academy and then themselves and their backgrounds, I tried to gauge time using how long it had been since sunset.

  Did Lake have a phone or watch on her? She was sitting back, eyes half open, staring into the fire. I wasn’t sure if she was even listening to the other girls. Despite not knowing much about her, I’d felt her to be more of an ally. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was a boy, or how she didn’t seem fazed by Gabriel and the others when they were around.

  “Lake?” Carla said, dr
agging our attention to her.

  Lake sat up a little, blinking, making me think she’d been half-asleep. “Yeah?”

  “Want to talk about yourself?”

  Lake shook her head and sat back. “Uh, not really.”

  Carla frowned. “Just tell us where you’re from.”

  “Not from here,” she said.

  “Is Lake your real name?”

  “Is Carla your real name?” Lake asked with a raised eyebrow and a frown.

  Taylor had been sitting by while the other girls talked, but now she stood and sliced her hand through the air. “Carla, we never force people to talk if they don’t want to.” She looked at Lake. “And Lake, I understand you might be tired and not want to participate, but we are always respectful to other Academy members. Always.”

  Lake tilted her head, looking toward the ground. “Sorry,” she said. “I just don’t feel like talking about myself.”

  Carla opened her mouth but Taylor cut her off. “Totally understandable.” She looked at the group of girls. “I know some of you must be exhausted. You’ve had a long day. Why don’t we make our way to the latrine and get some showers going? We’ll get to bed early.”

  The younger girls jumped up, excited for a shower and bed. Carla, however, was still frowning as she moved along. We folded our chairs and April and Emma got to work putting out the fire.

  Lake leaned into me to whisper as we put our chairs away. “That Carla’s pushy. I don’t like her.”

  I didn’t want to say anything negative about her, even though I agreed with Lake. What I didn’t understand was why Carla was so eager to keep us all together.

  Maybe there was more to Carla’s story than either of us knew. She was here and there was a reason why she had been invited.

  “What time is it?” I asked Lake.

  She pulled out a cell phone and checked the time. “Eight thirty-ish,” she said.

  It was close. Could I stall for a half hour at the latrine?

  I got my kit together and decided to join the girls to the latrine, planning to hang around and get ready to meet with Kota.

  It wasn’t like I was going to shower.

  As a group, we headed to the latrine, Lake and I trailing behind.

  At the entryway to the bathrooms, Lake hesitated. She had a few clothes she’d borrowed from me, sans underwear and a bra. She wasn’t exactly my size, but a simple T-shirt and stretchy cotton pants should fit.

  I paused and caught her elbow. “Something wrong?”

  She stopped, looking at the latrine and then back down at the camp. “I don’t know if I should go in.” She looked at the ground, her hair falling over her face. “I don’t think I should get in the shower.”

  If she was a boy, it would probably confuse the other girls. However, did she feel uncomfortable going over to the boy section? She could have gone in with the guys, but maybe she thought the other girls would notice and realize she was a boy. How confusing her life must be.

  “There’s stalls,” I said. “We can just change and leave.”

  “There’s another problem,” she said. She looked up at me. “What if they’re naked or something? Will they kick me out?”

  It suddenly made me hesitate, too. With it being dark out, the lights inside seemed so much brighter, the fluorescents lighting up the entry.

  Would they call her a pervert just for simply trying to wash up in the bathrooms? If she was in there, in the light, would they notice she was a boy? If she was caught and the girls protested to an Academy council, it could mean the end of her Academy career, even if she was just trying to change and use the bathroom.

  I wished Mrs. Rose was there so we could ask her. I looked at Lake in the eye. “We could just tell them…they’ll probably understand.”

  “I really just don’t want to answer a thousand questions right now,” Lake said. “I get enough of that at home.”

  I could understand she was tired and probably frustrated with what to do. I snapped my fingers. “Wasn’t there another shower somewhere?”

  “Where they park campers?” Lake asked. “It was on the map.”

  “It’s a little further to walk,” I said. “But if the others ask us later, we could tell them we were just splitting up so we wouldn’t take up all the hot water.”

  Lake nodded slowly. “Okay,” she said. “Should we go now?”

  I nodded. “Sure. Why not? We’re using the buddy system, right? There’s two of us.”

  She nodded again and then turned. “Then let’s go.”

  Did I have time to walk over there and get back for Kota? “Hang on,” I said and started toward the boys’ campsite. “I have to talk to someone.”

  “Someone from that boy group?” she asked. She kept pace beside me, holding the clothes and towel I’d given her. “Are they the ones who brought you in?”

