House of Korba

by C. L. Stone

  “What’s wrong?”

  “This isn’t a Mr. Hendricks’s call. This is the police following up on leads. Your name came up somewhere.”

  My eyes widened. “As in Mr. Hendricks gave them my name somehow as a suspect?”

  “I don’t think so.” He hesitated, looking around the hallway. “I guess that’s why they’re in a rush.”

  “What do I do?”

  “What can you do?” he asked. “Don’t worry. At this point, as long as it isn’t Mr. Hendricks, you’re just going to play dumb. You don’t know anything.”

  That seemed pretty easy to do.

  The room I’d been directed to was really one long space with an office and several doors on the other side. A woman sat behind a wide desk. Leaning over the top of the desk was a male police officer. He was writing something on a notepad.

  As I entered the room, I stopped, looking back at North. He stayed in the hallway, and I could tell by the look on his face that this was as far as he could escort me without being noticed.

  Before North could shut the door, someone showed up behind him. “In or out?” the guy asked.

  North partially turned while still holding the door. It was Jay behind him. I hadn’t realized the Jay being called down was him.

  His eyes were cold, and he was frowning. He usually seemed neutral, even distant. But right now, he was angry, which, with his tall, broad frame and shaved head, made him look intimidating. I took a half step back into the open office to get out of his way.

  But before he came in, he and North shared a look. I wasn’t sure what they were saying to each other. I’d thought that after everything that had happened, they were getting along. Maybe they were, but right now, Jay seemed agitated.

  Jay didn’t say anything to North, but after the exchanged look, walked around him to get into the room.

  “Sang? Jay?” The woman had finished talking to the officer. The policeman went through another door down the hall and the woman at the desk snapped her fingers at us, gesturing that we should approach.

  I glanced once at North, who gave me an encouraging look and then closed the door. I had a feeling he’d be listening and waiting just outside in the hallway. I wondered if Mr. Blackbourne was already listening.

  Jay moved with me, standing next to me at the front of the desk. We shared our own look, silently asking each other what this was about. He seemed suspicious of me, but I could understand why he would feel that way. He didn’t really know me and it was strange we were getting called down at the same time.

  The woman swung a pointed finger between us as she spoke. “Either one of you know Arthur?”

  “I know an Arthur,” Jay said, seeming to relax a bit. “Which one are you talking about?”

  “Pale kid, freckles, red hair?” She spread out a file on top of her desk and then pulled up a photo to show us.

  It was a school ID photo of the same Arthur I’d once met. He’d been in a fight at school, drugged by Jade, and then later I had talked to him at a football game about what had happened. He’d seemed friendly enough. Was this about him being drugged? Would they bother with this now?

  My breathing became shallow and hard to control. I held onto it, trying to not appear too crazy. Was this about Jade? Would they be asking us questions about her? Had Arthur mentioned I’d asked questions about her, and had Jay found out somehow?

  Did they know about what Jade...

  “I’ve seen him around,” Jay said. “What’s this about?”

  “We think he’s the one calling in the bomb threats,” she said. “Or at least the one this morning.”

  My eyes widened, my mouth dropped open and I leaned forward against the desk, pressing my hands against the wood. “What?” I asked without thinking.

  The woman turned to me, her eyebrows scrunching together. “So you know him?”

  “I...bumped into him a few times,” I said. “I don’t know him that well. But he...I don’t think he’d do that.” I really couldn’t picture Arthur being someone to call in a threat like that. And why?

  “We’re still trying to sort it out,” she said. “Someone said he was dating you or had a crush on you or something. When we brought him in, he had your name scrawled out on one of his notebooks.”

  Shocked, I rocked back where I stood. I didn’t even know where to start with this information: Arthur had been writing down my name, this woman knew about it, and somehow it was relevant to the bomb threats.

  “What’s this have to do with me?” Jay asked.

  “He knows your sister,” she said. “And we thought you might know something since she—”

  “She’s been expelled,” he said, his voice deep and cold.