  “Yeah,” I said. I’d debated for a second about telling her, but it seemed I should. She’d trusted me with her fears and I felt she might understand about my situation. “It’s... my group.”

  She watched our feet as we walked. Our shoes scuffed along the grass until we met with the paved road. “Are you...like me?”

  My heart raced. She thought I might be a boy? Did I look like one? “No,” I said.

  “I didn’t really think so until those guys showed up. Then I thought maybe that’s why you talked to me. I didn’t know a girl could be on a guy team. So I just thought...maybe...” She shrugged.

  “It’s rare, from what I hear, to have a girl on a guy team, but it happens sometimes.”

  “So you’re in?” Lake asked, looking up at me. “You’re an official Academy member with your own team?”

  “No. Not yet. I mean, I think I have my team, but I haven’t told the Academy and...it’s a little complicated.”

  “So why aren’t you in training with them?”

  Good question. I’d been wondering why Dr. Roberts had seemed to lead the discussion, giving give me such glorious recommendations where the result was I ended up on the girl team. “The...council this morning. When they asked our names and such, they asked me to help Mrs. Rose this week with translating for her.”

  But as I thought about it, I wondered if it had been lucky that I knew sign language or had the whole thing been orchestrated?

  “Oh,” Lake said. As she walked, she scuffed the back of her heels along the paved road. “I guess that makes sense.”

  We approached the guys’ camp, and at first, I didn’t see anyone, except there was a small fire still going. They wouldn’t go far without putting out the fire, would they?

  As if to answer my thought, the tent flap opened and North appeared. With his dark clothes and grumpy expression, he was a terrifying sight with the flickering light of the fire shining on his face.

  Lake stopped instantly. “Whoa,” she said, her eyes wide as she studied North. “Something wrong?”

  North frowned at her and then looked my way. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be with the girls?”

  There was an edge to his question. Was he mad? I tried to figure out if it was me sleeping in the other camp that had him upset, or if there was something else behind it. With North, it could be lots of things. “I...”

  “Don’t blame her,” Lake said, stepping in front of me. “That crazy Carla wanted ‘all us girls’ together in one tent. Otherwise, we would have been here.”

  I could handle North, but I was glad Lake seemed to understand and stepped in. It surprised me and made me feel like I really could trust her.

  North’s head jerked back and he turned the full force of his glare on her. “Who the hell are...” He broke off and the glare vanished as someone inside the tent pushed on him.

  “Get out of the way,” Luke said. “I haven’t seen her all day.”

  While Luke and North argued over the tent flap, I leaned into Lake. “Don’t mind North. He’s always grumpy.” That wasn’t totally true, but I hoped she’d forgive him for being rude.<
br />
  “I can handle guys,” she said and turned her eyes on Luke, who dodged a punch in the gut from North and raced toward us.

  “Sang!” he cried out and picked me up, spun me around once and then hugged me tight. “I haven’t seen you all day!” he exclaimed, even though he’d seen me earlier—I knew he was saying it to cover up. He turned his eyes on Lake and then approached her as though he was going to give her the same greeting.

  Lake raised her arms up, warding him off, but Luke ignored her, picked her up, whirled her once and put her back down. “And yay, you...whoever you are. You brought the Sang!”

  “Aren’t you ‘not supposed to be here’?” Lake asked with a smirk before she pushed him away.

  Luke leaned in close. “That was earlier,” he said quietly. “I can be here now.”

  North approached, looking past us, over our shoulders. “Where’s the other girls?”

  “At the latrine,” I said. “We’re heading to the other one, over by the trailers.”

  “That’s a good walk,” North said. “Why don’t you just go with the girls to this one?”

  I shared a look with Lake and then turned my full stare at North. “To make sure there’s enough hot water to go around,” I said, hoping he’d catch my intent that this was a must and I didn’t want to explain it and embarrass Lake.

  He glared at me and then grunted. “Then hop into the Jeep,” he said. “I’ll take you over. It’ll take too long to get back and forth.”

  “I was hoping to find Kota, too,” I said. “I was supposed to meet him.”

  “I’ll let him know where we’re headed.” He reached into his pocket, finding keys. He shot a look at Luke. “Stay with the fire. Don’t let it burn down the forest.”

  “Aw, I have to stay?” Luke said and then walked over to the campfire, sinking down onto a log. “What about the buddy system?”

  “And don’t play with the fire, for fuck’s sake. Last time I left you with it, you burned the tent. I have no idea how...”