  I stared at the wood of the desk, feeling the burn at my cheeks and not wanting to look at Jay anymore. I didn’t know how he felt about Jade. I was smothering the flighty panic inside of me at all of this.

  “Oh I know,” the woman said casually. She waved us off. “Don’t worry. Just have a seat for a bit. Someone will talk to each of you. No big thing, just to ask a few questions.”

  I followed Jay to a small sitting area, with chairs that were cushioned in ugly orange and brown. I sat across from him and I studied the area. I wondered where a camera would be if there was one in here. Plus, with the school so crowded, I wasn’t sure what this office was used for exactly, and who the woman was behind the desk. What was she in charge of? She was organizing talking to each of us with the police, but couldn’t that have been done in the main office?

  For a long time, I stayed quiet. Jay had his phone out and was poking at the screen. When the woman at the desk seemed preoccupied with something else, and Jay wasn’t paying attention, I pulled my phone out. I didn’t have much else to do.

  Before I could think of what to do with my phone once I had the screen turned on, it buzzed in my hand.

  Mr. Blackbourne: Talk to Jay. Ask him about Arthur.

  I swallowed, trying to find some courage. I put my phone in my lap. Don’t think. Just say something.

  “Jay?” I asked quietly. “Do you really know Arthur?”

  Jay looked up, his eyes focusing on me. That coldness was still there, but also a twitch of understanding. We were sort of in this together and weren’t in trouble, and I wasn’t a threat, so maybe he considered me safe. “Not really. I’ve seen him around.”

  “Kind of the same here,” I said. “Although I wouldn’t have suspected him to make those calls.”

  Jay shrugged, dropping his phone face-down on the seat next to him. “He seems more like a guy who gives in under pressure. I’ve heard he’ll get into a fight if provoked. Some guys will do dumb things if they’re told what to do.”

  “Do you think he might have been told to call in a bomb threat?”

  Jay shrugged again and shook his head. “He doesn’t seem the type to do it on his own. Could have been a dare. Could have been he’s been framed, or he didn’t even do it. I don’t know. I’m not psychic. I just know a loser when I see one.”

  I bit my lip, not wanting to say anything. I didn’t like the loser comment, but I understood what he was getting at and didn’t want to confront him. “It’s just odd that they called us down here, I guess. I mean, I’ve only run into him a couple of times.”

  “Who knows,” he said. “If they’ve got this guy on lockdown, they’ll follow whatever lead they can. You get notes in class sometimes, right? Silas told me about that. Is he one of the ones writing to you?”

  The thought hadn’t occurred to me, but he had a point. “I don’t know,” I said. “Honestly, I never read them. No...Silas might have looked at a few. I generally throw them away.” I’d almost slipped and said North read them.

  “I used to think you were a snob or something,” he said. “Kids said you wouldn’t talk to anyone. But Silas was saying you’re just shy and get picked on a lot, so you tend to stay close to him and his friends. I can understand that, though. A lot of kids around here are pretty stupid.”


  I nodded, not really agreeing with what he was saying, but trying to be sympathetic. “I don’t mean to not talk to people,” I said. “I...” I was looking for a term without saying out loud that I was shy, or that prior to coming to Ashley Waters, that I was often ignored, for perhaps the same reasons.

  Jay sliced his hand through the air. “Yeah, I get it,” he said. “I used to date a girl that was an introvert, too.”

  There was a sudden flurry of activity out in the hallway that echoed through to us in the office. I lifted my head to look out the door. Jay twisted where he was sitting to check it out. Even the woman behind the counter stood up and leaned over, too.

  A second later, the overhead speakers came alive with the sound of alarms.

  I froze. It was sure to be a joke. Maybe someone was trying to reset the alarms and it went off again?

  Jay turned, staring at me. A look of confusion spread across his face. “Another one?”

  “No taking chances,” the woman behind the counter shouted over the alarms. She pointed to a side door that read exit. “Go on out.

  I didn’t like it, because it wasn’t the door that led to the hallway. I didn’t have much of a choice, though. I picked up my book bag, and caught up with Jay as he was heading out the door.

  “Jay,” I called over the alarm, hoping he’d hear me.

  He turned his head, his eyebrows going up. “What?”

  Students were already streaming out of the building. I had my phone in hand, ready to text North to let him know where I was. I wanted to stay by Jay. Maybe it was the confusion, or the fact that we’d been called in and the chaos earlier, but I didn’t trust what was going on. I didn’t want to be alone among the other students.

  I was afraid. It struck me in that moment, but since I’d been back, I’d always been with one of the boys. Even during gym, Nathan ran in to get dressed, and Gabriel waited with me in the gym by the bleachers. Then when Nathan got back inside, Gabriel went to go get dressed. They’d said it was so I wasn’t by myself in case something happened.

  Now I realized that without them, I was terrified of this school. Having North outside the door, and with Jay, whom I trusted wouldn’t hurt me, made a difference. Maybe it was also because I was under administration supervision, too.

  But out among all the other students, fear crept in.

  When I didn’t respond quickly enough, Jay turned toward me. He had his hands in his pockets, and the way he stood made the T-shirt on his body tighter and his defined muscles underneath seemed more obvious. His eyes were lit with confusion. “Something wrong?”

  “I just...” I said. A student broke through between us, and I leapt back to get out of his way, surprised by the interruption.

  Jay tilted his head and then shrugged. “Want to walk out with me until Silas shows up?”

  I nodded repeatedly. “Sorry,” I said.

  “Don’t be.” He jerked his head in the direction of the parking lot. “Let’s go.”

  I breathed out slowly, walking beside him. With the loud sirens going off, crowds of kids around us, and all the confusion, it was easy to simply be quiet and just stick by each other.

  It didn’t take long for Jay to find some other people on the football teams to stand next to. I quietly stood alongside him, using my phone to let North know where I was. Jay didn’t acknowledge me, but talked to the others and I stood just close enough to appear we were standing together. The other football players looked curious, but didn’t say anything.

  Not long after, North and Silas showed up. Silas waved to the other team members and started talking as he and North casually wedged themselves between me and the others.

  Because we were around other people, we didn’t say much, but North studied me and I tried my best to convey that I was fine, but at the same time ask what in the world this alarm was about.

  Instead of talking, we listened to other students. They were all asking the same questions. Another bomb threat? Are they serious? What are we doing out here again?

  The fire truck returned. The policemen who had been at the school earlier were joined by additional units.

  “This is going to be a fucked up week,” North said.

  I agreed.

  Unyielding

  It was another hour before we returned to class. Despite efforts from teachers to settle people down, the rest of the day was filled with talk of why there had been two bomb threats on the same day, and of all days, during homecoming week.

  After it was over, through Mr. Blackbourne’s investigation and later, Kota’s, we learned that another student was brought in for questioning. While I wasn’t called back into the office for anything, there were other students called in as administrators and the police tried to figure out what was going on.

  On Tuesday, there were three bomb threat calls. School was called off an hour early after the third one. Busses were brought in and everyone was told to go home.

  Three more kids, three more phone calls.

  According to Mr. Blackbourne, none of them appeared to be in charge of their actions.

  “Our bomber is using proxies,” he said while standing in Nathan’s kitchen Tuesday evening. Nathan, Kota and I were sitting at the table, along with Luke and Victor. North and Silas were training for the football game on Friday. “Instead of making phone calls himself, he’s getting these kids to make the calls for him.”

  “Then why aren’t they ratting him out?” Luke asked. “They’re all going to get suspended at best.”

  “They’re facing expulsion for terrorism,” Mr. Blackbourne said.

  I sucked in a breath, holding my palm to my mouth to cover my response. I stared wide-eyed at Victor, whose concerned fire eyes were an explosion of flames.

  “Can they do that?” Kota asked. “I know normally it’s a big offense, but these kids sound like they were manipulated into it.”

  “They were, but Mr. Hendricks is following protocol to the letter. These kids are being told to use their own cell phones to make the calls. Their calls were recorded. They were reading a script. Once they’re caught, they don’t say anything. They’re being blackmailed somehow.”

  Later in the evening, I spent time with Luke at the diner until I was too tired to move. Luke and Victor slept over while Kota and Nathan took turns watching Theo. Amid the chaos of the bomb threats, I’d almost forgotten about him, but at the moment, he was doing what he was supposed to, so there was nothing to prove he was out causing trouble.

  During English class on Wednesday, I sat in my usual seat and Luke fell in behind me. I had my arms folded with my head resting on my desk. With the sound of the chair creaks behind me, it seemed like Luke was doing the same.

  For a while, I rested, listened to the sound of other students shuffling in.

  A hand fell on the back of my head, massaging deeply, a warm touch, followed by the scent of soothing spice. “Are you ill or are you just sleeping?” Kota asked.

  “Mergh,” I mumbled. I was fine, just worn out and the thought of a whole day of schoolwork ahead had me on edge and I wanted to wallow in the sleepy state I was in.

  “That’s sounds like a sleepy groan to me,” Gabriel said somewhere over me. More fingers threaded through my hair, catching a few locks and twisting. “Did you even brush your hair this morning, Trouble?”

  I groaned and then lifted an arm to wave away arms and hands. “I’m fine,” I said. “I’m just tired.”

  Gabriel laughed. “Tell me about it.”

  “Did you take your vitamins?” Kota asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you sleep?”

  “Yup,” Luke said, although his voice was echo-y and masked behind me, like he had his head down, too. “We both did. More than eight hours this time. I’m still tired, too.”

  “It’s the stress,” Gabriel said. “It’s messing with all of us.”

  “I know,” Kota said, in such a low tone, soft and full of concern. “I wish I could fix it.”

&
nbsp; It was all I needed to hear to find my second wind and lift my head. I didn’t want to appear like I couldn’t keep up and worry Kota on top of everything else we were concerned about. “I’m fine,” I said. “I just needed a moment.”

  “This school shit on top of everything else is what’s killing us,” Gabriel mumbled quietly. “It’s eight hours out of the day of sitting in classrooms when we could be—”

  “I’ve never known you to give up on a job,” Kota said. He put his book bag down and sunk into his seat. “You’re not a quitter.”

  “You’re fucking right, I’m not,” Gabriel said.

  “Gabe,” Kota said in a tone that I knew to be him warning Gabriel about his language.

  Gabriel dropped in his seat and slumped back, putting his arms over his chest. “I’m just saying the school part isn’t really necessary. We could do more if we weren’t stuck in class.”

  “Shh,” Kota said. “Talk later.”

  Luke stayed hunched over his desk for a few more minutes, and then lifted his head, but sat way back, his arms folded and his legs under my chair. Gabriel was almost the same. Kota was upright, looking forward.

  For a moment, his hand stretched behind him, and he found my knee. He stroked my leg, giving me a comforting firm touch before retreating.

  My heart fluttered. Kota reaching to touch me more warmed me through and through.

  Ms. Johnson started to pass out papers. The bell rang for the start of class.

  And then there was a blend of sound as another ringing started on top of the class bell: the bomb threat siren.

  A wave of groans started up throughout the room.

  Surprisingly, Ms. Johnson took the papers she was holding, and tossed them into the air, showing a give-up gesture. The papers fluttered out and spread across the floor. I felt her frustration. She left the papers on the floor and waved a hand. “Okay, everyone. See you tomorrow,” she said angrily as we all reluctantly filed out.

  Everyone was tired of being out of class. Everyone complained. Maybe not everyone liked to be in class, but they did hate the long waits of standing out in the lawn.